Slashdot Mirror

"That capability has become a high priority at the National Institutes of Health, which provided the funding for Lu's experiments. The NIH has specifically targeted health applications for the technology, including environmental monitoring, clinical toxicology, wastewater treatment and industrial process monitoring."

I like it when governments are involved with this kind of thing. When safety is involved, and when health is an issue, it is good to have an agency in the loop. I'm glad that the NIH has targeted these applications. It is a reasonable application of tax money. What do you think?

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

• Read Macromedia's own Top 10 Usability Tips for Flash Web Sites to quickly learn how to make your Flash site at least ten times better than the average Flash website.
• Read WebWord's Flash Usability Challenge , co-sponsored by myself, in which a ransom is offered to find a Flash site that is suitable enough for e-commerce to actually make money.
• Read Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox column Flash: 99% Bad for an expert opinion on how Flash makes websites unusable for the average user.

--

Oh, I don't think it is truly loaded at all. As I state, most of the kids I know around 15 do like to write. That's not loaded at all. I'm simply framing the question in a way that makes sense to me. On the other hand, I'm not being 100% objective either. That is boring, dull, and won't lead to a good interview. Let him tell me that I am full of shit or that I am asking a bad question. This question has noting to do with peer pressure or trying to make him fit in.

Most of the the better interviews are loaded, by the way. Watch Larry King or Oprah and you will see that they asked very guided questions, yet they throw people off all of the time too. Those are the best interviews. Now, if I asked when he stopped beating his grandmother, well, that would be a poor question.

Last thought: Most people do write. In fact, almost any intelligent person will disply intelligence by producing something. Perhaps if I asked about how he likes to produce and display himself, you would be more satisfied. Then he could talk about coding and sketching. But again, that is vague and useless. Let the kid answer his own question. Let him shoot it down.

Now let's moderate the original posting up to a 5 so we can find out what he likes to read and write.

The questions are good. Let them stand.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

Question One

What do you like to read? What material strikes your fancy? What are your favorite books and magazines? I know many folks your age; some read a ton and others read nothing. I find that I read almost everything online, particularly news. What about you, sir?

Question Two

Most folks your age like to write a lot if they are intelligent, which you probably are. Do you write poetry? Short stories? Do you draw and write comics? Do you write technical manuals? If you don't write now, do you have any plans to write?

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

Well, this is all fine and dandy but I wonder if this will make a difference. Will we start to see more sci-fi now? Will more actors be willing to join the fray? Will we see more books and articles about sci-fi? Will Time and Newsweek and other media drive up budgets?

(Note: I think Dune rocks, especially since it is sci-fi that doesn't have much computer technology. Almost zero! That is damn hard to pull off when you really start to think about it. Thinking of alternate technologies is a tough business... Rock on Dune!)

- John

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

Are the Tranmeta style chips going to show up in portable devices, such as Palm Pilots? Why or Why not?

John S. Rhodes
Industrial Strength Usability -- WebWord.com

Hmmm... It looks to me like a close-up, very grainy picture of a person's left eye. But that's just my opinion.

Oh boy, and how well will Gore's approach work for spouses? "Honey, are you visiting the Whitehouse online again? What is this Whitehouse.com site? I'm going to see why you are so interested in politics all of a sudden...click!"

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

Bust Patents -- "Should the Patent and Trademark Office be issuing 20,000+ new software patents every year? Is there that much novel and unobvious, unpublished, innovation in the software industry? Are biotechnology patents really avoiding these problems, especially as biotechnology patents incorporate more and more computer technology? Probably not, and thus your company or law firm will need resources and tools to cope with the growing legal problems associated with tens of thousands of patents of questionable validity being issued every year. If you are a victim of these patents, or want to make sure you don't victimize others with patents of dubious validity, these Web pages will help your efforts."

Bounty Hunter E-Commerce Experiment -- "I'm going to keep this simple. Look at this picture. Now that I have your interest, here is the scoop. I will give $25 to the first person who can correctly identify the object. You don't get any clues and you have to be exactly right."

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

Bust Patents -- "Should the Patent and Trademark Office be issuing 20,000+ new software patents every year? Is there that much novel and unobvious, unpublished, innovation in the software industry? Are biotechnology patents really avoiding these problems, especially as biotechnology patents incorporate more and more computer technology? Probably not, and thus your company or law firm will need resources and tools to cope with the growing legal problems associated with tens of thousands of patents of questionable validity being issued every year. If you are a victim of these patents, or want to make sure you don't victimize others with patents of dubious validity, these Web pages will help your efforts."

Bounty Hunter E-Commerce Experiment -- "I'm going to keep this simple. Look at this picture. Now that I have your interest, here is the scoop. I will give $25 to the first person who can correctly identify the object. You don't get any clues and you have to be exactly right."

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

Bust Patents -- "Should the Patent and Trademark Office be issuing 20,000+ new software patents every year? Is there that much novel and unobvious, unpublished, innovation in the software industry? Are biotechnology patents really avoiding these problems, especially as biotechnology patents incorporate more and more computer technology? Probably not, and thus your company or law firm will need resources and tools to cope with the growing legal problems associated with tens of thousands of patents of questionable validity being issued every year. If you are a victim of these patents, or want to make sure you don't victimize others with patents of dubious validity, these Web pages will help your efforts."

Bounty Hunter E-Commerce Experiment -- "I'm going to keep this simple. Look at this picture. Now that I have your interest, here is the scoop. I will give $25 to the first person who can correctly identify the object. You don't get any clues and you have to be exactly right."

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

What if we lived in a world where violence was a good thing because it increased survival rates and was seen as the most Darwinian approach? How would we encourage more violence? How would we refine violence?

I suspect that we would have children practice violent acts with video games. We would also probably have them watch violent movies too.

If we think of violence as a transfer of energy, physical and psychological, then things get very interesting. Then it starts to seem that the more we expose people to violence, in meat space or in a virtual space, the better off they would be in this world.

Who would be the violent role models? I'm not talking about mass murder, instead I am talking about strict beat-you-up violence. This is all hypothetical, of course, but I hope it gets you thinking.

- John

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com

REPLACE television WITH coding
REPLACE reading a book WITH writing a book
REPLACE talking WITH consulting
REPLACE playing games WITH writing games
REPLACE listening to music WITH playing music
...

People can leave their day jobs by being active and productive. Absorbing content, such as reading this post, is important. But, it won't get you rich and it won't spread your name around. By posting, for example, you build your reputation and name recognition. The transfer of energy becomes in>>out versus out>>in. There is no magic to this. Produce and build value. Turn value into dollars. Quit your day job. Or, continue to consume, and ultimately feed the producers.

- John

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

We almost all have the ability to choose what we do. Most people reading this posting can go to school or learn new skills. You can change your direction now or in the future.

Any complaints about where you are and what you are doing should be left at the door. Corporations are run by people, like you. At the least, if you are in a company, you are part of the system. You are "they" and you have some control. Really, you do. If you don't like that, or you think the system sucks, leave and start something yourself. Every day, every minute, you can make that decision.

Otherwise, welcome to the Borg. (Would you like Microsoft fries with that?)

- John

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

True! But my comment was a general comment.

John S. Rhodes
Industrial Strength Usability

You are probably going to get mad about this and I expect flames...but who cares about overclocking anymore? I mean, machines are so fast now it just doesn't seem worth the hassle.

I am like you. I do want more speed. But it isn't worth the trouble. If I have a real speed need, I just wait a few months for the next boost in speed. I can play all my games, I can use all of my current software, and I have no real need for more speed at this time.

Caveat: More speed for the sake of more spped is silly, but more speed because it is a challenge is cool. I'm just against overclocking as a way to improve speed. If you do it, it should be for the geek challenge of it. Or because you want to Raise Your Middle Finger to the Man (TM).

John S. Rhodes
Industrial Strength Usability

Using some simple JavaScript, Dack.com has put together a great tool for generating e-bullshit. The tool combines a verb, adjective and noun, offering up wonderful non-sense. So go ahead, monetize value-added synergies, aggregate wireless initiatives, and synergize world-class channels.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com

Right, right, right. But that isn't the point. The point is that they were found guilty. It is minor in terms of money, but that is fine. It makes them look bad, and that is the interesting point. It is bad press, that some folks might be able tweak in the news. To let the world know how Microsoft (sometimes) operates.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability.

So, we've seen that Star Wars information has been mixed up recently. One thing becomes another, all in a blink of an eye. Poof! Pop! Bang! Does anyone else get the impression that somehow Lucas is pulling strings? Is the Lucas machine tweaking the media, like a puppet? (I doubt all this, but it is interesting, no?)

This reminds me of things like Ford covering up problems with the Pinto and their tires. I mean, corporations have such power to manipulate the media. And, the media, Slashdot included, is very willing to help the spindoctors. How many times has a press release turned into "news", eh? Information, disinformation, ahh! What a pain in the arse. Who can we believe? Who should we believe?

Damn, I'm just going to basically ignore any Star Wars news I read. Or any news for that matter. I'm heading back into the cave now...The Future Doesn't Need Us anyway.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability.

This really is not a problem if you examine their user interface. For example, this search on Google for "slashdot" returns 220,000 results. If you look at any one result, they have a "cached" link. For example, this is Google's cached version of Slashdot. It is a nice feature for advanced users. The site has such good usability, it makes me sick!

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

WebWord.com -- Usability News and Research

Fair comment. I meant no disrespect actually. I was just surprised that a law firm owned the domain, not some crappy dot com company.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Usability News and Research

My guess? In 5-10 years, implanted technology will be in the hands (umm, well, heads) of the early adopters.

Does this freak people out? If adults start implanting then they will probably start implanting kids, then new born children. (Or am I freaking out?) I mean, it is all about competitive advantange when you get down to it. And for adults, I bet it'll be like tatoos. It'll be addictive to get more and more implants.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industry Strength Usability

My problem is that /. readers don't say enough good things about the Freedom of Information Act. Or, hold on, other cool and useful legislation. We're always in slam mode. We look for the negative, we look to bitch, we look to complain. Above all, we look to push our individual agendas. It would be nice if there was a bit more positive mojo spread around.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Usability Vortal

Sort of a related opinion piece by Dave Winer...

Software and the First Amendment

"There is no difference between code and writing. I think I can prove it. Manila, the content management system that I use, supports macros. When you put text in curly braces, as the page is rendered, the macro is evaluated. Such macros can be embedded in protected speech, ie prose. What goes inside the curly braces is program logic. So if I want First Amendment protection for my code all I have to do is embed it in a Web page."

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Usability Vortal and News Hub

It is interesting actually. You get a meta-meta-moderation if you look at all the weblogs from 20,000 feet or so. They do steal from each other. But, if you look at the raw numbers of weblogs that post a link to the story, it tells you something about the perceived value of the story. Cool, no?

Interesting weblog stuff:
http://www.linkwatcher.com/
http://beebo.org/metalog/ratings/
http://www.weblogs.com/

WebWord.com -- Usability Weblog and Vortal

Courts don't understand Metcalf's Law of networks. Most people don't get it. They don't understand how eBay's actions harm the entire web. It is sad actually.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com Usability Vortal

Fine. I can live with your point of view.

However, will I pay $9.95 a month for this like you would? Probably not.

Question: Does this mean that advertisements will be excluded? It would be crappy to pay $9.95 and be forced to hear advertisements too. My take on the whole thing is that people will get spanked both ways. I suppose it is this kind of thing that that makes me state that I don't need any kind of fancy-dancy juiced up digital radio...

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Usability Vortal

From this perspective, McDonalds is an abomination, serving up homogenized, tasteless garbage just for the sake of a fast meal.

...then serve me a great tasting, delicate, non-garbage fast meal. The key is not the taste. It is the speed. Oh, and some people actually like to go from place to place and find the same food. It is comfortable. By definition people like comfort. While there are better burgers, there are many more that totally suck. McDonalds basically provides a guarantee of consistency and speed. And Happy Meal trinkets.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Usability Vortal

If you care, here is the company profile on Network Solutions.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

Web Economy Bullshit Generator

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

Look, the important thing is not that we mimic the human mind or human thinking. Why do we want machines that think and act like humans? What good is that? So we can understand ourselves? Well, that is silly since the mechanisms that drive our intelligence are simply not going to be the same as the machines we make with human intelligence. That is, a computer with human intelligence tells us nothing about what really makes human intelligence actually work. The best a machine can do is ghost our cognitive economy, it cannot actually have it.

But that might be beside the point. More important is that we build and understand machines that have a higher level of intelligence than us. That intelligence might be nothing like a human's intelligence, but that's fine. As we all know, computers have a different kind of intelligence than us. And that is interesting. That should spark our creativity and that should get our juices going.

Here's an analogy. Suppose I build a telephone out of rubber bands and paper clips. It acts just like your favorite phone. But, is that interesting really? I mean, is the fact that we have a "really cool copy of a phone" all that interesting in terms of what-it-is-to-be-a-phone? Of course not. Instead, it is interesting that the damn thing is so complex and useful, even though it was made from rubber bands and paper clips.

Forget mocking the human experience. We get that each day, don't we? We get it (we're human). Let's look at other kinds of intelligences, based on machine mechanisms.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability

Speaking of Titan A.E., ahem, I did an interview with one of the animation dudes behind the movie:

Animation, Titan A.E., and Usability

WebWord.com -- The Industrial Strength Usability Vortal

Speaking of Titan A.E., ahem, I did an interview with one of the animation dudes behind the movie:

Animation, Titan A.E., and Usability

WebWord.com -- The Industrial Strength Usability Vortal

Animation, Titan A.E., and Usability is an interview I conducted with Mayo Tirado, one of the animation experts behind Titan A.E. He talks about the animation tools he uses, the books he's read, and the web sites he visits. He also has a couple of reasonable comments on usability and web development in general.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Vortal)

Animation, Titan A.E., and Usability is an interview I conducted with Mayo Tirado, one of the animation experts behind Titan A.E. He talks about the animation tools he uses, the books he's read, and the web sites he visits. He also has a couple of reasonable comments on usability and web development in general.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Vortal)

The really sad thing is that this is more true than you might think. We've seen time and again that superior technology doesn't automatically "win" in the marketplace. Savvy marketing and sales are critically important business functions. People might think that .oog is stupid, or they might not. The point is that that stinking file extension really is important.

FEAR OOG!

(1) OOG, The Object Orientation Game

(2) Welkom bij Tennisvereniging Oog In Al

(3) Oog TV (Has a cool interface. Check it out!)

(4) Out of Game (OOG)

(5) OOG Radio!

(6) Yes kids, Oog in Oog (Hmm...does "oog" mean "eye" in Dutch.)

(7) Oh baby!Even more oog in oog

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Vortal)

Ahh! What are we going to do? Help! Help!

Video Games and Children

Violent video games unplugged by King County health board

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Portal)

We recently completed an interview with Mayo Tirado, an animation guru who worked at Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix on Titan A.E. We asked him questions such as:

* Tell us about your work on the upcoming movie Titan A.E.

* What tools did you use?

* How important are the "small things" in a movie such as Titan A.E., such as texture and lighting?

You can read the interview here:
>> http://webword.com/interviews/tirado.html

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Vortal)

We recently completed an interview with Mayo Tirado, an animation guru who worked at Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix on Titan A.E. We asked him questions such as:

* Tell us about your work on the upcoming movie Titan A.E.

* What tools did you use?

* How important are the "small things" in a movie such as Titan A.E., such as texture and lighting?

You can read the interview here:
>> http://webword.com/interviews/tirado.html

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Vortal)

And I quote, from the Gnutella home page:

"Some reports have been circulating in some of the online press about a 'Gnutella Worm'. This 'worm' does not exploit any weaknesses in gnutella itself, but rather weaknesses in the Windows operating system and more importantly, the user. This 'worm' will not affect anyone who doesn't manually download it, and subsequently manually run it. Gnutella does not execute any files it downloads. Be smart, don't run anything from an untrusted source without checking it first. This is an exploit of human gullibility and a weak operating system, nothing more."

Gnutella powerful, humans weak. Grunt, grunt.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Vortal)

His article is just a starting point for a conversation. It's the comments you read and write that will give you some insight if not an exact answer. More talk is still necessary.

Aren't we supposed to move at Net speed? Aren't we fast enough to play the game? The bottom line is that there is always all this talk. There are so many starting points that things are just too damn muddy. There are a thousand points to start from but no one is moving. (The only thing moving are lips -- chatter chatter chatter, talk talk talk.)

So I ask again, what is the beautiful vision? Give us the end state desired and perhaps some specifications. This is a sharp bunch of people but we need to know what is really needed. We'll built it and set it up. Without tangible goals, we cannot move forward. We're in a gutter without an end state but no one is willing to stand up and offer the beautiful vision. What is the geek battle plan?

Maybe this is all talk...maybe there is no beautiful vision. Maybe it is this simple -- There is no spoon.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com

He is giving us powerful words to use with the non-geek so that they might understand.

This is an odd comment. This is forum for geeks. We want more geek-speak, don't we?

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com

Once again I have to ask the question: What are people doing about corporations taking over the Net? What is Katz doing? Is he really raising awareness? Did his article move you? Are you going to act on his ideas and suggestions?

The funny thing is that Katz is actually a good writer. Maybe not a good writer for geeks, but a good writer overall. But this article just doesn't cut it. It is talk-talk-talk. Give me a damn list of things I can do. Give us a list of things we can do. What action does he expect?

Give me buttons to push, applications to write, web sites to create, programs to code. Give me ideas about databases that would rock. Where are the checkboxes? We're geeks ... give us geek (brain) food. Feed us with algorithms and specifications, not fluttery ideas and ra-ra-ra, go team.

I'm going to yak if I hear too much more about the Evil Empire of Corporatism. What are the steps to improvement Katz? Where are the action items ? And what about those of us that work for an Evil Empire Company? We need $$$ and we have people to feed.

If you could have anything Katzmeister, what would it be? Give us the beautiful vision.

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.

The status bar *does* reveal the url of the page it links to - just like an untreated status bar would do. It also provides ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND COMMENTARY. I guess that's a bad thing. I can't see why, but I guess I'll take your word for it. URL = good, URL + additional information = bad. Because you say so.

I don't see the URL. I only see the "additional" information. I've got some pocket change. I'm willing to buy a clue if I need one...

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Vortal)

The core problem with Boo.com is that it had extremely poor usability. People could not use the damn site without plugins and other crap running on their system. It was anti-minimalist and did not work on standard configuration machines.

Is there a flaw with e-commerce and e-business? Absolutely not. Instead, it is a failure to understand users and their needs. Buying online is painful enough without the bells and whistles. The bells are loud and the whistles pierce the ear. Give me a plain vanilla web site so I can buy what I need. Make it easy!

Of course I am biased here...

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Vortal)

I see in the future that what will happen is that large companies will need to fight large companies. The small guy gets crushed more and more each day. However, there is a paradox. If it takes a large organization, i.e., a Big Company (TM), to fight another large organization, then you still have some large organization calling the shots. One of them is going to win. And, even though the large organization is made up of individuals, you still have bureaucracy, red tape, legal headaches and so forth. The individual still is a loser.

So, when is all of this so-called web activism going to kick in. For years I've heard about how individuals count. How the small voice matters. "You can make a difference!" Well, every day it seems to be and more hogwash. Even the boisterous readers, posers, losers, geeks, CIOs, and programmers visiting Slashdot haven't kicked ass. Why is it that even the best and strongest groups on the web don't actually fight this crap? So, we might be "up in arms" but nothing comes of it. We bitch and move on to the next post. We wait for Katz to chime in so that we can move on and bitch about his writing. When does the action happen? We're pissed...how do we channel it?

I admit that this is stupid post. I'm not suggesting a damn thing. I'm not any better than the other crybabies and complainers. This really sucks. If only I could click a button and send my frustration to the appropriate idiots...

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com

The blast of the shotgun won't be the same without my subwoofer. However, if I aim my Palm III in the right direction and use the infrared beam, maybe I can get some satisfaction when another player's Palm explodes...

Palm-frag-o-rama-fest

WebWord.com
Usability, information architecture, and all that stuff

Here is another Lynda Weinman Interview.

"...Mr. Nielsen's..."

You are the second or third person to do this. His name is Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D. or perhaps Dr. Nielsen. Not a huge deal, but I think he deserves the title.

On another note, I interviewed Jakob about 7 or 8 months ago: Web Usability: Past, Present, and Future. There's some good stuff in there that he doesn't really cover here.

John S. Rhodes
http://webword.com