technology trends
I have a great deal of respect for Apple’s iPod juggernaut. They’ve almost single-handedly legitimized the market for downloadable music. The kind you pay for. The kind that, at least in theory, supports the artists who produce the music instead of ripping them off. That said, I have
software development concepts
Simplicity isn’t easy to achieve, and John Maeda’s short book, The Laws of Simplicity, provokes a lot of thought on the topic. Programmers swim in a sea of unending complexity. We get so used to complexity as an ambient norm that we begin, consciously or unconsciously, projecting it
user experience
In my opinion, the new Office 2007 user interface is one of the most innovative things to come out of Redmond in years. It’s nothing less than the death of the main menu as a keystone GUI metaphor. This is a big deal. Historically, where Office goes, everyone else
user experience
I remember switching my homepage from AltaVista to Google back in 2000 for one simple reason: it was blazingly fast. It’s the same reason I don't use personalized Google, or Google suggest as my homepage: they’re simply too slow. Dare Obasanjo* wonders if AJAX apps are
tags: software development concepts
Leon Bambrick is full of good ideas. Like KeyTraino, for instance: When you use the toolbar, the menus or the context-menus of an application, KeyTraino shows the alternative keystroke you could’ve used. Evidently someone at SlickEdit is wearing a tinfoil hat that transmits at the same frequency as Leon’
security
If you’ve used the internet at all in the last few years, I’m sure you’ve seen your share of CAPTCHAs: Of course, nobody wants to use CAPTCHAs. They’re a necessary evil, just like the locks on the doors to your home and your car. CAPTCHAs are
user experience
Is it really necessary to qualify everything in Windows Vista with the “Windows” namespace? Hey, guess what operating system this is! At least the Vista start menu lets me do a containing search, so if I start typing ’fax,’ the menu dynamically filters itself to show only items containing what
usability
Although I like Notepad2, it has some pathological alert dialog behavior, particularly when it comes to searching. Here’s an alert dialog I almost always get when searching a document: Thanks for the update, Notepad2. I really wanted a whole modal alert dialog to tell me this important fact. And
human-computer interaction
Fitts’ Law is arguably the most important formula in the field of human-computer interaction. It’s... Time = a + b log2 ( D / S + 1 ) ... where D is the distance from the starting point of the cursor, and S is the width of the target. This is all considered on a 2D
xml
Here’s a helpful article that documents common pitfalls to avoid when composing XML documents. Nobody wants to be called an XML Bozo by Tim Bray, the co-editor of the XML specification, right? There seem to be developers who think that well-formedness is awfully hard — if not impossible — to get
programming concepts
Reginald Braithwaite’s favorite interview question is an offbeat one: sketch out a software design to referee the game Monopoly.* I think it’s a valid design exercise which neatly skirts the puzzle question trap. But more importantly, it’s fun. Interviews are a terror for the interviewee. And they’
laptop
So my much-anticipated Asus W3J laptop arrived a few days ago. To recap, my requirements for a laptop were: * Core Duo * 5 pounds maximum weight * Dedicated video hardware * Removable optical drive Laptops have outsold desktops since 2003, depending on whose data you believe. And today’s laptops are definitely converging