THE WEB CAN BE A BETTER PLACE TO SURF AND DO BUSINESS !
Last Updated: March 29, 2005
[June 30, 2003]
Researchers at OHSU's OGI School of Science & Engineering are working to make computers more human-friendly - "Oregon researchers have discovered that when people converse with text-to-speech (TTS) computer systems, they substantially change their speech to sound like the computer -- what's known as speech convergence. In addition, people will readapt their voice to each new text-to-speech voice they hear. The findings are important for scientists who are designing new mobile audio interfaces [...]"
The Economist: The sentient office is coming - "Though still in their infancy, sentient computing systems are likely to be everywhere within five years-listening and watching, and ready to anticipate their users' every need."
Peter J. Bogaards: BogieLand: Information Design & Architecture Company
[June 29, 2003]
Steve Champeon: Progressive Enhancement and the Future of Web Design - "The greatest thing about the Web is that it allows for so many different kinds of media to coexist more or less peacefully."
[June 28, 2003]
Mark Hurst (Good Experience): This Is Broken - "A new project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it."
William Hudson (Syntagm): Mental Models, Metaphor and Design (about 105K as .PDF file)
Guardian Online: Auction addict (Jane Perrone looks at the secret of eBay's success)
[June 26, 2003]
NewScientist.com: Global internet laboratory launches - "A global internet laboratory that simulates tens of thousands of virtual users has been launched by more than 60 companies and universities. PlanetLab will be used to test new weapons for fighting internet worms and to develop better distributed computer programs, i.e. those that operate on many machines at once. It will also be used to engineer smarter protocols for the next-generation internet. [...] Researchers wishing to access PlanetLab need only contribute a machine of their own to the network."
nature.com: New web tool to improve multimedia surfing - "A new web tool makes online video and audio as interactive as text, say its creators. The software could enhance surfing, and help individuals and organizations manage large quantities of footage."
[June 25, 2003]
Dr Lydia Plowman (BBC News): "Using touchable technology, such as a soft toy, may be a way of encouraging very young children to interact with computers."
IIS Answers - Support Central for IIS (Internet Information Server)
[June 24, 2003]
csmonitor.com: Proliferating Iranian weblogs give voice to taboo topics - "An Internet boom in Iran has seen the number of users soar by 90 percent in the past year, with about three million users in a population of 65 million - half of them under 25. Some 15 million are expected to be online within the next four years."
[June 23, 2003]
Wired News: Happy Birthday, Dear DNS - "Twenty years ago, a group of USC computer scientists automated the domain name system, a key innovation essential to making the modern Internet work. The next step is helping the technology continue to mature."
Grandmaster John Nunn (ChessBase): How to build your own super-computer - "In my opinion, reliability is the number one criterion for a computer. All else, including to some extent performance, is secondary. This applies particularly if you are using the computer for business purposes. What level of reliability is acceptable?"
[June 22, 2003]
Shirley E. Kaiser (Brainstorms and Raves): CSS Approaches to External Links - "What if you'd like to visually identify external links for users without having to change your existing markup in any way and without knowing a programming language?"
[June 21, 2003]
TechSpot: Guide to Windows Online Security & Privacy - "Making your Windows OS more secure and improving your privacy online is an awkward enough process given the sheer number of things that can be done to improve it. In this guide we will cover many of such known solutions for various popular applications which should make your system more secure as well as less prone to viruses. The guide has been prepared to be aimed at Windows 2000/XP users, though a lot of the stuff contained also applies to earlier versions of the OS, in addition to Internet Explorer & Outlook Express."
Alex Horstmann (Pandia): Tips and techniques for making your site accessible
Jack Russell (the Inquirer): Computing for the disabled still goal, not reality
Robyn Greenspan (ECommerce Guide): Shoppers Demand Decent Design - "First impressions are very important to online shoppers, as Genex finds that consumers are willing to forego low prices and brand-preference if they have a poor online experience."
Mark Newhouse: CSS layouts, tips, tricks, and techniques
[June 20, 2003]
Bruce Schneier (Crypto-Gram newsletter): The Risks of Cyberterrorism - "The threat of cyberterrorism is causing much alarm these days. We have been told to expect attacks since 9/11; that cyberterrorists would try to cripple our power system, disable air traffic control and emergency services, open dams, or disrupt banking and communications. But so far, nothing's happened. Even during the war in Iraq, which was supposed to increase the risk dramatically, nothing happened. The impending cyberwar was a big dud. Don't congratulate our vigilant security, though; the alarm was caused by a misunderstanding of both the attackers and the attacks."
NewScientist.com: "Sony is developing ultra-small information gadgets controlled not by a mouse or keypad but by a bit of deft deformation."
Screenshots of farewell web pages of failed dot-coms. (via Idle Type)
[June 17, 2003]
NYTimes (free registration required): Brain Experts Now Follow the Money - "[...] many neuroscientists are beginning to argue that it is time to create a new field of study, called neuroeconomics. These researchers are busy scanning the brains of people as they make economic decisions, barter, compete, cooperate, defect, punish, engage in auctions, gamble and calculate their next economic moves."
[June 16, 2003]
Marty Plumbo (Syllabus): Interactive 3D: Using It, Designing It, and Teaching It - "After several false starts, interactive, real-time 3D graphics (IRT3D) is finally starting to happen. Advances in the processing power and graphics capability of inexpensive desktop computers have created the first generation of consumer-grade systems capable of generating three-dimensional graphics of satisfying speed and quality. Now the user can truly interact with these advanced representations in real time, creating powerful new possibilities for the visualization of digital information. While the first beneficiaries of this new capability have been those who play games on their computers, the potential of IRT3D to transform other aspects of human interaction with computers is being demonstrated more and more."
Stuart Robertson (A List Apart): Unlocking Hidden Navigation - "Providing support for keyboard navigation makes a website easier for everyone to use. Browser manufacturers can help by ensuring their products include better support the accesskey attribute."
Henry Miller - "The world is not to be put in order, the world is order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order."
[June 13, 2003]
Simson Garfinkel (Technology Review): Getting More From Google - "Google is a triumph of high technology, supreme usability, and hacker chic. But you can make it work better by investing a little time to learn a few Google tricks."
[June 10, 2003]
Peter Merholz - "Empathy is a critical quality for people working in the user experience field."
BBC: Quantum leap for secret codes - "British researchers say they are close to producing an off-the-shelf system that exploits quantum physics to create a secure communications channel. The system encodes bits of information on individual particles of light."
NYTimes.com (free registration required): A Passion to Build a Better Robot, One With Social Skills and a Smile - "The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York is exhibiting a 'cyberfloral installation,' by Dr. Breazeal, which features robotic flowers that sway when a human hand is near and glow in beautiful bright colors."
Dr. Cynthia L. Breazeal - "We want to see if we can build robots that are more than tools. I'd like to push robotics to the point where we are creating machines that cooperate with people as partners."
[June 06, 2003]
GrokDotCom: Color and Usability - "If the ability to distinguish color is a critical element of your site's persuasion architecture, then your site isn't as user-friendly as it could be. And it won't be persuading some folks as effectively as it could. [...] Color should enhance your site's experience, but because so many people perceive color in so many different ways, color cannot define your site's experience."
Jeff Lash (Digital Web Magazine): "More attention needs to be paid not just to understanding how users are getting to your site, but what their entry and referring pages are."
Half of all e-mails are spam - "MessageLabs scanned about 134 million e-mails in May. It found that virtually one in every two e-mails was spam. This amounted to an increase of almost 40% compared to the figure in April."
James Maguire (NewsFactor Network): "We've developed a digital-storage mania."
[June 02, 2003]
Martin Belam (via James Robertson): How Search Can Help You Understand Your Audience - "One thing that becomes abundantly clear from even a cursory examination of the search logs at BBCi is that the BBC has an extremely diverse audience, who may be looking for the same information, and for information that we have, in a myriad of different phrases, dialects, and even languages. Without realising it we set up barriers in our site to users finding the information they require, merely by the language we use."
Jimmy Guterman (Business 2.0, via Daniel Szuc): Why Things Don't Work - "Maybe it's because the user-experience pros need to learn a new language."
Jakob Nielsen: Usability For $200
Alfred E. Wiggam - "A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time."
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