Latest entries in category 'Usability'https://www.b-list.org/weblog/categories/usability/2008-06-15T04:05:51-05:00James BennettMinimal2008-06-15T04:05:51-05:002008-06-15T04:05:51-05:00James Bennetthttps://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2008-06-15:/weblog/2008/jun/15/minimal/
<p>Back in March when I read about <a href="http://tomayko.com/writings/administrative-debris">Ryan Tomayko’s redesign</a>, I had two immediate reactions:
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Wow, that’s hardcore!
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I should try that myself sometime.
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<p>Of course, at the time I was busy working on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1590599969/">a book</a> and so couldn’t really spare much effort for doing redesign work. Once that was in its final stages, though, I sat down and started thinking about what I could do to reduce the amount of cruft hanging around my weblog. Many …</p>
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https://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Batteries sold separately2008-04-08T22:36:41-05:002008-04-08T22:36:41-05:00James Bennetthttps://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2008-04-08:/weblog/2008/apr/08/batteries-sold-separately/
<p>At first glance, Google’s App Engine looks like a great way to build the next big web application; you get access to a massively scalable infrastructure, you get access to a huge existing authentication system, you get baked-in stats, you get all sorts of cool goodies.
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<p>Oh, and you get Python, which is a great language for writing web applications, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t take some pleasure in Django being available out of …</p>
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https://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Dependencies.2008-03-03T02:00:39-06:002008-03-03T02:00:39-06:00James Bennetthttps://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2008-03-03:/weblog/2008/mar/03/dependencies/
<p>Once upon a time, I was doing a server setup at work, installing all the various prerequisites and utilities to support the things we use. One part of that involves installing <a href="http://www.thaiopensource.com/relaxng/jing.html">Jing</a>, which we use for <acronym title="eXtensible Markup Language"><span class="caps">XML</span></acronym> validation; Jing is written in Java, and so we use <code>gcj</code> (<a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/java/">the <span class="caps">GNU</span> Java compiler</a>) to compile it for use, ending up with a nice little binary we can call from anywhere.
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<p>Now, we’ve standardized on …</p>
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https://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/iPod touch2007-09-30T04:58:46-05:002007-09-30T04:58:46-05:00James Bennetthttps://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2007-09-30:/weblog/2007/sep/30/ipod-touch/
<p>When Steve Jobs announced the iPod touch at the beginning of the month, I knew I wanted one: it looked like the perfect little device for my assorted mobile needs. I spent a week or so thinking it over, then placed an order, and Friday morning as I was stepping out of the shower a FedEx delivery guy rang my doorbell to deliver it. I’ve spent the last couple of days playing with it, and …</p>
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https://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Sniffle2006-12-18T01:07:44-06:002006-12-18T01:07:44-06:00James Bennetthttps://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2006-12-18:/weblog/2006/dec/18/sniffle/
<p>The other day, the <a href="http://blog.dojotoolkit.org/2006/12/15/renkoo-beeta-goes-public">Dojo blog</a> announced the public beta of <a href="http://renkoo.com/">Renkoo</a>, an “evite killer” which relies heavily on the asynchronous features of Dojo and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_%28programming%29">“Comet”</a>, the name that’s been given to the use of long-lived <acronym title="HyperText Transfer Protocol"><span class="caps">HTTP</span></acronym> connections to provide instant updates of state in event-driven web applications.
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<p>Except I can’t check out Renkoo in my browser of choice — Safari — because I get automatically redirected to their <a href="http://renkoo.com/unsupported.php">“unsupported browser” page</a>. They …</p>
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https://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/The Rules2006-08-29T18:58:00-05:002006-08-29T18:58:00-05:00James Bennetthttps://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2006-08-29:/weblog/2006/aug/29/rules/
<p>So today I got to wade through the joyful experience of cancelling my account with a business which shall remain nameless (unless, of course, they didn’t actually cancel the account — in which case they shall be named and shamed and several other things as well).
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<p>The experience was less then pleasant both for me and the poor customer-service rep who had to take my call, so I’d like to suggest some general guidelines on how …</p>
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https://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Trying something new2006-08-20T18:53:55-05:002006-08-20T18:53:55-05:00James Bennetthttps://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2006-08-20:/weblog/2006/aug/20/trying-something-new/
<p>Following up on yesterday’s <a href="/weblog/2006/08/19/some-long-overdue-cleaning">feed subscription housecleaning</a>, today I noticed that, if you buy a <a href="http://www.newsfirex.com/">NewsFire</a> license before day’s end you’ll get a nice bonus: <a href="http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari/">Inquisitor</a> thrown in free of charge.
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<p>Well, hot damn!
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<p>Inquisitor is really the big win for me here; I’m trying to get into the habit of using Safari as my day-to-day browser, since I’m doing lots of JavaScript stuff and — though this is in no way a knock against Dave …</p>
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https://www.b-list.org/about/copyright/Installing the GIMP2006-06-08T19:07:56-05:002006-06-08T19:07:56-05:00James Bennetthttps://www.b-list.org/tag:www.b-list.org,2006-06-08:/weblog/2006/jun/08/installing-gimp/
<p>Anil Dash has <a href="http://anil.vox.com/library/post/its-hopeless.html">written up some complaints</a> about installing the <acronym title="GNU Image Manipulation Program"><span class="caps">GIMP</span></acronym> on Windows.
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<p>Special care should be used while reading that, because he does go through several very valid points:
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The <span class="caps">GIMP</span> should bundle the <acronym title="GIMP Tool Kit"><span class="caps">GTK</span></acronym> libraries it requires, and install them if they’re not present.
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The process of choosing a mirror from which to download a package, while extremely common for software which doesn’t come from companies with multi-billion-dollar market caps, could easily be hidden away by …</li></ul>
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