First, there was what happened to Kathy Sierra. Now, it’s hitting Michael Arrington, too. I’m disturbed, and I don’t like this. I’m aware that some people take things like religion and politics so seriously that they’ll fight, kill or die over them. But Kathy Sierra wrote about making software as pleasing to users as possible. […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Bad UI Discourages Cops in Queensland
Monday, January 19th, 2009 – 4:21 pm
How important can good (or bad) user interface design be? If the system you’re building is the Queensland Police’s record-management system, the interface can apparently be so bad that police would rather let petty criminals go free than try to enter an arrest report on the thing. In one case, the police found data-entry so […]
A Tale of Two Web Sites
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 – 2:06 pm
I just finished applying (online) for unemployment, and then followed the EDD‘s link to CalJobs. The difference in understanding of UI/UX principles between the two sites is shocking. The EDD’s “Eapply4UI” site, aside from having a name that looks like it’s trying to fit onto a vanity license plate, is surprisingly good at what it […]
Grousing About PHP’s Limitations
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 – 6:57 pm
Drat. I would like to chase back up the class hierarchy of a bunch objects, and then do something based on the second-from-the-top of that chain. (For example, when the chain goes Word > Noun > Animal > Mammal > Human, and I’ve instantiated a Human, I’d like that object to be able to tell that it’s a Noun.) Unfortunately, […]
I’m Getting Tired of Yak-Shaving
Thursday, December 18th, 2008 – 7:59 pm
It seems like every time I try to get around to actually writing some code, I discover yet another thing that I have to do in order to make that more possible. Today, it was: Get PHPUnit installed on Lórien, so I could run my unit tests locally during development, rather than having to shove […]
Blog Integration
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 – 12:42 pm
After a fair bit of hacking, I’ve now got the look of my blog integrated with the rest of my site. This wouldn’t normally have taken so long, except that I also had to deal with being sick and throwing a party. So I haven’t had as much time as I might like to focus […]
Trying to brush up on PragProg…
Friday, December 5th, 2008 – 3:05 pm
Trying to brush up on PragProg’s _Agile Web Dev w/Rails_, but failing my INT rolls due to phlegm.
I’ve been too sick to do anyth…
Friday, December 5th, 2008 – 12:19 pm
I’ve been too sick to do anything of use.
Cover letter updated, and even…
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 – 5:05 pm
Cover letter updated, and even got a resume sent out.