One of my pet peeves is flash for the sake of flash. Shredder guitar players that aren't using flurries of notes to achieve a musical end are performing the musical equivalent of competitive eating. Writers who use a ten dollar word where a dime-a-dozen word accomplishes the same goal are just insecure and trying to sound smart. And using rich media on a site just because … [Read more...]

They've made it easy on me to make my weekly post. Today, after much anticipation, Google released an update to it's search application for the iPhone. This version includes searching with voice commands. In order to search via voice, you simply hold the phone up to your ear and speak your search keywords. The app fires the voice clip off to Google's servers which parse the … [Read more...]

"...I wasn't losing -- I was just learning how to win."Ted Turner on CNN … [Read more...]

So, I've been suffering from a bit of Bloggus Proliferatus. I've been devoting too much time to other blogs and not keeping up on this one. I think I'll make Monday "Update the Usability Blog" night. Maybe I can get Hank Williams, Jr. to record the theme song.Anyhow, there was a good article over on Notebooks.com. The point of the article was that Apple's market share is … [Read more...]

In recognition of my anniversary of belonging to the ACM, they sent me a mug with Charles Babbage's picture on it. I subsequently received an email asking me if I enjoyed the mug. I responded that it was a "great place to cache the output of my coffee engine!" Ha. Haha... HahahahhahhhahaaahhAHAHHAHHAHAHAAAHAH! … [Read more...]

Microsoft's new ad:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz6amk3P-hY]Is the subtext that MSFT products are like Shoe Circus shoes? I've got an idea how you might improve your image, Microsoft: stop producing monolithic piles of shit. … [Read more...]

Every once in a while, an application comes along that borders on magic. It usually involves an element of "why didn't I think of that?" The last application I felt this way about was Delicious Library. That was clever use of the existing hardware to perform an unconventional task. The application has only gotten better with the newly released Library v2.0. The latest … [Read more...]

This is an open question after a productive, but frustrating, conversation with a coworker. My coworker is a long-tenure, high-level IT employee who was telling me how her standards has slipped steadily during her time in IT. Basically, she said "it took me 3 years to stop wanting to deliver perfection and come around to the fact that my job was merely to deliver." In her … [Read more...]

So, it doesn't appear that the reverse Google worked, but Tony found me via Facebook. Some days, technology drives me insane and others it makes me very happy. Right now I'm pleased to be back in touch with such a great friend from my youth. Life has kept me in touch with George and the Intertubes have put me back in touch with Pete and Tony. Now if they can only help me … [Read more...]

There is no room for gray-area in the American debate. I've been thinking about this quite a bit with the election season approaching, and I'm sure we'll see it in evidence every day soon. It's one of the greatest issues in our society and we may come apart at the seams if we don't rectify the situation soon.Two primary forces are at work:The first is that we wish to avoid … [Read more...]