Author: Victor

A badly designed site associated with a master of architecture, Christopher Alexander. But sometimes I like to abandon thoughts of usability and just wander among sites like this, giving myself up to the novel whims of the creator.

Waaaaaaaa…Nice 404

whoa, then hit ‘refresh” – brilliant!

From InteractionArchitect.com: “A category of “skeptical Internet users” has abandoned searching the web. The skeptical Internet user has made a return-on-investment evaluation of his Internet experience, and has come to the conclusion that the return on some sites is just not worth the investment of his personal time and energy.”

I’m not surprised. Back when search engines where the only way to find anything on the web people had to use them, and the engines could get away with over-promising and under-delivering (“type just a few words into this little text box and I’ll find what you’re looking for” – not even a trained librarian could manage that feat). Now that people are inundated with dot com ads and personal recommendations (and weblog links too), there’s not as much reason to tolerate annoying search engine results, there’s plenty other references for them to investigate.

Sometime last year I set an ideal goal of cycling over 2000 miles this year (which works out to a doable 15 miles 3 times a week). Some unexpected professional and personal commitments came up and, interesting, I’m on track to do the same 700 miles I did last year.

I think my goal this year was too lame – doing a century (100 miles) ride sometime during the summer. Next year I hope to at least do something much bigger, like the great bicycle ride across Iowa (>470 miles). But so far my adult life has never been stable enough to make such plans, so I don’t expect 2001 to be that way either.

Just Stop It It’s interesting that Nike, in spite of pledging to improve working conditions in Asian factories, only reacts when they’re caught in the act (this time, by the BBC). Nike’s “Transparency 101” program finally pledges to publish their PriceWaterhouseCoopers monitoring reports, but only the reports from South America are online. Not that it matters, since PWC is following Nike’s guidelines and not international labor guidelines, as this analysis from Dara O’Rouke, an MIT professor shows. The report shows how PWC finds minor violations at ignores:

Hazardous chemical use and other serious health and safety problems;

Barriers to freedom of association and collective bargaining;

Violations of overtime laws;

Violations of wage laws;

Timecards that appeared to be falsified.

Also see reports from folks who tried living in Jakarta on Nike-level wages.

Essentially, Nike is unwilling to proactively solve this problem, because that would be both unprofitable and bad public relations. They do just enough fixing and explaining to make their corruption look accidental. Then they bombard us with advertising that sell themselves as cool, betting correctly that the mass market would rather be hip than conscientious.

“…And you shall enjoy, together with the Levite and the stranger in your midst, all the bounty…” – Deuteronomy 26

“Who can make an accounting of their gratitude?” – Kennth L. Patton

Just attended a wonderful interfaith service to celebrate Thanksgiving hosted by my town’s Clergy Association. First off, I think it’s so cool that the ministers, reverends, pastors, priests, and rabbis all hang out together. Second, it’s a joy to attend a service by and for all the spiritual folk in town, deliberately embracing and respecting each other.

It was held in a gorgeous Presbyterian church, and the sermon was given by the rabbi from the temple across the street. He invited us all to start Thanksgiving dinner with a piece of unleavened bread, Matzah. The bread without yeast symbolizes many things: Passover, the humble sacrifice of the poor, the Christian wafer. A reminder to be thankful for the smallest things during our celebration of abundance.

Internet Relationships I have a friend, Chris, who I haven’t seen in years. We’re not really friends; we used to work together years ago and got along OK but never really hung out. But when he left that company he went on to become an email administrator. He used the servers as his disposal to broadcast his own joke/oddity list. So although I’ve had no contact with him in a long time, I still learn about what makes him laugh and what he feels interesting enough to share with others, like this gem:

Woman Thought Dead Calls 911 Again

TOPEKA, Kan.–A woman who survived a suicide attempt dialed 911
for help and then passed out -and when rescuers arrived, they thought
she was dead. She had to call 911 a second time before she was given
any help.


Firefighters trained as emergency medical technicians were sent
to the home of a 53 -year-old woman in Soldier Township on Wednesday
after she shot herself in the head, authorities said.


Firefighters found her unconscious and assumed she was dead,
without checking for a pulse. An ambulance was canceled, and
firefighters and deputies waited outside the home to protect it as a
crime scene.

Meanwhile, the woman regained consciousness and called 911
again. Firefighters outside the home were told of the call and rushed
inside to provide medical care.

“It was a mistake. It should have never happened,” said Shawnee
County Sheriff Dick Barta. “I’ve never seen anything like this happen
in my 32 years of law enforcement.”

The woman, who was not identified, was listed in fair condition
Monday at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

— the Los Angeles Times

I didn’t realize how important it is to keep your feet healthy. Muscular-skeletal problems with your feet can, over time, work their way up the “kinetic path” to your knees, your hips, and then your back, causing pain and arthritis along the way. So be good to your dogs!

Disturbing Search Requests. Brilliantly points out the stupidity of search engines. I’m not surprised most of these came from Google, which is actually more of a link popularity measurement device than a search engine.

Just received an email from my client gushing about how great the work is, saying, “…we can see our dream coming to life, enhanced tremendously by your team.” Damn that feels good.

Cubists Launch Unnavigable Web Site – hilarious, via Elegant Hack

The Ceiva looked like a great alternative to Sony’s memory stick-driven photo frame, which is twice as expensive. But the Ceiva requires a $50/year subscription just to load your photos into the frame – a real drag. This is a product, not a business, so I wish they weren’t trying to float an entire company with a goofball pricing scheme just so we can buy an electric picture frame.

Finally something academic on voting and usability: Disenfranchised by Design.

For people who think a lot, the act of connecting and exchanging intellictual capital is wonderful tradition, from Plato to online forums. Now someone combined the salon and ecommerce on the Idea Exchange

Tog dissects the Palm Beach Election Ballot.

I plan to keep a copy of the ballot in my bag, and when a client asks why we need to do user testing I’ll just put it out.