Firebird downgrade
Ick... I just downgraded from the Firebird 0.7 release candidate back to Firebird 0.6.1. I had initially downloaded the September 25 (or 26?) build of FB0.7 and that worked, mostly, except for a little initialization error it threw up with the Tabbrowser extension installed. Today I updated to the September 29 build of TB0.7, but FB pretty much choked on the Tabbrowser extension and whatever I tried, it pretty much kept on crashing. Guess I have to wait another couple of builds for them to iron out some more bugs, because Firebird just isn't complete without the extended tab functionality.
Oct 1, 2003 @ 14:34 » no comments » Software
Reading websites, part 2
In a previous post I asked for your opinion about what cues are good indicators of the "technical ability" of the author of a web page. Thanks to all who commented or wrote me an e-mail about that. Today, I have a revised question about the same issue for you :-)
Last time I asked a very broad question and got very broad answers. The comments mentioned navigation, layout, and valid code among the qualities that indicate a home page author's "technical ability."
The problem, however, is: how do I as a researcher operationalize "technically sophisticated" navigation, layout or code? To be more precise, I don't want to look at every page's source or run it through a validator to see if it is "good." What I want to do, is look at the home page as it appears in my browser, as it appears to the average surfer, and pick out/pick up on elements that say something about the level of "technical ability" of that home page's author. I'm trying to stay close to how I imagine the "average surfer" reads the various elements of home pages.
What I would like you to do is name those elements on home pages that to you say "technically sophisticated." Try to be as detailed as you can.
For example, those W3C valid (X)HTML and/or CSS buttons on someone's home page, are they good indicators of the author's technical ability? Why? Why not? What do these buttons tell you?
Help me out here and I'll give you something back for it :-) I've been working on an operationalization of "technical ability" myself and I will post that in a couple of days, so you can see what I've done with your comments.
At this point in the research I'm primarily looking at "personal home pages," of the static HTML kind, rather than weblogs. I will return to weblogs later in the research, so feel free to reference them in your comment.
Oct 1, 2003 @ 15:10 » 5 comments » Research
Fremdkörper
I just posted a comment in English to a German language weblog. I read German just fine, but with all those cases and conjugations, I don't dare write it anymore, afraid that I will make just too many mistakes. I didn't want to comment on that post at first, because it feels kind of rude to just enter a conversation using another language. However, Thomas, the weblog's author, took the conversation to the English speaking AoIR mailinglist and when I replied there, he asked me to post my reply to his blog so he would have all the replies in one place.
So, I wonder, is there an etiquette for posting to "other language" weblogs, because right now I kind of feel like a Fremdkörper.
Oct 1, 2003 @ 23:13 » 3 comments » Blogosphere
Meeting a blogger
I've met bloggers before, but they were also researchers, so when meeting I always felt we were two researchers, who also happened to blog. Yesterday however I met Martin, who I only knew from his blog. He was passing through Amsterdam on his way back from a high school reunion. We went for real Dutch pancakes at Pannenkoekenhuis Upstairs, which is a tiny little restaurant (three tables, 12-15 people max) up a long, narrow and scary flight of stairs, and took the scenic tour back to the train station. I can see this pancake house as a sort of blogger hotspot. When in town, drop me a mail... I like pancakes :-)
Oct 7, 2003 @ 09:11 » no comments » Blogosphere
Taking pictures
For some people taking pictures is all about photographing people, capturing the moment of "being there" through the image of themselves or other people in that particular moment and place. Some people, however, hardly ever take photographs with people in them. They seem to be more about letting the image and the object it is an image of speak for itself, establish a time and place with only an implicit human presence. I like Des Morgens' pictures. They by and large fall in the second category.
Oct 8, 2003 @ 10:41 » no comments » General
Taking a nap
Okay, I know... I'm feeding into the whole "bloggers with cats" stereotype, but now that it's getting chillier, the cat has decided it's just peachy to nap on top of the computer. Preferably right on top of where the power supply and exhaust are. A 400 Watt PSU powering an AMD XP2800+ processor and an ATI 9700 pro card provide one with enough heat for a nice warm butt.
Oct 8, 2003 @ 12:36 » 2 comments » Photo
GoUp
GoUp is a brilliant little extension for Firebird. This is what it does:
Allows you to quickly move up a level in a site by pressing Alt + Up. This removes the last segment from the url of the current page, and loads the new url, i.e. http://example.com/folder/ goes to http://example.com/. Also, http://subdomain.example.com/ goes to http://example.com/.
This makes life so much easier. Yea for the Mozilla extension system!
Oct 9, 2003 @ 10:33 » no comments » Software
Toronto time lapse
Beautiful 14 hour Toronto time lapse picture/movie (via Jish).
Oct 10, 2003 @ 12:50 » no comments » General
Unified User Data Storage
This weekend I reinstalled my dad's computer. I did the whole data backup, format, reinstall dance and song routine, and apart from a couple of small snags along the way — copying files from cd-rom to harddisk leaves their read-only bit set — I thought everything went pretty okay. It turns out, we did lose some data: his list of important fax numbers that he had stored in the fax program. The fax program probably stores this little database somewhere in it's own program directory, with a non-obvious file name. I backed up everything I found in "My Documents," in "%username%/Application Data," and ran through all the other directories, but I missed the fax number list.
This got me thinking: why don't operating systems provide a "Unified User Data Storage"? I imagine this UUDS system to be some sort of central repository, not just of all of the user's documents, but also of all of the settings and databases of all the programs that the user happens to use. It would be accessible through a system level API, the storage format would probably be XML based, and the OS would keep everything together. Applications running on this OS would be forced to talk to the OS for storing any sort of data and nothing just gets written where the individual application thinks is all right. Access to the UUDS would be tiered and when the user accesses the data storage through the user interface, it would only show the user the documents. Access to application data would be restricted to applications and administrators. Having everything in one place — and only one place — would make backing up a system's essential data a breeze. It would also make data portability and roaming profiles really simple and robust I imagine.
One can always dream...
Oct 14, 2003 @ 10:20 » no comments » Software
Vlaamse gaai
So Mena had a big spider in her garden, but when I just looked outside, this big fella (~30cm/1 foot) of a Garrulus glandarius glandarius, or Vlaamse Gaai in Dutch, was sitting in the tree. We looked each other in the eye, he blinked, and hopped to another branch. Apparently it's not a very rare bird, but it feels good to see a not-so-everyday creature once in a while. I guess that has to do with some sort of Western idealization of nature and country life, but watching this beautiful bird work his way through the tree, I just don't care about that.
Oct 14, 2003 @ 11:07 » no comments » General
Listamatic
I've been thinking about some redesign around here lately and Listamatic now figures high on my reference list for future work. Spit-shine polish for CSS geeks.
Oct 14, 2003 @ 11:51 » 2 comments » Webdesign
New Mozilla releases not for download
I guess this is good news. Mozilla.org released Mozilla 1.5, Firebird 0.7, and Thunderbird 0.3, but they're totally unavailable for download at the moment. Ftp.mozilla.org is either offline or totally swamped by people who want to download. Even MozillaZine, who don't even host any of the files themselves, are pretty much unreachable. The Mozilla mirrors appear not to have updated yet and the one mirror that does have a copy of Firebird 0.7 won't let me in, because it has reached its maximum number of connections. And the good news? All of the above... because apparently a lot of people want the newest Mozilla ware. And that is good.
If there ever was a good case for BitTorrent, then this is it. The only one still standing, as usual, is Slashdot, so I guess I'm off trawling comments to see if someone has set up a BitTorrent seed for those files.
Update: Firebird 0.7 is darn fast and it finally has a cookie whitelist system. Thunderbird 0.3 is now the default mail client on my system, so I guess that says something... you've got to experience the inbuilt spam filtering to believe how great it is. It beats my separate installation of PopFile by several magnitudes.
Oct 15, 2003 @ 17:04 » no comments » Software
Not@AoIR 1: Thinking about technical ability
Right, so this year I'm not attending the Association of Internet Researchers' conference, that is starting today in Toronto. Needless to say I'm more than a bit peeved about that, but there is just so much going on, so much that needs to be done, that I had to cancel. To make up for it a little, I'm going to post at least one sensible research related post every day for the next three days. So even if I'm not really blogging at the conference, at least I'm sort of there in spirit.
So, today I will post my thoughts on how I have operationalized "technical ability" for my analysis of personal home pages. I was really happy to receive feedback on my first two posts on the subject, so feel free to comment and criticize my approach. Read on in the extended entry...
What is "technical ability" with regard to personal home pages?
It's not easy to define what exactly "technical ability" or "technical expertise" is with regard to personal home pages. Since the home page is a technological medium, each home page implies a certain mastery of that technology. We don't usually consider writing a technology, but in fact it is. In school and at home we learn how to put a pencil to paper at a very young age. First we just doodle, later we draw, and then we are taught to produce socially meaningful marks on the page. In this process we develop an intricate understanding of the properties of paper, different kinds of pens, pencils, and markers, and maybe more importantly, the meanings attached by others to our "products." The home page, although not exactly pen and paper, presupposes a similar proces of learning.
If we briefly consider the screen as a blank sheet of paper, then there are many different ways to fill it with something we wish to express. Using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, like for instance Microsoft Frontpage, you enter text and drag graphical elements around until the page looks like you want to and then you "publish" the page to your web server. This is probably the most common way people are introduced to making a home page nowadays and we could compare it to being handed a piece of paper, a number of stamps, and ready-made cut-outs, plus a pen that will only allow you to write text but not draw anything. We can fill the page with stamped images, paste some of those cut-outs in, and add some of our own text. This is good enough for many people and many purposes, but with a bit more knowledge about different types of paper, typography, a pencil that will let us draw, and different inks, brushes, and painting techniques, we could actually start to express ourselves in a much more sophisticated way.
Learning the technologies that underlie home pages, such as HTML, CSS, Java(script), PHP, Photoshop, and knowledge of web- and interface design will give the home page author more control over over the appearance of his/her home page, and thus a larger "palette" to express him/herself with. Technical ability is not easily classified, because many elements interact and form a many dimensional continuum. A home page author may, for instance, be very well versed in the "programming" side of making a home page, but know next to nothing about Photoshop and interface design. This author may craft a technically very elaborate web site, but that doesn't mean that it's either good looking or easily navigable. On the other hand, a home page author may be a wizard with Photoshop and craft a great looking website, that is however compromised by the author's lack of programming expertise.
Another example is that among a relatively small (but growing) group of web designers, who work with(in) the W3 standards, there is a fairly strict "best practice" understanding of what makes a "good" web page. For them a good web page "validates" according to the rules of the web standards governing body, the W3 Consortium. However, a website may validate and still look like crap and be hard to navigate. Validation says little more than that web page "car" is considered "roadworthy" and shouldn't break down under normal circumstances. It's quite another thing whether the "car" looks good, has a bit of performance, or handles above and beyond the bare minimum of not falling over when taking a sharp corner. Nevertheless, home page authors displaying the W3 logo's for valid (X)HTML and/or valid CSS make a certain claim about their technical ability and the "performance" of their home page. This is not a totally vapid claim, because knowing how to craft a W3 validating home page is like knowing how to spell and use correct grammar: a first step towards expressing yourself in that particular medium.
However, judging all these technical aspects of a home page is something that is of no direct interest to the majority of (potential) visitors. Most visitors coming to a home page are not that technically able themselves and even if they are, they might not be particularly interested in whether a home page is completely W3 validated, as long as the page looks decent enough and they can find what they came looking for. More importantly, most of the technical aspects of a home page are not all that readily visible when simply visiting a home page. Most web designers would probably agree that the best way to use CSS is by calling a separate stylesheet from the HTML document and not by embedding the CSS code in the HTML document. In either case though, the web page will look exactly the same to the visitor. The same goes different roll-over button techniques and for instance using image tags versus CSS background styling for headers. For most visitors the web page will look the same, regardless of the technique used. The fine points of the different techniques are only visible when you actually take the trouble of looking at the code, or if you happen to be disabled and depend on web designers making their website accessible for your "special needs browser" by using particular techniques and standards.
The point is that the technical ability of the web designer is not readily quantifiable because there are so many dimensions to "technical ability" and because sometimes "technical ability" is only "visible" in the code itself. What I will do then, is propose several operationalisations of the different dimensions of technical ability that I will use in this research to talk about home pages. These points are for the moment in semi-random order and will probably we refined at a later stage. These points are also not "cumulative" in the sense that scoring on more of these points indicates a higher technical ability; they rather indicate the awareness of the author of a particular dimension of the technical abilities involved in making a home page.
- Claim of technical ability, simply: does the home page author make any claims or statements about the technical aspects of the home page?
- presence of W3 buttons
- The presence of W3 buttons claiming valid (X)HTML or valid CSS indicates that the home page author is aware of these standards and has taken the trouble of writing code that validates. As noted above, with this knowledge often also comes a deeper understanding of web design, but not necessarily.
- "best viewed ..." statement
- The "best viewed" statement indicates that the author is aware of differences between browsers, screen sizes, and sometimes color depth. This statement both indicates awareness of these technological facts, but at the same time indicates the author's inability (or unwillingness) to design for (or around) these differences.
- "made with ..." statement
- The "made with" statement can be a form of advertisement or recommendation for a particular piece of software that the author happens to like a lot. Alternatively, it can be a statement of technical ability, when for instance it says, "Made with Notepad," indicating the author's ability to code HTML "by hand." The statement can also have a more political nature, when the author, for instance, notes the use Macintosh or Linux specific software.
- "general" technical details or updates statement or narrative
- Many authors don't talk about technicalities at all, but some remark upon recent changes or updates to the website without actually referring to the technicalities involved. This often takes the form of a list or narrative about the development of the website.
- Graphical ability, or the "Photoshop factor"
- use of graphics in the web page design
- In this category fall those people who use graphics as an integrated element of the web page design. Here I'm thinking primarily about big "header" graphics that blend into the background and/or navigation area, or indeed contain the navigation. Also those design that use graphical elements to make up the, for example rounded, borders of tables or divs.
- use of graphics in non integrated way
- This category mostly applies to those people who employ "funny" graphics, like animated e-mail link graphics, and non or less integrated header graphics.
- presentation of own graphical work
- Does the author offer graphics or significantly enhanced/tweaked photos of his/her own making?
- Overall web design awareness is a rather subjective aspect. It is more a corrolary to technical ability, rather than an indicator of it. Usually more technical abilities allow the author to craft a better design (but not necessarily), but even a technically limited home page author may be aware of various web design "rules" and craft a decent looking and navigable website.
- layout and consistency
- Is the layout consistent across the various pages of the website and does it enhance or hamper the presentation of the content.
- template or personal design
- Does the author use prefab templates or a personal design? This aspect is primarily applicable to the weblogs in the sample, as the ISPs in the sample don't provide a template service for the home pages.
- style and consistency
- Has the author been able to craft a personal style or are most elements rather generic? Is the style consistently applied across the different web pages? Use of CSS is a strong indicator here, as it is the easiest way to "apply style" to the web pages, but a same sense of style can also be achieved by heavy use Photoshopped elements.
At this point it should probably be noted that in general, I will look at the web pages based on their appearance and not their code. I will look at the source to clarify details, but the primary analysis will take place on the level of the "surface," that what is immediately visible to most surfers when they visit a home page.
Oct 16, 2003 @ 11:22 » 3 comments » Research
iTunes for Windows
The news was hard to miss, going through the news this morning, but I wasn't exactly planning on downloading Apple's iTunes for Windows until I read Martin's praise for it. Could it really be that good I wondered. The short answer is: yes!
Even without the iTunes Music Store this is the absolute best music player ever. It does everything just right, starting with the small details. If you switch between views, say between browsing the Music Store and the Library view of all your songs, iTunes actually remembers where you're at in each view. If you return to the Music store after looking up which song is actually playing, you're not send back to the home page, but you're still at the exact point you left. And in the preferences you can set iTunes to play back each tune with about the same volume, which means you won't have to reach for the volume every time a new song comes on. In general, the interface is so natural that whatever you expect to find in a certain place will actually be there. Point in case: the extended song info contains just about everything you could ever want to know/change about a song. Even changing genre or album information for a selection of songs is brilliantly organized, predicting exactly what I would want to do.
iTunes however presented me with some worrying statistics. It would seem that I have 13GB of music files, spread out over 2343 songs, which means I will have 7.3 days of uninterrupted music when all songs are played back to back. You have to realize this still excludes about 75% of my cd collection that I haven't yet ripped to MP3, never even mind the LPs and audio cassettes.
Oct 17, 2003 @ 13:52 » no comments » General
Not@AoIR 2
So, I haven't posted on every day of the conference and that, I think, is a testament to two things. One, it's really hard to focus or feel part of such a thing when you're not actually present. Two, I've been working pretty darn hard and needed some serious recuperation time during the weekend, so when a little downtime came along I didn't particularly feel like going online or posting here. I will make up the remaining 3 Not@AoIR posts in the next few weeks, because there are plenty of topics on my list, I just need a little more time. I think I mostly feel glad about being missed by some, but a bit sad too.
Oct 20, 2003 @ 17:45 » 3 comments » Research
Still dark
You know winter's coming when you have to wake up and it's still dark outside. When the street lights are still on. I hate that.
Oct 21, 2003 @ 08:14 » no comments » General
Better keyboard
Too many people I know, myself included, have some form of RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) from working with computers for too long, under stressful conditions, and/or in ergonomically unsound workplaces. Something I've noticed is that most people have their mouse on the right side of the keyboard, even the left-handed people. For those of us who mostly enter text and not numbers, the addition of the numeric pad on the right side of the keyboard means that the mouse is placed even further away from the natural position of the hands when typing. Placing the mouse on the left of the keyboard means it's a lot closer to the starting position of the hand on the keyboard and hence your shoulder is doing a lot less work when reaching for it. Left-handed mousing is not for everyone — I myself occasionally switch over, but being right-handed, I prefer right-handed mousing over left-handed — so a keyboard as the one in the picture, with a separate numeric pad, would place the mouse a lot closer to the natural position of the hands. The numeric pad is still there, in case you need it, but when you don't need it, you can move it away and place the mouse closer.
I think I'll keep an eye out for a "shortened" keyboard like that, because this one is actually a bit too expensive for my tastes. "This one" is Logitech's Bluetooth diNovo Media Desktop and promises to do a whole lot of mostly unnecessary things besides just typing. Found first on Gizmodo.
Oct 21, 2003 @ 10:50 » no comments » Tech
Ev interviewed
For future reference, an interview with Evan Williams on the future of blogging and moving to Google over at cnet.com.
Q: Isn't blogging just creating Yahoo's GeoCities all over again, for which people have their own home page and post whatever they like, including links and their personal thoughts? If someone had a GeoCities home page now, they'd likely be looked at as silly.
A: It's a lot like those home pages. While GeoCities isn't cool, it isn't a bad thing. It did a great thing--enabled great people to instantly publish to the Web. This is the next evolution of that. Publishing was harder with some of the earlier tools, but it fits with personal expression.
Oct 22, 2003 @ 09:15 » no comments » Blogosphere
Statement
Hello. Please take note of the following if you happen to have a website, weblog, or any other form of presence on the Net:
I generally don't use Microsoft Internet Explorer but another fine, standards compliant browser. When I visit your website and it looks like a mess* — e.g. text and images overlap in unintended and unartistic ways, your search box is unaccessible because it hides behind some graphic, or the body of your site is set in tiny illegible red type on a purple background — I don't blame my browser, but I blame you. I will also immediately close the browser window that holds your website and mentally mark it as no-go area. If you're trying to sell stuff on the Net, you've lost a customer and if you're looking for an audience, you've lost a reader. If you're okay with that, no hard feelings, but don't expect to see me around again. It's 2003, wake up and smell the coffee. Thank you.
* Please note that I'm not talking about small errors or problems in otherwise soundly designed websites, but about really horifically crappy websites and commercial websites that manage to make a core element such as the search box inaccessible, and no, I'm not naming names.
Oct 22, 2003 @ 10:31 » no comments » General
Micropayments
Caspar Kleijne has dedicated a website to soliciting micropayment contributions for an undoubtedly ironic goal:
I want to create an army large enough to invade the United States. I need money to do this. One euro per donation will do I guess.
Two questions: why doesn't this guy keep a counter and would these contributions be tax deductable?
Oct 22, 2003 @ 21:20 » 2 comments » General
What do you read?
Q: When you first visit a new weblog, what do you read? Of course, you take in the whole design, maybe scroll up and down a bit, but do you a) read the main content/main entries, b) just read some headers, c) read the sidebars, d) read "about me" info, e) some combination of the above, f) EVERYTHING, g) something else entirely?
Q: On repeat visits to known weblogs, what do you read?
Q: Do you read weblogs primarily in your browser or in a RSS newsreader?
Thanks for your time :-)
Oct 23, 2003 @ 11:08 » 6 comments » Research
Dark Passage
Dark Passage (via Jurre). Reminds me of the haunting pictures of an abandoned hospital my dad brought back from a trip to Belgium. I should ask him to dig those up.
Oct 24, 2003 @ 11:58 » no comments » General
Webdesign goodness
It's been a good week for CSS related webdesign goodness. Previously I already pointed to the great Listamatic. Zeldman then pointed to Tantek's great Mid Pass Filter hack, that allows you to send some CSS specifically to IE5.x and no other browser. This helps me fix one last bug this design had for IE5.x browsers, great! Before long Zeldman followed up with the announcement of the redesign of A List Apart, with a tutorial on a "Sliding Doors" approach to making great looking tabbed navigation. Top that off with Liz's link to the Color Scheme/Color Picker site and I'm looking forward to a weekend of toying with new layouts.
Oct 24, 2003 @ 12:53 » 1 comment » Webdesign
Down the toilet
Yesterday I was playing Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo and at some point I let Gromit open a door marked with a toilet symbol. A little cut scene was started, just showing the toilet door and a series of rather toiletery sounds came from the speakers. When the door opened again and Gromit appeared, he looked very relieved and wiped his brow. Admittedly, not the strongest point of the game, but the totally unexpected event made me grin anyway.
And this morning I find a link on BoingBoing pointing to a Russian site that indexes toilets as found in video games. Kind of reminded me of the conversations I've had about the occurence of toilets in movies. Movie characters never use the toilet unless it's in the plot and it somehow makes dramatic sense for them to be in that space. Video games are different in that respect, in that they offer the character a supposedly complete world to explore. Rarely, however, are toilets quite as functional as the one Gromit visited. They are there as set pieces, to give the impression of completeness of the virtual world, because you'd expect to find them in a particular building or location. I can see a whole field of study opening here: the ethnography of virtual toilets.
Oct 28, 2003 @ 09:23 » 5 comments » Research
XP and my local network
Okay, I've now installed Windows XP four (FOUR!) times before figuring out why it won't play nice with my local network. I run my local network over the NETBEUI protocol, because that protocol is not routable over TCP/IP and hence the traffic on my local network is quite effectively shielded from anything that has to do with the internet. For some reason Microsoft thinks NETBEUI is not hip anymore, so Windows XP doesn't automatically install that protocol when you set it up. No biggie, because Microsoft thoughtfully includes all the necessary files on the cd-rom in /valueadd/msft/net/netbeui directory.
So, how do you usually install a network protocol on Windows? You go to the properties of the network card, you choose to install a new protocol, you point Windows to the location of the files and everything gets installed. If you follow this course of action on a fresh install of XP, the install appears to go smoothly, no complaints. However, NETBEUI is NOT installed at this point! Only when I manually dug into the aforementioned directory did I find a little textfile saying that I should manually copy two files over into two different system directories and then follow the aforementioned strategy for installing the protocol. When you do that, there's no problem and the local network works just fine.
Ugh and yuk.
Oct 29, 2003 @ 21:11 » 2 comments » Software
Say my name
The Register reports that Blogger/Google might get a subpoena to reveal the identity of pseudonymous blogger Atrios (link 2). As the Register notes, interesting to see what Google will do and what, possibly, the judge will do.
Oct 30, 2003 @ 13:34 » no comments » Blogosphere
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