April 5, 2001
Dan Bricklin: Metaphors, Not Conversations.
A good metaphor aids in developing trust between the program and the user. Its strengths and weaknesses are apparent. It is a tool that the user can work "with". It provides a "space" of some sort that can be explored and manipulated for the user's purpose.
Seattle Times: Better times ahead for man, machine.
Computers that sing out when messages arrive, surf the Internet from a car dashboard and enable the disabled to scroll through text by waving their arms were among the technologies showcased yesterday in Seattle at the world's largest gathering of computer-usability designers.
Web Techniques: Click to Accept.
When I first launched the program, I was greeted by a grey dialog box containing a copy of Adobe's "click-wrap" license, a long, tedious document filled with legal terms and phrases. Usually I just scroll to the bottom of these things, but this time I read it all the way through.
Wired News: MS and Its Terms of Embarrassment.
Rosenberg's column seems to mark the first time anyone bothered to take a look at the terms of service -- including the people at Microsoft, apparently. There's reason to believe that Microsoft's defense -- that the terms haven't been updated in a while -- is true...
Red Herring: Let's play with Microsoft.
Microsoft is showing a more playful side these days, with Xbox, the game platform that wowed game enthusiasts and technologists alike, and new software tools that will provide consumers with the ability to create their own games and animations.
NY Times: New Rules for Net Searches: Location, Location, Location.
In SRI's proposed .geo system, the world would be carved into "cells," each represented by a local Internet server or servers, called georegistries. These cells would vary in size, depending on how much information was available for a particular geographic area.
Mappa.Mundi Magazine: What Does the Internet Look Like, Jellyfish Perhaps?
The Internet is often likened to an organic entity and this analogy seems particularly appropriate in the light of some striking new visualizations of the complex mesh of Internet pathways. The images are results of a new graph visualization tool, code-named Walrus...
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