Usability: September 2006 Archive Page

Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified. The lawyer has at his touch the associated opinions and decisions of his whole experience, and of the experience of friends and authorities. The patent attorney has on call the millions of issued patents, with familiar trails to every point of his client's interest. The physician, puzzled by a patient's reactions, strikes the trail established in studying an earlier similar case, and runs rapidly through analogous case histories, with side references to the classics for the pertinent anatomy and histology. The chemist, struggling with the synthesis of an organic compound, has all the chemical literature before him in his laboratory, with trails following the analogies of compounds, and side trails to their physical and chemical behavior.

The historian, with a vast chronological account of a people, parallels it with a skip trail which stops only on the salient items, and can follow at any time contemporary trails which lead him all over civilization at a particular epoch. There is a new profession of trail blazers, those who find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record. The inheritance from the master becomes, not only his additions to the world's record, but for his disciples the entire scaffolding by which they were erected. --Vannevar Bush --As We May Think (The Atlantic)

In a "Writing for the Internet" class, I assigned this classic essay, in which the author spun a series of fantastic ideas that imagined an information distribution network that would use the technology that was available during his day.

I have the students blog what they think about the readings before class, so I can get some sense of what to expect. For some of the students, the thing they most wanted to write about was how hard the essay was to read!

Since the class includes freshmen who may be encoutering a full-length essay for the first time, I'm sure part of their reaction simply stems from their unfamiliarity with the genre. But we've also just gone through some practical material on why online writing should be shorter and punchier than print, so they're noticing the difference now when we move to the print-based genre.

Having used the device for many hours, I found it to be a comfortable, pleasing way to read, after initial hesitance. And it's a sharp-looking, techno-wow device with a durable feel. Its size, its screen, its general "thingness" were all appealing. But I love the feel, heft and smell of books, the tangible touch of the page, seeing their spines on the shelves. --Tom Bentley --Sony Reader Is a Work in Progress (Wired)

Documents to Go and VersaMail Woes (Jerz's Literacy Weblog)

I love my Tungsten T3 handheld computer.

I also love Documents to Go, which is bundled software that lets me edit files (mostly word processor, but also spreadsheet and slide show) on my handheld, and then synch my changes with the version of the file on my desktop. It's great for whenever someone is late for a meeting or I have to stand in line. I get a lot of paperwork done, and store a lot of brainstorming.

I'm also happy with VersaMail, which is bundled software that synchronizes my e-mail, batch downloading my in box (with attachments up to a certain size).

But for the past month or so, when I try to open an attachment in VersaMail, I get "You have not saved the changes you made to your last open document. Documents to Go will open this document now."

The only option to click is "OK," and what I see next is just the list of my Docs to Go files -- no file opens for me to save.

This means I cannot open any attachments.

I guess that's not technically true. I can save the attachments to my expansion card, and open them from there, but they won't automatically open, and I'll have multiple copies of the same file that might get out of synch.

This was a minor bother over the summer, but now that the semester is in full swing and I'm getting more e-mails, it's becoming a pain.

A handful of other people have mentioned the same problem in support forums, but nobody has bothered to post answers.

If I find the answer, I'll be sure to post it here. If you're looking for the answer, too, feel free to share your tales of woe.

Firefox Upgrade 1.5.0.7 Resets Personal Settings (and keeps resetting them) (Jerz's Literacy Weblog)

My preferred web browser is Firefox, but this morning when I logged in, Firefox had upgraded itself automatically, and it wiped all my bookmarks and personal settings. I was able to reload the bookmarks pretty easily, but the darn thing is resetting to the defaults every time I change the navigation bars to the configuration I want. I can't add my preferred search engines, either.

It's free, and I know you get what you pay for, but I'm booked almost solid from 10:30 to the end of the day today, so the timing was very bad for me.

(The same upgrade happend on my computer at home without any problem, so I don't know what the deal is.)

Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.
--F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content (Useit.com)

Your goal as a web author is to put your best stuff in the hotspots. Obviously you can direct the user's attention somewhat, using whitespace and graphics. But note how little attention readers devote to the boxed content on either side of the main column.

When I look back through my old journals and photos, I'm struck by how much travel has changed since 1994. These days, I take it for granted that the Internet keeps me in touch with friends and family, even from far-flung places like Mongolia and Patagonia; in 1994, contacting a single person from Montana or Pennsylvania required a phone booth, a pocket full of quarters, and a lot of patience. In 1994, I navigated with paper maps, got my information from a single Let's Go: USA guidebook, and met people at random. These days, folks can navigate via GPS or online driving directions, scour the Internet for a wealth of travel ideas, and use online message boards to make travel friends before they ever leave home. --Rolf Potts --How travel has changed (Yahoo! News (will expire))

--Wired News: Star Trek Submissions (Flickr)

What a cool idea! Wired News has created a Flikr account, and invited readers to sumit their Star Trek memorabilia photos, in preparation for Star Trek's 40th anniversary.