Free Software Linux

I really don't like Captchas, the squiggly words that many websites use to protect forms from spam bots. Unfortunately, sometimes they are the only thing that can protect a site from clever spammers.

Yesterday I heard a great story about reCaptcha, captchas that are used to crowd-source digitizing of old print books and newspapers on NPR. If you have ever tried to use a scanner with OCR, you know that it can be pretty hit or miss.

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"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." Mark Twain

It wasn't until after I got my Kindle, Amazon's electronic book, that it dawned on me- "Why didn't Amazon do this years ago?" Considering they're one of the biggest channels for moving books one would have thought selling a device that taps into their distribution channel as seamlessly as the Kindle does would be a no-brainer. Eventually Amazon had its "ah-ha" moment, probably after witnessing the popularity of the iPod and the iTunes music store.

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Its been an busy week in the world of OpenID. On Friday Ben Laurie announced a security vulnerability around OpenID that relates to existing problems with DNS and certain SSL certificates. Discussions on the OpenID General mailing list have been fruitful and the major OpenID providers out there today have disclosed that they are either not vulnerable or patching quickly. It should also be noted that none of the providers listed at openid.net/get were ever vulnerable to this attack.

Gone are the days when you needed to create paper prototypes of a page and test them in front of focus groups or run them through usability testing. Technology has evolved this process.

The Google Website Optimizer now helps one test and optimize a website all in the comfort of a real live visitor base.

What better excuse to go to San Francisco in August than to attend UX Week 2008.

Touted as the premier user experience conference, UX Week 2008 offers a mix of inspiring presentations from recognized thought leaders and hands-on workshops delivering takeaway skills. Intended for user experience professionals at all levels -- directors, managers and practitioners -- the schedule offers day-by-day registration and features engaging and interactive daily themes.

Website Redesign Glossary - Entry 5

Breadcrumb: An element on a web page (usually directly below the page title) showing the click path a user traveled to arrive at the current page. For example: Home > About Us > Our Staff Usually the terms are active links, which enable the user to retrace their click path (or skip back several clicks). Breadcrumbs, especially in deep sites with multiple levels of navigation, improve usability because they help users understand where they are now as well as the overall structure of the site, and navigate back to the pages they've visited.

The term "breadcrumb" comes from the trail Hansel and Gretel left to try to find their way back home.

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Words are critical to task completion on websites and in applications. Yet they are still chosen carelessly.

No matter how good you think your Web site's design is, accept that it can always be better. Web design is no place for the content. You must forever resign yourself to the fact that your site's usability is not going to be perfect. This is not to say your site isn't good. In fact it may be great -- but it could be better.

Or so says Jakob Nielsen in his recent article, Extreme Usability: How to Make an Already-Great Design Even Better.

Shouldn't there be a law against having politicians' pictures on websites, particularly on homepages? Taxpayer money pays for these websites. So what gives politicians the right to take taxpayer money and hijack government websites and turn them into campaign websites?

E-government is not about technology. It is about saving time and making life easier and more efficient for citizens and business.

Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): QuickDrag won't look terribly new to fans of previously-posted extensions Drag de Go or Super DragAndGo, but it's a lighter-weight extension that does similar work. Grab...

Web government is about helping citizens and businesses make easier, faster, better-informed decisions.

"...I have been unwilling to get involved with this debate [which is currently in progress on Manchester Free Software Group's mailing list] from an argumentative perspective, because it seems to me that the whole debate revolves around a perception of gNewSense and in general, not experience.

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Every time you add navigation options you add confusion and complexity. Too much choice is the bane of web navigation.