Ajax Libraries and Design Patterns from Yahoo
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 |Yahoo just made public a set of Ajax Libraries and Design Patterns under very friendly licenses. From the first look I had they worth having a look at them.
More details:
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Google Domains vs. Custom Live Domains
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 |Today I’ve read one of the most disturbing posts lately. It’s written by Robert Scoble and asks some serious questions about why the blogosphere is not giving the proper credit to Microsoft for the ideea of hosting emails for custom domains. Still dizzy after a period of jet lag I run out to my ouija board for a reality check. The answers where disturbing in nature also. Here is what I found:
Google, by digging through dirty emails of the bloggers that are using gmail and those porn files transfered on their servers with the help of Google Desktop, has started an evil game based on blackmail and corruption to change the history of the internet.
If that wasn’t enough my ouija board also infirmed the following affirmations:
- It is not true that Hotmail is the lamest email service around
- It is not true the fact that Microsoft doesn’t give 2 cents on users outside US and doesn’t consider that the rest of the world is living in the Dark ages with the following line: 250MB inbox available only in the 50 United States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Eligible Hotmail users will first receive 25MB at sign-up.
- It is not true that Hotmail and Kahuna have the WORST advertising banners that make everyone go nuts instantly.
- It is not true that your Hotmail account will be terminated after 30 days of inactivity
- It is not true that Yahoo offered the same service long before Microsoft had any lame ideea
Now the world finally knows the true nature of evil…I think that for this year Halloween’s will be trendy Larry and Serghei costumes.
links for 2006-01-19
Thursday, January 19th, 2006 |-
FeedXS.com allows you to create one or more personal or business feeds
Firefox tunning (part I)
Sunday, January 15th, 2006 |
Firefox tunning
Originally uploaded by Antonescu Razvan.
This is part 1 of a 3 parts article on how to optimize your Firefox browser for a better browsing experience. Topics that will be covered:
- General Customization
- Extensions and themes
- Wishlist and Conclusions
At the end your browser might be looking like the above screenshot. Don’t worry it won’t be so crowded, not all the features being needed all the time to be open.
Target audience:
- Power users
- Bloggers
General Customization
A few steps to tune your firefox can be accomplished without additional installs.
- Homepage. For a long time I disliked the idea of having a homepage opened when my browser opens. Too many commercials and redundant information. With the AJAX desktop trends luckily we have a few choices:
- -Netvibes (recommended) ->Official Blog || Techcrunch review
- Tabbed navigation. One of the core functions of Firefox (first implemented by Opera) is the tabbed navigation. Unfortunately this option is highly overlooked by newbies and is not facilitated by the default installation. To activate this do the following:
- - Go to Tools->Options->Tabs
- - Check:
- Open links from other applications in: A new tab in the most recent window
- Force links that open new windows to open in: A new tab (note: this is useful for the sites that use for external links target _blank BUT it might be not so pleasant for requested pop-ups. If you use regularly sites that use requested pop ups then do not use this feature but rather click on the external links with middle mouse button. That will open external links in new tabs and requested pop-ups as usual)
- Manual optimization. By typing about:config in your URL field you will get a list of Firefox options to customize. This subject is very well covered on the following articles:
- GUI. One of the biggest advantages of Firefox is the fact that allows a great flexibility for the GUI. To gain more working space do the following.
- - Right click anywhere on a blank space in the area of URL box and you will get a “Customize” option.
- - First of all set your icons to small
- - Add and remove icons (through drag and drop) as needed. I currently have only the following buttons: Back, Forward, Refresh, Stop, Homepage.
- - Move your remaining icons from the Navigation Toolbar near the File menu.
Now you have completed the first part of your Firefox optimization. You can familiarize now with the keyboard shortcuts for better productivity
links for 2006-01-13
Friday, January 13th, 2006 |-
A place for things I find interesting or have to say related to usability, web design, information architecture and user experience practices
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“Userati - A group of people concerned with issues relating to software and users, who are known to their peers.”
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This dissertation introduces an approach to understanding user experience that departs from the more traditional user or product centric approaches.
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This post outlines how to connect your Visio diagram to a database to reduce manual entry of data and improve consistency.
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At GUUUI, you’ll find weekly postings and quarterly articles about interaction design, information architecture, usability, visual design and the like.
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when one of the world’s first public libraries called in building architects to renovate their historic facilities, they also called in information architects from MAYA Design to renovate their information space
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Insights, ideas, musings, observations, publications, and thoughts on the world and design
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Langemarks Cafe is Gunnar Langemark’s personal professional website.
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Your daily dose of information, ideas, research, opinions, and lessons learned about user interface design (UID), user centered design (UCD), usability testing & research, task analysis, card sorting, usability heuristics, information architecture (IA), w
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Finally version 1.5 is out
First signs of Yahoo! on del.icio.us
Thursday, January 12th, 2006 |Today I noticed the first sign of Yahoo’s aquisition of del.icio.us. When using the del.icio.us bookmarklet to bookmark a site a new pre filled pop-up opens for My Web 2.0. I like this feature because allows me to share good content within my Yahoo network BUT I bet that the negative response to this will be overwhelming because:
- not all del.icio.us users have Yahoo accounts
- users might feel forced to do this
- there is no way to disable this
So…how much till a new del.icio.us suicide group will appear? A week? Put on your bets
After this kind of behaviour, it’s getting more and more clear, that after the aquisition of an independent leader of a certain niche by a major company the second place will see a wave of new users
links for 2006-01-12
Thursday, January 12th, 2006 |Yahoo enters the browser wars
Saturday, January 7th, 2006 |Spotted via Guillaume and Search Engine Watch the new Yahoo! product line: Yahoo! Go
The product line continues to target the desktop (after the good start made with the aquisition of Konfabulator - now Yahoo! Widget Engine) but also goes to new areas like TV and mobile.
What Guillaume missed from the screenshot is that beside a Vista like sidebar (or Google Sidebar), Yahoo! Go Desktop features a nice browser window with Yahoo shortcuts. This might be the work of the XUL hackers wanted on the Jeremy Zawodny blog last year (It has tabs and I bet a one month payment that is not IE based).
The time I am writing this post the apps are not available for download but Search Engine Watch says:
The suite will be formally announced by Yahoo CEO Terry Semel at CES keynote today
Additional Resources:
Best (blonde) Joke Ever
Thursday, January 5th, 2006 |This one was too great not to link it
Buh bye Internet Explorer
Wednesday, January 4th, 2006 |
Allpeers
Originally uploaded by Antonescu Razvan.
Anyone will agree Michael Arrington that Allpeers will be one of the causes for which IE will loose a few millions of users:
In my opinon this single firefox extension will massively increase the attractiveness of that already popular browser, drawing more millions away from embattled Internet Explorer.
Allpeers in their own words is:
… is a free extension which combines the strength of Firefox and the efficiency of BitTorrent to transform your favorite browser into a media sharing powerhouse.
Additional resources
