February 2005 Notes Archive

Jef Raskin, Macintosh creator and interface innovator, dies at 61. 28 Feb 05

All this discussion about ajax is great, but now I think it’s time to start identifying needs for it. My top request right now is my Amazon.co.uk DVD rental queue. Queue UI is very tricky because you have the ability to remove and reorder items on the same screen, but to see your changes you have to click “Save Changes.” The user interaction would be much smoother if a technology like ajax was employed. I know that Amazon is using ajax for ratings and recommendations so I’m hoping an ajax DVD queue isn’t too far down the road. 27 Feb 05

If you’re wondering how I’m displaying both unraveled and unraveled notes weblogs on the homepage inline with each other, all I’ll say right now is that it was much easier than I expected thanks to two great Movable Type plugins called MultiBlog and Compare. I may document it at some point, but if you have any questions in the meantime, don’t hesitate to ask. 26 Feb 05

Ask Google to turn off Autolinks in their new toolbar. Here’s the background from Zeldman. 26 Feb 05

Google Maps now works in Safari. Sweet. 26 Feb 05

Anti-abortion ideologues beware: I’m promoting objective, factual information on Roe v. Wade and abortion. You can too. Join me in Bombing for Choice. 26 Feb 05

SFGate article about Justin Hall’s web burnout. This is a nice article about what can happen when you spill your heart to the web. I can’t say this won’t ever happen to me, but I can say that I’m not going to stop unraveled just because I’m burnt out. 22 Feb 05

The Da Vinci Code cast. You’ve got to be kidding me. 22 Feb 05

Jeffrey Veen pointed us to Aaron Swartz’ mail archiving with the click of a shortcut script which absolutely rocks. I’ve wanted something like this forever. It’s always nice to be surprised by the capabilities of software that I’ve been using for years. 19 Feb 05

Paul Hammond: “And you should make a backup of your website.” 15 Feb 05

Just when you thought there was a day for everything: World Usability Day: 3 November 2005. 14 Feb 05

I just called the customer service line for TicketWeb and was told that “All customer service representatives are currently assisting other customers. If my call is urgent, I should call back during regular business hours. *click*” I fail to see the service in a recorded voice telling me this. I’ve only encountered this sort of thing once before when I called the UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate. The best approach I’ve seen to handling customer service line queues was with another British company, BT. No “Please hold for the next available representative.” No “All representatives are busy now. Please call back later.” Instead, an automated voice told me the number I was calling them from and asked if I would like to be called back when the next representative was available, allowing me to easily do other things while waiting for a rep. All customer service lines should do this. 12 Feb 05

Google just launched Google Maps, with draggable, interactive maps and enough cool features to make you say woah again and again. 9 Feb 05

I love this Tom Peter’s quote: “Do cool shit. Every damn day. Or die trying.” If that doesn’t make you say “Yes!” out loud, then take a step back, look at your work or role, and figure out what it will take to make you say this. 9 Feb 05

FeedBurner’s browser-friendly page is now subscriber-friendly. This is a valuable new feature which will greatly simplify my XML Feeds page. 8 Feb 05

I had a couple onslaughts of TrackBack spam in the past week. I’ve retaliated by adding several URL patterns to MTBlacklist and a modified version of Brad Choate’s DSBL plugin, which has brought TrackBack spam to a screeching halt. I’ll post another update in a week or so. 6 Feb 05

Search your Furl archive bookmarklet: Search Furl Archive. Warning: it has only been tested in Safari. 6 Feb 05

← January 2005 | Archives | March 2005 →