If you haven’t heard, the Google Reader team just released a complete overhaul of the Reader UI. I wasn’t a big fan of the previous interface, though I imagine it would have been nice enough with a small number of feeds. So how does the new interface match up to the current champion, Bloglines?
The Triangle Science Blogging Conference will be a day-long conference Saturday, January 20, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is a free, open and public event for scientists, educators, students, journalists, bloggers and anyone interested in discussing science communication, education and literacy—and how blogs can be a tool of those.
A list of “web 2.0″ web sites that are linked to from the “Little Miss Sunshine” website:
Someone’s been reading TechCrunch. I may sound snarky, but I really like that they’re doing this — it adds a level of participation into the game. In some sense, it gives the movie a “self” that fans and interested parties can attach themselves to. I guess that’s nothing new, bands do it all the time on MySpace, but I’m not sure I can think of another movie (with the notable exception of “Snakes on a Plane”) that has integrated itself so much into the social scene of the internets (banner ads don’t count).
UPDATE: The movie also happens to be amazingly funny.
“Design for Programmers” is a meme that I’ve run into on several recent occasions. In particular I attended Rick Cecil’s presentation on the subject at BarCampRDU, and a co-worker pointed me to Amy Hoy’s presentation from web|works in 2005.
Rick’s talk focused on “User Experience” versus “Interface Design,” but he brought up one important point that I think Amy missed (or at least didn’t emphasize very strongly). Amy defines interface as:
expectation (user expectations)
interaction (mechanics of interaction)
behavior (how the software behaves)
The missing piece that Rick mentioned was context. A user’s experience (a term which I prefer to “interface” or “interaction” — but that’s just me) is rarely without relevent context. At Lulu that context includes the software that our user’s use to create their content. We don’t write or support those tools, but they’re critical to the user’s experience on our site. Gaining an understanding of context can be very difficult, but I highly recommend contextual inquiry as a tool for exploring context.
Regardless, Amy’s presentation is excellent, and I highly recommend that anyone (programmer or not) take a look.
Hopefully I’ll have time to make a more detailed post later. Really good sessions so far:
… is tonight! And it’s co-sponsored by Lulu.
Date and Time: Friday July 21, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Tyler’s Taproom, Durham (American Tobacco Campus, near the Durham Bulls stadium)
Info: Food and drinks provided
Hint: Bring a friend
… is this weekend!
Date and time: Saturday July 22, 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM
Location: Red Hat, Centennial Campus Offices, Raleigh, NC (Google Maps)
Info: Breakfast, lunch, snacks and refreshments provided
Doors will open at 8AM. Arrive early to avoid the rush and guarantee that we have your T-shirt size.
I’ve spent some time recently trying to cull the feeds I have subscribed in Bloglines. I’ve made some hard decisions, and a few sites that I really like didn’t make the cut. As interesting as these sites are, thery aren’t ones I feel obliged to read daily, or post more frequently than I can track. For some time now I’ve simply been ignoring them when I don’t have time to stay up-to-date, but I think it’s time to say goodbye. Below are a few of the sites I’m sad to see go.
Fantastic comics, artists and illustrations. I’ll keep checking this one periodically for inspiration.
Fascinating posts on art projects, new media projects and technology. I think that if the MIT Media Lab had a blog, it would look a lot like this.
Interesting DIY projects and strange gadgets.
Cool things of all shapes and sizes: music, clothes, shoes, art, etc.
I’m still subscribed to my friends’ photos and the FlickrBlog, but I’ve ditched all the groups and tags I was subscribed to. The Moleskinerie group in particular was fun.
One more:
Fascinating and amazing examples of information visualization. I’m particularly fond of the maps. Sadly, I rarely do more than skim them.
Well, the weather here in Vancouver is a lot nicer than than Weather.com would have led me to believe. Not that I’m complaining. Anyways, I’m tired and don’t want to write anything, so watch this space for more information tomorrow. Or Monday.
