[ via Nettime ] Lawrence Lessig was appointed as a special master (think domain expert) during DOJ v. MS. He’s got a new book out about the role of software architecture in the legal construction of cyberspace. I’m pulling several quotes from an interview with him from Feed. This is definitely a book to read. [...]
[ via Robot Wisdom ] How to roll your own “Page Not Found” error messages so they are pretty and helpful
For what it’s worth, imood.com (think of it as empathic instant messaging) has a funky command line user interface which allows you to enter shortcuts in a text box at the upper right hand side of the page. It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t know if it’d work well in practice. First, people would [...]
Today’s information architecture challenge: how to display the 90 word title to Fiona Apple’s new album.
My inner librarian wants this book. It’s a study of classification: the history, methods and effects. Classification affects perception. Consider that some of the WebLog lists consider this site to be a ‘general’ WebLog, while others classify it as a ‘technical’ site. Link
[ via Freshmeat ] Sabren’s written a tutorial and some sample code for making search engine friendly URLs for PHP-driven sites. Instead of /article.php3?id=342, you can have /article/342
[ Web Review ] The JMS Version: “The major powers of the Internet gathered together to create a markup language that would help end the Browser Wars. The year is 1999, and the name of the app is XHTML.” (cue theme music)
[ from All Things Web ] “In the latter days of the 20th-century, the World Wide Web bears an uncanny resemblance to the automated looms of 19-century England. With over 1,000 different clients, countless plug-ins, woefully misnamed `helper’ apps, and other assorted gizmos, there are a lot of points of failure. It is sometimes fragile, [...]
[ via JJG.net ] Metajournals opened a contest for redesigning their site. But for reasons beyond my understanding say: “Frame designs are allowed (and encouraged).”
The latest iteration of an analysis of a random sample of Web pages finds that page size is creeping upwards, and linkrot remains a problem.
Jakob Nielsen says that three years of evolution on the Web has spawned another set of mistakes, while the old ones linger. The new mistakes include: pop-up windows, links that make no sense out of context, and ads.
Jorn Barger suggests several things to do when creating a link to another site. The common theme here is provide as much information as you can: tell the viewer if you’re sending them to a Java applet or PDF file, provide a snippet, give them your opinion on the link. In the Weblog and Glossary [...]
HTML::Mason, the Perl module aimed at web sites that publish articles from databases and other repositories, now has a home page.
From Cosmodrome: Edward Tufte’s recommended reading list.
Dan Lyke responds to a Web Review article (linked previously) on architecture and user interface. When I can afford to build my dream house I want someone who’s trained in usability first. Later I’ll find an engineer somewhere, who may have architecture training, to figure out how to build the thing, but I’ll be damned [...]