Speak Up!

I love you too,  Jeff.

• Once the product's task is known, design the interface first; then implement to the interface design.

• Users do not care about what is inside the box, as long as the box does what they need done.

• As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product.

• The system should treat all user input as sacred.

• A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm.

• A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more work than is strictly necessary.

• An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties.

• An unlimited-length file name is a file. The content of a file is its own best name.

• When you have to choose among methods, your locus of attention is drawn from the task and temporarily becomes the decision itself.

• If I am correct, the use of a product based on modelessness and monoty would soon become so habitual as to be nearly addictive, leading to a user population devoted to and loyal to the product.

Jef Raskin,   creator of the MacIntosh,  from "The Humane Interface"  -- and a colleague and friend,  whose spirit and companionship is sorely missed.

Recognition rather than recall

Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

 

-- from Jakob Nielsen,  Ten Usabiltiy Heuristics;  confer Iterative User Interface Design and The Anti-Mac Interface.   Jakob is also a lot of fun at a Singularity Party in the Presidio!

'Dick,'

Well. 

One of the problems of E(B)L is that the vast majority of traffic we receive (you know,  on that chart that made some people believe we had 1000 readers!?!) -- the vast majority of traffic we receive,  quite clearly,  is either (a) intentionally malicious (seems we POed someone in Anonymous) or,  and partially as a result, (b) spam or similar.

The traffic pattern above,  combined with other factors,  has made keeping E(B)L online inordinately difficult. 

On the other side of that,  the reason spammers are posting BackTracks to E(B)L,  is that the web property is valuable.  We have PageRank,  the measure of status on the web,  and the pests do try to latch on.

Given recent events in these cyber-parts,  and again "other factors,"  I've been more interested in shaking off these pests,   than in keeping E(B)L online etc.

My mother's recent heart attack has served as a reminder both of our mortality and of quite non-virtual realities,  and given me some opportunity to reflect on E(B)L in that light.  It seems best to me to allow the dynamics that dominated EB in the past,  to,  as one commententer put it,  'take a rest' or 'just die out.'

For the moment,  my time is being spent on such things as improving my ability to hear the brachial pulse,   charts of blood pressure and salt intake and diet.  The fact that two-thirds of US-American are obese,  coupled with the irony that most all of them are too stupid to grasp the metaphor for their political and economic order,  is a mere humourous backdrop to getting my own houses in order,  'so to speak.'

Equally and as well,  we've spend little time here exploring the addictive nature of all kinds of virtual realities-- the Capricascience-fiction series,  as well as 60 Minutes' recent expose of artifical food,  come to mind.  I'm glad to say that I've managed to spend up to 72 hours at a time barely thinking of E(B)L,  much less looking at the site.

I'm trying to remember which of the Republican candidates said what idiocic thing about the economy and its problems (last),   but its sort of a blur to me at the moment.  As a People,  "America" seems incapable of escaping the addiction of its illusions,  the very illusions that have brought it to crisis-- we want more of the same poison.

As far as EL's future,  I've begun discussing what we can do here with a number of parties,   including the class secretaries.  I'm in no particular hurry,  but believe that such input is critical to building something that works and such are the people to begin with.  It also comes down the previous EB not being "scalable,"  as it is said.

As far as my mom goes,  she recently surprised me with the wonderful statement "I don't believe my arteries are clogged."  There is nothing like simply ignoring reality,  the great national gluttony,  which,  as 60 Minutes put it succinctly,  the rest of the world looked upon with disgust and the feeling "I don't want to look like that."

Until the round of input-gathering and planning described above is complete ,  we will cover major events,  work on better tools and improvements,  and create a few experiments in what the medium can do to foster alum community.   I expect these changes to become evident at the start of the second semester -- at the earliest.

My mother's denial,  of course,  would seem to make her imminently qualified to serve in the current Congress.

And in the meantime,  anyone is welcome to become an author and post materials on E(-)L,  in a responsible manner.  I expect some of those involved in the discussions above,  will begin to bring you posts on a 'variety of topics,'  as they see fit,  in this interim period.

Or-- was your comment intented to prompt something else?

P.S.  Should anyone know an employment law litigator... ah,  I'll post that on LinkedIn,  which is probably a better forum for such a post,  at this point in time.

Dear Anonymous commenter,

As wilh so many "drive-by" comments on Eph(b)log,  I have little idea of what to make of your comment.

The Eph Log is currently in a sort of hibernation.  This has as much to do with my wishing to create a "break" and a bit of "Reformation,"  as the fact that I've had to rush my mother to a hospital in the middle of the night too many times,  in the past months.

I see nothing obviously objectionable in Rick's website (other than a design and layout that evokes 1997!).  Insomuch as the vast majority of my classmates were incredible individuals whose intelligence and insights I valued more than I can express,  Rick was among the best.  He shared a number of emails and thoughts with me during his campaign,  and I believe he would have brought his talents to the mayorship of Pittsfield "as much as any other candidate,"  -- said,  without disparaging the talents and contributions of the other candidates.

Why we might need to disparage and seek to "take down" other Williams grads,  I do not know,  but my faith in the moral course of the United States,  is not great,  tonight. 

Perhaps you would not express whatever you meant to say,  in the form you use above, if you were not Anonymous?