Comment Re:Nothing wrong with models. (Score 4, Funny) 561
Yes. And he cannot lie, apparently.
Comment Waterfall was never valid (Score 2) 726
Dr. Royce used it as an example of a methodology that doesn't work, but what he described was easy to understand so it gained traction with management types. It's like the joke where the guy says he's looking for a lost quarter under a streetlamp because the light is better than where he lost it.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2003/cmsc838p/Process/waterfall.pdf
I think his suggestion was to 'build it twice' via prototyping to discover what was missed in the requirements gathering and design phases.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2003/cmsc838p/Process/waterfall.pdf
I think his suggestion was to 'build it twice' via prototyping to discover what was missed in the requirements gathering and design phases.
Is the Gaming PC Dead? 417
An anonymous reader writes "Rahul Sood, HP's CTO of gaming, argues that the days of a market that wants PCs running three $500 GPUs is history; he argues that it's really a tough or impossible sell. '... let's face it, high-end hardware has delivered diminishing returns in terms of value. This is why you don't see ridiculous offerings like Quad SLI and 2-kilowatt power supplies coming from our company.' But don't the ideas of customization and market pricing for components tend to undercut that? Is the gaming PC dead?"
Online Billpay Provider Loses Control of Domains 232
An anonymous reader writes "Several sites are running a story about a domain hijacking at Checkfree, the largest provider of online bill payment services to numerous banks and credit unions. According to Network Solutions, someone logged in to the domain administration page using Checkfree's account, and redirected its domains to a site in the Ukraine configured to serve up malware to unsuspecting users." Things like this make me nervous about switching to otherwise-tempting online bill payment, but checks are dangerous, too.
Xbox 360 Laptop Creator Unveils Sleek New Design 46
A couple years ago we discussed Benjamin Heckendorn's modification which turned the Xbox 360 into a laptop. Now, he's completed a new, revamped design which includes a removable Xbox 360 hard drive, an internal Wi-fi module and a new button layout. It looks a lot nicer, too. He's also posted a description of how he did it.
Comet-Chasing Spacecraft Encounters Rare Asteroid 40
Riding with Robots writes "Yesterday the robotic spacecraft Rosetta, on its way to a distant encounter with Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, flew by the asteroid 'Steins,' which is roughly 4.6 kilometers wide. Steins is one of the relatively rare E-type asteroids. The mission team live-blogged throughout the day, and a press conference with the first pictures will be available soon."
Rosetta's flyby took it to within 800 kilometers of Steins while both objects were roughly 360 million kilometers from Earth. According to Rosetta's fact sheet (PDF), the craft will next swing by Earth in 2009 and take a look at another asteroid in 2010 on its way to the rendezvous with the comet in 2014.
Submission + - Has AT&T Lost its Corporate Mind?
Ponca City, We Love You writes: "Tim Wu has an interesting (and funny) article on Slate that says that AT&T's recent proposal to examine all the traffic it carries for potential violations of US intellectual property laws is not just bad but corporate seppuku bad. At present AT&T is shielded by a federal law they wrote themselves that provides they have no liability for "Transitory Digital Network Communications" — content AT&T carries over the Internet. To maintain that immunity, AT&T must transmit data "without selection of the material by the service provider" and "without modification of its content" but if AT&T gets into the business of choosing what content travels over its network, it runs the serious risk of losing its all-important immunity. "As the world's largest gatekeeper," Wu writes, "AT&T would immediately become the world's largest target for copyright infringement lawsuits." ATT's new strategy "exposes it to so much potential liability that adopting it would arguably violate AT&T's fiduciary duty to its shareholders," concludes Wu."
Submission + - The Design of Sites, Second Edition
Joe Kauzlarich writes: The 'pattern' book has become a familiar genre for frequent readers of
technical manuals. The idea is to sift through mountains of
architectural or design schemes and then to categorize and catalogue
the most frequent ideas and present their strengths and
weaknesses. This type of book has been a success in software
engineering, but can it translate to website design, where designers
have everyday and frequent access to other designs? At worst, these
books provide a common industry vocabulary (assuming it was read by
everyone in the industry). How many people knew what a factory method
referred to before Erich Gamma's Design Patterns was released? At
best, as in the case of that 'original' software design patterns book,
mountains of complex ideas are archived into a single reference and
will sit within arm's reach for the rest of your life. So, is the web
design discipline full of patterns that evade common sense?
Initially, I was amazed by the sheer scope and the amount of work that must've been put into this book. Almost 1000 pages — and not just a bunch of screenshots either. Most of the book is well-organized text. The screenshots are full-color, as is everything else in the book. Each section has a different-colored bleed, making it easy to locate the chapter you're looking for. Furthermore, the patterns are extensively cross-referenced throughout the book, and references appear in colored marginal bullets. Even the table of contents has descriptive section headings and a small summary of each section. The design of the book itself gets an eleven out of ten. The book itself is a living catalogue of technical reference design patterns. Kudos to the book's designer on this one.
As far as content, the book describes 117 distinct patterns in 13 categories. This includes patterns related to marginal topics such as mobile devices, accessibility and content creation (i.e. copywriting 101). Like most pattern books, it's a good idea to initially browse the book before using it as a reference so that you'll know what to look for when you need to pick it up again. On my initial browsing, it seemed to contain nothing particularly surprising — this has been the case with many great pattern books such as Martin Fowler's Refactoring or another of his books, Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, so I was not going to discredit it on this basis alone: a pattern book's true value shows itself when you're stuck on a problem and turn to it for a moment of shining clarity. Let's see if The Design of Sites lives up to this promise...
Is the book as invaluable as it aims to be?
Trial #1: a business website that is not e-commerce, but a 'glorified yellow pages' type of site. I have a lot of information that needs to be accessed not only in its heirarchical organization, which can go to three levels deep, but should also guide the reader on what should be read next: a separate 'linked-list' that 'jumps' branches in the original hierarchy.
Given this amount of content and this double-organization, we wanted each page to present access to the site's information without overwhelming the reader. I open up the book to Part A, 'Site Genres', to locate the particular genre of website I'm working on. I find it: 'Valuable Company Sites.' I read some good information on layout. I see a paragraph titled 'other patterns to consider,' which points me to pattern B1, 'Multiple Ways to Navigate.' A-ha! The book's exceptional design allows me to locate pattern B1 in 3 seconds flat. It is hear I realize the true value of the book: there are no 'right' answers in design, only guidelines:
Good advice. Though I already have a hierarchical organization (intentional browsing) and recommended organization (impulse browsing), which gives users options on what to read next, I now have an idea of what sort of balance I want in the areas of navigation.
This was not exactly a mind-blowing discovery, but it did give me some confidence in the choices I eventually made and, furthermore, gave me valid reasons for making those choices, in case the client or a team-member were to question those choices later on.
Trial #2: Working on a website for a freelance graphic designer, I encounter a problem whereby each image in the portfolio can be categorized either by project/campaign or by design-type. For example, a logo, a business card, poster and website are all part of a single campaign, but we also want the ability to list all logos from separate campaigns. Again we have an organizational dilemma, but this time for a different type of site and a fundamentally different type of dilemma.
Again, I turn to the first section 'Site Genres' to locate the type of site I'm working on. It's not exactly a business site, but more of an on-line portfolio. The closest seems to be pattern A9, 'Stimulating Arts and Entertainment.' When I turn to it, I discover I was correct: the authors discuss the 'art gallery' site, though it doesn't exactly cover the aspect that I'm looking for. So I've encountered the book's first notable omission: nothing along the lines of an 'online portfolio' or 'interactive resume' genre of site design, which would encompass all creative freelancer sites as well as the usual rock band websites, etc. They differ from the 'Valuable Company Website' in that personal expression and design creativity take center stage. These sites have a general similarity in aesthetic in that they purposely avoid the business-like design. You won't see many pull-down or left-side navigation menus on a standard band website. The menus are typically integrated into a central graphic of some sort and this puts heavy constraints on the web designer while trying to effectively organize information without sacrificing the expressive purposes of the site.
What this book lacks
The book offers no obvious guidelines for dealing with this sort of problem and here's why: it doesn't take into account the various constraints imposed by the client nor does it attempt to offer reconciliations between the design and the underlying organization of the data.
In my trial #2 we had the thumbnail images organized in two ways, either by design-type (poster, logo, business card) or by campaign ("Going Out of Business Sale", "Grand Opening", "Johnson's Automotive Website"), both organization-types having fairly equal weight. How do we allow the user to switch between organization types and keep the site consistent? The book doesn't touch these types of questions in a direct way.
What the book offers
Should you purchase this book?
While 99% of the patterns themselves are common knowledge to most users of the internet and to most decent web designers, it is the expository text that forms the real meat of the book and contains the wealth of insight. This is by far the book's value. Posing as a patterns book is misleading; this book is really just a very good general guide to web design. As a pattern book, it's flawed, because almost every 'pattern' is just a guideline for effectively presenting information, not an elusive insight or 'trick of the trade' in itself, such what as Erich Gamma's (et al) original 'Design Patterns' brought us. There are mountains of outstanding tips and bits of advice throughout the book, but if you've already achieved a decent level of competency in design, then you're not going to be using the book very often and when you do, you might not get the depth of advice you're seeking.
On the other hand, the book gives beginner-to-intermediate-level designers everything they need to get started or fill in the gaps. The Design of Sites would also make an outstanding text book and is likely to be one of the best general guides to web design on the market.
I'll give it a 6 out of 10, judging a book on its utility as a design patterns books (just as you would give The Illiad a possible 2 out of 10 if Homer presented it to me as a historical text and I expected as much). As an introduction to web design, it easily deserves at least 9 points out of 10.
Initially, I was amazed by the sheer scope and the amount of work that must've been put into this book. Almost 1000 pages — and not just a bunch of screenshots either. Most of the book is well-organized text. The screenshots are full-color, as is everything else in the book. Each section has a different-colored bleed, making it easy to locate the chapter you're looking for. Furthermore, the patterns are extensively cross-referenced throughout the book, and references appear in colored marginal bullets. Even the table of contents has descriptive section headings and a small summary of each section. The design of the book itself gets an eleven out of ten. The book itself is a living catalogue of technical reference design patterns. Kudos to the book's designer on this one.
As far as content, the book describes 117 distinct patterns in 13 categories. This includes patterns related to marginal topics such as mobile devices, accessibility and content creation (i.e. copywriting 101). Like most pattern books, it's a good idea to initially browse the book before using it as a reference so that you'll know what to look for when you need to pick it up again. On my initial browsing, it seemed to contain nothing particularly surprising — this has been the case with many great pattern books such as Martin Fowler's Refactoring or another of his books, Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, so I was not going to discredit it on this basis alone: a pattern book's true value shows itself when you're stuck on a problem and turn to it for a moment of shining clarity. Let's see if The Design of Sites lives up to this promise...
Is the book as invaluable as it aims to be?
Trial #1: a business website that is not e-commerce, but a 'glorified yellow pages' type of site. I have a lot of information that needs to be accessed not only in its heirarchical organization, which can go to three levels deep, but should also guide the reader on what should be read next: a separate 'linked-list' that 'jumps' branches in the original hierarchy.
Given this amount of content and this double-organization, we wanted each page to present access to the site's information without overwhelming the reader. I open up the book to Part A, 'Site Genres', to locate the particular genre of website I'm working on. I find it: 'Valuable Company Sites.' I read some good information on layout. I see a paragraph titled 'other patterns to consider,' which points me to pattern B1, 'Multiple Ways to Navigate.' A-ha! The book's exceptional design allows me to locate pattern B1 in 3 seconds flat. It is hear I realize the true value of the book: there are no 'right' answers in design, only guidelines:
...we have identified two things that drive customers to action: intention and impulse (these can be thought of as goal and trigger, or need and desire). Neither intentional nor impulsive behavior is inherently good or bad, but a site that omits intention-based navigation might feel shallow and quirky, and one that omits impulse-based navigation might seem boring.
Good advice. Though I already have a hierarchical organization (intentional browsing) and recommended organization (impulse browsing), which gives users options on what to read next, I now have an idea of what sort of balance I want in the areas of navigation.
This was not exactly a mind-blowing discovery, but it did give me some confidence in the choices I eventually made and, furthermore, gave me valid reasons for making those choices, in case the client or a team-member were to question those choices later on.
Trial #2: Working on a website for a freelance graphic designer, I encounter a problem whereby each image in the portfolio can be categorized either by project/campaign or by design-type. For example, a logo, a business card, poster and website are all part of a single campaign, but we also want the ability to list all logos from separate campaigns. Again we have an organizational dilemma, but this time for a different type of site and a fundamentally different type of dilemma.
Again, I turn to the first section 'Site Genres' to locate the type of site I'm working on. It's not exactly a business site, but more of an on-line portfolio. The closest seems to be pattern A9, 'Stimulating Arts and Entertainment.' When I turn to it, I discover I was correct: the authors discuss the 'art gallery' site, though it doesn't exactly cover the aspect that I'm looking for. So I've encountered the book's first notable omission: nothing along the lines of an 'online portfolio' or 'interactive resume' genre of site design, which would encompass all creative freelancer sites as well as the usual rock band websites, etc. They differ from the 'Valuable Company Website' in that personal expression and design creativity take center stage. These sites have a general similarity in aesthetic in that they purposely avoid the business-like design. You won't see many pull-down or left-side navigation menus on a standard band website. The menus are typically integrated into a central graphic of some sort and this puts heavy constraints on the web designer while trying to effectively organize information without sacrificing the expressive purposes of the site.
What this book lacks
The book offers no obvious guidelines for dealing with this sort of problem and here's why: it doesn't take into account the various constraints imposed by the client nor does it attempt to offer reconciliations between the design and the underlying organization of the data.
In my trial #2 we had the thumbnail images organized in two ways, either by design-type (poster, logo, business card) or by campaign ("Going Out of Business Sale", "Grand Opening", "Johnson's Automotive Website"), both organization-types having fairly equal weight. How do we allow the user to switch between organization types and keep the site consistent? The book doesn't touch these types of questions in a direct way.
What the book offers
- A comprehensive aggregate of guidelines for user-interface patterns.
- User-centered, 'psychological' perspectives.
- Covers most of the bases: content creation, page layout, organization of component elements, web application design, hints of 'Web 2.0' patterns, and ideas for functional pages such as searching, content submission, and quite a bit more.
- 'Marginal' topics like localization and accessibility that you may not want to buy a separate book for but, nonetheless, need to know about.
- A great overall design, easy to use as a reference and easy on the eyes.
- A long and detailed exposition on the utility of polling and seeking advice from your target audience, including sample forms to present them with.
- Overall, very well-written and hardly a sentence wasted.
Should you purchase this book?
While 99% of the patterns themselves are common knowledge to most users of the internet and to most decent web designers, it is the expository text that forms the real meat of the book and contains the wealth of insight. This is by far the book's value. Posing as a patterns book is misleading; this book is really just a very good general guide to web design. As a pattern book, it's flawed, because almost every 'pattern' is just a guideline for effectively presenting information, not an elusive insight or 'trick of the trade' in itself, such what as Erich Gamma's (et al) original 'Design Patterns' brought us. There are mountains of outstanding tips and bits of advice throughout the book, but if you've already achieved a decent level of competency in design, then you're not going to be using the book very often and when you do, you might not get the depth of advice you're seeking.
On the other hand, the book gives beginner-to-intermediate-level designers everything they need to get started or fill in the gaps. The Design of Sites would also make an outstanding text book and is likely to be one of the best general guides to web design on the market.
I'll give it a 6 out of 10, judging a book on its utility as a design patterns books (just as you would give The Illiad a possible 2 out of 10 if Homer presented it to me as a historical text and I expected as much). As an introduction to web design, it easily deserves at least 9 points out of 10.
Submission + - PS3 sales to be lower than the lowest expectation
Shadowfoxmi writes: http://www.vgchartz.com/news/news.php?id=316
Sony had already lowered their expected systems sold, and word was out that sales were going to be lower than expected. The NPD and VGChartz.com predicted somewhere around 100-120k systems sold over the course of month in the US. Now word is out that even those totals were too high: the actual total is around 88,000 systems sold
Submission + - No-Vacation Nation
reno writes: Reuters reports on a new study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research that found that the United States is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation or holiday time: 'Most U.S. firms do in fact give employees vacations, but the lack of government guarantees means one in four private sector workers does not get paid leave... [According to economist John Schmitt,] "It's a national embarrassment that 28 million Americans don't get any paid vacation or paid holidays."'
Submission + - XM subscribers backlash since shock jock suspensio
Sirius Uplink writes: "Ever since Opie and Anthony were suspended for 30 days by XM, people are canceling and smashing their XM radios to protest the recent suspension. The topic that had them suspended was about a homeless man "raping" the Secretary of State. Other sites such as People Against Censorship are going further by staging protests outside of their studios in support."
Submission + - 26 climate change myths debunked
An anonymous reader writes: There's a lot at stake with global warming, so for those not sure what to believe, New Scientist has debunked the most common climate myths. It has the key graphs, links to all the original research, but it also acknowledges that the scientists themselves sometimes exaggerate. My favourite: It's all down to cosmic rays.
Submission + - help the EFF bust bad patents
francois_voltaire writes: "You can help the EFF bust patents by helping them prove prior art. They are looking for:
1. NetNews CD-ROMs, sold by Sterling Software, preferably volumes #1 through #35. These CDs may have been also available through CD Publishing Corporation.
or
2. Other CD-ROMs that were distributed in 1993 or earlier that contained
hypertext content or were installation disks for applications that linked to Internet content.
See for more info "
Submission + - Appeals Court limits scope of Safe Harbor
Mariner writes: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Roommates.com Safe Harbor status under the Communications Decency Act in a lawsuit brought by the Fair Housing Councils of San Fernando Valley and San Diego. Roommates.com was accused of helping landlords discriminate against certain kinds of tenants due to a couple of questions on the Roommates.com registration form: gender and sexual orientation. 'Though it refused to rule on whether Roommates.com actually violated the Fair Housing Act, the Court did find that it lost Section 230 immunity because it required users to enter that information in order to proceed. As Judge Alex Kozinski put it in his opinion, "if it is responsible, in whole or in part, for creating or developing the information, it becomes a content provider and is not entitled to CDA immunity."'
Submission + - NASA unveils Hubble's successor
An anonymous reader writes: NASA has unveiled a model of a space telescope intended to replace the ageing Hubble telescope with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
A full-scale model is being displayed outside the NASA museum in Washington DC.
The $4.5bn (£2.27bn) telescope will be shaded from sunlight by a shield, enabling it to stay cold, increasing its sensitivity to infrared radiation, take up a position some 1.5 million km (930,000 miles) from Earth, and will measure 24m (80ft) long by 12m (40ft) high, and incorporate a hexagonal mirror 6.5m (21.3ft) in diameter, almost three times the size of Hubble's.
