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Hmm, Microsoft using Facebook connect and not their Passport system, interesting.

There's also the flash based version called flare: http://flare.prefuse.org/ which I've found to work well.

According to the article UPS predicts when you are high risk of leaving their service and will offer a sales call. I assume the salesman is allowed to offer perk/discounts to get a customer to try to stay. I'm wondering if these models can be figured out so you can intentionally trigger something like this to get deals from companies that do data mining.

I cant stand this rockstar/ninja nomenclature. It makes me cringe.

I don't know if I can agree with the stick shift argument. There are benefits over an automatic transmission, and you can choose the same model of car with either transmission types. I'd equate the differences to having a settings page with defaults and then advanced user options. I like a better design than not, but I think the traders use bloomberg terminal largely for the data that it displays. I don't think that is is going to change much between the current and potentially redesigned versions.

This is one I remember seeing, never used though.

http://programmermeetdesigner.com/

I'm going to try this out tonight. Already bought a copy via a macheist email I received.

Yeah, it is very interesting. There is definitely a formula to these pictures. Very tidy environment, inspecting a line of product, a dozen people watching in the background, and the same damn coat in every shot.

What I really wonder is Kim Jong-il "in" on the staged-ness of these shots? Or does he just operate with a different perception of the world because things are always presented to him in such a tidy manner?

I also thought the name was referring to the element. One thing I think should be changed is the section that compares "Traditional Email Marketing" vs. "The Lead Nuke Way". I don't think most people are going to realize that you click to view the information for "The LeadNuke Way". And with how the headings are setup it looks like you are saying your service has Low Conversions, Wasted Effort, and Risk of Spamming.

I think this is one of those things where the answer is "it depends". I understand people can seem busy to look productive. But people can also be idle under the guise of being effective, when they are just not working hard. Would you consider the Wally character from Dilbert effective?

This could be abused like dmca takedown notices against competitors.

I still trying to figure out what agreement is. Is this the same as someone investing in a company for equity? Where lifetime is the time the company is in business (but without bankruptcy)? Or is it just a really bad non-fixed rate loan? I would not agree to this contract on either side though.

I think doing a neighborhood wide ban would be excessive, but it makes sense for the streets mentioned. Hanover St. gets so crowded on some days that pedestrians will walk in the road in order to pass people. I don't even see how someone would be able to use a Segway when it is that congested.

I had no idea that Android was an acquisition.

Under Accenture there is an employee title "Consulting Consultant". What does that even mean?

I don't agree with this. Maybe the pager influenced their state of mind. I know whenever I get interrupted when I'm doing something enjoyable it makes me annoyed. And vice versa, whenever I'm doing something boring, I'm glad to be interrupted. Maybe that is what was happening in the pager experiment.

Wait, people brush their teeth more than bathe?

How much did you try with mechanical turk? My experience is that when describing a HIT (Human Intelligence Task) it takes a few tries to get the results you want. I suspect that if you asked for an entire quiz you'd get bad results. If I were setting up a HIT I would give the user three sample quiz topics and only have them create a single question for the quiz. I would then only use the top percentage of questions answered yet still accept people's responses even if they were not used but still within the HIT's requirements.

Also, I think you can still benefit from seeding some more on your own.

I wonder how this modifies their StackExchange offering. Does this mean that if you are doing anything beyond a internal knowledge base Stack Overflow is now a competitor?

OK here's one that I was thinking of. A hardware compatibility website that lists replacement products, specifically outdated ones that were replaced by newer versions. Some context, about a month ago I was trying to replace a broken garage door opener for a sear's garage door. Well, the Sears line is no longer available and now it is Craftsman. I asked an employee if the new craftsman opener it would be functional, but it was ultimately left up to a crapshoot on if it would work or not. Something like this would be useful for me.

1. Gladiator

2. Heat

3. Michael Clayton

Thank you. Although it is there I'd consider where they put that link as intentionally hiding it.

Thanks, I didn't know these existed. Found via google http://www.dotsgloves.com/

Someone needs to make some gloves where the fingertips are a material that works with touchscreens.

Facebook has lock-in. I don't think most Facebook users jump from app to app that quickly.

Is this chatroulette community version?

Interesting idea. How did you arrive at the numbers for pricing/payouts? When I look at the price I feel like there is some disconnect from the usual CPC vs CPM. The person displaying the link is getting a click, which is usually paid per action while the advertiser is getting an impression.

Learn to wireframe and sketch out your websites ahead of time. It is much easier to try ten different layouts on paper than starting them in css. Some people like to mockup in photoshop, but I prefer paper. It is just faster for me.

Some people already mentioned "Non-Designers Design Book" - Robin Williams

Some other good ones are:

"Design of Everyday Things" - Donald Norman (Conceptual, but gets you in the right mindset)

"Dont Make me Think" - Steve Krug (Usability matters)

"The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" - Edward Tufte (he has a set of 4 books on information visualization, all of which are good)

One of the key concepts that I've taken from these books is that everything in a page has a visual weight so you must consider how everything in a page balances out together. Never add stuff just for the sake of adding it, because it will distract the user from the information they are trying to gather.

And most of all just build more websites and try to improve each one. Design is still a lot like programming. If you dont like the particular look of your site you can refactor it. I know you don't get the benefit of seeing it, but some of the best designed sites out there have gone through multiple iterations.

I'd really be interested in seeing MS continue to develop out Microsoft Robotics, don't know if it makes the most business sense though.

I would change your ordering of the recents. Looks like when you update your entry you go back up to the front. Definitely could be abused. Overall I like it.