Interactive

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Co-founder and web-usability expert Erika Hall from San Francisco’s Mule Design Studio gave a pretty interesting presentation/speech on how copy has almost become the interface in a lot of cases on the web. She aptly entitled the presentation - Copy As Interface. Her view, which I share, is that people don’t read long copy on the web, that’s why the best sites always tend to be the ones that are short on copy and sweet on design. A simple “click here” instead of a long explanation of what they’ll get by clicking, etc.. Watch it for yourself below. Lots and lots of different examples were used, it goes without saying she must have put a ridiculous amount of time into this one.

I agree.

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Random Links for Monday!

Here’s a quick round-up of some articles that I’ve found interesting over the weekend -

  • Why Media Executives Are Killing Morale/Asleep At Their Own Wheel - Sam Lawrence talks on his Go Big Always blog about current websites that are supposed to be the so-called “leaders” in the latest tech/web 2.0 news, yet are seemingly against consumer participation - The whole while still touting that they provide “engaging” and “interactive” portals. At least, that’s what they keep telling their advertisers. Engaging is the one trait that they all are in dire need of. Without being able to start a conversation with your consumer, you just become another static news site. Some of the examples used are CNET, ZDNet, and PCWorld - All three of which have solid content but asinine procedures/authentication processes, making any conversation that might have taken place almost a chore. He’s already gotten a few good responses that would be easy to implement yet would provide the user with a more inviting online news source (One being the introduction of OpenID, which would help make any forced site-registration a thing of the past)
  • How I Use Twitter To Promote My Blog - Chris Brogan stepping in as a guest blogger over at ProBlogger.net shares some advice on how twitter has helped make his own blog, www.chrisbrogan.com, a must-have on everyone’s RSS feed aggregator.
  • Free AdSense stickers from Google - Now I don’t know anyone who’d want these, but if you do, act fast… all that’s required is a SASE.
  • also on the same topic:

  • Free Stickers From Laughing Squid - Well, apparently they just ran out of the removable ones, but if you act now you can still get some free vinyl ones, once again, all that’s needed is a SASE.
  • How To Fine-Tune The Volume On Your Mac - The “Secret command” Revealed - Ok, nothing really secret about this, but it is pretty cool. Found at Creativebits.org - Apparently if you hold down Shift + Option while hitting the volume up or down keys (F4 and F5), you have greater control over the actual change in volume… Finally! I can now achieve that “perfect” setting I’ve only dreamed existed.
  • Powncified - The Top 10 “Pownced” Links In The Last 24 Hours - A neat hack by Tom Martin that uses the public Pownce listing API to show the most popular links for the day. This is very similar to http://powncememe.com/ although PownceMeme gives you something Powncified lacks - An RSS feed of its own letting you use its top 10 of the day in your own social-media mashup. PownceMeme was created by Bryan Pearson and it looks like he also uses one of the various API’s that are available to aggregate his posts.
  • And while still in a “mashup” mood there’s this:

  • www.DigAList.com - It’s a Digg.com like service that focuses only on “lists.” They’ve got a huge collection of both external and internal lists, all sorted based on tags (similar to dig) and arranged by popularity/votes. A cool feature is that they allow you to pull feeds from practically every part of their site, similar to what del.icio.us does. For instance I can pull an RSS feed of just the lists that have the tag “Humor” if I wanted to. The site can also be segmented by Channels as well. Great selection of Travel and lifehack lists too.
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    Here’s a little interactive map I found recently that’s pretty cool from the interactive section of Portfolio Magazine. It’s a fast-loading flash piece that features roll-over prison locations that house some of the recently incarcerated CEOs of notoriety. It’s almost like the white-collar dirty C.E.O. version of VH1’s Where Are They Now? series.

    For instance, here’s what you get when you roll-over the icon for the Federal Correctional Institute in Texarkana - low and behold, Michael Kopper, our old buddy who used to be a high-level exec at Enron in the Global Finance Division. Poor guy, his sentence is for 3 years and 1 month, and that’s after he was the FIRST to rat out his co-workers! Good luck with the soap Mike!

    In related content, if you yourself happen to be on the failing end of a large lawsuit and think you might be facing some time in ‘the slammer,’ I’ve dug up some articles (and selected a few items from each) that may be of help to you in preparing your Armani-suit-wearing-self for that eventual exchange to wearing nothing but the brightest of orange jumpsuits. So read-up, and don’t forget - they always say to beat-up/shiv someone random on the first day to prove you’re tough, otherwise you may just find yourself developing a newly found fear of taking a shower!

    The C.E.O. Survival Guide: Pre-Prison Prep:

    Don’t Get Sick
    • Prison medical staffs may not be up to the standard you have come to expect, so seek as much preventive care as possible before you head in. See your doctor for a thorough physical, including tests for TB, hepatitis B and C, and H.I.V. And get your heart checked.
    • Have as much dental work done as you can: Get new crowns and fillings; have your dentures reworked. In prison, the wait to see a dentist can be two to five months, and prison dentists tend to extract at every opportunity.
    • No contact lenses are allowed, so buy a heavy, tough pair of frames. Make sure you have plastic lenses, as fellow inmates may want to steal glass ones to craft weapons.

    From SnarkySpot - A Word Of Advice:

    Avoid anyone offering to “take you under their wing” or help you out. Generally, they are booty bandits, or Jailhouse pimps running a well thought out and practiced game against you.

    The Ultimate Prison Survival Guide - No really, this is a legit guide… everything has been half-serious until I came across this one. If you are dumb enough to be going to prison, i’d memorize this before your first day. It gives you useful tips like:

    Never stare at another prisoner for more than a second or two. He may be a walking powder keg, set off by an intrusive stare. He may either assault you on the spot or wait until darkness. Even if he doesn’t kill you outright, your face will never look the same again.

    and another gem:

    NEVER involve yourslef with punks. Do not have sex with punks, do not associate with those who have sex with punks, etc. Many an inmate has been killed by a jealous boyfriend. This may not seem like the shiny happy egalitarian thing to do, but believe me, neither is dying.

    Mike - I hope they have some sort of computer class in Texarkana and you can get online to read these guides…. i know it’s a little late by now, but who knows, that last tip might come in handy, especially after they ran all those articles on your sexual orientation…. perhaps that might explain why you were so eager to give up names? Best of luck to ya.

    To everyone else, go take a look at the interactive map, it’s pretty neat how they presented the information and I’m sure that you’ll recognize most of the people featured on there.

    This is a lesson to all the recent start-ups who are finding themselves with ridiculous amounts of newly found investment capital - You can only cook the books for so long before you end up with a fire……..that and hire an honest accountant.

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    Cult of Mac and Cult of Ipod

    Following Chris Anderson’s recent experiment with his latest book entitled “Free,” book publisher No Starch Press has released two of their most popular books by Wired news editor Leander Kahney - The Cult of Mac & The Cult of iPod - in full unaltered versions on the infamous p2p torrent site, www.ThePirateBay.org

    Here are brief reviews of both books:
    The Cult of Ipod - Leander Kahney:

    Wired news editor Leander Kahney follows up his bestselling The Cult of Mac with The Cult of iPod, a comprehensive look at how Apple’s hit iPod is changing music, culture, and listening behavior. The Cult of iPod includes the exclusive back story of the iPod’s development; looks at the many ways iPod’s users pay homage to their devices; and investigates the quirkier aspects of iPod culture, such as iPod-jacking (strangers plugging into each other’s iPods to discover new music), as well as the growing legions of MP3Js (regular folks who use their iPods to become DJs).

    The Cult of Mac - Leander Kahney:

    No product on the planet enjoys the devotion of a Macintosh computer. Famously dedicated to their machines, many Mac fans eat, sleep and breathe Macintosh. In The Cult of Mac, Wired News managing editor Leander Kahney takes an in-depth look at Mac users and their unique, creative, and often very funny culture. From people who get Mac tattoos and haircuts, to those who furnish their apartments out of empty Mac boxes, the book details Mac fandom in all of its forms. This paperback edition includes an all-new chapter about the iPod, updates throughout, and new photos that reflect current Apple technology.

    To Download Via BitTorrent or Direct Download:
    Read the rest of this entry »

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    AOL just announced it has agreed to purchase social-networking mega-site Bebo for a ridiculous $850 million in cash. A few months ago rumors started to spread across the internet that the Bebo, which boasts over 40 million users, was up for sale however te price tag then was a cool $1 billion dollars.

    This move is definitely aimed at trying to boost AOL’s declining advertising revenue by plastering it across the popular social network. AOL Chief Executive Randy Falco was quoted as saying, “Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL’s personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media.” The network plus its usage of Yahoo & AOL instant messaging services will undoubtably broaden the reach of their ad sales.

    Bebo announced earlier last year that it will adopt Google’s Open Social initiative, also hinting that the site would be compatible with all current Facebook applications. This places the site as a solid rival against Facebook and MySpace, which trumps the two in popularity outside of the US (as seen in the recently released map/chart below by le Monde).


    [click on image to enlarge]

    I guess the battle continues in the recent trend of large corporations buying out social-networks as a “quick-fix” to broaden their reach to the “community” markets…. I wonder who’s next?

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