POST ARCHIVE
- Yeehaw…Coltrane is here
Just switched over to 2.7 and it’s pretty sweet but then again, WP always pretty much has been. Can’t wait to check out all the features and get back to posting along with a new quarter of classes. This last 4 months has been a real test of patience and wherwithall - 3 jobs, school, and all the BS in between. But I can honestly say that despite the economy, things are actually going pretty well and I am thankful to be where I am at. Though I plan to post at least a couple of times between now and then, I wish everyone a very Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year!
- Encoding for your audience
For all my net broadcasting students … a good and poignant article posted by Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer at Netflix - poignant because it illustrates how aware Netflix is of all aspects of its target audience. From the introduction of the new cross-platform delivery (Silverlight, new on Mac, uses PlayReady) system to the bitrate, dimensions and near-HD encoding, they’ve truly uncovered the needs of their audience.
Read the complete article here.
- Testing the green alien
Writing this from my spankin\’ new TMo G1. Still trying to get used to the keyboard after 2 years on the Dash (one of its few redeeming qualities). Will let you know.
- The only error is that they meant Vista
Courtesy of CollegeHumor.com
- 6 Steps for Building Successful Websites
[via Smashing Magazine - this article was very concise and follows the exact guidelines of every UCD class I teach so as both a refresher for those who have taken it as well as a prelude to those about to next quarter I've included the entire article here for your enjoyment and learning pleasure]
Web design isn’t art. It involves a whole collection of different skills — from copywriting and typography to layout and art — all fused together to create an interface that not only features a pleasant aesthetic but that communicates function and facilitates easy access to its content.
But in order to combine all these elements of Web design together and achieve successful results you must have a clear direction, a direction that will guide each and every aspect of your design towards common goals. You must think strategically.
What is strategic design?
Strategic design is the fusion of your organizational goals with every aspect of your design process. You aren’t simply designing a user interface that looks good and is usable and accessible. You’re designing an interface that will help you accomplish your organization’s objectives.
There are many websites out there that look fantastic and sport the latest trends in design yet often fail miserably in their intended function. Design trends are, of course, important because they give you fresh inspiration and new techniques, but the implementation of those techniques and styles needs to be intelligent and focused. For example, a blog isn’t a marketing brochure; you should focus on usability and readability rather than style. Similarly, a promotional website for a computer game should feature graphics and styles that portray a specific feel and style; the aesthetic is very important here.
When the designer simply implements a look and feel that is fashionable at the moment (think Web 2.0 trends) without any thought of how they fit the function of the website or the business behind it, the end result is unlikely to be very effective.
Web design is all about crafting an interface that communicates function, is usable and accessible and exudes the right emotion and feeling. Effective Web design needs all of these elements to be in tune with the goals of your website and in sync with the organizational objectives behind the website. Strategic design is all about identifying those goals and using them to guide your design.
Implementing Strategic Design
Let’s take a look at how we can use six steps to think strategically about a Web design project:
1. Establish your goals
One of the first things you need to do before starting work on a Web design project is to be clear about your client or organization’s goals. What are you trying to achieve with the new website or redesign? What is the website’s main purpose? Ask your client, your manager or yourself what those are. If they or you don’t know yet, then they should be discussed and agreed upon. A clear direction is essential if you want your design to have a purpose.
- Congratulations Barack!
This is an historic moment and I am both proud and astounded to be a part of it. I watched the results come in from the Democratic Party celebration and between the cheering and happiness, one was reminded of how significant this election was while watching Jesse Jackson in tears, speechless, amongst the crowds. I stood with Jen next to a woman who had marched next to Jesse during the rights movement, and then later with a group of volunteers for moveon.org. Even the humbility and sincerity of John McCain’s speech was excellent. The sheer momentum was palpable and it was moving to just be in it. I have been an avid supporter since the beginning - I truly believe that whether it is the man himself or simply the ideal that he brings to the minds of a newly reborn America, he will be the catalyst for a much needed change in this country. Congratulations to President-elect Obama.
- In the news today - October 30, 2008
It’s been a tiring day…but here’s the news.
In what may be a little slip, Motorola CEO Sinjay Jha mentioned Windows Mobile 6.5. Partly after the announcement that WM7 will now not be released until mid 2009, this may have a sliver of truth to it. Frankly I’ve been using this WM phone (originally 5 and upgraded to 6) and now, I just hate it. Again, I’m not overly partial to the iPhone. I love, more than anything else, the interface - slick and usable and the iconics and screen flow is, bar none, the best. But it’s still gimicky. WM6 has a lot of usable features but the flow stinks and its impossible to do a lot of things. I would love to see what’s going to be included (potentially and allegedly) with this release, but in the end, who cares. So I decided I’m just going to go buy a G1 instead - how can you beat a $148 price tag (Walmart - believe it or not). I was really determined to wait for the Touch Pro but I’m just bored from waiting now, and the draw of being able to program Android apps in Eclipse is figuratively making me drool.
Moblin. Know what it is, you know why it’s in a news category of its own. Don’t? Go look it up.
Blow out the candles. iPod turned 7 today. Wow. Throw party.
Sarah Palin is still an idiot. I actually feel bad for McCain having to grimace through every journalist asking if he regrets nominating her onto the ticket and daydreaming of just blowing up at one of them and saying “Of course I am, the woman is a train wreck!”
Jen, your blog is looking really good and I am very proud of you and your numbers.
Finally, Martin Cooper, an engineer from Motorola and one of the key inventors of the cellphone, says that today’s phones are too complicated…
[From switched.com]
The inventor of the cellphone says the iPhone’s ubiquitous, do-everything, jack-of-all-trades approach to applications, music and – oh yeah – phone calls, makes the Apple Computer superstar mobile device less impressive, not more.
Martin Cooper, who while working at Motorola made the first cell-phone call in 1973 with a device weighing two pounds and with only 20 minutes of battery life, says that cell phones today, especially the iPhone, are too complex. Speaking at a conference in Boston, Cooper said wireless companies and cell phone makers have the wrong ideas when it comes to making products people really need. Instead, he advocates cell phones with fewer features and functions, not more. He also says cell phone reception problems and dropped calls are a major problem for the industry and could be avoided with some better technology. (Cooper serves as chairman of a company called ArrayComm, which develops software to help antenna arrays more finely pinpoint cell phone location.)
Cooper’s main push is for simpler, specialized phones, such as the one his wife designed called Jitterbug, a cell phone with large buttons and extra large characters on the LCD screen for use by the elderly.
“A phone that’s an Internet appliance, an MP3 player, a camera and a whole bunch of other functions doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said. “You try to build a universal device that does all things for all people, and guess what? It doesn’t do anything very well.”
…okay, true maybe. Then why are we using computers instead of typewriters and graph paper? Technology changes people and people change technology. It, like evolution and natural ecologies, changes with needs, wants, conditions and the environment. It will get more complex and no matter how much we attempt to make it simpler, our fiendish need for gathering information (much like women hoard shoes) and gaining knowledge is one (or two) step(s) ahead of the ability to streamline the process of acquiring it. Build a better mousetrap and the world will come knocking at your door … at least until evolution produces a better mouse (on that note, did you know that a rat has 700psi of jaw force in its bite - that’s more than an alligator).
- First it was colored dreams, now it’s ???
[from Reuter's]
An appropriate followup to last week’s findings that television has actually altered people’s dreams (from black-and-white to color), now it’s that the Internet is actually causing our brains to develop differently.
DUH.
I mean, c’mon - that’s partly why I am even going back to school - to study that very subject. The research, led by a team at UCLA, “discovered” that searching and text messaging has improved the brain’s ability to filter information (uh, isn’t that pretty much what the computer does so isn’t that basically “learning by watching”), but warns that it has a price if one fails to maintain social skills.
Make up your own mind.
By Belinda Goldsmith
CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Internet is not just changing the way people live but altering the way our brains work with a neuroscientist arguing this is an evolutionary change which will put the tech-savvy at the top of the new social order.
Gary Small, a neuroscientist at UCLA in California who specializes in brain function, has found through studies that Internet searching and text messaging has made brains more adept at filtering information and making snap decisions.
But while technology can accelerate learning and boost creativity it can have drawbacks as it can create Internet addicts whose only friends are virtual and has sparked a dramatic rise in Attention Deficit Disorder diagnoses.
Small, however, argues that the people who will come out on top in the next generation will be those with a mixture of technological and social skills.
“We’re seeing an evolutionary change. The people in the next generation who are really going to have the edge are the ones who master the technological skills and also face-to-face skills,” Small told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“They will know when the best response to an email or Instant Message is to talk rather than sit and continue to email.”
In his newly released fourth book “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind,” Small looks at how technology has altered the way young minds develop, function and interpret information.
Small, the director of the Memory & Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior and the Center on Aging at UCLA, said the brain was very sensitive to the changes in the environment such as those brought by technology.
He said a study of 24 adults as they used the Web found that experienced Internet users showed double the activity in areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning as Internet beginners.
“The brain is very specialized in its circuitry and if you repeat mental tasks over and over it will strengthen certain neural circuits and ignore others,” said Small.
“We are changing the environment. The average young person now spends nine hours a day exposing their brain to technology. Evolution is an advancement from moment to moment and what we are seeing is technology affecting our evolution.”
Small said this multi-tasking could cause problems.
He said the tech-savvy generation, whom he calls “digital natives,” are always scanning for the next bit of new information which can create stress and even damage neural networks.
“There is also the big problem of neglecting human contact skills and losing the ability to read emotional expressions and body language,” he said.
“But you can take steps to address this. It means taking time to cut back on technology, like having a family dinner, to find a balance. It is important to understand how technology is affecting our lives and our brains and take control of it.”
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
- Be Amazing
- Rockstar for 2008
Whatever your politics are, and I’m making no secret about mine, this man is the rock star of 2008. I went to the rally at Bonanza this weekend and it was, despite the heat and the wait to get through security, incredible. I am always amazed at the ability for one man who despite reciting nearly the same speech at a series of events, can nonetheless instill the same passion and feeling into the crowd as all the others, and his ability to reach out and touch those people who listen.
And Palin is still a putz.
- Downsizing Extremes
So it’s apparent that Mobimeet is beginning to take a slight shift in it’s demeanor. Now that I’m no longer burdened with having to arrange and store classroom materials on the site, I’m a bit more free to flex the use and design. And evidenced by yesterday’s post, and a smattering of others before it, along with it go my interests.
So most of you who know me know that I am a strong supporter of reasonable sustainability and preservation. That means that I am not a staunch environmentalist; as much as the idea draws me, I am somewhat realistic in that moving to a total Ed Begley lifestyle is pretty much impractical despite its necessity. Things I believe in can find possible and practical solutions quickly and efficiently.
One interesting idea, however, came up as I was reading Downsizing to 100 square feet on CNN Living today. It describes a couple that recently moved from an 1,800 square foot house into a 100 square foot movable space (150 if you count the loft) … more or less a trailer that looks like a house. I have some thoughts on this that I wanted to share. First, if I took stock of my own life, interestingly Jennifer and I spend so much of our home time in her 10′x10′ studio that it seems like we might as well (and have occasionally joked) that we should just live in it. Second, however, we lived in a small 450SF loft in Manhattan (with our boxers) and it felt cramped at times. Do I think it’s possible to live in such a small space for any duration of time? Yes, but it would be uncomfortable.
However, we might soon find ourselves having to go to such extremes. Between the economic crisis, the environmental crisis, the energy crisis, urban overcrowding, and every other crisis of the day (and who knows what in the future) it might be time to consider moving down. Jennifer and I have already discovered that our current space, 450SF larger than the last one, is way more than we need. Too bad the housing and mortgage downturns have forced us to stay rather than seek out more efficient living.
So what do you think, could you go to the extremes that you might be faced with having to do? Do you think that if large numbers of people moved in this direction it could help solve some of the days dilemmas? I’d be interested in your thoughts.
- Does Watching Color Television Color Our Dreams?
This article probably has absolutely no bearing on anything to do with any other topic that I would normally present here but I found it so interesting that I felt I should post it.
Do androids dream of electric sheep? Possibly, but here’s something a bit more relevant: New research suggests that if you grew up watching a black and white television set, you probably dream in black and white.
The normal state of my students during class…do they dream in color or black & white?The evidence comes from Dundee, Scotland, where it is now being estimated that while almost all those under 25 years old dream in color, thousands of those over-55 dream in monochrome, still to this day. “It suggests there could be a critical period in our childhood when watching films has a big impact on the way dreams are formed,” says Eva Murzyn, a psychology student at the University of Dundee who carried out the study. “What is even more interesting is that before the advent of black and white television, all the evidence suggests we were dreaming in color.”
Research studies from 1915 through the 1950s suggested that the vast majority of dreams were in black and white; Things changed in the sixties, and later results suggested that up to 83-percent of dreams contain some color.
Murzyn surveyed more 60 people (half of which were over 55 and half were under 25), and combined what she found with the older data to form her conclusions.
“The crucial time is between three and 10 when we all begin to have the ability to dream,” she said. “Television and films which by their very nature are interesting and emotionally engaging and even dreamlike. So when you dream you may copy what you have seen on the screen. I have even had a computer game player who dreams as if he is in front of a computer screen.” All of which explains a hell of a lot.
So next time the G/F tells you to turn the tube off, tell her you’re just making sure you don’t dream in monochrome.
[article from switched.com through The Telegraph]
- Vint Back the Man
If I say any of the following terms and you know what significance at least 3 of the 4 have in relationship to each other then no need to watch the video unless you, like me, think Vint is the (other) man. If you have no idea what relationship they have, watch it…it will have a bearing on our (Web-ubiquitous) lives!
- Vint Cerf
- Net Neutrality
- Barack Obama
- T-Mobile G1 (Android)
So after much much much deliberation, I decided to save my coin and forego getting the Android phone after all. Though it’s reviews weren’t terrible, I think I’ll just hold out until a better one comes along, or at least until T-Mobile decides to finally get the 3G infrastructure more distributed. I admit some envy when Jennifer gets to whip out her iPhone and surf while I sit at Starbucks twiddling my thumbs (a whole other story since I don’t like their coffee anyway, which only adds to the pain) and playing Bubble Breaker for the 4000th time. Nonetheless, I guess that in this economy, I’d better save that cash cuz who knows if my job will be there tomorrow.
In any case, it comes at a weird time since I’m (finally) taking a crack at more Java coding due to school - Dr. Jo got me really into it and I love the Eclipse IDE (which is weird because no one else in my class likes it, but especially since that Frenchy company came out with the Silverlight toolkit for Eclipse, I am rockin’). Part of me wants to get the G1 just for pure technogeeky reasons but this silly WM Dash (which now seems pretty ancient) that I tote is just plain boring.
So maybe I’ll get it and just put up with the spottiness for now. And maybe I’ll win the lottery too. Any comments? Would you get the phone knowing full well that a better one will probably be released in 18 months? Were you an iPhone 1 buyer who said “doh!” when they first announced iPhone 2? Should I buy it and just hope they do a firmware upgrade? Or should I save the pennies and get that sweet Dell E4200 after all?
[photos courtesy of EngadgetMobile - read the review]
- WordPress Auto-Update and Other Stuff
So if your free time is like mine (totally non-existent), updating anything can become a real chore, especially if you’ve got multiple sites or blogs. This site, which does run on WordPress, has had several this year alone beginning with 2.3.3 in February and the most recent on my birthday (2.6.2, which because of the day it landed on, I completely neglected to do).
Fortunately, the WordPress team is purportedly releasing WordPress Updater, which will allow you to set an auto-update to your blog(s) - a feature that I seriously look forward to seeing. Will write it up once I get my greasy hands on it.
In other news, classes started this week and where the hell were my (IMD) students? I realize break was very short but c’mon! Don’t forget that this is only a 9-week (for Friday’s Program Logic class) or 10-week (Saturday’s Net Broadcasting) quarter so you’ve got fewer days to get it all in. Will try and get all the kinks with eCompanion worked out this week and get an update in here as well.
Now, back to work…
- Fall Quarter
Starting this quarter we are going to be using eCompanion for both classes (IMD123 Program Logic and IMD302 Net Broadcasting) so please be sure you are familiar with it. For those of you who are not registered for the class but intend on sitting in, I will also provide any slideshows, notes and other materials on Mobimeet as in the past.
The purpose of this change is to make it so you can all get your grades back on a more timely basis. However, it also means that I will be getting more strict about assignments and quizzes. I hope that between eCompanion and Mobimeet you’ll be able to get a complete resource for both classes.
One final note before the quarter begins - using any of the older editions of the textbooks is perfectly fine for both classes (well, really the Program Logic class in particular) so shop out on half.com or Amazon. If you can’t get it right away, I will post questions taken from the textbook on eCompanion but you do need to get the textbooks.
- Putz
I’ve deliberately stayed completely non-partisan on Mobimeet since this is supposed to be about technology and education but I guess today my blood finally boiled over, so I am saying it…McCain is a putz. Period.
This latest round of posturing - first taking credit for trying to reach across party lines to make a statement about the bailout plan after it was documented that Obama made the first move, then by positioning himself to be on standby while the congressional leaders who are involved take care of business (let’s be real, McCain has no position within the economic groups, though neither does Barack), then by trying to be the “leader” by pushing off the debate in the interest of the party (life doesn’t stop because of an economic crisis - we still had debates while Sherman marched on Atlanta and during D-Day) and coincidentally to push it off to the same day that the VP debate is scheduled for - is preposterous.
To be sure, I am not registered with either party, I was a Young Republican during my college years and some after (the Reagan era), and I did go to the same (prep) school as Barack (and yes, Punahou is a proud and tightly knit community). I am not a bleeding heart liberal but I am definitely more left of center than not. I believe we should be able to own guns, that women have the right to choose and are guided by God, that taxes are a necessary evil, that all citizens should have healthcare, that immigrants should have services (where would the country be without them, and I mean back all the way to the 17th century), that energy policy will change the face of economics, that 60 years of oil reserves is a drop in the bucket in the scope of life, that cooperatives help bring communities together, that everyone should have equal access to education and that working for it through patriotic service is a phenomenal plan, that military service is extremely honorable and that I wish to this day that I had served (but I don’t believe we ever had a reason or right to be in Iraq), that I find it ironic how similar the amount of money spent on the war is so close to the bailout figure (though in reality if we hadn’t spent in on the war our fruitless Congress would’ve spent it on something else totally useless), that the national sales tax is a great plan, that the idea of Sarah Palin in a national office scares the shit out of me (and not because she’s a woman, because she’s f—ing scary), and that we all have a voice in our government despite that sometimes its a whisper.
So for the five of you who actually read this entry…change (and let’s remember who brought it up first in this election) is the only thing that will move us forward. But change begins with ourselves…what can we as Americans do to change the face of our quickly dying country? The first thing to be sure is to exercise your right and your responsibility to vote. Whether or not you like either primary candidate and irregardless of my own convictions, there are four politicos on the ballot this year and not choosing one is a cowardly way out.
For me, you can bet, I won’t be voting for the puttering putz. And I don’t truly expect Obama to make good on every promise he’s made this campaign; if he makes good on 25% of them, that’s better than average.
- Automattic buys Intense Debate, threaded comments coming
[from DownloadSquad]
Automattic, the company behind the popular WordPress blog publishing software has acquired blog commenting service Intense Debate. [We've]
covered Intense Debate in the past. The service provides web publishers a replacement for the default comments systems supplied by WordPress, Blogger, and Moveable Type and other blog platforms. By installing the plugin, you get threaded comments, reputations, and other advanced features. And readers can track their own comments and those left by others across any blogs or web sites that use Intense Debate. Intense Debate will continue to be available for use on blog platforms besides WordPress, but Automattic plans to add some features, like threaded comments to WordPress 2.7, which will be the company’s next major release.This can’t come as good news for Disqus, another company that provides enhanced commenting features for bloggers. While Disqus has gotten a lot of good press over the last year, and has rolled out an impressive suite of blog comment management features, an awful lot of blogs are powered by WordPress. And pretty soon most of those blogs will have quick and easy access to Intense Debate’s features, giving bloggers and blog commentors one less reason to sign up for another blog commenting service.
[more...truncated cuz it wasn't that noteworthy]
- NewHoo!
Anyone actually get to play (meaning you were one of the "lucky" few who got the page delivered to them) with the new Yahoo home page? I haven’t personally gotten to but according to blogger Tapan Bhat (a Yahoo staffer) it is coming and like its last reincarnation (just a few years ago), it’s got oodles of focus groups, usability experiments and data behind it. I’ve always found it interesting the conundrum of the Yahoo page.
For the most part, portals have kind of gone the way of the wind. The only big competitors in the space (even MSN seems to be being overtaken by Live) are barely hanging on with the proliferation of all sorts of social networks from wikis to microblogs to blogs and mapping systems and mashups and blah blah blah. But lets face it - the fact is that portals do something that few other sites can do, and as a testament to Yahoo’s continued efforts to delivering it - it continues to thrive.
And one nice thing for Yahoo is that its customers are loyal. I am not one to use portal sites. I like most quasi-techs use Google to search, Live services for some communications, and a host of RSS aggregations for news, microblogs for fun, wikis for info and so on. But I still use Yahoo for all my domain registration because their control panel is just about the easiest to use, and frankly because I have a weird sense of trust in Yahoo, probably not the least of reasons being that it’s survived for so damn long and strived to improve its services offerings over and over.
You’ve got to admit - look at the task at hand - what an enormous pain in the ass. Back in 1998 I did some freelance consulting for Yupi, a Spanish-language portal eventually acquired by MSN. Even in its infancy, the architecture was enormous and trying to wrap ones head around the breadth of information was unbelievably tough. Of course back then we hadn’t begun to scratch the surface into the power of tagging (meta tags were still king), but even then, I doubt it would have made the job easier.
I have to admit that I’ve always felt that Yahoo does a pretty darn good job of piecing together their homepage. I can’t quite always say the same for some of the divisions, but definitely the homepage does great for driving the ship. Check it out,
- Adobe releases Creative Suite 4
Be sure to check out the live webcast (http://adobe.istreamplanet.com for more info and email reminder) or jump straight to the CS4 family page at http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/.
- The Joy of Sketch: explorations in hand-crafted visuals
<bloggerNote>I first have to tell you, I am a terrible artist. It is one thing to have a reasonable eye for design, composition, balance and so on, but it’s an entirely different thing to put it on paper (by hand). Hell, I don’t even have great handwriting (a detriment of being in the technology business). So to a certain degree I can’t associate with this article; but on the other hand, even I with my limited abilities and stick-figure UML drawings follow this concept. And as everyone knows I am all about the planning, I wholeheartedly agree with the premises. Read it, digest it, follow the links and try it out. Seriously.</bloggerNote>
[excerpted...article by Kate Rutter via Adaptive Path]
There’s always been a strong visual element to our work: architecture diagrams, interface wireframes, concept models, system and service models. We’ve become adept at the computer applications that help us create these things, but there are other tools out there, such as the simple tools of pen, paper and sketching.
About two years ago, Adaptive Path experienced an upwelling of analog approaches. We started using design tools that jumped out of the screen and into the real world. We started using our hands to make things.Alongside our computers there appeared slabs of blank paper. Rather than reaching for a mouse, we started reaching for a Sharpie. Large rolls of paper and drafting dots became part of the lingua franca of client working sessions. Sketching was the new black.
And we saw the impact of these approaches in many ways: more visibility for design solutions. More engagement in collaborative working sessions with clients. More design artifacts co-created in real-time. Our design solutions got faster and stronger.
There’s a lot of research to support the idea that visual thinking activates different parts of our brains than language thinking. Pictures allow a holistic view of something. "Seeing is believing" holds especially true when working with a diverse group of people.
Graphic elements create stronger memory and recognition points; it’s easier to remember an image than a page of text. Illustrations communicate ideas faster than descriptions, because processing pictures requires less "translation" than written language. This means more meaning in less time. In addition, there is a tactile pleasure to hand sketching that is rich and engaging.
Analog tools of pen and paper have had a major impact on our work. Looking back over the past two years, there are overall themes in the hands-to-paper trend. Below are four techniques that have supported more rigorous capture and exploration of ideas, fostered clearer communication of concepts, and as a result have enabled better and faster design. Each one is illustrated with a visual so that you can see how the different methods shift the nature of the info.
1) Hand Sketching
In order to become adept at capturing ideas and concepts visually, we need to know the basics of hand sketching. For the work we do, hand sketching falls into two main categories: drawing people, places & things; and drawing abstract concepts and ideas.Drawing People, Places, Things
Getting comfortable with hand-sketching things, people and objects is key to communicating complex ideas for service design, product design and environments/spaces. We need to be able to communicate scenarios and interfaces clearly and visually, but at low fidelity. Tools in the toolkit are the basics of composition, shape, line quality, color, perspective and creating abstract human forms. Put together, these elements comprise a visual language for telling compelling stories visually and quickly.What it’s good for:
- Illustrating product concepts and product interfaces.
- Creating scenarios and storyboards.
- Drawing physical spaces.
What it looks like:
View the larger image on Flickr.
(more…)
- Keep on movin’
I’m really falling behind and beginning to get the feeling that I must have bitten off more than I can chew between school (both Art Institute and UNLV), iStream and MadeByGirl but I have some lofty high hopes that maybe I’ll get a better idea of how to manage my time more effectively. For now it’s just been a matter of trying to be efficient and engage myself into everything as best as I can (hmm, the words sound vaguely familiar). The funny thing is that the more I take on the better it seems to get; I think what I’m now seeing is that I’m getting that rare chance to fulfill many facets of my life, being able to put a lot of thought into many things of interest.
My point is - for my students - that the more you practice the easier it gets. The more I harp on everyone to spend a short amount of time every single day on doing things, the less I seem to see it; but I myself am my own proof of principle. My strange sense of organization compels me not to spend huge blocks of time on any task but instead to spend short bursts on every task every day. So my new token of the day is "keep on moving" - that is, keep moving forward and take care of the details but don’t lose sight of the goal.
For me, my next big goal has a 30 month timeline - around the time I expect to finish my degree I should also have just completed five years of teaching (a nice even milestone) and will begin looking for the next set of goals (and yes, I am hoping a Ph.D. is in the mix there sometime before I croak).
Take stock of where your life is and what you want to accomplish. Even if you have big goals, you can do it - just take smaller steps and do it every day. Keep on movin’ - you can only get closer to your goal.
- Google Suggest moves to production
Quick note of interest today - Google Suggest is moving, incrementally, to Google’s homepage. IMHO great idea, not always wanted. For those who don’t know what it is, Google Suggest is a drop down that provides suggested matches to your search criteria before you click the button (or hit Enter).
According to google, the idea is to:
- Enter more effective and specific search criteria quickly
- Reduce the chance of spelling errors
- Save keystrokes
I’ve taught how to build these in past Ajax (IMD322) classes. It’s always a good way to introduce the idea of combining PHP database lookups with Ajax and incremental data pulls, but frequently at a cost to UCD. And though some of the products iStream has put out have similar mechanisms, it can often be a bit of an annoyance, especially when the drop down ends up covering the button. True, it can be helpful and true, there are some instances when it can be a godsend (such as when trying to piece together tags in delicious posts).
- Common WordPress Problems
If you happen to use WordPress for your blog (or even as a CMS), you should be aware of some pitfalls that can hurt your SEO rankings. Many of the theme that you download from various sources might look great but the minute you veer from the classic or default themes, you open the probability for issues. Fortunately there’s some pretty easy solutions depending on your need to improve the visibility.
1. Proper use of <h#> tags
Many themes I’ve looked at do not use <h1>, <h2> and so forth properly. Remember that the search engines (and POSH) dictate that the header tags place emphasis on specific information (which should include things like the title, the date of publication or the author). Comb through the single post and main index templates to make sure there is consistent use of both <h1> and <h2> tags (at the very least, and preferably <h3> as well) and adjust the CSS to get the look and feel you want instead of relying on class-based <div> markup.2. Too many links on the index page
Two problems here - first, the increase in links (past 40) decreases or dilutes the value of importance placed on the page. At the very least, push the most important posts on the front page and consider whether or not you need the others. Second, why are you sending people elsewhere in the first place? Sure your friends might run a great blog but do you really need 100 listings in your blogroll? Consider that external links in your posts should not go past 2 each and that you should keep the total number of links as close to 40 as possible.3. Bad keyword choices
Especially on the main index page, it is critical that you consider your choice of keywords and mold your page to the proper density. Use a free tool like Google’s Keyword Tool to find ones if you’re unfamiliar with structuring keywords.4. Alt and title text
Always, always, always include alt attribute text on images and preferably include a title attribute on links and lists so that search engines know what tags to associate with the image.5. Unique keywords
Every page in the site should have a) unique titles and b) different keywords. You may even opt to remove the name of your blog from the page title because in the end it’s just a vanity thing isn’t it? There are several plugins that can help you do this by converting the text and tags on the posts into the keywords and description <meta> elements.6. Fix your markup
Bad markup is, well, just bad. This goes for both the HTML as well as the RSS feeds. By default (the newer versions of) WordPress provides at least 4 places to get the feeds from: www.domain.com/feed/, www.domain.com/comments/feed/, www.domain.com/wp-rss.php, and www.domain.com/wp-rss2.php and you should provide appropriate links to them as needed.Now many of you (all 5 reading this post) are probably asking why I don’t even follow these rules necessarily and the fact of the matter is that for this blog, I don’t personally care. I publish this for information purposes and largely for my students, not really for the public at large. Should I teach by example, sure I should; but there are many other ways to get this information across, so I do as I wish.
- All Kinds of, um, stuff.
It’s been well over a week since I’ve written anything so first off, let me apologize to the eight people who bother to read my ramblings. That said, it’s been a full first half of August. Between new tasks at my job, some thoughts on social impact on technology, a lot of reading, some new toys on the horizon, and school looming, I’ve got a lot to get off my chest.
First, I’ve been neck deep into two threads of development. On the one side, my department is (finally) being split (appropriately) into two working groups - R&D and Implementation. The R&D team will (hopefully) continue it’s digging into the depths of Silverlight, coming up with better and better ways to reap the benefits of the environment and delivery mechanisms. The Implementation team will be finishing up installation of the Digital Asset Management system amongst other tasks. On the other side, because of our core focus on Silverlight, I’ve had to undertake a crash course in Flash CS3 using AS3 for a number of projects and have to say, I like it. Above everything else, not attaching scripts directly to objects and the flow of the class structure is much better (I know, I know, it was pretty much all there in AS2 but this just all seems more congruent).
NBC’s 2008 Olympics web site and notably the video delivery was, in my opinion, very well done considering the enormous task at hand. For Schematic (the web and application designers) I actually have very few complaints - the UI was well thought out and to all the naysayers out there, try architecting a site of that magnitude - it’s so easy to put something down until you’ve been on the other side of the coin. IMHO - the Silverlight experience was about as good as it gets at the moment and for those who keep complaining that Flash is better than Silverlight, maybe it is, but given a 10 year head start, I personally think Flash should be farther ahead than it is. My only complaint is that the site was doggedly slow. However, special kudos to Limelight for the rather phenomenal feat in delivering the quantity of content without dying out (for an extremely good introspective, check out this Jason Perlow article "Limelight Networks: Why the Olympics didn’t ‘Melt’ the Internet").
So in the meantime, I’ve completely lost my bearings on any of the social networking mire and it tells me one thing … did I really need it to survive anyway? I know there is a lot of substance behind the theories in social networking but for the most part, everything I am seeing now is just fluff and marketing - everyone jumping on the bandwagon and trying to leverage UGC to advertise and little else. However, underneath it all, we are beginning to see the seedlings of the so called Web 3.0 - tagging is starting to become a driving force more than it has in the past, and starting to reach a point where critical mass might actually be possible.
Along those lines, I recommend reading David Weinberger’s "Everything is Miscellaneous" which deals with the topic of how tagging can remove the need for organization and yet still make things more efficient. Visionary, though still a way off, I truly think we will see the emergence of smart agents that will handle tasks for us.
Also been finishing Zittrain’s "Future of the Internet" which somehow got terribly boring towards the end, Sipser’s "Theory of Computation" (for school) and "Art of Agile Development" (O’Reilly). Maybe I need to lay off the books a bit.
School (as in me finally going back to school to finish my graduate work) starts next week and I am extremely excited and anxious. I believe there are only 8 in the program and after my experiences at Cornell (you know, the Psych class with 2,000 students, etc) it should be refreshing and interesting. Not sure how I’m going to juggle iStream, teaching, MadeByGirl and school but I’ll take it one day at a time. Speaking of MadeByGirl - we just made a big big sale to Selfridge’s in London, so if you happen to be shopping there anytime, we’d love to see a photo of them in the store.
Hopefully, finances willing, I am going to plunk some coin and pick up the item on my most wanted (and needed) list - the Dell E4200. Purportedly being released within the next couple of weeks, it’s a 2.2 pound, 12" subnote with a solid state drive, magnesium case, and a 19 hour battery life. Don’t get me wrong, I love my trusted Latitude D600 (and even Jennifer’s MacBook Pro) but I think I need some new juice under my fingertips (and not to the extent of my workstation at iStreamPlanet). On the extended wish list is the HTC Touch Pro though at the moment the details and pricing still seem a bit sketchy despite the unconfirmed Sept 2 release date.
- 7 Principles Of Clean And Optimized CSS Code
[excerpted from SmashingMagazine by Tony White]
Note for my students: especially #s 1, 2 and 6 I’ve spoken about in class frequently - if you have questions about any of this over the coming week - ASK!
But there are some principles to consider during and after you write your CSS to help keep it tight and optimized. Optimization isn’t just minimizing file size — it’s also about being organized, clutter-free, and efficient. You’ll find that the more knowledge you have about optimal CSS practices, smaller file size will inevitably come as an direct result of their implementation. You may already be familiar with some of the principles mentioned below, but they are worth a review. Being familiar with this concepts will help you write optimized CSS code and make you a better all-around web designer.
1. Use Shorthand
Using shorthand properties is the single easiest practice you can do to cut down your code (and coding time). There’s no better time than the present to start this efficient coding practice, or to review it.Margin,border,padding,background,font,list-style, and evenoutlineare all properties that allow shorthand (and that’s not even an extensive list!).2. Axe the Hacks
But now we know that using conditional comments to servehackscorrectional declarations for IE6 and IE7 is an accepted practice, even recommended by the Microsoft IE development team. Using conditional comments to serve IE-specific CSS rules has the added benefit of serving a cleaner, and therefore smaller, default CSS file to more standards-compliant browsers, while only those browsers that need the hackery daiquri (i.e. IE) will download the additional page weight.3. Use Whitespace Wisely
Whitespace, including spaces, tabs, and extra line breaks, is important for readability for CSS code. However, whitespace does add, however miniscule it may be, to page weight. Every space, line-break, and tab you can eliminate is like having one less character.4. Prune Frameworks and Resets
If you’ve chosen to use a CSS framework (including ones you’ve written yourself), take the time to review the documentation as well as every line of the CSS file. You may find that the framework includes some rules that you don’t care to use for your current project, and they can be weeded out. This goes for resets as well.5. Future-proof your CSS
However, I’m warming up to the idea of separating layout styles from the rest of the styles, and giving layout it’s own file, or at least it’s own section.6. Document Your Work
Documentation, including markup guides and style sheet guides, is not just for group efforts — they are just as important for a one-man design team. After all, a year after working on other things, revisiting one of your own projects can feel quite foreign. Your future self might appreciate reminder of how your CSS grid framework is supposed to work, or what pages already have a treatment for a secondary action form button, and it will save you or someone else from appending redundant and unnecessary rules to your CSS.7. Make Use of Compression
Some great applications have been created to compress and optimize CSS for you, allowing you to serve a human-unreadable but still browser-friendly files that are a fraction of the origional working copies.[Read the article in its entirety at Smashing Magazine]
- Why Twitter Hasn’t Failed: The Power Of Audience
[This is a reprint of an excellent article by Gregor Hochmuth for TechCrunch]
Twitter isn’t for everyone, and you may have dismissed the service a long time ago. But regardless of your own use, it’s hard to dismiss the phenomenon itself and the passion of so many that has built up around it.No matter how long the outage du jour, Twitter users continue to stay attached to the service despite an ever-changing backdrop of alternatives.
Blogging isn’t for everyone either. But unlike blogging, Twitter enjoys a far a greater variety of users — they include people, many people, who would never think of starting a blog and people who would never touch an RSS reader. The 140 character limit is a plus for Twitter, but it isn’t all.
What explains the Twitter phenomenon then? What produces the positive feeling and the strong attachment among those who tweet? And moreover: How can other systems learn from this?
The answer lies in understanding Audience.
Twitter has a simple premise: You tweet & the message is pushed to your friends. The actual mechanics are slightly different (messages go to everyone who follows you, whether they’re your “friends” or not, assuming your stream is public) — but from a user’s perspective, the circle of receivers consists only of the people they know. Everyone else is part of a faceless crowd that’s hidden behind the follower count. (more…)
- 7 Essential Guidelines For Functional Design
This article from Dustin Wax appeared on Smashing Magazine yesterday and is nothing short of excellent. Succinct, elemental and basic - as the author states…
These are the elements of functional design, the process of responding to the needs or desires of the people who will use an item in a way that allows their needs or desires to be met. Functional design is both an outcome and a process. As an outcome, it describes products that work well to perform their assigned tasks; as a process, functional design is a set of practices guided by the principles that produce that positive outcome.
I’m not going to bother repeating the article here - please take the time to jump over to SM and read it. However, here’s a quick synopsis:
1. Consider the product’s goal
Determine that one primary goal of the site and make sure that everything you do revolves around that fundamental concept. Every addition you make, every tool you provide, every piece of text you write should be dedicated to that goal.2. Consider who will be using it
As JJG proposes, identifying the target audience can be a critical factor simply because most designers either fail to take it into consideration or misjudge it. Audiences vary and so do their wants, needs, and abilities. Cater to that need: a product has to work equally for all its potential users if it’s to accomplish its goal.3. Consider what your audience intends to do with it
What your audience does may not be what you do. YOU are not the audience, your users are. Every user comes with intention, learn what those intentions might be.4. Is it clear how to use it?
We designer/developers have a tendency to go beserk with our functionality. Don’t. "Clarity is the key to functional design".5. How does your user know it’s working?
Provide feedback…it’s the only way your user knows that he or she is using it right. Provide visual cues, highlight the necessary parts.6. Is it engaging to your users?
One of JJGs two tenets and the one that I believe is fundamental to all things Web - is it engaging. I harp on it nearly every quarter but I don’t think many people really see it. Example: four times this week alone I’ve seen references to Blackberry’s as engaging - owners cannot seem to put them down or stop fiddling with them. Whether its the feel, the interface, the haptics or the information it provides, there is definitively something engaging about them.7. How does it handle mistakes?
JJG makes a big point of discussing error handling. We as dev-igners pretty much think we never make mistakes. Just because you can run through your web site and never encounter an error doesn’t mean your user won’t. Users make mistakes. Or more succinctly, your user will not do the same things you do. How does the site correct, adjust or respond to errors?
- Making RIA interfaces truly rich
What truly makes an RIA “rich”? Is it the ability to provide interactivity, or is it the ability to find a new way to present information? Is it a better mashup of existing APIs or is it a compelling design? I can’t say I know the answer, but I can say the journey to find it is an interesting one.
I find myself in a place I often do, at the interactive design phase of a project - that giddy phase after all the due diligence has been done and we’re looking for that next great app. The coders are itching to get started, the client is anxious for the alpha builds. And here I sit trying to convey all the information and ideas I’ve aggregated into a unified yet flexible interface. And just like last time, it once again is for a client bigger than I find comfortable, and feeling as though there is no real answer.
So some basics…it’s an internet application - a “rich” internet application - designed to deliver a massive video library of both live and on-demand content. It should also be viral and embeddable. It has to be lightweight, but it also has to deliver as much engaging interaction while maintaining its efficiency in delivering video (and of course advertising).
So what is it that would make this application truly rich?
I had an interesting discussion with my significant other last week after explaining the dilemma of the project. She and I have very divergent opinions about internet applications. Ever the tech-nerd and business strategist, I always look for the efficiency, for what will monetize, for what will create the best business scenario. For her, a designer, it’s the utility, the engaging atmosphere that takes precedence over eveyrthing else. I’m Windows, she’s Mac (literally…in our household it’s Dell versus Apple). I’m Windows Mobile, she’s iPhone. I’m text, she’s typography, i’m bits, she’s color.
In any case, she explained to me that the reason that she preferred the iPhone over her last “piece of junk” (a Windows Mobile phone) had little to do with that the applications themselves did anything different, it was that the interaction with the phone simply made it more engaging and thus made it more apt to (continue to) use it. And that was they key, she said, “make it engaging and they will stay.”
Now, my partner already knows a thing or two about traffic and the importance of keeping eyeballs on the content. She runs her own online store that within 3 months became profitable and runs a blog that pulls in exponentially more traffic than this soapbox. More than that she understands how to keep her customers interested, happy and loyal. She demonstrates for me the simplicity of the iPhone app design - not of the unit as a whole, but of the generally consistent visual nomikers and motions shared by all the apps. She points out the vast difference in providing search boxes that actually instruct, detailed breadcrumb trails that actually do something, and the fact that the system as a whole delivered information efficiently but in a fun way.
Any of the 100+ students that have mucked their way through my UCD classes will attest that I harp on two major things in UX design - being efficient and engaging (not principles I came up with myself - thank Jesse James Garrett for that definition). So what happened that I so easily forgot these principles in trying to lay out this design.
Her comments and demonstration got me thinking. And thinking. Which led to some quick drafts, a few poorly drawn sketches, some minor storyboards. And now I here I am trying to synergize that last little piece of science that will turn my Frankenstein from idea to life. Through the morass of mapping mashups, social network hooks, video controls, playlists, advertising, viral components and colors, somewhere lies the answer. Will this one be it? Will this design be the rage or will it flop? Hard to tell at this point but I think the ideas are good ones. Coaxing them into coalescing into something bigger than the individual parts is the goal. Let’s see if this truly ends up rich.
- Multi “touch”
This is extremely cool looking but I still have to ask … wouldn’t your arms get tired after a while?
- What it takes to bring the Olympics to the PC
[via BeyondBinary by Ina Fried]
Stage 8H is best known as the place where Saturday Night Live is filmed. This week, though, it’s been turned into an ad-hoc data center as part of NBC’s efforts to stream thousands of hours of live Olympic coverage over the Internet.
Instead of the usual crop of comedians, NBC will have dozens of people watching every hour of the games, looking for highlights that it can chop up and make available on-demand. It’s just one piece of an elaborate arrangement that shuttles the events in Beijing back to the U.S.
From each of the dozens of Olympic venues, a high-definition video feed is delivered over fiber-optic cables to the International Broadcast Center that has been set up in Beijing. A bunch of encoders and Windows Media servers get the video into an Internet-ready format. From there, it travels via satellite to NBC’s headquarters in New York.
There, NBC actually adds a one-minute delay, allowing its cadre of live bloggers in Stamford, Conn., and elsewhere to write their text and have the video and commentary synchronized. Once ready, it goes from NBC to Limelight Networks, a content delivery network, which has 1,000 servers just for the live events sending the content to various Internet service providers, who then shuttle the content directly to their customers. (See chart below)
(Credit: Susan Dove/CNET News)Making it play
Limelight Chief Strategy Officer Mike Gordon said his company is prepared for this to be the biggest live event the Internet has ever seen. “I would not be surprised at all to get 1 million viewers,” he said. “We’re certainly prepared for whatever the audience turns out to be.”
Mike Gordon, chief strategy officer, Limelight Networks
(Credit: Limelight Networks)
That said, there is clearly an element of risk in all this, considering NBC’s history of live Olympic streaming has been limited to broadcasting a single game, the gold medal ice hockey match in Torino, Italy, two years ago.
“NBC has always taken risks and is always trying to do more than it has in the past,” said Perkins Miller, the NBC senior vice president in charge of the Internet push. “It does keep me up at night when I think about streaming 2,200 hours (of live coverage).”
The massive effort has come together in a remarkably short amount of time. Microsoft’s deal to power NBCOlympics.com dates back only to January.
NBC had a pretty good idea what they wanted to do and had built some mock-ups of the player prior to deciding to partner with Microsoft.
Initially, they expected to use Adobe’s Flash, given that is the standard for video delivered over the Internet these days. But, as they began to hash things out with Microsoft during a series of all-day meetings at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters, Microsoft was able to show NBC some ways it could do more using its homegrown Silverlight technology.
Silverlight, Microsoft said, would be key to enabling NBC’s vision of a “control room” in which a viewer could watch multiple live streams at once. (more…)
- Is the web making us illiterate?
[excerpted and modified, via Technically Incorrect by Chris Matyszczyk]
The web is helping our children read more. Or less. Or, well, maybe it depends on what you call reading. Because if it’s got spelling mistakes or words no dictionary has caught up with yet, then it’s not really reading, is it?
The New York Times yesterday hosted a spirited debate on the subject. Parents, dyslexics, professors, even children chipped in with their muscular views. Subtly showing its hand, the Times made sure the article was a very long one. Because, like many other bastions of journalism and literature, it is a newspaper that chooses to uphold certain standards.
Standards that the immature denizens of Silicon Valley have not so much eroded, but positively assaulted with the deadly weapons of speed, ubiquity and a somewhat fetching disregard for antiquity.
Personally, I would rather be around someone who is curious about the world than someone who believes Mongolia is where retarded children come from. Can anyone truly dispute that the web has given people a greater and more immediate ability to hug a little knowledge?
So it seems that what many critics are concerned about is precisely the kind of knowledge and reading habits children acquire during a surfing expedition. Perhaps one thing the web has exposed is that some so-called works of literature are, frankly, verging on the really quite awful. Just as we have been hyped by burger chains and erectile malfunction cures, we have been hyped by literary guardians.
One tome is essential. Another is a lesser work. But so many are very hard work indeed. When you’re told something is fabulous and wonderful and stupendous, even when you find it not so, it isn’t so easy to declare your opinion.
(Look, I’m sorry, but Eugene O’Neill’s plays are turgid tripe. And don’t get me started on Chekov and James Joyce. There, that’s better.)
Perhaps there will soon come a time when reading a book for today’s 12-year-olds will be as arduous as picking up the tiniest Chaucer and seeing if you can get past page one. Just because one generation was inculcated into the 400-page habit doesn’t mean another can’t find its own way to learn, grow, feel and any other New Agey term you might wish to use to indicate some level of progression.
Deal with it, olds.
So you love Emily Bronte. That’s OK. Don’t blame yourselves. It doesn’t mean that should be anyone else’s idea of literature. Or art. Or knowledge. It can even be someone else’s idea of bilge. And they could be right. There again, of all the names a Google rival could have come up with to name their new brand, they find one that you have to learn how to pronounce and that is a mere consonant away from something very rude indeed.
Where did these people go to college? Chico State?
[response from Mat]
Yea, but sorry, I can list off a ton of truly great writers even if you don’t like O’Neill (which I agree with), Chekov (the only Russian writer I actually find dull), Joyce, Chaucer, or Bronte.
- Good Stuff at SitePoint
SitePoint has always been a great resource for all facets of web design … excellent book series, poignant articles and the like. Here’s a few excerpts that caught my eye today …
Forum Post: design or develop first?
Q: "just wondering if I should go about designing my site first before implementing any back end capabilities. i like to keep things organized and plan ahead. It would seem to make sense to create the static site first but i am somewhat unsure if I were to design first and end up redesigning to fit everything I plan on adding later, in terms of dynamic content."
R: "The approach you take probably depends on whether you are more of a designer or more a developer. A developer would tend to do the back end first without worrying too much about exactly how the page will look until after they know that it all functions properly. A designer would probably get the page looking exactly how they want and then worry about how to get it to function correctly. If you have separate people performing each of these tasks then all that needs to be done first is to define the interface between the two so that the two almost separate parts can be done separately in the knowledge that they will fit together once both are done."
Article: HTML or XHTML: Does It Really Matter? (excerpted, July 9, 2008 by James Edwards)
HTML was originally conceived as a semantic language, in which elements should describe only the meaning of their content, not the presentation. However, this good intention didn’t hold up very long.
In 1997, the HTML 4.0 specification was published, and although it continued to include presentational markup that had been instigated directly by vendors, it also began a push to clean up HTML, calling some markup “deprecated” and suggesting that it not be used.
XHTML 1.0 came along in 2000 as formalization of HTML 4 into XML. XML itself had been standardized in 1998 as a general specification for defining markup languages, and was a stricter and simpler offshoot of SGML, the Standard Generalized Markup Language from which HTML itself was originally derived.
XHTML is still worth using, because it’s a transitional standard that moves us towards a pure-XML Web. XML is inherently better than SGML, because it’s simpler and stricter, and much easier to parse (once you’ve understood its rules). I don’t know from where we’ve adopted the idea that we should be forgiving of markup errors, but I don’t share that view.
And some other choice reads:
- Custom Web Fonts: Pick Your Poison by Kevin Yank
- Fancy Form Design Using CSS by Cameron Adams
- 10 Tips for Being a Greener Web Designer by Matthew Magain
- Whadya Know and Wheredya Fit?
Ever wondered how your skillset stacks up in the scope of all programming languages? I’ve presented this before in PHP class just to illustrate the popularity (as a result of the usability and easy learning curve) of the language but as my own work has drifted into several others, it’s always interested me where my skills stand. In any case, TIOBE is a Dutch company specializing in assessing and tracking the quality of software. They produce the TIOBE Index a monthly updated list of how languages stack up to each other. Below is shown the current trend graph and the top 10 languages as of July 2008.
TIOBE Index, July 2008 by TIOBE bvPosition Delta Language Ratings
Jul 2008Delta
Jul 2007Status Jul 2008 Jul 2007 1 1 
Java 21.345% +0.33% A 2 2 C 15.945% -0.42% A 3 3
