onnob

Yep, that's the one.

Oh-my-God

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Everybody who comes from a Windows or Mac background – most of you- and who has ever played around with Linux has witnessed it: Poor usability. I consider myself quite computerfahig, but Linux is on the edge of my possibilities. I do n�t want to read a huge manual on my OS. I d�n’t want to work on the commandline. And I want to be able to install and get it running myself. It should work, it should be easy as hell and once configured it should work.

Frans Englich wrote an article that exactly points out the weak spot of the open source community: Too arrogant-nerdy to realize that usability is not an extra trick in a programmers toolbox but a full-grown science that has a lot more to do with psychology than with programming.

Englich pleads for reflection by the programmers, he thinks that if those people -yes, the 1000 and one different programmers from all over the globe- think just a little bit longer about labeling, that will solve the problems. Wrong ofcourse, since those programmers very well may allready be doing what he suggests.

Very useful to read the comments as well, it shows the sometimes very hostile attitude of OSS developers towards the ‘outside world’. An eyeopener and proof that lots of programmers should read more usability and IA books instead of the latest PHP- or MySql Bible.
It would give them so much more depth in their work that I think the REAL progress towards usability and more intuitive and advanced software development is still to be made. If only they would read about it…

Extra: a comic about this subject

The Holiday Lie

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Minister Sybilla Dekker said that The Netherlands and Germany have the largest number of holidays in Europe and that the dutch should sacrifice 2 to 3 days for the good of the economy. Work more for the same money seems to be the government’s slogan.

But when you check those numbers mentioned, the real numbers are disturbingly different: The Dutch have the least number of holidays in europe. So that is complete bullshit from somebody who should be acting in our best interest. Well, you may expect that in a democracy, right?

I am not opposed to firm measures to make the country healthy again, but descisions like that shouldn’t be based on lies but on general consensus.

The English know how to solve those issues though. Just give the people 8 extra days to keep them happy. Blair might have been mistaken to send British troops to Iraq, but he sure knows how to please the workers.

IMDB

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One of those sites that really adds someting, one of those sites that seem to have been online since the dawn of the web is The Internet Movie Database. LA Weekly has an interesting article about the site, it’s origin and the company behind it.

And while I am at it, Seriocomic’s Mike Hudson has proven that he is indeed the hermit he says he is. I mean: who writes a list of his 250(!) most favourite films? 🙂

And do you know what the problem is with somebode else’s list? You don’t know if the person who wrote the list hasn’t seen that great movie or thinks it sucked. But considering his taste he hasn’t seen it yet.

Great Flash

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Because of the usabilty issues and per-site learning curve, I’ve never been a great fan of Flash, but Carl de Keijzer’s site is worth it. Beautiful photograpy served beautifully, this is a site where you for once shouldn’t skip that intro.

I fount this one @ Neave.com where Flash is also used in an interesting way: Jelly borders.. wheehoo!

Pretty WordPress Template

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The WordPress community is definately heating up, more and more templates and plugins are released, I just found very cool template that is very ‘today’s style’.

I’m just a bit afraid that in a while the WordPress community will be populated with ‘Kubricks’, but then again, I might release this retro theme 😉

Unhappy workers: the perfect solution

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A campaign worker for President Bush said on Thursday American workers unhappy with low-quality jobs should find new ones — or pop a Prozac to make themselves feel better. Article

What a splendid idea: Let’s drug ‘m all untill they’re happy hardworking patriots. It’s all possible this perfect day.

Koele poep

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Now this is smart: Enter a band name and check out who they are connected to. Really extensive, might be something to keep an eye on: Musicplasma