Jimmy Wales
Adds nice Wikipedia donation banner to every single web page.
The Hardy Boys - The Final Chapter
Lengthy, but worth it.
Intuition is bullshit
From the OED, “Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason.” The Wikipedia article states that intuition provides us with unjustifiable beliefs (a common ailment of the human brain) and its popularity in supernatural and New Age writings.
With such dubious company, why are user experience engineers using “intuitive” to describe the ideal user interface? UX is a science, not an art. There’s no such thing as knowledge without inference or reason. Don’t update your landing page on a whim because it “feels right”. Interface changes need to be backed by hard data, not by your gut instincts.
Almost everything your users do can be tracked, recorded, and graphed by numerous data dissemination services. Don’t let your graphic designer make these decisions for you: start tracking.
重庆森林是惊人的。
Worse than 97% of all flights.
其 ＋ 月 ＝ 期
Today I learned that the hanzi for “a period of time” is an amalgamation of “her” and “moon”. The characters for “peace” (安) consist of a woman with a roof over her head. It’s supposed to represent “domestic tranquility”, or “your wife in the kitchen”.
Feminists are going to have a field day with this stuff.
China’s High-Tech Underclass
Some well-needed perspective.
The Postmodernism Generator
Save this for your doctorate thesis.
Dropbox Tip #1
Want your Vim configuration on another computer? Add this line to your ~/.exrc file.
source ~/Dropbox/.exrc
Don’t have a Dropbox account yet? Get your own now.
Missing Missy
It’s a design thing. The cat is lost in the negative space.
Women in Science
Philip Greenspun’s essay on the economics of a career in academia.
