Jinn of Quality and Risk

John Gruber: There were several reasons why it might make sense for Apple to produce their own web browser... 

Peter Trudelle at CHI 2002:

1. Don't skip the design stage.
2. Identify intended target users, build the product for them, not us.
3. Encourage local ownership and global oversight of the UI.
4. Make sure an appropriate person has 'buck stops here' authority.
5. Don't create a UI Design Component.
   Matthew Thomas responded.
6. Ensure that UI designers engage the Open Source community.
7. Allow for open discussion of any/all issues (and for final private discussion and resolution).
8. Expose all possible work in the open.
9. Keep your focus on what you'll ship, but don't ignore the open source equivalent.
10. Be honest about commercial motivations.

If you read this and know of other "lessons learnt" documents online (relating to software development and engineering projects in general), please let me know. 

John Robb: OK.  That's it.  My next computer is going to be an Apple.  After 18 years on a PC, I am ready to call it quits... (follow the link; the comments are excellent!) Ooh. I suggest getting a large PowerBook and WiFi base station (aka Extreme AirPort). Not much else is needed. Lucky man. 

The ugly assault on Lomborg (aka The Skeptical Environmentalist) continues. A new "report" claims that Lomborg's work is "dishonest" but the report fails to provide any evidence of dishonesty or falsehood. Compiled by a committee of Danish "scientists" and a "judge" the report offers No Evidence. Nada.

NYT: The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty [sic] ... issued a 17-page report yesterday concluding that the book displayed "systematic one-sidedness" — indeed, Lomborg's book is systematically siding with facts and truth, not propaganda and falsehood. The committee said that the publication of the work under consideration is deemed to fall within the concept of scientific dishonesty but said also that it found no evidence that Professor Lomborg deliberately tried to mislead readers... The report did not cite a single specific example of dishonesty but asserted that the book — although presented in the style of a scientific treatise, with copious footnotes and diagrams — was actually "a provocative debate-generating paper."

These fools should learn that debate, argument, proof, counter-proof, falsification, more debate, and disagreement are essential parts of a healthy scientific process. Witch hunts and inquisitions are not. Is environmentalism turning into a religion against scientific inquiry and truth? 

Users are concerned by what they create, absorb, and share, not by potential actions (applications and operating systems are mere potential until the user chooses to act). Edward Tufte: Users are interested in direct links to documents, not in operating systems and aps. Opening screens should show documents, not an OS. The metaphor for the interface should be the information, not an OS, not an ap, not a marketing experience. [via lawrence's notebook] 

David Rosam: The UK postal service (what's it called this year?) treats all items as unwieldy, potentially suspicious or disgusting... in reference to US postal experiments: We sent items that loosely fit into the following general categories: valuable, sentimental, unwieldy, pointless, potentially suspicious, and disgusting... The Postal Service appears to be amazingly tolerant... [via Boing Boing] 

BBC News: Snow and freezing conditions in London! How great. I hope the Thames soon freezes so we can go skating. Is this a welcome to the next Ice Age? or evidence of the infamous Global Warming Caused by Evil Humans? The European Little Ice Age took place 200-500 years ago, when average tempreatures were 1-2 degrees Celsius cooler than now. Before that, there was a Medieval Warm Period during which mean annual air temperatures were higher than at present (that's when the Vikings established colonies in Greenland and sailed to North America on an essentially ice-free North Atlantic).
Need a reference? see e.g. The Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in Switzerland [Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change] 

In 793-794 AD, (Danish or Norwegian) Vikings sacked the monastery at Lindisfarne, thus beginning an age of far-reaching conquest, East through Russia to the Black Sea, South to Paris and Sicily, and West to Britain, Iceland, Greenland, and even America: In this year dire forewarnings came over the land of the Northumbrians, and miserably terrified the people: these were excessive whirlwinds and lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine soon followed these tokens; and a little after that, in the same year, on the 7th of the Ides of January [January 8th], the havoc of heathen men miserably destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne, through rapine and slaughter. — The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle [via Venerable Bede] 

Another January, another keynote by Steve Jobs at Macworld, streamed in QuickTime (and this time I had "broadband"...). Last July, I was excited by his promise of nomadic computing (in particular with wireless connections, Rendezvous, and iSync) but not much has happened on that front and it wasn't mentioned this time.

I like Apple's new concept of iLife (music, photos, movies, and DVDs in one integrated digital life suite of applications). The parallel to the Microsoft Office productivity suite is intriguing. The new browser, Safari, and presentation tool, Keynote, are interesting ways to diverge from Microsoft (remember how Steve used to exclaim "Internet Explorer is the browser of choice"...). Safari has very interesting interface improvements in the areas of navigation and bookmark management; looks like a new arms race is on between browsers (I can't live without Mozilla's tabbed browsing and multi-tab bookmarks!). Safari's bug report button is a fine beta-testing touch, something I've normally included in Web-based applications for users to easily submit bug reports during testing. Expect this to become a common feature, beyond beta versions. Keynote uses an XML-based open file format, which will promote the development of related tools and the automated creation of presentations. Subtle, smart moves.

Overall it was a very nice, entertaining keynote. Not disappointing, but I am certain that there is much more coming soon from Apple, in terms of integration of digital hub tools and peripherals (including TiVo). Much more.