Tuesday, August 06, 2002

Go. I just ran across this New York Times article about the game of Go and game theory. Cool beans. I did some searching and found this site and this one which have a run down on the rule [Russell Beattie Notebook] 11:33:57 PM    comment []

Why we don't read manuals. This excellent article by Caroline E. Mayer (Washington Post) nails this important question. There are several thoughtful, and painful to read, quotes in the article. The candid comments include "it's too time consuming", "[manuals] make you feel stupid" and the on-target "... because they're horribly written." Ouch. But listen up, these customers are doing those of us in the industry a favor, if only we're willing to listen. Fact is, much of what is being said we already know. Write minimally, so instructions don't add unnecessary complexity and time to a task. Use user-centered tasks and terminology so that information can be easily located. Emphasis troubleshooting, since that's when most people turn to the manual. As for the "quick start" documentation mentioned in the article, that's a great idea, but too often such pieces are so simplistic that they reinforce the notion that you won't learn anything you don't already know, so don't bother looking. [Usable Help] [Tenorman.net] [Ye Olde Phart] I have hundreds upon hundreds of technical books. Been doing this a long time. Yes, they nearly all suck. There are 3 formats that work: The high-granularity tutorial: books that consist largely of a series of progressive how-tos in a particular topic bringing you to a complete understanding of a larger topic. BUT, allow you to stop at any particular point and have a workable somethingorother. The Cookbook: Simple, completely independent problem solution pairs, with fairly little expository content. The Mammoth Reference, also referred to by a friend of mine as "CSB"s ("Computer Science Brick", a unit of weight and girth.) The biggest problem I have with "User Guides" is that they can't seem to decide which of these they want to be, and have a tendency to just fill pages for the sake of filling them. Another reason manuals suck: Dramatically insufficient indices. If you can't find what you want, it doesn't matter if it's in there or not. I equate these tech books with "user manuals" because they are fundamentally designed to be feature tutorials to programming languages and concepts. There are a vast number of geek books I have that don't fall into this category, so remember I said that before you rain a shitstorm of flames on me. Or not, might be nice to get a flame instead of all these polite encouraging responses. [The Universal Church Of Cosmic Uncertainty] 11:30:13 PM    comment []

Medical Research for Non-Medical Librarians [ResearchBuzz] 11:18:01 PM    comment []

A paperless college?. Who Needs Paper? Not Iowa College. One Midwestern community college is nixing the paper and working toward an all-digital campus, all the time. The school has no library or books and depends almost entirely on e-textbooks and online resources. By Katie Dean. [Wired News] I am not sure if this is innovative or insane. A college with no books and no library? [Mac Net Journal] 11:15:35 PM    comment []

posted by kmel August 6 8:13 AM | 0 comments. You've heard of clip art, but have you experienced the wonder of clip copy? Webloggers with writer's block, take note: you can shill for hundreds of corporations, gov't. agencies, and nonprofits by posting a free and copyright-free "feature release" provided by Napsnet (North American Precis Syndicate). Just some of the delightful headlines that can be yours: "The Blinz Is Back!," "Debunking Myths About Incontinence," "How to Avoid Lawnmower Mishaps," "A Career In Roofing Is No Pie-In-The Sky Idea," and "Pet 'Scooting' Could Indicate Tapeworm." For you warbloggers, there's even some propaganda! [MetaFilter] 11:14:43 PM    comment []

OpenSAML - an Open Source Security Assertion Markup Language implementation. The spec seems to be primarily implemented using SOAP (see this PDF file). [Serious Instructional Technology] 11:13:51 PM    comment []

PayPal Warning: Make your password GOOD.... Beware your password on PayPal. Low End Mac publisher Dan Knight offers a chilling example of the security shortcomings of using PayPal in Hijacked on PayPal. PayPal, a convenient way to exchange funds, an easy way to be robbed. I continue to use PayPal at this point to receive funds for Mac Net Journal, but this kind of story makes me wonder about the wisdom of that decision. I may reconsider... [Mac Net Journal] "To the rest of you: Pick very obscure, very hard to guess passwords. Don't pick a dictionary word or part of your email address. Include numbers plus upper and lower case letters. (My regular password does all of this, but PayPal didn't think it was long enough, so I came up with a longer one that turned out to be less secure. Sigh.) Convenient as the PayPal service is, they've made it too convenient for thieves to break into accounts. Once I clear up this mess, I plan on closing down my PayPal accounts. I can live with this level of risk." Okay, to a certain degree: d'uh! Nothing online is secure if you use a non-secure password. On the other hand, many services have the annoying habit of telling you that your password is not secure enough (usually because of length), even when it actually is, which leads to frustrated changing of passwords to less secure forms that are longer. [C.K. Sample, III: my iPod Blog] 11:11:04 PM    comment []

posted by alms August 6 2:38 PM | 9 comments. Mathematician Henrik Lenstra was intrigued by a blank space in he middle of a drawing by MC Escher. Over two years he managed to describe the mathematical structure of the drawing, project what should go in the missing space and produce an extraordanary animation of the result. [MetaFilter] 7:02:59 PM    comment []

Well, I feel so much safer now. 2" GI Joe rifle confiscated at LAX. The British tabloid The Sun reports that security guards at LAX confiscated a two-inch plastic GI Joe rifle from a seven-year-old's toy action figure. I feel safer. Security chiefs at Los Angeles airport said: “We have instructions to confiscate anything that looks like a weapon or a replica. “If GI Joe was carrying a replica then it had to be taken from him.” Link Discuss (via MeFi) [Boing Boing Blog] The continuing efforts to eliminate judgment from human processes scares me no end. [McGee's Musings] 6:52:36 PM    comment []