• I miss Fall in Indiana

    Scarecrow

    My Dad sent me that this morning.


  • NZ

    Planning a trip to New Zealand anytime soon? I think the Snook and I are definitely going to have to check out these Lord of the Rings filming locations.


  • Icons and usability

    Lately I’ve been thinking about icons and usability, and specifically whether the little link, e-mail, and speech bubble icons before each post are intuitive. Most other bloggers seem to have settled on using text links. I worry that new visitors to the site won’t realize that they can leave comments. So I’m running an experiment. As you can see, I’ve removed the icons in favor of text links. (I scrapped the e-mail link altogether; was anybody using it? The address was wrong anyway!) I should be able to track which method resulted in the most first-time comments. Right now, I’m not sure I like it. I find it difficult to visually distinguish between posts, but maybe that’s just because I’m used to the old system. What do you guys think? Did you find w-g confusing the first time you visited?

    Update: Okay, okay, they’re back! I did get rid of the e-mail icon though. I guess in certain situations usability comes secondary to the interests of long-time users. 🙂


  • Vindication

    Exasperated Co-worker: “I’m writing up some documentation for the new website administrator trying to explain how to update our site. And do you know what? Only one f***ing thing automatically updates! Seventy-five percent of this information already exists on our other sites but there’s no integration!”
    Me: “I know… What’s the one thing that works?”
    Her: “The distributors list.”
    Me: “I WROTE THAT! *pause* It nearly killed me.

    That totally made my day.


  • Atkins

    Another positive article on the Atkins Diet from today’s Sydney Morning Herald. Those of us who’ve actually taken the time to read his books will notice a glaring error though – “Atkins dieters are instructed to begin by eliminating all carbohydrates from their diet.” Wrong! I actually sent a letter to the editor to clarify. Fingers crossed it gets published!


  • Kristy vs. the Birds

    Round 1: On our way home from work yesterday, Kevin and I were barreling down the highway when I noticed a pigeon dawdling in the road up ahead. “Better move little birdie!” I joked, fully expecting the bird to fly off any second. Suddenly WHUMP! Pigeon carcass flew past Kevin’s window. “AHHHH!” we both screamed. Thank heavens it didn’t fall into the open sun roof. What kind of idiot bird plays in traffic?

    Round 2: Today at lunch I was sitting on a bench in the little park adjacent to our office and knitting happily away on a Hogwarts scarf. Suddenly a large bird fluttered down beside me. With horror I realized it was my avian nemesis… the kookaburra! He was big and creepy with a wicked-looking beak. (Yeah, yeah, so they’re not known for attacking people. I’m a big scaredy-cat though.) “Shoo, shoo!” I muttered while waving my arms. He regarded me impassively. I picked up a small twig and threw it, figuring that would drive him off. Instead he sat there and let it hit him, and I swear he narrowed his evil reptilian eyes. In desperation, I picked up my paper lunch bag from McDonald’s (I had the salad, of course) and threw it in a nearby bin, guessing that it was his ultimate aim. He didn’t budge. “All right,” I said. “You win. Have the damn bench.” I picked up my stuff and slunk back to the office while Mr. Kookaburra watched me triumphantly. Jerk bird.


  • Glitter thread purge

    Major Glitter thread purge! The site sure loads faster, but unfortunately all the lovely Halloween discussions are gone. 🙁


  • New poll

    It’s two hours til the big Halloween party and you don’t have a costume. What’s the best last-minute option?


  • iTunes

    The iTunes Music Store has sold 1 million songs in 3.5 days. Alas, not one of them was to me. Anybody in the US mind if I switch my credit card address to your house?

    In other products-I-desperately-want-but-can’t-get-my-mits-on news, the Snook has made great strides with our homegrown “TiFaux” DVR project. We’re using this system and so far he’s got it playing live TV, displaying the program guide, and recording shows. Unfortunately we seem to be getting some antenna interference from the computer itself so the quality leaves much to be desired. Of course, as soon as we spend a ridiculous amount upgrading the machine they’ll probably bring the real thing out here anyway.



ABOUT

My name is Kris. I’ve been blogging since the 90’s. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I spent most of my career in the tech industry.

No AI used in writing this blog, ever. 100% human-generated.


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