One more time....  Media Matters points out yet again why the right-wing punditocracy is full of crap. For example, they write:

• O'Reilly was wrong about Pew Poll: On the September 16 broadcast of his radio show, O'Reilly falsely claimed that a new Pew Research Center poll found that 46 percent of Americans plan to vote for a Democratic candidate in next year's congressional elections, while 43 percent plan to vote for a Republican candidate. The poll actually found that 52 percent of Americans would vote for the Democratic candidate for Congress, while only 40 percent would vote for the Republican. O'Reilly also claimed that the "new" Pew poll found that only 9 percent of Americans think that "[a] year from now the economy will be worse." In fact, that result is more than a year old; the most recent Pew poll found that 37 percent of Americans think the economy will be worse in a year.
  
• O'Reilly was wrong about Bush and Clinton economic records: Following his grossly misleading comparison of poverty statistics under presidents Clinton and Bush, O'Reilly made a series of false claims about the two presidents' broader economic records. O'Reilly claimed, "Under President Clinton, the tax rate climbed higher than at any time in history except in World War II." It didn't. O'Reilly asserted that, as a result of Bush's tax cuts, "Federal tax revenues will be more this year than at any time during the Clinton administration." That isn't true, if revenues are adjusted for inflation. O'Reilly claimed that Clinton "raised taxes every year." Also not true.
  
• O'Reilly was wrong about the judiciary: O'Reilly claimed on his radio show that "Republicans don't have control of the judicial branch. All right? They don't have control of that." But, as Media Matters noted, "Republican presidents have appointed a majority of the currently active federal judges, including six of the eight current Supreme Court justices and majorities on 10 of the 13 federal courts of appeals."
  O'Reilly was wrong about his own television show: O'Reilly claimed that Jeremy Glick, a 2003 guest on O'Reilly's television program whose father was killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, "accused the president of the United States of orchestrating 9-11" during his O'Reilly Factor appearance. Glick did nothing of the kind.
  
• O'Reilly was wrong -- again -- about how independents voted in 2004: O'Reilly claimed that Bush won the 2004 election because of support from independent voters: "Bush won by three million votes. And they were independent voters." That's false: Bush lost among independents.
  
• O'Reilly was wrong about Media Matters: In response to Media Matters' item about O'Reilly's statement that he wished Hurricane Katrina had hit the United Nations, O'Reilly claimed "this ridiculous incident just points out how desperate and dishonest the far left is." In fact, Media Matters simply quoted O'Reilly verbatim.

I love the last one&emdash;O'Reilly simply lies to his followers, they'll believe him, even though the transcript is readily available.

Enough  So I've not blogged for awhile. Becky asks, "What? No screed against Bush's speech?" Well, I'll let smart folks comment here and here for good stuff on the disaster. Suffice it to say that I'm so utterly amazed at how fast Karl Rove has been rehabilitated.
So I'm hoping to shift my blogging to the user experience world, starting soon with stuff about Lou's seminar Stay tuned, kids.

Who Did What When  As the selective amnesia mounts, let's remember what happened when:

Friday, Aug. 26: Gov. Kathleen Blanco declares a state of emergency in Louisiana and requests troop assistance.

Saturday, Aug. 27: Gov. Blanco asks for federal state of emergency. A federal emergency is declared giving federal officials the authority to get involved.

Sunday, Aug. 28: Mayor Ray Nagin orders mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. President Bush warned of Levee failure by National Hurricane Center. National Weather Service predicts area will be "uninhabitable" after Hurricane arrives. First reports of water toppling over the levee appear in local paper.

Monday, Aug. 29: Levee breaches and New Orleans begins to fill with water, Bush travels to Arizona and California to discuss Medicare. FEMA chief finally responds to federal emergency, dispatching employees but giving them two days to arrive on site.

Tuesday, Aug. 30: Mass looting reported, security shortage cited in New Orleans. Pentagon says that local authorities have adequate National Guard units to handle hurricane needs despite governor's earlier request. Bush returns to Crawford for final day of vacation. TV coverage is around-the-clock Hurricane news.

Wednesday, Aug. 31: Tens of thousands trapped in New Orleans including at Convention Center and Superdome in "medieval" conditions. President Bush finally returns to Washington to establish a task force to coordinate federal response. Local authorities run out of food and water supplies.

Thursday, Sept. 1: New Orleans descends into anarchy. New Orleans Mayor issues a "Desperate SOS" to federal government. Bush claims nobody predicted the breach of the levees despite multiple warnings and his earlier briefing.

Friday, Sept. 2: Karl Rove begins Bush administration campaign to blame state and local officials—despite their repeated requests for help. Bush stages a photo-op—diverting Coast Guard helicopters and crew to act as backdrop for cameras. Levee repair work orchestrated for president's visit and White House press corps.

Saturday, Sept. 3: Bush blames state and local officials. Senior administration official (possibly Rove) caught in a lie claiming Gov. Blanco had not declared a state of emergency or asked for help.

Monday, Sept. 5: New Orleans officials begin to collect their dead.

(Adapted from: Katrina Timeline

Unanswered Questions  Eric Alterman has a great post today...here's a snippet:

Will Bush’s deep unpopularity—and media hostility—turn Roveworld into an armed camp? In other words, will they go for a “keep the base happy under all circumstances because that’s all we have” strategy? That means finding a replacement for Rehnquist who is more Bork-like than Roberts-like and risking a filibuster; inviting one, actually. (The Roberts-as-Chief-Justice gambit is genius, I’m afraid, and the timing as infuriating as it is impressive. The Note will no doubt have an orgasm…)

Will they, finally, do what Tim Russert and Joe Klein promised us they would do five years ago which is play to the middle to re-assure the Washington Establishment? (Not bloody likely…)

Will Bush’s new found image as a bumbling incompetent ideologue hurt the legislation that the Republicans want to pass anyway, like doing away with the estate tax? (Again, NBL…)

Will the Democrats find their voice as an opposition party or will they continue to fear their own shadows, based on the fact that they are guilty in smaller ways, of virtually everything upon which the Republicans are vulnerable? (Um, need I say it?)

In the unlikely event they do, who will be its voice? My nominee: Russ Feingold

Now that people have been reminded of why we need competent government, have we got a new paradigm in which extremist Republicans are discredited; cultural issues cease to crowd out the “reality” agenda? And as a subset of this question, will the media demonstrate anything like the energy and anger they they’ve shown on this issue to the rest of the Bush agenda? I think those two go hand-in-hand, but the order in which they take place need not be a given. (It’s not, after all, as if we need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.)

Does all this augur well for the return of divided government in 2006? (I think the structural disadvantages the Democrats face in terms of state population and DeLay-style redistricting, make this one extremely unlikely, unless they do the new paradigm thing.)

What does this do to the Democratic race for 2008? I’d say it strengthens the appeal of good-government governors, like Mark Warner and Bill Richardson—unless Hillary pulls one out of her hat and makes a brilliant speech that pundits credit with helping to fill the national void and pull the country together. John Edwards could also benefit if he turns his “Two Americas” into the basis of a national conversation of why this country—the world’s wealthiest—sucks so much for poor people. Personally, I would like to see Al Gore jump in here with a combination “I told you so about this guy and here is an agenda for the future” but he really does seem to care more about that nutty television station of his and so I won’t hold any proverbial breath…. Which leads me to Russ Feingold, for now.

(A contest perhaps:) Predict the next disaster. Predict the Bush excuse.

My City Was Gone  Waveland's gone.
My grandmother lived there in the late '50s and early '60s with her second husband, my stepgrandfather (duh!). We would go down right after Christmas some years when I was a kid. A few times we rode the train (man, that was the way to travel!). Other times we'd drive from Lookout Mountain, stopping in Meridian or so at a Holiday Inn (six of us in one hotel room, doncha know). I remember pulling up to NeNe's house on Nicholson Avenue, and being so excited.
Now it's all just so many memories...

"Wasn't That a Mighty Flood?"  It's all so sad, so sad. The City That Care Forgot has been, in all effect, washed away.
Fortunately, my sister- and brother-in-law are ok. She's in northern Mississippi in Senatobia at her aunt & uncle's house. He's still camping out in the Cascades (and doesn't know about the flood). Our mutual friends Nancy & Greg and Arthur & Steve are also in Senatobia with Donna. Thank goodness--they can all laugh together, taking their minds off the utter destruction.
And don't get me started on the blankety-blanks who are looting. Where's martial law when you need it?

Registration Required  Well, since some d*ckh*ads decided they want to hijack my comment areas, I'm now going to require registration to comment...though it's not like a lot of folks respond.

Does the User Matter?  I sometimes wonder why we in the UX field must snipe at ourselves, fragment our vision, and in general muck things up.
So now, apparently, the user doesn't matter.

Here's a response I wrote to Peter:

I appreciate where y'all are going in this...and if the audience for this is the HCI/UX/Whatever community, it's worthwhile.


The danger is when this jargon escapes our bailiwick and enters the world our clients, our managers, our customers inhabit. I'm afraid they'll hear, "So, just worry about the tool & wht it does, right? So we just center development on the application we're building? So we just cut out worrying about people and just worry about technology...? Greaaaat. We'll go back 20 years and do tech-centered development. That way, we're focusing on the tool."


I'm not saying that's what you and Don ARE saying, I'm just afraid that's what customers will hear. So from my viewpoint, I still feel UX makes sense.

Where is the call for balance? And, too, as one commentor wrote, how is this different from Alan Cooper's goal-based design?
I guess I have more readin' to do, Lucy.

Does UX Exist (Redux)?  In which I step into the fray a bit.

It Keeps Gettin' Worse It's amazing to me how the Bush admin can stonewall on this Rove thing. Utterly amazing.

Quam diu, Bush?  How long will you try our patience? Apparently for awhile. As Nancy Pelosi said, ""He is willing to exploit the sacred ground of 9/11, knowing that there is no connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq.""
It's shameful, really shameful. Sad thing is: The suburban conservatives lap this stuff up like LSD-laced lemon water. Despite the facts that Bush et al. lied [or at best were simply lazy and incompetent in their analysis] to get us in this war, despite the lies of Deferment Dick whose "the insurgency is in its last throes" rings hollow, and despite the bloodthirsty rush to blow up funny-looking buildings (as my friend Doug Jay told me after September 11, the dull-eyed and SUV-driving dullards believe this lie: that Iraq can be connected to the attacks on us.
Quam diu, indeed.

Why Collaboration Can Fail  The LA Times tried, but it failed to foment a collaboration space. This hijacking of content is indicative of why I think folksonomies, social networks, and wikis ultimately will fail.

The Downing Street Smoldering Gun  Claims that the intelligence reporting on Iraq-both CIA and British-were simple errors of interpretation should be considered settled. Quam diu?

Search Still Sux  So the NYT covers the problem with search. My question is, where are the interviews with Lou & Christina & Peter & so on?

I think it's my fault...  So Joe writes about a big company putting a layer of documentation on a bad UX, trying to fix it on the cheap...and I recognize that I might be responsible for the memo.
See, I complained to a bean counter that I was having waaay too much difficulty in filling out my expense report. I talked to her about user experience (UX) and how the software should conform to my needs, not vice versa. She said, "I know, I know. I spend half my day talking to folks about how to fill these blankety-blank forms out...and I have a lot more other work to do each day!"
I suggested the form be changed to reflect how users' mental models work, but she'd have none of it. Reflecting that she'd drunk the Kool-Aid, she said, "Nope, that's the way they created the software."
So it's obvious that, to fix it, they simply added a layer of documentation to the UX, hoping that'll make folks go away, I guess.

Dazed and Confused...  Back from West Virginia and the Moto Guzzi rally...and I'm dazed and tired and a bit woozy from not being on the bike. Tom and I did the whole stretch (from East Liverpool, OH, to Richmond) in one day. I'd planned a 6-hour timeline. Boy was I wrong! Figure more like 10 with stops.
The rainy day on Tuesday was tough, but Wednesday's trip was fun. Cloudy but no rain made for a nice day of curvy riding on US 250 West. I'll blog more later plus add Flickr pics...but suffice it to say, I'm glad to be home.
Now, what'll the next trip be?

Off to West Virginny  Despite impending rain, I'm leaving on Tuesday afternoon for the Moto Guzzi National Rally. Tom and I are riding up, and though I hate riding in the rain, I am looking forward to the adventure.

Dienstleistungwüste  So my motorcycle is still at the dealer, waiting to be fixed. So the contractor still hasn't gotten back to me with an estimate
So the dealer received the waranteed parts on Monday (May 9), but didn't know until mid-day Tuesday. Someone had put the package on his workbench but didn't tell him...and he didn't see it.


OK.


Now it's Thursday (May 11) and still no word. I left a voice message yesterday & sent an email today, curious as to the status.
What's a reasonable time before I start getting antsy? I don't want to be a pain/pest, but I am kind of stuck without my brand-new Breva. Too, next weekend I'd planned an overnight, pre-National. I'm a bit concerned...but maybe I'm overreacting.

Happy Birthday, Dave!  Let Dave Winer know you're thinking of him.

So Maybe I Fixed It...  I did a bunch of fiddling with my Blogger template...so maybe comments now work.

Comments Not Working  For whatever reason, my blog's comments feature is broken. I've sent a note to Blogger support...we shall see if they can figure it out. In the meantime, you can send me a note at joe at the domain sokohl dot com, if you like.

What's This Country Coming To?  Ain't it a shame when even candy isn't safe from hooliganism?
I saw this at a local candy store, Fore the Love of Chocolate.

Sunday Driving  So I'm at the richmond BMW Sunday a.m. breakfast. I rode my new Breva there, mainly just to show it off...and show it off I did!
After the breakfast/meeting, everyone goes out into the parking lot. I had hooked up with my friend Bruce, who rides a 1970ish R75/5 (that won People's Choice at the Morton's open house the day before). He was with two friends, Nikki & Rachel. At any rate I went outside with 'em...Rachel had been telling me how she wanted a BMW, an older model, but didn't have $$ or license yet. I mentioned taking the MSF course, easy and userful way to a license, and as we walked out, she said, "What do you ride?" and I said, "Moto Guzzi Breva."


She perked up bigtime & said, "Guzzi! Worshipworshipworshipworship!" So I took her and Bruce and Nikki over to my bike, where they oohed and ahhed appropriately. Also, about a dozen riders came up to me saying, "Wow! First Breva I've seen in the flesh." Lots of people were very appreciative.


Fun stuff....

So Now What?  It looks like Macromedia and Adobe will merge, with Macromedia shareholders owning 20% of the new company.
What does this mean for Freehand vs. Illustrator? What happens to Captivate and RoboHelp? And will we see Flash capabilities integrated into Photoshop? Finally, what about Mac support?

Valuing Different Values  A friend is working on his degree in management & leadership. He knows that I lived & worked in Germany. So for a class on HR, he askes about vacation: sort of, "Is it true that Germans get more vacation than Americans?"
I confirmed that, yes, they do...but that it's more than just a straight comparison. For example, though Amis earn more, they get less vacation.

Other questions I'd ask are:

1. How far away from work do people live?

2. How accessible, reliable, and viable are public transportation assets?

3. How easy/difficult is it to get a driver's license?

4. How much protection do workers have against arbitrary layoffs?

5. How intrusive into personal life can the company be?

6. If you have a sore throat and a cough, how long does it take to have a doctor see you?

7. If it's 12:30 a.m. and you have a headache, how do you get aspirin?

8. If you have 4 weeks of accrued vacation, can you take it all at once, or are you limited to two weeks at the most?

It's just not meaningful to make these comparisons.

Great Bikes, Great Deals  Not trying to be too commercial, but if you're looking into buying a motorcycle, check out the bikes at Speakers Cycles in Ohio.

The Long and Winding Road  I picked up my new Breva on Saturday. What a great ride!

I flew to Cleveland Friday night, had a few drinks with Bob & Mouser, then slept at Bob's house (after late-night political discussions). In the morning we had coffee while listening to Phil Ochs ("I Ain't Marching Anymore"!". We then drove down to Steubenville on Saturday.

After Jason Speakers got a few things sorted out on it, I took her for a short test ride. Bob & Jason went with me, Bob on the demo Breva and Jason on the Le Mans. All was well. Also joining me was John from western PA, who just wanted to see the bike & ride with me for a little while.

I beat the rain, making it to Winchester on Saturday night. the Travelodge was quite accomodating, allowing me to park under the registration canopy.

Saturday I went south on 522, then picked up the Skyline Drive for awhile. Figured that some lower-speed driving would be good for the breakin period. Gotta tell you, though, it's a bit tough to keep to the 35-mph speed limit on the Drive. weird, huh? Ya pay $5.00 and can go only 35, while on the Blue Ridge Parkway you pay nothing and can go 45! Oh well, it was fun.

Then it was east on US 211 at Thornton Gap--a nice road that I had the pleasure of riding with Messrs. Hagan & Farley last season. The Breva liked it a lot! After stopping in Sperryville for a cuppa joe (!), I went south on State Route 231--a great Virginia Byway, so named because of its scenicness. Virginia has an excellent system of designating beautiful roads as such--makes it easy for us Guzzistas.

Finally, I hit 33 to get me back to US 522 south. I took it all the way through Gum Springs and into Goochland, where I headed east on SR 6--a most excellent route back to Richmond.

No Longer a Cool Kid  It's funny...you think you're one of the In Crowd, your self-esteem vaunts itself because you e-mail and blog-post with some of the folks you've met at summits and seminars, you feel democratic and involved as if your opinions and thoughts and logic are actually taken seriously...then you get pushed onto the virtual couch with the retards, a la Animal House...

Humanest of the HCIers is Gone  Jef Raskin, creator of the Macintosh project, is gone.

New Bike  Well, I've done it...I've bought a new motorcycle. It's a Moto Guzzi Breva 750.
I haven't picked it up yet, but here are some links to articles about it. Enjoy.

Motorbikes Today Review

Real Classics Review

Motorcycles Online Review

netRider Forum comments

Sound Rider Review

The Breva Blog

The Banshee screams No More  The Good Doctor is gone. Requiescat in pace.
His ESPN articles show he still had the sports mojo going. Yet something obviously wasn't right.

Who knows why anyone puts a pistol in their mouths and pulls the trigger? It's overwhelmingly sad, anytime it happens.

Is Blogging Bloated?  Salon.com hits the nail on the head.

On to other things  After having been made redundant this week, I'm working on getting another gig. Yes, I'd love to have my thing work, but realistically Richmond's a sucky town to do user experience in. So I'm casting a wider net, as it were.

Searching for...  Despite the elimination of their dedicated R&D group back in the late '90s, Apple continues to come up with smart stuff. Consider their forthcoming search tool Spotlight (here's a PDF overview).

Mac Rules  More reason to own Apple products. Thanks, Heiko!

So Will Rush Rush to Judgement?  do ya think the Dittoheads will call for resignations after Bremer can't account for $9 billion? Perhaps the Rushies will want Bremer to share the same cell as Kofi Annan, since the Blottodeads have trumped up charges against Annan....stay tuned.

From the "Sad-but-True" School  My friend Don W. sent this...and it's too true:

The professional life of a W-2 or 1099 contractor is rich and varied, as you know. Those of us in this category must have, or soon develop, the ability to navigate (with ease, of course) the twisting, turning road that leads through the hilly ground between assignments.



Staffing firms and other erstwhile potential employers of a tech writer's services post opportunities on bulletin boards such as Monster or Dice. These job descriptions (when really present) often list those attributes most keenly desired of a candidate. The trouble--especially for the newcomer--lies in translating these words or phrases into their underlying English meanings. Fortunately, I have recently acquired a Universal Translator device. Here goes:



When you read: "Extensive experience and superior skills in technical writing"

It means: "You are a programmer skilled in all languages, from Fortran/COBOL to Java; and you understand all the pesky terms we're encountering today."
Note: Some of those pesky phrases include--Sarbanes-Oxley, SDLC, Use Cases, CHM, HTM, PDF, CDR, PSD, JPG, SWF, TXT.



When you read: "Excellent written and oral communication skills"

It means: "You know the alphabet and can form sentences."


When you read: "Excellent attention to detail"

It means: "If we forget something, you'll remember it--even when we bring you in 3 weeks before the product we've been developing for 2 years is due to ship."



When you read: "Extensive experience documenting business processes"

It means: "We don't know the Byzantine business procedures that rule projects in our company, but you will--from the minute we introduce you to your cubicle."



When you read: "Extensive experience and knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio"

It means: "We use Office 97 in a Windows 2000 environment; you'll produce 200-page documents and Help, HTML, and PDF files involving lots of graphics using them."



When you read: "Ability to work effectively in a team environment"

It means: "You anticipate and do everything the team wants using your extensible clairvoyance skills."



When you read: "Excellent time management skills"

It means: "You will meet all deadlines no matter when you get the tasks without working more than 40 paid hours a week."



When you read: "Ability to work independently"

It means: "You have and use the initiative that eludes the team."



When you read: "Administrative skills and experience"

It means: "You're really a secretary, you know."



And...



When you read: Pay Rate DOE

It means: "$12-$14 per hour"

Germany Gets Less Tolerant?  ...or simply smarter? Check it out.

The President Uses Irony  Who knew the President could be so funny?

The Nightmare Continues...  God Bless America...: "Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?"

And now the Breva 750

And now the Breva 750
Originally uploaded by mojohand.

I really do like this bike. We went to the DC bike show (we being Bob, Matt, Warren, and I) on Sunday. Despite the lack of a Breva 1100, I enjoyed sitting on the Breva 750.

Hurry Up and Wait Was Never So True...  So instead of going to 4-week training, I'm now in limbo, and waiting to go to Ft. Bragg for a new physical. Grrr....

Code for the Right Browser  Eric's Archived Thoughts: Don't Care About Market Share: "If data exhibitionism is your thing, who am I to judge? Just don?t pretend that the bits of data you?re exposing to the world are representative of everyone else?s, because I guarantee you that they are not. "

Why Live Music Matters  Many years ago I spent time on the road with different bands. I've also been a music fan for the past 30 or more years. The time spent in clubs and small theters is invaluable to tempering an artist's craft. Apparenty, it's something Ashlee Simpson would do well to learn: from Kaufman's Sports Daily

"I've been to karaoke Tuesday at Big Jim's Trucketeria, friends, and I've never seen anything like this. Sweetheart, pick a key. Learn a move or two. Try lip-syncing. Oh, wait, never mind that last one. It was a staggering display of incompetence matched only by the Oklahoma secondary. I can't remember ever seeing a performer so devoid of singing ability, stage presence, looks or anything else anyone not related would want to see twice.
When Simpson's song mercifully ended, the crowd united in booing. Sooners and Trojans, fat cats and cheap seaters, locals and tourists, 77,912 strong, they found one thing all night they could agree on: Boo!
It was great. Then the football players came back, the butt-kicking resumed, and it got kinda boring. Ashlee Simpson, superstar, is a tough act to follow. She won't be around much longer. I'm going to miss her. "

Ah, yes, hysteria  No doubt you've encountered the killer laser crisis...but apparently it's all waaay out of proportion. Here's a snippet:
"Michael, an Airbus A320 pilot for a major U.S. airline (who asks to be kept otherwise anonymous): 'Here we have cleaners and caterers able to board and roam through aircraft with no security screening whatsoever, yet people are worried about laser beams? Our priorities are insane.' "

Slow blogs  It seems everyone's taking a break from blogging. Some of my favorite blogs have been, it seems, on hiatus: write on/write off: rachel m. murray's blog, Christina's gleanings, Beth Mazur, and even Heiko seem uncharacteristically non-bloggy these days.

The Waiting's the Hardest Part  Waiting to hear about a dream job for me. Though I finally got my résumé and clips to the firm only on Tuesday, I'm chafing at the bit to know whether they'll interview me, much less hire me. It's one of those positions where you know you're the right person...but you have to be patient to let them do their HR voodoo.

Beautiful Sunset

Sunset near Westeraccum
Originally uploaded by Wattwurm.

I don't even know where Westeraccum is, but I think it's part of the Frisian Islands&emdash;that is, the northwest of Germany. Still, it's a beautiful photo.

Us

Us
Originally uploaded by mojohand.

The happy family...Karen, Sunny, and me.

A long day ends  Heiko can now get some rest. I know how tough this is, just as a manager...but in Heiko's case, he was also involved in L10N as well as I18N.

Sad but True  Job Hunting. Thanks to Heiko for the tip to this guy. Depressing but funny in a black comic way.

Flawed but Funny  Rules for Being a Republican.

I Told Ya So  National Guard Reports Serious Drop in Enlistment. No shit, Sherlock.

It Always Comes Down to Usability  More Is Sometimes Less touts the cheaper music players rivaling the iPod Mini. Yet with comments like

You can run your finger around the iPod's famous click wheel fast to jet down to the W's and then slowly to pinpoint "What a Wonderful World."
But the Rio's thumb wheel has no such variable speed; it's four songs per turn, period. Working through any list longer than about 12 songs is an excruciating exercise.

you see the problem. Another extract takes the Creative Zen Micro to task:

[T]he iPod's wheel has been replaced by a touch-sensitive vertical strip. In theory it ought to offer variable speed scrolling, but in practice it's a sticky, balky nightmare. You'll find a similar lack of polish when you want to use the Zen Micro's hard drive to transport computer files (a terrific feature of the iPod and all of its rivals) and discover that you must tell the software in advance how much space you'll need for them. How could you know that ahead of time?

Who thinks this dreck up? Oh...that's right...engineers and marketeers.

Coding Again  So for the past few days, I've been writing HTML & CSS. I've been creating a menu page for a tutorial I've yet to write as well. The thing is, though I'd tried to use Captivate's MenuBuilder, it looked & felt decidedly, well, PowerPointish. So I created a brushed metal background with Canvas, then I created a few minimal interface decorators as well.
I've been struggling with a four-column layout. Three columns, yeah, I can do that...but I need four columns. Any thoughts?

Bad and Getting Worse  The soldier speaks his mind. At least he got some notoriety, but I'm not surprised that he didn't get a straight answer. Reminds me of something that happened in Germany in '80. My best buddy there Mark L'Heureux was at a battalion assembly in the post theater in Baumholder. A group of soldiers was on stage, as they were taking the oath of reenlistment. Right when the LTC paused before reading it, L'Heureux yelled out, "Don't do it! Don't...do it!"
Everyone broke up laughing. And L'Heureux was protected because he was so short...I think he had about two weeks left in the Army.

End of an Era?  IBM isn't compatible anymore, apparently. I remember when the phrase "IBM-compatible" was the sine qua non of business phrases in the '80s. My how times change.

D'ya Think They'd Vote for Shrub Now?  My Way Finance: "A surprisingly soft 112,000 new U.S. jobs were created in November, the Labor Department said on Friday, casting a shadow across an already downbeat holiday sales season with consumers apparently worried by scarce work and high oil prices."
It's just amazing how he gets away with it.

When Jargon Becomes Mainstream  Perhaps it's interesting that David Pogue notices the use of the term wireframe in a kid's 3-D movie in New York. Perhaps it's interesting that the term is used both in animation and in UX work. But I suspect it's interesting because of the crossover.

Why France is the Best Place in the World  Because you don't get fat, you don't have to diet, you don't have to work out, and you eat whatever you want. Anyone need any user experience designers there?

Selah A pause for the cause

Working in Wiesbaden  Attending the tekom conference, the German technical communication conference. I was invited to speak at the pre-conference called the European Information Development Conference. I spoke about personas and how they can help develop products. Of course, Bogo (whose site is still being developed) was there, as were Scott DeLoach and Rob Houser and Seth Maislin and so on and so forth.

Blue, So Blue  Not sure why. Could be the change of weather, as the days get noticeably shorter, the nights cooler, and the motorcycling less frequent. Could be the almost $2500 spent on taxes, and knowing that I'll have to pay penalties, too. Could be that Karen's going away while I go to drill...and not wanting to go to drill.

Is This Any Way to Run a Railroad?  Heiko rides the blinds...and it doesn't turn out so well. Reminds me of a 20-hour trip I took from Berlin to Warsaw in 1990. What was supposed to be a first-class cabin turned out not to be, and in fact there were no first-class car on the train.

It's Still ABB  Sean Aday has it right, when he argues that the duping of CBS shouldn't hide the fact that Bush lied, that Bush betrayed his fellow Air Guardsmen, that Bush showed how base his character really is.

Rockin' down the boulevard  If you haven't picked up Eliza Gilkyson's newest CD Land of Milk and Honey, do yourself a favor & get it now. My fav right now off the CD:

Hiway 9

Well, the white god said to the little man

we're gonna fulfill scripture in the holy land

between the Tigris and Euphrates, it's a lot like hell

go on and liberate my people and the o-i-l.



Got your big trucks rollin' down hiway 9

put on the armor, it's party time

gonna dance with the devil of our own design

get your big trucks rollin' down hiway 9.



So the little man gathered all his chicken-hawks in

and the neo-cons and his daddy's kin

With their own clear channel and a helluva spin

and a white man hidden in a black man's skin.



Big trucks rollin' down hiway 9

pulverize the public, it's payback time

who's tax dollar is it? your's and mine

keeps the big trucks rollin' down hiway 9.



Well we got caught sleepin at the sentry post

now we're standing toe to toe with what we feared the most

that old father and his son and the unheavenly host

We gotta do what we can and don't give up the ghost



Big trucks rollin' down hiway 9

food and water and an Internet line

run to the polls when it comes a time

cause the big trucks rollin' down hiway 9.

Another one bites the dust...  Well, another job possibility slips by. The hiring manager told the recruiter, "He was great, his work is outstanding, he's really overqualified, but we just decided to go with another candidate."

Hmmm...funny how that works. I wonder if it's because she simply didn't like me, or perhaps it's because I was honest and told her that I'm in the Army Reserve (more on that later). I think it's quite plausible that she didn't want to run the risk that I might be called up, but she didn't want to go on record as being so unpatriotic. The recruiter suggested it might be sticker shock as well—I was presented at $35 an hour instead of the $30 an hour they'd requested.

Sheesh. Sorry, but even at $35 an hour, I'm selling myself short...and giving a potential employer a bargain.

Here We Go Again  Ballot woes redux...and once again, it's the user losing out to technology.

Ansolabehere of the Voting Technology Project said studies have shown that while arrows create more confusion among voters, scanners can better process those that have been filled out correctly than ballots that have been bubbled in.
"Those two things cancel each other out," said Ansolabehere, a political science professor at MIT.

In other words, we made the ballot easier for the computer and harder for the user. Sound familiar?

The Only Two Things That Mean Anything at All...  ...are loving you and leaving Tennessee. Now more than ever.

Why I Love Christina  Choose to be right instead of being consistent. I wish John Kerry were here so I could say it to him as well.

Design Matters... ...but shouldn't take itself too seriously. "If you put a fork in your mouth and you are conscious of it rather than the food it carries, it is a bad design."

Lost  My job is the type of job people hate, not just professionally, but also because they know they HAVE to do it...at least people who have a sense of duty & obligation. Today's a date I wish I could jump on the bike & just ride...but then again, of course, I didn't ride today. This stupid, unpredictable weather sure doesn't help.

I'm doing mind-numbing formatting trivial work. My worth, skill, and value will be measured not by how well people can use the documents, not by how appropriate the docs are to their tasks, but whether the version numbers are the same on all docs...whether they're lined up perfectly...

On the Road for Big Bikes  Getting ready to go to the mountains for the annual Virginia Moto Guzzi rally. I went last year at this time, and it was my first long trip on the Jackal. I loved it. I rode up by myself...taking Route 60 west from Richmond, through Amherst, then down the Blue Ridge Parkway to 501 north.

This year, I'm meeting Matt and a friend at the Ashland Coffee and Tea right by the railroad tracks in, of course, Ashland. We're going to E&E to Route 522 south, then 6 west through Scottsville, and then either 29 south to 60 west or take 6 all the way up Afton Mountain (great road!) and down the Parkway. It depends, of course, on the weather—if t-storms are coming in, we'll hoof it down 29.

Hard to Write  Lately I've been working on many things...maybe a new job, maybe a painting, maybe music. So not much these days gets blogged.

When Things Fly  Glad I didn't own a car in Hamburg.

So True  Sometimes help isn't helpful. Mike has a reat comment. Thanks to Jenny.

You say theory, I say practice  Christina points out that two-thirds of the companies cited in "In Search of Excellence" have folded. Tom Peters' retort is "My principles have survived intact, it's just that the companies haven't."
Uh. Yeah. Like the golf pro's quote who said, "I did everything right, but the putt didn't drop." Good attitude for consultants to bring to their clients...not.

Ebb and Flow  While negotiating for the past several months for a possible consulting job in UXD, I've just today been confronted with two other possibilities—both involving user experience work, not tech writing. So perhaps I'll have an interview next week, perhaps I'll have several offers...or perhaps they'll all come to naught.
The thing is, it's maddening. Feast or famine.

IDEO (mostly) Gets It  In a Business Week article. The Power Of Design (thanks to Beth for the link), IDEO touts its processless process. Though it's survived the dot-com bust of the beginning of this century, IDEO has shifted away from digital to physical interaction product design. Too, they're interested in changing processes, not just products.

Good on 'em. Still, they seem to fall into the trap of designing products for the people on the project team, not necessarily for the person who actually uses the product. "Often, IDEO will have top executives play the roles of their own customers. Execs from food and clothing companies shop for their own stuff in different retail stores and on the Web. Health-care managers get care in different hospitals. Wireless providers use their own -- and competing -- services." The problem with this approach is the same problem with living history reenacting: the persons doing the role-playing might not have the skills to abstract their experience. I've seen this sort of approach devolve into the "I wouldn't do it this way!" Too little learning can be a destructive thing.


Still, it's good to see user-centered design get mainstream press.

Back to the Mine  After a good week in Baltimore at the STC Conference, and after some motorcycling with Bogo, I'm now back at the office. Ugh.

Back from NOLA  Well, we made it back last night from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. A lot of fun, even though we missed two days because of rain. But the music was fabulous. You can now even buy some shows thanks to the modern miracle of digitized music. I highly recommend Anders Osborne's set. What a smokin', funky slide guitarist. Who knew a Swede could rock like that?

Second Lining  Hanging out at JazzFest in New Orleans. Actually, I haven't been to JazzFest yet—we arrived Saturday afternoon, it poured rain on Sunday, and of course the Fest doesn't open again till Thursday. But though it threatens rain today & tomorrow, we're psyched about going to the Fairgrounds in a few minutes. Alons, dancez!

Personal Ads of the Starlets  Heiko sent this: Supermodel personal ads. What a hoot[er]!

Poof!  So Enetation just disappeared. Poof. Like that. No word, no warning, no note, just gone...and with it all the comments that people wrote to my posts (granted, not a huuuuuge amount, but still...). I'd probably get Movable Type going, if I had better access to & understanding of my ISP. At any rate, I'm going to try another hosting service. Bother.

Tool for Collecting Links  Maggy writes ravingly about Onfolio. Basically, it's a PC-only IE add-on that allows you to collect links and documents you might relate to a specific subject. I'm not sure how this approach differs from using Favorites wisely, but they seem to be honked into the UX world: See their scenarios. Interesting to see this sort of usually design work exposed to everyone.

A Fun Timewaster  As Caterina suggests:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Great Trip  Christina's trip to Languedoc features some great photos. It's a great place to be, if you can get there. And the Corbieres and Minervois and other wines beat a Bordeaux any day in my book.

The buck stops where?  What was it Harry Truman used to say?

Nothing really to say these days  That's why I haven't written in so long. Oh, there's a new job, a loooong-ass commute, and Christmas, but, hey, I've been tired. Maybe later.....

Do they still play the blues in Chicago...?  Oh. My. Gawd. How in the world the Cubbies could drop this one is beyond me...or maybe not. Still, though it's happened before ('79 Pirates did it over the Orioles in that year's series), it sure is rare. And with the Cubs, geez, what a heartbreaker!
After they lost, I rooted for the Bosox..and another case of heartburn! Definitely exciting baseball, but, I mean, why!? Why can't these two teams win at least once? Oh well, wait'll next year, right?

Bring on Da Power!  As of Thursday afternoon, we actually have electricity! O frabjous day! Calooh! Callay!

Poignant Music  Listening to Janet Martin sing and play "Cloud Cover" reminds me of the time in the late 80s when I used to hang out at the Moondance Saloon and watch her play solo acoustic guitar (for free) Wednesday nights. Man, that was a fabulous time! Her sultry voice and spot-on dreadnought guitar playing always touched both my head and heart.
I'd love to hear a CD of just her on guitar. Too, after I returned to Richmond and hadn't seen her for seven years, I was amazed at her slide guitar thing. She'd learned slide as well as a Delta bluesman selling his soul at the crossroads.

Surviving Isabel...Barely  Well, afer a harrowing night of wind and rain and falling limbs, Isabel passed by last Friday morning (September 19). Neighbors came together, and still come together: last night Gregg & Sonya hosted a "Queer Eye" evening, thanks to their generator.
Though thankful we all (our neighbors and friends and families) came through safe, being without power since September 18 is getting old...real old...real fast. I'm not saying Virginia Dominion Power is intentionally ignoring heavily populated urban areas in favor of white-dominated suburbs and rural areas, but it does appear as if they're doing the easy stuff first.

Here Comes the Rain Again...  As Isabel bears down on the coast, the forecast calls for heavy weather in Central Virginia. The biggest problem for me is that I plan to drive to Western Maryland Friday on my Moto Guzzi for a Guzzi rally. Even if the rain stops, the winds'll be heavy...not a lot of fun driving a bike in that kind of weather.
But, best to wait till Friday.

Chicago in the (Late) Summer  What a town! Always great to be in Chicago, especially when the weather's as balmy as this past weekend. Too, the chance to see Dave Specter play blues & jazz is impeccably great. Thanks for Albatross, Dave!
Enjoyed the German-American Fest in Lincoln Square. Although it was small and the only German beer was Beck's, the festival did capture the German fests we experienced in Hamburg. In fact, nostgalgia reigned supreme this weekend...almost like visiting two former homes at once!

Under the Richmond Sky  Having spent the last several months working on the back yard (mostly waiting to work on it, because of the rain), I am glad we finally finished...or at least this phase. Owning a home is great in terms of equity and security (that there will be a place to come home to), but it sucks in terms of the crap that you have to do. Ah, the lies that the DIY industry foist on us!

Not-so-full Circle  Having had a good exchange with the legendary Alison J. Head about her great article on personas, I've been seriously wondering just where and how people are able to actually practice this craft (this craft being user-centered design, experience design, information architecture, whatever).
Certainly not in Central Virginia. Having decided to leave IconMedialab at the end of 2001, I thought somehow that my years of experience would stand me in good stead and propel me to bring the gospel to Richmond.
Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead of bringing the fledgling Sokohl & Associates to renown, I've retreated in my career to my humble beginnings—I've returned to technical writing.
It's a bit sad, really. I moved away from tech writing in the late '90s during my stint with mpct Software. Writing HTML-based help for a NeXT-based banking software system, I began applying stuff like Don Norman's affordances and Ginny Redish's user and task analysis. It was a great inspiration for me. Because of my move toward human-computer interaction, I got the job with IML.
More than two years later and with a bunch of experience such as SOS Children's Village, Siemens Medical, and other projects...plus pitches and usability tests and heuristic reviews and such.

It was a great time, an inspiring time, and a fun time. When I returned, I thought my experience plus willingness to live out of a suitcase would raise my star in the contractors' heavens.
Doesn't seem to be working out that way, though. I grow old, I grow old....

A Cold Day in Hell  A great shout-out to Jenny Berger: You gave me a great laugh, today, girl!
My question, though, is this: on what basis do souls have mass?

another man done gone  As you probably already know, Eric E. "Rick" Stanley died yesterday morning. Here're a couple of notices about it:

The Richmond Times-Dispatch article

50-Plus had a great bio on Rick last year

A memorial service is tentatively planned for Monday, August 18 occurred Wednesday, August 19, at the Arthur Ashe Center on North Boulevard next to the Diamond. When I know more, I'll certainly let you know.
It was a great service, opening with a New Orleans-style band composed of members of the Richmond Jazz Society. Opening with "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and closing with "When the Saints Go Marching In," the service was a celebration of Rick's life and impact. Nicely done.
Also, you might like Andy Garrigue's tribute.

My Head Is Gonna Explode  The great Molly has once again said what I think. Seems that the great Bruce Tognazzini has written a polemic creating a new UXness: interaction architects.

Indeed. Just what this field needs—more fragmentation of our job description.