New Bike!

It's Mine!
Originally uploaded by mojohand.

Went to Western NY and picked up my new Moto Guzzi Breva 1100. Scheweet!

Been Busy  Listening to "The Ipcress File"'s main theme...what a great movie, and what a great John Barry score. Anyway, haven't been blogging much atall. Geez...and so much going on: Haditha and militarized borders and defence of marriage (is divorce now going to be illegal? Hardly...ask Newt about that) and the beginning of hurricane season (go to www.spencerbohren.com and click on the image listed as "Spencer's Newest Music"...Get his song "The Long Black Line" for free) and Idol worship and...well, it's just been all out there.
Maybe after I pick up my new Guzzi I'll get back to blogging.

Grand Funk Railroad  ...especially Closer to Home, reminds me of 1971-1972 in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. I remember when my brother Ray brought the album home, its stark black-and-white tower of the heads of Mark Farner, Don brewer, Mel Schacher offset by blood-red "GRAND FUNK" across the left side of the cover. We used to listen to "Mean Mistreater" over and over, and we of course glommed onto "I'm Your Captain"'s nine minutes and fourty-seven seconds of paintive story.

Now, in the CD, I can hear not only the whole 1970 album, but an alternate mix of "Mean Mistreater" along with three live tracks. The true beginnings of heavy metal in the late '60s/early '70s....

Black Cash  Go see 'em!

Great Roads in the C-ville Area  I've been in Charlottesville this week, fighting the GWOT. With great weather and the advent of daylight savings time, I've been able to take a motorcycle ride after work...over roads that are some of the best in the state. From 29's bypass I took 610 northwest to 810 east over to 664 southeast. Yesterday I went up 29 to take a side road that connects with 230 west to Stanardsville, then 810 all the way back almost to Crozet...and back to C-ville.
Those who live here are blessed with the ability to ride motorcycles on great roads. Enjoy!

IA Summit 2006  The summit is a lot of fun this year, both personally and professionally. Actually, it's probably more fun professionally—I'm not feeling 100%, so I'm laying low. For example, tonight was the Adaptive Path free drink night...and I bagged off it. Instead, I ate sushi by myself and came back to the room to crash. Fell asleep watching Lawrence of Arabia, one of my favorite movies.

But Vancouver is a neat city. Liking it a lot.

When is a Blog Not a Blog  I just stumbled onto Clooneygate.

Halliburton Redux  Sheesh. Things like this come out, yet almost none of the MSM cover it...much less the screed-head propaganda arms of the right wing (AKA Fox, Limbaugh, Beck, and so on): Seems that the administration-imposed no-bid company failed to purify water for troops in the field:

Halliburton Co. failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused “mass sickness or death,” an internal company report concluded.

Read more.

Deep Down in Florida  Every time I think about Florida, I think about that Muddy Waters song.
Anyway, I'm recovering from the vacation. It really was a fun time, though. We had a great two-day drive to get to St. Petersburg, where the folks are renting a condo.
We took in a Braves-Pirates game in Bradenton, which was great. We also spent some time in Ybor City, but really during the day; we didn't participate in its infamous night life. We also went to Sun City, to visit my father's cousin by marriage, Eve. What a hoot! "Preserve our lifestyle; slow-moving vehicles" is the community's mantra. How cute, really. Then we went to a restaurant by a marina, and afterwards visited a manatee-viewing site at a power plant.
As a side trip, I went to New Smyrna Beach—all the way across the state—to visit Bill Blue. Yup, the ol' denizen of Hard Times and my one-time boss lives there now. He surfs almost daily in season, and he has a recording studio.
He makes guitars, and he still performs. Looking good, too. In fact, he took me out on the beach at NSB. For me it was cool driving on the hard-packed, flat beach. I could see Daytona in the hazy distance north.

Anyway, I'm still working on uploading pictures.

On Vaca...  No entries lately, because we've been on vacation. Right now I'm blogging from a motel in Dilon, SC, on the way home.

Blog Timeline  Heiko links to the New York Magazine's timeline of blogging. Nice to see my old acquaintance Peter Merholz gets his props.

Facing Time  Fast Company has a great quotation about time management. Basically, if work requires us to respond to emails on Sunday, we need to be able to set our time limits to go to the movies on Monday afternoon. That is, if companies require us to be available on weekends and evening, then they should also not look askance if we go to the movies in the afternoon or sleep late.
This morning at klatsch at Wired on Robinson, this topic came up. In too many jobs, it doesn't matter if you work until 10 p.m. or on the weekends—if you come in later than those who surf desks, the perception is that you're a slacker. Unfortunately, corporate management often disparages those who come in late...despite other efforts they make.

PUT-ing Development on the Right Track  I've just written an article for the James River Chapter of STC. It's for their newsletter The Watershed. Here's my central point: Why do we always have time and budget to do things over (“We’ll fix it in the next version”), but we never have time to do things right?
From the article:

I spent two years in Germany, working for an international full-service Internet consultancy. Sometimes we had to check a feature of an application or Web site we were developing. Rather than stop development for a months-long series of usability tests involving video taping, one-way mirrors, and agency-recruited subjects, we relied on the Putzfrau approach. Because Putzfrau means “ cleaning woman,” the idea is to test with someone nearby who’s not part of your specific development project.
We would get someone from another team or department and ask them to perform specific tasks, either on a digital or paper prototype. These quick results helped center the development on user-oriented approaches, rather than technologically oriented ones.
Steve Krug has a wonderful chapter on usability testing in his critically important book, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. While he takes the informality of usability testing to its extreme, he does highlight how cost-effective informal testing can be.
Rather than spending $10,000 to $50,000 on a series of usability tests, you can perform tests for a few hundred dollars. This approach eliminates the typical response to suggestions of usability testing, “We don’t have the budget for testing.”
We’ve all heard that before. I maintain, Why do we always have time and budget to do things over (“We’ll fix it in the next version”), but we never have time to do things right?

Missing Another Summit  Sadly, I'll be missing the Information Architecture Summit in Vancouver in March. It's too bad, too, because it's my favorite conference & training event. I always learn so much, I always get inspired—even when, like last year, I felt like one of the uncool kids. After a few emails & stuff, I'm feeling much better about that ;)
Still, the IA Summit is an important event in the user experience (UX) world. But try telling that to Central Virginia business leaders. Bottom line: this state don't git it.

Hard At Work

Hard At Work  The Good Humor Band at Poe's on Sunday was, as I said earlier, just simply amazing! Fun, funny, and brilliant. Go to the band's site for their story. You won't be sorry!

Another Example of Poor Usability  The Virginians who want to roll back the estate tax have an example of extremely poor usability. A link purports to take you to a map contrasting states with

So here's the question: what does blue mean, and what does white mean? Without a legend, this map loses meaning.
Sheesh. Yet another example of the dearth of UX in Virginia.

The WayBack Machine in Full Function  The Good Humor Band landed this weekend for its annual wacky music fest. Too bad for those who missed it, and too bad for me to have missed every one since the early 80s. Still, I finally got to see the bad boys of comedy (and musical excellence) for the first time since I went off to the Army way back when.
What a show—or should I say "shows." Saturday night at The Canal Club was fabulous. Great sound, nice stage, and cold beers. With Terry Garland ripping through a flawless set of blues, the evening was set. Even Joe McGlohon's daughter's band did a quick set of 80s covers to warm things up.
But the night belonged to the Humoroids. From "A Cowboy's Work is Always Done" to "Harlem Nocturne," the excellent musicianship combined with, well, good humor, made for a wonderful night.
Sunday afternoon at Poe's Pub also proved to be a never-forgetter. Guests such as Robbin Thompson (who can forget the band's intro to him?), Chuck Wrenn, and drummer David Eggleston's teenage son (is he even yet a teen?)(whose version of "Iko Iko" showcased his second-line skills, while Led Zeppelin's "Rock & Roll" was just short of fabulous) helped create a true party atmosphere.
All in all, I felt taken back to 1979 at the Pass...what a gas!

Meme-Tagged  Thanks to Joe, I've been tagged. So, why not? It's all fun...

Four Jobs I've Had
1. fry cook (shortorder cook)
2. radio DJ
3. blues band road manager
4. soldier

Four Movies I Can Watch Over And Over
1. Casablanca
2. Sullivan's Travels
3. The Quiet Man
4. Almost Famous (the extended version)

Four Places I've Almost Lived, And Still Plan To
1. Brussels
2. Austin
3. San Francisco
4. Amsterdam

Four TV Shows I Love
1. Curb Your Enthusiasm
2. Combat!
3. The Daily Show
4. Arrested Development

Places I've Vacationed
1. the Canary Islands
2. Nag's Head
3. Trento
4. Le Canal du Midi

Four of My Favorite Dishes
1. Carolina Barbecue
2. Red beans & rice
3. Sushi
4. Soft Chicken Tacos

Four Sites I Visit Daily
1. Wildguzzi's forum - sometimes fun, especially when you can't ride
2. Myway.com - my news site, my TV channels, & my movie times
3. keane.com - actually, the Web mail part for internal users
4. Army Knowledge Online...


Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now
1. Working on a billable project
2. Riding my Moto Guzzi Breva 750
3. Sipping a mojito on the beach
4. Hamburg

Four Bloggers I'm Tagging
1. Heiko (who's probably been tagged way too many times, but still...)
2. Brutally Honest (hey, I'm an equal-opportunity blogger)
3. Girlwonder (Molly probably has no time, but still...)
4. (I'm workin' on it)

Murder in the Ville  So another person is murdered in Richmond. Not necessarily a big deal, in that we constantly appear in the top 10 murder cities of the U.S. Yet this one was a block from my house. So when it comes into your neighborhood, yeah, it's a big deal.

It's Still About Usability  So Heiko blogs about usability. That's nice, 'cause he does get it. But what's not so nice is that products still aren't designed from a user's perspective. I've been trying to get this message across, yet except for New York, Chicago, and the Bay area, most places don't seem to get it. Instead, they hire business analysts instead of user-experience analysts...with the result that the products' designs reflect the desires of the business, not the needs of the users.
Same old story, same old song and dance.

Nice Day for a Ride  It was a nice ride. I met Bob at 9:00 a.m. at Ashland Coffee & Tea, then left around 9:45 (after coffee & cigarettes—Bob had a smoke, that is). Then we took 54 to Hanover CH to 614 east to 30 to 360 east to 14 east to 17 south to Yorktown. Lunch at the pub. Then down the Colonial Parkway & up Route 5. Got to the Dairy Queen at 295 & Rte. 5 around 4 p.m. Not a bad ride. I was pushing it a leetle—about 5-8 mph above posted limits, except on the parkway (I stay pretty much at the 45 mph limit, maybe pushing it to 48).

Ah, yes...January in Virginia. How sweet it is!

Obfuscatio  So I ran across this sentence on a list I subscribe to:

In general, feminist theorists seek renewed social status
for non-analytical ways of knowing which, it is has been
argued, most eurowestern projects of modernity reject.

Is it just me, or is this a Macbethian sentence (full of sound and fury, signifying nothing)? At least it is, to my thinking, a further example of what's wrong with academ.

2 Charged as Monsters  So two guys have been arrested in connection with the destruction of two families: the Harveys & the Tucker/Baskervilles. Seven people brutally murdered in seven days...and the details seem to be out of a movie like Seven. Let us hope for justice--but not for mercy.

Annus horribilis already   Horrible way to begin the year. And he was an acquaintance/friend from the 80s. So mind-numbingly sad.

Ein gute Rutsch!   A Happy New Year to all—may it be full of peace and happiness.

Quam diu redux  Here's what Bush's illegal wiretapping comes down to: "..[T]here is only black and white when it comes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a 1978 law that specifically requires warrants for any NSA wiretapping of U.S. citizens. "If you want to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens, you go to court. If you don't, you go to jail," Bamford says. "If you want to change the law, you go to Congress."
O tempora, o mores indeed.

Bitter Arrogance  "The president acted in clear contravention of a criminal law enacted by Congress, and a Supreme Court precedent, both directly on point."

Happy Holidays  Christina and Tom the Dancing Bug weigh in on this nonissue.

Ugh...  America's shame. Not defendable other than under the First Amendment. They have the right to hate....

When Help Doesn't  Sometimes software ships with online help that doesn't help the user at all. Either the prose is turgid or it belabors the obvious...or it doesn't answer critical questions. Apparently the new ThinkPad has problems For example, "Teaching the laptop what your fingerprint looks like requires a good bit of effort, no thanks to the colorless prose of the online help screens" indicates that not only is the hardware design flawed, but the help doesn't. Too bad. I bet that when Lenovo bought the ThinkPad line, they didn't hire IBM's writers.

New Version of Windows  Now we're getting new windows for the house! O Frabjous day! Calooh! Callay! They are Milgard windows that Best Windows of Mechanicsville, Virginia, installed. Best is a local firm that has a good rep. I like the fact that we're helping out the local economy...not just paying some conglomerate to do it. The windows themselves come from Fredericksburg. Pictures soon....but right now, it's cold cold cold, what with no front windows & all.
Indeed, these are the only Windows I'll pay for ;)

Tagging  No, it has nothing to do with graffiti. It also doesn't have anything to do with marking animals in the wild...at least not in the context I'm interested in. Instead, it's about adding markers to pieces of content to make them easier to retrieve.
Flickr probably does it best. Not only do they have an extraordinarily great user experience design, they enable individuals to create their own sense of meaning through tags to each photo. The approach is gaining acceptance and notice: Even Cnet has found out.
One key effect is that users don't have to depend on an info priesthood to dictate what terms and thesauri are available.

Marketers Just Don't Get It  Joe Lamantia describes a particularly aweful experience he had online. Seems the marketing heads just went waaaay too far.

Deutschland War Sau-Geil!  Still getting back into the swing of things after 10 days in Germany. First it was Hamburg, then Wiesbaden, and finally Königstein im Taunus and Bad Homburg. So good to see folks there.
Too, the conference went well. More later on that.

History, of a Sort  If you're curious or nostalgic about the past 10 years, check out Salon's retrospective. Well-written like all their stuff, it does encapsulate a lot of the past 10 years' business history.

More on Motorcycling  Well, I went on another trip this weekend. Ostensibly I was going to visit my brother in Lawrenceville, GA...but as it turns out, he was out hunting (a very Gawja thing to do thse days). Instead, I ended up riding around in the South Carolina Highlands. Next day I rode up through Highlands, NC to the Dragon...Deal's Gap. Instead of riding the Gap, though, I hung around a little, watched the packs of bikes come & go, and then rode to Cherokee, NC. I rode the first part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but I had to jump off it before Waynesville to make tracks to get to Boone, NC. Seems I had sorta screwed up by making a nonrefundable reservation there.
So I got to Boone just before twilight. Next day it was 33 degrees...and I had to drive. I wanted to get home before the rain...but it was not to be. Instead, I ended up running into rain around Oxford, NC, and rode in it till Richmond. Ugh! But the bike worked well for the most part, despite its lighter size. The wind certainly pushed it around.
So, mostly, I love the bike. Still, the Griso or the Breva 1100 might, just might be in my future...next year.

I'm Back  From Italy, of a sort. Plus, I did a two-day motorcycling school this past weekend. More later about that.

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.