Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
Recommendations on how to best use the magnifying glass icon for search fields. Oddly, there’s no mention of the problem that the icon is ALSO used for zoom controls.
The Magnifying-Glass Icon in Search Design: Pros and Cons
Users recognize a magnifying-glass icon as meaning ‘search’ even without a textual label. The downside is that icon-only search is harder for users to find.
Can We Avoid a Surveillance State Dystopia?
Distributed technology vs. state abuses of such. Cameras are everywhere — including in the hands of witnesses. Photos can be manipulated — by anyone, and the masses can spot and report a fake quickly. States or corporations can amass huge amounts of data — but a single whistleblower can smuggle out evidence of it in his pocket. (via Slashdot)
A Brief Meandering About the Polar Vortex (Bad Astronomy)
The polar vortex is a normal weather feature that usually circles within the arctic area. This year it dipped southward over North America, bringing extreme cold and snow to most of the continent…while Alaska experienced much milder temperatures than normal, California continued its drought, and the southern hemisphere experienced record summer heat.
The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth
This looks like an interesting read on LA geographical history. Geography and water have been on my mind lately for obvious reasons. Via a comment on Hidden Los Angeles
Wow. An incredible sunset view of NYC
NSF Report Flawed; Americans Do Not Believe Astrology is Scientific
In surveys, as in arguments, defining your terms is critical. (By which I mean it's important, not that it guarantees a hit in D&D or represents sufficient mass to undergo a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.)
Wow. Some important lessons here on computer account security, for users and more importantly for service providers. The Twitter name isn’t the scary part…it’s that it was way too easy for the attacker to gain control of the domain name, email and web hosting with just a pair of phone calls.
How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username
A story of how PayPal and GoDaddy allowed the attack and caused me to lose my $50,000 Twitter username.
82% of enterprise Mac users not getting security updates
It looks like Apple has stopped releasing security fixes for older versions of MacOSX. “Microsoft has been taking heat for discontinuing Windows XP after supporting it for more than 12 years. I think Apple might be able to do a little better than 15 months.”
Vaccinations have done far more good than harm for the general health of the population. If you're opposed to vaccination in general, you're effectively asking to return to the days of severe childhood diseases, many of them with lifelong complications and high mortality rates.
Some good advice on how to help users dig themselves out of a failed search query.
3 Guidelines for Search Engine “No Results” Pages
When users get 0 search results, there’s a high risk of site abandonment. Better design can turn this UX disaster into an opportunity for content discovery.
Be careful with your defaults to make sure you aren’t sending messages you don’t intend.
Ghost and Accidental Messaging – Alex King
I investigate pretty much every new publishing system that comes out. I’m eager to see what features they think are important, and see what might spark new ideas for my own site. I got my invite…
It’s been a while since I’ve used Pocket, but it may help make up for the lack of offline access in Feedly. https://dolcedesign.com/2013/12/22/why-in-gods-name-do-i-need-instapaper-or-pocket-or-readability/
Cosette’s best Christmas present ever: Jean Valjean showing up and taking her away from the Thenardiers.
https://hyperborea.org/les-mis/book/escaping-montfermeil/
Would a French village in 1823 have had a Santa Claus? Thinking of the over-the-top movie version of Master of the House.
Interview: Bruce Sterling Answers Your Questions
Last week you had a chance to ask “Chairman Bruce” about the state of sci-fi, dystopian futures, and the modern surveillance state. Below you’ll find his answers to those questions, including who would win if he fought William Gibson and Neal Stephenson in a no-holds-barred battle.
Interesting read.
European Maps Showing Origins of Common Words
I’ve always found these sorts of comparisons fascinating.
A nice overview of why mobile apps should assume intermittent network access and handle disconnections gracefully.
Designing Offline-First Web Apps
We assume our users are like us—with the latest devices, the most recent software, and the fastest connections. And while we may maintain a veritable zoo of older devices and browsers for testing, we…
Cool! A photo I took when I was 8 has been featured on the @Flickr blog!
https://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/12/04/twittertuesday-the-1980s-2/
More on Responsive Design. It’s a great way (probably the ideal way) to make your site work across devices. But you still need to tailor your content, too. They’re complementary approaches.
Responsive Design Won’t Fix Your Content Problem
For years, we’ve told clients to serve the same content to every platform. We explained that Responsive Web Design allows content to squish itself into any container. Is it any wonder, then, that the…
