Author: Steven Garrity

The Open Directory Project: yahoo.communists

by Steven Garrity

The Open Directory Project at dmoz.org is another wacky love child of the AOL-TimeWarner merger. Other bizarre offspring of the corporate mega marriage include Mozilla and Gnutella.

Basically an open-source version of the Yahoo editorial system, dmoz has the advantage of having actual human beings (of varying quality) decide which site goes in which category, without the disadvantage of possible censorship associated with a central system. Anyone can signup to be an editor.

Anyone can use the Open Directory Project data on their site. Sites using it include Google, Altavista, Netcenter, Lycos, and Hotbot.

Acts of Volition is proud to be listed under on The Open Directory Project under:

Top: Computers: Internet: WWW: Web Logs: Personal: A

 

The Viacom Music Video Awards

by Steven Garrity

I know criticism is easy but that doesn’t mean you can’t be particularly good at it. Jeff Stark, the associate editor of Salon Arts and Entertainment, is very good at it.

Read his article Rock is dead and well at the MTV;; Video Awards at Salon. Sure, criticizing the MTV;; VMAs for being low class and artless is kind of like criticizing *Nsync for pandering to teenage girls, but this is still a fun article.

A representative sample (italics mine):

Durst of Limp Bizkit (do not follow this link) said something about being in “the world’s most hated rock band.” This is the same lame outlaw posturing Metallica specializes in. How unpopular can you be, Fred, if you’re up onstage getting an award from Viacom?

 

sites that do what we do, only better

by Steven Garrity
* k10k.net is down this week (Sept 3 – 10) but it will be up again on Sept 11, 2000
 

The Internet fried my brain

by Steven Garrity

I remember reading an article about how the web and hyperlinks were going to change the way children thought. At the time I dismissed it as mumbo-jumbo about non-linear thought patterns and other such nonsense. I fear the hypothesis have been proven true in myself.

Sitting in an evening university class (a place which is both foreign and familiar to me), I found myself constantly wanting the professor to move on. I found myself ‘skimming’ the lecture and was incredibly frustrated when I couldn’t control the movement from topic to topic.

Clearly, part of the problem is my inability to interact with people who don’t exist on my computer. However, I think this points to a clear conclusion: The Internet has fried my brain.

 

is ‘The Man’ designing your operating system?

by Steven Garrity

From Jakob Neilsen‘s Alertbox column on Regulatory Usability at useit.com:

“I don’t like the Government telling Microsoft to make their software even worse by preventing them from integrating features into the operating system. I also don’t like the notion of user interfaces designed by the Justice Department.”

I don’t like Microsoft‘s bully tactics any more than the next guy (NOTE: I love Notepad), but I definitely agree with Jakob on this one.

 

I can’t buy it if I don’t know what it is

by Steven Garrity

Despite being an unfortunate Amazon.com rip-off (and we all know how much I hate rip-offs) Startech, a computer accessory manufacturer, has an exemplary website in terms simplicity, product information, and something which is often overlooked, high quality, hi-res, kick-ass product photography.

Earth to other e-commerce sites: I’ve never seen product shots this good. It doesn’t cost much to get a decent digital camera folks. Especially after you’ve spent hundreds of thousands on your website and millions on marketing. I can’t buy it if I don’t know what it is.

They have actual customer service and very handy product finding wizards. You can’t order directly, but my local reseller is just down the street.

When it comes to useful product info on e-commerce sites, some big players just don’t get it. Check out this laughable details page for a similar product at OnVia.