May 2010

iPad is everything the Kindle isn’t (for my use cases)

May 25, 2010
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I acquired an Apple iPad a few weeks ago and am very impressed with it. Just as background, i’m a PC person (a desktop at work, home, and a Fujitsu P1620 ultramobile tablet, all running Windows 7).  My portable computer weighs about 2.5 lbs but the iPad is a full pound lighter and the battery lasts about 10 hours. Less [...]

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Users: Are they the people using the towels or the people replacing the towels?

May 13, 2010

Answer: They are hopelessly intertwined.

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Facebook and Privacy: A Guest Post by Kelly Caine

May 8, 2010
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Many of my friends have threatened to leave Facebook because of their concerns over privacy, but for the first time, this week one of them actually made good on the threat. In his “Dear John” letter, my friend Yohann summarized the issue: I don’t feel that I am in control of the information I share on Facebook, and of the [...]

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“Human Factors” mentioned in NYT article referring to massive oil spill

May 4, 2010
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The BP oil explosion in the Gulf of Mexico hits close to home for me, literally. I grew up in Mobile, Alabama and my parents are watching the arrival of the spill. The New York Times published a story about oil industry opposition to regulation and safety and included within a discussion of human factors by a vice president at [...]

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Evil Interfaces

May 3, 2010

Excellent post at the EFF describing “evil interfaces“, or interfaces that may be deliberately designed to make you do things you did not intend to do: As Conti describes it, a good interface is meant to help users achieve their goals as easily as possible. But an “evil” interface is meant to trick users into doing things they don’t want [...]

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