Recent Posts

1151

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows vs. Mac: I'm starting to change.

« Last post by Paul Keith on October 01, 2009, 09:37 AM »

This is a weird topic. People moving from Windows to OSX and liking it seems so overstated nowadays I expected this to be a topic of someone moving from Mac back to Windows because of all the price nuances/limitations/troubleshooting and the constant need to buy Apple products.

Btw ironically enough, I feel that Linux's time is coming. Linux Mint is coming around well. Few screw-ups whenever Ubuntu changes directions but so far the day of the copy-paste distroes for newbs seems to be getting slimmer and slimmer.

Photoshop is also starting to be less necessary. There may be a time that the confusing interface of GIMP could be dropped in favor of combinations of applications. Manga Studio for example is bad at colors but can handle more layers than Photoshop. Corel Painter, much easier interface for newbies to grasp I think. Paint.net much lighter than Photoshop. Toon Boom much suited for motion comics based on what I've seen.

Note that I'm not even a newbie to Photoshop and I don't understand it but from what I've read, Photoshop is becoming less and less an app for hobbyist except for the multitude of tutorials it supports.

If an art following can even touch the Linux community, there may be someone with the guts to rip out the guts from GIMP and provide it as separate complementary apps akin to a suite. That alone combined with an improving Linux could be a god send. Hell, the lack of games could even be perceived as a productivity bonus.

1152

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm tired of being told.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 30, 2009, 11:03 AM »

Ouch Innuendo! Harsh...

One factor is probably the fact that the premium version gets signature updates quicker than the free version. It may also be that the free version is using an older version of Avira's detection engine.

Yeah, that's true but it seems weird if those are the criteria.

Avira Free auto-updates so even when the premium version gets it earlier, it shouldn't really affect performance that much.

Also as far as I know, what makes Avira so great as a free product is that the detection engine is on-par with the paid version except the Premium version has an internet blocker that can sometimes slow down sites. (IMO Avira is Donationware in everything but name. Which still makes it great as action speaks louder than words but words still sell quality products and gets them their revenue.)

1153

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm tired of being told.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 30, 2009, 07:02 AM »

@MrCrispy,

That has some truth in it but you forget the fact that Linux has some social engineering of it's own. (Multiple Distroes/Constant new versions coming out.)

It'd be like saying once Firefox or Opera gets as popular as IE, they'd be targeted. That would be true but they still would be better than IE.

@sri,

There was a short while when Nod underperformed against it's competitors. Not by much but not sure if that's why the site ranks it lower.

Can't really say I understand the site though. For example, how can Antivir Free be any less secure than Antivir Premium?

1154

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm tired of being told.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 10:35 PM »

@sri,

Well, I'm not sure where you got your recommendation but that's kind of the ups and downs with Wilders Security.

They are so obsessed with security that many are pioneers for exposing Nod32 and Kaspersky and Malwarebytes so that nowadays we can just recommend them but at the same time, that same obsession means constant comparison and searching for even newer and better ways to secure Windows.

The middle result is that you get posts like these.

1155

General Software Discussion / Re: For those who write articles on CMS, a question.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 04:18 PM »

Also, how important is it that your visitors actually read or scan the whole listing? Are they supposed to do that, or do they just arrive and click a specific link they're interested in?

To be honest, in an ideal world, I would like online articles to totally replace books/pdfs but without the hypertext and annoyance of a generic static page ala a wiki.

Check out the BBC News site: they use lists arranged into blocks of different but coherent styles, so that they don't look too much like lists, and the content is sectioned in a very clear way.

No offense intended. I'm not saying these are horrible but I find them confusing compared to today's Web 2.0 sites.

Maybe it's just the age difference or maybe it's just preference but the site to me is the equivalent of the OurSignal lay-out except it's more cluttered by images and categories and it's not as clear as OurSignal's way of showing which post holds more "popularity".

For example, with a large OurSignal block, I get that it's "more popular". With the BBC site, I can't focus on one text because as soon as my eyes are drawn to it when scanning...oh wait! there's a BBC sports ...wait! Is that a cook site...no? woman. Woman...*squints eyes* ...that is underneath... Cancer Jab "unlikely" death cause.

That said, I agree with your criticism of OurSignal and it's far from perfect. I just wanted to confirm whether Joomla might be capable of re-producing such an effect if I focus solely on it.

1156

General Software Discussion / Re: Short Attention Spans with regards to Technology - Does it really exist?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 03:15 PM »

@app,

I never said that short attention spans didn't exist. I said that most people probably do not suffer from it. Those that do suffer from it (ADD/ADHD) don't like it one bit and it causes problems in their life of one sort or another.

Sorry. I was just over-simplifying the point to cut my sentences short.

Should you ever want friendfeed lessons from a power user, feel free to send me a private message there and I'll show you all the wonders and great tools.

Sure, feel free to do so. I just subscribed to your Feed:

My profile:

http://friendfeed.com/theplagiarist

You would be really surprised at what goes on, on friendfeed. A lot of very intelligent people with a lot to offer. I never saw a social network quite like it before. It reminds me a lot of this forum in a lot of ways. It is the first of the "web 2.0" social networks that actually had the ability to draw me in and capture my attention for more than 2 weeks and made me feel like I belonged. The rest of them all made me scratch my head and ask "why do people like this?" and left me feeling like a space alien. (and I think I have tried almost all of them)

I get where you're coming from. Nothing like a forum with a nice community and friendly people behind it.

But it does matter who you are subscribed to. Not everyone is social. Too many dump their feeds there and never really participate or talk to the people they are subscribed to.

Guilty as charged. I tried but it was like Twitter. Without friends, it felt like I was navigating through a messier RSS Reader.

(Plus I don't get, lifestreaming. Caused my posts to get double posted when I double posted on some service.)

1157

General Software Discussion / I'm tired of being told.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 03:05 PM »

Source: http://www.wildersse...wthread.php?t=254088

Today something hit me and it wasnt a bag of dung. A poster made light of a post i had made about avatars and suggesting certain software. I finally came to see the point. Enough for that and I apologize.

What I am tired of it not being able to put my faith in one product and calling it a day. i am tired of being told it wont work. I am tired of being told that i need multiple items to stay safe. Safe from what? Myself? maybe. I am tired of seeing how the so called reality to people popping in here realize, they can not leave their screen doors open because of.....

Why cant we choose one product and be safe and secure. I know why but i am not about to spend 30 minutes explaining because in the end it is pure BS. You can buy one product and be perfectly happy and safe, that, is the reality. The chances of you getting a piece of malware are basically zero if you are what most refer to as a average computer user. I am tired of hearing from so called experts here that I need this and this and this. What is it based on, because that is not true and is a out right lie.

You can choose any product here that fights malware and be perfectly content and safe. You do not have to even think that what others may say is even close to reality. Boy, I am rolling. But the reality is we create a mass hysteria by posting test results, personal test results and the like. Nuff said because I will be bashed like heck for this, but i really, dont care. If you actually read this post remember this. There are good products here, choose one, and you will be fine. Catching just 60 percent of malware is perfectly fine because what they wont say is, you will never encounter the other 40 percent anyway, or your chances are very slim. No, they wont tell you that.

All I can say is, first I dont recomend any product, nor will I ever, but this site was created for a sole purpose and that purpose and/or product is great. But even if you decide to go another route, pick one and move on because you do not need 30 blankets to keep your ass warm in the winter. Just one electric one.

Some of you may accuse me for not going SFO (Search Forum Optimization) on the title but I didn't want it to be this way because we both know that the topic theme goes beyond Antivirus Security.

Still, to limit it to the theme of Windows security, I'm never tired of this becuase no one has made an .exe or Idiot's Guide to Sandboxie + LUA + KAfU + SRP + DEP + SuRun and so I prefer living in the bliss of AV and Antispyware and I feel that if a newb wants to learn this, they're better off buying two PCs.

One using Linux for their main files and another having a Windows drive that isn't connected via networking (so that the virus can not infect Windows even if it infected and is immune in Linux)

Still...in an ideal world, I prefer a world where a Virtualized OS does not require halving and knowing how to set the difference in RAM and GB and it just works out of the box for manipulating files and everything I want to backup, I just drag into a "Backup Bin" and when I'm ready, I just click it and the OS is able to put it into backup mode and you're shown a different layer of the OS specifically for backing up these projects.

(Yes, Sandboxie does a variation of this for security but the ui isn't as convenient as say Dropbox for pure backing up and segmenting of back-up files.)

1158

General Software Discussion / Re: For those who write articles on CMS, a question.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 02:57 PM »

@trianglos,

Ah I see...

Would you say that the nest/outline view capability is the only big ui difference between optimizing for mutli-page static pages in Joomla?

I ask this because I have seen people praise things like Tumblr's archive (example) but criticize it because the rest of the ui doesn't quite match. (Like that page has no search engine)

Others have praised popurls' and Alltop's way of simplifying the Netvibes engine lay-out.

Still there are some uis which I feel have the potential of being a better way of negating discovery of old blog posts without forcing it to use a model of pick 1 random article like OurSignal's way of showing aggregated news.

Still kind of confusing but I guess to understand my question, you would have to consider people like me who don't feel comfortable with any kinds of list so when thinking of a multi-post static page ui for us, my question stems from asking whether the difference is just Joomla's ability to create outline style categories and top menus (I know I've already said that before) or you are just showing one of the more obvious ways that Joomla differs from Wordpress? (That is if I focused on Joomla, I should have a more tech-newbie friendlier way of going wild with menus so that I can design/experiment with a multi-post static page that is on par with being an advanced website designer/developer and is tailored made for people like me who prefer other ways of navigating besides outline lists.)

1159

General Software Discussion / Re: Short Attention Spans with regards to Technology - Does it really exist?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 02:35 PM »

@app

On twitter you don't read...you scan.

Not saying you are wrong but the same people who often mention short attention spans, often mention the fact that everyone or at least 99% of readers in the Internet are diagonal readers or F-readers.

F readers basically are people who read the first line completely when their curiosity is peaked. (ex. headlines, first sentence of post)

After that, depending on the quality of the content, they sputter out or end up reading the posts completely.

Meanwhile diagonal readers are ones who read the headers, bolded bullet points, etc. while scanning the rest no matter if they are valuable contents or something useless until they have judged the content enough to reread it, drop it or take note of some minor bits.

With a feed reader, you subscribe to content of all the same type when you subscribe to a feed. Less noise, more signal. More articles, no list of what the blogger had for lunch.

As you alluded to in your post, this only works if you have set up the folders between Photography and Photographers correctly. Most people who go to these lengths already have gone through the issue of filtering the data to it's minimum categories.

The rest pretty much don't use these types of RSS readers at all or they use it because they don't know of Netvibes and Feedly.

If you want to see how interested people can really be with a simple 140 char post, compare the level of engagement in the original format of twitter and to the same posts imported to Friendfeed.  Human filtering can make all the difference when it comes to separating the noise from the signal and generating an interesting discussion around the content that 140 chars was pointing to.

The post on twitter might pick up a comment or 2, and might even get a bunch of RT's, but a substantial group discussion that is more interesting than the original 140 chars? Not going to happen. People don't really read tweets. And there is no way to keep the entire discussion on the same page. It's too fragmented.

On friendfeed, you are still scanning for content of interest, but if you like something you mark it and it makes it more noticeable, sending it again past the people that missed it the first time. If another marks it, it starts to grow more visible, and again goes past those that missed it the first 2 times. Then comments make it a larger block, sending it past again. The more times it comes past you and the bigger it gets, the more likely you will notice it, read it, and interact with it. Your friends have filtered for you to help you find the signal among the noise. But if it is noise to you, despite the interest others have in it, you can hide it and never see it again.

I'll admit that when I tried FriendFeed, probably because I don't have default friends, I could never read any of the discussions there or even when I join some, it gets annoying because I don't know when a thread has added a new comment or reply.

I have used Plurk though and discussions don't get better. In fact, it is perceived as a wrong thing by people who see me constantly break the 140 char. limit of the replies. (and I would argue that from my experience with both, Plurk alerts you better to new replies to your comments)

Another problem with this is that if we ignore the 140 char. limit, we still have the issue that each forums have different cultures. If I posted this on a random board with a tech sub-board for example, I probably wouldn't get any reply that equals the depth of your reply here.

But if we just attribute it to the different interest levels of different forums, than we still couldn't estimate the interest span of these areas because a forum with the most members interested in a single issue is not always the most civil of forums but is in fact more exposed to knee-jerk and rude posters. A forum with fewer members on the other hand may not even hold a candle to the community of DC.

...but the problem now is that we're going nowhere because we both already agree with the idea that short attention span (as a word) might not exist.

Unfortunately, for someone like me who is often accused of writing too long of a post, these kinds of concepts aren't just an issue of agreement or disagreement. Knowing the reality of these concepts could make or break the difference between a post that people I align with will read and from a post they will ignore.

(I often don't care about the rest of the internet population not because I don't value their opinion but they may not care so much about a topic that their comments are often just short twitter level comments and not a discussion that could help educate/enlighten/expand on my dilemmas and ignorance.)

1160

General Software Discussion / Re: Dying technologies: do you still use a printer much?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 12:29 PM »

The printer may be dying but it may become the next killer app.

Imagine if e-book readers become cheap enough. You can develop a cheap stand-alone e-paper page where instead of printing on paper, it prints out the contents into your e-book. (The emphasis is on cheap because the hardware cannot be an e-book reader, it can only store temporary data like paper.)

Now after you read it, you can put it back on the printer and it will delete the data. The catch is that it has a large enough storage data to support 10000 pages.

Now if you want a higher priced model, you can buy a model that can be folded out or be portable or be extra durable. In fact, you can save all the costs for the additional features of an e-book reader and instead get a 5-10 set of these that is much easier in the hand to hold and much more durable.

You could even pursue getting back the dividends from these by supporting for digital rental libraries where people can just insert one of these and borrow a book from a database. Catch being it is read until you delete.

It may not be the next generation of tablet pcs/cellphone hybrids or e-book readers but I'd rather get one of these if the cost differential is different enough compared to the cost of those other portable hardware.

...but of course it has a major flaw of not having wi-fi but still... better reason to make it cheap.

1161

General Software Discussion / Re: Short Attention Spans with regards to Technology - Does it really exist?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 12:16 PM »

Thanks app and housetier, I'd try to ask something more in-depth but I think I'd probably bore both of you so just one question:

The thing with the theory of short attention spans though, is that even if you change the names or disagree with it, one of the core lessons is being direct to the point.

The common example being that you tune out to something you're not interested in because the author rambles on.

However what happens when it's something you're not interested in but the article is 140 characters

I can't speak for everyone but I find it interesting how I tune out more to twitter posts than when I'm scanning RSS feeds. (But the interface is important. For example, I hate Google Reader's default mark as read when you pass by it)

...or vice versa? (Yes, I'm cheating the 1 question bit)

What happens when it's long but you're interested in it and you found it to be direct to the point?

Again, can't speak for everyone but I found that I can read a long pdf (even if it has clunkier page switch controls and slower and more horizontal scrolling) than I could a long list of articles with hyperlink texts to other articles. (ex. wiki lists when you're in list navigation view)

Note that I'm totally severing the link to program interfaces so that the direction of the issue is more focused.

1162

General Software Discussion / Re: For those who write articles on CMS, a question.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 12:06 PM »

@trianglos:

 

Joomla, by comparison, got the menu right (but little else).

Your post made me curious. Could you post a screenshot on why a menu in Joomla is more optimized for 50 or more pages?

I just can't imagine a menu that can handle 20 or so pages but suddenly switches usability with 50 or more pages.

@40hz

Thanks. It still went way over my head (because I know nothing about servers especially when using a personal PC) but I think I'll just gut this one out as I can't think of any question that would make it clearer to me.

1163

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome Frame boosts IE speed to Chrome levels

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 11:57 AM »

I haven't tried it but one of the comment underneath said:

IE-specific features and extensions won't work == user confusion
IE features like accelerators and webslices don't work when Chrome Frame is rendering the page. Likewise, IE extensions that interact with the page content (like spellcheckers, highlight bars, form fillers, etc) will not work with Chrome Frame. These problems will confuse the majority of users, especially if there is no obvious visual clue that Chrome Frame is displaying the page.

1164

General Software Discussion / Re: For those who write articles on CMS, a question.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 12:35 AM »

Thanks!

Edit: I forgot to ask does the Wordpress stack (I don't really know what stacks is) support everything from simulating adding Adsense, Wordpress plugins, Writing from Windows Live Writer-like editor to the stacks or is it just a simulator for the barebones service?

1165

General Software Discussion / Re: Godin: the end of dumb software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 29, 2009, 12:07 AM »

I've been doing nothing but pooh-poohing Seth's article starting with my first comment on page one.

Oh sorry. I missed that.

But that's Seth for you. He's made a career out of doing that. I'm amazed he never worked for Apple. I'm guessing he didn't because Steve Jobs didn't want any competition in the mystical techno-blather department. Especially since everybody (including Steve) knows Godin would have done it better.

Lol, thanks for this.

I never knew that was what Seth's reputation was. I just thought he was one of those pioneer "idea guys" that tech experts respect because he spouts some super secret articles that seem vague and weird to newbs like me.

In fairness to Steve though, Seth IMO does a better job of sounding simple and less in delivering something simple.

Ex.

As far as I know Squidoo was more exposed to Seth's name but no one truly got it. Or at least I didn't.

Compare this to Hubpages whose name made it much easier to grasp the whole concept behind it. (Even if it was mainly a similar service to Squidoo)

Compare this to AllTop who, even if it's something that can be done on IGoogle and Netvibes and had a weird name, still defeated Squidoo because it was much less ambitious.

Compare this to Diigo who, even with a weird name that many thought represented the tooth of a sabertooth tiger, won a niche because it beat Squidoo in delivering the simplicity of it's advanced features.

Sure it's just one example and it is unfair to the guy because I never read his works, only praises of him, but I don't think Jobs ever screwed up an ambitious project like that to so many other competitors.

Then again, it could just be attributed to Jobs taking less risk and being the Jay Leno of tech marketing. I know I've seen videos of "How to be like Steve Jobs" parodying how Jobs just repeat the same marketing trick over and over again with his products.  

1166

General Software Discussion / Re: For those who write articles on CMS, a question.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 11:32 PM »

(Hmm...maybe I should use a different word? Bash sounds so inelegant and chaotic when it's actually quite the opposite in this context.)

IMO, that's one way to get around that.  

It's one of the dropped topics I was originally going to post in GOE. Ended up posting some of the current examples I have here:

http://thinksimpleno...guage/#comment-63510

Yeah, I often hear praise of Wordpress but because I'm not focused specifically on learning the system right now as opposed to writing articles, I don't really feel it's advantageous to cash out on an application especially when I'm unemployed.

Also from what little I've seen of Wordpress in the previews, I don't think it will really show me all the difference between a chronological blog and a mult-page static site so that's still something I have to learn elsewhere. (somehow)

 

1167

General Software Discussion / Re: Godin: the end of dumb software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 11:17 PM »

Haha, no it doesn't count! 

...but see? You agree too. The word smart doesn't really sound like it fits a specific concept even if it is a new word.

...yet everyone besides me here seems to know what Seth is talking about, I just had to ask.

1168

General Software Discussion / Re: For those who write articles on CMS, a question.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 10:46 PM »

Haha, thanks for that. Yeah, I've read a similar theme'd opinion before but it never hurts to repeat that and read everyone's take on it.

I'll admit, my reply was more casually written and didn't really hint of already knowing that.

If I have one criticism with that it's that focusing on that concept derails as much as it helps.

What I mean by this is that the "Bash at that" situation works and works so well ...but it's so random and so general, that things like: How good are you at being a generalizing specialist vs. being a specializing generalist comes to be asked. ...or how productive are you? ...or how talented are you? ...or how much people you have around that can inspire you vs. your own determination? ...ends up washing the focus away from the original question and answer.

Admittedly though, those are still the self-critical voices that needs to be quieted down but it's still a thought that should not be abandoned or else the talented and luckier basher will never realize that there's a problem and user friendler programs gets ignored in favor of a technology that constantly requires increasing pages of manual just to produce the basics of basics.

1169

General Software Discussion / Re: News: Diigo finally updated to version 4

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 10:32 PM »

From a newb techie perspective, I don't think there's an easy way unless you have a Dropbox account and use it for that.

Even then you have limited storage and it's not really easy switching accounts.

The closest and most popular alternative is Evernote but outside of PDF support for the pro version, it doesn't compare with the quality of Scrapbook's highlighting. (unless you just use one color)

1170

General Software Discussion / Re: Short Attention Spans with regards to Technology - Does it really exist?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 09:29 PM »

Are you sure it's exactly more than 2 minutes? Maybe you can't focus on some webpages for more than 1? Maybe other webpages make you focus more on it for up to 2 and 30 seconds?  

1171

General Software Discussion / News: Diigo finally updated to version 4

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 09:26 PM »

Sorry if this was posted before but I didn't see any hint that it was.

Anyways, it's still no longer my main annotation tool after mwang alerted me to Scrapbook+ but nevertheless:

http://blog.diigo.co...iigo-v4-is-live-now/

The improvements seem minor (compared to the level of improvements expected of Diigo), but the aesthetics of the interface feels comfortable again. (If you weren't a fan of v3 and felt it was too confusing.)

Downside is the forum/group seems much harder to differentiate between bookmarks and posts (but I'm not seeing many complaints in their forum so it's probably tolerable) but the upside is that the toolbar now has a button where you can hide the toolbar and that the highlights are much easier to read again because they aren't black texts on white backgrounds with a thin layer of line to denote a box... but instead are actual snippets of gray background.

Main noticeable feature is the highlight pen which is a menu that pops up in a highlight so you could easily switch colors, add inline sticky notes and delete the highlight without clicking on a drop down arrow but just hovering your mouse over it.

1172

General Software Discussion / Re: Short Attention Spans with regards to Technology - Does it really exist?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 09:18 PM »

Yeah, it sounds good in theory but that's why I'm being skeptical.

It might be a case that common sense (which is not so common) is replacing valid objectivity of the word.

Plus "Did you see that?!?" is a bad real scenario example. It implies that as you're viewing this page, there are things popping up all over your PC.

In that situation, you should be more worried that your anti-virus is not working rather than on focusing on one webpage. /sarcasm

1173

General Software Discussion / Re: Short Attention Spans with regards to Technology - Does it really exist?

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 08:12 PM »

This Amazon review provides a much shorter and direct issue as to why I'm skeptical:

Source: http://www.amazon.co...ewpnt#R1TY559HFLITPR

The Web demands your writing deliver "joltage". A former chief executive of the Fairfax newspaper group liked to compare the newspaper-reading experience to a warm bath. Web reading, by comparison, is a 30-second shower - get in, get the job done, wake you up, don't hang around. As Kilian puts it: "Computers condition us for high joltage. A 'jolt' is an emotional reward that follows a prescribed action ... We feel deprived if we don't get some sort of jolt at regular intervals, so we go where we hope to find more stimulation which, on the Web, means web sites."

I don't quite agree with the warm bath example as I never grew the habit of picking up any newspaper outside of a tabloid but it seems much more true that everything on the web is a joltage.

If it is, doesn't it further prove that attention span doesn't exist at all? That when someone ignores the content of your post, it is not because they have some innate clock within their attention spans but that often times, your article, your product and your program just doesn't jolt those people enough?

I compare this with a program that has a wiki, a manul and a forum vs. a program that has all of these AND has a live guest demo, a clear way to spot the pricing scheme, an above average quickguide and a design that gives the illusion of simplicity but is far far more complex.

Beware old-style marketers who see the Web as another opportunity to pump a message at a commercial audience. In most media, the marketer hunts the customer down and delivers a broadcast or printed spiel that can be hard to avoid. On the Web, the customer comes looking for the transaction, with a million other sites a single mouse-click away. Research shows Web users are uncommonly likely to bolt at the sight of an old-style marketing pitch. A very few good Web marketers, on the other hand, already understand that the message of a commercial Web site must rely on a more subtle link with a brand's values.

Again, doesn't the bolded part imply that the key factor is in manipulating people and not in people manipulating themselves (even when they claim to be manipulating themselves)?

The Web suits "response" writing which prompts the user to carry out an activity. In the offline commercial world an entire marketing discipline - direct response copywriting - has evolved to offer users spcific benefits if they carry out particular actions. Indeed, the long-established rules of direct response advertising copywriting often look remarkably like Web writers need to import these direct response lessons, in just the same way that Web interface designers need to understand how to convince users to click on the appropriate screen buttons. "The Web is a culture of impatience," writes Kilian. "Effective appeals offer quick and painlesss ways to respond".

...and this is where I am lost again. It seems like a "magic card trick" term.

You only agree with the idea that it is a culture of impatience after the answer has been given to you.

Yet, when I was reading that paragraph, the thing that strikes me was impatience was the last thing I would attribute it to. Instead I would say the web is a culture of gullibity and I'm not just thinking of scams and such.

Even people like the Open Source fanatics, produces and inspires gullibility out of the group being gullible.

Now I am not saying these people are stupid. Far from it.

I think what I'm getting at (I'm not really sure) is the idea that because all of these qualities attributed to short attention span have some truth in them, that even smart people on the web can get lazy at verifying anything.

...and that ignores the vague issue of opinions, groupthink and internet peer pressure and gullibility towards all of those words. (which are qualities that investigative journalism nor empiricism don't really handle)

If this is true, then wouldn't the reality simply be that the problem with communicating with all kinds of people on the internet (including short attention span people) stems from us just not maximizing the manipulation of people...or the manipulation of joltage to reel in our culture of gullibility?

Of course, this is an evil perception and some well-meaning person who put alot of passion to their products may 100% disagree that it is what they're doing but that's why I'm asking.

1174

General Software Discussion / Re: For those who write articles on CMS, a question.

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 07:45 PM »

I guess, I really should have thought more about the question.

-Paul Keith (September 28, 2009, 12:54 PM)

Don't be so hard on yourself.

I sometimes need to ask a few questions before I know enough to ask my real question.

-40hz (September 28, 2009, 03:18 PM)

Thanks but it's kind of annoying because on my part, I wasn't just asking the question to deal with the theory.

I was seeking the answer because I need it -- in the sense of improving my blog without paying and learning more about technoloy -- so it is kind of annoying to not receive the "Ultimate Answer" because the question is not the question that can receive it.

1175

General Software Discussion / Re: Godin: the end of dumb software

« Last post by Paul Keith on September 28, 2009, 07:38 PM »

Yeah mouser but don't you think those categories/this word is/are just too contradicting to even make sense as a single category?

Maybe it's just me but I've never heard of people specifically using the words "smarter" when complaining about a software.

Even intuitive is not a word with a pre-set model that can be explained in two words that you can suddenly start producing something intuitive. It's an adjective that makes unanimous sense because we have the benefit of hindsight.