Recent Posts

701

Living Room / What's the best way to combine two mini-reviews?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 11:33 PM »

I want to review two different concepts provided by two different services.

I wanted to review them though because together I think they provide some new ways to present the web.

I'm thinking of sharing them via a blog post but I don't really have a blog aimed for that. (and I don't think I can sustain a concept sharing blog)

I'm thinking DC's mini-review but I don't want to confuse those looking for a review.

702

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: TaskDaddy

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 10:40 PM »

There's also TaskBlaze if you haven't heard of it.

These apps aren't really whether there's something similar or not.

They are more about which program has the most comfortable syntax.

It's like CircleDock. Why use it when there's RocketDock? Because people may want it in a circle.

703

Developer's Corner / Re: Style guidelines for how to structure helpfiles?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 10:34 PM »

I think transcripts are a great start.

Other flaws I see with screencasts currently is that most of them are on the web and not on a blog page or some other forms that are much more navigational than youtube. (and much more easily downloable)

That said, it's not easy. I think in order to have a fine screencast, just like in order to have a fine manual, a presenter should understand that they are not providing a replacement manual but like with images, they are providing the best help they can provide.

Help is the relative word here.

For most people if a screencast can make it easy for you to both play and not play it and skip to the thing you want, that itself should be a requirement. (Both because it speeds up the loading and because it makes it easy to refer back to a specific section.)

Finally a fine screencast is best used reactive and introductive.

People usually falling in the middle are willing to navigate text rather than video because they themselves probably don't fully know what they are wondering about.

Introduction screencasts are great because it makes it clearer to complete newbies. Reactive screencasts are great because the problem is deemed explainable but too confusing or scary to do step by step.

Example: creating a... troubleshoot help.

If the helper can show you exactly what type of potential screen and errors you may encounter and what moves you need to do, even if you face a different error, it's much less scarier. You're not only able to produce a better text documentation for yourself via jotting down notes but you could better anticipate which section is about to give you the most headache and what you could immediately do to circumvent that trouble instead of a text manual saying If so and so happens do this... If so and so happens do that.

It's also great for long texts that need a form of social proof i.e. ebook making tutorials or web site making tutorials. If someone can immediately warn you to switch to a different app and that this is enough for now and let's not mess with this service because it may hold you back on the next section - it's much easier (and quicker) to grasp where each piece form to achieve a process rather than have a manual say - Don't forget this or Why you should this.

704

Living Room / Re: Does serif matter in web fonts?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 09:26 PM »

Thanks guys.

I guess size is another problem I hadn't considered.

I'm also using some italicized fonts to convey thought.

Hmm...

705

Living Room / Re: The Fallacy of One Thing Leading to Another

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 09:16 PM »

Funny that you say there's a fallacy of saying one thing leads to another ("rape games lead to more rape!") while at the same time saying one thing leads to another ("rape games reduce rape!").

Sorry if this wasn't made clear, the post is not mine.

I just don't see the difference between a rape game and a game that would allow you to have sex with children. Just because there are pedophiles out there doesn't mean we should let them prey on digital children.

I'm not trying to argue for that person but yes, the underlined is one of the key problems.

The big question really is how all sides can come to accept each other's terms.

because probably most people as kids play some kind of game (cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, etc.)

...and yet it is exactly those games that often contribute to wars.

This is a bit too far fetch for many though. (For example after the rage of revenge came post 9/11 it is very easy to flip it off as being tricked by the president rather than letting our emotions override any attempt to research the possible cause of such terrorist acts)

...but this is the way with any wicked problem. I guess I'm just mentioning this here as no different from how I approached that thread - sometimes before we can properly address the words we need to start addressing how we make excuses for one similar item and how we brand another similar item as evil and another as good.

Yet it's not possible. That would have to mean we have to feel bad about playing violent games. We would have to admit that most self-defense in games is faulty, we would have to admit that most revenge in games is written like cops and robbers rather than true tragedies, we would have to admit we're not protecting others just being lured to give ourselves an excuse to go all-out mayhem on digital characters, we would have to admit that we're basically rescuing fake people and that if we truly want to rescue lots of people we can better off serve using this time to truly rescue people that are in third world countries, poverty sections of our cities, minorities under siege...I'm not saying we should do this because I myself am not doing many of these things. I'm just trying to point out the complications - and let us not forget, sex isn't really that much less controversial even today. We can on hand have a society that publicly make sex scandal videos profitable and accuse troubled celebrities of needing to go into porn and yet similarly as a public we can look scornfully at a person not wearing underwear that was captured on photo even if what was shown is just the a lewd low quality version of what people end up knowing when they grow up anyway. Truly it is a conundrum of how we argue which things lead to another and which other thing doesn't lead to another or leads less to another.

706

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Listary – search all lists in Windows

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 08:53 PM »

Thanks for the clarification Channing.

707

Developer's Corner / Re: Style guidelines for how to structure helpfiles?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 08:46 PM »

you really cannot meaningfully use a screencast as a good reference manual.

Lots of web services use blogs to make screencasts much more easily searchable.

The end point shouldn't be forgotten though: "complimentary" not inferior.

This is the biggest flaw I think with the replies here derailing screencasts.

Even if you try to be neutral, what many of you end up saying is that the traditional help documentation is superior because you can wade through a manual.

Emphasis on "you". Yet help documentation is about help - not help preference.

Even for advanced users, the flaw of many screencasts are that they are dealing with often basic subject matters. This is not so much the fault of screencasts but screencast makers. It is then unfair to say that a help file is superior when what you're basically saying is that an ideal help file is better than majority of screencasts.

Well of course it is. That's like comparing some cream of the crop apples with some rotten oranges. The inherent properties of video though can still apply to advanced topics - it just depends on how you want your advanced topics to be received.

Omitting this virtue is basically tantamount to admitting you don't want to even consider maximizing your help towards your users because you're advanced enough to not need it and you can afford to not go further.

Screencasts are important especially as video annotations improve. Even top professionals of other arts can learn from watching someone work or understand better if they see someone's movements in sequence or frame by frame. Just because text is older than video doesn't mean it's valid to stereotype against the latter. For a long time, people didn't respect or didn't implement images in their manuals and now images are accepted if not encouraged. Video should have this same respect too - especially - especially for helping a user

All help documentations are complimentary towards the application. None of these even texts can survive on their own even if they are easy to search for. We all need some form of clue whether it is the visual trail of the mouse, the keyword associated with search, the clearly written links/outline besides the texts - all these should be here to compliment the help, not give reasons to reduce it.

708

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Request: Please share your prioritization methods here

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 06:34 AM »

I apologize for the misphrasement in my last post IainB, I was specifically referring to your explanation for "analysis of goals" and "superannuation" only.

That said, I still don't quite understand the difference between labels and categories but as far as my last post goes - I only had your two parent categories in mind.

709

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Listary – search all lists in Windows

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 04:09 AM »

Which Linux app gave the comparable features to Listary?

710

Developer's Corner / Re: Style guidelines for how to structure helpfiles?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 04:04 AM »

screencasts are not searchable

False. There are users searching for someone to show them how to work an app rather than a specific feature.

One can argue that a well designed app shouldn't need that but then one ignores how something as common and design understood as cars often require a school for people to even know how to get the thing to run.

Even for simpler applications, just because it's simple doesn't mean people get it if they don't grasp the concept and purpose.

the pace is slow

Every type of help section is slow.

Wading through poor and ignorant customer service is slow.

Wading through help files jumping from features to features just to get an animation in your head of how you can use the application is slow.

Asking around forums, registering and then hoping you don't get flamed is slow.

Even FAQs are slower because these things can skip such basic things as what the application is about when the text description isn't enough. (and assumes you know universal things such as logging in, follow, what not to do to ruin your initial experience, etc.)

I can't jump to the one bit that I am interested in

You can. Annotations/frame buttons/etc.

The point for the user in need is why would they?

There's a reason they want to look at the video and not just half of it. If you mean for further reference or rewinding then that's where the video helps give the user the confidence to understand the help manual better.

Heck even for image manipulation programs I have rarely seen a screencast be more useful than well annotated screenshots...

It could be because you had less problem learning the basics or had someone guide you through it.

For someone like me who doesn't know how to do the most basic of things like cropping, it took a screencast or a video to really help form that image in my head.

No matter how I read the text or see screenshots, I just couldn't get the basics down especially when you combine them into steps.

A screencast affords me an easier way to visualize the real time ramifications of what's happening in front of me and why someone might do something first and then do something next instead of just a bunch of isolated features.

711

Living Room / Does serif matter in web fonts?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 12:54 AM »

=Asking this here because I fear this might be too basic a question for typographic forums (if there are any, I didn't check) and because I read some old topics here where people seem to understand fonts=

Just found out that serif is for long texts in books and since I'm working on a style lay-out change for my blog articles following some people's advises, I was wondering if serif for blogs really make that big of an impact.

Unfortunately I don't know anything about typography and personally I never found either to bother me much but since I get enough people saying my posts don't make sense/aren't direct/long/etc. I wanted to maximize my odds this time of communicating my articles.

712

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Request: Please share your prioritization methods here

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 09, 2010, 12:48 AM »

Thanks, these does help very much.

Peculiar needs is what's most important with a thread like this - chances are few people will find them via Googling.

Would you say that those names have no known quality other than a label?

That is, unlike say the inbox label, these parent labels don't really have any special purpose other than being parent labels?

713

Living Room / Re: Why does digital media cost so much?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 10:52 PM »

Deozaan, you may like this comment:

A question for those who have self-published ebooks *without* prior publishing history: How many copies are you selling a month at prices like $2.99 or $0.99 (please state the price you sell at)?

In June I sold 1,628 copies of one thriller at 79 cents and 88 copies of another at $1.99. Got a new book up now for $2.99. We'll see how that goes ...

2:05 PM

Comments underneath:

http://jakonrath.blo...money-on-ebooks.html

714

Living Room / Re: Sitepoint is giving away a free ebook

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 07:33 PM »

I don't watch the World Cup. How long before the winner is announced?

715

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend collaboration software (over internet, offline or online)

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 06:22 PM »

For pure documents, this recent discount on Office Drop was my first choice but you did say audio and video: http://www.appsumo.com/

I'm not sure how credible it is though but appsumo is generally a site with good reputation.

If you're looking for some form of private read-only type uploading of files, you may take a gander at Posterous.

It's a blogging platform that transforms your attached e-mail documents to Scribd documents and the real problem is that Scribd is a public site if I'm not mistaken but the blog itself can be made private.

http://posterous.com/help/private_sites

It should be the same as other private blogs except as far as I know, Posterous allows for a person to only use their e-mail without needing to have an account in Posterous itself:

http://blog.posterou...-now-email-lists-too

Those contributors don't even need to create accounts in order to post or comment.
 
When any contributor posts to the site, we'll send that entire post, including all the images, to the contributors. They can then reply to that email to add a comment to the post. And as before, those comments get emailed to all contributors.

716

Living Room / Re: ...and you thought your country had it tough

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 04:52 PM »

@tomos

You may also find this related word to be just as interesting:

http://www.urbandict...ne.php?term=Flippish

Flippish    

(noun)One who imitates the comedy antics and catch phrases of Phil. (adj) One who has the ability to imitate Phil. (verb) To imitate the comdey antics of Phil and to repeat his catch phrases profusely.

(1)Joe: Hey Dion listen to this, "Hey Dion, stop being such a shotty hoebag. Quit it Maxi!"

Dion: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Phil: Joe stop being Flippish

717

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend collaboration software (over internet, offline or online)

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 04:46 PM »

Never participated in online collaboration so I don't have first hand experiences for these services:

Dropbox is the easiest one I can think of and was my first thought rather than Google Wave.

Depending on the size you may need to open up a separate account and re-invite each other to get a bigger space for free.

Zoho also has lots more collaboration features than Google setting Google Wave's specific real time elements aside.

If it needs to be public or semi-private - Ning Alternatives are potential options.

http://delicious.com...hk=&context=main|&fr=del_icio_us&lc=

Zerista.com looks to be the most interesting because of it's mobile capability however it's limited early beta.

The others have their bugs and quirkiness from what I read and it's difficult to narrow down anything without bugs. If you trust your files with Ning, you could probably pay for that.

As a social networking service they have forum + attachments, audio, video, gallery last time their free service was open. (and you could set the network as private)

There are also tons of web operating systems but again, I'm not sure which have evolved to really be viable for collaboration.

718

General Software Discussion / Re: Clipboard Managing-Which one?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 12:55 PM »

@steeladept,

Apologies for this presumptuous suggestion but aside from hotkeys, isn't that what mouser's Form Letter Machine does?

719

Living Room / ...and you thought your country had it tough

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 11:02 AM »

Last night, BlizzHackrei of TipidPC (source) plugged in a 2GB CD-R King USB flash drive to his PC and got a "USB Not Recognized" notification.

After a few failed attempts to make the thing work, he decided to crack open the disk to see what's wrong. Expecting to see the usual USB chipset, BlizzHackrei got dazed with what he saw inside:

Three guesses what it is. Give up? Look at the title below.

USB Flash Disk Bought at CDR-King Cracked Open, Board with MicroSD Card Sees Light, Shocks Owner ?!

from TechPinas

720

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Your Next Read - Book Discovery Search Engine (Warning Big Image)

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 10:32 AM »

@mouser,

I've used Screenshot Captor before. I meant to test and share that other service too but it seems kind of pointless in a site where people know of such programs like Screenshot Captor.

Instead, I used that extension for the first time - used the image and edited versions it provided - uploaded the image via the pre-given upload option and now I've tested both Your Next Read and that program all at the same time and am still able to share that link.

If it isn't clear, I've never used that screenshot capture program before and by using it for this mini-review - it gave me an excuse to use it and see how it works.

721

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Your Next Read - Book Discovery Search Engine (Warning Big Image)

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 09:41 AM »

Unfortunately the service doesn't have a resizer.

I considered resizing it but then I'd have to re-upload it (I wanted to test the image url since it was using something popular like imageshack). What the screen capture actually does is just make it auto convenient to post to a image url as they do that for you after you captured the screen.

I'm still thinking whether there's a point in sharing the Google Chrome extension separately because everyone here kinda knows something about a screen capture program already. (That way I could remove the image, make it a thumbnail and then attach it instead and then drop the follow-up link to the other service)

I just thought I could kill two tests with one stone using this mini-review. Plus I could share two services instead of one.

722

Living Room / Re: Why does digital media cost so much?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 07:31 AM »

@steeladept,

All I can add is that I concur.

723

Developer's Corner / Re: Style guidelines for how to structure helpfiles?

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 07:26 AM »

Marketing is help in the age of application overload.

It not only helps with discovery but most of all, it helps save the user time in figuring out whether the application is really for them.

Best of all, it helps the developer himself understand how best to help not only the users who have his perspective but especially those who don't see it the same way he does.

Which is the point of help - you want to help those who see through your eyes via the interface and you want to help those who don't via a screencast so that they can actually see how you see the application as.

It's actually lazier to not add screencasts when you can afford to because guess what? Adding screencasts doesn't remove you from the responsibility of doing all those other things like intuitive user interface.

If anything it encourages you because you don't want to be that person designing an orange painted car in a car show and have all that eyes think "scrap metal".

Similarly with a screencast - get lazy with either the interface or the screencast and it's pretty clear someone got lazy compared to the laziness hiding beneath the post-downloaded user who now needs to take some extra time figuring out your application and then uninstalling it.

I think what you guys are referring to instead are "guides". A guide can choose to leave or help someone depending on their bias. They are there to help but it's like a manual - it's there to help by being there.

...but there's a higher level of help.

That said I'm being hypocritical just so you know.

I'm the type of guy who tries to listen to people help me improve my writing style...and I listen...and I listen... but I just can't quite succumb to their perspective without losing the content of what I wanted to write so I hope you guys understand that this isn't me saying you're wrong, just providing a perspective that just as I should add more images in my posts - maybe you guys can find it in yourselves to try to discover a screencast structure that sticks true to your interpretations without blocking out those people who need help via a screencast.

724

General Software Discussion / Re: Can anyone explain this web service? (Is it just a chat room?)

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 06:54 AM »

Thanks Curt.

725

Mini-Reviews by Members / Your Next Read - Book Discovery Search Engine (Warning Big Image)

« Last post by Paul Keith on July 08, 2010, 06:43 AM »

Basic Info

App Name	YourNextRead
App URL	http://www.yournextread.com/us/#
App Version Reviewed	2nd version: The nice people at MakeUseOf featured us even before our name change - http://www.makeuseof...k-what-to-read-next/
Test System Specs	Chrome/Firefox
Supported OSes	All
Support Methods	http://www.google.co...pht1Vrixs5cxAHFiFWU=
Upgrade Policy	Sign-up
Trial Version Available?	Non-registered demo
Pricing Scheme	Free/Pay per Item
Author Donation Link	http://www.yournextr...d.com/us/#!SupportUs
Relationship btwn. Reviewer and Product	REVIEWER: Bored web surfer who found out about the site and tested it without signing up and saw that DC didn't have a review for this service

Intro:

Type in a book you've read and get related books whether it be books of the same author as your book or just related searches. As you can see from the screenshot, it also has a reading list.



P.S. This isn't an attached file because I'm testing this. (It is now)

Who is this app designed for:

People who can pay for lots and lots of books.


The Good


No cons or need improvements from the initial view. (and that's the part that worries me, am I getting too soft that I can't see much of a flaw?)

I said it in this post:

Repositories are trying to build...well e-commerce repositories rather than networks.

Yet it's the network themselves that are stealing the thunder of the central repositories because they are collecting reviews and thus collecting credibility excepting sites like Lulu.com which are pioneers and early bird implementors.

If you don't believe me, here are what social networks are building up to:

This site is a testament to getting it right.

The search is very powerful for one. I threw a rare book in it and it still discovered it (only it had no related books)

The interface is smart. Just the right clutter and options and the Amazon.com link is exactly where you want it, the Goodreads link is exactly where you want it... this is a testament of a site that may not be doing anything special with their lay-out but they understand where big buttons need to be, where the search size needs to be...it's all good. I can't verify if it's the best suggested book searching engine but it's crazy good.

This is the kind of interface that can make people forget about e-books vs. books and just buy it for what it is.

The needs improvement section

Let's face it. It's not going to please everybody.

You're going to have guys that say the yellow orange and the interface lacks "bang for the buck" and you're going to get the opposite side where someone will say it's not "zen" enough. It's javascript. etc. etc.

Me? What bothers me is that I couldn't see the controversial reviews/the 1 star reviews and the best reviews on Amazon.

This doesn't come without a price though. From what I've seen with the reviews, it's even more balanced than Amazon. I'm not sure how they are picking their reviews but you are most likely to get a 1 star review on a controversial book (and a 3 star ...and a 4 star...)

It's really...surprisingly balanced for this... aggregator site?

I don't know...but hey! this is a needs improvement section so I'm going to throw out my cake and eat it too by saying I don't care how great the quality of the reviews are - me no see comments underneath reviews unlike Amazon, me think Amazon reviews still superior specimen.


Why I think you should use this product

I don't. IMO the product's fundamentals is so good that I fear someone would waste a lot of money from getting all that related books.

I could only sigh in relief that cheaper e-books don't use this interface yet.


How does it compare to similar apps

Generally it's hard to tell.

See the bad ones are obvious. I put a book in there and it won't show up.

The good ones like these...I mean what kind of a book do you expect to be not related to your book?

It even has Drink, Play, F@#k (no really that's not NSFW, that's literally the title of the book) as a related item to Eat, Pray and Love.

How much more can you go further? E-books? Maybe...but right now it has the right set of recommended books - you add more to that and it defeats the current user interface.

Conclusions

In the end, I'm skeptical that any browser would wisen up to replacing this over Amazon's search box.

...and without that, what do you have? A damn good search engine but it's like reverse DuckDuckGo because it doesn't have a minimal enough interface to attract that crowd. (Hey, someone should go advise DuckDuckGo to add this site to their search engine - and I do mean "add" and not as !bang)

...and unfortunately, I can't say I dearly want this to succeed - not because I want this to fail but because I'm not a heavy book buyer. It's hard for me to think this applies to me as much as it pains me to say.

In the end though...this is still a high quality site. It just gets "it". It's the John Stockton of sites. It may not be a flashy player and it may even be in a catch-22 in that it can turn off different extremes if it choose to be darker or whiter...and yet it's current form may not help it reach that critical mass either but I do think this is the next generation of central repository design...I do think it already has a HUGE cult following...I do think I'll just shut up now because this site ruined any false belief I had that I had at least a critic in me.



Links to other reviews of this application

http://www.yournextread.com/blog/?p=9

We have been receiving some great blog reviews and write-ups. Please find a non exhaustive list below:

Thanks to Jason from Lifehacker for writing this article about us

http://lifehacker.co...ker/full+(Lifehacker)

A blog with some interesting

http://www.psfk.com/...-a-web-of-books.html

A nice article from Josh O’Connell

http://blog.ctnews.c...n-what-to-read-next/

We are featured on this website, however, if you can find us,  let us know

http://webtrendmap.com/marumushi/225/

We met Doug Richards and he became an instant fan

http://www.schoolfor...tured-entrepreneurs/

Promoting our technology brillance…

http://www.yourseopl...tion-developer-talk/

The nice people at MakeUseOf featured us even before our name change

http://www.makeuseof...k-what-to-read-next/