June, 19, 2004 archives

i think i may have elected to attend the wrong event at the convention center. (the mistake i really made was of heading over to the downtown means business event early. now that i’ve gotten back and seen the seminar and discussion group schedule, i realize i should have been there now, instead of earlier. oops.)

defensive design for the web: how to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points by 37signals is a fantastic book with loads of great tips about how to make better web applications and sites by handling the edge cases well. it’s the book that every programmer who has written a web application that rejects credit card numbers not written in a specific format should be beaten with. it’s also a good companion to don’t make me think by steve krug.

one thing i wish the book had covered a little more is the localization aspects of defensive design.

(i think zak promised i’d write a review of the book when he scored a free copy for me, so here it is.)

it’s almost hard to believe that i’ve gone this long without donating to an organization like the international primate protection league. but i’ve rectified that this month. the check is, as they say, in the mail.

paul ford’s thoughts on geekery, originally presented on npr’s all things considered, is quite genius. (via oblomovka.)

sometimes i wish i had a gmail account just so i could do giveaways of free gmail accounts. all the cool kids are doing it. somewhere, the google marketing and pr folks who might otherwise feel constrained by the pre-ipo quiet period are laughing themselves silly.