techno.blog("Dion")

What about the other languages?

• HTML / CSS
• COBOL
• Haskell
• JavaScript
• Arc
• Lisp
• Ruby
• Perl
• Java
• C++
• C

Got some good ones for other languages like Fortran, BASIC or assembly?

What about the other languages?

• HTML / CSS
• COBOL
• Haskell
• JavaScript
• Arc
• Lisp
• Ruby
• Perl
• Java
• C++
• C

Got some good ones for other languages like Fortran, BASIC or assembly?

I had an enjoyable first trip to Disneyland. It isn’t the typical trip that I would take in the past and I never did this kind of thing as a kid. Sam had a fantastic time, which is all I really wanted.

I did have to fight back the cynic in me though, and I let it out in the comic above. That doesn’t even mention the part of the parade that talks about how Disneyland inspires the world, or how it is the most beautiful and PEACEFUL place on Earth ;)

I did have some fun though:

What about the other languages?

• HTML / CSS
• COBOL
• Haskell
• JavaScript
• Arc
• Lisp
• Ruby
• Perl
• Java
• C++
• C

Got some good ones for other languages like Fortran, BASIC or assembly?

My son Sam loves Curious George. Wow he loves that little monkey. This means that he often asks to play the Curious George Games that PBS Kids put together.

I have played these games more often that I have had hot dinners recently, and it quickly shows that although the games are fantastic, they don’t always help the kind of player that I am. The one that has played it so many times.

This shins through in a couple of examples:

Let. me. click.

In many of the games the man in the yellow hat (you know Ted) explains the game, and ends with “click on the green button to start”. During the monologue you can not actually click on the button. You have to wait right until the end. Let me click start immediately!

Saved games or levels

These games always start from the ground floor. If you have gone through Banana 411 from the beginning 3 digit numbers to 7 digit numbers, you have to start from 3 every time. Give an expert user some love, and let them resume their game in some way.

Keyboard shortcuts

Some of the actions allow the keyboard, but most don’t. When I am sitting holding my son, the keyboard is often the easier choice. Let me use it.

Archive the content

Kids fall in love with doing the thing they did before. When you go to a game that they are screaming in your ear, they have an expectation for what the game is going to do. Some of the games give a random few choices which can change each time. Sometimes the content from the past is just gone. This makes live painful when Sam is crying out for “Difference Dogs” and it isn’t an option this week. Archive games so you can always get to that one version your child loved.

I do want to stress that PBS has done a great service to provide these games for free. Sam certainly makes the most of it. It does make me try to remember my “expert” users (or at least frequent visitors).

What about the other languages?

• HTML / CSS
• COBOL
• Haskell
• JavaScript
• Arc
• Lisp
• Ruby
• Perl
• Java
• C++
• C

Got some good ones for other languages like Fortran, BASIC or assembly?

What about the other languages?

• HTML / CSS
• COBOL
• Haskell
• JavaScript
• Arc
• Lisp
• Ruby
• Perl
• Java
• C++
• C

Got some good ones for other languages like Fortran, BASIC or assembly?

Us techies love to talk about OpenID and the like. We complain about the idea of signing for one more bloody service.

However, OpenID has a few usability issues for non-technical folk. I can’t imagine explaining to my mum that she has to login using a domain URL. “You want me to type http://myopenidserver.com/seeg in the browser?” “No! that is your username!”.

Well, these days could be numbered. I heard that there was a lot of chatter on this topic at Social Foo, and Brad has one solution using < a href="http://yadis.org/wiki/Main_Page">Yadis as opposed to the more pure DNS, or hacky ~username solutions.

Getting my mum to use her email as a username won’t be an issue. Hopefully she won’t fall for any OpenID phishing attacks though if it becomes popular.

One of the interesting differences between a liberal opensource project, and a commercial endeavor is that you don’t know who is using your stuff.

If someone wants to extend or integrate beyond your work, they don’t need to deal with you to make it happen.

The fun side-effect is when you get the code drop. Out of the blue, someone sends you a message and says “oh, by the way, I just ported X to work with Y”.

This really keeps you on your toes, and it gives you a gift. The “oh man, that is so amazing that they did that work, now I don’t need too!” gift.

Do you ever feel like you get bounced around as everyone aggregates each others info in a loop?