The DMV’s new Facebook Initiative is F***ed

Seriously, why can’t I just get all of this crap done automatically?  Why the hell do I have to provide “proof” of insurance in the form of a paper card I could photoshop in a couple of minutes?

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I Am Al Jazeera (Button)

Tired of the sudo-racist attacks on Al Jazeera, I created this button nearly 2 years ago. Editable files and whatnot are below the fold.

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We must also be a strong nation that also cares for the weak & forgotten.
George W Bush

The “compassionate conservative” in 2000, showing how to frame the health care debate in a way that appeals to both conservatives and progressives.

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Learning Ubiq P2: Support Structures

As outlined in Part 1, the traditional style of documentation is antithetical to actual usage.  Style is a major problem, but the delivery mechanisms are just as bad. At best, a manual can be oriented to predefined tasks and known problems, at worst it is a dense technical read with a broad overview intertwined with [...]

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Learning Ubiquity P1: Minimalist Documentation

It has been over a month since my last post -testing has taken a backseat to reading research in social learning theory and technical communications.  But now I have some more solid ideas I want to share in this 3-part series. Today I am going to talk about a typical users, how they learn, and [...]

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Ubiquity Advert

I don’t really need to make it perfect for my closed tests.  If I were doing this for a real ad I would have a single, flowing sequence like search on Craigslist, check prices on Ebay, email it to a friend, and  insert a map.  I am working out some compression issues so I can [...]

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Community Building and UI

There is a lot of talk about community building for the Ub command developers. My main concern is UI engineering; how can we help command developers create Humane commands? Earlier I blogged about the translate command, offering some suggestions, hoping it would help future command developers. Sadly, we can’t expect trained Usability professionals to review [...]

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Ubiquity Translator Command

I have been running into two types of usability problems in my testing of Firefox Ubiquity. One set of problems is with Ubiquity itself, it’s discover-ability, the display of suggestions, help, etc. The other set of problems is with the commands. The Translator command caused a lot of confusion. It would change the contents of [...]

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Mother’s Birthday Party

Originally I was planning on having a surprise wedding for Vicki & Tim. They have been together for 20 years and I decided that Rein, the Zen monk from Amsterdam and killer Go player, would make a good priest. Thankfully John (my mentor) talked me out of it. But that didn’t stop me from coordinating [...]

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Seattleite discount

So I am in the Salt Lake City airport feeding my caffeine addiction at the flight terminal Starbucks.  I order my latte, take my scone and, while waiting in line, I decide I should get a discount.

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