Desktop searching

Of course the other big Google news is about the Google Desktop. I'm not going to try it yet as it doesn't index enough of the applications that I use. Dave Winer tried it and says that it slowed down his computer. I may try X1, which is better, according to the author of the Unofficial Google Weblog. And, if you act quickly (as I'm attempting to do), you might get X1 for free.

Google SMS

Another way to enjoy Google: Google SMS

Free Tech Books Online

Here's a big list of links to free books on Java, Python, Linux, Windows, and more. This is "free" as in "free beer", not necessarily "free" as in "free speech" and certainly not "free" as my Eastern European friends sometimes define it. They also have an RSS feed for new additions.

Review site review

There's a nice Review of Review Sites at Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools site.

Ig Nobel Prizes

This year's Ig Nobel prizes have been announced, but before you click through to read about herring fart communication and combover patents, load the movie on this page, preferably in a new window/tab so that you can read the following instructions:

You'll see is a group of people, some in black shirts, some in white shirts. The white team is passing a ball between them, the black team is passing a second ball. Your task is to count how many times the white team passed the ball.

When you've watch the video and have a count, you can read about what you just did in this New Scientist article or go to the full list of winners.

House Votes to End Handgun Ban in D.C.

This annoys me on many different levels. First, as a parent, I'm annoyed that Congress proposes making handguns (and semi-automatic weapons!) more available in my city. Second, as a DC resident, I'm annoyed that Congress still has the right to overturn local laws in DC and we don't even have voting representation. Lastly, as somebody who would like to see Congress actually doing meaningful work, I'm annoyed that the leadership in the House is putting effort into something they know won't pass in the Senate. As written in the article from the NY Times¹:

With the November elections approaching, Republican leaders in the House have scheduled a series of votes on hot-button social issues that they hope will force Democrats into a difficult position at the polls, particularly in areas where support for gun rights is strong. On Thursday, lawmakers are expected to take up a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage; last week, they passed a bill that would prohibit the federal courts from hearing challenges to the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

¹Registration required, or borrow one from BugMeNot or see the article from Yahoo which doesn't require registration.

Article on arch

This one is strictly for the techies out there. OSDir.com has an interview with the creator of the GNU arch revision control system. In it he discusses what's wrong with CVS and subversion and why he feels arch is better. One salient point for me is his comment on the end result of some of CVS's faults:

Ultimately, most users seem to wind up using CVS in the most simple-minded way: as a hub via which multiple programmers can all hack on a single tree. They don't get much more out of it than that. That's fine, but that's like 10% of the version control problem. That people are using CVS that way suggests that the shortcomings of the tool are limiting how programmers organize their projects.

Pong - the real world version

Once again in the category of "I wish I had that sort of free time", Engadget points me at a Pongmechanik -- Pong implemented using all mechanical parts. Unlike the tablet-pc-in-a-boombox posted recently, at least this one shows some enterprising student(s) learning how electrical components like telephone relays work.

Too funny not to share

I don't usually like to directly steal copy links from friends' weblogs, but this one from MarkD's site was too good not to share: If you all don't lower your voices and cease calling me Satan, I will have to sing show tunes.

Wish I was this idle

Another case of somebody with too much spare time, this person has embedded a tablet PC in a boom box

[title not posted by hblogger]

I've downloaded the trial version of hblogger - a blogging tool for PalmOS. [Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.hexlet.com/]

---

It's ok, but I'm not terribly impressed. I had to add the title of this post after the fact. Additionally, while I can save drafts on my handheld, it doesn't allow me to post them to blogger as drafts -- I often rework my posts a few times before I actually make it public. I've got two or three in the queue now.

Joel on Social Interface Design

Joel, of "Joel on Software", has a new article about usability -- or not just about usability, but about "social interface design". I think it boils down to a couple main points: (1) usability of the interface is important, but not super critical if you have a truly compelling product, (2) the way to make a compelling product is by gauging and tuning the way that it will help people interact with it and with each other. He gives an example of the latter in discussing how to handle a user who posts inappropriate material to a forum:

So a good social interface designer might say, let's not display an error message. Let's just pretend that the post about Viagra was accepted. Show it to the original poster, so he feels smug and moves on to the next inappropriate discussion group. But don't show it to anyone else.

This is similar to an idea Philip Greenspun had about how to handle troublesome users. If you simply ban them, they just re-register with a different name. Better, he suggested, was to throw some intentional delays into any request made by them. In the end, the user thinks there's a problem with the site because it's so slow and doesn't catch on that the mediocre performance is custom tailored. (I would give a reference to this, but I heard him describe it in a talk and it doesn't seem to be in written form on his site.)