Web users still find sites difficult to use

According to Jakob Nielsen, “when public website users perform simple Internet tasks, they’re successful two-thirds of the time on average. In other words, users fail 35% of the time.”

Speaking Texan — a clarification

Further to my observation that “I might buy me a ranch” to go with my new Stetson hat, I should point out (in response to readers who accuse me of hubris) that ‘ranch’ is of course a tool used for tightening nuts.

RFID privacy fears begin to reach public attention

According to ZDnet, “A global alliance of opponents to the rollout of radio frequency identification tagging systems are demanding that companies stop deploying them until crucial issues such as privacy are addressed.

Over 30 civil liberties and privacy groups have demanded a suspension to the deployment of radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging systems until a number of issues surrounding the controversial technology have been addressed.” [ More]

All hat, no cattle

My friend and colleague Henry Happel has given me a present of this wonderful hat. It’s a Stetson, and came with a really useful phoenetic guide (by Sam Huddleston) to Texan pronounciation. For example:

Bob Warr Fants = barbed wire fence
Rat Naow = immediately
Amulants = a thang thet takes yew to the hospital when yore lag is broke
Far Angine = somethin yew call when yore house is burnin’ down
Merkan Cissen = someone born in the US of A

I’m already very fond of this hat. In fact, I think I might buy me a ranch to go with it. In the meantime, it reminds me of what Governor John Connally (a native Texan) once observed about the Bush family (who are only ersatz Texans): “All hat, no cattle”. At last, I find something that Dubya and I have in common!

John Walker’s ‘Digital Imprimatur’ paper

Extraordinary, pessimistic exegesis of the architectural changes to the Net which may turn it into an Orwellian nightmare. In a way, this paper puts flesh on the skeleton of Lawrence Lessig’s nightmares on this subject.

Gadget wars

Quentin wonders why I haven’t got one of these. Simple: I’ve got one of these instead!

So did Microsoft approach Google?

From Dan Gillmor:

“On October 31, the New York Times reported that Microsoft had discussed a buyout with Google: “According to company executives and others briefed on the discussions, Microsoft – desperate to capture a slice of the popular and ad-generating search business – approached Google within the last two months to discuss options, including the possibility of a takeover.”

Today, USA Today quotes Bill Gates as saying it never happened: “We’ve never been in any talks with Google about any acquisition thing in any way, shape or form,” Gates told USA TODAY last week.

Someone is lying.

Could it be Gates? His occasional unfamiliarity with truth is well-known. But if he was lying this time, he was doing so about something material to his company’s future, and securities laws frown on such stuff from senior corporate officers. So I’m guessing he’s telling the truth.”

Hmmm… curiouser and curiouser…

Spam Rage strikes

Wired story.

“A Silicon Valley computer programmer has been arrested for threatening to torture and kill employees of the company he blames for bombarding his computer with Web ads promising to enlarge his penis.

In one of the first prosecutions of its kind in the state that made “road rage” famous, Charles Booker, 44, was arrested on Thursday and released on a $75,000 bond for making repeated threats to staff of an unnamed Canadian company between May and July, the U.S. Attorney’s office for Northern California said on Friday.”

One new weblog every 11 seconds!

From Dave Sifri, the guy who founded Technorati.

“Allow me to give you some growth statistics: One year ago, when I started Technorati on a single server in my basement, we were adding between 2,000-3,000 new weblogs each day, not counting the people who were updating sites we were already tracking. In March of this year, when we switched over to a 5 server cluster, we were keeping up with about 4,000-5,000 new weblogs each day. Right now, we’re adding 8,000-9,000 new weblogs every day, not counting the 1.2 Million weblogs we already are tracking. That means that on average, a brand new weblog is created every 11 seconds. We’re also seeing about 100,000 weblogs update every day as well, which means that on average, a weblog is updated every 0.86 seconds. ”

A red-letter day?

This is the day that we finally got broadband at home. Given that we live in a village and British Telecom once poo-poohed the idea that we would ever get ADSL, it seems like a minor miracle. I’ve been accustomed to T1 lines at work for years, but had to put up with the 56k trickle at home. Bliss…