I find the OED a great resource to have around. We have the Compact OED version of it that has 9 pages reduced onto a single page (versus the pricy 20 volume edition). To read the entries you need to use this sort of half crystal ball magnifier that is provided along with the Compact OED. It's a little funky, but thats part of the fun.
If you are curious as to what went into producing the OED, I highly recommend The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.
So Current style in web design describes what is 'hot' in web page design. According to the post, great sites share a common set of attributes:
* Simple layout * 3D effects, used sparingly * Soft, neutral background colours * Strong colour, used sparingly * Cute icons, used sparingly * Plenty of whitespace * Nice big text
I tend to agree with most of these attributes, but find some of the sites that use somewhat jarring color combinations and not enough contrast between background and font color annoying. For me, simple and clean is always better — which is a far cry from web design 10 years ago when it was all about 'spinning logo, flaming logo' eye candy.
So
Here is an example of a blatantly self serving article on Publish. Running under the tabloid-ish title of 'AJAX Poses Security, Performance Risks' the author goes on to make some vague statements about security and AJAX then segue nicely into a company that has a product (gasp!) that addresses the froth stirred up in the previous paragraphs. Frankly, I would strongly recommend against considering a product that 'advertises' itself in such as disengenuous and sensational manner.
Perhaps it should be pointed out that the security statements made in the article are generally true of any web development technology (basically, if you are dumb about securing your app, someone will exploit it) and that other fact-based explorations of the topic have shown that AJAX can actually improve performance significantly (on the order of 61%).
So
I am not surprised that Oslo, Norway has taken over first place as the most expensive city in the world (knocking Tokyo out of first place). We vacationed in Norway a few summers ago. While Norway was quite beautiful, it was easily the most expensive place that we have traveled to. I remember sitting in a restaurant in Bergen after having just ordered a hamburger. I calculated in my head that the burger was going to cost me over $20USD (probably even more expensive now). Oh, well, it costs what is costs. All in all I enjoyed Norway much more than Alaska (Alaska being a very poor value for the money) and would return to Norway before Alaska any day.
Of the other cities on the list, I found Copenhagen to be the most 'affordable' of the Scandinavian cities I have visited, London is certainly expensive (an not a great value, either). I don't recall Geneva being overly expensive, just cold, rainy and desperately boring (it was December, granted). Commentary on Paris will be reserved until we return from a short trip there mid-February. Tokyo and Reykjavik both remain on our 'someday' travel list, expense aside.
Here is the list from the Guardian:
Most expensive cities (Last year in brackets)
1 (3) Oslo 2 (1) Tokyo 3 (8) Reykjavik 4 (2) Osaka Kobe 4 (4) Paris 6 (5) Copenhagen 7 (7) London 8 (6) Zurich 9 (8) Geneva 10 (10) Helsinki
So This Mac application really takes me back to when tubes were hot technology. Back in the day, when I was learning programming in college, I had the patience-building experience of programming on a hard copy terminal (the DecWriter) for the first year or so. Round about the beginning of my second year, they began to introduce VT-52 and VT-100 terminals with manual dialup acoustic couplers at a blazing 300 baud. There was one terminal that ran at 1200 baud that people would literally fight over (or come in when the lab opened and stay on it all day).
Anyway, back to the app: this is an emulation of an old tube terminal, including screen buldge/warp and variable brightness of pixels. Apparently, it even simulates cursor studder. Really makes one appreciate the state of computing these days!
So
I think that using technology in humorous ways is a noble task, especially when it has the effect of humanizing things. At least thats the way that a posting over at BoingBoing struck me — its about a “watch that displays cheeky 'approximate time' messages”.
I was a teen back when LED-based digital watches first became affordable and thus, widely available. I always had to chuckle whenever anyone with one of these watches was asked the time; they would quite earnestly respond “10:42” or “3:28” not “quarter to eleven” or “three thirty” — no siree, they knew exactly what time it was, because that's what their watch displayed.
Of course the matter of the exact time depended on what source they used to set their watch by and the not insignificant matter of how well the watch actually kept time. Of course you can now buy a watch that synchornizes itself with Naval Observatory time, but I still like to keep 'human' time — “half past eight” instead of “8:29” for me.
And for what it's worth, my timepiece of choice is an analog watch with a manual movement (no batteries).