Comments for Geeks In Training

Comment on Developing websites — structure, content, and design by Why Flash sites usually suck - Ian Hoar – Passion for Technology – Geeking Out

Why Flash sites usually suck - Ian Hoar – Passion for Technology – Geeking Out — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:43:09 +0000

[...] a whole package to developing a fantastic website and Geeks In Training has a great article called Developing websites — structure, content, and design that delves into this deeper, but we are going to limit ourselves to Flash [...]

Comment on Quebec group, “FACiL” is taking the government to the courts for not considering Open Source solutions by IM2 | OQP » Qu’est-ce qu’un appel d’offre en informatique libre ?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:17:16 +0000

[...] massifs de logiciels sans appels d’offre – Quebechttp://www.geeksintraining.com/2008/08/28/quebec-group-facil-is-taking-the-government-to-the-courts-…Quebec group, FACiL is taking the government to the courts for not considering Open Source [...]

Comment on Developing websites — structure, content, and design by Michael Zimmermann

Michael Zimmermann — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:37:14 +0000

The movie site is a great example. They are almost universally over-designed, and every single one of them seems to have every possible new bleeding edge tech crammed into them. Apple’s quicktime trailers pages aren’t bad, though. Want trailers? You have the thumbnail, a cast and crew list, the synopsis, and the link to the trailers. When people are coming to a site for a specific reason, that’s the time to grab them, not confuse them.

Granted, most movie sites attempt to make themselves ‘sticky’ by having extra stuff to do (games, viral sharing campaigns), but in doing so, they often overshadow or destroy the basic reasons for people to be there. Convince us to stay by first giving us what we want, not trying to force us into something else once we get there.

Comment on Developing websites — structure, content, and design by Ian

Ian — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 06:54:04 +0000

Great article, I am working on something similar. Over design plays a huge roll too. Usability is king. There’s so many good looking sites out there that still annoy the hell out of users and we just leave out of frustration. I would go so far to say that I am more likely to stay on an ugly site that is content rich and easy to navigate. I shouldn’t even be thinking about how the navigation works, it should just work. If I’m thinking about it then it’s not working. That doesn’t mean we should have ugly sites, but it seems lately the priority of some sites is over weight in design. Movie sites are notorious for this. Usually we just want to see the trailer or screenshots without trying to guess where to click or now to get back to the main page.

Comment on Jonathan Coulton played the Lula Lounge in Toronto! by Rock

Rock — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:28:30 +0000

Sent some to your in-box. Not much better than yours, I’m afraid. Makes me want to get a new digital camera with much better low-light picture-taking ability.

Comment on Jonathan Coulton played the Lula Lounge in Toronto! by Michael Zimmermann

Michael Zimmermann — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:52:48 +0000

Sorry about the lack of photos from the event — it was a bit too dark, and I didn’t get any good shots… if anybody was there and would like to send me some to post, I’ll gladly do so.

Comment on System requirements for being a Geek? Get excited about Diablo III by Rock

Rock — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:12:10 +0000

Diablo II is one of the very few games I have obsessively played in my life. The single-player story is engaging enough, the gameplay is tough without being insane. As a benchmark for intuitiveness, I played over 50% of it until I finally got my hands on a user’s manual… the only thing unintuitive from that experience was key-binding. Utterly impossible to figure out without someone telling you how to do it. Plus, leveling up you character was richly rewarded. Just as you had gotten fed up with your spells, etc, you cross that line where the heavy-hitting spells and skills are, and suddenly, you’re like a walking weed-eater through your enemies. Gave a great feeling of satisfaction. Plus, there were tons of different ways to upgrade your characters, since choosing one skillset would improve others later on, and prevent you from really expanding others. Finally, kudos to Blizzard for keeping online Battle-net servers running TO THIS DAY for when people decide to break out their old copies, their level 50 whatevers and have at it again.

Comment on Yes, they have parties for browsers… when your browser is Firefox 3 by Michael Zimmermann

Michael Zimmermann — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:20:21 +0000

At the end of the day, it was a great party and a good evening with a bunch of interesting people. My friend Ian stayed longer and had some more to say about the night… he’s even a bit drunk on camera.

You can find the link to his blog up above.

Comment on How to learn and find things on the internet by Michael Zimmermann

Michael Zimmermann — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:03:43 +0000

There's a good article on IanHoar.com that relates to this, and the overload of information that we face in our day-to-day... the data we face on a daily basis is overwhelming, and we have to constantly ask ourselves if it's worth it. There's a book in our house that talks about the 'loser zones,' the useless activities that do nothing for us. At some point, we've got to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Comment on Set up your own domain : Part 1 by Michael Zimmermann

Michael Zimmermann — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:35:48 +0000

UPDATE:

There are changes in the works that will come out in the second quarter of 2009. Essentially, TLDs are being opened up (the “.com” etc. at the end of a domain name). More info here:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-4-26jun08-en.htm