Usability on the web is a big issue, not least because many people don't seem to have the vaguest idea how the web actually works. Consider the case of ReadWrtiteWeb who on Wednesday featured an article discussing the login page on Facebook. Very quickly, the posting got to a rank of number one in a Google search for 'Facebook Login' and the result was that many, many people ended up on the ReadWriteWeb article when they were expecting to see Facebook.
The comments section at the bottom of the page makes for hilarious reading as one person after another rants incoherently about the 'new Facebook'. The take away lesson though is that many people have no idea how to use a web browser and simply Google (or Bing) for what they're looking for, something web developers everywhere would do well to consider! via Daring Fireball
Permalink del.icio.us Digg itIf you have recently suffered from a really unpleasant, persistent bitter or metallic taste in your mouth and couldn't find an explanation for it, even after visiting a dentist or doctor, it's possible it might have been caused by Chinese pine nuts.
It seems that there is a minor epidemic of pine nut related taste disturbances going on in Europe at the moment and I've been unlucky enough to be one of the ones affected by it since I bought a big bag of Chinese pine nuts to snack on last week.
The nuts themselves tasted fine at the time but about six to eight hours after starting to eat them (long enough for me not to make the connection), the taste in my mouth evolved into something similar to what you'd expect after drinking a stale shot of espresso. Not wanting to be one of those people who Googles their symptoms and immediately comes to the wrong/worst possible conclusion, I only started hunting on the web today and was relieved to discover that pine nuts are the most likely cause and not heavy metal poisoning.
In the UK the Food Standards Agency is investigating the problem and from what I've read on the net, other countries' local agencies are doing the same thing so hopefully the cause will be determined soon. In the meantime, it seems that while the taste is very unpleasant and makes food and drink somewhat unpalatable, there doesn't appear to be any health risk involved...
Permalink del.icio.us Digg itI've just been pointed (via Ajaxian) in the direction of an incredible new demo of the capabilities of 3D CSS transforms in the latest version of Webkit, the HTML and JavaScript processing software which lies inside Safari, Google Chrome and a host of other web browsers.
The demo, named Snow Stack, is an impressive example of how advanced new CSS and JavaScript capabilities can be used to implement the kinds of visual effects that were previously only possible with Flash or special plugins like Cooliris. The Snow Stack demo is itself very much reminiscent of Cooliris so if you're running a beta of Mac OS X Snow Leopard or have the latest nightly release of Webkit installed, it's definitely worth checking it out.
If you don't have either of the above, Ajaxian have a YouTube video of the demo here which will give you some idea of how it looks working in a real web browser.
As impressive as the demo is, the 3D CSS transforms and JavaScript used in the demo are not yet implemented in any web browsers so don't expect to see this turn up in Pixaria Gallery just yet!
Permalink del.icio.us Digg itSubverting the meaning of posters and billboards is nothing new but these examples in Berlin are quite clever. As one of the comments points out, it's a bit of an inside joke but it's still clever...
Permalink del.icio.us Digg itPixaria Roadmap Update
Friday, March 12, 2010
Pixaria News Gets Comments
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Documentation Update
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Is this 'FaceBook Login'?
Friday, February 12, 2010
Pixaria Gallery 2.8.0 Released
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Pixaria 2.7.9 Now Available
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Welcome to 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Advertising Experiment
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Offline Between Dec 19th and 29th
Friday, December 18, 2009
Pixaria 2.7.8 Released
Thursday, December 3, 2009