A Donkey on the Edge

Don’t miss OK/Cancel’s fabulous new ‘re-experiencing’ of their site :-)

When we completed our initial brainstorming, we continued onto the IA. Here, we recruited Thomas Vander Wal, credited for inventing the term “folksonomy� to help us create a new navigation structure. The result is a nav structure that was based off of the most common tags used to describe items.

Thus, “Homeâ€? became “Meâ€?, “Aboutâ€? became “Thatâ€?, “Archivesâ€? became “2005”, “Featuresâ€? became “Thingieâ€?, “Storeâ€? became “Orangeâ€?, “Resourcesâ€? became “Resorcesâ€? and of course, “Jobsâ€? became “Moneyâ€?.

However, before we implemented this, we got a second opinion from Peter Merholz, who thinks we’re simply wasting our time creating any user experience at all and that we might as well just go and die.

Or perhaps we misunderstood.

Just about to drive back to London.

Had a good week with extended family down at parent’s place in Budleigh Salterton. Had a couple of rough commutes, on Thursday, I slept two hours then got on the bike and rode 180 miles to Dorking, did a presentation then had to head to Salisbury for an afternoon meeting. Got out of the office at 17:00 and then had to make my way back to Devon—almost 400 miles in bad weather on two hours sleep. Not something I’d want to do every day :-(

Strangely, I still get a kick out of crazy bike rides with great views. I drove past Stonehenge in the mist and fog on my way in on Tuesday, and Thursday’s travels took me on some ancient Roman roads. The approach to Salisbury from the west is great—you’re on this ancient, absolutely straight road and you see Salisbury cathedral approaching in the distance in much the same way a foot-traveller would have experienced it hundreds of years ago. The whole countryside between Winchester and Salisbury is just magic, lots of deciduous trees, oaks all bent out of shape, collapsing thatched farms and dirt tracks everywhere, if you stopped for a minute you could have travelled back to 1412…

Yesterday, Clemmie got to ride a horse for the first time. When I say ‘ride’ I mean in the saddle, stirrups adjusted for her wee legs, holding the reigns and a helmet on her head. She just walked up and down for Fifteen minutes but I’m pretty sure she was thrilled :-)

Anyways, off to suit up for London.

I know I do overdo it on the baby content, but I just this minute received this email:

Morning,

Everything went fine, Isobel Daisy Holmes was born yesterday at 12.09pm, 6lbs 11 ounces.

Mother and daughter doing well, however, invevitably, Father still in shock.

Cheers, Jon

Sitting in the car outside my flat typing this. Thank you open 802.11 networks :-)

p.s. Needed to be at home today but had to hide from Clem who isn’t in school ‘til this afternoon

p.p.s It’s amazing how cold the inside of a parked car can get (am in my slippers)

Yesterday, I watched a man carry a little white box.

I suspect I will remember his face forever.

If you can get past the mind-bending idea of plugins having their own plugins, it really shows how plugin developers have taken a place next to strategy consultants, content mavens, and implementation experts in benefitting from the rise of Movable Type as a platform for professionals.

David Raynes has just released Workflow and this takes MT to another level. Must have a play soon…

Just got this from Flickr…

You may have heard on the grapevine that we planned to reward our dear Flickr members who bought a Pro Account in the early days. Well, it’s true! And since you’re one of those lovely people, here’s a little something to say YOU ROCK!

1. Double what you paid for! Your original 1 year pro account has been doubled to 2 years, and your new expiry date is Jan 4, 2007.
2. More capacity! Now you can upload 2 GB per month.
3. 2 free Pro Accounts to give away to your friends! This won’t be activated for a day or two, but when it is, you’ll see a note on your home page telling you what to do.

Thank you so much for putting your money where your mouth is and supporting us, even while we’re in beta. Your generosity and cold, hard cash helped us get where we are today.

Kind regards,
The Flickreenies.

Goodness;-) The extra year sure is swell. Anyone need a free Pro account?

I got this note at work this morning. This is crazy as it’s now the second time I’ve got the note and for some reason, this company cannot operate outside its scripted customer support parameters. This a very important course that I am supposed to complete as part of my job, but due to their limited approach, we’re stuck in a loop. I tried a different reply this morning, fingers crossed they’ll sort it out :-)

Dear Dug Falby,

You have yet to finish the following xxxxxxxxx courses:

Anti-money laundering course (deadline: 2005-03-03)

Please log in to http://www.xxxxxxxx.com/training to complete your course(s). The assignments will be found under ‘Courses’.

The deadline has passed so it is important that you finish the course as soon as possible.

Regards,
xxxxxxx xxxxx-xxxxx
Compliance

And my reply…

I cannot complete the course as my computer will not run your dodgy Java applet.

Please supply one of the following:

1. - a different Java applet
2. - a non-java alternative version
3. - a different computer.

Until you supply the above, I will not be able to complete your course.

Best,
Dug Falby

So fingers crossed…

Thank you Nicki for the lovely coffee flask I’ve got on my desk (brought all the way Nanlong Corporation’s factory in Shanghai courtesy of Mr Ikea). At 90p a cup, I’m already saving a fortune ;-)

And in response to gahjr2000’s question, yes it does sort of look like a dildo, albeit a somewhat more ‘boy-on-boy’ size of dildo…

OK, it’s abit geeky, but this story has just had me in stiches:-)

There has been a real grassroots effort by the parents of kids at Asquith Court West Hampstead. It got so bad we moved Clementine to a new nursery (which she calls her “new nursery” which is kinda cute…).

It’s amazing to see what a group of pissed-off mums can achieve once they start communicating.

If your child is at an Asquith school or nursery, you should consider setting-up a parents association. We’ve listed all the Asquith nurseries who have a parent’s blog at the main association website if you’d like a site set up (free to parent’s associations) email Dug

Tom writes Trackback is dead. Are Comments dead too? I’m not sure I agree with his findings. To be honest, I have a problem understanding exactly how trackback works, so time to delve deeper. What is undeniable is that my sites (including this one) and my httpd logs are increasingly frozen by the sheer volume of links the spammers generate:-(

The fight goes on…