Archive for January 2002

CMS Feature List, CMS Product List, CMS Feature Onion <no scent here> and much more — all are from the Content Management Systems Parallel Session where presenters discuss the role of a Content Management System (CMS) within the institutional Web. [From x-plane]

anil dash posted several sites for those longing for AdCritic >Hello, Christine!>. He offers AdReview and AdForum plus a few others.

While I have your attention, anil posted a link to a picture that put a much-needed smile on my face.

Every two weeks, I attempt to come up with some zingers for the EdgeCurve.com | captions game. So far, mine have not been 1st place or even 3rd place worthy. That’s OK, the winning entries are well-deserved! There should be a new winner tomorrow!

Hey, our Googlewhacking habit has been revealed to the world, or at least, to readers at ZDNet: Are you a secret Googlewhacker? or C|Net’s Have You Googlewhacked?. Modest Gary Stock, stand up and take a bow.

<edit>Another article today (January 31): USA Today and another with my fave Austrailian, Delcour!</edit>

Spinhead has published Structured Writing – An Outline at evolt.org. It gets high marks because it’s scannable and you can quickly learn the hows of writing content.

The high points of the article’s layout:

- use of noticeable subheaders
- bullets
- short paragraphs
- length

[link from Brainstorms & Raves]

This is classic! How I Managed To Can the Spam. Makes me wonder how often I actually see fax numbers in spam.

How many times have you filled out a form and the TAB key didn’t work or it went to unexpected places? If TAB doesn’t bug you, then try weaving your way through a page via WebTV (did it at a hotel). That was torture and to boot, the keyboard was useless. HTML Source offers 5 quick tips on Forms Accessibility. [link from ia /]

It’s always good to get input from the little, lowly people… but in some cases it’s ya gotta have buy-in from the tippy-top. Costs too much money? How much money is it gonna cost you to have your configuration management out of control? Case in point fromComputerworld Shark Tank.

A friend sent me a joke that sounds like something out of Dilbert:

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The woman below replied, “You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.

“I am,” replied the woman, “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help so far.”

The woman below responded, “You must be in Management.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”

Attention! Attention! Anyone planning a trip to New York and Broadway, please make plans to attend Les Miserables. The show, with its 6,138th performance as of last Friday, has surpassed A Chorus Line to become the second-longest running show in Broadway history.

The cast celebrated its landmark with a number of original Les Miz cast members joining current cast members singing a specially written version of “One,” from A Chorus Line (one of my favorite songs, too).

Next target: Cats. I want to see Les Miserables top out Cats, which holds the record for longest running Broadway show at 7,485. Thankfully, Cats closed in 2000.