http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway meandering thoughts from Lauren Wood Wed, 07 May 2008 21:40:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm not in marketing, so I'm not going to pontificate on how companies should design the look and feel of their websites, nor on what they should say on their websites. But there are some really basic things that companies should do to make their websites more usable, at least ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/05/07/company-websites-101/ Norm's leaving Sun. I've never worked with Norm on a Sun-internal project, as his projects didn't overlap with mine, but I've worked with him on others, most particularly the OASIS Entity Resolution TC. He was also one of the reviewers and session chairs I could most rely on when I ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/05/01/norms-leaving/ As intended, I did take the Asus eee pc along on my trip to Maui last month. It was certainly a lot lighter in the backpack than the usual laptop. I even used it a bit (it has a fairly decent sudoku game on it). The wireless connection was a ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/04/29/more-asus/ Bisphenol-A, a chemical found in many of those hard plastic water bottles (look for polycarbonates with the recycling number 7, although not all of those have BPA in them) has been in the news recently, culminating in today's announcement of a ban of baby bottles containing BPA by Health Canada. ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/04/18/bpa-whos-prepared/ I hate getting my eyes examined, which is why I only submit to it every two years or so. Since part of the reason I go is to make sure that any symptoms of glaucoma or macular degeneration are found, I get the full check-up, involving horrible chemicals to dilate ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/04/17/eyes-and-sunhats/ It's always nice to have a good customer service experience; not that I expected otherwise in this case. And when it shows a good way to use a customer's personal information, so much the better. What happened was, we had a display case built into our dining room wall. I stained ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/04/16/customer-service/ I don't usually get a lot of phone scams on my office phone, probably because it's unlisted. But I did get one today. Being April Fools' Day, I wasn't sure whether it was a prank or a scam; after hunting around a bit on the web I think the latter. It ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/04/01/phone-scams/ Balisage is this new XML++1 geekfest, put on by some of the people who used to put on the Extreme Markup conference, which is aimed to get the brain cells running again after summer. It's being held in Montréal in the middle of August, which means all those street-level restaurants, ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/03/28/balisage-deadlines/ I just got back from the NorthernVoice organizing committee's post-conference lunch. The conference motto is personal blogging and social media but lots of people who attend or speak are interested in the professional or corporate aspect as well. As a result, one of the perennial topics we talk about is ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/03/13/personal-nv-musings/ I got an Asus to take on holiday (vacation) with me, and to play around with. They're cute and small and way easier to lug around than a laptop. With the small screen doing serious work is more difficult (a plus when you're not meant to be working) but I ... http://www.laurenwood.org/anyway/2008/03/11/asus-eee-first-looks/