Archive for January, 2006
January 16, 2006 at 8:08 pm · Categorised under Blog
A piece on the BBC reveals that people often make judgments about a site in an instant just by looking at it.
Internet users make up their minds about the quality of a website in the blink of an eye, a study shows. Researchers found that the brain makes decisions in just a twentieth of a second of viewing a webpage. They were surprised as they believed it would take at least 10 times longer to form an opinion. The study, published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology, also suggests that first impressions have a lasting impact.
This adds to what I believe is one of the key constituents of a successful Web 2.0 project. I’ve written before that I think that a good start-up should focus on both usability and design (the arty type) so that users feel as comfortable as possible when trying out the new service/software/application. Don’t forget that the person who has come up with the idea and has written the code is taking care of the functionality, but since users often use little of the powerful features of an application unless presented with a simple yet effective interface it is of paramount importance for a new company to focus on getting the powerful functionality in front of the user as simply as possible.
It is the very same reason why people who perhaps only a few years back would have laughed at the idea of having blogs and pontificating about their daily stresses and strains, but now contribute daily to what we call the blogosphere each day pouring their thoughts into Battelle’s fictitious “Database of Intentions” (”The Search” by John Battelle).
For me Google was the fastest search engine and the most simple (without all the banner ads and flashing monkeys) and for this reason alone I started using Google over AlltheWeb.com. This was back in the day when we had a very slow connection. I think users at the end of the day want things done within two-three clicks without a complicated interface that requires them to learn anything.
· Posted by Utills
January 16, 2006 at 8:00 pm · Categorised under Blog
Over the weekend I finally managed to take the plunge and get my domain hosted. As of now the Utills.com has a place on the net, but so far I’ve kept it to forward the URL to this present location. However, I have installed Wordpress 1.5 on the server and configured it so that all my previous posts written here (except the very latest ones) have been imported with comments over to the new site. I used a brilliant script by Andy Skelton to import all of the files across along with a screenshot based tutorial written by Catsudon.
The Wordpress blog currently resides at www.utills.com/blog but so far I have left it at the default template. I plan to make a few design logos and templates which I’ll try to put online until I settle on one that I am happy with. However, it looks like my Uni work will only allow me to work on it on Wednesdays and in the weekend since I am pretty much tied up with all the traveling and the assignments I need to do over the semester.
The host used is called CobraHosts and has a nice basic package of 50Mb Webspace and 2Gb traffic which should be more than enough for my purposes. The cost is pretty low also ($1 a month) and so it should be good for the short term while I learn my trade. On the horizon for me is learning PHP and MySQL to do general web functionality stuff, and XHTML + CSS + Javascript to learn how to improve on the display and usability aspect of web design.
A few of the logos I’ve come up with so far :-
A few menus that I’ve drawn :-
I need to start designing some simple templates and look into ways in which I can enhance the functionality provided on the blog as well as on the other sections I will introduce over time. One of the things that I would like to implement is to load the comments section through AJAX without needing to do any refresh. Also it might be an idea to add a “Add Comment” link which also works through AJAX so that any comments can be added without doing refreshes.
I guess as I get used to the web design world I will improve my skills and generate better ideas. For the time being just think of me as a programmer in a designer’s world.
· Posted by Utills
January 16, 2006 at 5:20 pm · Categorised under Blog
The joy of wireless. From the amount of nothingness (yes know it’s not a word…or is it?) that I’ve achieved over the past month at least the setting up of a wireless network was a piece of cake. For once the whole process went completely flawlessly from the installation to the configuration of security and access settings.
The Linksys WAG354G is an excellent router and although one of my laptops had initial problems from accessing the internet two rooms away it has a powerful wireless connection. I solved that by using a cable for the USB wireless adapter on the laptop instead of directly plugging into the back of the laptop. Also I can access the net on my PSP all the way to the front door (my room is somewhere in the middle).
I set up WPA-TKIP encryption with MAC authentication which is all done through a web interface making the whole process even easier. The Desktop computer and my Thinkpad are using Wired LAN and my brother’s laptop and my PSP are using the wireless. I also managed to set up file sharing with the windows boxes and my linux box using Samba. This was suprisingly very easy to do.
About two weeks ago I started to use linux on my desktop so that I can learn how to use the shell. Ubuntu is an excellent distribution in my opinion as it has the ease of use of Windows and the power of Linux. Downloading and installing new packages is as easy as invoking a single command or using the powerful Application Manager interface.
Using the “apt-get install” command I basically downloaded and configured Samba. The only thing I had to do was run “smbpasswd” to change the default samba password so that I could share files with my laptop.
Overall, the router is excellent, does everything you’d ever need it to do and has a very simple setup procedure. The advanced settings allow you to set up access restrictions (ports, time, URLs, etc). However, I couldn’t find anything for bandwidth control or a way to monitor the bandwidth of the overall network which is usually a must for anyone with more than two/three computers attached to the network.
· Posted by Utills
January 13, 2006 at 5:45 pm · Categorised under Blog
Ah! The holidays. A time to reflect and recharge. All that being done, its time to start blogging again. I need to try and work out a schedule for my blog as currently I seem to only blog when I am bored and have nothing else to do….err…like now! Also since I seem to end up writing long posts I think I’ll try and blog twice a week or something.
Anyways, on the agenda this semester at uni is Systems Programming, Distributed Systems, Principles of Programming Languages, Software Design Study and a few other boring modules. Most of these, the exception being Software Design Study, don’t require much work since they are 80% exam and so I think I’ll have much more time this semester to try out the things that I’ve always wanted to do.
I’ve jotted down a few ideas to write about which I’ll try to blog this weekend. I may not publish all the posts I write this weekend since statistically blogging readership tails off in the weekend which is why start of the week and end of the week may be a good time to blog.
· Posted by Utills
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