Usability
Found some good usability information and news at http://wsupsy.psy.twsu.edu/surl/usability_news.html, including a study on serif/san serif fonts. Need to explore this site a little more.
In a related area, Jakob Nielsen's October 1 Alertbox highlights issues regarding the average person and content creation. Giving a person a tool (like FrontPage) makes them a content creator like giving a person a pencil/word processor a writer. The need for original content creation is important so that you're not left reading pages of links that point simply to other pages of links.
Links aren't bad on their own, but they benefit from having a summary run with them (see Tomalak's Realm) and/or some editorial comment by the page author. (I grow tired of seeing "This page is really cool" with no other information, but such things will always be around. I'll take good content even when the page looks like a nightmare, though.)
Been listening to the Geddy Lee single "My Favorite Headache" in the last day or so. Kinda Primus-y, kinda like the melodic stuff on Grace Under Pressure and Hold your Fire. Can't wait for the release on November 14.
Tried to order voicemail and caller ID from the phone company yesterday. The prices I was quoted were significantly more than those on their web site, and they couldn't explain the disparity, but would have been happy to sign me up at the higher price and/or sign me up with some big package of stuff. Told them I was no longer interested, especially since they couldn't tell my why there was a difference. Hoped my call was being recorded for quality assurance purposes. Called today and the prices were the same as on the web site.
Went to bestbuy.com to look for a new phone, since our 2.4 ghz is worthless. Tried searching for "telephone" and got "Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01a8' Object required: 'Application(...)' /includes/ShopObjects.asp, line 21". Ummm...ok. I wonder how much business they lose because of such an error?
HTML coding music at work: Judybats: Full-Empty and Bruce Hornsby: Harbor Lights (where Pat Metheny play a guitar solo at the end of the title track that sounds just like Steve Howe to me). Plus, of course, Shibuya-FM, an online and broadcast radio station from Tokyo that I found years ago on the RealAudio site somewhere. Having just recently received a PC with a sound card (finally) at work, I can tune in at work.