Powell's Books - Writing Making a Literary Life: Lessons on Writing and Living
by Carolyn See

The Layout Reservoir - BlueRobot Please feel free to borrow, steal, abduct, and/or torture the documents contained in the Layout Reservoir. Though you need not give credit to BlueRobot.com, a comment in your source code would help other developers to find this resource

Information Architecture Tutorial

TechWeb Focal Points Cisco Continues Its VoIP Catalyst Crusade

A Friendly Reminder To Share and Share Alike"Every code-hogging, patent suit-filing corporation that thinks it has cornered the world on smarts got a reminder this week that it's not always smart to not share your toys. "

Writing Tip for Subject Matter Experts:
If you are well acquainted with the dirty details of a subject and find you need to create overviews in a piece of related writing, please have the overview SIMPLIFY things. This is NOT the same as making the details VAGUE. A VAgue or ambiguous overview does not help. You want to aid a reader who is new to the material to take a simple concept and then expand on it, not take a detail and describe it less specifically.

Today I am learning about Program Mgmt. I think I have a general knowledge of this, but I am excited to learn some details. I have read some scope and skill sets and definitions which have begun to show me the light. Then one of the details is being expanded on, but since I do not have reference to the material from direct experience or training, the overview paragraphs seem vague and I am not sure how to visualize the content. I hope in the following paragraphs I will learn what they referred to. Then I will see if I can figure away to convert the infinite wisdom of these senior program managers into words that are slightly more tangible.

Let's see! when I get to the end I might decide to word it the same way as originally presented, but that could mean those not familiar with the subject area glaze over the paragraph. Let's See!

Hey webmasters, check out the navigation implementation here. Scroll past pages of javascript functions til you get to Begin Navigation System and checkit out... Features & Benefits - WebTrends Live, WebTrends Corporation The eBusiness Edition enables small to mid-size businesses to effectively evaluate their web site performance and make real-time business decisions based on behavior of current visitors.

Feelihng the "need for speed"? Boosting Your PC for Less Than $100The hottest video card of six months ago is probably available now for about $50.

As in a CPU/motherboard upgrade, installing a new video card means cracking open the computer case -- but unlike the CPU overhaul, this operation is far simpler, and instructions are readily available.

And, of course, a broadband connection can prove to be a siren song for heavy Internet users.

Boosting Your PC for Less Than $100 "Feeling the need for speed"? Says newsfactor.com:
"The hottest video card of six months ago is probably available now for about $50.

"And, of course, a broadband connection can prove to be a siren song for heavy Internet users."

Stop-the-Pop - aggresive pop-up blocker preventing all annoying pop-up windows from appearing! Stop-the-Pop can be configured to start automatically after a reboot and resides in the system tray when minimized.

Hey folks, check out this blog by fellow blogger John Dutton from Canton CT! He says you have to be in IT for 10 years or more before being qualified for Peace Corps..Well I have already paid off all my student loans, so maybe the PEace Corps would bring their own rewards. Peru? Chile? Argentina? Cost Rica? Bolivia?!?!?! Maybe even Mozambique or Liberia..Mr. Dutton Goes to Africa "I had applied to Peace Corps, with no preference as to location, but I wanted to teach science. I was willing to perform services dealing with I.T., but as I had basically been in that field for the last 10 years (!), it was definitely a second choice. I wanted to do what would be useful to the people I was trying to help -- that was the first priority. But I love teaching, and I couldn't resist." - John Dutton

On the Radar...
INS
EMC2
SpaceFitters
D.L.Babson

Programming Languages are like Women "Pascal
A grammar school teacher, and Algol 60's younger sister. Like her sister she is petite and attractive, but very bossy. She is a good cook but only if the recipe requires no more than one pot (module)."

Ack my first programming class was PASCAL. hahahahaha!

Friday off the wall coffee break: Sola Kate Stage

Good Thursday Morning!
I added some regular links today. Feel free to suggest critical or whimsy links.

Working out of state? Tired of racking up expenses? Have a car only when you need it! - Zipcar.com Wow, I SAW a little green bug with ZipCar.com sticker driving along the Charles River towards Cambridge over the summer!

Tavelling Garden - Unity Pond.net Web Photo Gallery Photos for unwinding so you can work smarter. Don't get hung up here too long or you will be eating a dinner of fritos and ginger ale frmo the machine ;-)!

Gantheadd Discussions
Changemanagement Templates

Use Photoshop to Eliminate noise in digital camera photos

Oftentimes, you'll see some noise in digital photos. An easy way to eliminate the grainy texture is to go to the Channels palette and select the Blue channel. Then choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and enter a Radius of 1 or 2.

ccgenesis The content management application (CMA) ccgenesis has created specially for Dr. Weil will give Dr. Weil, and his staff, the freedom to manage and control updating of his site as they choose. “The Content Management Systems are custom built, easy to use, browser based tools that non-technical staff can use to manage almost any element of the site,”

Given the opinions on the Daily Blog with regard to search engines, do you think having an AddMe link will help you find this blog?

C.A.T. Listening to Bush address the nation with regard to Mr. Hussein. "Sadam is a homicidal dictator" *sigh*

People, what will stop the fighting? Is overpowering the only answer?

Jenny K. Hoffman: A Content Developer's Guide to Developing a User-Friendly Web Site: Navigational system The navigational system is the manner in which the information is presented, as opposed to information architecture which is the process of organizing the information.

Internet World Magazine > Special Report: Design Usability - December 15, 2000 Most of the Web-design world is guilty of ignoring users’ needs in favor of a self-centered view of how a site should work. That’s why so many intranets are divided into silos—divided by business units—although users seldom think of navigating via an org chart, much less understand it.

Information Architecture Defined Understand the user. Understand the business offering. Bring the two together.

Boxes and Arrows: Defining Information Architecture Deliverables Wireframe

Web Style Guide, 2nd Edition WEB STYLE GUIDE - Process, Interface DEsign, site Design, Page Design, etc

What's New: Gerry McGovern 'A step-by-step approach to web classification design' is available in Adobe PDF (252 K).
Download now.

Information overload: you need to get organized: August 19, 2002 issue of New Thinking Information overload has striking similarities to pollution. Long-term thinking and planning is what is required to find a genuine solution. While national and global initiatives are important, the individual has a role to play too. We can create less content. We can organize what we have better.

Information architecture: a workshop approch to classification design: September 16, 2002 issue of New Thinking After having completed your classification situation analysis, you will have a long list of potential classifications. Now, you need to choose what the top-level of your classification will be. This is an iterative process that will require substantial feedback and interaction. It should not be rushed.

Information architecture: carrying out a classification situation analysis: September 09, 2002 issue of New Thinking
September 09, 2002

Information architecture: carrying out a classification situation analysis

By Gerry McGovern

Before you create a classification for your content, it's essential to carry out a comprehensive classification situation analysis. Classification design should follow the 'geniuses steal, beggars borrow' rule. Your job is not to come up with some innovative way to classify your content. It is to find a classification that works.

Information architecture: learning how to classify: September 02, 2002 issue of New Thinking If you are a knowledge worker, a key skill you require is how to classify content. Classification skills are needed in order to better organize content on your computer, for your emails, and for how you compose documents. If you have responsibility for a website, classification is an essential skill.

Classification (taxonomy) is a type of metadata. The purpose of metadata is to provide essential information about a document. Metadata and classification are part of the discipline of information architecture, whose focus is to organize and layout content.

DL94: An Interoperable Architecture for Digital Information Repositories An Interoperable Architecture for Digital Information Repositories

DesignWritings a good designer should understand the medium in which s/he practices

Hi,
Im searching on information design sites for work today, so please accept my apologies that the fun counter-work stuff (bands - Release, 2SkinneeJs, Rocktopus, Grover Dill) may get pushed down the page a bit!
One Content Writer in hyperspace

The Daily Blog The daily Blog - Network Computing, Thursday, October 3, 2002
Meta tags? We don't need no stinking meta tags!

Google Technology Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search.

More band stuff tonight. In the meantime, check out http://www.digitalblasphemy.com

C.A.T. See Figlio "Fee" inRelease- Connecticut's Best New Up And Coming Rock Band on

10.26.02 Madison Arts Barn, Madison, CT
w/ Planeside
Doors @6:30 $8

Met Figlio from Release- Connecticut's Best New Up And Coming Rock Band at Toad's place in New Haven Ct last night. He surely seemed like the smartest guy in the place...Or maybe just the most sober! (that's a compliment!!) We were checking out 2 Skinnee Js, Grover Dill, and Rocktopus from Portland Maine!! But With the sescription I see on the Release-Ct.com site, I'll have to bring a date to find Release~!! hee hee. I bet you get that a lot don't you. ;-)