March 7, 2010

"Me-gregation"

After more than a month of neglect--and really, what's a month or two after three years--I took advantage of Oscar night to work on my home page while the Mrs. watched the Oscars. So my home page is finally new. Whew.

In a fit of abject creativity, my new home page is, well, basically a bunch of links. But that's sort of the point. In an age where one's social profile extends to myriad web sites with poorly interlinked commonalities, I like the idea of having a pivot. So no more netwert.com branding, as I did for more than a decade; instead, a little more me branding, or at least, me-gregation, or whatever the word would be. In due time I'll get the utility of the interior pages of the site to more or less match, and as I play with the site design, I'll give the new home page some much-needed design flair, too.

I also went about perusing my website archives, and I must say, long before it became a paragon of boredom I had some pretty sweet home page ideas. All hail flatbed scanners and randomizer scripts!

links for 2010-03-07

  • Ars Technica takes a pragmatic but tough stance on ad blockers, turning off the website's content entirely for users who refuse to look at arstechnica.com ads. The freedom-fighers in the comments (and, I imagine, pro-ad-blocker folks like David Pogue) are mad, but Ars makes a good point from which they refuse to back down. "[If you won't whitelist our ads] please go get your news from a higher quality source. As it stands you're a net loss to us." Great read.
    (tags: news internet)

March 4, 2010

links for 2010-03-04

March 3, 2010

On baseball strategy

Terrific analysis of pitcher-hitter mindgames by Joe Posnanski.

So, when you see a guy who gets a lot of curveballs -- say Aaron Rowand -- that is not because he can't hit a good curveball. It's because pitchers believe he can't hit a mediocre curveball. It's a great game. The pitcher knows Rowand isn't very good on breaking stuff. Rowand knows the pitcher knows this and comes to the plate expecting to see breaking stuff. The pitcher knows that Rowand knows that the pitcher knows, so he is on alert that if he throws a hanging curveball, Rowand might just crush it. But Rowand knows this, so he might be overanxious if he sees the hanging curveball and hit it nine miles foul. Or he might be thinking curveball so much that he promises himself to not wing, and the pitcher might cross him up and throw fastball -- even Aaron Rowand got more than 50% fastballs last year -- and Rowand is so screwed up in his head that he just watches it go by for strike three and ... yeah, it's a great game.

Yeah, it is.

March 2, 2010

links for 2010-03-02

My recent travel, health, work and curiosity history, as told in iChat status messages

status-messages.png

March 1, 2010

links for 2010-03-01

February 23, 2010

links for 2010-02-23

  • Article: "His career-defining moment came in the old Yankee Stadium in the form of an 11th-inning, Game 7 of the 2003 AL Championship Series that lifted New York past the Boston Red Sox and into the World Series." Not entirely true. I best remember him for playing basketball that off-season, screwing up his left knee, and getting his Yankee contract voided. ESPN has a habit of hiring analysts who are not very good at making smart decisions (see also: Phillips, Steve)
    (tags: baseball)

February 19, 2010

links for 2010-02-19

February 17, 2010

links for 2010-02-17

February 15, 2010

The ROI of UX: Continental Airlines

From my post on aiaio:

Yes, there are premium seats available; no, you can't have them. I asked if I could pay extra to reserve those seats: no. I asked if I could get a seat assignment, any seat assignment, so I knew I would make it on the plane: no. I eventually gave up my attempts to cajole customer service into helping me, and after a few hours of deliberation, I took my business elsewhere.

My story isn't all that uncommon, but it still strikes me as a miss on Continental's part. Why must they hold a random middle seat for an unbooked elite member, thereby denying a paying customer a chance to confirm travel?

Between this and Continental's other discomforts—a small 31" seat pitch in coach; 60,000 miles to book coach-class reward travel—I haven't flown CO in more than five years. In the interim I've been on American, JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic, Northwest, Alitalia, Midwest, US Airways, United and Virgin America, and I've enjoyed all of them more than I enjoy my typical interaction with Continental. (Well, maybe not Alitalia.)

February 11, 2010

links for 2010-02-11

February 9, 2010

links for 2010-02-09

February 7, 2010

links for 2010-02-07

February 4, 2010

Super

I am once again pleased as punch to report that my talented, hard-working wife has produced a commercial running in the Super Bowl, this time for Snickers.

The spot runs early in the game on Sunday, and there's a teaser on Facebook for the curious and impatient.

I will go on the record as saying I think the full spot is great: perfect for the Super Bowl. And I think I'm more proud and impressed than she is.

Update: Snickers topped the Ad Meter as best commercial of Super Bowl XLIV. Kickin'.

MORE BLOGS BY DAVID

FEEDS AND THINGS

CONNECTIONS

ABOUT THE 'PAD

The concoction
3 parts observation
2 parts introspection
1 part links
1 part creativity
1 part stinging wit
dash of sarcasm

The history
The Ideapad debuted on November 1, 1998 and has been through numerous incarnations through the years. It is now a weblog and personal journal. Ideapad is one of the world's oldest continually publishing blogs.
Your host
David Wertheimer is an Internet industry veteran, an author of Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself and a writer and speaker on Internet business topics. He is director of strategy at Alexander Interactive, a boutique agency in New York. Read more
Copyright © 1998-2009 David Wertheimer. All rights reserved.
Published with
Movable Type 4.21-en