Category Archives: UX/UI Design

How humans interact with the world around them, online and off, has always fascinated me.

Can a school get your kid’s Facebook password? Judge says no

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I don’t have a Facebook account, primarily because the idea of living my personal life online sounds like the worst idea since Jarts. However, its cases like this that had me thinking about going to law school to focus on Internet Law. I cannot see how in the world the school could think they had the right to demand access to this kid’s account.

 

Side note: for those of you under 30- Jarts was a “toy” that consisted of six two-foot long darts with SHARP STEEL tips and two hula hoops. The idea was to play it kind of like horseshoes, but with LETHAL STEEL SPIKES.

 

“Happy 8th Birthday, Bobby. Now take this lethal mini-spear and hurl it across the yard. Try not to puncture your other guests. Have fun!!!”

Jeff John Roberts's avatarGigaom

How far can a school go in punishing students for what they do on Facebook? One Minnesota middle school crossed the line, leading a federal judge to say it violated one girl’s basic rights.

The case involves a 12-year-old girl who used Facebook (s fb) to diss the hall monitor, writing “[I hate] a Kathy person at school because [Kathy] was mean to me.” She also used the social network to talk about “naughty things” with a boy. When one of her “friends” ratted on her, the girl wrote on her Facebook wall, “I want to know who the f%$# told on me.”

Three school officials, including a counselor and a taser-wearing cop, came down hard. They interrogated her in an office and badgered the sobbing girl until she handed over her passwords. They proceeded to go through her Facebook and email accounts to find the “naughty” discussion she had with the boy.

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Annoying PC Magazine Layout

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I was researching tools to use for my new business and stumbled on a list of the “Top 25 Small Business Apps” on the PC Magazine site.

I was looking through it and was quickly distracted by the layout of the article.

See below:

The report provides a brief description of the application and a screen shot, all very useful.

However, they have it backwards. The screenshot comes first and then the text. This means that a user has to scroll up (usually past the page break) in order to look at the image to see what the description is referencing.  It would have been so much easier if the screen shot was below the text.

There is also one VERY annoying thing on this site… the new version of the marketing pop-up.

This little box appeared and disappeared every minute or so at the bottom of the screen.

Aren’t we past this intrusive, pushy marketing strategy by now?

90% of US households with computers have broadband

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I find this absolutely amazing. I can still remember my first dial-up ISP with its 14.4 and XXXX@ix.netcom.com email address. Now to think that NINETY percent of all US homes have broadband… I would love to see what the standard will be in 2030.

Om Malik's avatarGigaom

Broadband penetration in the U.S. is continuing to grow, and now stands at 90 percent of U.S. households that have a computer at home, according to Broadband Access & Services in the Home 2012, a study by Leichtman Research Group (LRG). Five years ago, 65 percent of households with a computer subscribed to broadband service, LRG notes. Its research shows that broadband subscriptions go up with household incomes.

Annual Household Income

Use a Computer at Home

Internet at Home

Broadband at Home

Under $30,000

59%

52%

47%

$30,000-$50,000

84%

78%

68%

Over $50,000

97%

97%

91%

“While higher-income households remain most likely to subscribe to a broadband service, computers in the home also increases with household income,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “Disparities in computer ownership are the true roots of the broadband divides in the US.”

Here are some other findings from…

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Public v Private Clouds

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Very nice article. Gave me all the ammo I need when my boss comes to get my take on this. Anti-risk and cautious defines us as a firm. Good read.

Guest Column's avatarGigaom

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of clouds, it was the age of legacy IT, it was the epoch of commodity compute, it was the epoch of expensive private clouds, it was the Season of Amazon, it was the Season of IBM(s ibm), it was the spring of agility, it was the winter of security risks, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going to change our paradigms, we were all going to resist the change — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Charles Dickens (who may be rolling in his grave) was right. When it comes to the debate on public versus private clouds or…

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Linked In and Me

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I just tried to access my Linked In profile for the first time in probably a year and it wasn’t under the email address I thought it was. So I searched via my name.

Apparently I have THREE accounts with them and can’t remember a single password. I guessed one of the emails but it’s to an email account I haven’t used in 10+ years and have no clue what the password might be.

So… don’t bother looking for me on Linked In. Besides, I drew up a fake account to see if I can get a clue on my real one and it looks like everything is now a pay feature. Pass.