Thanks a lot, Mr. N 5, for contributing to the economic and moral collapse of the United States.

Mr. Lanter keeps suggesting political blog to read, but I'm usually to drunk to remember the URL. Please post it.

LaRouche in 2004

Check out the band, Enon. Yum!

coming into town sunday nite.

the point where winter stops, and then spring begins. it's the greatest day of the year. i feel sorry for people who live in arizona.

I'm wearing a dead man's robe

The medium is the message.

The medium needs a massage.

Matt, i am just checking that you made it to work on time this morning. Hope you didn't have any trouble getting out of bed. Same for Eric. Hope he made it to class okay. Sorry to keep you guys out so late.

I've also got a dead man's check sitting on my dashboard. I hope the fbi isn't reading this.

matt! wake up.

i talked to your Grandma a few days ago. she said blah blah blah. i told her when i was younger i used to blah blah blah and sneak into the basement and blah blah blah. she told me to tell you that she used to touch herself too, so you shouldn't be ashamed when she's watching you.

do they have cracker barrels in new york city?

Where am I? OK, things are hazy...I'm at "work." I'm very sleepy. Hung over.

Dead men tell no tales. Dead men have no tails, either. Actually, it is possible to communicate with the dead, but I don't recall any good dead storytellers. They all like, "Blah, blah, blah. I watching you." Sometimes I think my Grandma is watching me when I touch myself. I don't think she cares, though. I wonder how her perspective on life changed since she has died.

I'm going back to sleep at my desk now. Wake me if the boss comes by.

i drove around with that dead man's ghost for seven days

i had a dead man's flag in my truck for the last week

I'm having trouble talking to people, especially girls. I just stare at people. I have to train myself to say "Hello" to people as my first reaction upon meeting them, instead of just staring at them. My lesson here is to learn how to communicate, and I have to get past the fear of sounding or looking stupid.

Eric wants to go out tonight. Wanna come?

How is everything else going?

Matt, that sounds beautiful. Too bad about the 9 pointer.

How y'all feelin' today? Good? Good!

Me? Oh, uh, I'm alright. Can't complain. Well, I am a little choked up right now. [Cough]

I'm looking out the window of my "office" (more like a bank of computers with no seperation between people) into the field beyond the soccor field and I can see a line of ducks waddling along. So beautiful! {Sniffle}

Every once in a while I can spot deer. My boss is a bow hunter. He had a buck head in his truck yesterday; nine points, someone said.

my favorite thing about the porn room is when i'm putting movies away back there and people ask me if i know which ones are good. which ones have really good plots. I just have to laugh. I always always ALWAYS reccommend "the OZZPORNS"

Joe I think that is a great story. I wish i HAD been there.

stop it you are embarrassing me. I guess you associate me with porn b/c of the video store as do most people.

Monica, I was always amazed at your fame around Springfield - jealous even. EverYboDy DoeS SeEm to KNoW You.

You are just a charmer you. We visited Jim last night, and gave him a couple of bucks for beer and porn. And somehow your name came up.

Matt, I became acquainted briefly with someone who i assume that you know as he mentioned that he heard of me from you (and Eric). his name is James Folkerts. He rented from me today. He didn't say much but seemed like a nice kid. So what I really need to know is WhAT are you SaYinG aBouT mE whEn I'm nOT ArouNd? People seem To KnoW mE.

I just want to start out by saying i'm gay to be back (as in happy.) this last week has been awful. It took verizon 10 days to get me reconnected to the internet. The most harrowing to those days were six, seven, and eight, when verizon was customarily trying to convince me that it was not their fault, but mine, that I couldn't get connected to the interent.

Tis true - I had a formidable cold, but I came out on top, and again I am a healthy person. There are, however, still some lingering side effects - such as snot.

Matt, I looked at the revamped lamp shade site. I am appalled by the colors. What are you blind man? I did find the interface to be simple and user-friendly, and very similar to other web-sites. I give you a B- on the project, with a "see me" at the bottom concerning the colors.

More on me: there been a late breaking development lately concering my personality and personal tastes. I've started to listen to digital music. I don't know if that's a direct result of being estranged from my cyber-mates, or if it's just a side-effect of the cold. However, I think it's going to be an interesting and fun new me for the next 48 hours or so.

if someone came up to you who was 15 times your size and said, "I'm going to kick your ass," would you let him search you for weapons first?

guess who's back

Matt Bright writes:

Hey Matt

I hear that you guys might be going to see sleater Kinney on February 22nd. Eric was bugging me to go to that show, but i told him that i didn't think that i wanted to because it was too much driving for me for one weekend. However, I am going to be down there that weekend anyway for a class reunion. Now that i think of it, i sure as hell don't want to be stuck in springfield while you guys are off kicking it in champaign. So, in conclusion, if I were able to hitch a ride with one of you kind folks, I would be quite interested in going. Please pass it on to Eric, as I am too lazy to call. If he has not bought tickets already and they are of reasonable price, please tell him to pick me up one...given that the above proposition is accepted by one of the two of you. Please sign below. Fifteen times. okay bye

And to make things more confusing, interface metaphors have multiple purposes. Not only are interface metaphors a guide through a new system, but they also help mask an abstract concept with a "real world" object.

Interface metaphors work as user introduction to an unfamiliar system. They are a shortcut, and method of flattening the learning curve for a new user to USE the system. Interface metaphors use terms from one system, and apply them to another, and by doing so, hasten usablity.

Interface metaphors have another seperate function, which is to mask complex processes in simple, concise terms, thereby controlling complexity. Something as terse as a pipe [ | ] in UNIX obscures the fact that the operating system is performing a complicated series of commands that spawns Input/Output redirection. Heck, most times we don't want to know exactly what is happening behind the metaphor.

Each of these purposes comes with its own set of problems, its own set of questions.

What happens when, after becoming proficient with a system, the metaphors that were used to learn the system start to fall apart?

What happens when the system in which the metaphor was modelled after becomes obsolete? Let's say for the sake of argument that human being no longer used trash cans, but the trash can on the PC desktop was still used? The metaphor loses it's meaning.

With computer systems getting more and more complex, there are layers and layers within layers of metaphors. Is it any wonder this gets confusing?

Check out this search engine:

www.kartoo.com

Rather than display a *list* of links, this search engine
displays a *map* of websites, based on relevance. I am not
sure how the selected websites are weighted, but it appears
that the search engine shows more heavily weighted sites
as a bigger icons on the map. This is a new, interesting
twist on the whole search engine motif.

Here is a post that I put up on the discussion board for my online Graphical User Interface/Human Computer Interaction course.

Interface Metaphors

As discussed in the text, some interface metaphors have been shown to be useful, while others have lots of detractors. Please either introduce (or reply to a thread) a particular interface metaphor from web design or interface design that you either like or dislike. Give some detail on your opinion."

Cell phones and strait jackets

The first few times I used a cellular phone, I could not make the call without asking for help. I could not understand the interface. I had trouble turning the phone on, inputing the number I wanted to call, and getting the call to connect.
As a user, I was using the interface metaphor of a hard line telephone and applying what I knew about land-line phones to interacting with the wireless phone. I was expecting cellular phones to operate and have the same interaction language as a land-line phone. I thought this would be the obvious metaphor that the designers of cellular phones would use when introducing the public to this new peice of technology. I found that this was not exactly the case, and as a user, I was frustrated.

When dialing from home or an office using a land-line phone, one picks up the phone, listens for the dialtone which automatically appears, types in the number, and after the last digit is entered, waits while the phone connects and rings.

With cellular device, the sequence is different. One has to turn the phone on, dial the number, then press the TALK or SEND button, or some variation thereof. The process is not as one who is used to making phonecalls would expect. As a user with clear expectations on how a telephone should work, one does not expect changes. There is no dialtone. It is not intuitive to press TALK or SEND to start the connection process. It is not expected that a device that looks like a phone to behave like a personal data assistant, calculator, or dictionary.

I still wonder why the designers of cell phones never modeled the cell phone more closely to the phones most people were used to using. It would not be difficult, to make a cell phone behave nearly identical to a land-line phone, and it would certainly create less confusion for new users. Cell phone designers could keep the sequence of dialing the same: Turning the phone on, dialing the number, and waiting for the person on the other line to pick up.

I realize now that I took the land-line metaphor too seriously. That a wireless network behaves differently than a land-based telephone network and that users must interact differently with it. This is where metaphors break down - when metaphors are taken too literally. Metaphors are a guide through new territory, but they can only take you so far.

Matt K. your hair looks good too. We have to get out more often.

I'm glad to know Mike is alive and well. Thanks for the update Joe.