Pacers' hopes running on fumes

MIAMI -- The Indiana Pacers' playoffs chances went from slim to a long shot in a matter of three minutes because of the player nicknamed "Flash. (Read on Source)

Using Icons for Web Site Navigation — a Waste of Time?

Not that this is a new phenomena, but I've been noticing icons popping up in the navigation of a number of web sites recently.

As much as I appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into designing these often beautiful graphics, I have mixed feelings about the time and effort it must take.

Let's assume that time spent designing these navigation icons equates to time not spent doing something else on a web site (say, working on other aspects of the design or improving usability).

That being the case, I have to question whether the benefit gained from adding icons to a site for navigation purposes (in terms of usability) outweighs the cost of developing them.

So, what is the purpose of icons anyway? The Gnome Developer's Site says it well on their page on designing effective icons:

Icons should be suggestive of the functionality with which they are associated. The best icon will suggest to the user the primary purpose of the program or operation without having to read accompanying text.

If you have to think about an icon to 'get it', the metaphor is too complex.

I use this definition in judging the effectiveness of web site navigation icons. Unless they add meaning to a navigation item, what purpose do they serve other than to look pretty / clutter up the navbar?

The following examples help to illustrate what I mean. Take a look at them and see if you can tell what the navigation link would be if only the icon and not the accompanying text was present:

Only the Home and RSS icons have any meaning without their accompanying text because they are universally recognized.

This illustrates the main problem with web site navigation icons; only a few terms (e.g., home, contact, calendar, shopping cart) are used consistently across web sites so that icons can be used effectively to represent them.

Although these images are trying to serve the same purpose as icons they don't work at all well. The text is made small to the point of unreadability in order to fit both image and text within the navigation space.

Only Home and Login have any meaning without the accompanying text.

This example illustrates the point that icons don't serve their purpose if they don't convey meaning. Because I don't speak Italian I have no clue what these navigation choices are despite the presence of these wonderfully designed icons.

Only the calendar icon works by itself. The bundles of dollars almost do, but it could be easy for someone to misinterpret what they are. It would have been better to use a simple $ sign, but that was probably thought to be too obvious.

Can you imagine the time (designing, discussing, approving) that must have gone into creating these meaningless icons? Surely there is something else on this site that could have benefited more from this extra time.

Although nicely designed, these icons are clearly meaningless.

However, they also spin around in a circle making it hard to mouse over them to find out what they are for. It's even to actually click on one.

To my mind this is the worst example I have found — a complete usability disaster.

On a travel site, some of these icons have meaning (flights, car rental). But the others? At least the designer didn't even bother trying to come up with an icon for 'Blog'. If only they'd done the same for the other navigation options.

I have no clue what any of these icons are supposed to mean.

These icons do not provide any added meaning compared with their textual counterparts. In fact, the first one actually hinders meaning as the text is so hard to read.

Some of these icons work as they are used universally — Print, Discuss, Email. The others do not help at all, and the RSS one is actually wrong now that there is a standard RSS icon.

The Podcasts icon makes me smile; however, an iPod icon might have been more effective.

Interestingly, this is only example I could find from the web site of a company that actually designs icons. Surely there is a lesson to be followed if the people who know the most about icon design don't use them in their own site navigation.

Wonderfully designed icons that integrate beautifully into the site design. However, how much meaning some of them provide is questionable.

Of the eight icons here, only four mean anything to me (skiing, canoing, hiking, cycling). The others could signify anything. Perhaps the two on the right represent fireworks and target shooting?

Conclusions

Given how poorly icons work for most aspects of web site navigation, I have to conclude that the cost to develop them is not worth it.

I'll admit that when well-designed they look nice, but if you removed from a site it would be none the worse for it. Valuable design time would most likely be better spent elsewhere.

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Mac Cracked in Hack Attack

Just one day following Apple's release of a security update containing 25 patches, two security researchers at the CanSecWest conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia, were able to hack into a MacBook using a zero-day exploit in Apple's Safari browser. Shane Macauley, a software engineer, and Dino Dai Zovi, a security researcher, undertook the challenge as part of the "PWN to Own" Hack-a-Mac contest.

7/7 ‘mastermind’ is seized in Iraq

The al-Qaeda leader who is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7 suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain has been captured by the Americans. (Read on Source)

Facebook's Zuckerberg makes surprise appearance at NYC developer event

Blog: Interested developers and entrepreneurs get together to talk about what they want to do with the Facebook Platform.

Study: Online shoppers taking more time to hit 'buy' button

Blog: Prospective buyers are increasingly inclined to take extra time to search for the best price and features, according to report.

Big media hunts for Web cred, again

Print and TV giants have been forking over the cash in a flurry of Web acquisitions, but skeptics wonder if it'll be wasted money.

Jobs ?safe? after India merger

Source:www.telegraph.co.uk A leading British call centre company, Telecom Service Centres (TSC), is to merge with Indian rival Hero ITES. The �40m deal will add TSC’s 3,000 employees and nine centres to Hero ITES’ Delhi-based operation. But TSC’s management, which will retain a shareholding in the enlarged firm, is keen to emphasise that British jobs are not under threat [...]

SearchBrains

One gripe I have with Google Apps for enterprise use is the lack of control companies have over their data. If an email isnt delivered or something happened to an email account by accident, the administrator can do nothing but say I will send Google a mes sage and I will let you know what [...]... (Read on Source)

Mobile computing without laptop

... and stores them on an iPod or similar gadget. Plug the device into another Windows XP computer, and your desktop appears, with all your programmes and files exactly as you ...

Spyker iPhone-lookalike spotted at MWC

Dutch car manufacturer Spyker is allegedly doing its own take on the iPhone, since the mystery device was recently spotted at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. CNET reports that a Spyker branded iPhone-lookalike was visible behind a glass case, but with a physical keypad, rather than relying on the on-screen keyboard of the iPhone. Spyker d...

Halo 3 Gameplay: Confirmed Kills - Episode 2

Halo 3 first-person shooter XBox video game tricks & glitches: Confirmed Kills - Episode 2

Expedia Labels French Worst Tourists

Here was the basic plot of the gore movie, Hostel: Obnoxious American tourists get sold to butchers at a higher rate than tourists from other countries because, well, they're obnoxious American tourists. And that's just not right, because according to a worldwide survey of hotel staffers from Expedia, it's the French who are the most obnoxious tourists.

Like we needed a survey; we saw Talladega Nights *.

Bell bullies hapless Proteas

Ian Bell scored 199 in the first Test against South Africa at Lord’s to put England in command at 587/7. England declared on 593/8 and when rain stopped play South Africa were seven without loss. Bell batted beautifully, controlling the Proteas’ one dimensional attack with consummate ease. Kevin Pietersen departed earlier in the day, ... (Read on Source)

Research Publications Online: Too Much Of A Good Thing?

The Internet gives scientists and researchers instant access to an astonishing number of academic journals. So what is the impact of having such a wealth of information at their fingertips? The answer, according to new research, is surprising -- scholars are actually citing fewer papers in their own work, and the papers they do cite tend to be more recent publications. This trend may be limiting the creation of new ideas and theories.

Rally Stalling Out

The shortterm bottom that formed on July 17 and the rally the following day were marked by incredible volume and by a convincing breadth reversal...

HP, Intel, Yahoo Team for Cloud Computing Research

HP, Intel and Yahoo will develop several test facilities for cloud computing infrastructure research and develop software, data center management and hardware in a large-scale cloud environment. The HP, Intel and Yahoo partnership joins other big names, including Google, IBM and VMware, that are pushing to expand cloud computing.
- Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Yahoo have entered into a joint pact to create new research and development centers that will test the limits of cloud computing. The three IT giants announced plans July 29 to create what they are calling Cloud Computing Test Beds that will allow enterprises, universitie...

Alfresco Takes Aim at Microsoft with Open Source Sharepoint Alternative

Alfresco released Alfresco Labs (Beta) 3 today and with it announced a new capability that enables businesses to leverage Microsoft Sharepoint functionality without buying additional Sharepoint licenses. Sound too good to be true? Itâ??s not, and what has allowed Alfresco to do this is the 2004 EU Commission order for Microsoft to publish the Sharepoint protocol.

Jackson wants to show poise isn't just noise

Vikings' maturing quarterback will test his mettle -- briefly -- against the Seahawks in preseason opener. (Read on Source)

Airtel techies dare hackers to crack iPhone code

... a long NSF title. The updated packages have been patched to correct this issue. Debian Security Advisory 1630-1 - Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Linux kernel that ...

Why Does Apple Always Seem to Get a Break???

Zemlin's Blog: "Walking around Linuxworld this year it was interesting to see the number of Apple notebooks in the halls and various sessions. It wasn’t necessarily that there were more Apple notebooks than Linux machines, but it was a good number and begs the question: why do open source people seem to cut Apple some slack when it comes to their very closed proprietary platform?"

2008 Open Source CMS Award Finalists Announced

Packt: "Following six weeks of intense voting, Packt can now exclusively reveal the Content Management Systems that have made the final of the four different categories. With the final voting stage opening on September 1, the competition is likely to be strong with new CMS's joining some of the more established names in each category to compete for a share of the $20,000 prize money."

Web Hosting Transformation Summit North America, Sponsored by Interxion

Schiphol-Rijk, The Netherlands - (The Hosting News) - September 8, 2008 - Provider of carrier-neutral data centers, Interxion, will support the global forum for hosting, IT services and Internet infrastructure, the Hosting Transformation Summit North America, as a Gold Sponsor.

The summit will be held in Las Vegas from September 15th to 17th. In addition to the sponsorship, Phil Collerton, Interxion EVP Operations, will represent the company during a panel session on efficient data centre design.

Dick Theunissen, Chief Marketing Officer of Interxion remarked, ''We sponsor this event because we believe in sharing expertise and discussing developments across the global industry. In addition, there is growing demand from American organisations for high specification transatlantic infrastructure. With 23 data centers in 11 countries, we are in an excellent position to provide a complete pan-European solution.''

Now in its fourth year, the conference has established itself as a leading event on data centre management. This year's focus will include the rise of the green data centre combined with virtualization and its potential to transform the industry. Corporate leaders, senior IT architects and financial professionals come together for two days to learn, network and map out strategies for today's marketplace.

Interxion is a European provider of carrier neutral data centers. Headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, The Netherlands, Interxion serves its customers from 23 carrier-neutral data centers located in 13 cities across 11 European countries. Interxion serves network and carrier based, hosting and enterprise customers who require professionally managed and strictly controlled physical environments within which to operate mission-critical applications and computer systems. Interxion's data centers offer cost effective and fast access to multiple local and global communication networks.

To learn more, please visit: www.interxion.com.

Long-Awaited Mac Version of µTorrent Leaked

A version of the popular �Torrent P2P client for Mac OS X has snuck its way out into the wild a little early. The software, still only officially available for Windows users, is an alpha build and not that stable, but Mac fans are excited nonetheless.

Wired.com

ThinkTank 08 Teaser Video

I am still catching up from being gone last weekend at the purposeinc ThinkTank 08.� It was a unreal time and I will have a more complete post…. but just to give you a little tease… This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog ThinkTank 08 Teaser Video (Read on Source)

Dell primes PowerEdge servers for virtualization (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld - With virtualization's popularity soaring, it was predictable that hardware vendors would eventually bring to market specialized servers that cater to the needs of virtual machines.

How to Win at Online Roulette

Roulette is probably the most popular and the most enjoyable online casino game. Players at online casinos like the slow but exciting atmosphere of an online Roulette table. It is also a game where ...

Sling.com almost ready for its close-up

The maker of the Slingbox now has its own video entertainment portal.

Dilemma: Is it still worth recycling?

This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday November 30 2008 on p95 of the Comment & features section. It was last updated at 00.27 on November 30 2008. (Read on Source)

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