Shameless plug - please buy my laptop! (’cos I’m poor and hungry!!)
(Off-topic. Plus I *think* I'm not breaking the rules posting this here, but I'll double-check…).
Ok, sorry; I know this is both shameless and cheeky. But it's a very nice laptop, and it's the laptop that built UPSU.net, and it's only 99p on eBay at the moment (although I'm hoping it'll sell for a bit more…).
Anyhoo, it's a bargain. Find out more here…
Posted by Alex on Sun 28th January 2007
Bank Customer sends bailiffs into his bank…
I wrote a little while back about taking my bank to court. I've just read this story of a similar claimant - Declan Purcell - sending bailiffs into his local branch to seize the bank's property after the bank failed to refund his money despite winning against them in the courts.
I wonder if this like Real World 2.0 - where user-generated Web 2.0 content jumps into the Real World and bites the posterior of Big Business…? ;o)
/al
Posted by Alex on Wed 24th January 2007
Stupid things: I’ve done 116 out of 132 (bored? Me? Nooo… Ok, a little…)
Yes I'm avoiding work. Again…
Posted by Alex on Tue 23rd January 2007
Fancy a brain workout? (courtesy of Timesonline)
Timesonline.co.uk is running a daily 15 minute brain exercise thing - you get 15 minutes to answer 5 questions, with a new set of questions being posed each day, for example “rearrange these 8 sets of 3 letters into four groups of 6 to work out what the scrambled words are: ….” (I spent 8 minutes on that one, was about to give up and the answer popped into my head - who says the subconscious mind doesn't help us out? ;o).
It's not all sunshine, fluffy bunnies and flowers: I've just scored 9 out of a possible 20, which ranks me at a lowly 213 (probably out of 214 people…) so I think I've got my work cut out for me…
Registration is free, and you can opt out of all their junk mailing lists as usual. Try it out, here.
Posted by Alex on Sun 21st January 2007
Big Bother
(Off topic, and apologies for the title - it was the best I could think of…)
I've already said my piece about Celeb Big Brother's latest publicity ploy - the stirring up of a race row - but I think it's probably best left to a magistrate to put things into perspective, here.
Posted by Alex on Sun 21st January 2007
Shock, horror, etc: computers aren’t as clever as we assume…
(More web geekery…)
I occasionally visit Silktide.com's site score analyser to see how UPSU.net's looking to the rest of the world. Last night I popped on there and had a miniature panic attack when it said “Your website appears to be visited so rarely that there is not accurate
popularity information available - i.e. it is not in the top 10 million
or so websites…”, giving us a marketing score of 4.5 out of 10.
(I notice that our traffic is hovering around the 2,000 - 2,500 visits-per-day level (not including search engine spiders, apparently), which is definitely not too sad, but “could do better” I guess).
After all the work we put into the site, that's quite upsetting, really, so I was chuffed to see what it had to say about the BBC's homepage: “Your website appears to be visited so rarely that there is not accurate
popularity information available - i.e. it is not in the top 10 million
or so websites…” (4.6 out of 10).
Perhaps there's something not quite right there then…
On the plus side, without wanting to blow my employer's trumpet (stop laughing!), our scores for “How satisfying your website is likely to be” (based on variety of content, etc.) is 9.9 out of a possible 10 - the BBC “only” scores 9.8, and our “how well built and designed” score is also 9.9 vs. the BBC's 9.5 - cooool…
Of course, these great numbers mean nothing unless we're actually doing what it is that we're here to do - to keep Portsmouth's students informed. Do you think we're doing alright, or do you think we could do better? And how? Comments box, below, is open for everyone to comment in - please feel free to have your say! :o)
Posted by Alex on Sat 20th January 2007
Note to self: learn this (the BBC’s 15 web principles)
(Caution: shameless geekiness ahead): These are, apparently, the BBC's 15 Web Principles which underpin everything they do online. The list comes fresh-ish from the BBC via. TomSki.com, a personal blog written by a member of the BBC. They make a lot of sense (well, to pixel-pushing geeks like me, anyway…):
- Build web products that meet audience needs: anticipate needs not yet fully articulated by audiences, then meet them with products that set new standards. (nicked from Google)
- The very best websites do one thing really, really well: do less, but execute perfectly. (again, nicked from Google, with a tip of the hat to Jason Fried)
- Do not attempt to do everything yourselves: link to other high-quality sites instead. Your users will thank you. Use other people's content and tools to enhance your site, and vice versa.
- Fall forward, fast: make many small bets, iterate wildly, back successes, kill failures, fast.
- Treat the entire web as a creative canvas: don't restrict your creativity to your own site.
- The web is a conversation. Join in: Adopt a relaxed, conversational tone. Admit your mistakes.
- Any website is only as good as its worst page: Ensure best practice editorial processes are adopted and adhered to.
- Make sure all your content can be linked to, forever.
- Remember your granny won't ever use “Second Life”: She may come online soon, with very different needs from early-adopters.
- Maximise routes to content: Develop as many aggregations of content about people, places, topics, channels, networks & time as possible. Optimise your site to rank high in Google.
- Consistent design and navigation needn't mean one-size-fits-all: Users should always know they're on one of your websites, even if they all look very different. Most importantly of all, they know they won't ever get lost.
- Accessibility is not an optional extra: Sites designed that way from the ground up work better for all users
- Let people paste your content on the walls of their virtual homes: Encourage users to take nuggets of content away with them, with links back to your site
- Link to discussions on the web, don't host them: Only host web-based discussions where there is a clear rationale
- Personalisation should be unobtrusive, elegant and transparent: After all, it's your users' data. Best respect it.
p.s. Re. copyright: the list (probably) belongs to the BBC, while the content is lifted from this page on www.tomski.com
Posted by Alex on Thu 18th January 2007
Wanted: a gaggle of groupies…
This article from BBC News claims to prove what many people already suspected was true - that as gregarious humans, we base our assessments - especially our initial assessments - of whether a person is attractive and/or worth getting to know better on how other people act towards them.
There's a fiver in it for anyone who wants to be my groupie. Hours are flexible and I make a great cuppa tea… ;o)
(Update: I've changed the entry requirements. I've decided I'm not fussy whether you're male or female; you just need to be good at being groupies. And willing to clean the house. And you have to know how to use a hoover. And you shouldn't have a fear of heights…)
Posted by Alex on Thu 18th January 2007
Student portal broken. Again…
This is starting to feel like Groundhog day for me…
Never let it be said that the University don't have any impressive strings to their bow: their student portal, an example of all that is good and great about Web 2.0-orientated design (sarcasm… sorry…), is clearly capable of working out exactly when its customers - us students - are at their most stressed and, using what can only be a form of advanced internet-based mind-reading technology, works out precisely the most important parts of its website that students will unfailingly need to use.
And then, possibly out of spite, or a very sick sense of humour, pretends it's broken.
Note the use of “pretends” - it isn't actually broken; oh no, it couldn't possibly be. That would imply the University have done something wrong, or at least that they failed to do something right, and we all know that's definitely not possible…
So, once again, as 20,000-ish students are desperately scrabbling around to revise for their exams, and need to occasionally check their student portals to make sure the goalposts haven't moved*, the University's ONE essential link to its students - the people who pay their wages, gas and electric bills, etc etc - has proven itself flaky, unreliable and about as much use as a Tetleys tea bag condom.
* Goalposts, movement of: when the University's exam portal categorically states that “This is the final and complete examinations timetable”, and then you find out the exam you've turned up to actually took place last week, and for some unknown reason your portal didn't reflect that information, but since it only happened to you it “didn't actually happen and you're probably just making it up to get yourself an ECF”.
… aaaand then it happens another 4 times, so you fail the year. Bollocks…
Posted by Alex on Wed 17th January 2007
Biting the hand that…
I've just been acquiring (ok, stealing) quotes from t'interweb for my Facebook profile and came across this one by John Ciardi which really resonated with me:
“A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.”
(Shall I just patiently wait here until my P45 lands on my doormat…? ;o)
Posted by Alex on Sun 14th January 2007