up up + away

I think this is an interesting idea

Using the mobile web as a constraint to think about web design is growing in popularity. I see it in my own efforts and the efforts of our portfolio companies. When users spend more time accessing your service over a mobile device, they are going to get used to that UI/UX. When you ask them to navigate a substantially busier and more complex UI/UX when they log onto the web, you are likely to keep them on the mobile app and off the web app.

I'm starting to think a unifying vision for all apps should start with the mobile app, not the web app. And so it may also be mobile first web second in designing web apps these days.

From Mobile First Web Second (continued) by Fred Wilson

Verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode are broken and need to be fixed

Verified by Visa is a pet hate of mine, notably the rules that your password has to satisfy.

Random String

Public APIs availability - uptime and down time - slow performance

More waving

What Works: The Web Way vs. The Wave Way

And people aren't looking for a replacement for email, or instant messaging, or blogs, or wikis. Those tools all work great for their intended purposes, and whatever technology augments them will likely offer a different combination of persistence and immediacy than those systems. Right now, Wave evokes all of them without being its own distinctive thing. Which means it's most useful in providing reference implementations of particular new features.

(via Sippey)

Google Wave

Update on Google Wave

[..] Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects.

I never understood why Google thought people would prefer Wave over email.

How to uninstall Phoenix FailSafe

• Phoenix FailSafe is a piece of crapware that come preinstalled on laptops. In my case it was a Samsung N130 running Windows XP
• It does not appear in Add/Remove Programs
• You have to follow the installation instructions, sign up then download the uninstaller

How to uninstall without signing up to this rubbish

• Here is a link to the uninstaller executable for Samsung laptops so you don’t have to sign up.
• Do you have a Dell/other manufacturer laptop? Change the manufacturer name in the URL: http://download.failsafe.com/PreInstallers/Dell/production/FailSafeInstaller.exe

What an absolutely atrocious piece of software. No wonder people are switching to Macs.

Introducing the new Google Geocoding Web Service

I love me some geocoding.

Bloat

If I let users steer product decisions, the result would be a massive codebase producing a bloated, cluttered product full of features that hardly anyone used at the expense of everyday usability and polish on the features that matter. Like Microsoft Word. Or Firefox.

Marco Arment on Side effects of developing for yourself

The fight against "back links"

Disclaimer: I'm a proud minimalist.

Pro internet tip: does your website need “« back” links? I don't think so, unless you have a JavaScript app that breaks the browser's Back button.

From what I remember, when Gmail was released the browser's Back button was broken due to the heavy use of the JavaScript goodness — the use of “back links” was necessary to allow the user to go back to their previous screen.

Why duplicate functionality? Everybody knows how to use the Back button on their browser of choice.