tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34882622603797992412024-02-18T21:08:16.831-05:00Magical NumberThe Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
<br>A <a href="http://bit.ly/2lyh9a"> Knowlengr</a> siteknowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-44904492518919001482015-01-03T12:15:00.001-05:002015-01-03T12:15:48.151-05:00RadioLab Meets the Magical Number<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCB0nLmR8ycRWVdS4OLVMNT1s30kP3UNsnQiinyzEi_5bA3TW7cDNWsgcVibuRypNYwLt9LAJsGrkyOeN8-JU_NUQNoKN7rOh-USaC5B3s6-MWMvNB47SPs1ICDHWejByeskXwS5RcN6M/s1600/bins-anna-flickr-42136283_5c87b9c5d1_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCB0nLmR8ycRWVdS4OLVMNT1s30kP3UNsnQiinyzEi_5bA3TW7cDNWsgcVibuRypNYwLt9LAJsGrkyOeN8-JU_NUQNoKN7rOh-USaC5B3s6-MWMvNB47SPs1ICDHWejByeskXwS5RcN6M/s1600/bins-anna-flickr-42136283_5c87b9c5d1_z.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
In today's podcast on "Choice," WNYC's <a href="http://bit.ly/1BsLli2" target="_blank">Radiolab reintroduces its audience to the Magical Number</a>.<br />
<br />
Image Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bcmom/" target="_blank">Anna</a> | Flickr<br />
<br />knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-1192461223271350252013-08-09T06:16:00.003-04:002013-08-09T06:16:59.971-04:009 Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsArapqEJrFQuznrSk9dvYrZzWU0Ke6JRMRwAdx9CWrDyvpokDrHrAewNCpdEYpLLsNn0NutAE8n7yQKBk_j0Ob9cX_yRsVwK1x205Du-V0GhraGsc9ThPF42lSKkUvRfnj4mNCXRRjs/s1600/whatis9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsArapqEJrFQuznrSk9dvYrZzWU0Ke6JRMRwAdx9CWrDyvpokDrHrAewNCpdEYpLLsNn0NutAE8n7yQKBk_j0Ob9cX_yRsVwK1x205Du-V0GhraGsc9ThPF42lSKkUvRfnj4mNCXRRjs/s1600/whatis9.JPG" title="Landing page for "9" the Company" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Company Name is "9"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Patricia Handschiegel's <a href="http://bit.ly/197F1zc" target="_blank">business is called 9</a>. Like it says: they make stuff for internet, media, television and movie business. Fits right in here: +2.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-46908241454393208922013-08-08T23:21:00.001-04:002013-08-08T23:21:52.974-04:00Seven Tips Proposed for Intranet Improvements<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXerSGvy1IJ8ib5RpWqJKy55PJuGYSAHwfSHY0miRbxMzyMxEr7Zs1IwfXC_fOJmWwYDTjO5F_CBaKFM5QB2870rA20pDtapyiGIha7WkCsFXYB5z_kf1KNoX3J-wQPbVQkZHDvl62zAI/s1600/interact-intranet-tips-2013-553px.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXerSGvy1IJ8ib5RpWqJKy55PJuGYSAHwfSHY0miRbxMzyMxEr7Zs1IwfXC_fOJmWwYDTjO5F_CBaKFM5QB2870rA20pDtapyiGIha7WkCsFXYB5z_kf1KNoX3J-wQPbVQkZHDvl62zAI/s1600/interact-intranet-tips-2013-553px.JPG" title="Screenshot of Interact-Intranet Blog Page" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interact-Intranet Seven Suggestions for Improvements<br /><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Interact-Intranet <a href="http://bit.ly/1ewoQvS" target="_blank">proposed seven techniques</a> for improving intranets. Of the seven, the one most closely related to knowledge management concerns is to study user search patterns. </span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-62138137453505031962013-08-07T22:21:00.000-04:002013-08-08T01:20:27.656-04:00RadioLab Visits Miller's Study <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-6xKuB0pOomz4sBVouImYsSdBEtgvspsrw2RiCI-e1Lx_tFBglZBrNLmqDEkDlHPLWH3j1uIgeuQXmhA-7fctfHKA_nqAFqG1kwBwncjFYxg-3izTwaMUQioJJ5a8mMyI_rLaxGXdA5M/s1600/radiolab-how-much-is-too-much-350px.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-6xKuB0pOomz4sBVouImYsSdBEtgvspsrw2RiCI-e1Lx_tFBglZBrNLmqDEkDlHPLWH3j1uIgeuQXmhA-7fctfHKA_nqAFqG1kwBwncjFYxg-3izTwaMUQioJJ5a8mMyI_rLaxGXdA5M/s320/radiolab-how-much-is-too-much-350px.JPG" title="Radiolab's Show Episode Featuring the Number" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Radiolab's Episode Introducing Miller's Study</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Number made <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/2008/nov/17/how-much-is-too-much/" target="_blank">an appearance on RadioLab</a> in an episode a few years ago, courtesy of <a href="http://www.jonahlehrer.com/" target="_blank">Jonah Lehrer</a> (<i>How We Decide</i>). </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The connections made in that episode included show favorite Oliver Sacks on how he restricts options placed before him, and related advantages he sees in following a relatively strict work regimen. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Researcher <a href="http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/users/bshiv" target="_blank">Baba Shiv</a> discussed how similar constraints affect purchasing behavior, which he calls "neuroeconomics." </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-25121634395195714292013-08-07T20:47:00.001-04:002013-08-07T21:15:15.890-04:00Seven Triggers of Fascination<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQWqdBqPm8VePiRZdZmVJiAQthhV0VfujYZO2na3nGX4HITJansw4uuoFqfqQp-YtGUNSl-rBmoR8YTOc04uGQ2H0_CllFD1O3Uj1B8uz_XG0H5Fa26gyT5ntDEd5B1fml8pO0hNXEjok/s1600/sally-hogshead-at-asq-2012-2-350px.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQWqdBqPm8VePiRZdZmVJiAQthhV0VfujYZO2na3nGX4HITJansw4uuoFqfqQp-YtGUNSl-rBmoR8YTOc04uGQ2H0_CllFD1O3Uj1B8uz_XG0H5Fa26gyT5ntDEd5B1fml8pO0hNXEjok/s1600/sally-hogshead-at-asq-2012-2-350px.JPG" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If 90% of personal introductions fail, as some analysts claim, there must be a cause.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Corporate coach / consultant <a href="http://bit.ly/1etFdcw" target="_blank">Sally Hogshead</a> proposes the "seven triggers of fascination." These designations are given to personal characteristics that she says enable individuals to leverage their most effective personality traits to communicate with colleagues and customers. These traits improve successful introductions.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Her video presentation can be seen at <a href="http://bit.ly/15P7Df9" target="_blank">the ASQ site</a>. She even puts the seven triggers on her business card.</div>
knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-27407018312507224522013-07-14T13:42:00.000-04:002013-07-14T15:21:03.021-04:00Myth or Magic? Five to Nine as a Guideline for Usability<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIpM39fiSfI_Xryg5HrX-xWt_opy5Wq8NZQT0OEQW8oOKM0G8L0OwIfVt7tC2L8kEx_HdX3gJKOi-x5isnfEh35JDmYCLblh7DQOiqC3D2j_HQ1_0kQO3BEDQwtTC350BD_Pf2WWqbWyU/s1600/uxmyths-home-20130714-525px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIpM39fiSfI_Xryg5HrX-xWt_opy5Wq8NZQT0OEQW8oOKM0G8L0OwIfVt7tC2L8kEx_HdX3gJKOi-x5isnfEh35JDmYCLblh7DQOiqC3D2j_HQ1_0kQO3BEDQwtTC350BD_Pf2WWqbWyU/s1600/uxmyths-home-20130714-525px.jpg" title="UXMyths.com home page" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UxMyths.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Some interface designers believe that the seven plus or minus two analysis has been taken to extremes, or that it is "wrong." Introduced as <a href="http://bit.ly/15FrAWx" target="_blank">Myth #23</a>, "Choices should always be limited to 7+/-2," Zoltán Gócza wrote:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Limiting the number of menu tabs or the number of items in a dropdown list to the George Miller’s magic number 7 is a false constraint. Miller’s original theory argues that people can keep no more than 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their short-term memory. On a webpage, however, the information is visually present, people don’t have to memorize anything and therefore can easily manage broader choices.</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's unclear whether the Magical Number principle affected software design to a great extent in the first place, or even that developers and site architects have any patience for empirically based advice on interface design. Let's assume that it has had some impact. Miller, an experimentalist, would have readily agreed that humans engage in multiple strategies for visual information processing. For a behavior as seemingly straightforward as reading, it is by no means clear how all the techniques involved in comprehension, scanning, skimming, diagram interpretation and more interact. Add to this web browser habits, conventions about web site design, and the huge presence of search.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet each of these strategies can be impacted by memory constraints. Gócza extols the virtues of Amazon's site as somehow following a different design tactic that ignores memory constraints. Let's look more closely at what Amazon's designers have done.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A frequent user of the site and author of 100 product reviews, for years I found that it was impossible to find the landing pages for recommendations, subscribe-and-save, the media library or even one's profile. If more than a week or two passed between tasks, I could not remember how to find the particular page for that task. That is a longer-term memory failure, but it may be exacerbated by the number of unpredictable clicks required to reach a destination. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For some tasks, including those mentioned, it's gotten better, but some pages, even though they appear in multiple menus, were not retrieved with search results, which filtered only products. Today my Amazon "Account" menu, which is one of three home page menu tab groups, contains 12 options. None of these selections under "Account" is gift cards, even though one of these was purchased a week ago. That appears in a different menu group. Why? Over the past decade, Amazon has moved the gift card selection from menu to menu, and for a time it did not turn up in search results, since it wasn't treated as merchandise.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
There are three separate tab groups on the home page, and a dropdown menu for Account.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8R8AVKuoK3p3WoY6K9cCWtN6jtdnAtXRR4ldNrrvZGrnWvMlvQEPd5KNnCV8esZwPlnUvvOwzSkp-pA3DCmQZ7bV9aHWcaYcpUHf3fgV-s5bs13730w4O5rQXn3QvOQrn2AKmfHVQCJo/s1600/amazon-menu-3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="65" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8R8AVKuoK3p3WoY6K9cCWtN6jtdnAtXRR4ldNrrvZGrnWvMlvQEPd5KNnCV8esZwPlnUvvOwzSkp-pA3DCmQZ7bV9aHWcaYcpUHf3fgV-s5bs13730w4O5rQXn3QvOQrn2AKmfHVQCJo/s320/amazon-menu-3.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tab Group 2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOdt1Imkv8hSB1TVJlT86DmryNuE9hpxv-TOdzlizG4cxmFDprI-ct1MQs9_p8ye_8I51zZdBeWq9MzaO0YRxl2MJzm5iHuOyq1QlAxmmu1D-C1bCGoWFwMCLd93juUcbjRg8lPCmCqFc/s1600/amazon-dept-menu.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOdt1Imkv8hSB1TVJlT86DmryNuE9hpxv-TOdzlizG4cxmFDprI-ct1MQs9_p8ye_8I51zZdBeWq9MzaO0YRxl2MJzm5iHuOyq1QlAxmmu1D-C1bCGoWFwMCLd93juUcbjRg8lPCmCqFc/s320/amazon-dept-menu.JPG" width="158" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Department Submenu</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8R8AVKuoK3p3WoY6K9cCWtN6jtdnAtXRR4ldNrrvZGrnWvMlvQEPd5KNnCV8esZwPlnUvvOwzSkp-pA3DCmQZ7bV9aHWcaYcpUHf3fgV-s5bs13730w4O5rQXn3QvOQrn2AKmfHVQCJo/s1600/amazon-menu-3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8R8AVKuoK3p3WoY6K9cCWtN6jtdnAtXRR4ldNrrvZGrnWvMlvQEPd5KNnCV8esZwPlnUvvOwzSkp-pA3DCmQZ7bV9aHWcaYcpUHf3fgV-s5bs13730w4O5rQXn3QvOQrn2AKmfHVQCJo/s1600/amazon-menu-3.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tab Group 2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTzIxdBHzDpTT_LTL6Zfol-aDMilCxKmGz3G0-TDXNGrgx_vjZC4YSglXym4gqKGSHvOk2oCo9IRkI49Kupxd6AYkRGeufXkhHMvCfneQjmhG94rUZbPeOtKZsE4VqnXC847jH4hjCMiA/s1600/amazon-menu-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTzIxdBHzDpTT_LTL6Zfol-aDMilCxKmGz3G0-TDXNGrgx_vjZC4YSglXym4gqKGSHvOk2oCo9IRkI49Kupxd6AYkRGeufXkhHMvCfneQjmhG94rUZbPeOtKZsE4VqnXC847jH4hjCMiA/s1600/amazon-menu-1.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tab Group 1</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTn6A7qnrK9gnY2cxQ5s4p-GB2Z9P8y4xZWtt9C-cPMeCp6wQlCitNCS2pC4dZQlFSXOcQ8ZHt4U3QEZOo79_ILlBIngWZylyJrTqjvRVOOYL8mV5z2Z5_SO-idvQZug0oCNDv3tB0IDA/s1600/amazon-your-account-menu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTn6A7qnrK9gnY2cxQ5s4p-GB2Z9P8y4xZWtt9C-cPMeCp6wQlCitNCS2pC4dZQlFSXOcQ8ZHt4U3QEZOo79_ILlBIngWZylyJrTqjvRVOOYL8mV5z2Z5_SO-idvQZug0oCNDv3tB0IDA/s320/amazon-your-account-menu.jpg" width="162" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Account Dropdown</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This breakdown shows that there are only four menu groups on the top of the home page (there's more in the footer), and that these do not surpass the Magical Number by much -- none using more that 13 menu items, and most much less.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>What about usability?</b> I have not looked for research on this, but suspect that Amazon visitors who occasionally return to the site to perform specific tasks are sometimes not cued at all by the menu system. For instance, while Amazon has considerable information about how the site is used by specific customers, the menu system does not leverage it. "Mark's Amazon.com" tailors recommendations (and not very well at that, but that's a story for <a href="http://bit.ly/19Dyw7d">knowlengr.com</a>) but little else. It's plausible that Amazon's designers wanted me to see that there was an "Amazon Mom" link in the 65-item "Your Account" page, but after seeing it once was enough. Beyond that it, and many of the other menu items are just clutter that interfered with the task at hand.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Why does this matter? Because it introduces a memory burden for navigating the site. One is forced to use menu cues, search and scanning to navigate the site because it's not possible to remember much about the site's organization. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Consider also that every ecommerce site uses "My Account," so in one sense that site cue is delivered by metaknowledge about how such sites are to be navigated. There's no need for a memory constraint there.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Still, even that page is grouped into 5 groups, which works out to around 13 menu options per group on average. Allowing for some subgrouping of similar items, this isn't vastly different from the Magic Number's upper limit.</div>
<br />
So what about memory constraints?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Except for the Departments listing, the home page menus tend to have fewer than a dozen items, and there are (chunked?) groupings within those lists, such as Cloud Player and Cloud Drive, which are together (are users clear on the difference anyway?). In that sense, the home page honors the constraints, albeit with three separate and somewhat overlapping menu systems.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All this is opinion and anecdote to some extent. Amazon.com obeys some Magical Number rules of thumb, at times and ignores it in other facets of site design.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are many cognitive factors at play. For instance, while presenting evidence for menu breadth vs. depth, a <i>Human Factors</i> <a href="http://bit.ly/1bA3zCU" target="_blank">newsletter post</a> cited by Gócza also concluded that:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Several factors are thought to influence users' success in learning and traversing information hierarchies. These do include the breadth/depth of hierarchy, but additional critical factors are: the transparency of the category and sub-category labels, qualities of information scent, relative size of categories, and the shape of the hierarchy.</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Especially problematic is Amazon's help system, which, like many sites, seems to concede the game to search. That too is a discussion for another day and another blog.</div>
<br />
<br />knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-78625685789357333232012-08-06T00:01:00.003-04:002012-08-06T00:01:19.851-04:00Miller's NYT ObitThe NYT published <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/us/george-a-miller-cognitive-psychology-pioneer-dies-at-92.html?ref=science" target="_blank">their obituary</a> for G. A. Miller on August 1,2012.knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-34471902791547602392012-07-25T00:43:00.000-04:002013-07-13T23:12:10.925-04:00Miller (1956): A Recent Citation Among the UncountableIn the mail today was the August 2012 issue of <i>Computational Intelligence Magazine</i>, a publication of the <a href="http://cis.ieee.org/" target="_blank">IEEE Computational Intelligence Society</a>. The article that caught <a href="http://bit.ly/Mlw0X7" target="_blank">my interest</a> was "Challenges for Perceptual Computer Applications and How They Were Overcome" (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MCI.2012.2200627).<br />
<br />
The research presented is deep inside the fuzzy logic subspecialty of AI, but sure enough, there was citation number 20:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[20] G. Miller, “The magical number seven plus or minus two: Some limits on the capacity for processing information,” Psychol. Rev., vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 81–97, 1956.</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnbo64sTwazg-Lo6g0leMmA5bTikIxfpJXuDwClT4Wp8lCyXTyYBGNSKBVfIgtNvbqLDEgEN5bJIrM_QLlQvZFPDKg_xTsK1uSWnF7vSu6WEzLTAjHc0oQyfXVCRBWyOL_Wwgcci2E7yw/s1600/george-miller-citation-2012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnbo64sTwazg-Lo6g0leMmA5bTikIxfpJXuDwClT4Wp8lCyXTyYBGNSKBVfIgtNvbqLDEgEN5bJIrM_QLlQvZFPDKg_xTsK1uSWnF7vSu6WEzLTAjHc0oQyfXVCRBWyOL_Wwgcci2E7yw/s400/george-miller-citation-2012.JPG" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnbo64sTwazg-Lo6g0leMmA5bTikIxfpJXuDwClT4Wp8lCyXTyYBGNSKBVfIgtNvbqLDEgEN5bJIrM_QLlQvZFPDKg_xTsK1uSWnF7vSu6WEzLTAjHc0oQyfXVCRBWyOL_Wwgcci2E7yw/s1600/george-miller-citation-2012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-55413950301328375362012-07-25T00:21:00.000-04:002012-07-25T00:23:48.316-04:00Remembering George A. Miller<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cebcm.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/george-a-miller.jpg?w=640" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://cebcm.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/george-a-miller.jpg?w=640" width="133" /></a></div>
George A. Miller, whose insight inspired the humble posts on this site, died on July 22, 2012. In a <a href="http://bit.ly/Qiknqd" target="_blank">summary of his work</a> at Kurzweil.net, mention is made of several achievements:<br />
<ul>
<li>Extending Shannon's information theory to human memory constraints (the "magical number") </li>
<li>Establishing psycholinguistics as a separate and legitimate area of study </li>
<li>He and J.S. Bruner cofounded the Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies, and later the Princeton Center for Cognitive Studies</li>
<li>Developer of <a href="http://wordnet.princeton.edu/" target="_blank">WordNet</a>, a "a large lexical database of English. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms (synsets), each expressing a distinct concept."</li>
</ul>
<div>
I carry WordNet on my netbook and use it several times a week. No doubt I will think of G.A.M. every time the app starts, and his insight so deceptively simple that became as powerful as poetry. </div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-46034557015832790812011-03-09T13:18:00.000-05:002011-03-09T13:18:02.885-05:00"Magical Number" On Stage with Leonard Lopate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg864Tx5P8LyRPjESHEwt5ZEU-mjO3RhHF8VqtCDUCwP1oClBq60hDnRd4_jom6NV7iprTdlNGRprwtAvzuvaPopOOjcTeoQKV7kx2fHRc2I4cdplxnOl_DvFvurpc83OeyLRP3sygs1u0/s1600/moonwalking-with-einstein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg864Tx5P8LyRPjESHEwt5ZEU-mjO3RhHF8VqtCDUCwP1oClBq60hDnRd4_jom6NV7iprTdlNGRprwtAvzuvaPopOOjcTeoQKV7kx2fHRc2I4cdplxnOl_DvFvurpc83OeyLRP3sygs1u0/s200/moonwalking-with-einstein.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Joshua Foer, author of <a href="http://bit.ly/gK2DsK">Moonwalking with Einstein</a> and the 2006 United States Memory Champion in the "speed cards" event, was interviewed by Leonard Leopate during <a href="http://bit.ly/hhpuhf">his WNYC show</a>. During the interview, Lopate asked Foer to explain "chunking," which is the theme of this blog. Foer immediately explained it as the 7 plus or minus two rule which comprises the Magical Number.<br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
If there are lingering doubts as to the perceived importance of memory, consider that this book is already the third best-selling book on Amazon, was the subject of <a href="http://nyti.ms/hvgRsj">an opinion piece on NYT by Maureen Doud</a>, book reviews <a href="http://nyti.ms/fGE5WL">by Michiko Kakutani</a> and by <a href="http://wapo.st/fUAKys">Marie Arana</a> of the Washington Post. That said, it should be remembered [sic] that the <a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/networking/seven-reasons-network-management-needs-ibms-watson/3758">IBM Watson team</a> faced greater challenges in natural language understanding than providing in sheer memory resources. The carefully curated content in Wikipedia, which uses logical connections carefully created by countless contributors, exploited by Watson's statistical reasoning resources, did the heavy lifting -- not fast hyperlink traversal of all those terabytes.</span>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-66268051575643757072010-04-05T10:12:00.001-04:002011-03-07T00:48:33.487-05:00Think You Can Multitask? Guess Again (Except for 2.5% of You)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWbxmVWMw6COhAbpcF6u6VYAI1s9Tu3utoXnJ5Lf900dchLPlWS99DdgtpKmAcbMywqEhnHJQll8ij6r83qSlI4JO9ryG4y4VW2irKK-9rHZE5lGajmlNtlWu7Wgar52ZjXHB0Rv_XUUg/s1600/psychonomic-bulletin-review.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWbxmVWMw6COhAbpcF6u6VYAI1s9Tu3utoXnJ5Lf900dchLPlWS99DdgtpKmAcbMywqEhnHJQll8ij6r83qSlI4JO9ryG4y4VW2irKK-9rHZE5lGajmlNtlWu7Wgar52ZjXHB0Rv_XUUg/s400/psychonomic-bulletin-review.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Working adults, especially knowledge workers, like to brag (or is it complain?) that they are "multitaskers." These individuals no doubt comprise a very vibrant part of the economy, but this sort of armchair psychology is baseless, and, when applied to domains such as driving while speaking on a cell phone, potentially dangerous.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In research on <a href="http://ti.me/gWrrps">multiple task processing reported by Time</a> (more fully published in <i>Psychonomic Bulletin and Review</i>), the expected result based on previous studies, was borne out: "During the hour-and-a-half session, 97.5% of the students [subjects] showed a significant decrease in their driving abilities and memory skills while multitasking." Other research had shown that people can alternate between tasks, but are generally not able to perform demanding tasks concurrently. What got the broad press interest was J. Watson and D. Strayer's finding that around 2.5% of the subjects showed no such decline, and a few "supertaskers" actually did better. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By all means, let's have DARPA build cyborgs that exploit the capabilities of supertaskers. Public policy restricting calls to hands-free operation miss the point and do not address the underlying performance deficit suffered by most drivers. Consider the summary offered by <a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/57822/title/For_a_rare_few,_driving_and_cell_phones_go_well_together">Science News</a>:</span></div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As expected, overall group performance declined markedly when driving and the cell-phone task were performed at the same time. Volunteers took an average of 20 percent longer to hit the brakes when needed, and increasingly fell behind the pace car.</span></blockquote>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-54145360051294062992010-01-26T10:52:00.000-05:002010-01-26T10:52:16.752-05:00RadioLab's Duo Demystifies " 'Slacker' Brain"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXW1clBB8h7SWr3NyL0eClYzZzyGF-b00Ke_A6bXFRYA1T4R0i_kuwQJsuKkWWag_myMf1ENUTtUBjuwvvv0OgO6yc5KzNnFUiRlxcsoEZztDA7_9zKfzGQdhjw_Io1aqICR5dCOZ_IYQ/s1600-h/radiolab-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXW1clBB8h7SWr3NyL0eClYzZzyGF-b00Ke_A6bXFRYA1T4R0i_kuwQJsuKkWWag_myMf1ENUTtUBjuwvvv0OgO6yc5KzNnFUiRlxcsoEZztDA7_9zKfzGQdhjw_Io1aqICR5dCOZ_IYQ/s320/radiolab-logo.png" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One of public radio's most aurally delicious programs, </span><a href="http://bit.ly/6O1vRx" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Radiolab</a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">, produced by local station WNYC, </span><a href="http://bit.ly/5QyHWo" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">was again featured on Morning Edition</a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> today. Radiolab takes on the subject of willpower -- and its consistent failures. The excerpt of a longer Radiolab story began by asking NPR host Steve Inskeep to perform the classic digit span task -- memorizing a series of numbers. The reason was to illustrate the effects of cognitive load on decision-making processes, such as choosing between eating chocolate cake and fruit. The latter task was part of an experiment by Stanford's Baba Shiv, related to the Radiolab team by Radiolab's sometime collaborator, science writer Jonah Lehrer. The 1956 study was front and center in the segment, which discussed how marketers might overpower the better intentions of prospective customers by taxing their brain function.</span><br />
</div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-1824528607770389242009-10-07T23:49:00.003-04:002009-10-07T23:51:00.369-04:00Spitzer's Seven Rings of Saturn<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Unraveling_Saturn%27s_Rings.jpg/180px-Unraveling_Saturn%27s_Rings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Unraveling_Saturn%27s_Rings.jpg/180px-Unraveling_Saturn%27s_Rings.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sources as authoritative as </span><a href="http://bit.ly/4CWifF" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">NASA</a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> number the rings of Saturn at seven, though recent research discovered another major ring much further out from the planet. This last ring, according to </span><a href="http://bit.ly/c4NG0" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">today's CNN story</a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">, was just discovered using the </span><a href="http://bit.ly/hEi0s" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Spitzer Space Telescope</a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> (no relation to the former New York governor's astral inspiration). That ring is so far out (3.7 million miles out from the planet), so large (300 Saturns would fit inside it), and so thin (just ice and dust, so thin that it wasn't noticed until now), that it hardly counts in anthropomorphic terms.</span><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;">The Magical Number is, without a doubt, a thoroughly anthropomorphic quantity.<br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Image from Wikipedia Commons.</i><br />
</div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-31318675388300525402009-10-03T00:49:00.004-04:002009-10-03T10:56:10.125-04:00Wrongly Counted, Rightly Named "Seven Sacred Pools of Hana"<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Swimmers_at_Kipahulu_-_Haleakala_NP.jpg/180px-Swimmers_at_Kipahulu_-_Haleakala_NP.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 133px; height: 198px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Swimmers_at_Kipahulu_-_Haleakala_NP.jpg/180px-Swimmers_at_Kipahulu_-_Haleakala_NP.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Kipahulu is a village in Hana on the island of Maui which includes part of the Haleakala National Park. The mostly beautific island of Maui features Seven Sacred Pools inside the park, also known as the "Ohe<span class="okina" style="font-family:Lucida Sans Unicode,sans-serif;">ʻ</span>o Gulch," but more often referred to as the "<a href="http://bit.ly/S0gYY">Seven Sacred Pools of Hana</a>."<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">There are more than seven pools, but there's a good reason for the name.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Photo courtesy Wikipedia Commons.</span>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-74348029506235260142009-09-24T23:06:00.001-04:002009-09-24T23:07:40.562-04:00From Church of Customer: 7 Reasons Why Small Biz Should Blog<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkFCvy6EwXtDoGe6U0DnSf75UxTJyJbAtASrh0KH6h-3rcTCfhXfNlOa5JPcCBNr1J4VrjBoJ_stgeNYV_b5Ypd5OJ2d9VgIgx5tcYMIiQ5GtUc5bPPMfl8NpGVsRMfy2nM1D7-DpDOVU/s1600-h/church-of-the-customer-blog.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 103px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkFCvy6EwXtDoGe6U0DnSf75UxTJyJbAtASrh0KH6h-3rcTCfhXfNlOa5JPcCBNr1J4VrjBoJ_stgeNYV_b5Ypd5OJ2d9VgIgx5tcYMIiQ5GtUc5bPPMfl8NpGVsRMfy2nM1D7-DpDOVU/s320/church-of-the-customer-blog.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385234629783485074" border="0" /></a>First in 2004 (and later updated) <a href="http://bit.ly/DbgDT">Ben McConnell offered seven reasons</a> why small businesses should produce blogs. A highly compact version of his list of Seven follows:<br /></div><ol><li>Customer evangelism<br /></li><li>A feedback mechanism for customer interaction<br /></li><li>Knowledge sharing facilitates search engine visibility<br /></li><li>Buzz </li><li>Simultaneous conversations that maximize the use of time<br /></li><li>Some blog templates are spiffy and may enhance the public web image<br /></li><li>Position the firm as a knowledgeable resource</li></ol><div style="text-align: justify;">These suggestions are sound enough, but in practice it's important to connect them with other systems, workflow and processes within the enterprise. That can be an added challenge for which the ROI is not immediate.<br /></div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-74520413224163697992009-08-12T21:42:00.005-04:002009-08-12T22:09:50.097-04:00Koussevitzky Grant Relights Classical Music's Fading Candle<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR2c_83OodUFpK7G8B2ACLORFYNIIBA7OsOlXBcRMLo2_d7-MJ_Dt2W6LIGLBMQuVz0NkrhnMITzTp-Mge2xkzm_eDkM6456YyNFxF_EN7PGNh1Vb9PuSvfm4iK9D4rwwm2WYiWaL7700/s1600-h/fractured-atlas-logo.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 255px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR2c_83OodUFpK7G8B2ACLORFYNIIBA7OsOlXBcRMLo2_d7-MJ_Dt2W6LIGLBMQuVz0NkrhnMITzTp-Mge2xkzm_eDkM6456YyNFxF_EN7PGNh1Vb9PuSvfm4iK9D4rwwm2WYiWaL7700/s320/fractured-atlas-logo.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369263889595623426" border="0" /></a>Emily B. at Fractured Atlas <a href="http://bit.ly/3sf55">wrote that the Momenta Quartet</a><br /><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">in February 2009. . .was one of only seven recipients of the prestigious Koussevitzky Music Fund Grant to commission a new work of classical music. Their commitment to pairing the music of contemporary composers — they have given over 40 world premieres in the last five years — with that of masters from the past sets this talented group apart.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Emily Bowles is a freelance writer and editor with a chronic bend towards the arts. She is also the marketing director of NYC Performing Arts Spaces, a program of Fractured Atlas.</span><br /></div></blockquote>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-85170046841799031612009-07-31T14:04:00.009-04:002009-09-24T23:08:07.248-04:00AFRL Information Directorate's Seven "Core Technical Competencies"<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjmLl7k9Gt5EtIA-LDUZud1pDlN5yaA15Z0v_X6TEXThXwTDT-b0IFWESo0DQYzqMm5d-SL_gaOsPxWBOyGmxyn5BSvKwMlqPos5mCHHonA5jxQkjOCT3Bgb3i9TsVjITAiUYTz0s_o9s/s1600-h/afrl-logo.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 175px; height: 53px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjmLl7k9Gt5EtIA-LDUZud1pDlN5yaA15Z0v_X6TEXThXwTDT-b0IFWESo0DQYzqMm5d-SL_gaOsPxWBOyGmxyn5BSvKwMlqPos5mCHHonA5jxQkjOCT3Bgb3i9TsVjITAiUYTz0s_o9s/s320/afrl-logo.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364689484234673442" border="0" /></a>The Air Force Research Lab's Information Directorate <a href="http://bit.ly/9dzuZ">organizes its work</a> into seven areas of "Core Technical Competencies:"<br /></div><ol><li>Information Exploitation</li><li>Information Fusion and Understanding</li><li>Information Management</li><li>Advanced Computing Architectures</li><li>Cyber Operations</li><li>Command and Control</li><li>Connectivity<br /></li></ol>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-35526205718466917642009-07-20T18:50:00.005-04:002009-09-24T23:08:23.475-04:00ZMag's Digital Publishing's Seven<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbn8irFWDfAJdOMG_Mxqknnu_jtE1_SigewbE49e12WPIW-rozS14SsS-j3EcpTa-qamOhdEfzbu0mFQzJkUIKY6ntzwCJIR7F3b5AQSNTZLcEk4Tgmgwr9dBk_-xz9vedgA7JLdUwTQo/s1600-h/zmags-logo.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 211px; height: 86px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbn8irFWDfAJdOMG_Mxqknnu_jtE1_SigewbE49e12WPIW-rozS14SsS-j3EcpTa-qamOhdEfzbu0mFQzJkUIKY6ntzwCJIR7F3b5AQSNTZLcEk4Tgmgwr9dBk_-xz9vedgA7JLdUwTQo/s320/zmags-logo.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360680502216552146" border="0" /></a>A print promotion in eContent magazine features "Seven Things You Should Know About Digital Publishing." The vendor, <a href="http://bit.ly/AHPcG">zmags</a>, offers these:<br /></div><ol><li>Cost effective but doesn't replace print</li><li>Online versions encourage loyalty</li><li>Digital issues extends reader scope (SEO), tell-a-friend, social nets<br /></li><li>Connect online catalogs to online stores</li><li>Learn what catches reader attention</li><li>Short ROI<br /></li><li>Easy to use</li></ol><div style="text-align: justify;">If you disagree, tell them, not me. And, oddly, there is no unique URL associated with the print insert, which appears on pp. 41-44 of the July/August 2009 issue, 32(6). I think that violates a corollary of #3.<br /></div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-49271054136982065972009-07-03T17:40:00.002-04:002009-09-24T23:08:53.263-04:00Italy's Eight Chianti Regions<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjappYyaIodURnlEOxmgh2ftcq9lJaGQ9n9Gw7rIuFcmLzi0gq8WqjKEGH7g-aFvPaBdX1Q80bp7cI_MEIkBr3asZUs9X6Vl3IImTUwxavNvDEE1oHxc6oonxfvnDm2WKYjJkvHH9oNWug/s1600-h/chianti-wine-region.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 260px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjappYyaIodURnlEOxmgh2ftcq9lJaGQ9n9Gw7rIuFcmLzi0gq8WqjKEGH7g-aFvPaBdX1Q80bp7cI_MEIkBr3asZUs9X6Vl3IImTUwxavNvDEE1oHxc6oonxfvnDm2WKYjJkvHH9oNWug/s320/chianti-wine-region.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354348754283665570" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The Chianti area in Tuscany produces a distinctive red wine of the same name. The straw basket around the Chianti bottle is less commonly found than it once was. The borders of the Chianti region cover the provinces of Florence and Siena, including the area between the two cities and also to the east and west of Florence. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are eight regions in Italy where Chianti is produced (map courtesy of <a href="http://www.cianti.com/">Chianti.com</a>). </div><div><div><ol><li>"Classico", area between Florence and Siena, as seen in lighter green area on the map to the right.</li><li>"Colli Aretini", hills towards Arezzo</li><li>"Colli Fiorentini", hills around Florence</li><li>"Colli Senesi", hills around Siena</li><li>"Colline Pisane", hills towards Pisa</li><li>"Montalbano", area in the Montalbano hills around Pistoia</li><li>"Montespertoli", hills around Montespertoli</li><li>"Rufina", area of hills near Rufina to the east of Florence</li></ol></div></div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-57071023391697448022009-07-03T17:30:00.002-04:002009-07-03T17:30:01.732-04:00"Seventh House" in the Musical "Hair"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtyIAhHtufMVcw8teyGXGdcQBfLo5PUhNHOoluTSOBOVkE55Egh1rUNtJl_-n6WCmx9zPPTiI67jyQ5T-wTtooFGqrkjx37rY0xHT5mzEGyA_YmcSq4VgXeNcDxzmaefJWlV8g9XJjaeQ/s1600-h/Hairposter.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 186px; height: 275px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtyIAhHtufMVcw8teyGXGdcQBfLo5PUhNHOoluTSOBOVkE55Egh1rUNtJl_-n6WCmx9zPPTiI67jyQ5T-wTtooFGqrkjx37rY0xHT5mzEGyA_YmcSq4VgXeNcDxzmaefJWlV8g9XJjaeQ/s320/Hairposter.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350594297185716146" border="0" /></a>Maria Barron on <a href="http://bit.ly/fnGiN">her blog "The Sixties"</a> asks "So what is the seventh house and all that?"<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">"The moon is always in someone's seventh house. It's in my seventh house for two or three days each month, just as it is in yours or anyone else's. Those are different days for different ones of us, depending on our moment of birth, but for each of us they signal pretty good times to fall in love. The seventh house in a person's birth chart is the house of marriage and partnerships, which are one-on-one relationships ruled by Libra. Aquarian relationships are 11th-house matters that are not one-on-one; they're 'One for all and all for one.'<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">"And what about Jupiter aligning with Mars? Jupiter rules Sagittarius while Mars rules Aries. Representing good fortune and willfulness respectively, Jupiter and Mars make a powerful conjunction when they come into alignment each year, but it's not a particularly Aquarian one.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">"The root lyrical problem, I suspect, is that Aquarius is ruled by Uranus. And nobody can sing the name of that planet without cracking up."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2606/3669200664_e6499a2564_o.jpg">Saw the current revival</a> on Broadway. Highly recommended. The music holds up very well, and it's just as controversial and timely as the first time. The Canadian composer continues to work in relative obscurity.</div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-75385296206789844682009-07-02T19:07:00.000-04:002009-07-02T19:07:00.756-04:00Layer7<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx6uZwRExN46-1-DZRQD-S1XxnrkgQCLfmup_cTrQ7Gc1hfP7BG2SF9__-yG7PTOK752zAKe8dcNutS6e8y3m65dU5sZdB9aYfEJNDnCUJHSKXBo7FzRsHVXHecNz9hZ7sXIyXmHIkHYY/s1600-h/layer7-technologies.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 49px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx6uZwRExN46-1-DZRQD-S1XxnrkgQCLfmup_cTrQ7Gc1hfP7BG2SF9__-yG7PTOK752zAKe8dcNutS6e8y3m65dU5sZdB9aYfEJNDnCUJHSKXBo7FzRsHVXHecNz9hZ7sXIyXmHIkHYY/s320/layer7-technologies.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353942298654549298" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/xAQXU">Layer7</a> is a "venture-backed" web security firm specializing in XML security and "SOA Governance."knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-60420317971455041792009-06-29T17:56:00.008-04:002009-09-24T23:10:10.467-04:00Seven Pernicious Software Kingdoms<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhehjPxMDLoOMoY2s-yW1YelkzPwvaCmGE_6JOwfWjXa_FPbfIeTt5_HfsqYvMIbVL-7zQZ029JGnOqCguashxU3T1KP0ndMC6-WVDXx2KSLn76h_IpwYQlnHJqQANhCVf0Y8n5mhfDfhA/s1600-h/seven-pernicious-kingdoms.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 204px; height: 128px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhehjPxMDLoOMoY2s-yW1YelkzPwvaCmGE_6JOwfWjXa_FPbfIeTt5_HfsqYvMIbVL-7zQZ029JGnOqCguashxU3T1KP0ndMC6-WVDXx2KSLn76h_IpwYQlnHJqQANhCVf0Y8n5mhfDfhA/s320/seven-pernicious-kingdoms.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353159380970137586" border="0" /></a>According to<a href="http://bit.ly/M8yVe"> </a><a href="http://bit.ly/M8yVe">Tsipenyuk, Chess, and McGraw</a> there are Seven Pernicious Kingdoms of Software security errors, though the authors directly acknowledge Miller in limiting themselves to seven. The kingdoms they list are:<br /></div><ol><li>input validation and representation<br /></li><li>API abuse</li><li>security features<br /></li><li>time and state</li><li>errors</li><li>code quality</li><li>encapsulation</li><li>environment</li></ol>Yes, there are actually eight "kingdoms" listed.knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-91861323075587018552009-05-19T22:51:00.009-04:002009-05-19T23:35:42.862-04:00Menu Depth As Measure of Depth of Care<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDvwFrA-zAQ55KHdxPTz4uSLo6RaO4BkIAzr8KPD3ekwqT6M17lFylRD30EAqpS-NnGxh-aATohStFRo5OqbxcJHM4Rae0WbfBfqe-2-gzIaoLMXhVLhrzDevDqPIutoo8dZaq6IOuK74/s1600-h/dana-chisnell-usability-testing.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 255px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 119px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337735770371523794" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDvwFrA-zAQ55KHdxPTz4uSLo6RaO4BkIAzr8KPD3ekwqT6M17lFylRD30EAqpS-NnGxh-aATohStFRo5OqbxcJHM4Rae0WbfBfqe-2-gzIaoLMXhVLhrzDevDqPIutoo8dZaq6IOuK74/s320/dana-chisnell-usability-testing.jpg" /></a> Dana Chisnell's post "Where Do Heuristics Come From" (5 May 2009) stemmed from her work at NIST, where she was tasked to develop <a href="http://bit.ly/jZ9Lx">guidelines for voting system documentation</a> (<a href="http://bit.ly/jZ9Lx">vote.nist.gov</a>). Her commentary attempts to <a href="http://bit.ly/exJKm">sort out the various sources for web usability heuristics</a> (she regards these as "accepted guidelines "). She cites these three sources: folk wisdom, specialist experience and research. Tempting as it is to point out that research seeks to encompass both folk wisdom and specialist experience, it's more interesting that Chisnell points to Miller (1956), whose work is highlighted by this modest blog, as representative of the research category.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />The usefulness of Miller's "suggestive" observation, goes directly to a set of use cases Chisnell identifies: web site usability for seniors. In addition to her own work at NIST, she lists AARP's "<a href="http://bit.ly/BGJQW">Older, Wiser, Wired</a>" resources and <a href="http://bit.ly/12fhYZ">guidelines from the National Institute on Aging</a>. My mother was into her 80's and <a href="http://bit.ly/6Da0s">prided herself on being computer literate</a> -- especially in comparison to her peers. When her macular degeneration began to interfere with her ability to read a computer screen, she relied increasingly upon inference and memory to help anticipate or guess what she couldn't fully read. When other strategies failed, she relied on memory, and menu length (as well as label length) could be the difference between reading a web page and giving up in frustration. This continued to be true even after her computer was decked out with <a href="http://bit.ly/5Tz88">AI Squared's ZoomText</a>. The cognitive cueing and sensible layout for a page could be more important than any single phrase on the site. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">* Post originally cited by <a href="https://newsletters.1105pubs.com/nl/URMG.do?pc=R07NL">Thunder Lizard Digest</a> (19 May 2009)</div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-25865843933804256342009-05-17T11:03:00.008-04:002009-05-17T12:19:34.579-04:00Gilmore Girls' DVD End Darkens Household<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVZ1fHlzOhkPIffUVkPhChZhy7Rk28sYEiaI4hNXs9WodV6QAWt3-ybAMz2-J6wEWE9nqzxYI9rI09OdRpz0zl34_VAuHPotH3OccOWIaPs-VhCWq8l0AwfW8qG-HsukZPyaQLMQTHv0/s1600-h/gilmore-girls-Lorelai-gilmore.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 209px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 169px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336809585240876194" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVZ1fHlzOhkPIffUVkPhChZhy7Rk28sYEiaI4hNXs9WodV6QAWt3-ybAMz2-J6wEWE9nqzxYI9rI09OdRpz0zl34_VAuHPotH3OccOWIaPs-VhCWq8l0AwfW8qG-HsukZPyaQLMQTHv0/s320/gilmore-girls-Lorelai-gilmore.jpg" /></a>A dark cloud has descended upon the household as two female co-occupants mourn the end of their DVD playback of the (for them) fabled TV series <a href="http://bit.ly/12hRjt">Gilmore Girls</a>. Setting aside for the moment the obvious mother-daughter, mother-teen, Ivy League college aspirant parallels, Gilmore Girls scripts did sometimes merit Wikipedia's accolade for "fast dialogue and endless run-on sentences." Some of the more notable <a href="http://bit.ly/12QyjP">dialog has been captured for posterity at Bookrags</a>, for example, <a href="http://bit.ly/QWDL7">a recollection</a> by Luke of when he and Lorelai first met.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><blockquote><p align="justify">Lorelai: I was just trying to remember the first time we met. It must have been at Luke's, right?<br />Luke: It was at Luke's, it was at lunch, it was a very busy day. The place was packed. And this person...<br />Lorelai: Oh, is it me? Is it me?<br />Luke: This person comes tearing into the place, in a caffeine frenzy...<br />Lorelai: Ooh, it's me!<br />Luke: I'm with a customer, she interrupts me, wild-eyed, begging for coffee. So I tell her to wait her turn. Then she starts following me around, talking a mile a minute, saying God knows what. Finally I turn to her, and tell her she's being annoying. Sit down, shut up, and I'll get to her when I get to her.<br />Lorelai: You know, I bet she took that very well, 'cause she sounds just delightful...<br />Luke: She asked me my birthday. I wouldn't tell her, she wouldn't stop talking, finally I gave in. I told her my birthday. She went and got the newspaper, opened it up to the horoscopes page, wrote something down, tore it out, handed it to me. So I was looking at this piece of paper in my hand, and under Scorpio, she had written: 'You will meet an annoying woman. Give her coffee, and she'll go away.' So I gave her coffee.<br />Lorelai: But she didn't go away!<br />Luke: She told me to hold onto that horoscope, put it in my wallet, and one day it would bring me luck.<br />[Luke takes his wallet out and shows Lorelai the horoscope.]<br />Lorelai: Boy, I will say anything for a cup of coffee! (long pause) I can't believe you kept this. You kept this in your wallet? You kept this in your wallet...<br />Luke: Eight years.<br />Lorelai: Eight years...</p></blockquote><div align="justify">Which is to say, seven plus or minus two years.</div><div align="justify"><br />Though the household elder is tempted to cite instead Timothy Busfield's Elliot Weston and Peter Horton's Gary Shepherd in <em>Thirty Something</em> or Don Cheadle's John Littleton in <em>Picket Fences, </em>these now-ancient references have left said housemates unpersuaded. Which leaves, for comparison purposes, the more recent memory of high-minded but admittedly implausible court elocutionist Alan Shore (James Spader) in <em>Boston Legal</em> to carry the mantle of prose aimed several literary meters above common parlance.</div><div align="justify"><br />Lauren Graham <a href="http://bit.ly/a3jhF">photo from Wikipedia</a>. </div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3488262260379799241.post-80956589782809503422009-05-15T19:33:00.008-04:002009-05-19T23:36:15.782-04:00Brainstorming in Sevens<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVTSYGZILxKehAiVgTxcsZ4CehY5-TD1w-itPeCxYWsmLfG6EvOYfTVLnZY7ar6XvURxT8rHFAJTyT-ANBzmHaW6_W9oFeupgktFQYKpIMo8OQiEussn9j-idKe6WpCgSaopMWC1Y-MhA/s1600-h/forensic-science-technician-cvr.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 206px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 106px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336200387195738290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVTSYGZILxKehAiVgTxcsZ4CehY5-TD1w-itPeCxYWsmLfG6EvOYfTVLnZY7ar6XvURxT8rHFAJTyT-ANBzmHaW6_W9oFeupgktFQYKpIMo8OQiEussn9j-idKe6WpCgSaopMWC1Y-MhA/s320/forensic-science-technician-cvr.jpg" /></a>Today a popular post cited by Delicious, L. Fabry's Forensic Scientist blog, collects no fewer than a hundred tips by others on the <a href="http://www.forensicsciencetechnician.org/?page_id=27">subject of brainstorming</a>. Not surprisingly, two of the 10 listed are seven-tip suggestions.<br /></div><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">One is "<a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2001/03/kelley.html">Seven Secrets to Good Brainstorming</a>," published in 2007 in Fast Company, and authored by Linda Tischler.<br /></div><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Another is JPB's (Jeffrey Baumgartner) article, a "<a href="http://www.jpb.com/creative/brainstorming.php">Step by Step Guide to Brainstorming</a>."<br /><br />There are four posts with six tips, one with eight tips, and two with five.<br /><br />The Magical Number guru suggests that brainstorming processes and topics be organized in groups of seven. </div>knowlengrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857586646777639084noreply@blogger.com0