www.LenGoldenstein.com

Mark sayz I needs to updatez my blogz so it iz  loooooolllllzzzz rotflmao

So I haven’t been posting much lately.  I think it’s mostly because I write out my thoughts in quick, short messages on Twitter.  I still enjoy blogging though so keep checking the site for updates or subscribe to the RSS feed.

I went on my early outback Ontario camping trip with my friends.  As always, it was a lot of fun.  Pictures are up in my picture gallery so please enjoy them as much I enjoyed taking them.

User interface is a basic fundamental of computing.  Applications must present themselves in a clear and easy to follow method in order for users to accept them.  I believe this is why iPods and iPhones are so successful.  An MP3 player in itself is not a complicated device – it plays music.  Simple, right?  The iPod and iPhone have really set themselves apart from other similar devices by presenting the user with a very clean, polished, consistent and easy to use interface that makes the device a pleasure to use – not a chore.

I’ve been working with the Microsoft Exchange 2007 management tools for a while and found the user interface to be very inconsistent and visually chaotic.  Alas, this is true for Vista which is why it  has not achieved mass acceptance whereas Apple products are happily found everywhere these days.

Anyways, here’s a good example of why I find the Exchange 2007  Management Console confusing:

The operation was to remove a permission from a mailbox.  Apparently this was successful.

Reading the screen left to right, the first image presented is a red X followed by a green checkmark that says “completed”.

At first, an end-user isn’t sure what to believe – did this operation work or not?  On reading futher, it would appear the operation completed correctly but since the operation was to remove a permission (indicted in the long technical command description), the icon presented is a big red X – which is generally used to indicate a failure.

OK, I see what is going on here and now understand it now.  However, the initial screen presentation can certainly be confusing and mistaken for an error.  Some might think it is a minor detail but a proper well designed user interface should never leave an end-user confused.  Confusion will only impede acceptance of software.  Software that is not accepted will lead users to find alternatives.

Sure is nice having the blog on a faster server these days.  This means I can add some new features until the blog is slow again!  I added a couple new features that hopefully some people will find useful.

Post/Comment Ratings: Readers can now rate the quality of posts and comments that are published.  This lets me know what information people find valuable and can be useful to find informative comments in some of the posts.

Social networking: Each post now has links that readers can use to post blog articles to their favourite social network like twitter, digg, reddit, etc.  There’s also a couple options to make emailing the article or printing it easier and more convenient.

Hopefully some people will find these features useful.  If there are other features or content you, the reader, would like to see, please let me know!

After winning tickets to the Video Games Live show, I have to admit that it’s a very well produced and enjoyable show.  I guess it really is no secret that I’ve been a big video games nerd since I was a kid.  It’s not too often that something comes around to appeals to the video game crowd that isn’t a video game itself so when Video Games Live came to town last year, I knew I had to go.  This year was just as good, if not better than last year with some new acts and, of course, the free tickets.  The live performances of music from Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Final Fantasy, Mega Man, Chrono Trigger and many more was good along with the audience members they brought on stage for a costume judging content, space invaders challenge and guitar hero challenge.

Here are some pictures from the shows followed by one audience member playing Space Invaders on stage:

The music from Super Mario being performed:

Co-creator Tommy Tallarico performing on-stage:

People came dressed up as their favourite video game characters:

A the video of an audience member playing Space Invaders:

I managed to win three pairs of tickets to the Video Games Live show this week.  I enjoyed the show last year and free tickets this time around are a definite bonus.  I’ll post pictures and maybe video after the show.

The upgrade from Fedora Core 6 to Fedora Core 11 seems to be complete.  ESXi made this a whole lot easier since I was able to build the new Fedora 11 system in parallel to the running Fedora 6 system.  Usually due to lack of hardware, physical space or internet ports, I’ve had to do a hard cutover from one system to the other without the benefit of proper testing.  ESXi really made this a breeze with the virtualized environment and having the capability to snapshot the system at different points just in case of something breaking.

It’s nice to be running an up to date Linux distribution again to see what’s new and shiney.  There’s some new things in Fedora 11 to learn and it’s good to see the continued evolution of Linux as I’ve been Fedora Core user/administrator since version 1 dating back to 2003.  Prior to that, I had used RedHat Linux and even before that, Slackware Linux 3.0 dating back to 1995.  Slackware 3.0 was my first experiences with Linux so it holds a special place in my heart…awww…the memories.

With all the upgrade talk and the reminiscing, let’s take a look back at my humble website over the years thanks to www.archive.org:

Before 2001: A few personal webpages here and there just to learn.  Sorry, no archive and it’s probably better that way

September 2001: My first stab at a personal web log before the term “blog” was coined.  It was a good way to present some information, share pictures and learn more about PHP, XHTML and CSS.  Hard to believe that I actually recommended Internet Explorer at a time.  The site had some decent growth to it but became harder to manually manage updates with the growth.

March 2005: Gave a new software package called Serendipty a try.  Much improved layout and automated management.  Combined with Coppermine for photo galleries, the site had a more complete and polished look.  Both packages made it easy to add new content and functionality.

October 2007: Always keeping an eye on new options, I gave Wordpress a try.  I was impressed fairly quickly how Wordpress was faster, cleaner, more functional and even easier to use than Serendipity.  Wordpress has a very strong community behind it always adding new functionality and features.  I’m very impressed by how much Wordpress has grown over the last not quite two years to take advantage of all the latest web trends and yet Wordpress has been made even easier to use.  I look forward to Wordpress’ future and the new trends/technology that can not be foreseen at this time.

OK, that was easy.  click click upgrade done.