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Thoughts on Linchpin: public libraries

April 28, 2010

I recently read Linchpin by Seth Godin, and it made me remember some of the absurd things I witnessed while working in public libraries (which I did, briefly, between 2004 and 2007). “Not my job” In Linchpin, Godin is interested in who does the things that isn’t in anybody’s job description. He reckons that this [...]

Questions to ask about FAQs

April 3, 2010

I was going to write something about why I hate Frequently Asked Questions sections on websites – or, more politely, why I’m worried that they’re a lazy alternative to good copywriting and information architecture. But R. Stephen Gracey has written almost exactly what I wanted to say in Infrequently Asked Questions of FAQs – so [...]

The worst kind of 404

March 20, 2010

Thinking a bit more about error messages: I recently found the most irritating ever 404 (the message you see on a website when the page you’re looking for can’t be found). Defra’s 404 starts by apologising that it can’t find the page you’re looking for, then proceeds to tell you that this is because the [...]

Website error messages – dos and don’ts

March 19, 2010

Users will inevitably find error messages as they browse the web – either they filled a form in incorrectly, or they tried to view a page that’s no longer there, or a website is temporarily down. This is OK, as long as the error message or page that pops up helps the user to solve [...]

Facebook messages should have an autosave function

March 15, 2010

I think Facebook should have an autosave function on its messages.   As a teenager I had a number of horrifying moments where I lost huge portions of important school or university work because of computer malfunctions, and now in the age of the cloud I'd kind of thought it would never happen again.   [...]

The film of the book: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wizard of Oz, and Alice in Wonderland

March 13, 2010

Three classic children’s books have received very different treatment on screen. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory The most celebrated adaptation of this book by Roald Dahl was 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder. I was never hugely attached to the film, although I know people who are. I remember being impressed [...]

Versions of Over the Rainbow

March 13, 2010

The most famous (although not the best) song from The Wizard of Oz is ‘Over the Rainbow’. Artists who’ve covered ‘Over the Rainbow’ include (thanks Spotify): The Blanks The Hawaiian Rainbow Singers Willie Nelson Eva Cassidy Frank Sinatra Patti Labelle & The Bluebells Sigmund Grove Melody Gardot Mads Vinding / Jacob Fischer Jimmy Scott Vic [...]

Half-rhymes in The Wizard of Oz

March 13, 2010

Gem pointed out that the songs from The Wizard of Oz have a remarkably high number of half rhymes. For example: With the thoughts you’d be thinkin’ / You could be another Lincoln I’d unravel any riddle / For any individdle But I could show my prowess / Be a lion not a mou-ess Just [...]

Falling asleep in films

March 6, 2010

Recently whenever we've watched a film I've found myself falling asleep for between 10-30 minutes at some point during the middle. I usually wake up again and can enjoy the rest of the film without really feeling like I've missed anything. What does this tell you? Does it mean that there are at least 10 [...]

Nonsense and outsiders

July 16, 2009

When I wrote ‘The Shrimp and the Radiator’, I was thinking of Edward Lear. It was ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ that made me invent a mismatched duo, gloriously happy to live outside convention, but it was ‘There was an old man of Whitehaven’ that made me avoid a happy ending for my odd pair.

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