Entries Tagged 'blogs' ↓

After hearing about Customerforce.com through an associate of mine, I opted to give the site a brief, fifteen minute review in several categories - design, features, and general commercial viability. While the concept behind CustomerForce seems to have merit, the site’s current implementation leaves much room for improvement.

“you need to be member”: Too critical? Perhaps. Relevant? Of course.

One of the hallmarks of a properly designed, commercial site is the visibly apparent presence of proper proofreading. If a specific section is rife with spelling and grammatical errors, it instantly makes the site less credible from a commercial, authoritative perspective. Not only does a hastily-composed paragraph seem unprofessional, another point that becomes
I felt unable to create an account, as the terms of service to which I was apparently agreeing seemed inaccessible. (I later was able to access the appropriate page through a link in the site footer.)

What to Click, When To Click: Elements of Poor Design

By far, the most visually offensive part of the Customerforce.com site is the design. The fonts used on all the pages are too small for the standard size; attempting to expand them using Web browser controls results in text overflow and poorly-proportioned text boxes. While CustomerForce seems to be positioning itself as a “Web 2.0” company, one of the hallmarks of Web 2.0 sites generally involves standards compliance and extensive, cross-platform testing. Running Safari on Mac OS X, the default view of CustomerForce extends login information boxes and border corners beyond their given frames.

Another key issue involves the “favorite” boxes on the side of the site. Depending on the particular page you might be viewing, these links change drastically. Several of these modules display duplicate items. Other boxes contain content that appears to be present for sponsorship purposes, defeating the entire concept of the links being related to user votes.

The final most pressing design issue involves navigating through the most popular content. The particular item selected appears in the right frame, with a simple link to the external source (such as YouTube.) Initially, I wasn’t able to figure out where the content actually was located, which again, does not bode well for the site’s target audience.

Customer Interactivity: Failing Grade

The situation with CustomerForce becomes even more puzzling considering that the CEO’s blog - which hasn’t been updated since the site launched - reads like a cross between a complete PR site and a plea for public attention. Phrases like “Right then I knew I had seen the future”, in reference to viewing a few popular TV shows and a smattering of preferred musicians - on a default search page - don’t exactly instill a sense of confidence. Future plans for a web browser toolbar give another clue as to how the company might achieve profitability. Furthermore, nearly all the entries contain reference to “future plans”, which, two to three months later, have yet to make an appearance. Fewer of these weasel words would go much further in convincing critical users.

In conclusion, the concept of aggregating content from pre-existing social networking sites makes sense - but the CustomerForce implementation of this concept is severely lacking, at best.

Review by Jake Billo, ev98.net

I just wanted to quick point out that the Sci-fi Channel is offering a pilot of “The Amazing Screw On Head” on their website.

This is a big step for a television channel. Usually they are reluctant to post anything online, because they feel that it lowers their ratings. However, this is not the case. By posting this pilot, it may raise their ratings, and give them some useful market research. Once you finish watching the pilot it asks you to do a quick survey. It takes about 30 seconds to do. I really suggest you watch this show. It is very entertaining and has good voice actors such as Paul Giamatti and David Hyde Pierce.

Enjoy.

I was recently listening to episode 15 of Political Inversion with Paul Tevis. He interviewed Shirely Phelps Roper from the Westboro Baptist Church. The Westboro Baptist Church, as some of you have may, has gained a lot of media attention in the past few years as being an organization that has been propogating a copious amount of hate. If you are not convinced that this organization is not as I call it, I urge you to listen to Episode 15 of Political Inversion.

Direct Link:

I have been introduced to this organization many times, whether it be through the media, or through school. Before now, I have not realized the magnitude of their actions. I struggle to comprehend how an organization that claims to stand for such a divine being, dares to propogate so much hate. I am not going to turn this into a discussion about religion, but I’m not exactly sure how they can interpret The Bible in such a way. It is beyond me.

In this interview, Shirely Phelps Roper claims that:

“Osama bin Laden is an instrument of God, and those planes on 9/11 were like juggernauts coming down from heaven sent to punish the American people.”

Additionally, they have also been propogating hate all over the internet with websites such as:

http://www.godhatescanada.com

http://www.godhatesfags.com

I’m sorry, but people like this should have no right to voice their opinion in our world. These people are absoloutely dispicable. In the interview, several times, she condemned the host to hell, simply because he said that he was a practicing Catholic.

“YOU ARE GOING TO HELL. PERIOD.”

Please take the time to listen to Political Inversion and you will hear exactly what I mean.

Yesterday a bunch of us went to Warren’s to celebrate Canada Day. Warren had about $300 worth of fireworks that he had purchased. With the marvelous tip I got from Digg on “How to Photograph Fireworks”, which consisted of “Just do it”, I managed to take some good pictures of fireworks. There are also other pictures from the event.

You can find these pictures on my flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/davel

I also have to hi-res original versions of these photos on my computer if anyone would rather have those. I would be more than happy to email some to you. The ones you see on Flickr are re-sized to save bandwidth.

Due to the copious amounts of essays I have been writing over the past few weeks, the correct use of punctuation has been a hot topic. It’s time to put the topic to bed. Below is how it actually should be used.

1. The Ending Punctuation in a Quotation Debate

Regardless of what the quotation is, according to the MLA, the ending punctuation should always go after the last parenthesis. For example:

“Billy went to the store” (Smith 123).

“The meaning of life is”.Â

Additionally, as shown in the last example, ending punctuation cannot be added to a quotation where it does not already reside.

2. Single Word QuotationsÂ

In this case, the puncuation always stays on the inside of the quotations. If you ask me, this looks very weird. Tough luck for me

Her mouth said “Yes,” but her look said, “No.”Â

I was on JokeCenter.com and found a good joke on how important punctuation is.

An English professor wrote the words, “Woman without her man is nothing” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly. The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing.” The women wrote: “Woman! Without her, man is nothing.”