racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

So downloading Prison Break episodes take much of my time–okay, not my time, but my computer’s time (namely the Mac, since Transmission seems to do a helluva lot better job than Azuerus when it comes to stealing movies downloading Torrents). And then of course there are those other writing stuff. So here I am again with another blog roundup.

* Tony Hung writes on the dangers of linkbait.
* Here’s an interesting way to encourage your mate to blog.
* WTF with Technorati?
* Libraries (and librarians) are not obsolete, and why the “wisdom of the crowds” concept may not be wise at all.
* Acknowledging Problogging’s blue-collar class.

The “dangers of linkbait” issue is about those interesting gimmicks that some bloggers and webmasters have so people would link to their site. True, these could sometimes help jack up your inbound linkage, and consequently your Google juice and technorati ranking. But then again, you run the risk of getting banned if things get too hot. But is it really a bad thing to do?

As for the “blue collar class” of problogging, it’s about the dreaded pay-per-post and why A-listers should recognize the need for this new model of blog monetization. Actually I’m a bit guilty of finger-pointing myself. I’ve grown too reliant on my blog network revenue (i.e., “salaries”) and even AdSense that I initially had doubts when my mom said she got into this pay-per-post scheme with a local affiliate network. I initially told her that she might just be watering down her PR juice (because her blog might be seen as a link-farm) with all those affiliate links. But I guess bloggers have to start somewhere. And I would say with her readership and discussion (judging from traffic growth and comment threads), she’s rising fast to Internet stardom.

Is “wisdom of the crowds” really “wisdom?” JOAB thinks not always, and I agree. Sometimes things tend to turn into popularity contests, and what’s popular may not necessarily be relevant to society at all.

Enjoy the reads!

Wow! I didn’t realize this until I tried looking for our new apartment via satellite imagery. Previously, only the client-version of Google’s geo service, “Google Earth”:http://earth.google.com , had higher res aerial imagery of Metro Manila. now, even the online version, “Google Maps”:http://maps.google.com does! I say “higher” because this is definitely better than what Maps had to offer before. Still, it’s not as good as Google Earth, and it’s definitely not up to par with the aerial photos or “Ikonos”:http://spaceimaging.com / “Quickbird”:http://digitalglobe.com satellite images that the surveying companies will give you for a few million Pesos.

Some Snapshots

Here are some screencaps of imagery of my beloved Quezon City.

Both our old and new apartments “are in this area.”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=quezon+city+philippines&ie=UTF8&z=18&ll=14.647047,121.057706&spn=0.002263,0.004576&t=k&om=1

Here’s the “University of the Philippines Admin building, where the Oblation is located.”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=quezon+city+philippines&ie=UTF8&z=18&ll=14.654821,121.064937&spn=0.002263,0.004576&t=k&om=1

“Here’s the Gateway Mall and the Araneta Colliseum in Cubao.”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=quezon+city+philippines&ie=UTF8&z=18&ll=14.621224,121.053023&spn=0.002263,0.004576&t=k&om=1

“Here’s SM North EDSA, sans the new ‘Block’ mall.”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=quezon+city+philippines&ie=UTF8&z=18&ll=14.656518,121.031892&spn=0.002263,0.004576&t=k&om=1 This means the aerial photos were probably taken pre-2006, when SM was still using the area as a parking lot.

This could open up a lot of new business opportunities for people who do web apps! This was exactly what I was looking for back when I worked with i.PH–location-based services and geotagging were the hot thing back then. I wonder if it’s still a good idea to do this today. Joel was right. Google’s going to put those aerial photo and satellite imagery companies out of business (at least for the consumer/low-end market, and not those requiring millimiter-level accuracy). Google is giving this stuff away for free!

Web apps, anyone? I hope we beat you guys to it!

Here’s what I think about designing for usability. Design your product / service / software / website with the stupid person in mind. I assure you then, that your site will be the ultimate in usability!

Of course by design, I do not mean only style, which only pertains to the aesthetic aspects of design. Design is everything about the functionality, aesthetics, and concept behind any creation.

Make things as simple as possble. Make things as usable, intuitive, and uncluttered as possible, with the stupidest of people possible in your mind. That’s unless you’re designing an aircraft control panel–but still, you have to remember that your pilot should be comfortable with controls lest you want him to crash the plane.
…
It takes more effort to design with usability in mind than just putting in all the bells and whistles in one place. For one, you may have to trim down your work reasonably–in some cases, you may have to hold off on that cool feature you’d been working on for months. And in most cases, it boils down to only keeping the basic stuff (or at least reserving/hiding the snazzy stuff only for advanced users to explore). What’s important, after all, is that your creation works the way it’s intended to, and that your user won’t have to read hundreds of pages of instructions to learn how to work things.

I’m of the opinion that if something is well-designed (hopefully elegantly-designed, too), then there should be no reason for the user to RTFM.

Check it out at ForeverGeek. I do hope you usability advocates out there would agree with me on this one!

I’m taking a short break from blogging momentarily (and yes, I’ll be offline). A blogger can have writer’s (or blogger’s?) block, too, you know. And I need to catch up on my ZZZs. You may be wondering about the title, as this post’s dated Tuesday, the 16th. Well, let’s just say it’s not the 16th in all parts of the world yet–and my days usually extend well into after midnight, and my body and mind’s clock usually gets confused with this more-than-24-hour day setting (for instance, Sunday was an all-nighter–extending well into Monday).

In the meantime, let me direct you to a few blogs/writeups I find interesting (okay, some of which I’ve written):

* On bTelevisions, I write on my kid, the TV addict.
* Yuga has thoughts on disabling right-clicking (I agree–don’t!).
* Mon talks on social engineering (don’t fall victim to scams!).
* Mikey needs a health check.
* RM talks on the sustainability of regulation.
* Kira muses on beauty and fashion.
* Corsarius is in a void.
* Here’s Ia’s interesting site on, umm, interesting Web 2.0 names.

That’s about it for now. I’m signing off. Hope to see you in a few hours (of course, by the time you read this, I’ll probably be back already).

Admit it, you’ve violated your service provider’s (email, hosting, blogging, photo-hosting, etc.) terms of services one time or another.

Nude photos on Flickr. AdSense on mature websites. Obscene photos on wiki encyclopedias. Corporate blogs on personal blogging services. We’ve seen ‘em all. Sometimes we click that feedback link and report the offense to the appropriate authorities, but in most cases, we just turn a blind eye. In most cases, after all, one wouldn’t expect a favorable response timely enough for our taste. Or perhaps we do enjoy the websites or content themselves, and would rather have them online than not.

I’d say it’s a bit more complicated than just “good” vs. “bad,” or even “right vs. “wrong.”

… the difficulty with ToS compliance is that we live in a world where companies tend to be biased and users tend to abuse–slightly or unknowingly, at least. Unlike the Force, which has a dark side and a light side, it’s a bit more complicated with all the in-between grey areas.

Quite a lengthy post over at ForeverGeek. Enjoy!