A recent Fortune article touched upon the ongoing cold war between Microsoft and the Open Source community. In fitting with Microsoft’s tendancy to only talk about Free Software in terms of not actually being free of cost (which I’ve always seen as a diversionary tactic, to avoid acknowledging the actual issues of freedom and ownership that anyone involved in free software will be quick to focus on), this was addressing Microsoft’s software patents that Linux potentially violates. (more…)

May 17th, 2007 | Freedom | No comments

Probably the most important part of the human-machine interface when it comes to web design (and one which is all too easy to take for granted) is the screen. Apart from sound, it’s usually the only way that the computer can give information to and communicate with the user- which makes it the most important way that a website owner can communicate with their visitors. Through the screen, the computer tells us what it’s doing and— just as importantly— give the user feedback about what they are doing to it. It shows us what we’ve typed, whether it’s what we meant to type, what we’re clicking on and what we’re pointing the mouse at. (more…)

May 10th, 2007 | Devices and User Interfaces | No comments