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Author Archives: David Megginson
Wellesley’s Law
“As discussion of a failure grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving my action at Waterloo approaches 1—that is, if such discourse should persist for a sufficient period, be assured that some self-styled wit will compare someone or something … Continue reading
Posted in General
2 Comments
Testing webdev on mobile devices from my laptop
While I’m developing the new UI for OurAirports.com on my laptop, I want to be able to test on various mobile devices easily, including other people’s devices (where it’s rude to root and mess around with /etc/hosts). Here’s what I … Continue reading
Posted in General
4 Comments
Content providers vs their audience, in two acts
or … It’s always been a struggle for control Act I Time: 1980s Place: TV Network I want you to sit still and watch these commercials. Viewer When the commercials come on, I get up to go to the kitchen … Continue reading
Web unusability
Sometimes, like in this FedEx Canada form, companies decide #usability is a bad thing. Continue reading
Update: running Emacs in Android L (Lollipop)
Update from Dustin DeWeese: “A working Emacs 25 package is available in Termux: https://termux.com $ apt install emacs” — this is probably a better solution than the outdated distro below. In February 2014, I posted instructions for installing Gnu Emacs … Continue reading
Posted in General
12 Comments
Technology design, in two comics
I refer to these two comics constantly when I’m doing technology architecture and design work. Affordance (From The Far Side, 1980s IIRC.) Coverage (http://xkcd.com/773/)
Posted in General
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A different kind of data standard
HXL is a different, simpler kind of data standard for use during humanitarian crises, using spreadsheets and hashtags. Continue reading
Community data, Ebola, and the UN
The humanitarian community’s response to the Ebola crisis is more transparent than many responses in the past, and that transparency includes data. The core datasets from the UN and humanitarian partners are starting to appear here: https://data.hdx.rwlabs.org/ebola If you do anything potentially helpful with the … Continue reading
Posted in Aid, Data, Transparency
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RCIM — Right-Click-Incognito-Mode
#RCIM (right-click-incognito-mode) on links is an easy way to bypass the web’s nastiness. Continue reading
Posted in Web
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Breadcrumbs: yes or no?
In web design, Breadcrumbs are those little navigational links you see across the top of some web pages, like Home → Canada → Ontario → Ottawa or Media»Music»Classical»Beethoven Good idea? Breadcrumbs let you can see where you are in a … Continue reading
Posted in Design, Uncategorized
5 Comments