Richoid's Information Architecture

Last post on Blogger, first on WordPress

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 19:36:00 +0000

Hi Folks...

I just moved my blog to WordPress. Here's a link to it:

Richoid's NEW BLOG on Information Architecture, and other thoughts.

All new posts will go here. I'm leaving this up because there are lots of links out there to it.

It still needs some aesthetic work, but it's a start.

It's a wondrous thing! The Worst President, Ever is helping a poor person!

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 16:17:00 +0000

Well, I'm not THAT poor, but it is the holidays, and the web design business is always spotty for a freelancer, so the extra $400 and counting that I'm making from selling the "Worst President, Ever" merchandise through CafePress.com is very welcome.

If I go past $500, I'll donate half the additional proceeds to a good cause. I think I'll try to come up with merchandise to battle John Doolittle locally. He's been a Bush Thinkalike since before anyone ever heard of Bush in California.

He's opposed the efforts of Robert Matsui (who recently died, and has been replaced by his wife Doris Matsui) to improve the levee system around Sacramento forever, because he wants to build Auburn Dam. The levee repairs are necessary regardless of whether a dam is built, and can be addressed more immediately than a dam. Oh, and the dam was being built on earthquake faults. But of course, conservatives don't believe scientists when they say that's a bad idea.

Anyway, if we can make people aware that he's Bush, Jr...

Thank you all... and especially BoingBoing

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 16:33:00 +0000

Thanks for all your comments, including the angry ones!

Yes, I am a bit of a hippie, raised in Northern California. I haven't smoked pot since college, but some of my best friends do. I find it hard on the lungs. I miss the giggles, though. It also helps with anger management, so maybe some of you should try it.

Many have noticed that this is based on those "W" stickers that were ubiquitous before the last election. Others have had the same idea, but weren't technical enough to get it "good enough". The "Worst Ever" line has been around for a long time. But, it is important at this point to make it clear that the decision in '04 was a bad one, and we have learned from our mistakes.

One guy suggested that the quality of stickers at CafePress isn't that good. If this isn't just a flash-in-the-pan, I'll set up an ecommerce site and have the work done at a higher level. CafePress is awesome for having a brainstorm and putting it out there... but the choices are limited, for obvious reasons. It tends to push the prices a little high, too. I do hope the quality is satisfactory, please let me know if it isn't.

If you want to order in quantity, or to get wholesale pricing, drop me an email. I can get a much better price for you!

People are Catching On

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:08:00 +0000

You still have to worry about the 37%, but the trend is in the right direction, Bush is in trouble.

Keep in mind, people, that Bush has not vetoed a single thing out of congress, and that means that any blame that goes to Bush, goes to the Republican Party as a whole. Bush may be the point man on the lying, cheating and stealing, but there is an organization that created the institution that he rode in on. That's the Party.

Still, I had to whip this up:

I've made these into bumper stickers, oval stickers, buttons, T-shirts, golf shirts and more at CafePress. Go to my store there, to buy!

Note: I used CafePress to do this quickly, but they charge quite a bit. If you want wholesale or volume purchases, I can get better pricing. Email me

PS. Thanks, BoingBoing

10 Tips for the Business Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 21:29:00 +0000

Here's some useful tips for business bloggers via Lifehacker.

And, on a related note: Ten Blogging Hacks from Micropersuasion.

Back to Information Architecture

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 20:00:00 +0000

This guy's doing some cool things: EcoLanguage

These animated diagrams are great to visually show how economics works. He should switch to Flash, so the images are clearer, and larger, without the download time. And a professional voice-over would be good. But this is by far the clearest way to explain economics.

And people need to understand economics, badly.

This is Information Architecture approaching it's highest potential.

Finishing up the D.C. Travelblog

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 19:04:00 +0000

We wrapped up our DC vacation by going out to Virginia.

Actually, the day started with a trip to the National Zoo. Laura and I found the zoo a depressing place. We saw pandas (the new baby panda was not out in public, yet) leopards, and more. But we were glad when we got a call from my brother-in-law Richard saying he was ready to go on an expedition. We cut the visit short and headed to the gate on Connecticut Ave. NW, where Richard picked us up.

Our final destination was the beautiful Harper's Ferry National Park. Richard took us there in his new Honda Accord, which is equipped with a navigation system. We set the destination as the National Park, and it took us there. Only, it didn't take us to the entrance. Instead it took us the the nearest border of the park, which is across the river, just under the railroad bridge. This is some distance from the actual entrance to the park.

This turned out to be a good thing. Instead of turning and going back to the highway, we looped out through the Blue Ridge Mountains, lovely farm country, in full fall colors! It was stunningly beautiful.

When we looped back around to the highway, it was a short trip in, over the river and along it, up to a parking area, then a short (about a mile) shuttle ride in. By this time it was late afternoon.

When we finally got back through traffic to DC, we met Wendy at McCormick and Schmick's, a really great restaurant! There are about 50 restaurants started by the same guys. All of them that I've tried have been really, really good. Our favorite was Splendido's in San Francisco, which unfortunately seems to have closed. The Kuleto's restaurants seem to be related to these, too. The Apple Pie was the best I've ever had, and I've had a few.

We flew out from Dulles at 7:30pm, and with the time change we arrived in Sacto at 10:30, but it felt like we'd been on the plane all night. It was windy and bumpy on approach, but the landing was smooth. We stayed at my sister Betsy's overnight and made our way home the next day.

Great Trip!

Two short days in Washington, DC

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 15:18:00 +0000

After our marathon day (previous post) we slept in a bit, had a relaxed breakfast at Bread & Chocolate, and caught the bus and Metro to the Smithsonian Station (with one transfer, to the Orange Line).

From there we walked to the Air & Space Museum. This place is incredible. The scale is huge. Rockets, airplanes, lunar landers and re-entry vehicles, skylab and more fill the lobby areas. Side rooms include a hands-on exhibit -- which the kids love so much the adults can't get in edgewise -- to a complete exploration of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Oddly, my favorites were the more recent additions of the Gossamer Condor (first human-powered flight across the English Channel), the Voyager (first nonstop around the world) and Spaceship One (first commercial spacecraft). Two out of three involved Burt Rutan, who is the coolest aircraft designer since the Wrights.

Every exhibit here is amazing, because they have almost every unique item in aviation history.

From there we went to the Hirshorn Museum which had some cool stuff. There was a great video display of tops spinning in big crowds which is hard to describe but incredibly fun to watch. My usual experience with museums is that most of the work gets a glance, but the few that are fun really hold my attention. There were several fun pieces here. I also tend to appreciate those with the greatest craftsmanship and complexity. So the prized exhibits often don't get the reverence they presumably deserve.

We made our way back and had dinner at a nice Greek place in Chevy Chase, with Wendy and Richard.

The next day (yesterday) same pattern. We did the Natural History Museum and the Freer Gallery. The Natural History Museum had bad food, good Gelato and a wide array of displays. For me the Geology exhibits which range from explanations of plate tectonics, rock formation, earthquakes and volcanoes to displays of gems, including the hope diamond... was clearly the highlight. I'm fascinated by natural crystal formations.

There was lots from Northern California in this section... Gold from our own Grass Valley mining district, much about earthquakes and volcanoes (extensive mentions of the Lassen area), and the raising of the Sierra.

A huge display of animal skeletons was pretty interesting, and off to the side was a history of the Sikh culture and religion which I'd been curious about for some time topped it all off. After that, we came back to CC join up with my sister Wendy at Guapo's, in Bethesda. Great Mexican food!

Washington, DC Travelblog, continued

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:44:00 +0000

After my last post, we've done 3 more days.

The marathon day started with a tour bus. The Old Town Trolley left from Union Station. It runs approximately every 25 minutes in two loops that intersect. You can get off and on as many times as you want, for one not-so-low price. One benefit is that it provides easy transportation to the memorials, the National Cathedral and Embassy Row, which are not convenient to the Metro lines.

We visited the Jefferson and Roosevelt memorials. The first is classic the second modern, but they're both great in completely different ways. I won't bother to describe them here. Then we bussed back to lunch at the American Indian Museum (for the second time). Then we took the second loop up to the National Cathedral, then caught the last bus from there (at 4:30) back down embassy row, through Georgetown and Foggy Bottom, to the Chinatown area. We thought we'd eat dinner in Chinatown, but ended up at Georgia Brown's where we had a 45 minute wait to be seated. In Washington, you can't smoke in restaurants, but you can in bars. And at GB's, the bar is the waiting area to be seated. Naturally we waited outside.

Despite the smoke, the folks running the restaurant were so nice and the food was so good, it was worth it, in a big way.

After dinner, we walked around the White House, where there was a demonstration by (I think) Nigerians. We went around the other side for the view then walked down to the WWII Memorial. This is a really great piece of work. Then we walked along the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial. From there we went to the Vietnam, and then the Korean War Memorials. These are all really brilliant. I think the Vietnam Memorial really set a standard for modern public architecture that the Korean built on. The WWII is more classical and it's own thing. But they're all truly great, and capture the nature of each conflict in many subliminal and symbolic ways.

We saw all the three after dark. I think the Vietnam is somewhat better during the day, while the other two are good either at night or daytime.

Now it was late, about 10pm. We went to a bus stop to catch a ride back to the metro station. It was a long-time coming -- about 25 minutes. A very nice older man, who worked the concessions at the memorials, reassured us that it would arrive, and he told us where we would transfer. Once we got on the bus it was a short ride (but would have been a loooong walk) to the Metro station in front of the IRS building.

From there we rode to Metro Center and transferred to the Red Line back to Chevy Chase circle. Late at night, all the trains and busses run less often. At each transfer, it took 20-25 minutes until the next ride came. We didn't get in until after midnight, exhausted.

The American History Museum

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 13:59:00 +0000

The American History Museum is really amazing... it goes on and on, has hugely significant stuff in it, and is really fun. The most fun was Julia Child's kitchen. They took her real kitchen and moved all its contents into the display. You look into the kitchen through glass doors, and see how the most famous cook in America organized everything.

There was a great presentation on Brown vs. Board of Education. It has a classroom in it. On the left: Linoleum floors, metal desks, blackboards, books... On the right: unfinished wooden plank floors, benches with no writing surfaces... and that's it. It was spooky seeing a real KKK uniform, and you could follow every step in the legal struggle to overcome segregation, city by city.

In another section was a military display titled "Freedom isn't free" which you see on bumper stickers all across America. Of course, for blacks, freedom was won with lawyers and with marches. The bloodshed that happened was less organized than with war. But we should see that throughout history, the real freedom for real Americans mostly came from fighting in the courtroom. And that was only possible because we had a good constitution in the first place.

For American Indians and for other minorities, including blacks, the enemy wasn't "over there." It was right here. For Rosa Parks, there was a noble battle to be fought, but it was fought with words and actions that did not include guns.

Recently we had an option, as a nation, to solve a problem with legal action, backed by enforcement. Instead, we opted for force without legal authority. We opted for pre-emptive war.

The enemies of America mostly are the enemies within. Others can attack, but only sporadically, only effecting a few in our population. But the people running the House, the Senate, and the White House are destroying America from within. It amazes me that 39% of Americans still support Bush, and that those who are criticizing Bush don't all seem to realize that it is the entire party working together to create this nightmare.

The American Indian Museum & the Arboretum

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 02:59:00 +0000

Up next to the Capitol, the first two museums in the Smithsonian, are the Botanical Gardens and the American Indian Museum.

We arrived at Union Station via the Metro. We wandered around and then ended up down in the food court. Had a decent hamburger and onion rings at Johnny Rockets. While we were eating, at least 30 Chinese male students in matching blazers, and a smaller contingent of young women came into the food court area (which is huge, BTW) and started looking for food. It was kind of amazing just to see so many people dressed alike.

We tried the Gelato. Not recommended.

We walked over to the Capitol and checked out where the line would start for the Rosa Parks memorial. There were already some people holding the first positions in line -- maybe 100, or so. It was around 1:30pm.

We went into the Botanical Gardens. It was very interesting. There was an art display with picture frames around video screens. These showed videos of stop-action photography of plants growing. Then there was a room with scents of various spices that you could bend over and whiff. I didn't sneeze once! There were desert and jungle regions, as well as a "forest primeval" which had only the earliest plants -- pre-seed and flowers. It was also nice to get warm in the jungle zone. Here, a huge variety of incredible flowers and plants were arrayed along a creek, and you could go up onto the catwalk and see it all from above.

The American Indian Museum was beautiful. The waterfall and river wandered along the sides and the shape was reminiscent of the cliff dwellings. The food in the cafe was awesome. A variety of foods from different regions are available in a cafeteria environment. I had some spicy buffalo chile and a Mexican brownie... Laura had a watermelon-tomato salad and dried mangos. We also had some very nice mint tea. Unfortunately we got there about 3:30, so the selection was greatly diminished. They shut down about half the restaurant at 3pm. Still, it got us through the long period in line to see Rosa in the Rotunda.

The displays in the museum were of mixed quality, I thought. Some beautiful kayaks in the main area of the first floor were great, the movie got us off our feet in comfortable seats for quite awhile. It was very interesting... not the usual documentary fare. It covered the lives of native Americans struggling to integrate modern life with their traditional lives. The movie -- in fact the whole museum -- was not limited to the natives of the Continental U.S. but extended to Central and South America. There were some great clothing and weapon displays... but the items themselves were grouped together fairly tightly with no explanations of the stories behind them. The interactive displays were pretty, but didn't have great UI, and didn't seem to go into depth (or maybe I was missing something). The art display on the second floor was really great -- it was only about two artists so it was very in-depth.

The top floor was the most educational, but the most frustrating. There were bottlenecks in the flow of people, and the plexiglass covering the displays was highly reflective and curved in a way that was very distracting to me. I didn't find anything on California Indians, but the way the displays were arranged I could have missed it.

A Special Party

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 02:25:00 +0000

Our second day in Washington D.C. and we were invited to attend a special party. Two friends of Richard and Wendy were celebrating the adoption of a little girl. The restaurant where the party happened, happened to be the one where my nephew Luke is a cook.

This is a very fine restaurant, Zagat rated, called Persimmon. Really great food! Luke was working the grill, and made some very nice crab cakes, according to Laura. I had chicken, which was exceptional.

The really special thing was the couple adopting little Ruby, are a gay couple. This, so soon after my sister Barbara and her partner Renee adopted a little boy, is a remarkable coincidence. All the folks at the party were very good people. I was seated next to "Big John" who is in charge of all contractors for Dulles Airport. This is how we found out about the leaky roof that caused our detour when we flew in... He said it had not been a good day at all.

After the dinner, we got a tour of the kitchen, which was brief, because it was not large. It always amazes me how much great food can come out of a such a small area.

Vacationing in DC

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 15:22:00 +0000

We flew to DC on Jet Blue leaving Sacto on the 28th very late and arriving at Dulles on the 29th 6:30 am. Jet Blue was very good. No wheel problems... I guess the fired the shopping cart mechanic.

It was an adventure getting thru Dulles. We found out later that their was flooding in the tunnels between the terminals, so everyone had to get on the funny monster buses, that are unique to Dulles.

We took the Super Shuttle to my sister, Wendy's, house. That's in Chevy Chase, DC (Not Maryland) near Chevy Chase circle. We had a little misdirect there... Wendy had transposed a couple numbers in her address, when she emailed it to me. A quick cell phone call saved the day.

When we arrived we were given the "Penthouse Suite" on the third floor. Big house. This is a great place to stay!

We went to a nice little cafe called Bread and Chocolate a few blocks away with Wendy. Very nice. Then we napped.

In the evening we went to a nice Italian place in the same area. Also very good. As we were walking out I noticed Tim Russert waiting to be seated.

Next day, Saturday, Laura and I went to Bread & Chocolate again in the morning, after sleeping in. Then we walked down to Friendship Heights to see where the Metro station was. After walking through nice neighborhoods, suddenly we were among these large commercial buildings; mostly shopping. We went down the looooong escalator, bought some passes, then went back out. On our way out we decided to exit into the Hecht's dept. store, just for the hecht of it. We found a decent sale in progress, and because we had found out earlier we were going to a special dinner (more on that later) and I hadn't packed anything but my standard ratty Merril shoes and Levi's, we shopped a bit.

Then we walked back, and had just enough time to start a puzzle before Wendy got home (around 1pm) and we all left for a grand tour of DC. Through Rock Creek Park, down around the Smithsonian, up around the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, and Congress itself. Then we drove down to the river, across, back into Georgetown (where my Nephew Ethan is attending) up the canal road, then back home.

A little later we went to a party. More on that later.

But last night (our second full day here) we did something extroardinary, so I'm leaving the chronological description for a moment. We went to see Rosa Parks lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda. When we arrived at 4:30, there were maybe 1000 people there, in a switchback line on the far side of the reflecting pool from the capitol building. We were in the 4th or 5th switchback, each about 100 yards long. 5 hours later we emerged from the capitol building. When we did we saw that over 30,000 people had gathered, and had yet to enter, or even to enter the park where we started the whole thing. It was a great turnout!

We got home around 11pm, exhausted. Now, it is 10:20 am the next day, and we're going to hop in the car and drive out the the Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah Valley, Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway, where the colors should be spectacular.

I'll return to embellish the Rosa Parks experience, as well as the visit to the new Indian Museum and the Botanical Gardens. All Fantastic!

Using the Tools of Web 2.0 for Business

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 19:00:00 +0000

There has been talk lately of Web 2.0. What is meant by this? Even those that attended the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco recently couldn't decide. It is a combination of a return of optimism about the value of the Internet and, Lo and Behold, the Internet actually returning value.

Many of us never lost faith in this; We really lost faith in people's ability to make a living off the value of the Internet. The value itself was never in question. This has changed a bit with the second coming: Google, Yahoo, AOL, EBay, Paypal and more are showing steady increases in value, revenue, and stability and another generation of web tools is emerging. Is the maturing of the internet? Not really. Really, it is getting the Internet out of diapers and past teething. Really the crying infant is now learning to speak, walk, and feed itself.

The tools of Web 2.0 are getting to be more like desktop applications, with the benefit of the central, always accessible location: The Internet. This has become possible because access to the Internet is now faster for most users, and the advent of CSS1 and CSS2, Ajax, and the increasing quality and reliability of open source, server-side tools and languages like MySQL, PERL, PHP, Ruby, and Apache. The result is a much more usable web with much more powerful interfaces via really great browsers like Apple's Safari, and the open source powerhouse Firefox.

This alphabet soup means little or nothing to the user. This is as it should be. We shouldn't have to be tech savvy to use these tools. Even the most technical people really don't need complicated things to stand in the way of getting things done. Yet we are only partway down the path. As everyone knows, software doesn't really reach maturity until version 4.1 or 5.1. We're still at Web 2.0.

The products of Web 2.0 are blogs, wikis, web applications like group management, online accounting and banking, online payment and invoicing, online learning and collaboration. The blogs and wikis actually carry useful information, a sense of loyalty and engagement, and a method of organization.

The best example of a simple tool, the Wiki, creating a foundation for a phenomenal value, is Wikipedia. This online encyclopedia is almost beyond belief in it's depth, richness, sense of purpose, and it's collaborative nature. It is a volume of information about the world that isn't static. It truly reflects and enhances our collective change and growth of knowledge in an immediate way. As a hurricane rips the Gulf Coast, our knowledge of hurricanes grows, and Wikipedia grows with it. As people become newsmakers, then history makers, Wikipedia documents it all. It moves backwards into history and forward into our future in near-real time. And the content is very good. I think Wikipedia is the most important benchmark of the power of the Internet. And it is built on a simple foundation at http://www.wikipedia.com

Blogs have multiplied into the millions. But most of them have been created and promptly forgotten or ignored by their creators. Some have become as read and respected as a major newspaper, some have languished in obscurity. Some report live from war zones but most report live from ordinary people's ordinary lives in banal living rooms, bedrooms, and cafes. Some are live-to-the-world baby books recording every little step towards personhood, every photo of food-on-the-face, first tooth, first steps that each of us have had, but that still are so remarkable and delightful despite the billions of times it has occurred, in almost precisely the same way, all along. Others are battles with depression, or hormones, or acne. It goes to show the power of words well written, and the weakness of ideas poorly conceived or expressed.

The two best ways I've found to discover the world of blogs are:

a) Scrolling through http://del.icio.us/ ...and check out that clever domain name! Anyway, just go there and scroll until you see something that intrigues you.

b) Go to Google's Blog Search and use it just like regular Google.

With my Safari browser, I just command-click each link and it opens in a new tab, then I continue scrolling and command-clicking. Then I command-W the Delicious or Google results page to close it, and the next tab pops up. As I finish looking at each blog, I command-W to view the next one. It's great!

In the nextish post, I'm going to point to some other web applications... from contact managers to word processors... all you need is your browser.

The Multiple Self on dirtSimple.org

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 01:57:00 +0000

I found a very interesting article called "The Multiple Self" on dirtSimple.org. It has a number of interesting insights for those struggling with themselves...

"To really understand, you need to first understand that you are an animal. Most of us humans pretend our entire lives that we are something other than animals, and as a result we think our "animal nature" is something you can just ignore or somehow transcend -- preferably while ignoring it. We enter the false dichotomy of "man or beast", when the truth is actually "man and beast." We are not one - we are two. And the one of us who thinks he's running things is really just a recent software upgrade that runs atop a highly sophisticated operating system that's already had millions of years of performance tuning -- and can run just fine without you.

That's right. "You" are just a subroutine, and a recently-added one at that. You're like a user-mode driver that gets access to certain kernel data, but you only see and control what the kernel lets you. You have no direct access to the kernel's process space, but you can make calls into it, and you get notifications from it. The bulk of your nature as a human lies entirely outside your process space, outside your ability to directly perceive or control.

"The article is quite long, and has a ton of interesting comments following it, as well. The content, as you can see, is oriented toward people who have some knowledge of programming... but it is decipherable by anyone.

There are lots of people out there who will think it is complete rubbish. People are essentially in denial of the evolutionary implications for human behavior. Heck, they're in denial of evolution itself, despite its obviousness. Certainly this article is somewhat theoretical, but it really makes a hell of a lot of sense in the context of the established knowledge of the structure of the brain.

What does this have to do with information architecture? Ultimately IA is about structuring information for optimal processing efficiency, or to trick the mind to receive messages subtly delivered. Sometimes, both. The mission of IA is not necessarily just appealing to the intellectual... if we can layer in color, sound, smell, spacial arrangements, evocative images, motion... whatever can make the information we seek to present as effective as possible.

It is also important to recognize when savvy presenters of information are leveraging such techniques to persuade... often to persuade people to believe, often at the expense of truth (such as it is).

The positive message is, our minds respond to images like blue sky and puffy clouds, water, smiling babies, happy puppies etc., as calming. We react to night images, violence, people in pain, spiders and snakes, etc. by feeling stressed. We can attract the eye to a message with a pretty face, in incongruous image that requires our minds to investigate further, something sexy, or even something alarming. When that emotional response is addressed by, or related to, the message we seek to deliver, and a call to action, we get banner click-throughs, followup phone calls or site visits from a print ad, and a decision to purchase, or sign a petition, or listen to a pitch.

But we shouldn't squander that attention with a bait and switch. We need to turn that next step into a further opportunity to tell our story, to engage the buyer (generic here, to describe the audience, once the audience is converted, or engaged in, our story) and to build loyalty.

My message here is: don't just design an ad, or a banner, or a flyer. Design a chain of events to engage the customer. That's the difference between Information Architecture and "designing" or "writing" or "sales". It is the creation of a chain of knowledge and emotion, at its best.

Republicans Support the Troops

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 19:31:00 +0000

Not all Republicans are Repugnicans. But right now, Repugnicans are in charge.

Further evidence that the persona the Repugnicans try to project is BS... This article from The Navy Times:

"A group of House Republicans have proposed a plan to offset the costs of relief and rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina that includes trimming military quality-of-life programs, including health care.

Possible sources of funding cuts to free up money for Katrina relief include reduced health benefits, consolidation of the three military exchange systems and the closure of the military’s stateside school system.

The House Republicans Study Committee, headed by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., is not singling out the military as it tries to raise the estimated $200 billion that the federal government will need for various Katrina-related spending."
[Found originally on Bush's America blog]

This is just the latest of many insults to the Military by the Repugs. But it has recently been repeated by the efforts to kill air quality and to remove benefits from America's poor in order to pay the bill for Katrina/Rita.

Do I have to say it again: It costs us more to not pay an appropriate amount of tax, than it does not to. The economy doesn't grow as well with a lot of taxes, but much of America is paying too little. And the cost of not paying taxes is higher.

Welcome to Mexico II.

Battling Ignorance of Evolution

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 03:13:00 +0000

It is clear that the Science Education system needs help.

The number of people who radically misunderstand Evolution is large, growing, and dangerous.

We can't just blame it on dumb people.

We don't do a good enough job with education.

When I was in 10th grade, the first day, I sat down in science class and was told by the teacher "The state requires that I teach Evolution, and I will. But I don't believe in it. The odds against life beginning would be a 1 and a number of zeros that would fill and a whole shelf of books this size." And he referred to a set of encyclopedias behind his desk.

I left that school shortly thereafter and started at community college. There were a lot of reasons, this was one. The lack of integrity of that school, the Pledge of Allegiance, the fact that there were 6 advisors for 2500 students, frequent illness (I'm pretty sure it was chemical sensitivity) and just a general sense that I could learn more in an hour in the library than I could learn in a week of classes.

One or two years later "Another Brick in the Wall" came out.

Anyway, I digress... My point is:

We who care about science and progress need to develop great educational tools that show tangibly:

a) How evolution works
b) How scientists reached that conclusion historically and observationally... what was the experience that created the theory, followed by the certainty.
c) How the fossil record has developed
d) How epidemiology works... This shows students in observable time-frames how evolution works: put bugs in a dish and let them grow, apply antibiotics until most die, let them bloom again, apply antibiotics again... until the pattern of resistance emerges.
e) Have professional scientists (particularly medical scientists) to guest presentations to show how evolutionary theory allows much of medical science to function.
f) One of the great stories (that also directly contradicts Intelligent Design) is the development of the Eye. Real examples of multiple evolutions of the eye would be a great tangible example.
g) Again, specifically contradicting ID advocates, show the fossil record of whale development, and compare the stages to currently active comparable species (otters, walruses, sea cows, etc.)
h) Use photos, videos, where possible casts of real fossils, real animals, interactive computer models.
i) Demonstrate cellular automata on the computer. Show how evolution applies even to data.

This needs to start soon. It should be funded by the NSF, and if they won't do it, by donations.

Response to the "Under God" in The Pledge

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 01:00:00 +0000

I wrote this as a comment on another blog that was saying that the court ruling is a terrible thing. The blog I commented on is called "Blogtending" and you can find the post here.

First… There is not a risk to morals, or to patriotism here.
The Constitution says the government cannot attempt to establish religion… for the specific reason that most countries prior to ours (and a good many after, like Iran) tried to do so. The rifts that this caused led to revolutions, claims of murderous plots leading to imprisonment and hangings after each change of government.
And in England (the primary example of concern to the framers) this was all AMONG Christian religious sects.
The Pledge of Allegience is a tool of indoctrination (actually originally written by a left-wing zealot, BTW) for children to our country, it’s form of government, and to God. If that isn’t “Establishment of Religion” in any sane mind, I don’t know what is.
Look: Religion is bigger than ever (though morality certainly isn’t) and Religion is not threatened… but some religions, and everyone’s choice to practice it as they choose, will be threatened if Establishment becomes the norm… As it happens, the Pledge has done little in either direction. But the conservative movement keeps pushing for it. Be careful what you wish for… chances are your particular interpretations would be threatened by a government-endorsed religion as well as mine.
Conservatives always complain about the “nanny state”. Well, what’s more of a nanny state than a state that enforces you say your prayers?

Latest Insult to Gulf Coast by Republicans

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:04:00 +0000

The President and the Republican party have waived the prevailing wage law for workers doing reconstruction.

Imagine that...

Your home has been destroyed, but you can't get a job doing reconstruction that pays a living wage... even if you're a skilled worker.

Why? So companies like Haliburton can offer wages significantly below what you'd been paid before the disaster and make larger profits for their executives... I wonder if the VP will get a bonus?

The Gulf Coast already has low wages and poverty... but not enought by Republican standards.

This is a law that has been in place for over 50 years. Shut down by crazy "can't pay employees too little" conservatives.

Let's just change the name of the United States to "Mexico II".

Bad Software Projects, Bad Management, IA Can Help

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 19:16:00 +0000

There is a great article in IEEE's Spectrum.

It details massive software failures. But small ones matter, too. Heck, just continuing to select Microsoft stuff is a failure, particularly IE and Outlook.

Why do projects fail? The article has this list, and includes more examples and details. Everyone in business should read the whole article, even if they're not involved with IT.

Among the most common factors:

1. Unrealistic or unarticulated project goals
2. Inaccurate estimates of needed resources
3. Badly defined system requirements
4. Poor reporting of the project's status
5. Unmanaged risks
6. Poor communication among customers, developers, and users
7. Use of immature technology
8. Inability to handle the project's complexity
9. Sloppy development practices
10. Poor project management
11. Stakeholder politics
12. Commercial pressures
My own experience is that these patterns are the norm, and only individuals and small groups outperforming any reasonable expectation of brilliance and commitment compensate for these factors.

In fact, I've never been involved in a properly systematic, funded, or stakeholder-engaged project in my whole career.

Don't get me wrong... I'm all for staged, creative, adaptive development. The list above might suggest that the best approach is to know exactly what you are going to do prior to doing it. I'm looser than that. But there should always be strategy, goals, cross-functional input from stakeholders, and top-level buy-in.

But even small projects: Manuals that suck, departmental websites that don't have anything to do with company strategy... no company strategy, nobody to produce content, no approval process for content, adding content development and review to the job description of people who are already working 50-60 hours/week...
In a way, this article is naive enough to suggest that failures are avoidable, because it doesn't account for the fact that most of us live in such an environment.

But no organization should go forward without some commitment to pursuing the ideal, even if the ideal can't be reached. Let's face it, most businesses cannot afford to do it right. They don't have the right staff, and they won't hire them.

Such is life.

How can Information Architecture help?

An Information Architect is more than a visual designer. IA starts with the user... Who is the user? What do they need? How can we make it easy for them?

It is amazing how much focusing on these basic principles can prevent IT disasters. Because in pursuing this information, you get stakeholder involvement, you get good visual and experience design, you get cross-functional design. All are key elements of adoption.

No project should be designed in isolation from this information. No project should be done in isolation from the users.

Yet, I'm asked to do this, all the time. I can't talk to customers, I can't talk to engineers, I can't talk to internal users. I can only talk to the one person who is supposed to know what is needed. And they don't have any specific training or experience in any of these things.

So I ask a lot of questions of this designated person, and I infer a lot. And the result is just OK, by my standards. Fortunately, that is usually better than average, good enough, or kinda great.

This is how these projects usually succeed... Somebody exceeds the limits imposed by the situation, through talent and experience.

Bush Era Over? Not Good Enough!

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 18:41:00 +0000

The belief system of the Neoconservative movement is fatally flawed. There is not room in this post to address this, but the signs are accumulating:

a) The Iraq war was a based on manufactured evidence. This is OK in the Neocon world, where democracy is made to be manipulated by and for the elite. Aggressive US policy keeps the US in power with no real competition... and preemptive, even aggressive war is OK. Sustain the lie with nationalism.

b) After the election, people started catching on when they went after Social Security. This time the lies were blatant and the numbers obviously did not add up. About the same time the evidence that the Iraq war was BS. People started seeing the trend.

c) Now Katrina. The system of government espoused by the Republican Neocon movement shows its weaknesses. Maybe people don't realize this one failure is an indication of systemic failure. Maybe they will, if this is properly pursued by an investigation. But they know now that Bush is a failure.

Three strikes.

But will the midterm elections shift the balance of power? It may not, if people see this only as a Bush failure. They must see the pattern extends to the whole Republican system of only elevating sociopathic fundraisers, not good leaders with the interest of the public in mind.

Democrats are no bargain. But consistently you will see more social conscience among liberals than conservatives. It's built in. So while Democrats will participate in porkbarrel politics, and occasional bribery or influence peddling, at least collectively they recognize it as criminal. They don't institutionalize it and call it good business.

Dumb thoughts on government and crises

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 19:03:00 +0000

I've been caught out saying some dumb things, as have we all.

My first response to the Katrina (while it was still raging) was "I gave to Red Cross after the Tsunami, but that was Indonesia... I don't feel like helping this time, this is America, they can recover themselves."

There were several things wrong with that, but in my defense, I did say it off the top of my head. If I'd written it down, I would never have hit the "publish" button.

1) Red Cross goes in, regardless. They spend money. They need to refill the coffers for the next disaster. Even if one disaster doesn't pull your heartstrings, the next one might.

2) Regardless of the wealth of a nation, individuals need help. They need clothing, food, and medical supplies immediately. NGO's supply that first, not government. And they afford it through private donations.

3) We can't rely on a Republican government to be ready, on the ball, and prepared to do the right thing. They are giving our government resources away to corporations and the military industrial complex, leaving little in place for disasters. Maybe that will change, but really we just need to not elect conservatives who always cut advance planning, infrastructure, and social safety net in favor of short term gains and the promise of tax cuts. If they promise cuts every election, soon there's not enough left for our government to function.

4) Poor states, counties and cities are the first to suffer from (3). Such is the case with the Gulf Coast.

5) Poor people often cut insurance first. They have no choice. So they can't recover after a disaster. They end up homeless or displaced. The least we can do is get them food and clothing. Many cities across America are setting up to receive them as we received boat people in the '70s. Lodging, employment, and support will be available to many, if not all.

What businesses can learn from the Katrina debacle

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 03:02:00 +0000

There's a lot out there about crisis response for businesses. Much of this applies to what happened on the Gulf Coast. A lot can be inferred. Obviously larger companies can do more of this stuff than tiny companies. But tiny companies are usually in one place, and just are in survival mode after such a crisis. I'm also going to note the governmental failure to follow these principles:

1) Send the company CEO or president to as near the location of the incident as possible, as soon as possible. Immediately announce his/her intent to do so, if they can't go immediately due to local conditions. Bush should have helicoptered in as soon as the rain stopped. He didn't have to stay long.

2) Start with your people, money can be dealt with later. Take care of people. Basic needs. The people who were in the dome needed water, food, sanitation and healthcare. They were told to go there, and many arrived before the storm got intense. Yet there was no thought to what it would be like 3 days later. And during those days, no one was queued up to bring in supplies and transportation and law enforcement immediately after the storm cleared.

3) Figure out what you can do for your community. What resources and people power can you put to work to help people? Customer service and billing should immediately distribute statements of policy to customer-facing people that the company will work with effected customers, and no late fees, account closures, etc. will occur for those in effected areas. Accept vouchers from FEMA, Red Cross, etc. even if you're not sure you'll get compensated later.

3) IT matters. Recover PC hardware if possible, ignore the rest. Hard drives are enough. People who can work will need their PCs. But make it clear: people are what matter; real estate, insurance, etc. are secondary. Make sure that those you ask to work under these conditions are OK. Most will be relieved to hand over most responsibility and deal with their own issues, but will feel some guilt. So keep them in the loop.

4) Be prepared: multiple redundant data centers, digital infrastructure that is hosted, rather than local, etc. will all go a long way to keeping things moving under these crisis conditions. It is really stupid to host your website on an internal server. Hosting centers are built with security, power redundancy, and emergency plans that your company probably can't do as well.

5) But mostly, cross training and management teams that are not spread too thin... lean budgets may seem like a great idea to provide the most benefit to shareholders... right up until a chunk of your company is under water, and "the only guy who knows how to..." is missing, or injured, or traumatized. This goes to company culture, too. Companies that collaborate can adapt under extreme circumstances, while those that rely entirely on internal competition to drive performance fall apart. This is due to information and power hoarding.

6) Use a blog. Post often. Internal and external blogs are great. Employees need to know, just as the public does. Have a great writer tag along with the boss, and go to it. Make sure the posts genuine and useful and about the Boss's observations. He can take notes and the blogger can expand, but it's better if the boss writes (quickly) and the blogger cleans it up. Under stress, the boss could say the wrong thing or write things that cause confusion. The blogger should have a frank relationship with the boss.

7) Make sure your organization has (at each office) a satellite phone and a laptop that can use the phone as a modem. Cell phones probably won't work. Consider a wireless network. A local wireless network can be set up quickly. You'll need inverters, batteries, even a solar panel or two would be good. You'll be worse than useless if you go into an area and can't communicate after the batteries go dead. Have battery powered lights, and radios stored for these occasions. Of course, first aid kits are already done, right?

If I come across more, I'll add them to this article.

Books I've read, and am planning to read

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 02:17:00 +0000

I love C-SPAN.

The authors of historical books get literally hours to talk. I'm watching an author named Jack Hamann.

His book:

"On American Soil : How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II" (Jack Hamann)

Looks interesting. Many people, in decrying the treatment of prisoners in relation to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib have said that we didn't mistreat prisoners in WWII. Interesting in light of how we mistreated minorities in that war. This is about an incident involving Italian prisoners, who were being treated very well, and black soldiers who were not. This is a complicated story, but in looking it up on Amazon, it is getting great ratings and reviews.

I just finished:

"The Franklin Affair : A Novel" (Jim Lehrer)

This was an interesting book. I have the greatest respect for Jim Lehrer of PBS' News Hour, which is the best news program on TV. However, this book was weak. That doesn't mean it isn't worth reading, but I expected better.

Still, my increasing interest in history was peaked a bit more, and coincidentally I saw a rerun of an "In Depth" interview on C-SPAN with a historian who had written on Ben Franklin, along with several other presidents, and subjects. His name: H.W. Brands. Franklin is my favorite character in American History. I grew up in a printing and publishing family and have always loved science. Franklin was a printer, publisher and scientist. Most people know about Kites and Electricity, Poor Richard's Almanac, and other stories (not to mention his role in creating our nation). Did you know he also is considered "the father of display advertising"? He included etched illustrations in his newspaper, an original idea.

Yet I've never read in detail about his achievements all in one book... just periodical articles and TV pieces. So I'm ordering:

and after that I may try Ben's autobiography:

"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Dover Thrift Editions)" (Benjamin Franklin)

My experience with historical writings is that they are painful to read. However, reading Franklin is probably not much different than reading Twain, I imagine. We'll see.

Requisite Entry on Katrina

noreply@blogger.com (Richoid) — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 23:14:00 +0000

I really don't feel much like writing today, but I'm watching c-span, news reports, etc. and feel like I have to mark my thoughts.

All energy, after an event like this, should go to saving lives and finding solutions.

But It is obvious that there was warning both of the geographic problems of New Orleans, and of the severity of the storm.

It is obvious that the response mechanism waited for the aftermath to begin, rather than being anticipated from the point the storm was identified as both large, and headed for the LA coast. That was a terrible mistake. We had enough warning to have water, food, and rescue vehicles at ready. We had enough time to have law enforcement ready. This is a clear case of mismanagement.

But now, give blood, give money. Give it to the Red Cross. They know what to do, how to do it, and they do it all the time. Thank you, people of the Red Cross.

70% of the citizens of New Orleans and the surrounding area are black. The people who stayed behind were disproportionately black. Don't draw conclusions about the problems of the looting, shooting, rape -- or for that matter, the slow response -- being race-related. If there is a problem, it is more the long-term problem of poor states getting poor service from a political system that is of, by, and for the wealthy.

I believe the best efforts are now being directed to the area, and the private sector will make up for the weak Federal and State response going forward. It's a big mess, and people have just started to suffer from it. It will cause economic and social ripples for a decade.

The weak response is based on several things: the lack of fact-based decision-making that is the hallmark of Republican leadership, the simple cost-benefit problems of raising a city above sea level, the nature of poor people under extreme pressure, the obsession with "homeland security" at the cost of actual homeland security, the informational isolation of the Bushies, the primary interest of the Feds of being on camera, looking "in-charge" vs. their willingness to actually do the work of being in charge.

Don't take my word for it, here are the details. Quick quote from the end of the article: "But with the change of administration in 2001, many of Witt's prevention programs were reduced or cut entirely. After Sept. 11, former FEMA officials and outside authorities said, Washington's attention turned to terrorism to the exclusion of almost anything else."

On another note, in my area of Northern California, regular flooding of the valley towns of Marysville, Yuba City, and Sacramento led to these towns being periodically buried in mud. This led to the end of Hydraulic Mining, but regardless of the debris from Hydraulic Mining, this problem would have occurred anyway. The Sacramento Valley floor with its rich soil for farming formed this way, before we were here to see it.

To resolve the annual destruction the flooding brought, the cities were raised. It was done with true horsepower and people power.

Retaining walls were built in front of the buildings with walkways remaining on then-ground-floor levels, and dirt was brought in and dumped between the retaining walls, raising the level of the streets.

Once this was completed, the downstairs merchants moved upstairs and new entryways were completed. The downstairs became basements. Walkways at street (second floor) levels were built that became roofs over the old walkways. Glass bricks were embedded in the new sidewalks to light the still-used passageways beneath.

And levees were built. They're in rough shape now, and have failed a number of times, creating problems in small towns.

But Sacramento so far has been spared.

Our good congressmen (recently deceased) Bob Matsui fought for improved levees for years. Our bad congressman John Doolittle fought against them... preferring instead the Auburn Dam. I won't go into the foolishness of THAT. Finally, an agreement was reached, and levees will be improved. Planning ahead is a good thing. Of course, we were lucky. The perfect storm hasn't hit.

Will they be improved on time, and will the improvements be adequate, when the perfect storm finally does hit? Can we use the old adage "Time will tell" or should we jump to it?

On thing we can do is kick Doolittle out on his ass... And put in someone with some foresight. Matsui was an awesome Senator... hard to find any way to criticize him (imagine that!). His wife, Doris Matsui has taken his position. Let's hope she's as effective.

I bet the people stranded on the Gulf Coast didn't think politics effected them personally. Now, I hope they know better. Now, maybe we all know better, and won't trust Republicans with our lives, any more. I can wish, can't I?