thingoid

Elsewhere, I received the following comment spam:

Every time I visit this website I loose [sic] my assurance that everything written here is real. But even if it’s not true, I keep on visiting it because it’s interesting. There are many posts which you can’t find anywhere else.

I laughed out loud. How’s that for ironic?

I was tempted to respond:

Every time you visit this website I have complete assurance that everything written by you is not real. But even if it’s true, SpamKarma will keep moderating you because you look like spam. There is spam like yours that can found everywhere else.

But what’s the point of debating my existential uncertainty with an automated email script?

Just passing on a fraternal thump on the back to woowoowoo. I don’t know what’s been going on down there but he must have been having a “fun” time last week: this cartoon illustrates what it’s been like in his sphere recently. Caged rats as web designers—sound familiar?

I’m just happy that the little corner of the web that comes under my administration these days is largely mine alone to control. Who has the time or energy for pointless hoop-jumping?

There was a time when the HTML <BLINK> tag was the defining feature of one of two particular kinds of web designer: either the raw newbie (intent on using anything and everything in the web design toolbox) or the terminally stupid. Its problems include being one of the uglier design options for highlighting text, being non-standard, and having serious usability/accessibility problems.

But above all else, it just plain pissed people off.

So why (oh why, oh why) are so many bloggers repeating almost exactly the same problems with the Snap Preview Anywhere widget?

I can’t say it any better than Nick Wilson:

Its intrusive, obstructive and unuseful in almost every respect and use case. The fact that so many big blogs are using it, big well respected blogs, does not mean that it’s useful, it just means that they, like most bloggers, have all the self restraint of a magpie in a sparkly things factory.

If I want to see what someone else’s web site looks like I’ll bloody well go there when I’m good and ready. Sheesh, don’t be in so much of a hurry to get rid of me!

For a good laugh, have a look at the testimonials on the Snap Preview Anywhere page. I notice that a number of the testimoners—including one who said “we’d probably pay for the service”—no longer use it on their sites. I wonder how many complaints they received (or how much traffic they lost!) before they woke up and removed it.

Nick Wilson again:

All joking aside, SPA is not helpful, it’s not cool, and it’s not winning you readers — It’s bling, a silly little shiney thing designed specifically to increase awareness of Snap.com — no bad thng, and certainly an shining example of how to use widgets to gain links and attention, but, come on ladies and gentleman, show a little self restraint, show a little consideration for your users.

Now, can you all stop using it please?

For the sake of completeness…

Well, the inevitable has happened: famous “Wrong Guy”, Guy Goma is now a celebrity, with his own web site and several other onscreen appearances to his credit.

His fans even have an online petition to the BBC to have him employed there. Personally, I reckon they ought to make him a technology reporter - he’s got great screen presence and he knows stuff.

Have a look at this interview:

Big blunder, but nice recovery and bluffing from the interviewee who was, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, a London cabbie who

suffered an awkward few moments of fame when the BBC mistook him for a computer expert and interviewed him live on the flagship News 24 channel.

The real expert was Guy Kewney, a journalist specialising in computer issues who had been invited to comment on Apple Computer’s legal battle with Apple Corporation, the Beatles’ music publishing company.

As Joshua Gans says: not even on Frontline would you see such a priceless moment as this - truth is funnier than fiction.

The BBC wouldn’t even share the video with the Guy they meant to interview, which is a bit rude I think…

Mind you, the Guy they got sounds surprisingly lucid for someone who was making it up on the spot. Of course real industry experts would never do that, would they?

Update: 17 May 2006