Faster, please *

Iran: the invasion preview. [via]

^{* Apologies to Michael Ledeen}

Wikipedia articles that need editing

I've been busy for the last two weeks.

Here are some Wikipedia articles on local topics that you can contribute to:

Tshwane
Magaliesberg
Kempton Park
Centurion
See the article on Gauteng for more links that need attention.

There is also a shortage of information on South African universities.

Mbeki attacks sacred cow

He had some controversial things to say about Winston Churchill. [via]

User interface design II

The end-user experience is something that is often neglected in the rush to produce slick-looking interfaces.

As I said in a previous post, kulula.com has one of the best user interfaces on the web. Gmail and FNB's online banking site also score highly, because they make navigation simple and hide the complexity of their underlying logic. SAA's website has improved since my last post on the topic.

On the other hand, there are many programs and websites that have look slick at first glance, but suffer from awful performance and have ugly, cluttered, headache-inducing interfaces, that, if tested with actual users (as opposed to managers who won't really be using the system), would be rejected.

Durban robots - semi-inane rant

Something I noticed around Durban (the central and Berea areas especially) is that many of the traffic lights are not fully functional- many have burned-out lightbulbs (or LED's?).

In one case, at the intersection of Sydenham Road and (I think) Centenary Road outside the Greyville racecourse, heading towards town, all the green lights were burned out.

If you are a Durbanite, it might be a good idea to find out why the municipality is neglecting the traffic lights.

Two other drivers who I spoke to also commented about the problem with the robots.

Happy new year

My usual holiday haunt, Durban, was hot, humid, stuffy - and a lot of fun.

Happy new year.