natasha's corner

My LG dryer asks me to choose how dry I would like my clothes to be. Since when is dryness a scale? Something is either dry or it isn’t. “Damp” is not dry. Imagine a washer asking how clean you’d like your clothes to come out – “dirty clean” or “very clean”?

A lot has been written about the recent announcement by Netflix that they will be increasing their plan prices by as much as 60%. Clearly, this backlash was not unanticipated by Netflix – according to David Pogue: Netflix knew that there would be a nasty backlash, and has already taken the subscriber defection into account [...]

Good Idea Clearly identifying a bill’s due date when the user is scheduling a payment. Citibank’s calendar widget clearly indicates when the next payment is due. Bad Idea Telling the user to remember a bill’s due date while scheduling a payment. ECSI’s student loan bill pay options require you to know your bill’s due date. [...]

Photo Credit: Right Lane Must Turn Right by Manish Bansal If I drive to work, on my way home I encounter 6 or 7 signs like the one above all in a one-mile stretch. To make matters worse, the signs alternate between “Must Turn Left” and “Must Turn Right.” Even though I’ve made the trip [...]

Recently, Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. addressed the question of making a career move from developer to designer on their Userability podcast. I listened to it with great interest, having made this move myself not too long ago. Jared and Robert had some great advice, like to just start observing how people use your [...]

I only have 28 years 11 months 17 days 13 hours and 3 minutes to complete my changes and check them in.

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post complaining about non-standard headphone jacks. And now the saga continues. Apparently, the new T-Mobile G1 phone, hailed for being the first “Google phone” (meaning it uses Android as its operating system), doesn’t even have a headphone jack! The newer models are now shipping with an adapter [...]

This made me do a double-take. Why would it think this photo had anything to do with the BostonCHI meeting? Well, that’s because it was uploaded while the BostonCHI meeting was going on (and it was in my calendar). I don’t know, doesn’t seem all that intelligent to me. Others disagree, though.

Why doesn’t Google Reader sort posts in reverse chronological order? If I have 5 unread posts from a blog, I want to read the oldest ones first so I can catch up, especially if later posts reference earlier ones. As it is now, I have to scroll down and then read backwards (bottom to top). [...]

I just got a small Wacom Bamboo tablet for myself and have been having a blast with it! I’ll probably write more about it later. Now, back to drawing!