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Milestones and Missteps UX/UI Design Review for 2013: Winners and Losers… Not the Usual Suspects
2013 UX year in review: In terms of User Experience (UX) milestones and missteps, 2013 failed to produce industry-altering innovations like 2007 with the introduction of the first iPhone or 2012 with the demise of Blackberry. Yet on another level, UX design in 2013 gave us a glimpse at the rapidly broadening definition of UX design as a structural concept and its role in the future of new media device design, content creation and even the status of product reviews created by leading tech journalists. In a critical way, I personally find this more interesting than blockbuster introductions that alter the technology landscape.
Specifically, 2013 showed us that companies can generate huge sums on Wall Street and still have UX design that would have been judged dysfunctional in 2002 (Twitter). We also saw the most respected UX tech journalist leave the most respected newspaper for a web property that is not exactly the New York Times (David Pogue to Yahoo). In 2013, we saw Netflix define a new UX for creative content creation, distribution and viewing by bringing "binge watching" to the UX lexicon. Philips introduced one of the cleverest small pieces of new technology, the smart light bulb, only to miss the boat by failing to create an app that was as innovative as the device it controls. Nest created a notable UX solution that is one of the first IoT devices, albeit in a very small way. Speaking of IoT, in 2013, builders of the Internet of Things came to the realization that, without widely accepted standard protocols for making all of these "Things" play nice with each other, there is no IoT. Hence formation of the first serious IoT protocol development consortium.
If there is any truly important UX innovation in 2013 it was the upsurge in Snapchat as a social engagement platform. Why this happened is an objective lesson in how the best UX solutions are aligned with the ways the human mind deals with an increasingly complex world. While Snapchat was producing fleeting moments of engagement, Google introduced a truly innovative, if still somewhat primitive, UX cross-platform media distribution solution in Chromecast, which pushes content from your various devices (almost any content on almost any device) onto your HDMI-enabled TV.
In 2013, we saw the world's largest social networking engine, Facebook, pitch a bevy of high paid lawyers at the FCC in direct opposition to changes in the COPPA rules for protecting children's online privacy… a notable low ebb for Facebook. Another misstep in 2013 was Yahoo Mail, a disaster on too many levels to document. Finally, we have Healthcare.gov, part albatross, part velociraptor and part slug. As one who has worked on a few of these monsters over a 35-year career in UX/UI design and research, I come out differently on that one. In sum, UX in 2013 did not make our lives simpler in any measureable way but it did point us in new directions in terms of the creation and consumption of devices, content and new ways of thinking about UX. In the end, that may be more important than a blockbuster UX innovation. Now for the details.
Milestones: Important UX Solutions in 2013
IoT UX Design: Nest Thermostat
Ok, we have heard enough about the Internet of things (IoT). The surprising fact is that, aside from all the hype, there is very thin working evidence that the IoT is actually happening. Like all new and potentially massively important technologies, IoT has lacked all manner of effective working business solutions. Then along came the Nest thermostat, which, aside from some seriously sketchy industrial design decisions that brought out a small army of design patent litigators, is a robust UX solution based on IoT technology. The UX of Nest was created by Tony Fadell, who contributed to the UX design of the original iPod (think original rotary wheel design).
While the Nest UX has a number of fumbled task segments, overall it shows that a well-designed UX configuration can and does drive adoption of a new technology as compelling as IoT. Of course, the power of IoT only surfaces when devices like Nest connect to all manner of other things not produced by Nest designers and engineers. This means a vast universe of other things ranging from Department of Energy databases to your local heating oil provider to the locks on your doors. This can and will happen, but not until those who create the "Things" of IoT agree that the first rule of IoT is simply: "All devices must play nice with other things on the network." This is no small matter, as the entire thrust of modern management science has been to NEVER collaborate with your competitors. So, now what?
[Note: We are aware that Nest was announced in 2011, but because it did not have significant market penetration until 2013, we have chosen to include it in this year's UX Review.]
IoT Standard Protocol Working Group: AllSeen Alliance
The second and more important UX milestone in 2013 was the formation of the AllSeen Alliance, a nonprofit group dedicated in part to establishing a universal development protocol for products, systems and services that comprise the IoT. Finally, major technology players and a vast array of startups are now focused on creation of a standard protocol for IoT which will allow the unimaginable, like having Apple devices that play nice with Samsung devices even though both companies continue to finance the next major building boom in Aspen (Big litigators love Aspen). To be clear there are IoT protocols around such as MQTT, XMPP, DDS, and AMQP, but none of these process models and related code bases have been supported by the big boys and girls. The implications are profound. A quasi-universal IoT protocol in 2014 would be a very big deal.
IoT UX Nice Try Award: Philips Hue Light Bulbs
In the process of preparing for a talk I gave on IoT in 2013 at the USPTO Design Day, I came across a product that embodies both the potential and the problems involved in UX design for IoT. The product was the wildly overpriced IoT-based LED light bulb set produced by Philips known as the Hue bulbs. Originally available only through Apple stores, the product's starter kit is comprised of 3 LED bulbs, a wireless router and an iOS or Android app. Here is the essence of what these "Things" do: You screw the bulbs into any normal sockets, plug in the wireless router, call up the Hue app, and sure enough the bulbs show up on the app ready and willing like little Angry Birds characters to do your bidding through the app provided. The only problem is that the app sucks…even the pigs in Angry Birds would not be caught dead with this app. Anyone with a serious bent toward the creation of compelling user experiences can see immediately that this was a GIANT missed opportunity for Philips… generally a very smart company.
There is more. It turns out that the physics and control systems that drive these bulbs allow them to do things heretofore unimaginable by normal bulbs. One can, for example, dynamically change the hue, saturation, and value of the light emitting from their little smiling faces. This is like having very spiffy light bulbs, with major attitude, under the control of your Photoshop filters. Take this to another level and think about the fact that, because the LED bulbs are wirelessly connected to your iPhone and embody this new LED / control technology, one can make these little bulbs do anything software can do, which means the sky is the limit. The sad part of this story is that, for all of Philips' brilliant work on the engineering of the Hue bulbs, they totally failed to understand the User Experience Design problem. There are now a number of 3rd party apps which interface with these bulbs, but nothing truly compelling. Philips, meet Nest… to name just one option that could keep a large team of early stage coders pounding C# for a long time.
Social Media UX Design: Snapchat, the Year of the Instant…Whatever?
Human communications are complex. So much so that one can reasonably state that the bulk of human art is dedicated to exploring, probing, disassembling and reassembling the acceptable and aberrant behaviors of human communications. This runs the gamut from Shakespeare to Star Trek. On the surface, one can make the assumption that more is better when it comes to describing the human condition via verse, image or gesture. However, as any great actor will tell you, it often takes far less to communicate with another human being than one might assume. Actor and director Robert DeNiro is famous for his emphasis on simplicity as the secret to good acting: "The simplest thing to get attention is to do nothing." However, it is clear that those who create our new social media platforms somehow missed that lecture. The point is that most of our new social media technology is based on the concept that MORE human communication is better. This means more images, texts, posts, and video presented with greater speed and higher density.
Facebook wrote the book on how to stuff as much content in your face as quickly as possible, all in hopes of improving the communications between you and your many hundreds of friends. This way of thinking turns out to leave blank, the entire side of human communication that happens not on the wall, but off the wall. Those quick glances at a party, your boss' darting eyes when she pulls your yearly review form from her desk drawer, the glance from your spouse when a party guest has had way too many Malbecs. These small moments may have far more salience than a week's worth of Facebook posts. Why? Because they are fleeting but potent, an impact that is brought about by their duration, timing and connection to something that is happening right now.
We know from decades of neuroscience that the human operating system functions on two levels: short-term and longer-term. These short-term events are what make it possible for us to navigate an increasingly complex world in real time. The short-term human experience creates the real-time texture of the life we experience on an instant-by-instant basis. Our minds work this way and thrive on such experiences, which means that designing for this attribute is probably a good if not a brilliant UX strategy, one that Snapchat has undertaken with rather startling success.
Not only does Snapchat capture the short-term duration of these real human communications, but also their fleeting nature. In an age of documentation, when everything we write, record and send is permanently tucked into some corner of the cloud, we're forced to think twice and self-censor constantly, or face the consequences. Disappearing without a trace immediately after it's viewed, a Snapchat message has an impermanence that is part of what makes users feel uninhibited and thus makes this mode of messaging so appealing. This sort of communication is quite similar to the experience of sharing a face-to-face spontaneous comment or joke, which we tend to deliver with much less deliberation and therefore more sincerity than what we are likely to put on our Twitter or Facebook or send in an email.
This form of short-term human communication is so important that it constitutes an entire scientific field of inquiry popularized by Malcolm Gladwell and other pop science writers in books like Blink. What does this have to do with Snapchat? A lot, actually, and understanding this is probably one reason Facebook did not prevail in its recent 1 billion dollar plus acquisition bid for Snapchat. The fact is that this seemingly very simple app actually fills a gaping hole in how technology supports human communications, a hole that Facebook or Twitter cannot fill because they are stuffing the box while Snapchat is simply delivering, in a technological format, the glances, frowns and smiles of life… nothing more, nothing less. This may be the most powerful social media engine to date… 2014 will tell.
UX Friction Reduction Design: Google Chromecast
Google works in mysterious ways. Some innovations seep out in a quiet and unassuming manner; others, less so. On July 24, 2013, Google introduced a new product called Chromecast, packaged in a tiny dongle selling for $35. This was a quiet introduction as the media picked up the announcement, tossed it around for a day or so and then let it die. However, behind Chromecast was one of the year's seminal innovations in UX design related to complexity reduction. Here is the essence of Chromecast: One purchases Chromecast online or from a retailer like Walmart. When the tiny device, about the length of a USB key, arrives, the instructions direct you to simply plug the dongle into an empty HDMI port on your TV and switch your TV to the corresponding input. Then, you can go to the provided setup URL on any WiFi-connected device that you'd like to connect to your TV (iOS users also need to download the free Chromecast app).
What? Devices connected to my TV? That's correct, any WiFi-connected device that you might want connected to your TV. This includes your laptop, PC, smartphone, iPod, you name it. Within 5 minutes you're able to view and control video from YouTube, Netflix, Hulu Plus, as well as countless other sources. It only gets better from here: when your device tells Chromecast to play a video, the device itself is not actually streaming the video, rather, it's sending the correct URL to Chromecast to stream directly from the web. This is a huge advantage; not only does it preserve your device's battery life, it also means that, if your spouse starts playing a movie from his or her iPhone, then loses interest and leaves for the store, taking the iPhone along, the movie continues playing without a hitch, even without the device that started it…mysterious ways indeed.
Any device connected to Chromecast on the same network can take control of playback and add to the queue of content to view. This also means that you can use any of your devices as you normally might for web browsing or playing a game, or you can put the device to sleep or turn it off entirely while content is streaming. Once you've set up Chromecast, you can send content to your TV from your iPhone or Android phone, the PC on your desk, the MacBook by your bed (we know you keep it there, right?), any device set up with Chromecast. The rest is obvious. Since this is a new approach, there are certain limitations and confusions, but overall a very solid first step toward cross-platform device integration as a basic structural concept. For anyone who has tried using other hardware to accomplish this feat, Chromecast is nothing short of magic. One can now stop viewing Netflix in bed on the MacBook and simply view Netflix from the MacBook on your TV as well as ANYTHING else you might want to view on a large HD screen. You get the picture.
Part of the magic of Chromecast is its accessibility to people of all ages, economic status, and experience with technology. The device packages highly complex and innovative software in a low-tech hardware configuration (basically a thumb drive) at an extremely low price point of $35. A few days before Black Friday 2013, Google announced that Walmart would be selling Chromecast both in-store and online, and stores like Staples, Verizon, and Motorola carry the Chromecast now as well. The amazing aspect of Chromecast is that it actually works essentially as promised. Its entire goal is to reduce the complexity of moving content across media platforms to your preferred viewing platform: HDTV. This is friction reduction at its best. Good job, Google.
UX TV Media Consumption: Netflix & Binge Watching
While Google was busy tossing your previously marooned digital content onto your TV, Netflix was busy creating the content worth tossing there in the first place. Aside from recovering from a major customer experience flameout in 2012 related to pricing of Netflix, the company proved in no uncertain terms that it is a force to be reckoned with in terms of content delivery AND content creation. Its 13-episode series, House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, received numerous creative award nominations including nine Emmy nominations, making the show the first Primetime Emmy Award nominated series for original online only web television.
Now, do not get me wrong; the major Hollywood TV executives are not shaking in fear of Netflix's creative prowess. However, they had better be thinking long and hard about the fact that a massively important segment of their audiences are attracted to and in fact prefer watching TV in the format popularized by Netflix, known as "binge watching." Here is the essence of B-Watch and cognitively why it is important: Netflix contracts and produces a high-quality series of episodes with a strong, unified and highly detailed narrative arc that moves rapidly from start to finish without significant "backfill," industry-speak for restating what happened in prior episodes. Because Netflix has no traditional TV channel to distribute this new series, they put it up on Netflix not as a weekly show, but as the entire series of episodes all at once. If you went to Netflix on the day of the House of Cards premiere, you would have seen ALL 13 segments available. What you had was the equivalent of a very compelling 13-hour movie sliced into 1-hour segments, all without advertising and completely at your control.
The interesting and somewhat unexpected resulting consumer behavior was that a truly staggering number of viewers of House of Cards watched the entire 13-hour series in basically 1 to 3 sittings, hence binge watching. Why is this important to those who design user experiences for new media platforms? Two factors: 1) The human mind is fundamentally driven by the framework of storytelling and 2) The technology we have created that distributes story-based content fundamentally disrupts the narrative arc of the media we consume. In fact, the role of modern advertising is to disrupt the narrative flow of a given TV show with stimuli that we hope impacts purchase decisions. This is known in the field of human factors science as "gap-stuffing." It is not what our minds enjoy, but it has been the economic imperative of our advertising-driven media world for the past 60 years. In psychological terms, the current gap-stuffing model is a very clumsy if not frustrating methodology for funding and delivering story-based media. So, the Netflix binge watching research is important because, for the first time, TV production and delivery is matched to how our minds actually prefer to consume story-based media: in a clean and uninterrupted flow with the arc of the story preserved both structurally and temporally. Basically a brilliant, if somewhat misunderstood, UX design solution. Netflix is on to something bigger than it probably understands.
UX Examples Where Things Did Not Go So Well in 2013
Greatest Missed Opportunity for UX Optimization in 2013: Twitter
To be clear, I love Twitter. I love it for its potential but am puzzled by its truly wonky and frankly mystifying UX design that rivals the early days of MS Word (okay… perhaps an overstatement). This makes Twitter complex to learn and use. In this critical regard, Twitter's simplicity as an information propagation engine is in direct opposition to its UX model. This relates to the simple question of how users actually acquire an understanding of any given technology-based service. It is well understood that failing to help users develop both conceptual fluency and procedural fluency means you have, well…a Twitter UX design. Having a clearly formed mental model of a man-machine system (Twitter) whose fundamental function is information propagation is, as they say in DOD speak, "mission-critical." What I mean by this is there is far greater anxiety and fear in using a system in which your inputs are going to be propagated instantly to others than in a system where your inputs have a circumscribed and easily controlled sphere of exposure. Twitter has a rather unique UX design problem, a problem it does not seem to understand. This is the fundamental structural issue with Twitter currently. The solution to this problem is actually a complex UX cognitive science question that will not yield to simple graphic design and navigation tweaking. This problem is going to hold Twitter back until it puts as much effort into its UX design as it did into the PR narrative running up to its IPO. Good UX is good business. Get on the program, Twitter, and your future is brighter than even Wall Street understands.
Most Baffling Move by a Leading Tech Journalist in 2013: David Pogue Moves to Yahoo… What?
No one denies that David Pogue is a very smart and clever fellow. It was no small task to parlay a background that is academically and technically devoid of almost anything resembling technology into the most powerful and widely read technology column on the planet. Companies large and small rise and fall at the word of Mr. Pogue. It was therefore a startling announcement that David had left the New York Times and joined Yahoo to undertake, as the press release states, "a major expansion of consumer tech coverage on Yahoo." We predict this to be a teachable moment for Mr. Pogue as it will be clear that, when it comes to UX reviews, the platform where one proffers such opinions matters and matters a lot. Brand strategists love this sort of conundrum. Did David damage his brand, and to what extent has Yahoo burnished its position in the tech space by pulling in Mr. Pogue? The reciprocity exchange must have been high indeed.
Even though Mr. Pogue reviews and writes on usability and user experience, it is a mystery why he overlooked the most fundamental variable in determining whether or not someone, anyone for that matter, will access and read his reviews on Yahoo. Surprisingly, that variable is simply cognitive complexity and how shifting to Yahoo was a much bigger deal than Mr. Pogue may have assumed. In effect, David Pogue left behind the simplest possible content distribution platform for the most complex. In terms of low cognitive complexity, NOTHING beats a newspaper.
A bit of personal experience: A few years ago I attended a series of meetings with a leading newspaper publisher's top management team as they attempted to forge a new business strategy for their content, which had been traditionally printed on newspaper. They thought, as all major newspapers have, that it was possible to create and implement a strategy to move from print to digital. In the end, no such strategy exists simply because a newspaper, by its very design, is vastly superior to any current digital media as a methodology for delivering a limited amount of time sensitive, highly curated professional content to a limited number of paying customers in a format that encourages discovery with the lowest possible cognitive complexity. This statement may seem wrong-headed if not patently incorrect, but an objective analysis of the benefits of newspapers reveals a much different outcome. Newspapers are in fact truly amazing technology. Surprisingly, newspapers have all the attributes we look for in highly effective technology-based products.
Specifically, newspapers have the following attributes:
- No user training required (totally self-evident UX design)
- Encourages high levels of content discovery with lowest possible cognitive overhead (we go to NYT for the business section but discover by simple visual inspection David Pogue's piece about a new iPhone. This kind of discovery is called "flowing" discovery whereby the process only involves visual scanning and virtually no secondary cognitive processing, as is required in the navigation of ALL webpages.)
- Random or structured search instantly possible (go directly to what you want without complexity or scan for higher level content without additional cognitive complexity. This type of information-seeking and process-switching is every site designer's dream although impossible to acheive.)
- Completely recyclable (yes, we can recycle newspaper, but try this with a dead iPad)
- Highly reliable (no dead batteries, much less numerous additional chargers at your various locations)
- Very low power requirements (even accounting for the energy used in creation and distribution of newspapers)
- Instantly reconfigures to meet users' needs (ever watch subway riders read the NYT? Folded in a dozen different ways to minimize size and maximize exposure)
- Easily updated with no impact on prior learning (next day's news shows up in the same container, thus eliminating any negative transfer of learning)
- Serves many alternate functions (these range from flyswatters to kindling for your fireplace, not to mention conversion to a random storage system in the form of clipped articles)
This list makes Jeff Bezos look like a genius for acquiring the Washington Post, although one big step backward was his Charlie Rose interview on drones delivering Amazon goods. Perhaps I am wrong about that, in which case the 2014 review will feature UX of Amazon drones… or not.
Back to David Pogue and Yahoo, in terms of high cognitive complexity, nothing beats a poorly designed and out-of-date website with dozens of businesses mashed into a dated home page with a truly mystifying navigation structure. Yes, there are the social media channels of Facebook and Twitter but really, they are not like the New York Times when it comes to credibility. Would you buy your new iPhone or 75-inch, curved-display TV based on a Yahoo review– even a review written by the likes of David Pogue? Millions of high-value consumers read the New York Times every day, ranging from Tribeca to Toronto, and many such readers buy prodigious amounts of new technology. The interesting question is: who will replace David P. at the NYT? That is a seat worth fighting for.
Clearly the Worst UX Solutions of 2013
Topping the List: Yahoo Mail
No sense in waiting for David Pogue's review of the worst example of UX abuse in 2013. Yahoo Mail underwent UX changes that made the system far more complex, removed features and generally created havoc where one does not appreciate havoc. This was followed by the service being totally DOWN for almost a week. Looks like the line outside Ms. Mayer's office might have been too long or too short, depending on who made the decision to update a mail service used by 170 million customers without concern for negative transfer, loss of functionality and of course reliability.
I am on the other side of this one. Having worked on numerous websites that required real-time linkage to legacy databases, I have to give the HC.Gov development team a break. Such projects never make a career and often ruin them. This was a no-win technology problem from the get go. The best one can hope for in such projects are friendly lawyers and brilliant damage control; we all face them from time to time. The trick is knowing when you are on such a train.
Bad UX Behavior Award: Facebook's Opposition to COPPA Rule Changes
Billions of users interact with Facebook and some of those who make use of its amazing social media delivery mechanism are well understood to be children below the age of 13. How this happens is an interesting and complex issue, but not the focus of this misstep in 2013. All that aside, young kids end up on Facebook and, in the US, such children are protected by an FCC rule known as COPPA (Child Online Privacy Protection Act), first put in force in 1998. Not surprisingly, a lot has changed in the online world since the adoption of the current COPPA rules. In an attempt to update COPPA, the FCC has produced a set of working recommendations knows as COPPA Rule Review, 16 CFR Part 312, Project No. P104503.
These proposed changes have, as you might imagine, caught the attention of a diverse set of interested parties including child online privacy advocates, lawyers, legal scholars, parents groups and no small number of social media platforms including Facebook. As it turns out, the new COPPA rules would have likely made Facebook's way of doing business a bit more difficult. The new rules might have impacted, among other things, the FB "Like" feature being distributed to and made functional on a vast number of other web sites. That feature is well understood to be a serious generator of traffic for FB and is a key attribute of its massively potent social currency engine. The new rules would have also likely improved the privacy of young children, not only on FB but on other platforms as well.
The discussion of how FB, and by association the entire web, would have been basically rendered dysfunctional by adoption of the new COPPA rules is presented in a rambling missive filed by Facebook's bevy of legal experts and lawyers. In that filing, Facebook dragged into its corner websites as diverse as Kahn Academy, implying more privacy meant no more online courses from Kahn Academy…really? The Facebook FCC response leaves one with the impression that the entire web was at risk if the new COPPA rules were adopted. So in the end, Zuck and crew went to bat big time against changes that would have imperiled (actually forced a redesign) of FB plugin use but would have also likely protected children with better privacy controls. If you are so inclined, here is the link to Zuck's FB response to the FCC COPPA review: http://ftc.gov/os/comments/copparulereview2012/561789-00100-84302.pdf.
Final Facebook Note: Aside from the misstep of FB related to COPPA rule changes, one must not overlook the publication of Sheryl Sandberg's book "Lean In" which is arguably the best instance of truly important thinking coming out of FB in the past few years. A great book not only for women but for men as well. Having read her book, one can only wonder where Sheryl Sandberg comes out on the COPPA debate now that she apparently has COPPA-age children of her own. All that aside, "Lean In" is a terrific book worth a read.
Thank You,Charles L Mauro CHFP President MauroNewMedia
Acknowledgements: This 2013 review was completed with help from Emily Fisher, Andrea Mauro, and Brittany Reid.
How Accurate are Our Past Reviews?
We pulled from our archive one of our most interesting UX reviews from 2007. It is always helpful to look back at prior opinions, and it is surprising what we foresaw and what we got wrong. Click here to read our UED Review from 2007.
Our Most Popular UX Long-Form Blog Posts of 2013
If you missed our most popular posts in 2013, here they are. Don't forget to use the LIKE button, as it may not be there next year… just kidding!
Why Candy Crush Saga is So Successful and Popular But Will Never Be an Angry Birds: A Cognitive Tear Down of the User Experience (UX)
User Interface Design and UX Design: 50 Important Research Papers Covering Peer-Reviewed and Informal Studies
User-Centered Design in the New World of Complex Design Problems
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Disclaimer: MauroNewMedia receives no compensation of any type from companies, products or individuals included in the annual 2013 UX Design Review. The opinions expressed in this review are those of the primary author, Charles L Mauro CHFP.
5 Comments
This is a very well written and very interesting article, as always, thanks Charles! I agree with everything you mentioned, but I will make two small points though.
First, I disagree with the assessment of the cause of usability issues and severity of the overall 'miss' for healthcare.gov. In my opinion, this was the biggest UX miss of the year, considering millions of Americans are required to use it in a finite amount of time.
The usability issues it experienced at launch are something that could easily have been avoided with more detailed planning and more usability testing.
Second, I think you left off another major miss, the Avon SAP disaster of throwing away 4 years of work and $125 Million dollars.
As to the healthcare.gov issue, I'm sure very smart and dedicated people worked tirelessly on it. I'm not disparaging the intent to do good. But, it was a major UX failure, the major UX failure in my opinion. I can say this with some small amount of authority because back in the late 1990s and early 2000s myself and my team completely overhauled over 22 WellPoint websites. At that time, WellPoint was the largest for-profit health insurance company in the United States, including Blue Cross of California, Blue Cross Blue Shield of GA, MO, WI and a very large 'startup' called UniCare that was in 11 midwest and east coast states. In addition to all that, WellPoint also managed the Medicare portion of many of those states. To say they had databases up the yin-yang would be a major understatement!
Anyway, we managed to both improve the user experience of all those websites AND do it without causing bandwidth, database or other issues. So I'm living proof that it can be done, regardless of number and size and complexity of diverse databases.
And to that point, a database is actually at its core simply a series of 1s and 0s, nothing more. It's the software designer and developer's jobs to take what could be hugely different fields, data and related information and move it, parse it, modify it and store it effectively and efficiently. Again, I can say from experience that no, it's not easy to do that, but yes, it certainly can be done. Planning, use case detailed reviews and testing helps make that happen. Otherwise we would not have the very large insurance companies (property and casualty, healthcare, life, etc. etc. etc.) moving billions of pieces of data back and forth between themselves, States and even the Federal Government every single day. It can be done and is done every day.
And still on the fiasco that is healthcare.gov, the major usability flaws I brought up in my article (http://www.usefulusability.com/top-7-healthcare-gov-ux-failures/) had very little to do with databases. These were major usability flaws in the front-end user experience that even a modest amount of testing could have found. And if testing was done, then YIKES! Who was testing and what were they testing? As an example, one major issue I found was the Password reminder email came back to my testers with their passwords in ALL CAPS. That was a major issue as the system required them to use passwords that had caps and lower case! So their password reminders were not only confusing, they were presenting wrong information further confusing already confused users. Talk about a YIKES!
So, you, me and the rest of the citizens of this great country paid a lot of money to have a system created that had to be completely overhauled and redesigned all over again. Proving the old point that 'there's never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over.'
In my opinion that was the biggest UX failure of the year.
But, that's not the ONLY major UX failure of the year. Close in second place (in my opinion) is the disaster that was the SAP implementation at Avon. More details about that story are here: (http://www.usefulusability.com/how-not-to-throw-out-125-million-dollars/ )
Avon spent four years and $125,000,000 dollars (yes, $125 Million Dollars) creating an SAP field sales ordering system that when tested in Canada with Avon sales individuals, was found to be so bad and unusable that the field sales individuals quit using it, and potentially quit selling Avon! Talk about a threat to the core of the business model! Without the field sales individuals placing orders Avon does not have a business. By the way those field sales individuals are not Avon employees and thus do not have to sell Avon, so Avon cannot force them to use a bad system (something large enterprises do rather often in my opinion). If you are like me you'd think that considering the supreme importance of such an application that a major amount of user research and testing would have been occurring throughout the four year long project. If it was, it wasn't done correctly or perhaps enough.
That's why I would list it as the number two biggest UX miss. Nothing like creating an application that threatens to take down your entire business!
So, again thank you for the excellent article, well written and very well done!
Thanks for the gift!
As an owner and/or consumer of almost all the products and services you highlighted, I was delighted to read through your UX Design Review for 2013. I definitely agree with your analyses, especially your points on Hue and Snapchat. I would only like to propose what I think might be an interesting caveat to your "bit of personal experience" with newspapers.
From my stand point as a consumer of news and current reader of newspapers (although significantly less so since 2007 thanx to Apple), I agree that the newspaper is very elegant, easy to use, simple to search, and fun to employ in creative ways. However, I'd like to complicate that image with a couple issues I've experienced while using my trusty paper and ink friend. First, as a daily commuter, not all of my time getting to work is spent sitting on a bus, train, ferry, or plane. A significant amount of my commute is by foot. Second, back before the iPhone, I would get a NY Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post delivered daily to my home, just to get the diversity in content and opinion I desired.
These two issue were temporarily mitigated with the development of news readers such as Digg, Feedly, and the former Google Reader, because news readers combine the accessibility to a diversity of content, with the luxury of carrying one device as opposed to several newspapers. This however led to a new problem–one not too dissimilar from the era when folks would walk while simultaneously reading their newspapers–I couldn't stop consuming content. I would find myself walking the streets on my way to work while scouring my news reader only to look up for brief moments upon noticing the shadow of another pedestrian's shoes, or the pending change of pavement to asphalt.
Then I got a brief flash of enlightenment, what if we could combine the customization and audio/listening focus of a Spotify or Pandora, with the content of a news reader. Much to my financial and entrepreneurial dismay, but a relief to my issue of consuming diverse news content on the go, I found two companies on this track–www.agogo.com and http://www.umanoapp.com. Each app uses a slightly different content acquisition and delivery system, but both apps are essentially audio-centric and curate news from a variety of sources into customizable as well as pre-structured formats and then allows the user to listen to these articles. Upon reading the attributes you mentioned that make newspapers an amazing technology, as well as your position that the newspaper is by design a superior way to deliver professional content, I couldn't help but think that apps like Umano and Agogo might be on the path to changing your mind?
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subset: commoncrawl


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NEW YORK, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- A judge Tuesday ordered former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's daughter to do community service for her shoplifting attempt earlier this month.
Caroline Giuliani, 20, a Harvard University senior, attempted to swipe $100.50 worth of beauty products from a Sephora store on Aug. 4, the New York Daily News and the New York Post reported.
Giuliani was ordered to collect trash for the city's Department of Sanitation, and while it was not clear when her service will be rendered, it must be completed before Nov. 4, her next court date.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Jennifer Schecter told Giuliani during her two-minute appearance, during which she admitted no guilt, "Stay out of trouble and avoid re-arrest. In six months the matter will be dismissed and sealed."
The newspapers said Giuliani refused to answer questions from reporters, including whether she felt remorse for the incident.


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Startup World : Cape Town, South Africa
Startup World
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM (Brasilia Standard Time Brazil (Sao Paulo) Time)
Who's Going
San Francisco, California
London, United Kingdom
Florence, Italy
Event Details
Join us on our first stop in Africa for Startup World! Startup World is an initiative to promote startups, entrepreneurship and technology through a global competition to find the world's most innovative startups. We have identified 36 tech hub cities around the world and will hold regional pitching competitions, with ten entrepreneurs pitching to a panel of expert judges in each city.
Grand Prize package includes:
- 3 month incubation period worth $30,000 at i/o Ventures
- 1 year of Rackspace hosting worth up to $24,000
- 5 million Echo real-time streams per month for 1 year worth $30,000
- International media coverage of your startup
Hosted by:
Hermione Way
Video Director for The Next Web
Judge Panel:
Vincent Maher Adrian Varkel
Founder at Motribe Head of Ogilvy Interactive
Andy Volk Matthew Buckland
VP of Developer Relations at MXit Creative Spark / Founder of Memeburn
Cape Town Semi-finalists:
5 Ounces • Snapplify • Dream Mobile • Pashash • Every1mobile • Calibre Apps • Myows • Business Optics • Hiring Bounty • MyDorpie
Gold Sponsors
Cape Town Partners
When & Where
frieda's on bree
15 Bree St
Cape Town,
South Africa
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM (Brasilia Standard Time Brazil (Sao Paulo) Time)
Add to my calendar
Startup World
Startup World is a global competition started by Hermione Way and Erick Davidson to find the world's most innovative startups. While most media is currently focusing on Silicon Valley, we want to shine a light on entrepreneurs in emerging markets.


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The announcer was introducing the visiting team Sunday afternoon at iconic Allen Fieldhouse, the cradle of college basketball, the house that James Naismith and Phog Allen and Wilt Chamberlain built.
"The San Diego Aztecs," he bellowed.
Kansas, and the rest of America, might know who they are now. The Jayhawks had won 68 straight games against nonconference opponents at Allen Fieldhouse. They didn't get a 69th.
The 21st-ranked San Diego State Aztecs beat No. 16 Kansas 61-57 on national TV in what might not be the biggest win in school history in terms of postseason significance, but certainly in terms of opponent and venue and exposure and prestige.
"I think what this win will do," SDSU coach Steve Fisher said, "it will get people east of the Mississippi talking about us. We've got San Diego and California and the West Coast people saying, 'Man, they're good.' Now I think more and more people will be talking about, well, you know, San Diego State, they beat Kansas."
He paused and added: "At Kansas."
The Jayhawks entered the game 166-8 at Allen Fieldhouse – the self-acclaimed "greatest home court advantage in all of college basketball" – during the 11-year tenure of Coach Bill Self, and 112-2 since 2007. They hadn't lost the first game of the calendar year at The Phog since JFK was president.
Self's take: "Basically, the way I see it, we got exactly what we deserved .... Give them credit. They were the better team today. They whipped us and they outcoached us and they did all the things right in order to win here."
They held Kansas to 29.8-percent shooting, its lowest at The Phog since field goals and field-goal attempts became an official NCAA stat in 1988-89.
They had 51 rebounds, the most by any KU opponent in any venue in nearly a decade.
They held the Jayhawks to season lows in points, field goals, shooting percentage and defensive rebounds, and recorded season highs for a KU opponent in offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, total rebounds and blocks.
SDSU forward Skylar Spencer spewed the obligatory cliché about taking one game at a time, then let this slip: "We've been thinking about this all year."
The Aztecs (12-1) played like it, never awed by their surroundings or their opponent or the CBS cameras. They practiced at Allen Fieldhouse the night before but went straight to the bus afterward and didn't gaze, googly-eyed, at the trophies and frayed banners and photos of the man who invented basketball.
Fisher talked about not allowing the Jayhawks (9-4) go on their legendary runs fueled by the Phog fanatics, and they didn't. Their longest run: 5-0.
Three times in the first half, the 203rd straight sellout at Allen Fieldhouse got cranked up for a defensive possession. And all three times, the Aztecs came away with three points – a 3-pointer by Thames, a 3-point play by Shepard and three free throws by Aqeel Quinn after being knocked into the sideline table on a 3.
The four times it happened in the second half, the Aztecs answered with baskets or free throws. Kansas led 9-8, and never again.
"Every play we made," Kansas guard Frank Mason said, "they seemed to come down and they got something positive out of their next possession."
One streak was preserved Sunday: The Aztecs have now won 104 straight when leading with five minutes to go.
They were ahead 48-44 then and 55-48 inside three minutes to go, only for Kansas to close to 57-55 and got the ball back after the mortal fear of Aztecs fans began coming true, with Winston Shepard and JJ O'Brien missing the front ends of one-and-one free throws.
That forced the Aztecs to sweat out the final seconds, with Perry Ellis on the line with 11.9 seconds left and a chance to tie. Ellis made the first, missed the second, and Thames put away the Jayhawks by going 4 of 4 from the line in the waning moments.
Thames led the Aztecs with 16 points. Spencer had a monster game, with career highs in points (13) and blocks (six) plus a season high in rebounds (nine) all the while battling foul trouble. Josh Davis had 10 points and 14 rebounds. O'Brien had seven points and nine rebounds.
But this game was won in a less glamorous place, on the white board scrawled with Xs and Os, in the film room, in the trenches. Fisher and a staff that includes defensive whiz Justin Hutson had the Aztec bigs play behind KU's massive front line in the post instead of fronting them, then had everyone else sag and double-team on the occasion that the Jayhawks got the ball inside.
"Great scouting report," Self said.
The Jayhawks coughed it up on their first two possessions against the double-team and didn't make a 2-point basket until nearly 10 minutes in. The hosts would score 23 points and shoot 20.7 percent (6 of 29) in the first half – this, by a team averaging 79.4 points and shooting 50.9 percent.
KU's first-half point totals in its previous five home games this season: 42, 41, 49, 44, 43.
The Aztecs weren't much better when they had the ball, shooting 37.7 percent and having 13 shots swatted, but down the stretch their best offense was the missed or blocked shot. They got 14 of their 19 offensive rebounds in the second half, and an incredible six of their final eight baskets came on tip-ins or follows.
The game ended, and Thames did a quick television interview, hugged his mom sitting behind the bench, then raced off to the visitor's locker room and the celebration.
Not too often at Allen Fieldhouse it's a joyous place.


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* Shares plummet more than 12 pct
* U.S., Europe IT spending weak
* Consumer sales shrink sharply
(Adds analyst comments, updates share price)
* Shares plummet more than 12 pct
* U.S., Europe IT spending weak
* Consumer sales shrink sharply
(Adds analyst comments, updates share price)
By Poornima Gupta
SAN FRANCISCO, May 22 (Reuters) - Dell Inc forecast
disappointing second-quarter revenue as U.S. and European
corporate tech spending weakens and consumer personal computer
sales continue to shrink, hammering its shares.
Shares in the company, which like rival Hewlett-Packard Co
is losing market share to mobile devices such as Apple
Inc's iPad, dived more than 11 percent in after hours
The world's No. 3 PC maker forecast a 2 to 4 percent revenue
gain this fiscal quarter, to $14.7 billion to $15 billion, well
short of the $15.4 billion Wall Street had been expecting.
"Clearly we are seeing a bit more challenging demand
environment," Dell Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said in
an interview. "Europe, in general, was down for us."
Demand from U.S. federal businesses appears to be improving
slightly, he noted. "We are seeing a pretty good pipeline
Dell's quarterly revenue fell more than analysts had
expected, hurt by weak sales to consumers, large enterprises and
government units. PC makers have struggled with slowing demand
as mobile devices such as the iPad erode market share.
Brian Marshall, an analyst with ISI Group, said the "real
poor results" shows that it will take Dell more time to
transform itself from a PC company to a one-stop shop for all
the information technology needs of corporations.
"It clearly is disappointing," Shaw Wu, an analyst with
Sterne Agee, said. "The expectations heading into the quarter
were not even that high."
Dell's sales to consumers took a big hit, with consumer
revenue slipping 12 percent to $3 billion. Sales to large
corporations declined 3 percent to $4.4 billion.
Dell said revenue in its fiscal first quarter declined 4
percent to $14.4 billion, below the average analyst estimate of
$14.9 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned 43 cents, less
than the average Wall Street estimate of 46 cents.
Net income fell to $635 million, or 36 cents a share, from
$945 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier.
Gross margins for the quarter came in at 21.3 percent.
"April was not what we expected," Gladden told analysts on a
conference call, but he added that the "pipelines look pretty
Dell's shares traded at $13.20 after hours, down from a
$15.08 close on Nasdaq.
Dell's poor showing comes a day before larger rival HP
reports its quarterly earnings. Shares in the No. 1 PC maker,
which sources say plans to lay off more than 25,000 employees
globally as it tries to revive its business, edged down 2.5
percent to $21.24 from a close of $21.78 on the New York Stock
HP is merging its PC and printing divisions to shore up
margins in the personal computing business.
(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Richard Chang)


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People of faith are lined up in lanes all over this globe, batons in hand, running the race that matters most in this world - the divine relay. The divine relay is tough. The track is treacherous. There are so many ways to mangle the exchange zones, to overshoot, to be knocked off the track, to drop the baton, to stop running. The church needs champion runners who never give up, who persevere no matter what they encounter, who run to win, unstoppable, no matter the cost. If we pass the baton of faith fluidly in the exchange zone from person to person, from generation to generation, we speed unstoppable toward the finish line. But if we fumble the exchange, the whole team, the whole church, suffers. Some runners even stop running and walk right out of the race. Discover just how important it is to get the "exchange zone" right, to ensure that no runners stop running and walk off the field, but that every runner becomes unstoppable in their dedication to carry their baton of faith to the next runner.
©2014 Christine Caine (P)2014 Zondervan
"Start Now"
This book blew me away. I can start now with what I have. No need to over research or analyze. God will use me and grow me through my obedience and stepping out in faith to accomplish more than I can ever imagine. Beautifully written and narrated.
"For those facing challenging opportunities"
At times the accent of narrator was hard to understand but it did help me feel like Christine was talking. Excellent life changing information on how God uses challenging opportunities to shift us toward His greatest will for our lives.
I loved it! It gave me the strength to take my next steps in life and go beyond my comfort zone!
This book was so well written!! It kept you engaged from cover to cover! The reality of the book in addition to the parallels about the baton exchange were so well blended! Incredible read!!
"Wonderful Testimonials"
loved it and will re-read it over and over again thank you Christine and Jay for your wonderful reading!
"Baton's are not optional"
During your race of life, baton's are not optional. You will have a greater impact on life if you actually take the baton and OWN it, while you have it. If you choose to fumble, drop, delay, etc... the race isn't over it's delayed. Grab the baton Own it and Glorify God in the process.
Report Inappropriate Content
If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.


text:
All material © Blues in London. All rights reserved.
Support Blues in London
When was the last time you saw a guy on an acoustic
and some singers lay waste to a room full of discerning music types? Seriously,
it takes a special kind of style to pull that stuff off, and style is
something that Alabama 3 have never been short of.
The Cedars describe themselves as a 'bluesy Americana throwback' and jolly good they are at it too. Fronted by the charismatic Chantal Hill on vocals and with the stylish slide of Jason Moffat on guitar, their tales of murder and jilted love are finely wrought and their 'unplugged' approach makes a welcome change. They're a hard working band too, and appear to have a good following. Catch 'em near you soon.
If you're reading this and thinking
'Acid House? Folk? That aint the blues!' then you need to think again.
If you can connect with a room full of outstanding musicians playing
music that's rooted in blues and yet which manages
to have something to say about the world today, and which you can also
dance to, then welcome to our world.


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EBN 100 Stock Index
Post a comment
The EBNIn a slow week of trading, both the EBN 100 Stock Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index made modest gains. Hopes for an economic recovery in 2002 helped to spur the market gains of the week.
After sliding 5.16% last week, to close at 1,314.53 on Dec. 20, the EBN 100 Stock Index posted steady gains, rising to 1,357.75 by 3 p.m. on Dec. 27.
Chipmakers gained on Dec. 27 after Merrill Lynch analyst Joe Osha narrowed his quarterly loss estimate for Advanced Micro Devices due to better-than-expected demand for its Athlon chip. In a research report, Osha said he was cutting the loss estimate to 15 cents per share from 23 cents per share. He expects AMD's revenue to increase 17% from the third quarter, due to stronger microprocessor revenues.
Belden, Belfuse, Methode, and Vishay helped boost the components sector. Belfuse shares jumped 8.8%, to $23.60, on Dec. 27, from $21.70 on Dec. 20. Methode shares increased 6.8%, to $7.69, on Dec. 27. Vishay's shares were boosted 6.4%, to $19.42 on Dec. 27. Belden's shares rose 6.1%, to close at $23.72 on Dec. 27, up from $22.35 on Dec. 20.
Pioneer-Standard and All American led the charge for the distribution sector. Pioneer's shares jumped 12.7%, to $13.05, on Dec. 27, from $11.58 on Dec. 20. All American posted modest gains of 8%, closing at $3.91 on Dec. 27.
Despite the negative news from ACT Manufacturing, which fell from a 52-week high of $30 on Feb. 1 to just 35 cents per share when trading was halted on Dec. 26, the EMS sector fared well for the week, posting modest gains. Nasdaq halted trading of ACT's stock until it receives "additional information from the company." Neither Nasdaq nor ACT would specify what the additional information was. ACT filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 21.


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The Division of Natural Resources held its quarterly meeting on Saturday to discuss several upcoming changes.
The main point that was discussed was the changes in regulations for bear hunting.
The early hunting season for autumn may begin in October rather than September.
"October season you're going to interfere with the bow hunters," said Jeffrey S. Bowers, a Department of Natural Resources Commissioner. "Also, initially we looked at a September season to deal with a lot of your damage from bears so we're trying to get some of the problem there. I think there will be serious consideration for staying in September where we can get the problem bears."
Another option is to combine bear season with deer season to give the deer hunters a chance to get a bear.


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Abram is one of Montague's servingmen.
He and a companion are silently insulted by two of Capulet's men in the public square, which he queries. He insists he has no intention of quarreling until such time as he refuses to admit that Capulet is a better man than Montague. This sets off the opening brawl.


text:
The purpose of pavements is to provide a safe place for pedestrians to walk free of traffic.
Would legislation to enforce this universally acknowledged principle amount to a classic case of applying a sledgehammer to crack a nut?
The gradual takeover of pavements and footpaths by parked vehicles has become such a serious problem that Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, is preparing to introduce a Private Members' Bill in the Scottish Parliament that would make it illegal to park on the pavement or obstruct a dropped kerb unless there was a specific exemption.
Loading article content
The proposal is the result of a campaign by 21 bodies representing disabled people. They point out that even cars only partially parked on the pavement can form such an obstruction that pedestrians are forced out on to the road. While this is a minor irritation for the able-bodied, it can be very dangerous for the disabled. Those most at risk include wheelchair users, blind people and those with learning difficulties, all of whom are particularly vulnerable if they have to share the road with traffic. Most people will experience similar difficulties at some point in their lives. This could be as a parent wheeling a pushchair or taking small children by the hand. Equally, it could be as an elderly person unable to nip spryly out of the way.
The proposal to ban parking on pavements has already attracted sufficient cross-party support to be put forward as a Bill. However, there are serious concerns about the impact of such a measure. One is practicality. The problem is most acute in residential areas where houses and flats date from a time when there were few cars and there are not enough on-road parking spaces to accommodate residents' vehicles. The result can be a compromise by drivers who park with two wheels on the pavement to leave room and also allow traffic to pass on the road. In such situations a blanket ban would risk solving one problem by creating another in nearby streets; either that or impeding traffic.
Ms White has recognised that there would have to be exemptions. The process involved in obtaining orders and the additional responsibility of enforcing the ban would cause significant extra costs for local authorities at a time of budget cuts.
It is possible the prospect of a ban will inspire councils or community groups in some congested areas to find a way of creating more parking areas to keep pavements free of parked vehicles. Ms White, who is the third MSP to take on responsibility for introducing a ban, has already raised awareness of the problem.
This is a difficult area but drivers should let wheelchairs, buggies and guide dogs rule the pavements. If they did, there would probably be no need for legislation.


text:
The Gators received a verbal commitment this afternoon from one of the two official visitors.
Premium Content
Subscribe today to read the full article and get everything Rivals has to offer.
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Paving approved in time for Heartland
The Jefferson County Supervisors approved the use of a Revitalize Iowa Sound Economy Grant to pave Nutmeg Avenue during the county's next construction season; this comes before Heartland Co-op's anticipated opening in the fall of 2015.
"Heartland plans on being open for business in the fall of 2015," Supervisor Lee Dimmitt said. "It's only 1,000 feet so it shouldn't take too terribly long to complete; it should be done by the time they take the fall harvest.
The Nutmeg Avenue project is estimated at $280,000. However, RISE will only cover 50 percent of project costs, leaving the county to foot the remainder of the bill.
"They will fund up to 50 percent depending on what the quote comes in at," said Adam Plagge, executive director of Fairfield Economic Development Association. "It shouldn't go over $280,000."
The decision whether to approve the additional match of $38,000 to leverage more grant funds from the AHEAD Regional Housing Trust Fund, which was tabled two weeks ago, will be revisited next week.
Supervisor Dick Reed said that the issue would need a "little more work" before a decision could be made.
"It's all well and good to do these things, but where is the money going to come from?" he said. "All these things are good, but we've still gotta get the billfold."
Dimmitt said Wapello County would "pony up" the entire amount, but it would expect the majority of the near $160,000 that the $38,000 would leverage.
Supervisor Becky Schmitz said that programs like these are beneficial to the counties, as poverty rates are on the rise.
"It's a choice between whether I fix my roof or feed my family," Schmitz said. "It's critical that we use the money that we can get from those programs."
In other news, supervisors gave Jefferson County's new emergency management, 911 coordinator a thumbs-up.
Reed said Joe Stever has "really been on top of things."
Dimmitt echoed his comment. "We have met more with emergency management in the last two months than in the last two years," he said.
Stever is responsible for identifying and bridging the gap between municipal services, such as the fire, police and sheriff's department. He is also the liaison between those departments and the Iowa Department of Homeland Security.
"It's been a lot going on the last two months, but it's been enjoyable," Stever said.
Stever has also been working closely with Fairfield Fire Chief Scott Vaughan in the development of an "OPS" training refresher course for fireman, which begins Friday.
Schmitz said the Department of Human Services Committee found that child abuse caseloads have taken a turn for the better since the implementation of new procedures involving how those cases are handled.
"The case loads have actually gone down," Schmitz said. "There have been problems with people not being able to get jobs due to child abuse complaints."
Schmitz said that a more proactive approach is being used to handle these cases once they have been investigated.
The Jefferson County Veteran's Affairs Director Ray Chambers said the Cedar Rapids Veteran's Mobile Center would be in Fairfield from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 27. They will be stationed in the Sears parking lot on Burlington Avenue.
Jefferson County Engineer Scott Cline said Cedar Creek Bridge is being dismantled and that "Honey Creek Bridge was poured on Friday."
Cline along with county supervisors toured several locations that have had reports of damage.
"I received a call that 110th needed gravel," Reed said. "We'll check that out today."


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Spatial Agglomeration Dynamics
This paper develops a model of economic growth and activity locating endogenously on a 3-dimensional featureless global geography. The same economic forces influence simulataneously growth, convergence, and spatial agglomeration and clustering. Economic activity is not concentrated on discrete isolated points but instead a dynamically-fluctuating, smotth spatial distribution. Spatial inequality is a Cass-Koopmans saddlepath, and the global distribution of economic activity converges towards egalitarian growth. Equality is stable but spatial inequality is needed to attain it.
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
|Date of creation:
|Mar 2002
|Contact details of provider:
| Web page: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/series.asp?prog=CEP
References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Nickell, Stephen & Nunziata, Luca & Ochel, Wolfgang & Quintini, Glenda, 2001.
"The Beveridge curve, unemployment and wages in the OECD from the 1960s to the 1990s - preliminary version,"
LSE Research Online Documents on Economics
20113, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
- Stephen Nickell & Luca Nunziata & Wolfgang Ochel & Glenda Quintini, 2001. "The Beveridge Curve, Unemployment and Wages in the OECD from the 1960s to the 1990s - Preliminary Version," CEP Discussion Papers dp0502, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
- Feyrer James D, 2008. "Convergence by Parts," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-35, July.
- Editors : & David Marsden & Hugh Stephenson, 2001. "Labour Law and Social Insurance in the New Economy: A Debate on the Supiot Report," CEP Discussion Papers dp0500, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
- Jan Eeckhout & Boyan Jovanovic, 2002. "Knowledge Spillovers and Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1290-1307, December. Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)
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Jeff Rowland watered down the left side of the infield. Nolan Belcher raked the pitching mound. Yes, there's still work to do at Greenbrier, even after a win.
The Class AAAA defending champion flexed its muscles Tuesday with an eight-run third inning and Belcher finished off Brunswick with his homer in the Wolfpack's 11-1 six-inning win over Brunswick in the region semifinals.
The victory locked up home-field advantage in the first round of the state playoffs, a small step toward the Wolfpack defending their championship.
Greenbrier (20-4) will play Effingham County on Friday in the Region 3-AAAA finals. The Wolfpack is seeking its ninth region championship since 1997.
"This is one step," Rowland said. "It just helps you in the later rounds of the state playoffs if you can get that No. 1 seed."
"This is another step to getting a state ring," Belcher said. "I think it's just as important as state, almost."
Greenbrier coach Rodney Holder expects little insider information for the upcoming game. His older brother, Buddy, is the strength and conditioning coach and assistant football coach at Effingham County
"I don't know if he's going to give me any insight," Rodney said, "but I'm sure going to go at him hard."
Against Brunswick (14-10), Greenbrier pounded out 12 hits. Nine of 10 batters collected at least one hit with Rowland (3-for-4) and Belcher (2-for-2) leading the way.
Belcher also notched the victory. He entered in the third inning in relief of starter Pat McGowan and struck out six while allowing three hits and no runs in three innings.
Brunswick, which left 11 runners on base, scored in the second and threatened against Belcher in the third. With one out, Rory Mock singled and Cason Mobley followed with a walk. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch. But Belcher struck out Chris Newsome and Jay Repko to end the inning.
Reach Chris Gay at (706) 823-3645 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Tag Archives: olympics
a librarian's guide to watching the Olympics
So I like the Olympics. Not like I wait for it all year, but I enjoy the spectacle, fresh-faced athletes, international competition, and an excuse to watch TV with friends. I also enjoy, from a nerd perspective, trivia in the … Continue reading
Posted in access Tagged london2012, olympics, proxyservers, reference, vpn 4 Comments


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Yes you answered my question thanks Like. I was going to post my puzz along side yours but then thought that perhaps you were celebrating 2000 the day after like we did for 1000 and I set the alarm for the middle of the night/morning 2am I think it was. lol. I've got a theme for DYR and three puzzles. The link/theme is stars and roses of course, so whilst they are not going to be very challenging (well they might be for Neville lol), they will be getting into the spirit of the occasion, if you know what I mean. Well, you will see when I post them. It is midnight now so I'll turn in. :o)
Hi LC, Neat puzzle. I'd have to think the All-Star community will enjoy it. Sorry if my answer we astray. So yes, we have 2000. Heck 2010 now ;-)Time for sleep. Long hot day and I was outside a lot so I'm beat. I'll check your reply in the morning. I hope you have the info you need.And thanks for all your help and support.I'm probably going to dream about Limmie and Family Cooking tonight ;-)
Like, the reason I asked about the 2000 puzz is because I had planned on posting this puzz after you've posted the 2000 one.http://www.jigidi.com/puzzle.php?id=0U6CUFS4
Hi there! I notice you have solved a lot of my puzzles - thank you for stopping by and doing them. I wanted to solve some of yours but notice you only have one! It would be great if you could do a few more, so I encourage you to do a few! Thanks for posting this one. Best Wishes to you and yours from very hot and humid England - we have a noisy thunder & lightning storm here while I type, and it's midnight, so I'm turning in!
Your daily rate of solving is impressive. You must achieve it by not commenting and by being mighty quick. And not having to work for a living. Do you take time to sleep?
Would you go ahead and start that 24,000 piece puzzle so it'll be finished before I die and I can see a photo of it on here!
WOW first place on Joan's million-plus solves puzzle. Roxanne was there for a long, long time. Congrats.
I don't know this person but I liked the puzzle so do some more please. Thx 4 this 1.
You have done your first jig without a hitch, well done, thank you:)
I hope you like my first puzzle.
They let us bring our cameras so I did. I got to sit on in the front row, then sneek up to the photograhy area. The latter part of the concert was standing next to the stage.
I have other pictures too. Let me know if you'd like other sizes of this puzzle and/or a few other pictures.


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A focus on quality will enable transformation
By Justin O. Neway, Ph.D.
In most discrete manufacturing industries, quality initiatives have long played a critical role in improving production outputs while saving money. Billions of dollars have been invested in Six Sigma and other continuous process improvement projects that leverage technology and manufacturing data. Why, then, has the pharmaceutical industry been slower to embrace such progress and the bottom line benefits that come with it?
A new trend that may lead to more widespread adoption of Process Analytical Technology (PAT) is the industry's focus on "Quality by Design" (QbD) in the new regulatory environment. Leveraging accessible, real-time and historical process data for process understanding and quality in PAT efforts will change the positive correlation between PAT implementation and bottom line improvements. In 2003, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) really started emphasizing process understanding as a way to improve quality. Through its 2004 "Guidance for Industry: PAT - A Framework for Innovative Pharmaceutical Development, Manufacturing and Quality Assurance," the FDA challenged pharmaceutical manufacturers to achieve a level of process understanding consistent with controlling process variability and assuring product quality in "real-time" while the batch is being manufactured (Real Time Quality Assurance or RTQA). Ideally, the ability to achieve the appropriate quality outcome must be designed into the process itself rather than relying on final product testing. This increased emphasis on QbD requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to make larger investments earlier in the product life cycle - during process development in advance of approved commercial operations. The goal is to develop a sound scientific basis for a manufacturing "Control Space" that accommodates a range of defined variability in the commercial process materials and operations and still produces the desired product quality outcomes.
Quality Requires On-Demand Access to Data
The Role of PAT in Quality by DesignAchieving QbD may involve the use of instruments more sophisticated than those currently used in pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. Some of these instruments have been used for decades in other industries, but have not yet been applied to pharmaceutical production processes. Some of the newer instruments available to life science manufacturers make relatively simple measurements like effusivity. Other instruments make much more complex measurements like Near Infrared (NIR) absorption. In many cases, these instruments are capable of measuring the Critical Process Parameters (CPPs) and Critical Quality Attributes (CQAs) in real-time. Such instruments generate large amounts of data that must be understood if the measurements are to be useful. The usefulness of any PAT or other process improvement initiative in QbD depends on all the data (discrete, replicate, continuous and paper-based) and the right process trending, reporting, descriptive analysis, univariate and multivariate cause-and-effect analysis, and parameter relationship modeling capabilities all being easily available on-demand to users in the same integrated environment. Users must be able to work with continuous, discrete and replicate data together for quantitative analysis. As understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships CPPs and CQAs improves, it may be desirable to adjust process control systems in real-time by interfacing them directly with process models derived from examination of process development and/or manufacturing process data. This is consistent with the real-time quality assurance goals of QbD that a PAT approach can offer. Such models derived from manufacturing data are generally the best models to use for control of full-scale operations because the effects of scale have been accounted for due to the fact that they were derived using full-scale data.
The Regulatory PerspectiveAn understanding of the regulatory perspective and a fundamental desire to realize the many benefits of process improvement are the keys to wider adoption of PAT and achievement of QbD. An important section of the FDA's PAT guideline points to the value of continuous learning that comes from the analysis of process data when coupled with systems that support the acquisition of knowledge from that data: "Continuous learning through data collection and analysis over the life cycle of a product is important. These data can contribute to justifying proposals for post-approval changes. Approaches and information technology systems that support knowledge acquisition from such databases are valuable for the manufacturers and can also facilitate scientific communication with the Agency." (From "PAT - A Framework for Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Quality Assurance. Pharmaceutical CGMPs," September 2004) In fact, the data to which the FDA refers comes not only from process instruments making real-time measurements on the current batch, but also from off-line measurements of the current batch and on-line and off-line measurements of previous batches and process development work. All these different types of data from the current and previous batches are essential components of the knowledge base that can be tapped by manufacturers to achieve QbD. Furthermore, these data are fragmented because they have accumulated in the operational data stores of many different systems. In many pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), a lot of important data can be found on paper records. The team members who need to use this data are normally trained in disciplines other than IT, and today they rely on others with IT skills to extract their data for them. They also depend on highly skilled statisticians to do basic analyses and prepare basic reports for them using general statistical packages that lack the functionality needed to correlate and generate actionable information from all data types. These realities have to be taken into account in the process of "knowledge acquisition" to which the FDA has referred above. In short, the most critical aspect of any process improvement initiative may be a single point of on-demand access directly by end users to all the relevant data (including that on paper) in a context that is meaningful to diverse groups of users and fully integrated with a collaborative, graphical data analysis and reporting environment for identifying and understanding cause-and-effect relationships in process data. Process improvement and QbD become practical realities only when the barriers to easy access to, and correlation of, all the process data together are removed, and the team can spend its time instead on productive science-based collaboration. This is the best way to undertake the Design Space Development, Design for Manufacturing and PAT efforts needed to achieve manufacturing process excellence using the principles of QbD.
About the Author Justin Neway, Ph.D. is executive vice president and chief science officer at Aegis Analytical Corporation, 1380 Forest Park Circle, Suite 200, Lafayette, CO 80026. Tel. 303-625-2102, www.aegiscorp.com, email@example.com
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Daily Radiogram
Tuesday August 6, 2013
Volume 28, No. 16 Tuesday August 6, 2013
Burnham Classic: This past weekend's 24thAnnual Burnham Classic has been hailed another huge success. While the total for this year's event has not yet been tallied, Bruce Burnham is sure they raised over $20,000 to add to the more than $452,000 presented to Tri-County Services since the tournament's inception. Tops in the Championship Flight; Kyle Pritchard and Kevin Reed. Presidential Flight: Corey Romero and David Jones were first. The Burnham Classic First Flight champions were Rev. Lyndsey Smith and car dealer Bill Brackin. In the Second Flight, Curtis Pardon and Hugo Flores topped the field. Best in Third Flight: the duo of Bryan Bell and Andrew Moss. Winners in the Fourth Flight were Mike Templeton and Ben Wood. This year's tourney was held in memory of tournament co-founder J.C. Burnham.
Disabled Hunters: Archery season for deer hunting opens in Liberty County on September 28th. The first day the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge will take applications for the upcoming hunting season is August 19th. That will include those who have disabilities. According to Trinity River Refuge Office Assistant Bonnie Campisi, the areas designated for disabled hunters have changed this year. Refuge Manager Stuart Marcus said in addition, they will be more stringent in who will qualify as disabled. To learn more about the requirements to qualify as a disabled hunter in Texas, call the Trinity River Refuge office at (936) 336 9786.
Waldrop Named to Hall of Fame: Long time KSHN announcer, Andy Waldrop has been named to the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. He will be inducted in ceremonies this November to be held in Dallas. Other area radio elite who will be inducted this year include Jim Ray formerly of the Clear Channel stations in Beaumont, and Jack Pieper of KLVI Radio in Beaumont.
Obituaries: Frances McKenley Gibson Pena, 56 of Dayton. Services today at 10 a.m.at Pace-Stancil Funeral Home in Dayton. Rev. Paul Wesley Beathard, 74 of Franklin Tn. Memorial service 7 p.m.yesterday at Williamson Memorial Funeral Home in Franklin Tn. Tydius T. Mouton, 22 of Ames. Memorial service today at 11 a.m.TurkeyCreekBaptistChurchin Liberty.
*LakeRelease: 1,500 CFS– LibertyBridge: 6.63 ASL*


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Results 1 to 5 of 5
December 19th, 2001, 07:41 AM #1
- Join Date
- January 18th, 2005
- Posts
- 223
...on a sunny winter afternoon. When they come with a %10 commission you can even afford cream to go with them.
I thought crucial had uploaded their batch early today, but no - it's a $300 sale at strawberrynet.
Yesterday I would have got $5 for it.
December 19th, 2001, 08:01 AM #2
Nice sale francis, just as well your customers weren't procratinators!
As of Dec 19th the one day cookie comes into effect!
December 19th, 2001, 08:18 AM #3
- Join Date
- January 18th, 2005
- Posts
- 223
Actually Strawberrynet had a slight 'rethink' over that one.
Thought they might.
They said "After deeply consideration, we will change the duration back to 45 days."
[ 12-19-2001: Message edited by: francis ]
December 19th, 2001, 05:55 PM #4
Hope your right Francis, my merchant info still says one day cookie.
December 19th, 2001, 06:48 PM #5
- Join Date
- January 18th, 2005
- Posts
- 223
So does mine. But with Strawberrynet you always have to remember that they don't seem to have a clue about how all the technology works. For the last week in November they had a 'special incentive' where they doubled the commissions to $10 'till 31st November' and were promising payment for clickthroughs!
I told them about the clickthrough thing and they thought I wanted to be paid for some, so I rapidly gave up on that conversation [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Then they tried to put the commission back to $5 and it came as a surprise to them that there was a delay. I said there was no such thing as 31st November anyway, and eventually they managed to put everything right, somehow.
I wouldn't be surprised if the cookie is set wrong, but I would be surprised if this was deliberate.
When I made a test purchase I noticed the package came from Hong Kong so I think their native language is Cantonese. If there *are* any cookie problems I'll get a native speaker to discuss things with them.
Anyway as %10 is pretty much double what they were paying, I'm not about to starve I expect.
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IT security and control firm Sophos announced today that PC Pro conducted a product review of Sophos's endpoint offering, where it was awarded 5 out of 6 stars and noted to be effective protection against threats on Windows, Macintosh, Linux and NetWare systems.
The review, in the November 2007 edition of PC Pro, concluded that Sophos Endpoint Security and Control, built upon its tried-and-tested architecture, provides strong coverage for the networked environment. New features like application control, which blocks unauthorised games and programs as well as buffer overflow monitoring via its host intrusion prevention system (HIPS) gives administrators more control over what behavior and processes are allowed to take place on their network.
With a single console to deploy the software, manage policies, and report on security across the network, Sophos Endpoint Security and Control combines anti-virus and client firewall protection to secure desktops, laptops and file servers.
"Customers are demanding stronger but simpler security, which is why we have built extra security features, like behavioral protection (HIPS) and application control, into our single anti-virus agent and made them very simple to manage. We also allow customers to manage their Windows, Mac or Linux computers all from a single console," explained John Shaw, group product manager at Sophos. "Companies have learned that monitoring and maintaining several solutions just isn't cost effective. We are happy that the market, as well as reviewers like PC Pro, like what we have accomplished."
Sophos delivers complete protection against viruses, spyware and adware, and controls VoIP, IM, P2P and games. The automated console provides a single point from which to deploy, update and report on both the anti-virus and firewall protection across the network.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos' complete security solutions as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Simple to deploy, manage, and use, Sophos' award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, mobile and network security solutions are backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K., and is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol "SOPH." More information is available at www.sophos.com/company.
- 2017
Sophos Ltd. All rights reserved.


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Marcellino Holds Hearing On Long Island Sound Tunnel Proposal
Senator Carl L. Marcellino (R-Syosset) Chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee today held a joint hearing with the Senate Transportation Committee on the Long Island Sound Tunnel proposal.
This hearing afforded the committees the opportunity to question the developer about the project and to hear from government officials that represent the areas most directly affected. According to Senator Marcellino this is just the opening to an array of steps in the process.
"This is a serious proposal by serious people. It must be fully reviewed before we change the landscape of Long Island forever," Senator Marcellino said.
In preparation for the hearing Senator Marcellino visited the East Side Access tunnel project that will connect the Long Island Rail Road's Main and Port Washington lines to a new terminal beneath Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. There he witnessed first hand the workings of a 200 ton tunnel boring machine and the process used to remove the debris.
"Seeing first hand the process of building a tunnel gave me new insight to this proposal. The magnitude is astonishing," said Senator Marcellino.
"Through the course of this hearing I had the opportunity to ask many of my questions and questions of my constituent. Now I have a fuller understanding of what will be involved and the effect on the community," said Senator Marcellino.
Senator Marcellino had mailed the affected community and asked them to submit their concerns. In addition, on his web site, www.senatormarcellino.com, he has a quick poll to get the pulse of the community.
The proposed Long Island Sound tunnel is approximately 16 miles in length and would extend from Route 135 (Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway) in Syosset, to the intersection of I-287 and I-95 in Rye, NY. The world's longest roadway tunnel built in Norway is 15.2 miles
The project would be funded by the private sector and cost approximately $10 billion. The toll is estimated at $25 dollars one way.
The tunnel is expected to carry between 59,000 and 79,000 vehicles per day when it is completed in 2025. According to the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, annual average daily traffic in 2006 on the Queens Midtown Tunnel was 79,359.
Testifying at the hearing was Supervisor John Venditto of the Town of Oyster Bay,Vincent and Michael Polimeni of Polimeni International LLC, the engineering firm of Hatch Mott MacDonald, Dr. William Kelly, NYS Geologist, Professor Stanley Klein, Long Island University, Mayor Steven Otis of Rye, Valerie O'Keefe Supervisor of Mamaroneck, Mayor Drew Fixell of Tarrytown, Michael White, Executive Director of the Long Island Regional Planning Board and Mayor Harry Anand of the Village of Laurel Hollow.
"I thank everyone who came to offer their expertise and thoughts," concluded Senator Marcellino
For Information on the Cross Sound Tunnel Proposal Click Here
NY Long Island Tunnel, 1st Ld-Writethru 01/25/2008 04:44:16 PM
Developer proposes world's longest highway tunnel in NY
It would be the world's longest highway tunnel _ a more than 16-mile
stretch under Long Island Sound that could help ease the chronic traffic
congestion on New York's clogged highways.
The estimated price tag on the tunnel is $10 billion _ and it wouldn't cost
taxpayers a dime. A developer wants to build the tunnel with private money,
recouping his costs by charging drivers $25 each way to cross the tunnel
between Oyster Bay and Rye, N.Y., and by selling advertising, including the
possibility of selling the naming rights.
While not expected to be completed before 2025, the tunnel project received
renewed attention this week when a state Senate committee held a hearing
about the proposal.
The developer, Vincent Polimeni, admitted his proposal was initially met
with "smirks and skepticism." But he added, "the more people looked at the
plan, the larger circle of intrigued citizens who said, `tell me more.'"
The tunnel also brought back memories of Robert Moses, the modern icon of
municipal planners, who was rebuffed in his bid to build a bridge over Long
Island Sound three decades ago. Moses was savaged by officials on Long
Island over the project.
"Considering that we're on Long Island, I'm amazed they didn't run me out
of the room," Polimeni cracked during a recess Thursday at the hearing. "I
think it's a good sign."
Polimeni, a longtime developer of malls and office buildings in the New
York area and who has done the same in cities across Poland for the past
decade, says the tunnel would help alleviate traffic congestion and give
travelers between Long Island and New England an option that eliminates the
need to traverse New York City.
State Sen. Carl L. Marcellino, who lives just blocks from where the
southern terminus of the proposed tunnel would be built, was among the
skeptics but has not indicated whether he will support the proposal. He
noted that despite being privately funded, "there will be approvals
required from governmental entities before this thing can go forward."
Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. is lending its investment banking advice to
Polimeni, who has paid $250,000 out of his own pocket for engineering
Polimeni has also employed the engineering and construction firm Hatch Mott
MacDonald, a company that has been involved in tunnel projects worldwide,
including the "Chunnel" that connects Great Britain and France via rail.
At between 16 and 18 miles, depending on final design specifications, the
Long Island Sound project would eclipse the 15.2-mile Laerdal Tunnel in
Norway as the world's longest highway tunnel.
It would consist of two tubes that would convey three lanes of traffic
each, as well as a central tunnel to be used for maintenance access and
emergency ventilation and egress _ all built below the bed of the Sound. A
traditional toll plaza would be eliminated in favor of a high-tech system
similar to E-ZPass or a license plate scanner that could debit a driver's
bank account for the toll fee.
Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto, who described the project as
"intriguing to say the least," nevertheless said his initial reaction was
"it is unrealistic." He promised, however, to review "as much empirical
data as we possibly can so we don't have to make knee-jerk reactions and we
can make an informed decision."
Elected officials from the proposed tunnel's northern terminus were not as
"We cannot in Westchester absorb the additional traffic that this tunnel
would bring to our roads," said Rye Mayor Steven Otis. "It simply would
make our roads non-functional."
He said the Westchester Municipal Officials Association voted in December
to oppose the project. "Our hopes are that the project will be withdrawn,"
Otis said.
Polimeni contends the estimated 80,000 vehicles a day using the tunnel
would simply represent a shift in what roads the vehicles are using, not an
increase. He also argues the tunnel would ease air pollution because
vehicles would be traveling shorter distances to get to the same
Syosset resident Gino Longinotti said he was curious about the project, but
didn't "see it being feasible. We have traffic conditions now where all the
roads are congested."
For some, the tunnel proposal stirs memories of Moses' plans for a bridge
between Oyster Bay and Rye. The man responsible for the Throgs Neck, the
Bronx-Whitestone, the Henry Hudson, and the Verrazano Narrows bridges
ultimately failed in his bid for another span when then-Gov. Nelson
Rockefeller yielded to backlash among powerful suburban Republicans, who
rallied to defeat the bridge project in 1973.
Polimeni is not discouraged.
"Moses had the idea, only he was going to go up and over and nobody wanted
to see this," he said. The key, he said to his alternate strategy, was to
avoid a towering span and take the plan underground: "I thought, make it