09 July, 2004 - 12:13 p.m. - Pay no attention to the programmer behind the curtain...
At work, i'm in the midst of getting a massive survey ready to go out to our field office. This is the...(counts)...fourth time we've done this, but it's the first time i've been as heavily involved in it as i am now. I sent a test version out this morning but there's still some testing and debugging to do on my end. And it's going well, for the most part--there are some big problems with the survey, but they're the kind of problems that only pop up when you decide to go back and change entire classes of answers farther down the line.
I wonder whether our research subjects have any idea of what goes into creating a survey like this. Probably not. Really, if i were one of them, i either wouldn't think about it or wouldn't care. But i guess that's what we're aiming for: if the research subjects notice the design of the survey, it's most likely due to a problem with it. We're supposed to be behind-the-scenes and smooth as silk (heh--yeah, right).
It's just odd, being a developer for something that's supposed to be seamlessly integrated to the point where its users don't really notice it.
08 July, 2004 - 12:02 p.m. - A multitude of voices
Saw this article over at Wired this morning. My blog is pretty humble. It isn't exactly front page material and it doesn't have a huge readership, but i don't forsee it ending anytime soon. As long as there are things to think about, i'll be posting. There might be longer lapses between posts when things are busy at home, but i just can't see myself giving up on this little slice of weblife.
It amazes me whenever i read about blogs with huge followings. In many cases, it makes sense--blogs by powerful or influential people, blogs by musicians or authors or artists, and blogs by celebrities of any degree are bound to have a huge following. What amazes me is the number of blogs by ordinary people that have large readerships. It's empowering to think that ordinary folks can have heavy readership, that ordinary people are becoming a new type of celebrity.
Are we really and finally in an age where the common man is as influential as the politician? No. But people's voices are being heard, and that's a huge step.
07 July, 2004 - 9:45 a.m. - The cruellest of pet toys
B bought a laser pointer at the pet store yesterday. The cats are going nuts over this thing. And you know, if it wasn't so gloriously entertaining, i'd feel guilty about them chasing something they can never catch....
One of the best things about this toy is that the head detaches and can be replaced with heads that produce a shape. Ours came with a mouse-shaped one that looks like this:
Equally amusing is the packaging. On the front, there are little boxes that explain how different pets react to it:
On ours, there's one box that says, "Fish are attracted to it!" and another that says, "Reptiles are intrigued by it!"
I can just imagine an iguana looking at the laser, looking up at the owner, back at the laser, and thinking, "Hmmm. I'm intrigued."