No wonder some people can't recognise satire, when you get something like this insane "survey" that looks like satire, but isn't.

If you ask leading questions, you'll get dodgy answers; which I guess is perfect when you want dodgy answers...

Hats off to Moshtix for putting in the effort to make a clean and usable signup process that clearly explains things. Interesting advice on password security, though:

"This allows you access your profile next time you buy tickets. Tip: mum's maiden/pet/child's name are easy to remember."

Perhaps they think people who go to gigs are likely to have a below average brain cell count.

EDIT: They let you store credit card details in your profile, making the advice about choosing an easy password particularly concerning.

One of the questions in a work survey asks:

How important is it to you that your immediate manager talks to your team about:
[list of information areas]

All good and well, but they copied the answers for the radio buttons from a previous question – "how would you rate your immediate manager's communication skills when providing you with information about", so if something is/isn't important to me, which of these do I pick?

Excellent, Above Average, Average, Below Average, Poor

Proofread, people!

Pretty much every day I observe some example of poor usability and have an urge to post about it (or maybe tell the relevant company about it). Then, of course, I don't get around to it, or forget about it...

Yesterday's observation: the activation process for 3 Mobile Broadband needs work.

I bought a USB 3G Modem plus prepaid recharge voucher from 3. I clearly remembered selecting Mobile Broadband and carefully following what was happening on the screen, but when the activation finally completed 24 hours later, I saw that it only showed recharge options for phone services.

I can guess what may have happened. I think the activation process is not based on the SIM. (It should be: they should have a record that SIM # foo is for data rather than phone.) Nor is it based on what I select on the screen. I reckon it's based on polling the device the SIM is in during the activation step. That makes it my fault: they did say to make sure the USB modem was in the computer, with the software installed and the SIM inserted. I didn't do that ('coz I didn't see the point – I just wanted to activate the service).

So why is it their usability problem? Because the design requires people to follow instructions that don't seem immediately relevant to activation and there is no explanation of why they are relevant.

It could be improved by appending the instruction: "Already set up your modem and your Internet Key Modem is plugged in" with something like "This will ensure 3 knows your SIM is for Mobile Broadband".

It could be improved further by tracking which SIMs are for data or for phone.

And lastly, I'm just one user, talking (way too verbosely) about one very minor thing. To improve usability properly requires further user observation.

No rush, but at some point, I need to start syncing my iPod to the MacBook Pro instead of the iMac. The problem is, I don't have enough space to fit all the music on the MacBook Pro. I wonder what will be the best approach. I can think of two options so far:

1. Put the music on an external disk. But then I'll want copies of some of the music on the laptop so I have music away from my desk. Which means I need to figure out the best way to manage the "full library" and the "portable library". Unless there's a good app for dealing with this, I expect it would involve having a separate account that points to the music on the Drobo, then logging into that when I want to sync the iPod.

2. Buying a larger HDD for the MacBook Pro. So far that's sounding easier. Just costlier. Perhaps I shall put off the whole exercise till I have no choice but to upgrade do to other stuff.

Any ideas on software to manage #1, or other suggestions on what to do when your music doesn't fit on your computer?

EDIT: Is there anything Google can't answer? A forum post notes that iTunes supports multiple libraries (just hold down Option when launching iTunes), so there's no need for a different account.

EDIT #2: And another Google search will help me move the iTunes library and not just the music. (The forum post, admittedly from 2007, talks about deleting the library – no way!)

Oh, the excitement that a power outage generates. Especially this time, when there are more people in the office. I wish my computer was on a UPS.

Now to wait for my computer to start up again (usually 5-10 minutes), remember what I was typing in that email, and hope that I don't lose anything else when we switch back over from generator power to mains.

I'm considering changing my default mail format in Outlook (work email only!) from plain text to HTML.

I feel so dirty.

So, I spent much of the week poring over a document that I had only just been sent and was assured it was the latest version. Now I discover it was significantly out of date.

Both have the same filename.
Both have the same "Last Saved" date on the cover page. (Because the author didn't use a field.)
But I got the one missing the useful info.

I really wish we had some form of version control system and repository here, but failing that, can't we all please increment a number in the filename before sharing it with others?

EDIT: Looking closer, it seems he did send me the latest version, but I somehow still printed the old copy. Grr. Maybe I would have picked up on that mistake if there were version numbers!

Finally took the plunge and upgraded to Snow Leopard. Pretty smooth so far.

Biggest disappointment? rsync doesn't work! WTF? I thought it was part of the base install, but maybe I installed it separately. Oh well, no online backup for me till I get it fixed. :-(

Now that Snow Leopard's taking off, does anyone here have a copy of Leopard they're willing to part with cheaply? It would be nice to get this iMac G5 onto something more recent than Tiger...