eConsultant

news @ nature.com - Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye - Potential readers can make snap decisions in just 50 milliseconds.

"Lindgaard and her team presented volunteers with the briefest glimpses of web pages previously rated as being either easy on the eye or particularly jarring, and asked them to rate the websites on a sliding scale of visual appeal. Even though the images flashed up for just 50 milliseconds, roughly the duration of a single frame of standard television footage, their verdicts tallied well with judgements made after a longer period of scrutiny. "

Salon.com editor Scott Rosenberg shares a tip on how he avoids the
pointless waste of time that is sorting socks:

(1) Throw out all your old socks (or donate them, if they're presentable).

(2) Decide what color socks you need. The fewer colors the better.
I've gone minimalist-retro: there's the black socks, and there's the
white socks, and that's it.

(3) Purchase large quantities of socks in those colors. You can get
different brands/makes for each color, as long as all socks of the
same color are exactly the same.

(4) Just dump the socks in your dresser drawer as is from the clean
wash -- don't sort or pair them. When you need a pair, grab any two of
the same color -- they're guaranteed to match!

This approach also conveniently guarantees that The Missing Sock that
got eaten by the laundry machine won't unbalance a pair, too.

Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment

NetGear : 54Mbps Wireless Travel Router : $60

Rebate : $50

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, turned 5 years old January 15, 2006.

The English Wikipedia alone now has more than 920,000 articles, with over 340,000,000 words. The millionth article is expected to appear in late February or early March. The combined Wikipedias for all languages have an estimated total of over 3,100,000 articles in some two hundred languages. Eighty-four of the non-English Wikipedias have over 1,000 articles, thirty-six have over 10,000 and seven have over 100,000.

Free software for GTDing ...

ToDoList 4.5.12 - A simple and effective way to keep on top of your tasks - The Code Project - Free Tools

AbstractSpoon Software - The home of ToDoList and other free software!

Here's Business 2.0, which is supposed to be a "hi-tech magazine" - one would think they would know how to use the web.

Want to read 49 Golden Rules by 49 business leaders? You get 4 on the link page and 45 others on a pop-up which have one each.

The magazine wants you to click 49 times to read one paragraph each !!! Don't cry, it gets worse.

Where is the golden rule you might ask - it is Photoshopped on the photo !!!

You can't even select it as text !!!

Want to link to a specific one? You are out of luck - it's hidden in some javascript - the people at AOL-Time-Warner think that's too much; they want you to go to the link page and use the pop up every time.

A company with the market-cap of $80+ Billion should be able to do much better than that.

BUSINESS 2.0: My golden rule - Nov. 28, 2005: "49 leaders, from Buffett to Spitzer, share their secrets to success."