I recently discovered the new Google Reader "Explore" section, just above my subscriptions in the left-hand panel: Using it like my screenshot above - not expanded - means that when I click on the "Explore" text, I get an endless, combined feed of everything Google Reader thinks I might like (there's actually been some good stuff there too) for the price of one line of text. This is much handier than viewing a list of feed titles using the old "Browse for stuff" link and having to make a decision to even click on a feed based on the title, author and...

I love the DailyWTF blog and recently had a WTF moment of my own while signing up at the Blockbuster (Australia) website:   In my case the password wasn't long enough, but Blockbuster effectively "threw the book" at me and dumped all the password error text onto the screen. I read and re-read the highlighted text but it still didn't make sense, especially considering I didn't use any non-alphanumeric characters. If something should "contain at least zero" then it could also be written "should not contain" which might have come off better. Tags: wtf, blockbuster, design, ui, error

I've been playing with the excellent JQuery JavaScript library for a while now. Recently I came across a technique for fading in and out two images based on mouse over and mouse out; and I wanted to see if I could create a fade-in and fade-out hover effect without the images. It's a testament to the robustness and flexibility of JQuery that I could do this in so little code, with so little knowledge. Admittedly my first go can be CPU-intensive, however the code is short and sweet - include JQuery and JQuery UI, mark your elements with a CSS class...

At work we have a very simple microwave with only 4 buttons (not counting the door open lever/button): This microwave manages to be one of the most effective user interfaces I've ever come across. Pressing the plus ("+") button ups the time in 10 second increments, until you reach 90 seconds, and then it ups the time in 1 minute intervals. Once you pass 90 seconds, the display shows whole minutes. You can't set a time of 17 seconds, for example, or even 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Pressing the minus button decreases the time by 1 minute if the current time...