Alex Hardy

Robert Hoekman Jr, usability guru and author of the brilliant Designing the Obvious conveys inside a 140-character Twitter post why CAPTCHAs suck:

“Enter correct CAPTCHA, get error, reenter chosen password, recheck checkboxes, reenter correct CAPTCHA, wash, rinse, repeat.”

Ugly. Glitchy. Problematic from a readability and accessibility standpoint. I think CAPTCHAs are horrible and I won’t be adding them to my applications.

A simple question/answer spam challenge – as on Building Findable Websites – is a far more elegant solution. This is definitely *on* the roadmap.

There is a seemingly endless supply of great PDF eBooks on the web. Design and marketing are (as you might imagine) particularly well catered for.

Here are three new ones that are particularly worthy of your attention:

The Art & Science of CSS

SitePoint are running a 14-day giveaway of The Art & Science of CSS, which ordinarily sells for $29.95. Follow SitePoint on Twitter or supply your email on the promotion page to receive your copy. Hurry!

Tribes Q&A

Seth Godin has released a Q&A eBook from the social network that he established called Triiibes, which was set up beside his new book Tribes (in paperback and audiobook). All about fostering active community, it is interesting because it was written by Triiibes members – proving its own message.

If you are interested in marketing you really should read Seth’s blog.

The Unscary, Real World Guide to SEO Copywriting

Ian Lurie of Portent Interactive has released a new eBook called The Unscary, Real World Guide to SEO Copywriting. At just $5 and 31 pages it’s a bite-size snack and a useful intro to search engine optimised copy for any writer who wants to learn but is put off by the dubious advice and technobabble that surrounds SEO.

I reviewed his dead tree book Conversation Marketing back in April.

Seth Godin’s latest blog post is short, sweet and sums up my marketing strategy:

Your customers and employees and investors will remember how you treated them when times were tough, when they needed a break, when a little support meant everything…

I can build a product and I’m enjoying getting into online marketing but it doesn’t come naturally to me. I find a happy customer is the best sales rep.

I touched upon this issue in a post about “Save For Web” colour discrepancies so it seemed fitting to remark on a bit of Apple news that caught my eye.

According to AppleInsider, the next version of Mac OS X (dubbed “Snow Leopard”) will default to 2.2 gamma. This small change will please many, myself included.

In a nutshell, this means that Mac OS X will display colour in a manner that is more consistent with other systems like Windows and TVs. This is generally beneficial to end users and designers of screen-based media like websites, DVDs etc.

As observed in my other post, print designers may argue that this is detrimental. That the darker, higher-contrast image represents Apple pandering to the mass market.

… Which of course they are. Apple are in business to sell product. Designers are an important part of the Mac market, but the best selling Mac by far is the MacBook.

Any self-respecting print pro should know how to calibrate their colour settings to suit their needs. The rest of us have one less headache.