links for 2009-09-04

"For lunch I had a cheeseburger and chips and a corn on the cob and a strawberry milkshake". I am assuming this is not the standard lunchtime diet of your standard fashion model. Great little blog post full of breathless punctuation from an 8 year old about her day in fashion.

'Clarke told Press Gazette: "It does annoy me that people say its all driven by search and showbiz stories because it’s actually not driven by either…Showbiz is less that 25 per cent of traffic. News is far more important to us than showbiz.. News is what drives our site. While around 30 per cent of traffic came from search engine referrals, Clarke said, the 'vast majority' came from readers typing in 'Daily Mail'. Non-branded search referrals were 'tiny', he added'.

"To be fair to the papers, the job ad on which they were basing their copy lacked clarity. With its calls to ‘embrace’, ‘re-engineer’, ‘extend’ and ‘engage’, the technocratic language is certainly open to some interpretation. Nevertheless, there were some obvious inaccuracies, not least the job title, worthy of correction. As yet, scanning the print and online versions of these publications, no corrections have been made."

The study is interesting, but what a dumb question to lead the press release with. I wonder if back in the day they would have written "Is electricity / bicycles / radio / the revelation that the earth revolves around the sun changing childhood?" as if 'childhood' was some fixed immutable experience.

Yes, I know it has a special die-cut sleeve, and yes, I know you get a digital version bundled with it, but £10 for a two track 12" single?

John Redwood can be *very* dry: "You might also have read in the papers that we are currently prevented from attending Parliament to conduct Parliamentary business, so this is a time of year when we are not busy. It is during Parliamentary sessions that we work very long days trying to fit it all in to too compact a Parliamentary timetable. I was able to pass some of my time opening the 15 images you thoughtfully sent as attachments which all seemed to be copies of the same signature which appeared at the bottom of the letter".

"Google now owns the idea of having a giant search box in the middle of the page, with two big buttons underneath and several small links nearby. WTF?". Hmm, I wonder if I could patent having a disorganised blog that doesn't demonstrate any particular information architecture skills?

"I've been thinking about the search functionality for our online shop this week. I'll write up our approach to search properly at a later date but for now I thought I'd share the variety of search forms I've seen on other online shops."

"I've been watching Usabilla for some time now as a beta tester with the expectation of utilizing it on several projects. They've continued to make improvements to the app, with the help of our feedback. They've also posted new information on their site to familiarize users with their product. This is a review of my recent test with the latest revisions". Free trial available, looks well worth a peek.

Literally 100 events in Kings Place over today and the weekend. John Cage's "Music for Amplified Toy Pianos" is being performed in the Gallery Area each morning of the festival at 9am - I went this morning.

"This autumn SoundUK brings you two of Britain’s brightest folk and electronics artists, Lisa Knapp and Leafcutter John, who collaborate for the first time to create new music inspired by the culture and history of the British waterways. Following the world premiere inside the London Canal Museum at 7.30pm on Wednesday 9 September, the 1930s narrow boat The Chiswick will journey up the once thriving trade route from London to Birmingham, Britain’s longest single stretch of canal. Serving as a floating stage, The Chiswick stops for performances along the banks of five canal side settings, each chosen for their natural beauty and significance to the history of the canal". Unfortunately this clashes with the Linked Data meet-up *and* England / Croatia, otherwise I'd be there