Shadow Footprints

I've been tasked with identifying blogs suitable for colleagues who know very little about blogs. I'll be recommending they use google reader for them.

I'm looking for the following categories:

• GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
• Mapping
• Property
• Other

Please either leave a comment or use this contact form to send me a message privately. (Sorry about the appearance of the contact form, a blog upgrade replaced the one I had previously and I didn't notice.)

There's a good post on writing Use Cases without specifying design on Modern Analyst.

The key thing in use cases is to not refer to any UI design constructs, that is:

• Don't refer to buttons: e.g. instead of "user presses the Send button", say something like "user instructs system to send the e-mail"
• Don't refer to other UI controls: e.g. instead of "user selects the state from the dropdown", say something like "user specifies the state for the address"
• Don't refer to screens/pop-ups/pages: e.g. instead of "systems displays the login screen", say something like "system requests user to provide authentication information".
• etc.

The way I teach analysts to keep the use cases design agnostic is to have them imagine that they are building a system where the interface between the human (actor) and the system is voice (no keyboard, no mouse, no screens, etc.). If you keep that in mind, the way you specify the interaction between the system and the human actor will become less design centric.

For example: a use case for authentication login might look like this:

1. User requests access to the system
2. System requests for user identification and pass code
3. User provides the requested identification and pass code
4. System validates that the user is allowed to access the system
5. System notifies the user that access has been granted.

Tips I will use.

"If you practice an art, be proud of it and make it proud of you … It may break your heart, but it will fill your heart before it breaks it; it will make you a person in your own right."
-- Maxwell Anderson

1. Article/Post

Bob's Other Job at Where is Bob?

We agreed to meet at 9pm at a Starbucks just around the corner from the Apple Store. I had fun pretending that I was taking part of some covert spy operation (oh, like you don’t do that). Even Jason the intern showed up to see what the “crazy old folks” were up to. Some of us even brought our spouses and significant others, mostly because they never believed any of our outrageous stories about Bob. Since we rarely do things together outside of the office, this turned out to be a fantastic, albeit surreal, bonding experience for our team.

We were so caught up with giddiness about our venture that we completely overlooked a major flaw in our plan. “How are we going to explain the presence of our entire staff here,” Nick mused as we walked through the door. It was a bit too late to consider an alternative, because Bob spotted us right away.

2. Picture

The Temples of Syrinx in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, by Michael Dehaan

3. Comment

We're Sorry - Google apologising for Gmail troubles.

We heard loud and clear today how much people care about their Gmail accounts. We followed all the emails to our support team and user group, we fielded phone calls from Google Apps customers and friends, and we saw the many Twitter posts. (We also heard from plenty of Googlers, who use Gmail for company email.) We never take for granted the commitment we've made to running an email service that you can count on.

4. List

10 Movies That Shouldn’t Have Been Made This [US] Summer

1. Disaster Movie
2. Postal
3. Meet Dave
4. The Love Guru
5. Swing Vote
6. Hancock
7. X-Files: I Want to Believe
8. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
9. The Happening
10. Star War: Clone Wars

5. Video

Google Maps

Sometimes, truth isn't good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.
-- Batman

I finally got to see The Dark Knight. I enjoyed it.

The grounds was icy this morning, as I took this on my way to catch the train.

Do you know why you will be voting?

• Will your Party vote to put/keep a party in government, or will you vote to put/keep a party out of government?
• Will you be voting on an issue or policy?
• Will your Electorate vote be for a person or a party?
• Have you met the person?
• Does news about your MP encourage you to vote for or against them?
• Have you met your local MP?
• Have you met a neighbouring MP?
• Have you met any list MP local to you?

If you don't vote you deserve the government you get. Don't complain about it.