I guess I’m still old fashion. I like to see progress. If you don’t show me what you’re doing, I lose trust in what I’ve asked you to do for me. Humans show progress in almost everything they do. Can you fold this paper up and seal it in an envelope for me? Sure, I can sit here for a minute and watch you. Thanks. Do you take longer than a minute to fold a page in thirds, open the envelope, stuff the folded sheet, and lick the envelope shut? Oh, so the page isn’t folding in thirds very well? I see you’re frustrated with not getting it aligned correctly. Patience…I’ll wait because I know you’re attempting to fold the page.

So you’re asking what the heck is this all about. Tonight I’ve had yet another instance with this web 2.0 AJAXy stuff. I want to see the events for March in this Google calendar. It’s the end of February and there’s not much left to do in February. After I select March, Google’s calendar says it’s loading. I hope March madness doesn’t take over seven minutes to load the events. Still loading…okay. It’s similar to a Windows hang, but things are still reacting. Loading. How about April? Loading. Do you think it’s fetching anything? Loading. Can I click a February event? Loading. Refresh, click March. Loading.

Anyone hear of timeouts?

At least the interface didn’t freeze up. But you’re letting me select another month. Any month I select fails! There’s this Loading… signal that remains untouched. My internet isn’t blinking. How do I know that I’m not wasting my time! Errg!

I’ve been reviewing some website access logs. In the last week I’ve noticed an unusual event. The referrals on some of the accesses are coming from a common patterned website addresses. But when you go there, you don’t see the linked pages. It’s a great way to target webmasters into visiting squatted domains. You just have to log a page with your website address as the referral to each website that is small enough that a webmaster will take the time to see where the referrals are coming from. Then you wait for visits to your domains, which happen to have adsense or other advertising revenue. A new type of spam on the horizon?

On today, the day when probably the most ecards are sent during the year, I’ve been thinking about the process. Hallmark and probably every other card vendor allow senders to receive notification when the recipent opens and reads a free electronic greeting card. Cool, I’ll know if my special friend wants to still be my special friend, or, it’s time to part ways!

Oh, but what about the other means. I mean, sign up for a free gmail account (today’s the first day!), send a bunch of people cards and track which are live! Use a annoyomous service to change IP addresses, and you can get a few more cards sent. Why would you do it, um, you tell me!

Nah, I’m just paranoid. But I’m still waiting for the notification. Please!

Okay, here’s a website that provides useful election information.  Not really a 2.0 site, but it’s a good resource for tomorrow’s election.  It could use an update in the design.  AJAX would look nice.

Stop reading this and go catch up on the election.  There’s a quiz tomorrow!

I think I understand the whole security thing with banking online. Bank of America, on the frontpage has an Enter Online ID box and an Account In box. On the next page they show you an image you picked once upon a time. You can then enter your pin and go on your merry way. Simple. The image is so you can “verify” you’re on their page vs. a phishing site. Okay, I can do that.

ING Direct, though, implemented a whole different login process. You enter your customer number. They show you the image, and you type in your pin. Well, in my Firefox, you have to click the keypad graphics. Err. But if you clear your cookies, they make you type in answers to two questions you set up once upon a time. Okay, great! If someone is looking over my connection right then, I think they know a little more than I want them to know.

Oh why do I have to spill my life in order to login to find out if I have enough money to pay a bill! Come on!