• Mozilla Weave server (because Mozilla’s services.mozilla.com is frequently swamped and inaccessible)
• TrackMe! Mobile Location server (because I just want to do cool stuff with my new HTC Kaiser)

If you find some cool server project floating around on the tubes, let me know!

Every web form has a few components; labels, input fields, and actions. We use the labels to ask questions of our users, the input fields to give them a way to answer our questions, and actions to let them submit the answers they’ve filled in.

The alignment of your labels can have a profound effect on how people go about filling in your form. There are three types of alignment: left, right, and top.

Top-aligned labels keep the labels and input fields close together. This provides three distinct advantages:

• Processing the labels and input fields requires little cognitive effort because they’re so close together (average of 50ms to move from label to input, vs. 500ms for left-aligned labels and 240ms for right-aligned)
• You can get through the form more quickly because you only have to worry about moving in one direction (down)
• There is plenty of room for the labels to expand horizontally (so you can fit longer ones on the page)

The disadvantage is that they require a lot of vertical space.

Right-aligned labels have reduced readability compared to left or top-aligned labels due to the ragged left edge they create (because we read from left to right, we prefer hard lines on the left side). They also suffer from issues with flexibility; you’ll often see right-aligned labels taking up two vertical lines of space which makes them harder to read. However, they have the benefit of taking up less vertical space and keep the label adjacent to the input field (cuts down on processing time).

Left-aligned labels make it very easy to scan through the entire list of labels in a form, useful when users have to fill in potentially unknown information. They also take up less vertical space. However, the variable length of the gap between the label and the input field requires a lot of cognitive processing power and will slow down users.

The type of alignment you use depends on the situation; there’s a place for everything!

Images from Luke Wroblewski’s excellent book, Web Form Design: Filling In the Blanks

The machine is pretty zippy, having the following specs:

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo “Peryn” with 3MB L2 cache
• 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
• 200GB 5400RPM hard drive
• 1440×900 LED-backlit screen (matte finish)
• 802.11a/b/g/n wireless and Gigabit ethernet
• GeForce 8600GT-M with 256MB of VRAM
• Slot-loading DVD+/-RW burner

The first thing I noticed about the Macbook Pro was its all-aluminum construction. I’ve never used a notebook whose body was completely made out of metal (Lenovo’s high-end ThinkPads with their magnesium frames come the closest). It’s extremely solid, although the metal does tend to heat up more quickly than the plastics on my old notebooks have. The screen is the real shocker; this is the first LED-backlit panel I’ve used, and it is downright awesome. Not only is the screen super-thin (for something real crazy, go take a look at the Macbook Air in person), the colors are rich and the contrast and brightness are worlds-above what my X61 tablet could manage. I’m really liking the feel of the keyboard keys. There’s no flex to the keyboard at all, and when it’s dark in the room you’re typing in, the keyboard backlight automatically turns on to help you see. The only real issue I’m having has to do with my transition from Windows - I keep pressing Control-C/V/X to copy, cut, and paste (it’s Command-C/V/X on the Mac).

The speakers are better than the mono one on my old ThinkPad, but (as you might expect from a notebook with no subwoofer), they’re lacking in the bass department. I haven’t tried plugging in my headphones yet to listen for any line noise. The slot-loading DVD drive is a nice touch as well, but it’s pretty noisy, and I feared that my discs were getting eaten judging by the noises I first heard. Apparently, after some research, I found that slot-loaders DO tend to cause more wear on your discs after awhile. We’ll see how everything goes.

OS X is very shiny; there’s a lot more gloss spread around than there was on XP (or even Vista). I can see how the general experience is geared towards “creativity.” It’s almost like OS X is pushing you to just jump in and start making something (Apple has bundled movie, audio, and image creation apps right into the OS). I’m going to start playing around with GarageBand, so expect to see some horrible loop-generated music hitting the blogs soon!

I suppose my only real complaint so far is how expensive the 3rd party software is. Parallels (the virtualization software) runs $80 per copy, and other awesome apps like Apple’s iWork suite and Panic’s Coda run $80 per copy as well. I’d like to get copies of all of these things, but $240 is a lot of money for software.

So far, I’m liking what I’m using! I’ll keep putting up any additional thoughts as they come into my head.

That being said, I basically have three options that I’ve narrowed myself down to.

The lightest (and also the most expensive) would be a new Sony Vaio Z-Series. It’s powerful, portable, and has discrete graphics that don’t completely stink. Not so sure about the very MacBook-like keyboard, but the quality certainly seems to be there.

The middle-of-the-road model (and likely the most inexpensive) would be a Lenovo IdeaPad U330. It’s not a slim or light as the Sony, but the keyboard is the rock-solid ThinkPad one (I love ThinkPad keyboards) and it’s pretty powerful. The only issue (apparently) is that the “mirror-like” screen can cause headaches.

And finally, the heaviest option (at 7 pounds) is a Clevo M860tu (aka Sager NP8660). The bang for the buck ratio here is simply incredible (this thing is basically better than my desktop, crammed into a laptop shell). The quality appears to be top-notch as well. Again, the only issue at the end of the day is the weight (really heavy).

In a perfect world, LG would sell their P300 in the United States, but (despite what they’ve said), that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.

Thoughts?

The software supports importing just about anything. Audio, video, pictures, ink, and written text are all supported, and the UI is pretty intuitive. The caveat is that “free” accounts have small monthly upload caps (50MB). For $5/month or $45/year, your upload cap gets bumped up to 500MB, you’ll have priority online indexing, and ads get removed from public notebooks. Time will tell if I’ll need to actually go for a pro account…

Watch the video on the front page.

I never thought I’d see the day, but Red Octane has brought the ever-popular Guitar Hero series to the Nintendo DS. While not quite as good as its console relatives, Guitar Hero: On Tour’s experience is incredibly fun and entertaining in its own right.

Boasting 25 tracks (see the full setlist), most of which are master recordings, On Tour has a much smaller musical selection than its console bretheren. It’s not difficult to imagine why; the maximum size for Nintendo DS cartridges sits at 2 gigabits (or about ~256 megabytes), and when one needs to keep audio quality as high as possible, there’s not much wiggle room for additional songs. As a result, the audio quality is fantastic (right up there with AAA DS titles), even through the DS’s tiny speakers.As far as modes go, Career Mode is back with five venues, each with five songs to play and four difficulty levels. Practice and Quickplay modes return for those wanting to perfect their skills. On the wireless multiplayer front, a much-improved Guitar Battle mode returns from Guitar Hero and you can still engage in Face-Offs or play Cooperatively with a friend.

But what about the experience? How did Red Octane get the essentials of the Guitar Hero experience on to the DS? I’ll explain with some photos:

Everything comes packaged in a solid cardboard box with plastic shells holding the items in place.

You’ll get a copy of Guitar Hero: On Tour, the Guitar Grip (more on that in a second), an extra stylus pick (great quality), manuals, and an adapter for original Nintendo DS units (their GBA cartridge slot is full-size). Switching out adapters requires a straight-head screwdriver.

Here’s the result of over 25 prototyping iterations; the Guitar Grip! It’s extremely well-built for starters; everything from the straps to the buttons feel solid. An adjustable handstrap allows the grip to adjust for different-sized hands, and the artwork can be easily replaced by simply popping the plastic shell apart and inserting a new paper inlay.

The grip itself slots snugly into the GBA cartridge slot on the bottom of the DS. If you want to switch out the slot adapter for an original DS-compatible one, you just need to loosen two straight-head screws, slide the old adapter out, slide then ew one in, and retighten.

Red Octane apparently tried a grip with five buttons (and it worked alright), but you can’t really slide your fingers properly when you’re holding the DS. Also, I’m thinking that the buttons would be a bit…shall we say squished…if there were five instead of four. Expert players needn’t worry; the lack of the fifth fret button doesn’t reduce the difficulty of Hard and Expert modes. All of the note tracks for On Tour’s songs have been reworked from scratch (you may recognize a few songs from Guitar Hero III).

The DS is a little bulkier with the grip inserted.

And here’s another shot from the back.

Now, on to the gameplay! Single player houses Quickplay, Career, CPU Guitar Battle, and Practice modes, while multiplayer provides access to Face-Off, Cooperative, and Guitar Battle modes that you can play with a friend.

Instead of hitting a strum bar, in Guitar Hero: On Tour, you slide the pick stylus across the guitar on the touchscreen. This works pretty well, although I’ve experienced a few situations where I was positive I hit the screen and a note didn’t register. To whammy, you simply wiggle the stylus on the screen post-slide and lift off when you’re finished. Activating Star Power is done by pressing the appropriate incon on the touch screen, hitting A/B/X/Y/Start/Select, or yelling loudly into the microphone. So how does it all feel? The Guitar Grip takes a little getting used to, and you’ll have to adjust the strap and experiment with a few ways to hold the stylus pick before you get into a groove. However, patient folks will be rewarded with a very fullfilling portable Guitar Hero experience. Career Mode is fun, but the real entertainment comes from the multiplayer modes. Guitar Battles have a slew of new power-ups, ranging from the shirt-signing to lighting your opponent’s guitar on fire (blow out the flames by blowing into the microphone). Cooperative Mode and Face-Off are just as much fun as they are on the console versions.

So, as I said at the begining, I don’t think you’ll end up prefering Guitar Hero: On Tour over any of the console iterations; there’s something about holding that guitar controller that just makes the experience more fulfilling. However, the DS iteration is extremely fun (especially if you have someone else to play it with), and it’s one of the finest portable rythym games available. At $50 it may seem expensive, but it’s only a small premium over the usual AAA DS titles (and this is including a hardware peripheral). A worthy buy for any Guitar Hero fan with a Nintendo DS!