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Experiencing Amsterdam

Submitted by Jakob on 31 May, 2006 - 23:25.My Blog | Travel

I've been in the Netherlands since Saturday and it has been a blast. I'm here to visit our fellow cog sci student friends from our friend-program in Nijmegen. Yesterday and today were spent in Amsterdam, a beautiful though somewhat strangely bizarre city which I couldn't help falling in love with.

Going to the Netherlands

Submitted by Jakob on 25 May, 2006 - 12:42.My Blog | Travel

My Internet connection is down and has been down since Tuesday which is why I haven't posted in three days. I'm quite annoyed with the way my ISP handles it, it seems their tech support is taking the holiday and weekend off, so nothing will be done until Monday when I'll be in the Netherlands.

Are you sure you bought that DVD just to watch it?

Submitted by Jakob on 22 May, 2006 - 13:59.My Blog | Movies & Film | Music

Standing in the kitchen washing up some plates today I suddenly started thinking about the pricing of DVDs and music. Perhaps the thought came since I watched a film with some friends last night, a film I had bought at discount price. I started wondering why people are prepared to pay more for a movie than an album, since an album in most cases has more replay value. This lead me to some other thoughts regarding why we buy music and movies in the first place, because it's not always and only about listening or watching them.

Reach for the stars

Submitted by Jakob on 21 May, 2006 - 13:20.My Blog | Astronomy | Science | Science-Fiction

I was stumbling around with StumbleUpon, a Firefox extension that helps you discover some of the best websites and came upon this incredible long exposure of a shuttle launch.

Don't let your computer bully you

Submitted by Jakob on 21 May, 2006 - 01:19.My Blog | Human-Computer Interaction | Psychology | Usability

Usability is interesting, not just because you learn a lot about how people think and feel but because you don't let bad application designers get away with it. People who work with usability are probably the hardest to satisfy, they will not accept a solution that is hard to use. Regular users on the other hand, often let their applications bully them into submission. In fact it's a sound conclusion to say that if more users had less respect for their applications people would generally feel less stressed at work.

Congratulations Finland!

Submitted by Jakob on 21 May, 2006 - 00:07.My Blog | Music | Politics & Society

A complete surprise, Finland won the Eurovision Song Contest this year and I can't imagine a better or more deserving winner. Finland's never done better than ending up sixth place and that was back in 1973. Best of all, they didn't just win with any song, they won with Finnish trademark music: heavy rock, so this is great news indeed!

Send me feedback about my site and win a prize

Submitted by Jakob on 20 May, 2006 - 18:22.My Blog | Website Updates

I'm constantly trying to improve this site, adding new quality content but in order to make my site even better I need your help. I have created a feedback form with a few questions about what you think about this site. By submitting the form you're eligible to win an Amazon gift certificate as a way of me saying thank you for your time. The answers will go a long way toward helping me improve this site and provide even better content.

Go to the feedback form now and get a chance to win the gift certificate!

I'm co-founder and consultant at NodeOne, a Drupal consulting firm. My background is in cognitive science and computer science and I've worked as a web developer for over ten years. During that time I've done web design and development based on usability and web standards. I've also worked with phpBB, offering customization, theming and development phpBB sites and themes. I'm currently working as project lead and systems architect, building first class web sites, intranets and web applications on Drupal.

This is my personal website, home of my blog and my portfolio. The website also features articles and tutorials on web design, usability and other cognitive scientific musings as well as reflections on politics and society. You'll also find my free phpBB templates here.

Enjoy your stay and come back soon! Should you have any questions or comments do not hesitate to contact me.

/jakob

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