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Samsung LE40A559P - 40'' Widescreen 1080P Full HD LCD TV - With Freeview

poonanaja — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:02:35 +0000

Product Description
The LE40A559P displays the most stunning graphics in 1080p HD ready resolution and has a whopping contrast rate of 30,000:1, giving you bright images with maximum precision and lifelike detail. Blacks and colours are rendered perfectly, and its triple HDMI connection is ideal for connecting your games console or DVD player. With phenomenal picture quality and an elegant, lacquered black design, the LE40A559P is a must-have for all homes!

FHD Ready 1080p

Its resolution(1920 X 1080) is enhanced two times to that of HD TV(1366 X 768), due to 1.5 times more scanning lines than HD TVs. Enjoy the highest definition possible today when viewing content through next generation game consoles and BluRay players. Experience films and games like never before with unbelievable crystal clear clarity and motion.

High visibility, low reflection

Increased readability and reduced reflection are realised by the Clear Panel. Enjoy images viewed in their most comfortable light by the reduction of glare end enhanced contrast of the Clear Panel. Images are even clearer then they were before; ensuring that what you see is as clear as can be, and your entertainment as pure as possible.

How Readable Are You?

jakestimp — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:54:58 +0000

A friend of mine told me he ran The Blah Blah through an internet test to see what grade level I wrote at. I came out somewhere in the Middle School years. His blog (here) was somewhere around the High School level. He acted smug about it, to which I responded, "You're a big turd!" and ran home to watch cartoons.

I decided today to run the test myself, and here are the results:

Reading Level Results
Summary	Value
Total sentences	367
Total words	3110
Average words per Sentence	8.47
Words with 1 Syllable	2099
Words with 2 Syllables	705
Words with 3 Syllables	238
Words with 4 or more Syllables	68
Percentage of word with three or more syllables	9.84%
Average Syllables per Word	1.45
Gunning Fog Index	7.33
Flesch Reading Ease	75.96
Flesch-Kincaid Grade	4.77

Pretty cool, huh? Let me draw your attention to "Average Syllables per Word... 1.45" That's like half my words are one syllable and half are two. How moronic can I be? I need to use more big words like "vacuous" and "artichokes."

You're probably wondering what the last three scores mean. Let me explain. First, the Gunning Fog Index. This measures how many years of schooling would be necessary for someone to understand my blog. It goes from 1 to 17, first grade to post-graduate level. My score of 7.33 means that someone three months into the 7th grade would be able to understand The Blah Blah. Turds.

According to Juicy Studio, where I took the test, TV guides get a 6 (so I'm better than that) and Reader's Digest gets an 8. I'm more dumbed down than a Reader's Digest, the literature made famous for it's position of honor within the bathrooms across the nation.

Now, the Flesch Reading Ease (not Flesh Reading Ease, you pervs). This measures, on a scale of 1 to 100, how readable you are. Authors are urged to keep within the 60-70 mark. My 75.96 means I'm very readable. I'll take that as a benignant thing.

Finally, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade is another rough measure of how many years of school would be necessary to understand the writing sample. It's on a scale of 0 to 12, ending at your senior year in High School apparently. My score of 4.77 means most fourth graders would be able to understand me by the end of the school year. Which is weird, because I can't understand them.

So there you have it. Contrary to popular belief, if you read The Blah Blah, it's no indication that you're any smarter than anybody else. But I still like to think you're all better looking.

Do the test on your own blogs and let me know how you scored.

Blog Readability

Reuben Scicluna — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:26:52 +0000

You will be pleased to know that my blog's readability level is ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. This means that none of you has an excuse for not understanding this blog :) :)

Toodle-oo

Focusing on the website message

lesleywriter — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:20:44 +0000

I can't say enough about being clear about the purpose of each page on your website. Maybe it's one of my 'soapboxes', but so many people either don't know what they want people to do when they visit the website - or have unrealistic expectations.

Don't expect anyone to buy from your home page - they can be engaged, but not sold to. They'll need more in depth information before they take that step to part with money. Even Amazon don't get many sales from the home page - and don't expect to.

By all means put your phone number and email contact on every page, but think about what you really want people to do - that might be to find out more on another page, or buy online (when they've seen your products/services page, or call/email for more information, or make an appointment to meet with you or your representative.

Do make sure that everything on each page of your website helps to get your message across and contributes to the purpose of the page. That includes copy, graphics and images, information in columns on the right and left of the main text and every paragraph should lead the reader towards your purpose.

Increase the Readability of Your Web Pages with the Right Font

joannavisibleshops — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:50:38 +0000

You do a search on web readability and you will come across Jakob Nielsen, the controversial "usability consultant." Like that of many "Internet Gurus," Nielsen's philosophy for attracting and converting web visitors is simple: have worthwhile content and assume that the web reader is lazy and selfish.

But just one look at his site, and you wonder if anyone would bother navigating through his stuff. His content is noteworthy, as he's one of the best known authorities on the differences between web and print reading.

The point about Nielsen is not that his site is ugly, but how that affects the readability of his site. Like a lot of online marketers who sell how-to seminars and books, he's a not a "big picture" kind of guy.

Old Hollywood star Cary Grant said it best: "It takes 500 small details to add up to one favorable impression." Although content is most important, other factors should be taken into consideration for a worthwhile site: design, layout, and branding.

There is one element in which content and design intersect: font choice.

Font choice is a bigger deal for graphic designers, but newbie web writers should have a basic knowledge on how the style, size, and formatting of font can affect a reader. More importantly, you must know how this one aspect may determine whether a visitor will continue reading your content.

Two basic categorizations for fonts are serif and sans serif. Serif fonts are the ones with those cute little curlicues hanging around at the tips of the letters. Think Times New Roman, Courier New, and Georgia. Sans Serif fonts are without the extra bits, such as Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, and Franklin Gothic.

VERY General Rule of Thumb: For body text, in general, sans serif fonts are more readable on computer screens, while serif fonts are generally recommended for print materials.

Also, keep in mind that some fonts were created specifically for screen viewing, like Verdana and Georgia.

One way to improve readability is to use sans serif font for paragraphs and serif fonts for headlines as a contrast.

Font choice is a part of branding, and it is a huge part of developing the character of your site as well as your product or service. You can use it to make your site elegant and journalistic or modern and minimalistic or funky and off-the-wall. And if you become a large organization, you may afford your own custom typeface, like the Economist.

Remember, design and content are supposed to work together. Don't make the mistake of discounting one in favor of the other.

Ainda mais fugitivo que o jornal

monicamendes — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 09:04:19 +0000

O ecrã é um ambiente de leitura que mimetiza o céu, não a terra. Bombardeia o olho com luz em vez de esperar por dar retorno ao dom da visão. Não é simultaneamente tranquilo e vívido como um campo cheio de flores, ou a cara de um ser humano pensante, ou uma página tipográfica bem feita. E nós lemos o ecrã da mesma maneira que lemos o céu: em passos rápidos, adivinhando o tempo a partir das alterações das formas das nuvens, ou como astrónomos, em pequenos bits ampliados, analisando os pormenores. Olhamos para procuramos pistas e revelações, mais do que sabedoria. Isto torna-o um meio atraente para anunciar e dogmatizar, mas um lugar não tão bom para texto reflexivo.

Frases longas e complexas cheias de palavras estranhas têm poucas hipóteses. No texto, as subtilezas e delicadezas das letras têm poucas hipóteses também. Caracteres elevados (como expoentes) ou rebaixados (como índices), notas de rodapé, notas finais e notas laterais desaparecem. Na luz agressiva e na resolução fraca do ecrã, tais acessórios da literatura são difíceis de ver; pior ainda, eles contradizem a ilusão da velocidade.
Todos os subtextos podem, então, ter o mesmo tamanho, e os leitores têm a liberdade de saltar de texto para texto como crianças a mudar de canais na televisão. Quando a leitura assume esta forma, tanto as frases como a forma das letras requerem simplicidade.
Formas oriundas da imprensa e sinalética têm mais probabilidades de sobreviver. Bons tipos de letra para texto no ecrã têm assim, como regra, caixas com pouco contraste, um corpo grande, olho da letra (espaço oco) aberto, terminações sólidas, e patilhas curtas ou nenhumas patilhas de todo.

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[Este texto é uma tradução livre e reelaboração de algumas reflexões a partir do livro de Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style (version 2.5), considerado a "Bíblia da Tipografia"]

Leitura e usabilidade

Alexandre Gamela — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:31:45 +0000

Nem de propósito: depois de termos passado a manhã a falar de design e de como se devem apresentar os conteúdos, surgiu este artigo sobre as ideias de Jakob Nielsen (uma das referências na aula de hoje) sobre como facilitar a leitura de notícias online.

The most effective text online is bulleted, in a list, occasionally bold, has informative subheads and contains no puns. Aggers refers to Jakob Nielsen's theories, labeling humans as "informavores" who look for "an information scent" on a site.

Nielsen thinks online readers are "[U]sers are selfish, lazy, and ruthless."

In order to counteract this, web sites have to have:
-One idea per paragraph
-Bulleted lists
-Bold text
-Have informative subheads
-Contain no puns
-Shorter text

Nielsen points out that if users are motivated to read lengthy paragraphs to get the information they need, then they will. Otherwise, hyper-texting is advisable.

Leiam o artigo completo no Editor's Weblog

Organize your code with Region

findingsteve — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:42:34 +0000

When you have many related functions, you can consider to group them together using Region.

Example, if you have four functions which are related to Paging, you can just add a region like below (ASP.NET 1.1, VB.NET syntax):


#Region "Paging"




Public Property CurrentPage() As Integer

	' Your code here ...

    End Property
    Private Sub ImgBtnPrevBottom_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.ImageClickEventArgs) Handles ImgBtnPrevBottom.Click

	' Your code here ...

    End Sub
    Private Sub ImgBtnNextBottom_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.ImageClickEventArgs) Handles ImgBtnNextBottom.Click

	' Your code here ...

    End Sub
    Private Sub ItemsGet()

	' Your code here ...

    End Sub

#End Region

Now, go to your Visual Studio 2003. Click Edit > Outlining > Collapse to Definitions, you will see the below:

It is very simple to do, yet useful.

Getting people to read key information

lesleywriter — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:19:56 +0000

On your web pages you want to connect with your reader - but did you know that people don't read web pages? If you're wondering what the point of writing killer copy if people aren't going to read it, then here are some tips to make the words connect as much as possible.

Know what your visitor is looking for and make sure the first thing they say addresses that need. That will be your big, bold headline! If you don't know what people appreciate about what you do then ask a few satisfied clients what your biggest advantages are and sell your services with those benefits in mind.
Don't go on and on and on. Most web pages can say what is needed in 200-300 words. If you can get it all onto one screen, so much the better. Your visitor won't have to work to get your message; no scrolling required!
People scan the screen in an 'F' shape (yes, it's been researched with eye sensors), so you know that they'll pick up the beginning of paragraphs. Make sure each paragraph starts with something that connects with them.
Put key words in bold. Not capitals, just bold - they'll stand out from the rest and attract the eye. Don't fall into the trap of doing this to too many words and peppering your page with bold words, or you'll lose the effect. One or two per paragraph is usually plenty.
If you have a key piece of information that you want people to read, turn it into a bullet point list. We read lists where we won't bother to read a paragraph. You can turn three sentences into three bullet points with a little creativity.
Put a call to action at the end and make the words into a hyperlink. The hand tends to follow the eye and people respond to hyperlinks that give instructions without realising it. For example: Not 'Click here to find out more', but 'explore our service pages to find out how your company will benefit'.

Following these simple rules will help you to get your visitor to stay and find out more about what you can do for them.

A.T.TIPSCAST Episode #16: Listener Feedback, Sort Of

cbugaj — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:21:14 +0000

Hey everyone,
Episode #16 is up for your listening pleasure. In Episode #16 I answer questions from e-mails and voicemails submitted by "listeners" to the show. Four new A.T. TIPS are discussed in the show.

A.T.TIP #25: FIRST-THEN-THEN Boards

Here are examples of first-then-then boards:

A.T.TIP #26: WWW.FINDSOUNDS.COM

This website is a great place to find sounds

A.T.TIP #27: JUICYSTUDIO.COM for Website Readability Statistics

Here is the link to the Website Readability Statistic Tool. Make sure you scroll down a bit to see it. Simply place the URL of the website you want analyzed and hit "Calculate Readability".

A.T.TIP #28: WWW.THEFREEDICTIONARY.COM

This online dictionary provides an auditory version of each word along with many cool games.

Here is a link to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation fund raising site. Please click on the "Make a donation" button to donate! Even the smallest amount can make the biggest difference.

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation- Make a Donation!

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com Let me know what you think of the show!
You can access the podcast from here:

Podcast Hosting at CyberEars.com

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

Masterarbeit v0.1 alpha

Dominik — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:08:36 +0000

Es gibt Fortschritte in meinen Planungen zur bevorstehenden Masterarbeit. Im Oktober möchte ich loslegen – bis dahin muss das Thema, die Gliederung und Methodik stehen. Dazu war ich vorgestern bei meinem ehemaligen Praktikanten-Arbeitgeber: der AUDI AG. Dummerweise bin ich jetzt verwirrter als zuvor. Vielleicht weil ich die Qual der Wahl habe, denn es stehen zwei Themen zur Disposition.

Einmal Anzeigen, Broschüren und Internetseiten auf ihre Nutz- und Lesbarkeit hin zu überprüfen, z.B. unter anderem mit der Eyetracking-Methode. Auf diese Idee bin ich während des sehr guten „Readability und Usability“-Seminars im Wintersemester 2007/08 von Dr. Anikar Haseloff gekommen.

Und zum Zweiten bestehende Kommunikations- und Recruitingmaßnahmen zur gezielten und erfolgreichen Ansprache von Professionals, also berufserfahrenen Fachkräften, zu prüfen und mittels qualitativen und quantitativen Methoden „neue“ bzw. anders gestaltete Maßnahmen zu entwickeln. Darunter ist auch das Personalmarketing-Thema „Attraktiver Arbeitgeber“ zu sehen, welches man ebenfalls genauer unter die Lupe nehmen könnte. Sprich, sind die in den bekannten Studien wie trendence und Universum dargestellten Attraktivitätsfaktoren tatsächlich ausschlaggebend für die Arbeitgeberwahl? Wonach richten sich Professionals aus? Welche Medien, welche Informationsmittel zur Arbeitgebersuche nutzen sie? Welche Motivationen treiben Professionals bei der Suche nach einem potenziellen Arbeitgeber an?
Letztendlich könnte man mit der Arbeit auch einen Beitrag zum anhaltenden Fachkräftemangel leisten, denn damit wird auch beantwortet, wie man den vielzitierten „war for talents“ – in diesem Fall sind es eben „experienced talents“ – gewinnen oder zumindest erfolgreich bestreiten kann.

Ich denke, man sieht, in welche Richtung ich tendiere, obwohl ich die finale Entscheidung noch nicht getroffen habe. (An dieser Stelle übrigens ein großes Danke und einen dicken Kuss an dich, mein Schatzen!)

Aber sowohl theoretisch als auch von der praktischen Umsetzbarkeit und vom letztendlichen unternehmerischen Nutzen erscheint mir das Professionals-Thema als – um bei der Wortwahl zu bleiben – attraktiver.

Auf jeden Fall möchte ich mich bei Katrin und bei Nick für die Möglichkeit dort die Masterarbeit zu schreiben bedanken.

Als Nächstes entwerfe ich eine Grobgliederung sowie ein Exposé, aus dem die Relevanz, die Herangehensweise und die Ziele der Masterarbeit hervorgehen. Das ist nicht nur für mich als gedanklicher Anker gut zu gebrauchen, sondern vorrangig für meinen Betreuer in Ingolstadt gedacht.
Außerdem auf der Agenda: zwei „willige“ Profs, die sich mir und des Themas annehmen – und: überhaupt die konkrete Ausformulierung desselben!

Leveraging your talents

lesleywriter — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:32:28 +0000

Thursday, April 17, 2008

If you have a small business the chances are you do it all yourself - accounts, admin, sales, purchasing, marketing, dealing with suppliers and debts and everything! How much of your time do you spend doing what you are really good at?

Of course, your business needs all these things doing, but wouldn't it be much better if you could spend your time doing what you love and what you find easy? I struggled to justify getting someone to help me with administration - I didn't think I could afford to pay someone. Then I finally took the plunge - and wondered why I hadn't done it before.

I'm very good at writing - in one hour I can earn about ten times what I pay my assistant. It's better that I spend my time doing what I do best and my assistant does the administration that used to take over my life.

What has this got to do with readability? A good question - my assistant makes sure I deliver much more copy to more clients and my mission to make the copy that everyone reads more accessible takes a tiny step forwards!

What are you talents? Are you making the most of them and what sort of help would help you to achieve your mission? If you need help with written material then you know where to find it!

What stops people getting your message?

lesleywriter — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:28:55 +0000

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Whether you're writing on the web or for hard copy productions like brochures, marketing flyers or even business cards it's not only the words that count.

If you're working with a designer they will have lots of lovely creative ideas that help to attract people to your site/brochure/sales letter. This is great, a nice clean and attractive design makes a big difference to the reader's perception of you and your professionalism. The stumbling blocks start to occur when the design begins to have an impact on the copy.

There are a number of things that actually make perfectly good copy harder to read.

A dark background with lighter writing - this creates a dazzle effect and makes your reader have to work really hard to actually see the words. Stick to backgrounds that are lighter than your text.
Nice neat and tidy blocked paragraphs - they look tidy, but they 'help' the reader to lose their place. In narrower columns they also s t r e t c h words out and make big gaps in the text which looks silly. Left align your main copy and leave the right end 'ragged'.
All capitals - on the web this is considered to be shouting. If you want to emphasise a word bold is better than capitals.
Speaking of capitals - don't fall into the trap of putting a capital letter for every word in your headline (or subheaders). This simply interrupts the flow of the eye along the text - take a look at a newspaper, they've had years of experience in what people read and they don't put capitals for any words that aren't proper names.

Get this right and you're on track for messages that people actually get.

Pick a font people can read!

lesleywriter — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:27:29 +0000

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Here I am again - after almost a year - and I have to admit to shame at being a professional writer who hasn't blogged much at all! That is all about to change so watch this space.

I'm still on the same mission; to help people to get their message across in the words that work AND by presenting the words in a ways that makes it easy for people to read.

I get on my soapbox about tiny fonts on the web that make it hard for people to read and then I came across someone who had gone to the other extreme and was using a large and script-style font. It was nearly as bad as reading the very small text, a bit like reading a very long headline, and I found it really tiring.

The more of the tale is - nothing smaller than 10point, but nothing bigger than 12 point for main body copy. Now headlines are different - and should be at least 18 point to ensure that they are the first thing that people see when they arrive on your page.