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The amateur sysadmin

Notes on being an amateur sysadmin - one of the unpaid army of crazed enthusiasts who spend a small piece of their lives keeping the world's small networks of PCs and their users in shape.

Simplicity and ubiquity matter (or, How reality mugged Joel Spolsky)

Joel Spolsky, eloquent proponent of Microsoft's 'rich client' vision of computing, has reluctantly changed his mind.

"We didn't try and complicate it": the unsecret formula of a winning intranet

A Government department pulled hundreds of people together by understanding their needs and helping them get to know each other. What mattered: photos of people's faces. What didn't matter: the technology.

Small office info-tech comes by car

If you're running a business without dedicated IT staffers, your IT systems support will come via another small business person who drives out to you.

Two seconds to deletion: the new reality of email newsletters

If your organisation is sending out email, accept the reality that your recipients are reading it with one finger over the delete key, and 50 other messages in their inbox.

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Web content management systems: find the appropriate solution

Web content management's dirtiest secret is that most organisations not only don't need most CMS bells and whistles, but should actively avoid them.

Interview with a content management heretic

Ovum's Alan Pelz-Sharpe wonders: just how fancy does your Web content management system really need to be?

Required reading: Gause and Weinberg show how to ask for what you want

One book cuts to the heart of the requirements management problem and asks: are your brave enough to do it?

A flying menu attack can wound your navigation

Hidden menus are like hidden road signs: they force you to stop when you'd rather keep going. We examine the weaknesses of pop-up, pull-down and cascading menus.

Accept responsibility to make your online project work

Business managers can make online projects by accepting the responsibility for their design - or court disaster by letting technologists shape them.

Of Google, Amazon and Weblogs: reputation management evolves

Reputation management has emerged as a core competency at many of the best-known Web sites. Every few months, another tool emerges to separate the good from the indifferent and the bad.

Why Mr Web Design changed direction

David Siegel led, championed, inspired the Web design industry. Then he found out that users didn't like pretty pages. So he changed his ways.