And BOOM! you would have thought I’d posted hot, naked pictures of myself in a chat room.

The first and most frequent suggestion was:

Original Hot Dog Shop (aka “The Dirty O”) - hot dog, (cheese) fries Google Maps

Apparently it was going to close, but didn’t; and it used to be possible to get shot in the neighborhood, but apparently it’s better now.

Next up came four recommendations for

Primanti Bros Google Maps and website

Followed by several recommendations for “(Le) Mardi Gras” called “Best bar for mixed drinks in Pittsburgh. Ask for a greyhound.”

Mardi Gras in Shadyside on Copeland. Google Maps and website

And then, on no particular order:

Jimmy Tsang’s - “Great dumplings” Google Maps

Quiet Storm Google Maps and website

Pittsburgh Deli Co. Google Maps and website

Fuel and Fuddle Google Maps and their website

Mad Mex “Half-priced food after 11” Google Maps and website

Spice Island Google Maps and website

Carhops Sub Shop on Liberty Ave. Google Maps

21st Street (Coffee) Google Maps and website

Tazza D’Oro (Coffee) “can’t recommend enough” Google Maps and their website

Tram’s Kitchen (Vietnamese) Google Maps

Abay Ethiopian Cuisine Google Maps and website

Royal Caribbean Restaurant - “a decent, if yuppie, bar on Highland.” (Oops, maybe I got that wrong, see comments.) Google Maps

The Green Mango Noodle Hut Google Maps and website

Oh, and I’d be remiss not to add:

Ritters (straight up diner, open 24hrs, cash only, IIRC) Google Maps

Sharp Edge (more beer than you could ever drink, but also excellent food. Several locations. See their website. (They are also on Twitter as @sharp_edge. Google Maps

Oh, and Buffalo Blues which I’ve also been to several times and enjoyed. Google Maps

And finally De Luca’s Google Maps where I haven’t been yet but hope to be at soon.

More?

Got another recommendation? Leave a comment. Bonus points for Google Map link.

(Note: don’t try to sneak a restaurant you own onto the list without disclosing your connection. I’ll find out and tell everyone I found rat poop in my entrée.)

When I arrive at your website, I am asked to choose between six choices:

1. On the Road
2. On the Go
3. On the Trail
4. Onto Fitness
5. On the Water
6. In the Air

These make sense to you, don’t they. Let me give you some free advice: they don’t make sense to those of us outside of your corporate structure.

Let me ask you some questions which make perfect sense to a first-time visitor looking at this list: “When I am on the road, aren’t I also on the go? Does “on the go” refer to exercise? No, wait, there’s fitness down there. What does “on the trail” mean? I ride my bike on a trail (a bike trail, actually) on my way to work (on the go?) which also takes me on the road.”

Water and Air, I guess I don’t need either of those because I don’t have a plane or a boat, but rest of that list is unclear. You ought to re-work it entirely.

Think I’m wrong? Ask 100 people where they would expect to find “Mobile Phones” and see if they score higher than they would have if they just randomly guessed.

Mobile Phones, by the way, are useful on the road, and trail, and on the water too. See how your categories don’t really make sense?

Sure, if I hover each of them, I’ll find the right one, but I shouldn’t have to.

Your Garmin On-The-Road leads me to the automotive listing… and if I click through there I can find a full listing of all your automotive GPS units.

This list is a mess.

6 columns and 7 rows, well, almost… the last row has only 5 items and they seem different than the other 6 rows.

There are 5 rows plus one which are called “Nüvi” and then the rest of the row called “Streetpilot”

What is the difference between Nüvi and Streetpilot? I have no idea. They look a little different.

Nüvi Riche?

Several, but not all of the Nüvis have the same model numbers, except some have a W attached:

nüvi® 200
nüvi® 200W
nüvi® 205
nüvi® 205W
nüvi® 250
nüvi® 250W
nüvi® 255
nüvi® 255W
nüvi® 260
nüvi® 260W
nüvi® 270
nüvi® 300
nüvi® 310
nüvi® 350
nüvi® 360
nüvi® 370
nüvi® 600
nüvi® 610
nüvi® 650
nüvi® 660
nüvi® 670
nüvi® 680
nüvi® 710
nüvi® 750
nüvi® 760
nüvi® 770
nüvi® 780
nüvi® 850
nüvi® 860
nüvi® 880
nüvi® 900T
nüvi® 5000

1) Is it really necessary to put the ® after each one? We get it, it’s your registered name. Does it help the readability of that list? No. It is really necessary? No.

2) What’s the difference between a 200-series, a 300-series, a 600-series, a 700-series, and an 800-series? Why does the 900 series only have one, and what’s with the “T”? And then you jump all the way to 5000?

3) What’s with the “W” on some of the 200-series models numbers?

4) There are 32 different model numbers listed there. Could you, without looking, explain the differences in those 32 models in a way that would make sense to someone who didn’t work for Garmin in less time than it would take for their eyes to gloss over?

5) Do you really need 32 different models in 7 different series just within the nüvi series alone? Can you explain the difference between those 7 series? (What happened to the 400 and 500 level?)

6) Are you familiar with the studies that show that more choices don’t increase customer satisfaction? I can already tell you that it has made this process harder for me. I feel like I need to study the whole series to figure out what features I am giving up if I go for the different series, and then look closely at each one in that series.

7) Have you seen Apple’s product line up? They have 3 desktop machines: Mini, iMac, and Mac Pro. They have 3 notebooks: MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air. As John Gruber has noted, it is fairly simple to figure out what you want just by the name (or, failing that, a picture).

Lessons from Apple

Here is a complete rundown of the major points of all of the computers made by Apple:

The Mini is the little one with no keyboard, mouse, or monitor. The iMac is the all-in-one. The Mac Pro is the super-powerful tower. MacBook is the basic model. The MacBook Pro has advanced features including separate graphics and an ExpressCard slot, not to mention a larger screen (2 sizes) and the option for matte or glossy screens. The MacBook Air is the super thin and light one without a DVD drive.

Sure you’ve got some variations in each one (how much RAM and hard drive space, etc) but the differences are clear. You want a monitor? iMac. You want internal expandability? Mac Pro. You want a 15” laptop? MacBook Pro. Looking for “Light above all else”? There’s no “MacBook-P” or “MacBook-A” or “MacBook-N” or some other obscurity.

What about iPods?

They have a tiny iPod shuffle, a bigger Nano with more space but still light, a “classic” which holds a lot of music, and an iPod Touch which has a full-screen like the iPhone. Simple

Help Me Buy A GPS

Here’s what I know I want in a GPS:

1. WAAS
2. “Where Am I?” feature
3. Text To Speech (ability to tell me the name of the street that I am looking for)
4. “Here are the X number of places I need to go, plot the fastest route.”
5. Plot specific point to specific point
6. Find Nearby Stuff (restaurants, gas stations, etc)

I think #1 is in many if not all, #2 and #3 and #4 are not.

Number 5 is such a basic feature I suspect all have it now, but there was a time when some basic ones only offered “Directions to City” rather than specific addresses.

Number 6 exists but don’t require me to deviate far from my set course (i.e. if I am heading north on a 3-4 lane highway at 70 m.p.h, I really don’t want to turn around to go back to find a restaurant, nor go 5 miles off an exit. Show me what’s close, unless, of course, I am looking for a specific restaurant).

So, tell me, Garmin, which model do I want?

Here’s just one of the accessibility problems: I can’t tell the “Not Guilty” and the “Hung Jury” colors apart. The “Guilty” one looks darker than the others, but I’m not sure what color it is (red? brown? Could be green…)

See, silly me, I would have come up with a boring old ASCII symbol like G, N, H (Guilty, Not-Guilty, Hung).

Or maybe X 0 -

sigh

That quote (from the What’s New page for the W3C validator, ends a long, long, long standing problem that many folks had with the validator: it only worked if you knew what you were doing.

If you knew how to write valid pages, with DOCTYPEs and character sets, then you could use the validator.

If you didn’t, then the validator was of limited use.

Moreover, the validator was nearly useless to check the 93.7% of all websites that do not have DOCTYPEs declared. This meant using the other validator which was located at HTMLHELP, which was not bad, per se, but lacked one crucial element:

It was not integrated into Opera.

Opera has long been able to send a page to the validator by pressing control+alt+V (Windows) or alt+mac+V (Mac OS). But if the page you were on did not have a DOCTYPE, well then you were outta luck. This meant that the feature in Opera was less useful than it should have been, but more importantly the validator itself was less useful than it should have been.

Don’t get me wrong, DOCTYPEs and charset declarations are important, but refusing to try and validate pages without them always seemed to me like a teacher who took your essay, looked at it, and tore it up and threw it away because you forgot to put your name and date at the top of the page. Strict? Sure, but did it really teach me anything?

Anyway, this is a good day for the web. I just wonder how many other folks are writing about this as the sign of the apocalypse.

(Hat tip to Tim Altman, Opera Insider to pointing this out to me.)

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated a claim to Web browser technology central to a case against Microsoft, a move that could spare the software giant from paying more than half a billion dollars in damages, according to documents obtained on Friday. (source: CNet, see also The Register)

It’s a rare day indeed when I find myself on Microsoft’s side in a lawsuit, but this seemed remarkably silly.

Interested? Email Me. Make an offer.

A quick recap of Firefox’s “features” from Mozilla Firefox’s page…

Tabbed-Browsing

Firefox presents a fast and convenient way to browse the web - now you can open several pages in one window in separate browser tabs. Open links in the background while you read a web page, then continue to the links when you’re done - pages are available when you need them, making the web feel faster even over slow connections.

Opera can do that. Actually, Opera can do better than that (learn more about Opera’s MDI feature, which Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox doesn’t offer.)

Popup Blocking

Popup advertising is one of the most annoying things to hit the web in recent years. Firefox shields you from unwanted popup advertising. It also gives you control to allow certain sites to open popup windows, if required to operate.

Yup, Opera can block unwanted popups as well. It doesn’t yet support site-specific settings, but I have found the general settings to work for 99% of the sites out there.

Integrated Search

Firefox makes finding things easy. The built in Google bar provides convenient access to the best search engine on the web. Simply click in the Google bar or press Ctrl+K, type some words and press Enter.

Opera has Google built-in, and about 14 others as well. Plus you can easily add your own. And you can decide which one to search by using single keys, i.e. g = google, z = Amazon.com, etc (Learn more about Opera’s search.ini).

Efficient Navigation

Details are important to us. Sometimes it really is easier to navigate with the keyboard. Firefox lets you open links by simply typing some of the text in the link - no mouse necessary.

Opera welcomes Firefox as the second browser to realize that details are important. You can navigate Opera by Q and A keys, or Shift + Arrow Keys. Or you can search text or links on the page. Or you can get a list of all the links on a page and use the arrow keys to pick which one you want.

AutoDownload

Automatically download files to your Desktop or another location with the new AutoDownload feature. Downloading becomes much simpler without windows popping up asking you where to save, etc.

Opera offers a Quick Download feature which will download without asking you where to save. In case you do happen to care where files are saved, Opera will also pop up a window asking you where to save a file, but (unlike IE and Firefox) Opera will start the download as soon as you request it, and continue to download the file while you decide where you want to save it. (IE and Firefox wait until you have chosen a name/location before the download begins.)

Ok, well there’s a fair chance that very few of you have ever used OmniWeb, because it is only (now) for the Mac. But I used it way back when, back in the dark ages of NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP.

“Big deal” you say?

Well you try writing a browser for an operating system tied to hardware that only runs as 25Mhz (or at the most 33 Mhz… we called those “Turbo” machines.

OmniWeb had a great UI and did things like checked your bookmarks to see if they still existed. It had its problems, but Omni made a browser for an OS that no one else cared about — that was true for Mac OS-X Server when it first came out too.

The problem lately has been that OmniWeb was so far behind with regard to standards that few people used it. OmniWeb5 is addressing some of those problems (though it will still be behind Safari).

I love Opera on Windows, but if I were on a Mac, I’d be using OmniWeb5.

Read more:

Official OmniWeb5 page at OmniGroup.com

First Look: OmniWeb 5 Beta (by Michael Brewer @ MacDevCenter)

OmniWeb 5 Public Beta (by John Gruber @ DaringFireball)

Microsoft plans to release a software update that removes support for handling user names and passwords in HTTP and HTTP with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or HTTPS URLs in Microsoft Internet Explorer. The following URL syntax is no longer supported in Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer after you install this software update:

http(s)://username:password@server/resource.ext

This article is intended to give you advance notice of this change in Internet Explorer’s default behavior. If you include user information in HTTP or HTTPS URLs, Microsoft recommends that you explore the workarounds that are described in this article before you install this software update. Microsoft will post more information in this article when the software update becomes available.

Source: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 834489

Oh my Lord, please tell me they aren’t serious. Internet Explorer has a slew of bugs that deal with this. Rather than fix these bugs, Microsoft is going to discontinue support for the entire thing?

You have got to be kidding me.

Is this innovation? No, it’s laziness. It’s sloppy programming work that caused the problems in the first place. They are relying on people downloading a patch, so should they make a patch which cripples the program or a patch that fixes the problem? WOW.

I really can’t believe this. The combination of audacity and stupidity behind this decision is just staggering.

But you know what? No one can stop them. They answer to no one. Who cares if Opera and Mozilla gets it right? (Opera gets it more right than Mozilla)

Then again, this is even more reason to not use Internet Explorer. These links may not work in Internet Explorer, but they will continue to work in Opera and other browsers.

So do you want a crippled browser with less features and more security holes, or do you want a more secure browser with more features? Download and try Opera.

What’s next? Will they remove hyperlinks altogether? Don’t laugh, they have already suggested that you should not click links.

Microsoft plans to release a software update that removes support for handling user names and passwords in HTTP and HTTP with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or HTTPS URLs in Microsoft Internet Explorer. The following URL syntax is no longer supported in Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer after you install this software update:

http(s)://username:password@server/resource.ext

This article is intended to give you advance notice of this change in Internet Explorer’s default behavior. If you include user information in HTTP or HTTPS URLs, Microsoft recommends that you explore the workarounds that are described in this article before you install this software update. Microsoft will post more information in this article when the software update becomes available.

Source: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 834489

Oh my Lord, please tell me they aren’t serious. Internet Explorer has a slew of bugs that deal with this. Rather than fix these bugs, Microsoft is going to discontinue support for the entire thing?

You have got to be kidding me.

Is this innovation? No, it’s laziness. It’s sloppy programming work that caused the problems in the first place. They are relying on people downloading a patch, so should they make a patch which cripples the program or a patch that fixes the problem? WOW.

I really can’t believe this. The combination of audacity and stupidity behind this decision is just staggering.

But you know what? No one can stop them. They answer to no one. Who cares if Opera and Mozilla gets it right? (Opera gets it more right than Mozilla)

Then again, this is even more reason to not use Internet Explorer. These links may not work in Internet Explorer, but they will continue to work in Opera and other browsers.

So do you want a crippled browser with less features and more security holes, or do you want a more secure browser with more features? Download and try Opera.

What’s next? Will they remove hyperlinks altogether? Don’t laugh, they have already suggested that you should not click links.