Virtual Personal Space, Spam Museum, Fictional Fiction, Wait Times, iPhone Usability

As usual, too many open browser tabs with interesting stories that don't deserve to languish in the del.icio.us obscurity:


Anti-social bot invades Second Lifers' personal space (Nov 2007)
"A software bot that masquerades as an ill-mannered human user within the popular virtual world Second Life is being used by UK researchers to investigate the psychology of its inhabitants. The bot starts a conversation with human users and deliberately invades their personal space to see how they will react."


A trip down spam memory lane
Commemorating spam's 30th anniversary, New Scientist rounds up a bunch of interesting links, such as this archive that's been aggregating spam for the past 10 years.


NY Times on fictional fiction:
"'Charm' was released in the fictional small town of Pine Valley, Pa., as part of the [ABC's soap "All My Children"] story line. [...] It has sold more than 100,000 copies and made its debut in February at No. 13 on the New York Times best-seller list."


The Psychology of Waiting Lines (1985):

• Uncertain waits are longer than known, finite waits.
• Occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time.
• People want to get started
• Unfair waits are longer than equitable waits
• Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits
• The wore valuable the service, the longer the customer will wait
• Solo waits feel longer than group waits

iPhone Usability Evaluation Report:



"One feature of the popup keyboard on the iPhone is the drag and lift feature which is said to reduce errors. Unfortunately not one user discovered this feature."

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