Marjan Venema

3,566 reputation

21021

bio	website	bjmsoftware.com
	location	Netherlands
	age	51
visits	member for	2 years, 9 months
	seen	yesterday
stats	profile views	381

Software developer since 1985. Started in Cobol, moved via Clipper/VB to Delphi. Delphi developer since 1998. Work(ed) both self-employed and employed.

Questions

When you ask a question, show your effort, provide all the details that will help someone to help you and be precise.

Answers

When you answer a question, don't just paste your code. Your answers will be much better when you explain why your code is doing what it does and how it achieves the asker's goal. It makes it a whole lot easier to follow along. As it is I am much more inclined to up-vote answers that have explanatory text about what the code is doing and why it is written as it is.

Answers that just contain links aren't likely to get an up-vote from me either

Other

Obligatory link whenever someone thinks they are improving security by imposing all sorts of rules on password composition: Password strength

	3,566 reputation	bio	website	bjmsoftware.com	visits	member for	2 years, 9 months
21021 badges		location	Netherlands		seen	yesterday

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756 Comments

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1d	comment	Timezone madness in task management app @Alex: To summarize my post: 1) when you are working across time zones recording dates in UTC is a requirement no matter what you do. 2) when you are working across time zones you cannot rely on dates alone to specify start and end requirements, you need time as well. 3) It is not a matter of either UTC or specifying dates and times, it is a matter of UTC and specifying both dates and times for start and end requirements.
1d	comment	How to load data into a table based on the selection in a tree? `Because of paging and filtering we cannot load only the deltas.` Why? Page is just another filter criterion? Which for fetching details could be translated into an "is in []" with the identifiers of the rows in the paged filtered result.
May 21	comment	Display password Requirements on Login screen? Obligatory link whenever someone thinks they are improving security by imposing all sorts of rules on password composition: Password strength
May 20	comment	What makes OpenID so difficult to use by persons with no technical background? @adrianh: <irony>trial and error can help. If after authentication you are taken to the "create account", then you know you had the wrong one.</irony>
May 19	comment	What makes OpenID so difficult to use by persons with no technical background? ... Your 2) I can see the benefits of. Your 3) is already the case when you already have an account at one of the openID providers that are offered. Which is why I don't agree with your 1) as it should be easy to spot the one you already have an account with. I don't see though why you would expect the provider website to offer an option to move to a different provider. Why should Google offer you an option to move to MS Live?
May 19	comment	What makes OpenID so difficult to use by persons with no technical background? A couple of notes. The frustration during authentication should be balanced by the knowledge/comfort that you do not need to create an umpteenth password or face the risks involved with using the same password on every site. That c/should be made a lot clearer on the openID authentication forms. Most of the doubts you mention could be addressed with a single paragraph and offering the "standard" registration/authentication in addition to the openID way. Unless the option to pick a different provider is blatantly obvious, I don't agree with 1) of how to make it right. ...
May 19	comment	What makes OpenID so difficult to use by persons with no technical background? Hey good one. Why didn't I think of asking this? :)
May 19	comment	Clarifying unfamiliar tools in a toolbox +1 Apart from the fact that I have never been able to get Sketchup to do what I wanted to accomplish :-)
May 19	comment	Should autocorrect include swear words out of the box? @Brendon and Dominik: I am not so much offended by swear words as I am stumped/flabbergasted/stupefied by their users inability to express themselves without resorting to them. Swearing is a learned behaviour and hardly ever necessary. Rants against someone or something often make much more of an impression when the ranter paints a picture using a varied vocabulary, than when the ranter just strings swear words together. In my view that is just as much a weakness as resorting to violence is.
May 19	comment	Should autocorrect include swear words out of the box? "Inseparable part of everyday language"? Excuse me? Whose language? Maybe if you find yourself in a community that lacks the verbal skills to express themselves without using swear words, but they are most certainly not an inseparable part of everyday language in any community that I have had the pleasure of being a part of over the last 51 years.
May 18	comment	What is the best approach to design registration page I don't agree. It still is registration when you are creating a new account with the site (a new entry in their users table). Association would only be possibly if you already have an account at the site. Like SO allows you to associate multiple (OpenId) authentication providers with your account.
May 18	comment	What is the best approach to design registration page +1, but OpenId doesn't avoid registration, it just avoids having to come up with another username/password pair. And there are users that do not want to register everywhere with their "general" openid, so offering registration using a site specific username/password in addition to openid is still advisable.
May 17	comment	Benefits and drawbacks of modal windows Pardon my ignorance, but who/what is the "Big G"? The pages you link to do not make that much clearer for me.
May 17	comment	Masked password characters in a GUI vs terminal @wim: thanks for introducing me to a new term: "shoulder surfing". Made my day.
May 16	comment	Hiearchichal Selection for Grouping (ie Teams) How many groups do you expect? If just a few, then a "checkbox" grid with the groups across the top and the people along the left, might work. Could even work with more than a few groups if you display the group names at a 90 degree angle (vertically). Group creation could still be "as and when needed" as it would "only" mean adding another column.
May 16	comment	Is remembering and using user ID when logged out a bad thing? @jcoder: Yes, rereading your question I see that. And your question is whether it is bad UX to ask for consent. My answer doesn't state it explicitely, but I think it is bad UX not to ask for consent.
May 16	comment	Is remembering and using user ID when logged out a bad thing? Actually, Amazon does exactly what you talk about. It keeps you identified (as shown by the "Not ....?" link, but still requires you to log in before you can make a purchase. But when I log out, the "Not ....?" link becomes "Login". What I don't like is they do it without asking for consent.
May 16	comment	What is the best way to communicate that certain functionality is currently unavailable in an application So I have to view my weekly reports on mondays only. What if I have a day off? And I can't view my weekly reports unless I can also print them? Scuse me? Save some trees?
May 15	comment	My team has to build an app that requires a Facebook auth to enter a sweepstakes. At what stage should the authorization happen? Don't bother them until the very last moment when you absolutely have to...
May 15	comment	In usability testing, what consensus from users is enough to throw out an idea in future iterations? @David: yes, exactly right. UAT indeed takes place after development and integration testing.