Design Principle of Webpage

HTML frame is one of the frequently used techniques in designing a webpage. The majority is to split the screen into two unequal half, having the menu (for navigation purpose) on the left side, while the corresponding content on the right side. Here is one of the example cs143 course homepage. The funny thing is that why menu are usually on the left and content are on the right? Someone suggested that it is a psychological heritage, people usually perceive left being the beginning of an event, so it is natural to put menu on the left side so that our eyes follows naturally from left to right when following the link.

If you think a little bit more, this design is in fact imposing a physical barrier in browsing the homepage. Assume that you are not using a scroll mouse (either a two button mouse or the touch pad in notebook), when you click on a link in the menu frame, and if the content page is so long that you need to scroll down in order to read, you need to move the mouse pointer way to the right side of the screen to scroll, and if you want to browse another page, again, you need to move the mouse way to the left and click. However, if the menu is placed on the right side, you only need to maintain the pointer in the right half of the screen, which tremendously reduce the mouse movement and obviously should increase your browsing efficiency, in addition, you might lengthen the lifespan of your mouse if it is a ball type!!!!

However, the invention of scroll mouse alleviate this problem completely. From now on, you can keep your mouse on the left part and do all the scrolling.

Based on this speculation, we might ask several questions:
1) Is the design of placing scroll bar on the right having some advantage over the left?
2) Is the invention of scroll mouse motivated by this phenomenon?
3) If the majority of webpage design is to place menu on the right, will the invention of scroll mouse be delayed several years?


p.s. I am NOT a left-handed person.

The day after tomorrow (where will you be?)

CNN reported there is an expected high season for Hurricane (a.k.a Typhoon for those form in Pacific Ocean) for the east coast of US. It's quite ironic that the news appear before the release of one of the most sought-after sci-fi movie this year. In case you've never heard of TDAT, here is what the story about: because of the green house effect (or some other human-related anomaly), there occur tsunami in NY, tornado in LA, hail in XX or any disasters you can think of. Human face the problem of being destroy by nature AGAIN, and the fxxking US government will lead the human race to overcome this problem.......


Ok, I have gone too far away from the real topics of this entry. I assume all you know that Hurricane occurred in northern hemisphere will be in an anti-clockwise motion, while those appeared in southern hemisphere is clockwise, by the way, not long ago, a hurricane just attack Brazil.(why? try search "Coriolis force" in Yahoo, yes I am a Yahooholic, :) )

Similarly, some other phenomenon also experienced this symmetric effect. One of them is the so called water sink phenomenon. I came to know this by reading book (iirc, it's from "100000 why?" - shi wan ge wei sheme) saying that for those northern hemisphere sink, water drain out in an anti-clockwise fashion, and the vice versa in southern hemisphere. I've asked quite a lot of people about this and they just give me sxxt answer like, if you view from the north pole, earth is rotating anti-clockwise, if you view from the south pole, earth is rotating clockwise, or someone just said, oh really? I didn't realize, is that true?

Driven by his inborn curiosity of the nature, Richard did a research on it and publish it on his first homepage in 1996/1997, hosted in http://www.chevalier.net/~sia (however, it's gone and perhaps you can get it back from the Wayback machine if you are lucky. He tries to confirm it with every friends that he has met who come from the southern hemisphere (e.g. Australia, Brazil), but none of them can tell whether the direction is really clockwise or not.

At the end of 2003, his friend, Jason Miu attended a conference in Australia, Jason was asked to take a video for Richard to show the direction. Surprisingly, the direction is anti-clockwise!!!!!!! It is not sure whether this result is due to the intrinsic force applied when water drain away from the toilet (yes, it's toilet, the video is a piece of sxxt in a toilet and water drains away, and that is used as an indicator). He was shocked, is the book (100000 why?) creating a hoax? Anyway, he will continue to pursue this problem which he started since 1990.

Somehow, life seems to be destined, he has been searching for the answer for 14 years and still not satisfied, what is the motivation driving him to pursue on this problem? No one knows. Someone said that before every mathematicians born to the world, they were given a look at one page of the holy book kept by the God, and the rest of their life is to reconstruct this page back. Perhaps the previous life of Richard is water, always being drain to the sink, that why he spend so much effort in his life in this problem. :)

Journey of Life (漫步人生路) rm

I never get tired with your charming accompany in this long journey;
在你身边路虽远末疲倦
Travelling with you leg by leg;
伴你漫行一段接一段
Once a hurdle is overcomed, another is waiting ahead;
越过高峰另一峰却又见
Set our target further apart so our dreams always in front of us.
目标推远让理想永远在前面

Though the path may be rough, I am prepared for the drill;
路纵崎岖亦不怕受磨练
I will experience ups and downs, surrounded with me are tears and happiness;
愿一生中苦痛快乐也体验 愉快悲哀在身边转又转
Enjoying snowflakes in the breeze, savoring the taste of blossom though foggy;
风中赏雪雾里赏花
What a wonderful life!
快乐回旋

No more grumble and treasure every moment,
母用计较快欣赏身边美丽每一天
The best is yet to come;
还愿确信美景良辰在脚边
I would rather let joy overshadow sorrow;
愿将欢笑声盖掩苦痛那一面
May be nice, or may be wicked, new ideas come up everyday;
悲也好喜也好每天找到新发现

Oh! Blizzard, we are ready for you;
让疾风吹呀吹尽管给我俩考验小雨点放心洒
I am determined to proceed.
早已决心向着前

Demetrio Albertini

1994 USA World Cup, the 22 aged Albertini made his first appearance in World Cup, respresenting Italy. Together with other soccer stars, Roberto Baggio, Paolo Maldini, Frenco Baresi, Signori, they put Italy to the final against Brazil. He score the 2nd penalty in this legendary match. Beforet that, as a squard member of AC Milan, he got a change to win the European Championship, a while before this, he is a teammate with the legendary Netherland player "Marco van Basten".

After 1994, he experienced ups and downs in both Milan and Italy. While players comes and leave Milan, like Baggio, Inzaghi, Leonardo, Boban, Bierhoff, Rivaldo, etc. Albertini, together with Maldini, Costacurta, seems like having a high probability of ending their soccer life in Milan.

Things happen, sometimes after 2000, he was lend to Altheltico Madrid, while he spend one year in Spain, he went back to Italy as a player in Lazio, the once a time rivial of Milan. Before an away match with Milan, Albertini said "I had never think of using the away team changing room in San Siro"..................

To be continued

Power Law discovered in Instant Messanger application and social network on the internet.

You spend 90% of the time in chatting with only 10% of the people in your contact list, while the rest of the time are for the remaining one.

news

The low quality milk poweder problem had been revealed for a while, this is sad. Though something is irrevertable, at least we should do something, right? The government official should definitely resign to show the repsonsibility. Yes, I know you still want to work for the country, but please work in other position, you fail this time.