In a snafu of epic proportions, it seems technicians, when testing radiation levels, sometimes forget a vital part of filling out a form, resulting in a massive calculation error. It looks like this may be a usability problem with the design of the form.

“It would appear that the emissions are 10 times higher. We understand it as a calculation error,” TSA spokesman Sarah Horowitz said in a telephone interview.

Rapiscan, in a letter to the TSA, admitted the mistake and is “redesigning the form” used by its “field service engineers” when surveying the Rapiscan Secure 1000 that is deployed to 38 airports.

“Oftentimes, the FSE will bypass the step of dividing by 10.” …

Cool job opportunity for NYC web design/developer at Apartment Therapy.

This feels like the most interesting thing to develop on the Web since people started talking about micropayments in the early days of PayPal.

Perhaps it’s just perception or that I’m getting old and crotchety but the sheer amount of attention “shiny” gets over actual substance in the web world is disheartening. What happened to original thought? If someone else’s “style” is your secret sauce, you’ve failed, and your clients’ goals may not be far behind.

Word.

Fascinating research on how well people respond to the “politically correct” salutation over “Merry Christmas” (Christmas was the clear winner, even over using both.)

Is design really still undervalued on the web? That seems to be the main premise, but either way, this article has some interesting points.

Exploring the sites in this article, my favorite so far is the Theologos jewelry site. It’s like they designed the site to be more like a movie about jewelry.