Welcome to the World of Andrew Johnston

My Links Page

Application Architecture

I'm always interested in good papers and reference sources on topics related to software architecture. Here's a few sources I use regularly: 

Modelling

I support the Agile Modeling and Agile Data work being led by Scott Ambler

  

Chernoff Faces

Chernoff faces are a great way of representing multivariate (i.e. many-dimensioned) data. I use them s a way of representing the ratings in my book reviews, but there are all sorts of other applications. The following sites describe them in a bit more detail. I borrowed my Chernoff face applet from John Wiseman's page.

User Interface Design

I take an active interest in issues around user interface design, and how people interact with computer systems. To my mind, one of the most important initiatives in recent years is the Expressive Systems movement lead by CSC's Richard Pawson. You can read my review of his book, or visit the Expressive Systems web site:

Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood's site, ForUse, is a very good source for lots of information on software usability and how this can be defined through modern system development approaches such as UML.

There's also a growing movement which is trying to apply patterns to user interface design. I've been disappointed in the books so far, but the following two sites have useful pattern catalogues:

Useful Software Download Sources

The best source for drivers is without doubt the Driver Guide.

Gibson Research Corporation - Steve Gibson keeps a watchful eye on our behalf on issues of information security and privacy. When he finds a problem, he often releases a small software utility which you can use to check the state of your system. I don't agree with everything he says, but I can only praise his watchful viewpoint.

The following are useful sources for Windows-related information and utilities:

These fill a similar role for the Pocket PC and Windows CE:

Web and Document Design

The Microsoft Typography web site has a lot of useful reference material, and is the main source for web font embedding technology, as used on this web site.

Just for Fun!