Genii Magazine Online Archive Access

[J-Mac]

I just got the email telling me how to log in to the online archives and immediately gave it a try.

A few issues folks may encounter:

• Had trouble at first; the email address I submitted for this was not used. The email I used when initially subscribing was used instead. So if it keeps rejecting your activation, look at the email you just received - that is the address to use, NOT the one you submitted for the archive.
  
  
  
• The magazine pages aren't rendering for me in Firefox 3.6.11, though they are looking fine in IE8. Possibly just a problem here. If anyone else is seeing all OK in Firefox let me know.
  
  
  
• Still trying to figure out navigation. E.g., I'm looking at Volume 42, 1978. Issue #1 appears first, naturally. Next arrow scrolls through the pages of that issue but I cannot find a way to go to the next Issue # from there. Looks like I might have to use the search each time to get to a specific Issue within a Volume.

Thanks for this amazing feature Richard! I think I am going to be spending a little bit of time in there!

Jim

[Richard Kaufman]

You may need to download a plugin for viewing pdfs in Firefox as mentioned in another thread on this subject.

If you search on "Genii Speaks," that will give you a page near the front of each issue.

[Joe Pecore]

It works fine for me on Firefox 3.6.11/Windows.

I believe AskAlexander is in the process of splitting all the Genii Volumes into separate documents by issues. That will help a lot, but it might take awhile for them all to get done though.

- Joe Pecore

[J-Mac]

Thanks Richard and Joe.

I use Nuance's PDF Converter Pro 7, latest upgrade, and I think it might be having some issues within Firefox. Sometimes it works well, and sometimes not at all. Now I know to start troubleshooting it.

Richard, searching - even on the Ask Alexander site - finds them. I just was looking for a way to browse through them. But I can work with it as it is.

Thanks again!

Jim

[Andrea Nagar]

My impression is that the navigation is very hard and that it's very difficult to locate the content I want.

A few suggestions:
1. display the year near the volume
2. display a picture for each issue and show it separately
3. separate the issues (so that I can open just a Genii issue instead of the full year)
4. offer an easy way to navigate through the issue

For example, I wanted to locate the vernon touch column and the Daryl's interview but I gave up as it's very complicated.

Is there anywhere an index of the contents of all the magazines? Right now the archive is not very usable.

I think it can be improved to offer a better experience.
I am a software engineer and have been working a lot with usability interfaces and I'd be happy to help.

Thanks.
Andrea

[Joe Pecore]

One thing to remember is that AskAlexander was originally developed as a search tool (not a browse tool) so that capability is just starting to be developed.

Since it's hosted on AskAlexander, great suggestions like these would be more helpful if posted on the AskAlexander Forum (the link is in the top menu after you log in).

They may also still looking for volunteers to help in many areas (User interface designing, coding, reviewing, forum administrating, etc.)

[J-Mac]

Hi Joe.

Actually, no, I did not know that Ask Alexander was originally developed as a search tool. I had never heard of Ask Alexander before receiving the email instructions for activating the new online archive. Ask Alex is completely new to me. I'm sure I'll become accustomed to it.

Thanks!

Jim

[J-Mac]

Andrea - of Direct Access? Fancy meeting you here! Long time no talk... :)

Jim

[Ernesto Pacifico]

I just subscribed. How do I access the archive?

[Richard Kaufman]

Ernesto: when your first issue arrives (it will be the December issue), you will find your Activation ID number on your mailing label. Then you will be able to activate your account online by following my instructions here: http://geniimagazine.com/igenii

[Ernesto Pacifico]

word.

[Ernesto Pacifico]

You are a gentleman and a scholar.

[J-Mac]

Wow - I was just looking for a few articles at the Ask Alexander site and the navigation hasnt gotten any better looking. It's not that easy to locate anything at all. You'll end up finding yourself scrolling one page at a time through several issues, often in vain.

Hopefully that will improve over time.

Jim

[Richard Kaufman]

J-Mac, Ask Alexander was designed for research, not browsing. Enter a term in the search window and you can find anything you want.

The folks who work on Alexander are in the process of breaking Genii down into issues rather than volumes, so it will be easier to browse them.

[J-Mac]

Thank you Richard. I am using the search function but oftentimes the one-line results aren't descriptive enough to know if they are pertinent or not. IOW I have to click on most results and load each page to see if it is what I was looking for.

One thing that helps is a listing of what year each volume contains, which I have now compiled based on numerous searches. Searching by month/year alone doesnt always work very well.

It will hopefully become easier as I keep searching.

Thanks!

Jim