29 Jul 2003 | hurley #1 said...

That's funny, they used to be called "bumpers," which I like better than "buttons."

29 Jul 2003 | Steve Miller said...

That is odd. I can't speak for NPR, but every where else this is called "bumper music"

30 Jul 2003 | Erik said...

What fun to find this here . . . I built this site awhile back and helped develop it.

The reason they're called buttons and not bumpers: back in the day, producing a live program had all kinds of interesting challenges. If something went "wrong" (dead air, for example), the director would punch a button (a real live button) that would start running some canned music until the "problem" was resolved.

Eventually, they started adding the music between segments to add to the program's feel. They are one of the most requested pieces of info on NPR's site. So they became "bumpers" but are still lovingly referred to as "buttons."

16 Jan 2004 | Lucas said...

At WWDC, I listened to Apple representatives make some excellent points about taking the time to build a 100%-compliant Aqua application, and I think all developers need to look beyond the code and listen to what the folks at Apple have to say

16 Jan 2004 | Andrew said...

If an application is designed well, the reward for users is that they will learn it faster, accomplish their daily tasks more easily, and have fewer questions for the help desk. As a developer of a well-designed application, your returns on that investment are more upgrade revenue, reduced tech support, better reviews, less documentation, and higher customer satisfaction. The rewards of building a good-looking Aqua application are worth taking the extra time.