I am constantly suprised at the amount of traffic Craig gets with his horrific design. It's cluttered, the colors are lacking, and lacks any personality. It's just a big blob of links.
But then I remind myself that above all else, it's functional and has enough content to trump any bad design decisions. Content will always trump design. Even bad design.
Being showered with money isn't much of a blessing. Before you know the investors are knocking on your door wanting to know where their ROI is, and why you haven't spent the X millions given (apparently spending the money is a sign of progress).
The money is a burden; a HUGE burden.
When in this situation, be honest with yourself. What will you spend the money on. If you cite PR, furniture, company stationary, etc, run the other way. If you cite "more employees", triple-check your logic to see if they are really needed before taking the money.
With the world as your audience, it's quite possible to carve out a good living by servicing a niche market. The economics of a Microsoft vs. Joe Developer pursuing an end market are entirely different. A few millions may not mean anything to MS, while its quite sustaining from a small business's perspective. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
If he the foresight to state that "innovation is alive" he would be inventing the next big thing now.
His statement is simplistic and is a cop-out. If anyone could foresee the-next-big-thing, they'd be making it. All others just throw their hands up, say it can't be done, and move along.
While most mobile users would like to have something more compact, is it really necessary to sacrafice teh productivity of a standard keyboard in order to gain a convenient, compact form factor?
I like the promise that the virtual keyboards have (e.g. http://www.virtualdevices.net/ ). While functionly they have some limitations right now (e.g. having to hold your fingers about the infrared keys), over time they are going to get better. At least this solution you could have a full range keyboard without having to lug it around.
I don't know how close this runway is to the place for which the new parachute based shuttles will be landing or how close it is to the launch pad, but why not give it back to the tax papers and open it up as a place for the public to observe launches/takeoffs? -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
For whatever reason, when I explain how to do something to my mother, she insists on writing it down in a notebook, step by step. If I try to explain a process with multiple paths to the solution, she tends to get confused quite easily (e.g. you can either click the print icon on the toolbar or go to file->print and select that option).
She is 59.
This is just empiricle evidence of course, but the nature of multiple paths, whether its the computer's interface or the sorting through the billions of results on Google, really seems to confuse the older generation.
In some respects, my mother seems to do better when she one definitive research source, and one path to a solution.
My issue is that if you want to track my habits, track my purchases, my downloads, etc, then make the data available to me as well.
It'd be great to see a geographic breakdown of where my friend's band is most popular. It'd be fairly novel to see musical trends e.g. a resurgance of raggae downloads in Brooklyn.
If you're going to track my data, at least make the results available to me as well.
Traditional media needs to take a que or two from Google.
Sergey Brin made the statement once that you need to innovate on all levels including business models. When Google first launched they were just like any other startup, cool technology but no profit model. He was determined to have a profitable business and thus Google Adwords was born.
The point is this; the migration of print media isn't about just transitioning the text from a paper page to a website. It's about knowing the context of the environment (e.g. interactive) and finding ways to embrace that environment so that the consumer benefits (e.g. more knowledge, entertained, etc) and profits are sustained.
I think what is most exciting is that with the right skills, someone can build a cutting edge service from the ground up for a few hundred dollars.
* Open Source; web development has come such a long way and a majority of the packages making strides are open source (Ruby on Rails, PHP). You can't much cheaper than that.
* Hosting is a commodity; there are some competitive packages out there for next to nothing (Dreamhost, Lunarpages).
* Location agnostic; it's not necessary to have offices when your presence is online. No need for costly overhead when your bedroom will suffice.
It's nice to see a point where the small-guy has a low enough entry point where they can compete immediately with the big guys.
While not perfect, the media is a crucial factor in the check and balances system. Once the media is supressed, branches of the government have free reign.
--
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/
A thanks to Teotihacan for finding this. I'm sure that eventually several sysadmins would have failed security audits because of this.
--
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/
This problem isn't just specific to the games industry.
Media outlets are increasingly directed by their coporate owners and have become more of a pre-sale hype machine than anything else.
This is why it is all the more important that we have bloggers; individuals who don't have financial ties to the development companies and who will offer a more objective opinion.
--
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/
Cisco obviously has the technology, it's the marketing that needs to change. I guarantee that my mother would have trouble identifying Cisco's core technology and even if she knew of their domain, would have trouble identifying them as a brand she should look for at Best Buy.
--
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/
Eventually we're going to bump into limits yet again with the coax cabling, so why not still go forth with the fiberoptic plans?
--
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/
I would love to have some sort of integrated control center. I want to be able to turn off the bathroom's plug-in in case my girlfriend left her curling iron on. I want to see the state of the oven and how long that turkey has been cooking.
As devices get smarter, it would be nice to have some sort of standardized plug-in protocol where each device exposed certain, adjustable properties. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
The thumb naturally makes a ciruclar motion, lending itself best to the click wheel design. When I am forced to use a directional navigation system, its as if my fingers are forced to hold positions that don't feel natural. Anyone else get this feeling?
If the device were $100 cheaper, and all things else comparable, I could probably be uncomfortable. Anything less though, why bother?
--
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/
I guarantee half of those bots are a result of some rogue ActiveX installation that most moms didn't know enough to click "don't install". Do everyone a favor, and just shut off ActiveX entirely.
--
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/
Slashdot Mirror
I am constantly suprised at the amount of traffic Craig gets with his horrific design. It's cluttered, the colors are lacking, and lacks any personality. It's just a big blob of links.
But then I remind myself that above all else, it's functional and has enough content to trump any bad design decisions. Content will always trump design. Even bad design.
-- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
Being showered with money isn't much of a blessing. Before you know the investors are knocking on your door wanting to know where their ROI is, and why you haven't spent the X millions given (apparently spending the money is a sign of progress).
The money is a burden; a HUGE burden.
When in this situation, be honest with yourself. What will you spend the money on. If you cite PR, furniture, company stationary, etc, run the other way. If you cite "more employees", triple-check your logic to see if they are really needed before taking the money.
"Pigs get fatter, hogs get slaughtered."
-- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
With the world as your audience, it's quite possible to carve out a good living by servicing a niche market. The economics of a Microsoft vs. Joe Developer pursuing an end market are entirely different. A few millions may not mean anything to MS, while its quite sustaining from a small business's perspective.
-- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
If he the foresight to state that "innovation is alive" he would be inventing the next big thing now.
His statement is simplistic and is a cop-out. If anyone could foresee the-next-big-thing, they'd be making it. All others just throw their hands up, say it can't be done, and move along.
--Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
While most mobile users would like to have something more compact, is it really necessary to sacrafice teh productivity of a standard keyboard in order to gain a convenient, compact form factor?
I like the promise that the virtual keyboards have (e.g. http://www.virtualdevices.net/ ). While functionly they have some limitations right now (e.g. having to hold your fingers about the infrared keys), over time they are going to get better. At least this solution you could have a full range keyboard without having to lug it around.
-- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
I don't know how close this runway is to the place for which the new parachute based shuttles will be landing or how close it is to the launch pad, but why not give it back to the tax papers and open it up as a place for the public to observe launches/takeoffs?
-- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
Isn't this what Joel Spolsky referred to as a leaky abstraction? -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
For whatever reason, when I explain how to do something to my mother, she insists on writing it down in a notebook, step by step. If I try to explain a process with multiple paths to the solution, she tends to get confused quite easily (e.g. you can either click the print icon on the toolbar or go to file->print and select that option).
She is 59.
This is just empiricle evidence of course, but the nature of multiple paths, whether its the computer's interface or the sorting through the billions of results on Google, really seems to confuse the older generation.
In some respects, my mother seems to do better when she one definitive research source, and one path to a solution.
My issue is that if you want to track my habits, track my purchases, my downloads, etc, then make the data available to me as well.
It'd be great to see a geographic breakdown of where my friend's band is most popular. It'd be fairly novel to see musical trends e.g. a resurgance of raggae downloads in Brooklyn.
If you're going to track my data, at least make the results available to me as well.
--
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/
Traditional media needs to take a que or two from Google.
Sergey Brin made the statement once that you need to innovate on all levels including business models. When Google first launched they were just like any other startup, cool technology but no profit model. He was determined to have a profitable business and thus Google Adwords was born.
The point is this; the migration of print media isn't about just transitioning the text from a paper page to a website. It's about knowing the context of the environment (e.g. interactive) and finding ways to embrace that environment so that the consumer benefits (e.g. more knowledge, entertained, etc) and profits are sustained.
But it's not like you're unaccountable for $67 million. Product doesn't make it to market; do you think you get to buy a jetski now?
2 0060311.Opening.Remarks.mp3 ).
Anything that isn't used first and foremost goes back to the investors. And if the investors think you botched the development, they may sue you.
Any VC funding is a *huge* liability and should only be pursued if absolutely necessary. Listen to Jason Fried's opening presentation at South by Southwest for more about this philosophy ( http://server1.sxsw.com/2006/coverage/SXSW06.INT.
--
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/
I think what is most exciting is that with the right skills, someone can build a cutting edge service from the ground up for a few hundred dollars. * Open Source; web development has come such a long way and a majority of the packages making strides are open source (Ruby on Rails, PHP). You can't much cheaper than that. * Hosting is a commodity; there are some competitive packages out there for next to nothing (Dreamhost, Lunarpages). * Location agnostic; it's not necessary to have offices when your presence is online. No need for costly overhead when your bedroom will suffice. It's nice to see a point where the small-guy has a low enough entry point where they can compete immediately with the big guys.
While not perfect, the media is a crucial factor in the check and balances system. Once the media is supressed, branches of the government have free reign. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
A thanks to Teotihacan for finding this. I'm sure that eventually several sysadmins would have failed security audits because of this. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
This problem isn't just specific to the games industry. Media outlets are increasingly directed by their coporate owners and have become more of a pre-sale hype machine than anything else. This is why it is all the more important that we have bloggers; individuals who don't have financial ties to the development companies and who will offer a more objective opinion. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
Cisco obviously has the technology, it's the marketing that needs to change. I guarantee that my mother would have trouble identifying Cisco's core technology and even if she knew of their domain, would have trouble identifying them as a brand she should look for at Best Buy. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
Eventually we're going to bump into limits yet again with the coax cabling, so why not still go forth with the fiberoptic plans? -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
I would love to have some sort of integrated control center. I want to be able to turn off the bathroom's plug-in in case my girlfriend left her curling iron on. I want to see the state of the oven and how long that turkey has been cooking. As devices get smarter, it would be nice to have some sort of standardized plug-in protocol where each device exposed certain, adjustable properties. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
The thumb naturally makes a ciruclar motion, lending itself best to the click wheel design. When I am forced to use a directional navigation system, its as if my fingers are forced to hold positions that don't feel natural. Anyone else get this feeling? If the device were $100 cheaper, and all things else comparable, I could probably be uncomfortable. Anything less though, why bother? -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
I guarantee half of those bots are a result of some rogue ActiveX installation that most moms didn't know enough to click "don't install". Do everyone a favor, and just shut off ActiveX entirely. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/