May29
Google Wave
Ummm, yeah. Game changer.
Archive for the ‘Web Apps’ Category
Apr2
This is why I love the Internet
Every now and then something happens that reminds me why I love the Internet so much, and why I love working in the web industry. Yeah, it’s a little geeky but it’s also full of real people doing real things and having real conversations — which sometimes get quite heated.
Point in case: Jason Fried from 37signals posted this blasting of Get Satisfaction on Signal vs. Noise, 37signal’s massive soap box company blog. The comments on the post quickly ran into the hundreds with people on both sides of the issue, though comments siding with Jason clearly outnumbered those sticking up for Get Satisfaction.
But the amazing part comes next. The guys and gals over at Get Satisfaction first responded in the comments,
Gosh, we messed up on the wording of that badge and are changing it pronto. The wording on that badge was actually intended to explicitly state that the space was NOT OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED by the company, but that doesn’t come off at all. The idea is to encourage openness, and provide a badge for companies that want to be associated with it. This was just unfortunate phrasing (one small part of an ongoing redesign effort), and doesn’t reflect our values, as I think many, many people and companies who’ve used our service can attest.
— Gus* Thor Muller, Get Satisfaction
Then, within just a few hours they had arranged a live video cast, with the sole purpose of answering questions from the public. Anyone could sign in and ask a question and get live, on-screen answers. After that, they penned two thoughtful responses to the situation and posted them on their blog, an Open Letter to Jason Fried and a post to their blog, talk plainly about the whole affair and what they planning to do to address the problems that Jason pointed out.
Name me one other industry and prides itself on transparency so much that the founders of a company would come out and say, multiple times, in no uncertain terms, that they were wrong. Not misunderstood, just flat out wrong. It actually seemed, as Garrett Dimon pointed out, that the Get Satisfaction employees were fighting amongst themselves to take the blame on this one. What?! Fighting to take blame? What the hell are these guys smoking?
Finally, today, Jason Fried posted again on Signal vs. Noise, noting that Get Satisfaction had begun addressing some of his concerns and giving, what I would characterize as, an explanation of why he was so annoyed with Get Satisfaction in the first place. Customer Experience. Two companies, both with very large online audiences, having a very heated and very public discussion because they are both doing their best to stick up for the customer (albeit in slightly different ways).
So, yeah — the internet might be a little geeky and I’ll be the first to admit that I spend way too much time in front of the screen, but every now and then stuff like this reminds me that it’s not a faceless, empty void that I’m sinking hundreds and hundreds of hours into; it’s a vibrant, opinionated and very real forum full of real people. And I like that.
* Oops, I wonder who Gus Muller is and why his name was in my head. Thanks for the comment Thor and the correction, sorry about that.
Mar29
Pet projects
I know, shocking carry on. I’ve been pretty quiet on the writing front recently. Too much programming to do. I’ve been working on a few little pet projects over the last few weeks. One is a site (with a simple web app) for the local bike advocacy group here in Blacksburg. Bike Advocacy at Virginia Tech is still a work in progress, but it has been really fun so far. The whole site is built in rails with a little Google charts thrown in for fun. The app is built to allow user to sign up and then track the miles that they log over the course of April.
The other project was whipped together last night when I was sitting up after coming home from the bar. The SupaFly DH is coming up this weekend (weather permitting) and the site for the event is just a little HTML/CSS, also put together a speedy little rails app to handle the time calculations and placing of all the riders in the race. Not bad for not all there at 3am.
I’ll be back soon, I promise.
Jan12
Article Published
Just a quick note. I started a new job in December with Entermotion as a front-end web developer. It’s been really great and one of the perks of the job is getting to work on the web-apps that we build under the moniker Paste Interactive. My first contribution to the Paste blog has just gone up over the weekend, it’s an article about Content Wireframing. Check it out, and while you’re at it, check out our web apps, Jumpchart and Staction. Jumpchart is all about collaborative wireframing and Staction is a people management application.
Mar18
Holy Smokes Batman, You can go ahead and throw out your television now…
Hulu. Television and Movies on the web. Free. With minimal ads. Nicely designed site as well.
And for a taste, a movie that we all love dearly.
Feb18
Family Tree anyone?
Just came across a really cool new web app. Geni is built to help catalog and keep track of all the different members of your clan! And it uses a very nice, very ajax-y design. Reminiscent of the Flicr organize interface. As someone that just married into an Irish-Italian family this is going to help immensely in keeping track of all those new relations! My father in law is going to love this thing as well 