tech

How to go from clients to products?

Ask 37signals: How to go from clients to products?:37signals made the move from clients to products one day at a time. Basecamp was developed alongside client work and was treated as essentially a third client. It had to compete for resources on equal footing with other clients, which meant that every hour we spent on it had to really count.

With constrained resources, you realize the value of the marginal hour very quickly. You can’t just goof around with science projects, open-ended explorations, and play time with new whiz-bang technology. Instead, you have to deliver real value, real soon. Otherwise the project is simply going to languish as it loses out to the “real work” of paying clients.

For us, that meant we had to build something for ourselves, something we needed, and something that was valuable enough that we’d assign resources to it over getting billable hours done. It meant racing to running software, deciding that a lot of stuff just doesn’t matter, and building half, not half-assed.

The initial start of extreme resource starvation lead to many of our thoughts on software development. It also lead me to believe that the best work is done when there’s not enough time, not enough money to do it “right”.

Doing it right is a pie in the sky. It’s a misnomer for second-system syndrome and it’s never going to happen anyway. So stop aiming for perfect, start aiming for good enough.

[Always a good reminder.]
Source: SIGNAL VS. NOISE

IronRuby is now an Open Source project!

IronRuby is now an Open Source project!: On Friday October 12, the OSI approved the Microsoft Public License (or the license formerly known as the Microsoft Permissive License) and the Microsoft Reciprocal License (aka Microsoft Community License).

While many in the community have acknowledged that this was a formality, it’s good to put the nonproductive license lawyering behind us so that we can focus on delivering a great Ruby implementation to the community.

[Go!]
Source: Less is better

NYTimes DBSlayer

NYTimes DBSlayer: NYTimesThe DBacesslayer aka DBSlayer aka Släyer (as we like to call it when we’re feeling ironically heavy metal) is a lightweight database abstraction layer suitable for high-load websites where you need the scalable advantages of connection pooling. Written in C for speed, DBSlayer talks to clients via JSON over HTTP, meaning it’s simple to monitor and can swiftly interoperate with any web framework you choose.[From the Times? Cool.]
Source: BitWorking

RSD and AtomPub — Together again for the first time…

It Pays To Advertise: Joe Cheng: Configuring an AtomPub blog needs to be equally easy. For some reason, people in the AtomPub community don’t seem to like RSD (only Six Apart puts Atom endpoints in RSD). We need another autodiscovery mechanism.

Hmmm.  When I looked at RSD nearly five years ago, it didn’t seem so bad.  In any case, here’s a ticket and a patch to get WordPress to support autodiscovery of AtomPub endpoints.

[Here, here! And the peasants rejoiced! And the reason one (influential) person in the Atom community didn’t like RSD wasn’t for technical reasons, but because Dave Winer is an acquaintance, and an early supporter of RSD… and he was reviled by some members of that community. Anyway, all these years later, RSD is quietly doing its job, and should be employed for this purpose. That was kinda the point, with no preference for one API over another. Thanks Sam!]
Source: Sam Ruby

WorldCat

WorldCat: WorldCat is a publicly accessible online interface to the holdings of all types of libraries throughout the world: currently 57,000 libraries in 112 countries. Tell it what book you’re looking for and your zip code or city, and it will pinpoint the nearest library that has the book. Same goes for magazines and journals, video and audio formats. The ability to locate an obscure book is invaluable; but it’s also tremendously useful for anyone living in a region with more than one nearby library. [Cool.]
Source: Cool Tools

Appliances or platforms?

Staff Roundtable: Apple Should Do No Harm to iPhones: Similarly, although Apple apparently attaches no importance to enabling independent applications, users (like Glenn and Joe, and many others) disagree. Apple needs to understand that the iPhone will be a platform whether or not Apple likes it, and managing that process will prove more effective and lucrative than ignoring it (or fighting it, which will just generate bad press). Perhaps Apple should learn from Microsoft, which listened to its customers and will be selling Windows XP for six months longer than previously announced, due to anemic uptake of Windows Vista. [Not only will Apple lose, but all these appliances can become platforms which can be far greater sources of revenue if only Apple would learn from its past. All sorts of folks can use these things as appliances and enjoy the Jobsian experience. Others can hack and add all sorts of stuff, and make these devices what they want. Jobs has to learn to let go.]
Source: TidBITS

Staff Roundtable: Apple Should Do No Harm to iPhones

Staff Roundtable: Apple Should Do No Harm to iPhones: Now, I hold no truck with the notion that companies have constitutional rights. That’s part of the erosion of personal liberty in favor of so-called corporate rights that began in earnest in the 20th century. (You can read Peachpit Press founder Ted Nace’s book “Gangs of America” on this topic; it’s a free download.) But you have to admire the chutzpah that lets a cell carrier assert a constitutionally guaranteed right to prevent choice among its consumers as a matter of “speech.”

The FCC replied in its rule-making on the matter, “To the extent that a choice of device or application implicates First Amendment values at all, we think that our requirements promote rather than restrict expressive freedom because they provide consumers with greater choice in the devices and applications they may use to communicate.” Well put – and rather radical in its true conservatism. [Chutzpa doesn’t begin to characterize this sort of thing. Which of our presidential candidates has something to say on this issue? I’ve so much research to do…]
Source: TidBITS