Signal vs. Noise

Stop pretending

Jamis — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:23:00 +0000

I’ve recently recognized a nasty coding habit I seem to be developing. It’s been developing for a few months now, and while I kick myself every time I discover myself doing it, the habit itself is remarkably hard to kick.

I’ve been working on enhancing our internal Queen Bee application, this time making it so we can more easily track the performance of our Job and Gig boards. The change itself is pretty straightforward, but I found that when it came time to build the actual UI, I got stuck.

I kept chasing my tail. I’d look at the existing reporting UI that we have for our other products, and then I’d start thinking what needed to change to adapt it for the Jobs/Gigs reports. That would then lead me to think about potential refactorings in the code needed to support the (hypothetical) UI changes. Thinking about the code refactorings would lead me back to the UI, where I would think some more about the visual impact of the code refactorings, and so I would go, loop after loop, ad nauseam.

It’s ironic that, even after nearly 4 years of drinking the Getting Real message almost every day, I’d get stuck in such a trap, because the solution really is to just stop pretending and make something. In my case, I had to sit down and just mock up the page, throw together some HTML with fake data in it, and see what it looked like. And it turned out that I didn’t need to change the existing UI or code much at all—the new stuff was actually independent enough that it stood almost completely on its own. Oh, the bitter, bitter irony! I had wasted almost two days worrying about a non-issue.

So, if you ever catch yourself playing mind games with your code, just stop and make something. Pretending is poison. Stop drinking it!

PHOTO: Pizza pie charts from The Economist's "Get

Matt — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:27:00 +0000

Pizza pie charts from The Economist’s “Get a World View” campaign. Philly pizzerias distributed the boxes which display pie charts with statistics related to world food distribution, emphasizing those used in pizza production (e.g. global wheat consumption, world cheese imports, arable crop land, etc.).

QUOTE: A complex system that works is invariably

Jason — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:27:00 +0000

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.

—John Gall

PHOTO: Who doesn't want to play with this? Totally

Jason — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:37:00 +0000

Who doesn’t want to play with this? Totally lickable UI. FourTrack.

Etymology: One

Jamis — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:29:00 +0000

Etymology is fascinating to me. Most recently I was reading about the history of the word “one”. Have you ever wondered why it’s pronounced wun instead of rhyming with own? According to the sources I’ve read (including the awesome Online Etymology Dictionary), it originally did. In fact, the word only still uses that pronunciation, and derives from the same root. The change apparently began in the 14th century in southwestern England, and by the 18th century it was in common usage.

Related: did you know that the term “one night stand” was originally used in reference to theater performance? It wasn’t until the 1960’s that it was first used in a sexual sense. Also, “one-of-a-kind” was first used in the 1960’s as well. On the other hand, “one fell swoop” was first used by Shakespeare, in Macbeth.

Defensive design: Magnetic zones on the unibody MacBook

Sam — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:55:00 +0000

To access the RAM slots in a unibody MacBook you must first remove the back plate—a thin piece of aluminum attached by eight tiny screws. Half of the screws are hidden beneath the battery cover, and each one is surrounded by a recessed magnetic zone. The purpose of these zones is ostensibly to help keep the battery cover seamlessly attached to the case.

But removing the screws made it clear that the magnetic zones serve a second function. When my screwdriver slipped, the screw didn’t fall into the depths of the case. Instead, it flew right over to the magnet, and I was spared the pain of extracting a three-millimeter needle from an expensive electronic haystack.

It’s a perfect example of real-life defensive design: anticipate where your customers might slip up and try your best to keep them from doing it. Have you encountered any good defensive design lately?

QUOTE: So maybe a recession is a good time to start

Joshua — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:34:00 +0000

So maybe a recession is a good time to start a startup. It’s hard to say whether advantages like lack of competition outweigh disadvantages like reluctant investors. But it doesn’t matter much either way. It’s the people that matter. And for a given set of people working on a given technology, the time to act is always now.

—Paul Graham on Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy

VIDEO: Here's a demo of some thoughtful UI on Ffffound.com.

Ryan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:50:00 +0000

Here’s a demo of some thoughtful UI on Ffffound.com.

QUESTION: CB2 and Land of Nod, both sister brands of

Jamie — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:24:00 +0000

CB2 and Land of Nod, both sister brands of my previous employer Crate and Barrel, are holding a contest for writing product reviews on their respective websites. Do you expect the reviews to skew positive in order to win the prize? Does this call into question the authenticity of the review? What do you think?

Why the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web

Jason — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:30:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago on Twitter I said: “I still maintain the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web. Has been for years.” A few people agreed, but most didn’t. Some thought it was a joke. I wasn’t kidding.

To clarify, my definition of design goes beyond aesthetic qualities and into areas of maintenance, cost, profitability, speed, and purpose. However, I still think that the Drudge Report is an aesthetic masterpiece even though I also consider it ugly. Can good design also be ugly? I think Drudge proves it can.

Here are a few reasons, in no particular order, why I think The Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web.

Staying power

People talk about timeless design all the time. But most things people point to that are timeless end up being time stamped. The Drudge Report, on the other hand, has proven timeless. It’s generic list of links, black and white monospaced font, and ALL CAPS headlines have survived every trend, every fad, every movement, every era, every design do or don’t. It doesn’t look old and it doesn’t look new — it looks Drudge. It hasn’t changed since at least 1997, and I believe the design goes back even further. How many sites can survive — and thrive — unchanged for a decade? That’s special.

QUESTION: Now that Jerry Yang is out as Yahoo CEO,

Jason — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:49:00 +0000

Now that Jerry Yang is out as Yahoo CEO, what would you do if you became the next Yahoo CEO? How would you turn Yahoo around?

PHOTO: "More effective, useless." The Devil is in the details.

Sarah — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:27:00 +0000

“More effective, useless.” The Devil is in the details.

Ask 37signals: Does "Getting Real" work in this economy?

Jason — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:33:00 +0000

David asks:

The recent economic downturn has me wondering… Are small ‘Getting Real’ businesses like 37signals more resistant to the declining economy or is it just that any downside is much less dramatic than multi billion dollar failures and job cuts in the thousands? Have you been impacted directly in reduced growth or increased cancellations as far as you can tell?

How do most companies handle economic downturns? They keep a closer eye on spending, they cut back on hiring (or lay people off), they waste less time, they focus on their core competencies, they push to eliminate complexities, they cut back on long tedious projects and instead focus on quicker wins that have a more immediate impact on the bottom line, and they consolidate roles and trim fat.

This is what Getting Real is all about. Staying small, being frugal, focusing on just a few core things at a time, quick wins, eliminating abstractions that lead to miscommunication and complexity, only doing what you need to do instead of everything you could possibly do, etc. We believe companies that live these ideas are better off all the time — but especially when times get rough.

Charging for your product is safer

Another key tenet of Getting Real is charging for your product. You make something and your customers pay for it. Connecting your revenues to your customers helps you stay focused on the things that really matter to the people who pay your bills. It’s a healthy alignment that helps during tough times.

This isn’t the case when advertisers are the ones funding your operation. When the people using your product aren’t the ones paying for your product you’re at a strategic disadvantage. Your improvements can’t just be targeted at users, they also have to be targeted at advertisers. So now some of your energy is split into pleasing two different groups. It’s possible advertisers and users have the same goals, but it’s less likely. You’ll notice I’m calling people users now. That’s what people become when they don’t pay for your product—they are users, not customers. That changes the entire dynamic.

One more point on advertising-funding businesses: They’re at greater risk in economic downturns. Advertising budgets are among the first to get cut when things go bad. If your business is based on someone else’s advertising budget, you’re in for an especially difficult time in a down market.

VIDEO: Starting in 2006 Peter Schiff goes prescient

Jason — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:03:00 +0000

Starting in 2006 Peter Schiff goes prescient. He nails the current crisis in detail. The other talking heads can’t get the bull [market] out of their mouths fast enough. They’re even laughing him off. My favorite moment is when Ben Stein says Merrill is a super bargain at $79. “It’s a joke it’s so cheap” he says. MER closed today at 13.80. Here’s the MER chart from August 17, 2007 — the day Ben Stein called it. Bueller…Bueller?

PHOTO: "Origamized" Basecamp logo

Matt — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:36:00 +0000

“Origamized” Basecamp logo

Product blog update: Basecamp monitor on production floor, Highrise Deals API, Tasks vs. To-dos, etc.

37signals — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:42:00 +0000

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

Basecamp
Large monitors on production floor show company’s Basecamp milestones
“I love my new production schedule monitor. Great job and the best part is that I can see the red dates from my office. Everyone here likes it so far or until their project goes red for everyone to see.”

A monitor displays milestones at A. D. Williams Engineering.

VisioPlanning for Basecamp: Keep track of projects and employees in real time
“When an employee is working on a certain project, he must keep his interface up to date by activating the flashing light corresponding to the task(s) he is working on. This update is then automatically carried on to the supervisor interface. This way, the supervisor always knows what the employees are working on in real time.”

Basecamp FAQ: How can I upload or change the photo that appears next to my name?
Tired of seeing that generic person icon inside Basecamp? Then you and your team should upload photos. It’s a simple step, but it really humanizes things when can you see a person’s face next to their words.

Highrise
Highrise Deals API
Attention developers: The Highrise API now works with the new Deals feature.

Multiple products
Discussing when to use Highrise tasks vs. Basecamp to-dos
“There is almost NO time that seeing everything we have to do in one place actually helps us, other than by making us anxious. Theoretically, it sounds nice, but I don’t think there’s a practical application. Instead, I think keeping tasks somewhat separate allow you to focus on what is important right now.”

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Why an 'iPod killer' will never kill the iPod

David — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:19:00 +0000

Apple must be smiling whenever one of their competitors bill their next MP3-player as an iPod killer. It reminds everyone who the market leader is and invites them to evaluate the product on Apple’s terms.

If you’re going to be an iPod killer — and not just a great new music player — you have to first out-Apple Apple at all the things that makes the iPod special. That means superior industrial design, an iTMS-beating catalogue of content, and a better desktop experience than iTunes.

That’s almost an impossibly tall order. Which is of course why it hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t happen any time soon.

That doesn’t mean that there’s not room for other entries in the music player department, just that you’re going to have a hell of a time making it if you think cloning the market leader and saying you did it better is the way to do it.

Now replace Apple and the iPod with the gorilla and blockbuster in your niche. Are you setting yourself up to be a Zune?

Highrise: Better import and export

Jason — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:33:00 +0000

Highrise has been on a roll lately. The new Deals feature has been a huge success. Let’s keep the good news coming. Today we’re excited to roll out two of the most requested features in Highrise: CSV (Excel) import, and exporting of notes/emails from contacts, cases, and deals.

CSV (Excel) import

You’ve always been able to import contacts from vCards, Basecamp, Outlook, and ACT!, but we didn’t provide an option to import data from a CSV file. Many people keep their contacts in Excel, so now you can export those contacts from Excel into a CSV file and import them into Highrise. Here’s how it works (from the Highrise help section). Jamis did a great job putting this feature together.

Export your notes/email

You’ve been able to export your contacts from Highrise in vCard or CSV format for a while now. But starting today you can also export your notes/emails from your contacts, cases, and deals.

Here’s how it works.

Jules: A robot that mimics faces

Jason — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:26:00 +0000

Scientists have created the first ‘humanoid’ robot that can mimic the facial expressions and lip movements of a human being. Full article at Mail Online.

PHOTO: Rollover menus can be finnicky but the ones

37signals — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:18:00 +0000

Rollover menus can be finnicky but the ones at Threadless are very comfortable to use. Overall, Threadless is very disciplined about keeping the front page clean. You can actually read the whole thing. There aren’t any blocks full of links that you have to skip over and copy is kept to a minimum.

My talk at the Business Innovation Factory 4 Conference

Jason — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:44:00 +0000

My talk at the Business Innovation Factory 4 conference in Providence, RI last month. While you’re at it, be sure to watch Tony from Zappos, Dennis Littky walking the walk on school reform, Matt Cottam rethinking the nursing home experience, and Colonel Dean Esserman (from last year’s conference).

Carbon Copies: I write dead people

Jason — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:45:00 +0000

This gets a 10 for creepy and a 10 for clever.

The creepy part

This is a 240 pencil set made from the carbon of a cremated human. Each pencil is foil stamped with the name of the deceased.

The clever part

Only one pencil can be removed at a time. You sharpen the pencil by putting it back in the box. The shavings then occupy the space of the used pencils. Over time the pencil box fills with sharpenings — turning the box into a new urn (it’s filled with the shavings which are made from the cremation).

Then just say it like that

Jason — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:31:00 +0000

Stream of consciousness rant:

I’ve been in too many meetings, too many conferences, too many discussions where someone goes “I’m having a hard time explaining this or that…” Then they say “I just really want to say this…” And then they say it and it’s clear, concise, and obvious. But it’s as if they aren’t even listening to themselves because they’re right back to thinking about how to say what they just said. Only now they’re back to trying to make it more complicated than it needs to be. They should just say it like they said it a minute ago.

We’re all told to be good listeners when someone else is talking, but we should work on being better listeners when we’re talking. We might find that we’ve already got the answers.

PHOTO: Beards in Battle, By Phineas X. Jones.

Sarah — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Beards in Battle, By Phineas X. Jones.

The importance of setting expectations

Jason — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:27:00 +0000

This week I’m having a new roof put on my house. I did the research, got the quotes, picked a company, and they’re working on it now.

They’ve been at it two days so far, but I’ve already been surprised twice. It reminded me how important it is to set your customer’s expectations.

Day one

They tore off the old roof(s). You can’t see the sky, it’s just the old roofing material—the ceiling is still in place. I had no idea this would make a mess inside the house on the top floor. Paint chips, roof dust through some cracks and removed skylights. I guess I should have assumed, but I’ve never been through this before so I didn’t think much about it.

Would have been nice if the roofing company said…

“Hey, when we tear off the old roof you might get some black dust and paint chips on the top floor. You may want to cover up some of your furniture or other valuables just in case.”

Day two

Out come the blow torches. I didn’t know they’d be torching today. But I’m working from home and wondering what the acrid burning smell is and light smoke filling the house. Now I know.

Would have been nice if they said…

“Hey, today we’re going to be working with torches and toxic materials. Some smoke and fumes may get inside during this process. You may want to leave the house while we’re doing this.”

Day three

I have no idea what’s next. What happens tomorrow? They don’t tell you, they just do it and then you find out.

Would be nice at the end of each day if they said…

“Hey, so far we’ve finished A B and C. Tomorrow we’ll be doing D. Here’s what you can expect.”

Setting expectations is key

I have confidence in their work, but the experience has been soured by the the lack of expectations. Just giving me a feel for what’s gonna happen today and tomorrow would go a long way towards making the experience significantly better.

QUESTION: Is RSS dead to you too? I haven't used an

Jason — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:21:00 +0000

Is RSS dead to you too? I haven’t used an RSS reader for a year and I haven’t looked back.

PHOTO: Blue lobster caught off coast of Scotland

Matt — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:04:00 +0000

Blue lobster caught off coast of Scotland: “Blue lobsters are caused by a genetic defect. Rather than containing the pigments that combine to make the normal olive green and brown colour, the shell contains only a blue pigment.” [thanks HLO]

PHOTO: All I want in life sometimes is for AT&T

Sarah — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:53:00 +0000

All I want in life sometimes is for AT&T to say, “Sarah, you have accumulated so many unused minutes and texts that your next bill is free, since we realize ‘rollover’ means nothing to you. Have a nice day.”

Next best thing: Restructuring of the entire wireless industry so YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU USE.

Hanson: Still at it and more successful than ever

Jason — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:47:00 +0000

Gapers Block has a great piece on Hanson, the band.

Hanson is a great case study for the music business and the business business. They’re a group of guys — brothers, no less — who love what they do and don’t care what you think. They’ve built a deeply loyal fan base, they’ve built a great business, and they’ve been able to mobilize their fans to support causes that the band — and their fans — believe in.

And they’ve done all this after being written off and largely ignored.

What I found most impressive about the story is how dedicated they are to their community. They are part of the community, not just facilitators of the community. For example, to promote charity, and their “Walk Around the World” tour, they are walking a mile with their fans before each show. For each mile walked, the band donates one dollar on the walker’s behalf to one of five causes the walker can choose from. That’s just cool.

I think the whole Hanson story is simple one of dedication, product, and patience. They’re dedicated to their music, they put out a solid product, and their patience has allowed them to sustain long-term success. They’ve made it on their own terms on their own schedule.

Sidenote: In a strange set of circumstances involving Ryan Singer and his former employer, I happened to go see a Hanson show at the House of Blues in Chicago a few years ago. I was impressed and thoroughly entertained. I also got a chance to meet the guys and was impressed by their down to earth nature and genuine love for what they get to do every night. They love their music, they love their fans, their fans love them, and their fans love their music. It’s the perfect loop.

QUOTE: This crisis is as much about values, trust

Matt — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:49:00 +0000

This crisis is as much about values, trust, and business integrity as it is about declining stock prices and limited credit. Be sure to remind your colleagues, your customers, and the world at large why what you do matters, why you started the company in the first place, and what kind of impact you’re trying to have on the world. Here’s a question I always ask CEOs to think about: “If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would miss you and why?” Well, since plenty of companies may go out of business, remind everyone around you why staying in business matters.

—Bill Taylor on why you should reassert your mission statement (from Dollars and Sense — Worthwhile Moves for Tough Times)

Unconferences?

Jamis — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:58:00 +0000

I just got back from RubyConf 2008, in Orlando, Florida. It was really a fantastic conference. It came off really well, and everything was top-notch. What I loved most was reconnecting with the community, just sitting, chatting and hacking with people from all over the world with whom I normally interact only online.

It made me realize that what I really want to attend is an “unconference”, where people pay to come and listen to one (or maybe two) keynotes by prominent community members, but then the rest of the time is spent in unstructured hacking sessions, where people cluster and work together on any number of different projects. If people want to stand up at a mic and talk about something that interests them, that’s fine, but the focus would not be on presentation, but on working on interesting projects.

Barcamp sounds kind of like this, but the emphasis still seems to be on presentations. Has anyone ever attended something like this?

Dion shows how to give good interview

Matt — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:08:00 +0000

A lot of musician interviews wind up with a pulling-teeth vibe where you can sense the artist would rather just let the music do the talking. “Dion Pays Homage To Guitar-Rock Giants,” an audio interview with the singer-songwriter on NPR, is the opposite of that. You can sense he can’t wait to tell stories about his music and his peers.

You might think you don’t give a shit what Dion has to say, but take a listen. You’ll be fascinated. In fact, it’s a great example of promotion through education. Instead of just some old fogey plugging his latest record, he really gives ya something. He bring his guitar along and weaves in bits of songs, anecdotes about the greats he came up with, musical lessons, etc.

He covers “Summertime Blues” and explains how he loves the sense of humor displayed in the third verse. He talks about the song “Ruby Ruby” which led to the greatest compliment of his life: Little Richard’s mother telling him he’s got soul. He mentions how Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” changes keys six times. He tells the story of writing “Born to Cry” as a 16-year old after he walked past a synagogue and heard the cantor singing. And he breezes through all of that in just a few minutes.

It’s a great lesson for anyone who’s trying to promote something. If you just show up to plug something, it’s easy to tune out. But if you give your audience a story they want to hear and/or teach them something interesting, they’ll eagerly pay attention.

LINK: The missing iCal calendar

Matt — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:34:00 +0000

The missing iCal calendar

The US Holidays iCal is great but I wish there was an iCal for things that aren’t really holidays but that everyone stops to “celebrate.” Like the Super Bowl, the Oscars, presidential debates, etc. Basically, a calendar that will tell you “if you’re planning on scheduling an event, avoid this night.”

LINK: Making Sure the Shoe Fits at Zappos.com

Matt — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:03:00 +0000

Making Sure the Shoe Fits at Zappos.com

What happens when you treat every customer as if they might be a reporter? Occasionally, one of them is a reporter: “Last spring, I called Zappos.com about a pair of shoes I wanted to buy for my upcoming wedding that they did not have in my size. The representative said Zappos.com would e-mail me when the right-sized shoes arrived back in stock. But she didn’t stop there. While I was on the phone, she searched for the shoes on the Web sites of Piperlime and Endless, two of Zappos.com’s major competitors. When she didn’t find them there in my size, she gave me the customer service phone numbers for those sites so I could call them, in case they got the shoes in stock first.”

Product blog update: Versatility Skateboards case study, Open Bar video, etc.

37signals — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:23:00 +0000

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

Basecamp
Versatility Skateboards: “Basecamp is the body of our business’s communications and Campfire is our brain”
“Basecamp is the body of our business’s communications. Every project, from designing a new skateboard to planning a contest sponsorship, is tracked in Basecamp. Campfire is our brain. All three of us leave it up and running all day, which allows us the ability to brainstorm at the drop of a hat. The best feature of Campfire is that it’s logged and we can revisit the ideas we discussed 10 minutes, 10 days or 10 weeks later. Without Campfire, a lot of ideas would be lost!”

Campfire
How Beanstalk uses Campfire when things go wrong
“We just had a short outage on Beanstalk, which required a quick reboot on our slices at Engine Yard. While this situation really sucks, it happens. The best thing you can do is let people know you’re working on it and update them on the progress. By using Campfire, we’re able to give people an extra sense of comfort that real people are hard at work on the problem. In the end, a negative thing becomes a positive experience.”

Backpack
Plotters use Backpack to create “the greatest birthday scavenger hunt of all time!”
Tim Sullivan plotted out an elaborate alternate reality birthday game for his girlfriend using Backpack. He writes, “I don’t think we’d have been able to even conceive of organizing this without Backpack. It’s keeping us completely organized and allowing us to pull off what could be the greatest birthday scavenger hunt of all time!”

Multiple products
Video: Setting up 37signals Open Bar
If you use more than one 37signals product (or have multiple accounts within a product), you can make your life a lot easier with 37signals Open Bar. In this video, Jason and Jamie show how easy it is to set up Open Bar so you can switch quickly between your accounts.

37signals products are “essential web tools for virtual students”
Three 37signals tools made the list at “Ditch the backpack: 100 essential web tools for virtual students.”

37signals tools make list of 45 top cellphone resources
Mobile Maven, a site dedicated to cellphone tips, recently published “45 Mobile Resources Every Road Warrior Must Have.” Three 37signals tools made the list.

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QUESTION: In the past, historic front-page moments

Jason — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:21:00 +0000

In the past, historic front-page moments have made certain newspapers collector’s items. With newspapers and their influence on the downslide, will historic moments in print still have the same cachet for collectors? Will people still say “I have the newspaper from the day…” ?

PHOTO: I like to dream that somewhere out there

Matt — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:36:00 +0000

I like to dream that somewhere out there is a person who only carries Diner’s Club and Carte Blanche credit cards exclusively. “Really, I’d love to pick up the check but…”

QUOTE: "North Dakota is a rural state and its communities

Sarah — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:12:00 +0000

“North Dakota is a rural state and its communities maintain close ties and networks. North Dakota’s system of voting, and lack of voter registration, is rooted in its rural character by providing small precincts. Establishing relatively small precincts is intended to ensure that election boards know the voters who come to the polls to vote on Election Day and can easily detect those who should not be voting in the precinct. This network of small precincts reduces the need for voter registration.”

—North Dakota, the only state without voter registration

Fun with Highrise stats: Countries referenced more than 1000 times in over 8 million Highrise contacts

Jason — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:05:00 +0000

+--------------------------+---------------+
| country                  | country_count |
+--------------------------+---------------+
| United States            |        403585 |
| United States of America |        201800 |
| USA                      |        127270 |
| Canada                   |         88615 |
| United Kingdom           |         77154 |
| Great Britain            |         41376 |
| Australia                |         27648 |
| Germany                  |         25266 |
| Spain                    |         23312 |
| France                   |         22422 |
| UK                       |         16280 |
| Netherlands              |         15488 |
| Ireland                  |         15439 |
| New Zealand              |         12391 |
| Belgium                  |          9648 |
| Italy                    |          9608 |
| Deutschland              |          9600 |
| Switzerland              |          9281 |
| Mexico                   |          8866 |
| US                       |          8351 |
| Denmark                  |          7044 |
| India                    |          6302 |
| Brazil                   |          5835 |
| Sweden                   |          5662 |
| China                    |          5139 |
| Poland                   |          4963 |
| South Africa             |          4894 |
| Schweiz                  |          4514 |
| Japan                    |          4168 |
| Singapore                |          4141 |
| Norway                   |          4125 |
| Austria                  |          3793 |
| England                  |          3434 |
| Hong Kong                |          3422 |
| United Arab Emirates     |          3410 |
| Thailand                 |          2705 |
| Israel                   |          2598 |
| U.S.A.                   |          2496 |
| Portugal                 |          2491 |
| Russian Federation       |          2360 |
| Costa Rica               |          2337 |
| Philippines              |          2269 |
| Viet Nam                 |          2142 |
| Jordan                   |          1973 |
| Nederland                |          1928 |
| Finland                  |          1848 |
| Brasil                   |          1804 |
| Argentina                |          1750 |
| Turkey                   |          1713 |
| Peru                     |          1488 |
| Malaysia                 |          1481 |
| The Netherlands          |          1433 |
| Russia                   |          1398 |
| Greece                   |          1144 |
| Chile                    |          1142 |
| Romania                  |          1106 |
| Danmark                  |          1063 |
| België                   |          1056 |
| Ukraine                  |          1048 |
+--------------------------+---------------+

For example, there are 1481 people in the Highrise contact database from Malaysia, 3422 from Hong Kong, 23,312 from Spain, etc.

Note: People can enter whatever they want in the country field which is why some enter USA, some United States, and some United States of America.

Describe 37signals in 20 seconds or less

Matt — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:48:00 +0000

We’ve got a problem. We don’t know how to describe to average civilians just what it is that 37signals does.

Like when we’re at a cocktail party and someone asks, “What does 37signals do?” The answer typically starts with “a web software company…” and goes to something like “that helps small businesses organize information…” and ends with the other person snoring.

What do you think our hook should be for average people? What’s a good way to quickly describe what 37signals does that doesn’t put non-techies to sleep? How would you make what 37signals does sound interesting to civilians…in under 20 seconds?

QUOTE: Figure out the absolute least you need to

Matt — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:45:00 +0000

Figure out the absolute least you need to do to implement the idea, do just that, and then polish the hell out of the experience.

—John Gruber’s one central, overriding guideline for iPhone UI design

LINK: 73-year-old to play college basketball

Jason — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:44:00 +0000

73-year-old to play college basketball

Inspirational story of the day. The last time this guy played college hoops, Dwight Eisenhower was President.

A radical idea: Charge people for your product

37signals — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:13:00 +0000

In “A Radical Business Plan for Facebook: Charge people” [Slate], Farhad Manjoo proposes “something crazy”: Tech companies should start charging people to use their services.

David is interviewed in the piece and explains why “having a price is really cool for making profits.”

“[Hansson:] “You have customers, they pay you money for the product or service, and you get profits! It’s almost too simple to work.” Of course, 37signals didn’t come up with this idea on its own, either: “I’ve heard that over time—hundreds of years actually—this has been how most businesses have made their money. But somehow that notion got lost in the Web world.”...

“People tend not to look closely at the odds,” Hansson told me. “There will always be people winning the lottery, but that doesn’t mean a good financial strategy is to go out and buy lots of lottery tickets.”

Instead of taking a heap of venture capital money—lottery tickets—in the hope of one day getting a huge payout, Hansson says that Web entrepreneurs would be better off starting their businesses in the way most offline entrepreneurs do: Use a small amount of seed capital to make a good product that appeals to a client base that is willing to pay you for it. Then, over time, use the money you make from your customers to improve the product or to create more products—allowing you to attract more paying customers, which then lets you invest more into the business, and so on. It’s a cycle that has proved quite successful over the millenniums that humans have engaged in economic activity.

Read the full article for more.

Also recently published: Die Kraft des Mittelfingers [brand eins] is a recent article (in German) on 37signals. Even if you don’t speak German, you may be able to get the gist:

David Heinemeier Hansson ist vulgär, und das ganz bewusst. Seine “Fuck you! ”- und “That’s bullshit”-Sprüche setzt er dosiert ein, wenn er Gesprächspartnern seine Sicht der Dinge nahebringt.

Related: The Secret to Making Money Online [SvN]

PHOTO: Amazon launched “Frustration-Free Packaging,”

Matt — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:03:00 +0000

Amazon launched “Frustration-Free Packaging,” a new initiative designed to make it easier for customers to liberate products from their packages. The initial focus is on hard plastic cases (“clamshells”) and those secured with a large number of plastic-coated wire ties, commonly used in toy packaging. (Disclosure: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is an investor in 37signals.)

This initiative oughta make David Pogue happy: “Over the years, these sharp-edged, steely-hardened acrylic crypts have broken countless scissors, ripped flesh and wasted ridiculous amounts of people’s time.”

CachedExternals: managing application dependencies

Jamis — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:20:00 +0000

We’ve been slowly trickling some of our internal projects onto GitHub, making them more widely available in the hopes that (for one) they’ll be as useful to others as they are to ourselves, and (for another) that people will contribute patches back to make the projects even better.

Today I moved our CachedExternals plugin there. You can read all about it in the README, but read on for an overview (and justification).

PHOTO: Stunning. via Flickr.

Jason — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:37:00 +0000

Stunning. via Flickr.

LINK: Bokeh

Matt — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:24:00 +0000

Bokeh

Bokeh (derived from Japanese boke ぼけ, a noun form of bokeru ぼける, “become blurred or fuzzy”) is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field.

New in Highrise: Much faster sidebar searching

Jason — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Today we’re excited to unveil an enhancement that makes using Highrise even more convenient: The sidebar search-for-a-person feature is now significantly faster than before.

Searching for a person or company from the sidebar on the Dashboard or a person/company’s page is the most frequently used feature in all of Highrise. Highrise is about getting to a person/company’s page so you can enter a note or look up a previous conversation or grab a phone number. Now you can do that a whole lot faster. More speed and less wait time makes this experience markedly better.

Making this faster on the user experience side wasn’t the only goal here: The new sidebar search also reduces call-backs to the server. That lowers the number of requests to the database which, indirectly, makes everything else a little bit faster too.

Watch this video to see it in action

Sam Stephenson, one of our developers here at 37signals, has been working hard to make this a reality. And now that we’ve launched it, he put together a video showing you the before and after:

We hope this helps makes using Highrise an even better experience. Thanks for your continued support!

QUOTE: One thing to remember in economics is that

Ryan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:06:00 +0000

One thing to remember in economics is that you can’t do one thing in economics. There are always other effects that come out of it.

—Warren Buffett. This issue of interconnectedness often comes up in software design too. Today’s performance tweak or new feature is tomorrow’s design constraint. Also reminds me of side-effects in functional programming and why ‘purity’ in code can be such an attractive windmill.

Learning from Harley-Davidson's comeback

Matt — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:47:00 +0000

From 1973-1983, Harley-Davidson’s market share went from 78% to 23% as Japanese manufacturers flooded the market with high quality, low priced bikes. Unable to compete on price against the Japanese producers, Harley had to establish other market values and improve quality. A Case Study of Harley Davidson’s Business Practises looks at the management, marketing, and manufacturing techniques that brought the company back.

The company started to use an emotional appeal that hooked into something bigger than just technology/features:

“The real power of Harley-Davidson is the power to market to consumers who love the product.” Harley-Davidson’s President and CEO, Richard Teerlink says the bike represents to America, “the adventurous pioneer spirit, the wild west, having your own horse, and going where you want to go – the motorcycle takes on some attributes of the iron horse. It suggests personal freedom and independence” (Executive Excellence 6). Brand loyalty for Harley-Davidson is emotional. They are considered more than motorcycles-they are legends. It is an American icon brand. The Harley-Davidson symbol is based on a pattern of associations that include the American flag and the eagle; reflective of the passion and freedom Americans enjoy…

A desire to escape the routine and become anyone you like. While their competitors base their advertising on product technology and features, Harley promotes: a mystique appearance, individualism, the feeling of riding free, and the pride of owning a legend. With Harley, you can live out your fantasies, as well as experience camaraderie with fellow bikers.

Telling a story makes such a deeper connection than a feature list.

No feature list here.

PHOTO: Flash hiccups aside, the latest incarnation

Ryan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:44:00 +0000

Flash hiccups aside, the latest incarnation of Squarepusher’s website is still bold, fresh and interesting. I like the trend that’s grown steadily over the last couple years toward background elements that stretch to reach the vertical or horizontal bounds of the browser window. The combination of stretchy elements and fixed elements produces a figure/ground relationship that adds depth to the site and makes it more immersive.

PHOTO: The first time I saw my baby nephew crawling

Matt — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:05:00 +0000

The first time I saw my baby nephew crawling around all over my place I thought, “Wow, I should put some Swiffer pads on this kid and turn him into a human Roomba.” Looks like someone beat me to it with “Baby Mops” (above). Love the little horsey on the outfit too. Of course this is a joke…right?

PHOTO: 1. Who the fuck designs this shit? And 2

Jason — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:51:00 +0000

1. Who the fuck designs this shit? And 2. Gotta love the white remote.

PHOTO: "Pixlr is a free online image editor, jump

Matt — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:52:00 +0000

“Pixlr is a free online image editor, jump in and start edit, adjust, filter.” I dig the way the arrows/text add a touch of context to these screenshots.