Comment spam has increased lately on this blog. I had enabled the comment moderation word list but this has two problems:
a) Some comments still get through
b) All comments who fail to pass must then be moderated by me
I looked for good plugins and Hashcash seems the best solution. The only problem is that wp-plugins.org is down right now…
I have tried really hard to make all screens compliant with a resolution of 800×600. I don’t know what percentile of people use that resolution but I believe it’s not negligible. So, at least one template (just a special CSS really) will be aimed specifically at 800×600 users.
Now, I have reached one screen where I can’t fit in 800 pixels and do it gracefully: the month view of the schedule. It has to display 7 horizontal boxes, one for each day of the week, plus the sidebar. Since the real horizontal space I have is 760px (800px - browser’s scrollbar and border) and the sidebar is 160px I only have 600px left. That’s about 85px for each box, which really is too low. Things I tried:
So I am leaving it like that for now (in 800×600 either the boxes overlap with the sidebar or a horizontal scrollbar appears). If you happen to have a good solution in mind please advice!
While using FogBugz I noticed that textareas grow as you type in them. I thought this was quite cool and useful so I tried to mimic it for MagnaCRM.
FogBugz implementation was a little specific to their needs and I needed a more generalized way of doing it. This article was a good guide (it seems FogBugz solution is based on that too) and with some customization I managed to make it work as I wanted.
Of course the hardest part was making it behave nicely on all browsers. Although I am against browser detection techniques (when that’s possible), the code handles IE differently than all other browsers. Opera was a real pain and it’s not working as it should after all (the textarea grows at once to the maximum row number allowed by my script). It’s not really my fault, as Opera should not try so hard to pass as IE if it doesn’t really support the same features. Moreover I haven’t tried it on Safari, as I don’t have a Mac. I hope it handles it well!
Finally I should note that while I thought this would be a 5 minute hack, I ended up spending almost an entire day, trying various ways to achieve the desired effect and browser compatibility…
Just saw that NewsGator has released a public API. It’s far more complete than the Bloglines API. You can add / remove / edit subscriptions, mark items as read etc. It seems possible to completely synchronize a desktop feed reader with it. I guess this is a result of FeedDemon’s need to sync with NewsGator. I wonder if FeedDemon uses the exact same API or if it has access to any hidden API calls ;-)
Update: When I wrote this last sentence, I had no intention to imply that FeedDemon uses an hidden calls or anything! It was meant as a joke and my only intention was to praise NewsGator for releasing the full API to their service! I hope no-one misread that.
CodeSnipers.com is a new blog about software business. Many authors contribute to it, in a variety of themes: personal development, project management, coding, business etc.
It’s being some time now that I have the final logos for MagnaCRM and Rapid Signal. I had the chance to show them to quite a few people since then and here is the verdict:
Most people like the MagnaCRM logo. Although it was pointed out to me that swooshes are much overused, the fact remains that most people find it professional and matching for business software (CRM software in my case). On top of that I like it a lot ;-) In any case, if you are of a different opinion, now is the time to speak up. Please don’t be afraid you’ll hurt my feelings or anything!
The story is different with the Rapid Signal logo. Most people find the logo bad, with explanations ranging from “too cluttered” to “ugly unidentifiable collection of pixels”. More over, through a comment on this blog, I was informed of suspicious actions from LogoWorks (selling logos stolen from other designers). You can read more on these posts by thepreparedmind.com: Post I, II, III. So I have to admit that my decision to go with LogoWorks was wrong.
Now, based on the reactions and my personal dislike of the logo, I decided to just drop it and go with another designer. This time I will go with a single design firm. I don’t really believe single designers are guaranteed to offer better results than services like DesignOutpost, Guru.com or even LogoWorks, but I want to see the difference in the experience.
The only upside to the whole story, is that now it’s easy to replace the RS logo. It would be harder to decide something like that in a year or so.
Usually I am quite productive, especially working on my own projects. But in the last few weeks I have noticed a significant drop in the amount of work done. Although I am spending my day on the computer with clear tasks in front of me, I am not concentrated enough and probably I surf more than I should. On the other hand, summer was always my worst season as far as work is concerned.
So my dream of having a (private) alpha release of MagnaCRM by the end of August goes out of the window. I believe I have completed ~70% of the main development work, while I would like to be closer to 90%. I had even discussed the possibility of installing it to a company run by some people I know, so they could eat my dog food. I think this will have to move back for at least 3 weeks.
I would like to have v1.0 ready by the end of this year, but there is too much work to be done until then: finish main development, marketing, beta testing, write manuals, setup payment, setup site / online demo plus a million more details.
Today, as I was reading my feeds (through Bloglines), I was bothered for the first time by the number and types of ads. I think Gizmodo’s were the worst (black on orange). I hope this is not a sign of (bad) times coming. I understand why some sites must put ads on their feeds, but now I must develop new abilities in ignoring them (just like I ignore web site banners).
I am always amazed by the creativity of some people (and the time they spent exercising it).
Great examples:
Theo Jansen making a new nature:
Hundreds of people, decorating / creating vehicles:
37signals released their e-commerce search report from 2003 reviewing the search engines behind 25 online shops.
It’s an interesting read for two reasons: a) it exposes a good methodology for performing such reviews b) it includes an excellent “Best practices” section highlighting what a good search engine should offer. Although the best practices are written with e-commerce sites in mind, there are a lot of ideas to improve search engines used by web applications / services.
Finally I should note that the layout of the report is excellent.
Every day, I have to make many small choices while working:
I know people have strong feelings about many of these subjects and there are tens of articles on what is right or wrong (”always fix bugs before writting new code”, “stick to your coding style” etc). I am no exception and I have read most of these brain washing articles / books.
But sometimes to move forward you have to break the rules.
So I am trying not to press myself too much on things like that. Because I have concluded that it’s not that important. These things I am talking about, are not of great importance, so I can’t believe it will be the end of the world if I break some rules now and then. And if it takes me out of my “coder’s block” (you know: check email, check bloglines, surf here and there, loop), then it’s all for the best.
It’s now almost a month since I started thinking about getting professional logos designed, both for the company and for MagnaCRM. As in most things I started by doing some research: I re-read some relative blog posts (Userscape, ComponentFactory part I - part II - part III, CaseDetective part I - part II - part III) and searched the net for design firms asking for quotes from some designers. Moreover I payed special attention to services like Design Outpost and Guru.com.
I posted the MagnaCRM logo project to Design Outpost mostly as an experiment. That turned out to be a good decision. Design Outpost is basically a forum where you set a project, specify the amount you intend to give and then various designers submit their proposals. Since I had set a max budget of $750 for both logos I decided to bid just $170 in Design Outpost, so that if I wasn’t pleased I could go with another designer. The process was smooth and I received quite a few concepts:
The one that I liked best and decided to keep as final (after some revisions) is this:
Offers from designers ranged from $200 - $800 per logo. I made my mind up to go with LogoWorks for the Rapid Signal logo. They have 3 packages, each one offering a different amount of initial concepts. Prices are $299 (for 4-6 concepts) - $449 (for 6-8 concepts) - $599 (for 10-12 concepts). You can start with the lowest package and if you want more concepts pay the difference to upgrade. The initial concepts were these:
I went with a mix of no 5 and 6 and after a slight revision I ended up with the final logo:
The process was good although the revision process is quite slow: 3 business days for each revision.
Overall I like the logos a lot although I think the MagnaCRM one is my favorite. My only concern now is how to spell MagnaCRM. Probably I will keep MagnaCRM since neither magnacrm nor Magnacrm are easily readable.
Now I have to find someone to re-do the site and create some templates for MagnaCRM. Finally I must decide which icons to buy and then no more design related worries for some time!
Lots of email (100+) and a ton of blog posts and news. And I’m only subscribed to 70 or so feeds. I wonder how some people follow hundrends of feeds…
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