I follow ToDoOrElse.com by Bob Walsh (author of Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality), where he writes interesting things on GTD. But I have to admit that at least as far as coding is involved, there is only one rule that works for me:

Open the editor and force myself to start coding.

Sometimes I write bad code this way which I later have to rewrite, but at least I don’t start the endless loop of checking email, reading forums / blogs, surfing etc. Unfortunately this brute force approach doesn’t work with other tasks.

I started using the Firefox icon () for the “feed subscribe” action. I never liked either the XML or RSS icons. Even Microsoft will use that icon in IE7 and Office 12, so why not me ;-)

Grab it in many formats from feedicons.com.

The biggest complaint I received during beta, was about the homepage layout when you first login. It looks like this:

I have to admit it looked wrong and ugly, being so empty. So, for the final release, I created a small example image of how the homepage will look with data and added a highlighted note on creating new records. Of course after you insert some data the image goes away. I think 37 Signals were the first to do this, but I’m not sure.

Here is how the empty homepage looks now:

Moreover all new users now have a default task (to Configure their settings), so the task list is not empty.

Overall I think that’s much better!

I’m quite happy (and a bit proud) to report that Magna CRM was released a few minutes ago!

The web site has been updated with an improved product page, screenshots / tour and of course an online shop. The price list has been determined (for a couple weeks now actually) and the manual is now fully written and online (although it will always be a work in progress).

Few changes from beta 2 were introduced: some cosmetic, a few small improvements in the way things work and a couple issues with the installer. This makes me confident Magna CRM will work as expected.

I have a ton of things I want to write about, I hope I’ll get to it later!

Dennis Gurock of Gurock Software wrote a post about Magna CRM which he quite liked! Quoting him:

I tested it and it’s looking great. I tested some other CRMs in the past and most of them were just overkill for us, slow and bloated so I’m happy to see a simple web based CRM for small businesses.

Beta 2 (version 0.96) was released a few minutes ago. Normally the “Check for updates” function shows the new version, should you use it (it doesn’t check on it’s own).

Release notes:

• Many CSS fixes
• Changed default CSS file
• A task is created for new users, reminding them to configure their settings
• Help is now integrated
• When homepage is empty (e.g. after installing), an example image of how it will look with data is displayed.
• A task is created for the first administrator, reminding him to configure Magna CRM.
• Show link to Markdown syntax help under each textarea that supports it
• Various bugs

If you didn’t have the chance to try Magna CRM, download it now and give it a try. Your feedback would be very much appreciated!

Overview is going to specialize in the development of reusable components for PHP developers.

The cool thing is they were inspired by some posts by Ian and myself.

The beta release is going good with about 15 downloads so far.

I had expected to more or less know people downloading the beta: from forums (e.g. JoS), from a comment here, the mailing list, fellow ISVers etc. The interesting fact is that about half the downloads were from people I have no recollection of. This has of course made me quite happy and all the more anxious about it!

Feedback has been minimal so far, which is to be expected I guess as it’s only been 12 hours since the beta started. So if you’re interested in Magna CRM do sign-up for the beta and certainly send feedback.

Magna CRM beta is finally released! I am a bit anxious right now but here is the news:

You can participate in the beta by registering here:
https://rapidsignal.com/shop/trial/

The beta will run for two weeks, Jan 09 to Jan 23.

Your feedback will most certainly be appreciated and in return we’re offering active participants a free Single User license and a one time 50% discount if you purchase more licenses at the end of the beta.

Support is provided at http://rapidsignal.com/support/ and on support@rapidsignal.com.

This is the 3rd post with screenshots. You can find the rest in part I and part II.

There won’t be a 4th part and for good reason: beta will start on Monday, run for about 2 weeks and then Magna will be released. There will be many screenshots in the product tour plus an online demo and a downloadable trial.

Click to open large images in a new window

Reporting options.

User settings.

I feel quite excited about the new year. I wasn’t able to release Magna CRM by the end of 2005 as I had planned, but I am close now. Probably it will be released by the end of January, after a public beta and after I finish some miscellaneous stuff (back-end tasks, design issues etc).