Category: Commentary

Some of you are wondering why SyncBridge is taking so long. After all, we initially thought we would be able to release in April. There are a few reasons, so I thought I’d outline them.

Details

The sync engine that powers SyncBridge has been working well for some time now. Of course, it still needs more exposure to real users, but the guts of it works fine. A reasonable UI is only a recent addition, and a fairly nice UI is what I’m currently working on. Simple things like help files and explanatory text, ways to log-off, storing the password in the keychain, and so forth. All the things that turn it from being a developer tool into a user app.

Real life

This is probably the biggest one. Life has been very demanding for both MJ and myself. I’ve shifted from Australia to Northern Ireland, albeit only for a few months, but it’s still a fairly monumental undertaking. I have three kids, and MJ has two. I’ve had to switch jobs and MJ runs another small business as his day job.

Motivation

It’s hard when you are working on your own. MJ has been a great help in keeping my motivation levels up, but not having anyone to bounce specific code stuff off has been tough. Getting over some troublesome bugs has sometimes been a matter of weeks, simply because I found it hard to face. At one point, I said to MJ “I have no idea how to fix these two bugs. I can’t even face looking at them any more.” I don’t remember exactly what he said, but a few hours later (after weeks of trying) they were fixed.

Time and Discipline

Snatching an hour here and an hour there to work on SyncBridge means that there isn’t the same consistency you get when you work on writing an app full time. If SyncBridge sells well, then I might be able to work on it full time, which would make things much better all round. I’ve been trying to remain disciplined enough to keep good programming principles in mind, while still solving the problem (even knowing that no-one else is looking at my code).

Company Administrivia

The nuts and bolts of setting up a company have been a little problematic for us. Partially geographical, partially fiscal, partially just procratinatorial (if there is such a word). We can’t really sell anything till we are a company 🙂

It’s been a tough week in the day job but finally this week is over and I can throw it on the memory slag heap and relax over the weekend with the kids. For the first weekend in a long time, I feel pretty content. That will speak volumes to those of you who know me personally.

I read an interesting monologue about company loyalty being very similar to Stockholm syndrome and I’m tending to agree. Back when I worked for Nortel, I ate, drank and slept Nortel blue. I bought the “global citizen” line and I pushed the “right hand turn” initiative when it came. I worked late. I didn’t mind when I was up for an award and, at the last moment due to a contractual mistake, I was suddenly rendered unable to accept it! Receiving an empty envelope on a stage in front of photographers and hundreds of my peers is certainly one of those defining moments!!!! I didn’t progress as fast as my peers in development (who would leap-frog from team to team, spend 6 months retraining and then make another leap) or even in the IT team (who would make even the biggest political suckup look like an independent consultant) but I have to say they really looked after me. In return I didn’t go to Canada or the US once to meet and greet with the team over there because, simply put, with modern communications technology (ie, the whole POINT of the company) there was no need. My on-site manager would encourage me to go on these jollies simply because he would go along too and be able to justify a jolly for himself. Well, he found he’d get his kicks elsewhere.

Was I being held hostage and didn’t know it? Or was I just working hard, doing work I loved, with people who inspired me?

I reckon it was the latter. Everyone else should be so lucky.

I’m not saying that the article above is wrong. People do suffer like that. I just don’t believe I did (which means I was obviously an extreme case).

As an employer, I obviously want to encourage this behaviour in my employees. I want them to put the company high on their priorities. I find that the guys who work for me believe that I would never compromise them for a quick buck. That I’d always do whatever it took to make them happy in their jobs (as the events of this week will attest). My team do not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.

We’re a family.

Apple’s latest offerings, the MacBook, completes their lineup. This evokes many little brain explosions over here at Infurious’ International Corporate Headquarters.

   ?????? These represent Apple’s foray into ultra-mobile computing. They admit the Macbook line is now complete meaning we’ve gone from 5 models (2 iBook, 3 PowerBook) to 3 models (1 MacBook, 2 MacBookPro). Ya boo sux.

   ?????? Some people thought the 12″ Powerbook was still a little too bulky. Ya boo sux.

   ?????? Some people thought the 12″ PowerBook was a bit rubbish because the graphics card was a bit rubbish. Ya boo sux.

Has Apple abandoned the ultra-portable market? Looks pretty likely. But are we to expect something from Apple in tablets after recent patents for on-screen keyboards?

Wait and see….

Erick Schonfeld at Business 2.0 has a rather fabulous article about how you can start and maintain a business without quitting the day job.

His points:

   1. Use Your Salary as Funding

   2. Turn Common Complaints Into a Business Plan

   3. Make Your Boss a Beta Tester

   4. Take Advantage of Your Company’s Reputation

   5. Convert Your Employer Into a Business Partner

Of course, We’ve done all of the above certainly with respect to my day job.

An important part of it is realising that i reduces the costs of starting up. This means you can go longer and further without angel investment which, for the entrepreneur, is useful. It enables you to hold onto much desired equity meaning that if someone offers you investment, you’re not losing quite as much. ???100 000 is a lot of money to a startup company with ???134 in the bank and not much more than a dream to go on. ???400 000 is not as much if you know you have ???500 000 in revenue every year. Angel investment never comes to those who really need it after all. Nothing excites investors more than knowing that someone else is pitching in for a slice of the pie.

It’s a human failing isn’t it? We have a natural urge to herd – that’s one of the reasons why you see the internet plagued with Mac versus PC arguments. And you’ll see the same sort of debate on audio forums regarding who uses what. We need people to help justify our decisions by encouraging them to invest the same way we did.

Anyway. Read the article. Enjoy.

I didn’t realise until recently just how much association I create between an activity and the icon for its application. This has come about because I’ve started using a few new apps (and had others open more frequently than I used to before) and I’ve noticed I’m spending more time than I would like trying to decide which icon to highlight when using Cmd-Tab to switch between apps.

I think this is because too many of the apps are using a stylised planet as part of their icon. The culprits in my case are OmniWeb, Colloquy, NetNewsWire and MarsEdit (the first three all use the Earth as part of their icon). Whereas before, I think my brain had a connection between blue/circle/earth and web-browsing, now I find I have another blue/circle/earth (NetNewsWire) and a purple one (Colloquy) just to confuse issues.

In a somewhat reversed way, I know I have an association with blue/speech-bubble for chat, but because I’ve got a lot of conversation happening in other chat programs (Colloquy and Adium), I sometimes get lost about where I’m trying to go.

Not sure if there is really any point to this post, except as a reminder to myself (and possibly other application developers out there) that choosing an icon for an application is important, especially if it’s one that can expect every day use.

Forgive the Daily Star-style headlining

I spent about 7 hours with some smart people yesterday. One of them, a dyed-in-the-wool Windows sysadmin, showed us some cool technology but it was very noticeable the way he expressed how he had no idea how to sell Vista to his clients. He could force it upon them but how to actually “sell” it and make it actually “value” was proposed as something that would be difficult.

We’ve seen how Microsoft is courting games developers to make new games only run under Vista in the old-fashioned concept that games drive the industry forward. Hey, Billy-Boy, games drive sales of hardware, using it as a club to make people buy your next piece of software is going to be a hard sell – especially to developers who want to appeal to everyone with a vaguely recent machine.

Even Paul Thurrott claims Microsoft’s handling of Windows Vista has been abysmal

So, how is this going to be pushed? I figure a version of Office will be thrown out the door which only supports Vista and does something new and exciting with pivot tables. They’ll kill all OEM sales of XP so that Dell and the other box builders will be forced to ship Vista to everyone buying new hardware. (Hint to PC-based companies – stock up on your XP licenses if intending to grow).
I’m actually looking forward to running Vista on my MacBook Pro – just in virtualisation you understand. By then I’ll be running Leopard for day-to-day operations and it’ll be nice to compare. Based on what I’ve seen of Vista and based on the testimonials of the guys I know on the beta track for Vista – it ain’t going to be ready for January.

This guy really gets it.

“Apple are treading a very fine line with this application though between functionality and bloat, now I am very pleased to say that in my opinion they are definitely on the right side of that line at the moment.”

This is what it’s all about. It’s slightly different to the Windows Tao which is “cram features in there and beat out everyone else cramming in features” and it’s also different to the UNIX Tao of “It does one thing. It doesn’t do this, it doesn’t do that. It does one thing.”
Preview is a essential application on Mac OS X because it provides exactly the essence of what a good application should. It does its job….and then a little more….

Need a little more? there’s iPhoto. Need a little more than that? Aperture. And if that doesn’t ring thy bells…..Photoshop.

James Stoup has written a long-winded bit of speculative fiction about how, with the departure of Avi Tevanian from Apple, Mac OS X might be switched to the monolithic Linux kernel.

Of course, xnu, the hybrid kernel used in Mac OS X is derived from the mach microkernel but is not strictly a microkernel and has many monolithic kernel features.

The licensing of the Linux kernel is also a serious stumbling block.

I suppose it would be bad not to give the link of the article so I’ve added it in. Everyone’s a pundit.

Easter was a very quiet weekend for many. Certainly the roads were empty and everywhere important was closed. For my part I spent the weekend with the kids and also building a new workshop for the day job so it was busy.

John Welch also posted an article about SyncServices which will help people understand the magic that Aidan has woven – more importantly it may help people with making some feature requests now that we’re accelerating quickly towards release.

Aidan was also talking about his next visit to Northern Ireland which might be sooner than expected which is cool. But more on that when I know more.

Of course I don’t mean “WebTV” or any of the other failed attempts

While at my parents, I glanced at the TV guide and was amazed to find how many Tv programmes on terrestrial and digital channels are dedicated to “reality” TV. Just looking at Thursday – We have “Birmingham’s Best Gardens”, “Gardens in Coleraine”, “The lives of the Paparazzi”, “Instructions on Downsizing”, “Tarrant being annoying on television”, “Two people move to France for jolly japes”, “Two people move to Budapest”, “The problem with Asthma”, “Watching idiots put up wallpaper”, “Lets stare at the horrific plastic surgery”, “Middleaged couple moan about their failed sex life”, “Give me style and fashion for the duration of a television show” or “I murdered my best friends mum and now I get to talk on Tv about it”. It’s like half the programmes on TV are starring members of the public whether it’s their garden, their dancing, their singing, their personal problems, their humorous accidents or their planned house moves.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Big companies flogging user content?

If I didn’t know better I’d say this was Web 2.0. But it’s not. It’s just what TV has been doing for the last 5 years…

(P.S. This is the content in on BBC1, BBC2, ITV, C4 and Five on Thursday 13th April. I counted maybe 30 reality shows…)