December 2011
3 posts
3 tags
“I love free software and could not have built my site without it. But free web...”
– Don’t Be A Free User (Pinboard Blog)
This is a very interesting take by Maciej Ceglowski of Pinboard. He encourages all of us to financially support any web service we use and love, even if it requires you to “yell at the developers!”. He says that what happened to Gowalla could happen...
2 tags
I'm Glad I Did
Bryce Roberts wrote a great post yesterday describing a bookmark he was given as a gift once. It was homemade and said “I Wish I Had. I’m Glad I Did.”. He said that it was given to him to always remind him to “strive to look back and find [himself] saying ‘I’m Glad I Did’ far more frequently than ‘I Wish I Had’”.
This reminded me...
November 2011
1 post
October 2011
3 posts
2 tags
"Excuse me, sir, would you mind taking our photo?" →
Steve paused for a moment as an iPhone was extended to him, realizing that they didn’t seem to know who he was. With a hint of enthusiasm, he said “Sure!” as he took the iPhone into his hands.
Steve took a great deal of care composing the photo, backing up a few steps several times, tapping the iPhone screen to lock focus, then said “Smile!” as he snapped the...
3 tags
September 2011
3 posts
2 tags
Drank is in the App Store →
drankapp:
Good news!
Drank has been approved by Apple and is now available in the App Store! Go check it out in iTunes! Today has been a long while in the making, and I am really happy that it has finally come. I started Drank a while back as a way to learn about iOS development and have really…
August 2011
3 posts
1 tag
1 tag
July 2011
1 post
1 tag
This American Life: When Patents Attack →
I don’t know of ANY programmers/geeks/bloggers/VCs (really anybody close to the entrepreneurship community) who likes the patent system as it stands. This is a great overview of “non-practicing entities” (patent trolls) and how the current patent system does not foster innovation, but instead stifles it. As a personal example, I am pretty scared of what could happen when I...
May 2011
5 posts
1 tag
Build and Analyze #25: Feed the Patent Troll →
I’m famous!!! (Marco answered my question around 36:00.)
Even if you don’t want to hear Marco Arment answer my coffee question, you should definitely be listening to Build and Analyze. Marco and Dan Benjamin talk about a lot of great topics including iOS and web development, Apple, and, of course, coffee.
1 tag
Starting iPhone Development
I hope it has become apparent through my writing that I really want to become a part of the startup ecosystem as soon as I can. Even though this is a great time to be looking for a job with a startup, there are two big hurdles for me to achieve this goal. First, I am not confident enough in my programming abilities to feel like I would make a meaningful contribution in a small startup. And second,...
1 tag
April 2011
6 posts
2 tags
Minimal Interfaces (My New Theme)
As I was working on my (very) simple blogging engine (more on that soon), I started thinking a lot about the template I would use. I really liked my most recent Tumblr theme, with all of the great widgets in the sidebar, but noticed that a lot of my favorite blogs don’t have any widgets. They have a sidebar with several links (archive, colophon, contact, projects, RSS, etc.) and an image at...
cdixon.org – Inferring intent on mobile devices →
It’s crazy to imagine an app that can combine all these data points (location, time, friends, news, typical behavior, interests, etc.) to predict what I would find interesting in a given time/place.
BRYCE DOT VC: Why I'm Rejoining AngelList →
brycedotvc:
I wrote a little post recently in which I laid out a few reasons for delting my AngelList account. The response to that post in both the comment section as well as the wider web was enlightening on so many levels. After reading carefully crafted and thoughtful responses from people like Jason…
Ha ha! This is why today is one of my favorite days on the Internet!
“The desire for reader feedback keeps the students excited about wanting to write...”
– Could Blogging Be the Key to Raising a Generation of Great Writers? - Education - GOOD
Interesting article - I know that blogging has definitely pushed me to become a better writer. If you go back to the beginning of this blog, you will see some posts that I put together very quickly and without...
March 2011
16 posts
1 tag
My Baked Blog
As you may (or may not) know, I am a really big fan of Dan Benjamin and his 5by5 podcasts. I was listening to this week’s Build and Analyze episode (with Marco Arment) and they were talking about Brent Simmons’ Plea for Baked Weblogs and Marco’s ideas of how to implement this. That really got me thinking. How cool would it be to write my own simple blogging engine?! And as I was...
1 tag
Following vs Friending
I recently downloaded a new app to my iPhone called into_now. It is basically a social app that allows you to check in to what you are watching on TV. Like all good social apps, it allows you to see if any of your Facebook or Twitter friends had joined so you could “friend” them to get started. I am so accustomed to the “follow” version of “friend” (like Twitter) that it didn’t even occur to me...
“With an Ive product, it is impossible to say where the engineering ends and the...”
– Apple’s Jonathan Ive: How did a British polytechnic graduate become its design genius?
| Mail Online
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
Twilio
I was talking with someone yesterday about some of my favorite startups. One that I mentioned was Twilio - I recently used it for one of my small projects and because they appear to have gotten quite a bit of press at SXSW. In addition to what I think is a really cool product, I think Twilio has a very solid business model.
As what I’m going to call an “API-as-a-Service” (along...
“As web giants continue to consolidate power around their respective properties...”
– Find a revenue model that goes with the grain of your business, Bryce Roberts
I am finally catching up on his blog and agree with Bryce here that just slapping banner ads on a website to “monetize” is not going to be best for all successful sites going forward. A couple of my favorite...
“If you provide your credit card to someone who intends to steal from you, they...”
– Jack Dorsey, Square
It is crazy to me that VeriFone would use such a terrible reason to try to scare people not to use the Square device. When you given your credit card to someone to swipe into their device (which, yes, if the app was written maliciously could steal your credentials) they could...
“If Disqus had a crummy product, a screwed up cap table and no cash, there would...”
– Howard Lindzon » Blog Archive » Discussing Disqus…The Case for Style, Instinct and Less Due Diligence I love Disqus. I use it here on my blog. I would never want to comment using either my Facebook or Yahoo credentials…
Instapaper’s Arment: Seek Money From Customers,... →
Really great advice from Marco. You don’t always need to raise VC and give everything away for free to create an awesome web service.
2 tags
1 tag
Usernames
I have been signing up for more and more web services lately. A lot of these have been through a really cool website called beta list. Since I am usually a fairly early user in most of these services, I have a pretty wide selection in usernames. I have begun to think a lot lately about usernames and their impact on my usage of the service as well as my web presence in general.
For the longest...
February 2011
19 posts
“I live in the space between business and spirituality. I live in the place where...”
– Jerry (via brycedotvc)
1 tag
2 tags
“But one argument that Apple should care about: this policy will prevent many...”
– Marco Arment, Subscriptions and the new In-App Purchase Requirement
I agree completely with Marco here. Unless this policy changes, interesting and innovative new apps (like Readability) and native clients for important services (like Netflix or Amazon’s Kindle) will cease to exist. Instead we will...
1 tag
WatchGreat conversation between Chris Dixon and Fred Wilson, two of my favorite investors.
2 tags
Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like... →
This New York Times article describes why I think services like Tumblr have the chance to do very well. Tumblr makes it SO easy to blog that it doesn’t actually feel like blogging. Just looking at my recent Tumblr posts, you see pictures, quotes, music, and long-form (more traditional) text entries. When I am posting the various pictures or quotes or links that I do, I am still contributing...
1 tag
