Monthly Archives: March 2006

ajaxWrite: what about IE?

23 Thursday Mar 2006

Posted by in AJAX, Technology, Web 2.0

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There’s buzz over at Memorandum about the launch of ajaxWrite. Some good (and good and good) and some not so good.

Technically, there’s not much there. We here at Homestead have a fully AJAX web page builder (before Google and MS), so we’re very familiar with how the designMode setting works and the power that it provides. The most interesting thing technically here is that it can open Word docs. Not rocket science, but it’s some work.

Some limitations that I noticed right away because Michael Robertson didn’t solve them (but we did):

  • There are only 7 font sizes. As I hope we all remember, HTML really only has 7 font sizes (CSS has more of course), and the designMode functions only allow you to set those 7 font sizes (1 through 7). We allow a ton more.
  • A bulleted list has a one-line gap from the line above it that can’t be removed.  Again, this is a limitation of HTML (without CSS), and so is a limitation that he just accepted from default designMode behavior.

Really, there isn’t much here. It’s still interesting; it just needs a lot of work. I hate the bloat of MSWord (I hate it when people send me Word docs when a rich text email would have been just fine), but this in no way competes with Word. I don’t think Bill is sweating just yet.

But what really gets me is this. I’ve complained about it before, and I’ll do it again. What about IE? In our experience, IE’s designMode functionality is better than Firefox’s (Homestead’s SiteBuilder app works in both IE and Firefox). If you are even remotely serious about taking on Word, why would you exclude IE? I’d love to hear any reason other than simple, short-sighted anti-MS politics. Again, Bill isn’t sweating just yet.

PayPal Mobile

22 Wednesday Mar 2006

Posted by in Gadgets, Mobile, Technology

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Now that’s cool! Like Russell Beatie says, it’s not that exciting to do person-to-person transactions (though the 20-somethings I know who text message all day long may disagree), but PayPal and eBay have the reach to do something really exciting to allow you to buy stuff:

Anytime you see Text to Buy next to something you want to buy—on a poster, in a magazine, at an event—you can securely order the item by text message. Use your phone to buy items like CDs, DVDs, books, electronics, accessories and much more.

Q: Where will I see these Text to Buy ads?

A: Look for Text to Buy in magazines and newspapers, on TV, billboards, posters, websites, and elsewhere.

Very, very simple. Very, very cool.

Never ending, these flame wars are…

21 Tuesday Mar 2006

Posted by in Blogging, Technology

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So Microsoft is getting into the classifieds space to do battle with Craigslist.  The guys at TechDirt think that there’s nothing that MS can do that Craigslist can’t just replicate, so MS will have a hard time taking them on. I’m sure I’m not alone in believing that that is a naive opinion. MS has the money, the reach, and the intelligence to do destroy Craigslist if they thought it was important enough and focused even a small percentage of their company on it.

That’s not that interesting, and I wasn’t going to write about it. The thing actually got me upset was the waste of electrons that passed as “discussion” on TechDirt. MS bashing by MS bashers, followed by MS-basher bashing by MS-basher bashers, followed by the spelling and grammar police, followed by just pure chalkboard-scratching.

Sometime, when you’re feeling good about things, head on over to Cnet News and read pretty much any of their comment threads on MS, Apple, Firefox, or Linux. I have more intelligent conversation with my 4-month old.

To get any decent conversation about anything, you have to dig through tons of silly flame wars and stupid insults. I’d love a community where people have to pass a test to join the conversation. For instance:

  1. Do you admit that the company you hate (e.g., MS, Apple, Oracle, Google, etc.) is often right?
  2. Do you admit that the company you love (e.g., MS, Apple, Oracle, Google, etc.) is often wrong?
  3. Do you admit that the technology you hate (e.g., Windows) has merit?
  4. Do you admit that the technology you love (e.g., Mac OS) has flaws?
  5. Do you admit that whatever it is you do, there is probably someone who does it better than you?
  6. Do you admit that just because someone doesn’t agree with you, they’re not necessarily an idiot?
  7. Do you admit that sometimes, just sometimes, you’re wrong?

Now, was that so difficult? Group hug…

Slacker…

19 Sunday Mar 2006

Posted by in Technology

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Interesting article about how you have to slack off to be really productive. In general, there’s a lot of truth to what she writes. We do spend a lot of energy getting stuff done (a lot more than we spend thinking of what we should do). That’s the way it should be, I think. But her point is well taken; everyone needs to take time out to be creative.  It makes you a better worker and happier, too.

But the truly interesting thing is how she sites Google Page Creator as a shining example of this theory.

Within hours, this was such a smash hit that the company had to put a temporary limit on the number of Google users who can sign up for it.

Wha? Didn’t she see how Google got ripped apart by almost all journalists, technologists, and bloggers for releasing a poorly designed, poorly executed product.  I’m not saying that Google doesn’t release great products (they often do), but that’s a miserable example.

You gotta go faster, baby

18 Saturday Mar 2006

Posted by in Social Networking, Technology, Web 2.0

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Interesting article on why your website has to change, and when you’re done, has to change again. Often times, it’s too easy to think of websites as software, when frankly, it’s not. More often then not, websites are marketing. And marketing has to change and adapt to the needs, wants, and fantasies of your customer.

At Homestead, we try to push the envelope of this everyday. We want to move faster, while actually releasing stable, usable, well-written and well-designed software. Luckily, we are in a segment of the industry that isn’t as capricious as social networking, where the high-fructose-corn-syrup-powered whims of teens controls your fate. Our customers are a little more discerning and a little more consistent in their needs.

But, as we all know, only the paranoid survive and the paranoia just pushes you to move faster and faster.

Browser-specific HTML for Firefox?

15 Wednesday Mar 2006

Posted by in Technology

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OK, ok, ok.  I understand that people are mad at Microsoft and IE, saying that it doesn’t support standards, blah, blah, blah. Anyone who really wants their site to work needs to check their HTML in multiple browsers, at least in IE6 and Firefox to get 90+% of the market.

So what’s the deal with sites not working in IE? I know it sounds terrible and flies in the face of the whole community, but if you’re going to take a shortcut with some browser, you have to support IE right?

I love WordPress, but I get two Javascript errors whenever I go the “Write Post” page.  And every page at www.snubster.com (brought to us by Michael Arrington) throws an error for me.

You can’t be serious that MS backlash has gone so far that people don’t want their sites to work on 80+% of browsers…