Tips, tricks, news & commentary for Revolution developers
Daniels & Mara - development, consulting & mentoring.
Rev Mentor - complete and release your app quickly!
RevMobile Mentor - start on your iPad / iPhone app now!
tText - our text editor extensible with Revolution plugins!
Order Snow Leopard & save $5.
JD's Tech Shop - Buy hardware, software & accessories here.
Jerry's Blog - My life in a series of images, links & commentary.
Follow my exploits via Twitter, RSS, or email.
Contributors
Filed under
deployment
MobileMe - lessons in deployment
Described by many as a "cluster", Apple's rollout of MobileMe may have been one of the most public IT disasters ever staged by homo sapiens. What Apple seems NOT to know about internet services is a lot.
In response to this very public humiliation, Eddy Cue, Apple's VP of iTunes, is now Apple's VP of Internet Services — reporting directly to Steve Jobs, CEO. I think this is a brilliant move, and here's why:
- I always wondered why Apple chose a bargain-basement, open source framework like SproutIt for the MM apps.
- iTunes has had great uptime and customer satisfaction. Why wasn't THAT team and technology used?
- Eddy (Pool) Cue will take what he's learned about web services at iTunes and apply it to MM.
iTunes is a brilliant, proprietary web browser that is streamlined to perform a discreet set of tasks. That's what the MM apps should be. Architecturally streamlined.
Hopefully, Eddy boy will get the team to see things from a web services point of view. Instead of trying to be the best web app on the planet, MM should just try and be the best mail app, cal app, etc. — ignoring the fact that it's on the web.
My guess is that the front end appearance of the MM apps won't change all that much; but, the back end will change dramatically to handle and balance the load better, and serve up app modules into browser memory more efficiently in the re-coded front end. Non-web-browser thinking is definitely required here.
Databases holding the raw data of emails and calendar events need to be clustered with the best technology money can buy; not the cheapest. There's a reason that Squarespace is kicking so much butt with its hosted web services: they have the best load balancing, most optimized database clustering, and fastest connection to the internet trunk available.
A complex UI with drag and drop — as well as very demanding record and list views — needs to work hand-in-glove with its back end architecture. This level of integration and cooperation is a work of art, not computer science — and certainly not mere information systems work.
If Apple had consulted me on this, I would have suggested using an iTunes type of app and back end for MobileMe, rather than an open source web app framework on a general purpose web browser with an obviously lackluster back end. Maybe Eddy will feel the same after a couple weeks.
Filed under //
deployment
Posted by Jerry Daniels
Comments [0]
Kawasaki's web app < $15K
Read how Guy Kawasaki built a Web app on the cheap.
By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09! Because of Truemors, I’ve learned a lot about launching a company in these “Web 2.0” times. Here’s quick overview “by the numbers.”
This is definitely worth a peek. It not only gives inspiration and information, but it's driving eyeballs to Guy's Web 2.0 app, isn't it? Quite a marketing coup for his product, and, perhaps, food for thought on how you could do the same. I highly recommend clicking on his picture (above), reading the article, and visiting his Truemors site.
Posted by Jerry Daniels
Comments [0]
Estimates - how long?
There's a though-provoking post in the Signal vs Noise blog by 37signals that John Gruber of Daring Fireball pointed out today. Here's a quote:
Imaginary work is always easier to do than real work. It is much more attractive (being more quickly done) and once you see the imaginary work, it can be very difficult to identify the real work it masks. People estimating imaginary work often assume they have all the facts in hand when making their estimates, which assumption leads them to believe that there is no “big technical hurdle” preventing its implementation.
Click the image above to read the whole article on SVN and discover what makes a feature easy or hard to implement before you send your next request for a wouldn't-it-be-great-if feature to your team, your contractor, or yourself.
I would further recommend John Gruber's article on Copy and Paste on the iPhone, which really points out the non-trivial aspects of implementing a seemingly trivial feature on not just an application but an application platform (like the iPhone).
Filed under //
deployment
development
Posted by Jerry Daniels
Comments [0]
Internet Applications - 1 of 5
Get the Flash Playerto see this player.
(download)
Simple-to-complex examples of writing internet applications. Part 1 of 5 parts.
Posted by Jerry Daniels
Comments [0]
Internet Applications - 2 of 5
Get the Flash Playerto see this player.
(download)Simple-to-complex examples of writing internet applications. Part 2 of 5 parts.
Posted by Jerry Daniels
Comments [0]
Internet Applications - 3 of 5
Get the Flash Playerto see this player.
(download)Simple-to-complex examples of writing internet applications. Part 3 of 5 parts.
Posted by Jerry Daniels
Comments [0]
Internet Applications - 4 of 5
Get the Flash Playerto see this player.
(download)Simple-to-complex examples of writing internet applications. Part 4 of 5 parts.
Posted by Jerry Daniels
Comments [0]
Internet Applications - 5 of 5
Get the Flash Playerto see this player.
(download)Simple-to-complex examples of writing internet applications. Part 5 of 5 parts.
Posted by Jerry Daniels
Comments [0]
Twitter Useful For B2B Marketers
via mediapost.com
As a business-to-business marketing platform, Twitter has legs. Some 56% of Twitter users say they use the online social communication site for business-related purposes, according to Rodney Rumford, a social-media guru and CEO at Gravitational Media. This stat, based on a survey of 700 Twitter users, suggests the service's business value, alongside its emerging utility for consumer marketing.
Click the link above for entire story.
Posted by Jerry Daniels
Comments [0]
Comments [1]