Posts (page 2)

RIM Looking for Cocoa Engineers

May 1, 2008
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RIM, maker of the Blackberry, is apparently hiring Cocoa engineers. And this is another reason why I don't like RIM.

Clearly they're not hiring these developers to write iPhone apps. With requested skills like "synchronization", they're obviously looking to fix a glaring hole in Blackberry support: Blackberries don't work on Macs.

So 5 years ago, when rumors of an Apple-branded phone started up, RIM didn't do anything.

2-3 years ago, when Apple pointedly say "it's not like we're sitting around doing nothing" in response to a question about an Apple branded phone, they did nothing.

1-2 years ago, when Apple's Mac marketshare started accelerating upwards, they did nothing.

18 months ago, when the iPhone was first rumored and then announced, they did nothing.

About a year ago, when the iPhone launched to rave reviews, they did nothing.

Six months ago, when it was obvious that the iPhone was in second place only to RIM, they did nothing.

And now that Apple is about to release 3rd party apps at WWDC in June, RIM has decided maybe they should do something.

I've never thought this company was particularly visionary, and their UI has always struck me as Windows 3.1-like. And I could be wrong about both of these things.

But there's little doubt they don't understand their competitive landscape. And all the understanding in the world won't keep them in first place longer than a year or two longer.

Touchscreen versus multitouch

Apr 28, 2008
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The other day I was told that "other companies will release touchscreen devices", as if that's all the iPhone has going for it. In fact, the touchscreen is a liability which happens to be offset by other features. Competitors who only ape the touchscreen without working hard on the interface will actually end up with a less competitive device than if they stuck with a traditional keypad.

Let's be clear about the tradeoffs here. The soft keyboard is harder to type on because it provides no tactile feedback. But by making the device into one big screen, video and applications can be designed differently and better. To further tip the scales, Apple has made the keyboard guess what you meant to type so when you fat finger a response, the phone can prevent you from having to correct.

It's doing it as I type this very post, in fact.

Now. Let's say a competitor launches a device with a flat screen to reap the same benefits. Video would still look great and support more codecs. Awesome. But will it connect to iTunes? Not legally.

So you have a device with no iTunes music or video and applications designed by - who? Java developers? Windows? They've had their chance to prove they can write strong applications on the phone or the desktop, and in my judgement, most can't.

So no iTunes, applications that I'm assuming won't be great, and you're still stuck with a soft keyboard. All the pain with none of the benefit.

And then there's multitouch. I don't know what patents Apple has, but if the clickwheel was never legally copied, I bet a lot of the multitouch interface will be similarly locked down. Competitors are going to need a lot more than a touchscreen to compete with Apple.

Happy things

Apr 27, 2008
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I have a happy and healthy baby.

I get to be married to an amazing person who is right for me.

I am challenged at work, in a good way.

I'm thankful for what I have. Sometimes it's good to take stock to gain a little perspective.

I Gave Good SEO When You Were Still on the Blink Tag

Apr 26, 2008
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As soon as I learned about validating HTML, I became a bit of a validation freak. That day, I re-wrote my site to validate, stopped using inline HTML, started using stylesheets, and cheered as commercial websites started moving over too.

One day I realized it didn't matter. Which, I should stress, was a significant conclusion for me to reach. Back when this stuff was brand new, modern web design was the frontier that I explored the most and had the most fun with. It's what I'm best at in my career, and where I carved out a niche. I shunned sites that didn't validate as hopelessly out of touch. I gave good SEO when you were still on the blink tag.

Which is why I sort of chuckle when people try to guilt me into validation. Son, I made that argument in February of 2001. When you can come up with a better argument than "it's just best practice" or "it makes your sites future proof", (which is bullshit), maybe I'll reconsider.

But while you're missing the forest for the trees, I'm going to make sure my site works on all major browsers, degrades gracefully on less capable browsers or devices, and has functionality that meets the objectives of the site. Even if that means it doesn't validate.

--

This topic is on my mind again after seeing all of the new Webkit functionality that's coming out. They're really on a roll, yet nothing they're releasing is in a firm spec. And this is triggering a series of responses from head scratching to full throated yells of outrage. From "Why put animation in a line of CSS when you can do the same thing with a massive and bloated Javascript library?" to "THANKS FOR STARTING UP ANOTHER BROWSER WAR, APPLE!!!11111"

I think it's time to take the religion out of web technologies. IE, Webkit, and (to a saddenly lesser extent) Firefox all have ideas for how to improve the browser experience. But time has shown that great leaps of innovation will not occur waiting for everything to be put into a nice and tidy spec. The way to push amazing new technologies forward is to say "Look, here's how we think we should address it", ship it, pitch it as the formal way to do things, and wait.

If it makes it into the formal spec, great. In 7 years developers can start using it everywhere. But that's better than waiting for 70 years, which is the approximate speed of implementing a new feature cross-browser in any other way.

Random iPhone brainstorming

Apr 23, 2008
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Javascript on the iPhone will be able to register gestures, just like native iPhone apps. This means any webpage, without any download, will be able to offer a very powerful experience.

This brings up questions of interoperability. And clearly no one's going to make a website that only works for the iPhone. Yet. But the iPhone's functionality is so far beyond any other browser, companies will be presented with two options: make a normal website and miss out on iPhone features, or duplicate your website entirely.

We're not talking about run of the mill duplication here. It's not like the late 90's where you fixed IE bugs on indexIE.html and Netscape bugs on indexNS.html. It will be an entirely different experience from top to bottom.

Location is going to be fun, but it will be opt-in. Your phone isn't going to magically know the instant you arrive at work. One, because the current iPhone only knows your location within a large area. Two, because apps aren't going to run in the background. But this is fine. You can do a lot with the technology without pinpointing your exact precise location.

We're going to start seeing some cool games with totally different control schemes. People are comparing the iPhone to the DS Lite, but it's not a great comparison. The iPhone can accept multiple inputs, not just one. And it doesn't use a stylus, it uses fingers, which are much larger. Also, the accelerometer.

It's so much easier (for me, anyway) to dream up and spec out applications than it is to actually code them. I'm wondering if I should get some venture capital, hire a few great developers, and get some ideas moving. The problem is, I'm not ready right now. Maybe I'll catch wave two of the gold rush.

Mobile advertising

Apr 20, 2008
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I'm reading Fast Company and it's taking a lot about mobile advertising. The example everyone likes to use is "you're walking down the street looking up sports scores on your phone, and a banner ad tells you that pizza is 20% off around the corner".

And sure, that would be cool in that situation, I guess. But there are some details I don't understand yet.

Do I have to install an application for this fancy new model to work? Because I think it's pretty obvious that no one is going to install an app that makes it easier to be marketed to.

Would Google know where I am at all times? It does me no good if google only knows my zipcode, because it will recommend pizza 3 miles away. And yet if Google knows my location within within a block, I think people will be concerned about privacy.

I think the key here is opt-in marketing through apps you download. If I buy RestaurauntGuide.app for my iPhone, I want to be marketed to. maybe I'm a business traveller and I want a steak In a strange town. Feel free to pitch me a $5 coupon for steak.

But while this represents a polite kind of advertising that I would personally enjoy, no one gets rich off polite, opt-in marketing.

Another detail is the iPhone. Everyone's talking about advertising on traditional mobile platforms, but traditional mobile platforms suck. iPhone users are the ones that will be using their phones for information gathering on the Internet, not some poor generic phone user with no data plan and a tiny screen. Marketers need to figure out how to make apps for the smartphones of the future, not the clumsy devices of today.

In fact, the iPhone provides an avenue for revenue right off the bat - purchasable applications. If I was trying to get rich in the mobile space, I'd focus on hiring iPhone engineers, not slinging pizza via Google's ability to stalk me..

Email Skills

Apr 19, 2008
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Anyone working in technology knows how to use email, so it seems like a silly thing to put on your resume. After all, does a mechanic really need to explain that he has a driver's license?

But just like there's a difference between typing 60 words per minute and typing 100, I think there's a range of skills that people have with email. Email is often the central line of communication in an organization, so it's worth determining if you're about to hire someone that's merely familiar with email, competent, or an expert.

Rules/Filters

If your company sends a certain amount of email per day, especially if there are various teams and mailing lists, email rules are a must. Otherwise, every message that comes in looks the same until you read the subject, which slows you down. My mailbox uses colors and folders to emphasize and de-emphasize messages. For example, a message directly to me gets highlighted green. To a team I'm on? Blue. Mass-mailing? Light grey. Someone I don't know? (usually a client, new co-worker, or someone else important) Background is light red so I notice it and deal with it right away. Plus there are scores of messages that are marked as read and archived without me ever reading them.

Attachments

A person that sends a Word file with a graphic inside it may not understand that email is perfectly capable of embedding graphics directly. Not only is this possible, for some work it's essential. It's very powerful to be able to send someone a graphic and ask for feedback, and it can be more efficient than a whiteboard or meeting.

Thread Awareness

If a thread has gone on for 10 messages, reading the entire thread before responding will reduce confusion by keeping thread splintering to a minimum. If you hire a person that understands this, he or she will contribute to conversations and drive them forward.

Responsiveness

It all comes down to responsiveness. A person that feels in control of their mailbox will spot messages requiring their input and respond quickly. In technology companies, decisions are constantly being made through consensus and debate, often in email. A person who cannot respond quickly (or at all) can slow down the company or worse.

No one's perfect, of course. I try to be as responsive as possible yet I'm sure I've dropped the ball my fair share. But when I go to someone's desk and refer to an email that's 3 days old and get back a blank stare, it can be concerning.

When a person's brain sends messages to the body that aren't received, it's called paralysis. The same thing can happen in an organization, and it can be the difference between the ones that are able to execute and ones that aren't.

Anil Dash and Apple, Part Two

Apr 18, 2008
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I recently wrote that Vox isn't good with Safari or iPhone and that one of their head honchos doesn't like Apple. And I was wrong about everything.

I said Anil is the company's CTO, which I thought he was at one point, but I didn't bother to double-check. He's a Vice President (Chief Evangelist) for Six Apart.

I said Vox doesn't support the iPhone, which is an over-broad statement. Of cource Vox.com loads on the iPhone, I just wish there was an iPhone specific version available. But that's a wish, not a big failing on Vox's part. I know they have to prioritize, and adding an iPhone version may well be on that list somewhere. Also, I work in web software, I know better than to say "It don't work!" without actually explaining the issue.

So here's one: when I use Safari in the rich text editor and I start a new paragraph, Vox converts my two line breaks to three. That's my single complaint with Safari on Vox. It's not that big a deal, and I know Safari's often been the odd duck with rich editors that rely on advanced DOM scripting, so it's hardly unique to Vox. I just had my "Anil hates Apple" conspiracy theory all revved up, and didn't bother to, oh, file a bug or something.

As for Apple, Anil and I used to disagree on all sorts of stuff on Metafilter many years ago. One of the ongoing things we clashed on was that I'm a big time Apple fan and Anil (like many) stresses Apple is just a company, not a cult, nothing to be worshipped, and certainly not perfect. Sometimes that central point (which I agree with) sounded a little more like "Apple sucks, and so do you." (see also: owillis)

But Anil has a Mac now (and so does Oliver Willis), while still contending that Apple is just a company, and he's frustrated that any criticism of Apple causes such an uproar, as if you're not allowed to discuss Apple rationally. And I agree that the Apple crowd does get too persnickety about criticism.

So my post was wrong, wrong, wrong, and mean spirited. I apologize.

Ecosystem

Apr 17, 2008
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I just watched the internal sales motivation video for Vista, Service Pack 1.

Stupid Internal Microsoft Vista SP1 Video

They talk a lot about ecosystem, so I thought about it a little bit. Traditionally you buy a Windows PC, which has Windows on it, and then you buy Microsoft software like Office. And then third party software makers want to get in on the action, so they start writing code to talk to Microsoft PCs. And there's your ecosystem.

But today, a large part of the ecosystem is online. Microsoft isn't doing well there. And next up, the mobile space. Microsoft isn't doing very well there either. And of course, Windows market share has been falling steadily for at least 3 years now, perhaps more. They're still number one, by far, but it's no longer because of their overwhelming quality advantage.

Microsoft is becoming the company you resort to when you don't know any better, and the old ecosystem isn't good enough anymore. Microsoft needs to be relevant in new, high growth areas. Endlessly trumpeting your "ecosystem" while all the innovation is done by everyone else is not the way to turn things around.

Anil Dash and Apple [renamed, updated]

Apr 17, 2008
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[update: this wasn't a fair (or accurate) post. I apologize. I have clarified in another post and I'm keeping this up because Anil's response is worth keeping around for my 7 visitors to read.]

I can't help but notice these facts:

Safari isn't well supported on Vox.

The iPhone isn't well supported on Vox.

Anil Dash doesn't like Apple.

Anil Dash is the CTO of Six Apart, the parent company for Vox.