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@PageRank: Doesn't Google already follow redirects? (Most of) those URL shorteners aren't doing anything else.

Those fees are on top of the cut that Authorize.net/PayPal/Protx take, right? So with Paypal Website Payments Pro for example the total cost would be $49/mo and 4-6% + $.30 per transaction.

Yeah, a "penny" is also GBP 0.01 or AUD 0.01 or CAD 0.01 -- I was confused as well.

Why?

I disagree that this is the same thing.

At the release of Mozilla 1.0, the website looked like this: http://web.archive.org/web/20020802080030/http://mozilla.org... -- clearly targeted towards developers, with product download links hidden in a nondescript column. I suppose that's what Ross was talking about: The site didn't offer any convincing arguments as to why you'd want to download their browser, and didn't make it easy to do so.

Nowadays, the download site has moved to mozilla.com which is very much targeted at "Real People", and .org is about evangelism and developer info, at least the first of which these designs reflect quite well. If they go overboard it's on the marketing speak and boldness, but certainly not on technical details and programmer jargon like the old mozilla.org did.

That said, the .com vs .org distinction is probably confusing: They should just move Firefox to firefox.com and drop the Mozilla brand from it altogether.

We were quoted $600 for a 2-person cubicle, plus around $100 for connectivity and IT services, and a $100 one-time setup fee. They offer more than just office space, though: Regularly, angels and VCs come in that you can pitch to, and (for additional fees) they offer recruiting services, lawyers, a datacenter etc.

Time tracking over IM bots. I really like the idea (and the nonexistant signup process!), gonna see how well the implementation works over the next days. http://www.timmyontime.com

...until it turns out two of the three founders tend to agree on most issues, and the third is constantly overruled, feels left out and angrily quits. I don't think it really makes that much of a difference: there are pros and cons to both 2 and 3 founders.

Lots of services do this for Twitter already: http://twitturly.com, http://twitturls.com, http://www.tweetmeme.com,...

For those who don't drink coffee: Taking even just a single sip of a carbonated beverage right after turning off the alarm has worked well for me.

Sorry, should have been more specific: I meant that you use absolute $ values in your sales-by-month graph -- that must also be dependent on traffic. Obviously the A/B test is not.

Interesting... congrats on the increased sales.

One thing I was a bit confused about: You say you want people to easily be able to continue browsing your marketing copy before committing to buy. But how do they get back to the cart once they've closed the lightbox? Clicking the buy button again reveals just one item in the cart. So in essence closing the lightbox means "discard this cart" rather than "continue shopping", right? That means your findings only work for pages that have one single item for sale (or items similar enough that buyers only want to purchase one of them, as in your case).

Your sample size is also quite low (94% increase = from 8 conversions to 15), and you're using absolute values in the graphs. Did traffic to the page stay constant over all that time?

This article is from 2003... would be cool to get an update.

Here's the news page of the "Centre for the mind" (but it's mostly about media coverage): http://www.centreforthemind.com/newsmedia/WHATSHOT/index.cfm

And Wikipedia on the technology (with no mention of temporary savantism): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulati...

And in 2012 it'll be 1333333337 o'clock ;)

I'd suggest you put a sample animation of the type of result people would get on your site on the front page. I don't think the intro text "your life in pictures" explains it well enough, but if people see even just a 5 frame animation they'll immediately recognize the concept. In fact, I'd stick the picture taking app on the front page and allow them to take a first snapshot before even signing up. Having the first picture there would provide a great incentive to follow through with the sign-up.

Also, if I may, and I know from experience it's harder than it sounds: It seems your concept got way more complex over time, when you really should have launched the simplest possible version as fast as possible and worried about widgets, following, minifeeds, comments, a proper logo etc. later on. Cool that you're online now though, good luck with everything!

I seem to recall reading an interview with SkinnyCorp (Threadless.com) where Jake or Jeffrey said they had once built but then scrapped a similar project. While googling for that, I found http://www.flickaday.com

Vienna, Austria has had a system based on the same technology for a few more years than Paris, albeit on a much smaller scale (600 bikes vs. 20,600). The bikes are much more rugged here: They're single-gear and have solid rubber tires -- surely less comfortable, but also much easier to maintain.

In either city, to rent one you need to provide a debit or credit card -- so I don't quite get how they can be incurring such high losses from lost/stolen bikes. Wikipedia says "The credit/debit card will be charged €150 if a rented bike is not returned" in Paris. In Vienna, you'll receive a €600 bill.

A previous attempt in Vienna with an anonymous system where you just had to deposit a €2 coin to unlock the bike failed miserably: Hundreds were stolen within the first week.

there's also addthis.com and addtoany.com

At Soup we use Jabber in a similar way: A group chatroom that everyone hangs out in, and a bot (based on Whistle: http://whistle.rubyforge.org ) that notifies us of GetSatisfaction requests, emails, commits & deploys and user signups (in batches, to not be too spammy).

I've spent lots of time at Metalab, the hacker space in Vienna (http://metalab.at/wiki/English) -- I initially met all my current startup co-founders there, made dozens of good friends, worked on several collaborative projects, held and attended workshops, etc.

I'm sure there's lots of variety among all those spaces listed on the site -- apart from Metalab, I've so far only been to three others (C4 in Cologne, CCC-B in Berlin and Noisebridge in SF), but all of those would be excellent places to find likeminded people to work on projects together -- which is especially important in places that aren't otherwise known as startup or technology hubs, like Vienna.

They're not necessarily the best places to actually work at (too much going on, people coming and going, using it socially rather than for productivity), but if you're in a city lucky enough to have one and you've never checked it out, you're definitely missing out.

The only thing I dislike is when routine sets in and it starts turning into a hangout for a rather static group of friends -- openness is an extremely important property to prevent that from happening. So look up the one nearest to you and go knock on their door: I'm sure it'll be worth your time. And if there's none nearby and you got a year or so, consider starting one ;)

It's online here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-175006468841636088

Some feedback:

* The connections-drawing tool is somewhat broken: First it wouldn't show for me at all ("Loading..."), and then when I wanted to correct something, the eraser didn't remove the lines (although I think it did invalidate them, because I could draw new lines on top of the old ones)

* Entering team details is very tedious when every single question is on its own page. I got tired of clicking next, and would very nearly have quit the process there.