davidcann

I hadn't heard those places were bad, but they do seem a little too good to be true. If there's a scam, do you know how it works?

I disagree. When I'm reading or figuring out a user interface, I move my mouse with my eye.

Perhaps this is why mouse-based tracking isn't very useful for user testing. It makes a fun demo, though.

The demo doesn't seem to account for a stopped mouse. If you move the mouse slowly in one area, it gets really hot, but if you put your mouse in one spot and don't move, it doesn't get recorded at all. This seems like a big hole.

The few writers in Hollywood that I know will write 50 stories for every one that gets made into a movie/short/etc. Many stories are written down just as experiments or to get an idea out of the system... very similar to how I work as a code hacker.

There are, of course, uncreative money-grubbing people in Hollywood... just like in the tech world.

I think that all developers should be able to design layouts that make sense. Pure programmers (writing algorithms, optimizing, scaling, etc.) don't really need design skills.

You definitely need product developer(s) on your team if your startup is consumer facing at all. In such a small (2-3 person) team, everyone needs to do multiple jobs, so if none of you have decent design skills, then start practicing now.

Part A - Usually a proof-of-concept happens first either in basic wireframe mockups or basic/ugly code. Once you'er clear on the product you want to build, then full designs are done in Photoshop or, once in a while, direct HTML.

Part B - I would mostly ignore that stuff. Simply look at great/big sites and see what the do right, but more importantly look at what they could improve and do that yourself. Basically, make your interface design as simple as possible while having the minimum feature set to make your product useful - finding that balance is where you become a great product developer.

Part C - Don't outsource your design. If you commit to design as a core competency in your development team, then you understand that design is not just visual - design encapsulates everything that the user experiences with your product.

Part D - I started off as a cartoon animator in college, but found I was better at coding, then I realized that to make great products, I need to have great design. I didn't have a design monkey, so I started creating my own designs (poorly at first) taking inspiration from products I enjoyed. To overcome obstacles in design, I simply take the worst part of a page/workflow and fix that first... repeat until the product is due or there aren't any cringe-worthy features.

Eek, sorry about that bug. I'll look into it. Admittedly, I haven't done extensive or automated testing yet.

I agree JQuery would be a good addition and not difficult to add.

A standalone app would be nice too... that would make it easier to preload content and minimize loading delays between pages! A standalone app would also give me access to AppleScript, so it could integrate with Mail, iCal, etc.

Actually, it's even easier than that! You can edit every plug-in right within the interface. Click the Edit button, then click "Go" on whichever plug-in script you want to edit. That page will load and the Go button changes to an Edit button. Click that and the code editor interface pops up. Change the URL and click Save!

I should redesign that Edit/Go button interface to make it more clear. A couple people have thought they can't edit the plug-in scripts.

Sleep.fm looks pretty cool. I can see that working great as an iPhone app alarm clock.

If you don't mind me asking, what are you using for your text-to-speech engine? Google's? A licensed web service? or something on your own server?

That's a great idea... I'll have to look into what control extensions have over tabs. I agree that the page load time is currently a weakness.

Thanks for the feedback, csomar. I will definitely be cleaning up and streamlining the code when I make it cross-browser and cross-platform.

Thanks! That's a great idea and they actually already produce an audio podcast of the NYT and WSJ each morning on Audible. I could definitely see automating it for other news sites and blogs, etc. In fact, that can already be added using the javascript API!

Yea, I'd like to port it to windows and chrome, but this was just my MVP.

Do you know if the Windows built-in text-to-speech is any good?

Thanks! Yea, it's a browser extension, so it injects javascript into the page.

Your data is never transmitted to a server... it's all done locally in javascript and the text-to-speech is done locally via the plug-in.

To support iPhones and iPods, you'll very likely need to join the MFi program.

Why not use GPS? The main problem to solve would be creating a database of the location of each store in the mall.

Did you find that there isn't enough GPS coverage in malls?

Clickable: http://verbaljuicer.com/

I made most of this last weekend and polished it a bit over the past couple days. You need to install both the Extension and the Plug-In... this was the only way to make it work.

You can write your own mini apps for any website using javascript. If you create one for a public website, send it to me and I'll put it in the gallery to share.

What do you think? Is it useful?

Should I make a Chrome version?

Thanks, Barry! Hardware can be a challenge as a startup, but we're almost there.

We're doing hardware... a toy for kids that connects to your iPod/iPhone: http://xachipet.com

Be careful with that html5contest.com... their FAQ says "Further, we ask for a non exclusive license on all games whether they win or not."

If you're applying for a job, then I agree.

If you're founding a startup, then a business guy needs to be able to clearly and quickly communicate with the developer(s).

Aren't the real issues obviousness and prior art? The interfaces for Cover Flow and Time Machine are fun, but they hardly seem patent-worthy.

How could a jury of 12 non-technical people possibly be qualified to judge if a patent is valid? I would not feel qualified to judge if an automotive patent is valid, so how can a non-developer judge a software patent? The system is broken.

I don't know, but do you have a suggestion for another limit?

As medical technology progresses, it seems obvious that abortion will eventually be seen as barbaric. A hundred years ago, a baby born prematurely would die, but now babies live when born at 7 months, 6 months? earlier? Laws in the US have begun to reflect this. The only logical limit is conception.

At some point, it will no longer be an issue of religion or freedom of the mother, just like wife-beating must have been the "right if a man."

I think theft and fraud both count as laws that are in place.

The FDIC has an entirely different purpose. The banks themselves usually cover customer losses themselves due to hacking. Identity theft can be more difficult to recover from, of course, but if Intuit/Mint/Yodlee had a major security breach, it would need to be cleaned up very quickly.

It is relatively commonplace to prosecute monetary theft compared to prosecuting "gmail theft" or "twitter spamming."

There are solid laws and remedies in place for when someone steals money from your bank account. This happens all the time at banks and they just replace your money without even telling you. Mint and Intuit have every incentive in the world to protect your money.

Giving out your twitter/facebook/gmail password is much more dangerous because there are no easily enforceable laws in place for when someone spams all your contacts, damages your reputation, or locks you out of your web accounts.

I like it. My project is similar: http://almost.at

It's using a new feature in iOS 4. Technically, you don't need this service to do the direct web-to-device ad-hoc installation, but I'm in the beta and it's a great product that makes things easy and smooth.

... and with a kid in the car?

My usage of Digg is actually up recently. The front page stories have rarely been interesting since Digg went mainstream a few years ago.

Digg 4 is actually useful because it's like twitter without the chatter. The only annoying thing now is that they keep logging me out every couple days.

The 20MB size limit over cell networks has been published for a long time. It used to be 10MB and they raised it last year, so nothing new on that one.