strooltz

We use dropobox pretty much as a "file server" at the office and my biggest issue has always been the lack of ability to assign permissions/roles. i'm glad they incorporated this much needed feature but at that price point there is a 0% chance we'll be upgrading. The attraction of dropbox, at least for myself and other small business/startups, seems to be the low cost of entry for

1) reliable and relatively secure backups

2) access over multiple computers, networks, devices

3) versioning

i only wish they had remembered the "low cost" part when adding the new functionality because at that price point it's better for me to just set up X number of s3 buckets and assign users/roles to each bucket and let them mount the drive via transmit 4 or sign up for jungledisk. yes, not as eloquent but it'll work for our needs.

One thing that we have done with bandsonabudget.com is to get involved in our target community on both a local and national level.

Specifically, nationally, we trade/discount services in exchange for festival sponsorship (which usually comes with ad/print/website link). We also write useful blogs/articles/reviews/interview for bands, primarily to drive traffic and serve as link bait.

Locally, we book shows/art opening at our store/office space and cut deals with promoters, venue owners, and tastemakers to help build the brand.

While we might be different from a traditional SaaS service - we are a web based business with a brick and mortar storefront - it all boils down to engaging your target market/community, often times in a non-salesy/gimmicky way - building trust, respect, and brand awareness is the best way to build a loyal customer base.

there is - go to google.com - enter "site:news.ycombinator.net <search term>"

cheers!

Referrals from other business owners is typically how i find any "professional" service. As far as lawyers - I'd recommend w/ someone specialized in whatever your particular need might be.

Both are great platforms. Heroku has a lower bar of entry in terms of cost, however EY gives you much more control over your server. I feel like my hands are tied w/ Heroku always having to go thru the gem to do anything (i.e - just let me SSH into the instance...)

are you planning on removing blank entries (those set at 0.00). i, for one, only filled out predictions who i actively follow in the market to keep "uneducated" data from entering your prediction. maybe a good strategy would be to remove the lower and upper ends of the curve as well...

None of those bands have been relavent in hardcore (other than on the fringe) in 20+ years. I've been involved in the punk/hardcore scene since the mid-nineties (and vegan since 2002) and while the scene is a little more veg friendly then most, a majority of the punk/hardcore kids i've grown up with and know are meat eaters.

as for the internet - it's full of opinionated zealots no matter what the cause.

While were not a "traditional" SaaS type of startup we've managed to turn bandsonabudget.com into a full time gig for myself, my partner, a full time employee, and a number of part timers. I supplement income w client development work and consulting but have been gradually phasing that out of the equation as we've grown... We have yet to take any funding and completely bootstrapped the company ourselves...

I was listening to your podcast yesterday at the office. Very insightful, especially the idea of launching the business in 8 days...

EngineYard - http://engineyard.com. they're built on top of EC2 and a little pricey but their support/service is incredible and they make it a breeze to deploy...

this list seems a little "safe" - none of these are anything that haven't been mentioned countless times in the past. i mean there's a lot else out there that i consider to be "must have". dropbox, teuxdeux, unfuddle, strip, last.fm, & skype immediately come to mind.

Teuxdeux - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teuxdeux/id384291782?mt=8

Dropbox - https://www.dropbox.com/iphoneapp

Strip Password Manager - http://www.getstrip.com/

Unfuddle - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unfuddle/id374901608

Skype - http://itunes.apple.com/app/skype/id304878510?mt=8

Last.fm - http://www.last.fm/group/Last.fm+for+iPhone+and+iPod+Touch

thanks! i was thinking about picking up rework - saw jason fried speak a few months back and it's been on my radar...

This is really awesome feedback. Thank you for all the constructive criticisms - we're actually going to be modifying things a bit based on everyone's suggestions. Just a heads up - our pricing scheme is based on what the local market is getting for office space/etc. A typical office space in town typically goes in the $600-$700/mo range (not including utils, internet, etc) so at $325 we are hoping there is enough of a demand...

hahaha...

they do if you're using at&t in the NY/NJ metro area. it's at least a daily occurrence.

This is cool. I think simple solutions will arise as well- companies can build platforms on top of the service and sell support packages- similar to what EY, heroku, and all the other EC2/S3 platforms already do or like red hat has been doing for years. There's a lot of cool potential for this...

nice - i just added our new coworking space in asbury park, nj - http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Cowerks:_Asbury_Park,_NJ

I would disagree with this. I think it's reliable but all too often i find that i have to restart the videos, advertisements fail to load, and it takes a while to start up. Don't get me wrong - i think it's great and i use it almost daily, however saying it's video player is rock solid is definitely an overstatement.

t colin campbell, michael pollan, & Tim Robbins are probably the 3 most important writers on this topic. while the latter two definitely write more to stir reaction, prof. campbell basically published his results in the china study.

basically, all three writers/experts agree that a vegetarian diet consisting of unprocessed foods is the best (although not foolproof) way to ensure that you will lead a long and disease free life.

the modern food revolution is only about 60 odd years old at this point - human evolution cannot keep up with how quickly our food has changed and how quickly our caloric intake has increased. perhaps in 10,000 years we will be able to find a way to absorb nutrients from krispy kreme donuts and pizza but for now its best to stick low on the food chain and as michael pollan say - "Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants".

Anyone looking for sources or more info i recommend the following:

The China Study - T Colin Campbell The Food Revolution (Or Diet For a New America) - Tim Robbins The Omnivore Dilemma (Michael Pollan) Healthy At 100 - Tim Robbins

one last note - Diet for a new america was written in 1988!!! This information has been out there for decades - politics and misinformation has kept it relatively out of mainstream media and on the sidelines but the statistics and information is out there for those who take the time to look...

pie- the goal wasn't to provide multiple upgrade scenerios- just to relay my personal experiences. the upgrade plugin is a great place to start as well- I didn't notice it existed until after I had updated. we will most certainly be using it for refactoring existing apps...

yeah - it's down for me as well. anyone have a mirror??

DBL Systems is looking for a freelance Designer/UI person and a freelance Rails developer. Please visit http://www.dblsystems.com/contact - Location: NJ/Jersey Shore but work can be remote.

EE and Nabble...

joshua davis is a brilliant guy - i took a class with him a few years back at SVA and the things he was doing with Flash at the time were absolutely mind blowing... Haven't really looked into Hype too much but I'm excited to see where he and it go...

thanks for all the great responses... phonebooth.com seems pretty close to perfect to what we need... next question - any recommendations on IP Phones?

i've probably not had cable more then i have for most of my adult life. I've gone years without watching TV in my house but in recent years with the advent of hulu and other online streaming services, there really no need to pay comcast (or whomever) $100+ a month for something you can get for the cost of an internet connection.

We use DB as a "file server" in our small office. I also use it to collaborate with other designers/developers for sharing comps, files, and other content.

I currently use git for versioning but i've though about trying to do a build for mediatemple to use that for deployment and updating some of our smaller web clients where git is overkill.

I wouldn't say it's nice but moodle is an option... haven't used it in several years so I'm not sure as to the current state of the project...