Fri May 12
Seeing as I give software away for free, I didn’t think I would be interested in this article on pricing software, but I was wrong. But don’t worry, we’re not about to start charging for any Wiblog stuff :0)
For one thing Joel writes informative and entertaining articles, and I’d highly recommend subscribing to his blog to brighten up your day with insightful and quirky writings. But for another, he gives a great introduction to the complexities - downright futility, I would suppose - of pricing software right. It’s not a job for the faint hearted, as I well know at the moment as I’m in discussions for the pricing of a new web application.
Anyway, read and enjoy. You might also like what Joel has to say on IT business strategy, where he makes some pretty sharp points about open source software.
Hat tip to Pamela Slims excellent “Escape from Cubicle Nation” blog, which is also well worth a read. Particularly her open letter to CEOs.
Wed May 10
Is ‘nakedly’ even a word? I hope so. Anyway, we’re still waiting for the arrival of Small Individual which should be any day now, but I thought you would like to see the latest site from Carson Systems. It is describing, in brutal and minute detail, the process that the eminent Carson Systems are going through to develop and launch their latest web application.
To be honest, I’m hooked. It’s like reality TV for web geeks. Fantastic, and I wish them all the best.
Sun May 7
Here's a quick question for all Wibloggers: would you like a calendar facility for your Wiblog to save details of future events? Any other Wib-wishes?
Fri May 5
Well, it isn’t. The last two weeks have seen me throw myself into learning object-oriented programming in a variety ogf languages - namely PHP, JavaScript and C# (for .net techologies) and I’m impressed. Very impressed.
It’s not so much the objectifying of it that impresses me, or the inheritance and sharing capabilities, but the fact that anything can be objectificated. In fact the only major brain problem I’ve come across is working out how to not go too far when creating classes and objects.
Let me explain. A very wise man once told me that when dealing with relational databases developers have a tendency to want to normalise everything to the nth degree. Normalisation is good, vital in fact. But when it leads to having 600 tables all with 2 fields in, you have to ask yourself &uot;have I gone too far?”.
It’s the same with this object lark. A data table = new object. A database connection = new object. A set of string manipulation methods = a new object. A repeated block of HTML = a new object. Before I knew it I was wearing out the ‘c’, ‘l’, ‘a’ and ’s’ keys of my keyboard. So, I’m trying to learn where the balance is between my old-style procedural big-block-o-functions and the more separated and scalable class system. The balnce is ther somewhere, I just have to find it.
And yes, all those examples were from the new Wiblog system. My time is extremely limited at the moment, but I’m doing what I can. In fact I’m quite pleased because this week I’ve finalised how the admin area is going to work on paper (plenty-o-nifty features). I just need to find the time to actually write the code. But wife and children come first.
Oh, and if you were wondering what happened last month to the Wibsite, this image tells the story quite well:
(Yes, I know the dates don’t quite tally up with the downtime, which happened on the 18th-21st, but this is honestly straight from the stats program).
Thu May 4
It's 10.30pm and warm outside. There are good tunes on the radio and beer in the fridge. Does life get better?
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Whitby from the Hill
