A friend recommended me to Easyspace (a web hosting company based in Glasgow, Scotland – part of the iomart group). Their prices looked good, they were UK based, and I could handle almost everything online…
Read the rest…
Don’t Use Easyspace!
12.01.2010Overcoming Professional Prejudice
21.04.2009I’ve just been on the phone with a potential client. From our brief chat it’s clear that they have experienced problems with “web” people before now. This has affected their view of our services at FlipStorm, even though they know nothing about us.
So, how do you overcome that kind of prejudice? You could turn to the salesman’s pitch… tell them all the guff they either already know or don’t want to know and spin it to make it sound like you’re the best. If they buy in, they’ve got to spend some more money and they might just get lucky.
If they are smart though (and your client is always smart, no matter how stupid they are!), they won’t go for any of that. So you need to toss them a bone. Prove to them that you are prepared to go that extra mile. Give them something for nothing… a favour!
Some of you may see this as flaring up the spec work debate, but before I start a urinating competition, I’d like to mention that there are absolutely no limits on how far you take this; it’s entirely up to you, if you think it will achieve the desired result without costing you too much. If you make it clear to the client that this is a gimme and that any work as follow-up from that will be payable then you’re in no danger of giving false impressions or cheapening your services.
Quite the opposite, in fact; it adds value to your services. It could be a deal-maker and something so simple to you that it takes you all of 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes are definitely worth a new customer!
Ah but, I hear you say, will that be a quality client? That depends largely on how strict you are with your freebies. Too much and clients get used to it, expect and eventually demand it.
We will have to wait and see if it pays off in this case, but I have found it to be genuinely worthwhile.
Anyone Uses Google Hosted JS Frameworks?
01.08.2008I’ve just started using the google.load() service to fetch my favourite javascript frameworks and was wondering if anyone else is doing this?
According to all the hype from a couple of months back, end users should start to see an increase in surfing speed because of centralisation of these frameworks. Of course that depends on one thing: uptake.
It’s no good when some of the more common apps use Microsoft’s AJAX framework (eBay) and others write their own frameworks.
The other problem is that Google won’t necessarily host the version we want. If you want to use betas, forget it! Even the latest stable versions won’t be available straight away.
I guess it’s a trade-off. For all the sites out there that want MooTools or script.aculo.us, aren’t bothered about running the latest version and want the possible benefit of a fractional decrease in load… this is a great way to go.
If you can minify and host these packages yourself though, it’s probably safer!
Google Friend Connect – the answer to a programmers prayers?
22.05.2008Dear Tanya,
Google Friend Connect was officially announced last week. It has since come to light that this is no ordinary social network. In fact in the truest sense of the term, it isn’t a social network at all!
Friend Connect is a social tool. It seems the lovely people at the big G have been working their socks off finding a way to help us all connect a lot more easily. This fantastic tool is still only in preview, but from the fairly sketchy detail proffered by Google, it seems that even now it has a very wide appeal.
In order to place a perspective on what Friend Connect allows you to do, imagine: you are the only software developer on the planet. You, and you alone, have developed each and every web site in the world and you had to build each site from scratch.
So that means no code sharing. No data sharing. This means for every user who visits a web site that requires authentication they will have to register and verify their details. Then they will have to maintain them. This is the kind of data duplication that would make a data analyst’s butt clench.
By now you would have won plenty of awards… at the very least you would be long overdue some much-needed shut-eye.
The solution would seem obvious: extract the common data structures (in this case the individual member’s details) into a central pool that each site can get access to. That is what Friend Connect does!
You can close your mouth now.
As well as being a social connector, it is also a social enabler. What I mean is that a site that is not a social network (DamnILoveChocoDip.net for example) and never intends to be can still benefit from the viral nature of social networking. The social aspect of visiting a web site and sharing your experience is made even easier.
Yes as the modern social surfer you no longer have to re-register the same details you saved with the previous web site into this one. Simply log in with the same credentials et voila you’re in. Your data isn’t copied or duplicated. You keep the one central piece up to date and Friend Connect does the rest (as they say).
Beautiful! Adding to this is the entire social aspect. In theory (because I haven’t had a chance to test it yet) you can see who of your friends are registered with this site. They will see when you do things on the site (that you explicitly allow).
So all of a sudden, for the majority of web sites we visit, we can now see who else is there. It’s like all of the other patrons visiting this virtual shop/bar/resource centre become visible.
You could actually “bump” into someone who you know from another web site. As you seem to share a passion for at least two things, you might pluck up the courage to strike up a conversation, perhaps opening with an oft-hounded ‘chat-up line’.
It would be the equivalent of walking around the town, bumping into that cute girl in two different shops, suggesting you go for coffee, then quickly cut to 3 years later and you’re story is being told in some horrible romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks.
There are some questions on security and integration, all of which I’m sure will be answered in time. If you’re a programmer like me, I’m sure you will see the benefits though. I’m drooling over some of the possibilities. Least of all not having to build a registration engine every time I build a site. A close second is the speed with which people will discover a new web site.
Also in this orgy of social debauchery is OpenSocial. Now application developers have an opportunity for their applications to make it onto millions of web sites, not just the few major and accessible social networks.
The issue at the moment is that not all networks are supported, and indeed not all will want to jump on the bandwagon. But when things become this easy for users, where do you think the majority will go?
So then the key lessons from all of this are… build a site that can make use of this centralised platform! If you’re building an application, build it for OpenSocial as the chances are it will lead the way in terms of mass integration.
Is this a sign that Facebook may slip into Microsoft’s online “I just don’t get it” pit? I wonder why that could happen.
How Basecamp could save your life
16.04.2008Dear Dorothy,
Small-ish software houses (like the one I work for) suffer terribly when we get a big project. You see when a company is started, the guy running the show (my boss and MD of the company) usually knows how to manage everything himself. He has all fingers in all pies.
However, this poses a problem when you then have to start sharing knowledge and resources, creating stable, trackable communications, testing and reporting. Even worse when the client gets all “hands-y” and is all over you like last Sunday’s gravy accident.
The key factor above all else is cost. For a small business it’s just not an option to go out and spend thousands on just-what-we-need bug tracking, centralised communication system with permissions-based remote access, project management software. Even if you can piece these bits together from really handy ‘freebies’, it’s still at a cost of time – installing, configuring, and getting all these separate and disparate parts to work together.
So how does a small business manage? Muddle through with emails, recorded phone calls, and endless reams of jotter pad scribbled on and gently growing in the bin?
NO! Use Basecamp you dummy. That’s what we’ve done. Adapting it to our needs has been particularly easy. Ok, so it’s not the most efficient method, but it’s still better than the alternative. Actually for a small team it works really well. And the client has access too, which is a real bonus.
If you need somewhere to collaborate, please save yourself… use Basecamp!
