sublog :

Send any audio to your stereo system via airport

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:31:00 -0600

One of the gadgets I love the most is my Airport Express from Apple.

It gets the most use streaming audio from iTunes onto my stereo system. One major gripe I’ve had with the Airport Express is that I have to use iTunes to send music to it.

Luckilly I stumbled across Airfoil for Mac and Windows, which streams any audio on your computer to the Airport Express.

I’ve got it running with Pandora Radio right now, and it’s working perfectly.

I love technology.

UPDATE

I also must say, they have a genius way to make you purchase the damn software. They get you hooked listening to your favorite music, then overlay white noise on top of the broadcast after a few minutes and prompt you with a dialog to purchase.

Now if I could only build in something like that to Cashboard.

Minority Report interface is real

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:29:00 -0600

I’m one of those people who always used to complain about the "hacker" computer interfaces presented in most movies. People breaking into computer systems in minutes with pretty graphics and pictures zooming by. I find them an assault on my throwback days of hacking Taco Bell billing systems, hotel climate controls, and unprotected unix boxes. What can I say, I was young and bored…

Despite this fact, I’m also a sucker for those futuristic computer interfaces presented in movies like Minority Report, and the new 007 movie.

Imagine my shock when I ran across this video today showcasing that a group named Oblong Industries has recreated the Minority Report interface for real!

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Cashboard logo exploration

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:14:00 -0600

Here’s a group of logos I came up with during the recent Cashboard rebranding.

The final, accepted logos are at the top left. Losers were rejected for a variety of reasons, but I thought some people might enjoy seeing the thought process that goes into an effort like that.

Cashboard gets new-new branding

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:11:00 -0600

Sometimes I just can’t leave things alone. I refreshed the Cashboard brand a few weeks ago in preparation for an event I needed to attend. The results were OK, but nothing I was overjoyed with.

I’ve since taken the time to really update the brand. I believe the new look reflects the quality of service that we’re providing with Cashboard.

That, and I just love looking better than the competition…

Test destruction of your Rails associations

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:07:00 -0500

Here’s a handy test helper I wrote this afternoon during some Cashboard testing.

It ensures that all associations are destroyed that you specify. Great for those ":dependent => :destroy" calls.

def assert_associations_destroyed(item, associations=[])
  ids = {}
  associations.each do |assoc|
    ids[assoc] = eval("item.#{assoc}.find(:all, :select => 'id')")
  end
  ids.each do |key, things|
    assert things.size > 0, "#{key} doesn't have more than 1 item."
  end

  item.destroy

  ids.each do |key, things|
    assert_equal 0, key.to_s.classify.constantize.find(
      :all, 
      :conditions => ["id IN (?)", things.collect { |thing| thing.id }]
    ).size
  end
end

Paralysis by analysis

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:49:00 -0500

During my life as a user experience consultant I was brought on board multiple times to help redesign major enterprise software applications.

Most of the time companies bringing me on had never worked with a user experience professional and definitely didn’t know what to expect. All of them just "wanted the app to look better" or "be more user friendly". I can’t blame them. The majority of people in the user experience field don’t even know what to call themselves, let alone have a single definition of what they do. How could I expect people not in the field to know what they were getting? I quickly learned that educating the client was the largest part of any redesign effort.

I’d get in and take some time to understand the application. I’d do background work using personas and scenarios just like Alan Cooper taught me. I’d draw prototype sketches on enough paper to kill an entire tree. I’d get real and build HTML prototypes. All while my client was wondering when the pretty colors and graphics were going to be brought to the table.

...Then I’d recommend they change the entire damn thing from the ground up.

A variation of this scenario would always play itself out. Product managers would most often try to whittle down my ideas, taking selective parts they liked and sweep the major changes that were scary under the rug. Sound familiar to anyone out there?

History repeats itself

It’s a funny thing, being both the client and the consultant these days. I’m going through a design project on Cashboard that requires massive sweeping changes. Massive, scary changes just like the ones I used to propose to my clients. The type of changes that engineers would riot over because they required too much effort.

About 10% of the way through I found myself caught in a rut. I was facing numerous failing unit tests. I found myself not working on the project for a day or two at a time. I was second guessing my design decisions, even though I knew they were sound and necessary.

I was being paralyzed by fear.

The fear of breaking things. The fear of an overwhelming load of work that I saw no end to. The fear I saw in my client’s eyes back when I was a consultant.

It’s times like this that you must rededicate yourself to the effort in order to get it done. Nothing grows without painful change. Being a web app, Cashboard has the luxury of constant improvement. If I don’t nail an initial release I can always refine what I have as I go along. I can push new releases live every day – even if some customers get pissed in the meantime. This has been my motto from day 1 and it’s worked out great for myself, and others.

How does one rededicate themselves to such an effort?

For me, it’s the driving desire to put all of my competitors out of business. It’s the status report of how many paying customers I have today versus yesterday. It’s how much my monthly revenue has grown from $0 only a year ago to a level that can sustain my lifestyle comfortably. It’s the validation of my intelligence, drive, and hustle by being able to show off what I’ve done.

Being a self-motivated, self-run entrepreneur is a hard business and not for the faint of heart. But it can be done. I’m living proof.

Time to blast Pantera and smash out some coding. Until next time.

Where's my clone army?

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:39:00 -0500

I have a confession to make. I built Cashboard by myself.

Thats right. One person. Me.

Sure I’ve hired out small bits and pieces along the way. I’ve had wonderful contributions from trusted advisors and I’ve gleaned knowledge from trusted friends.

But all the blood, sweat, tears, design, code, and support emails? All mine.

I know some of you might be shocked to hear this. Especially when I throw the term "we" around so often.

I never saw this as misleading as Cashboard is the sum of its parts. The sum of ideas, concepts, advice, partnerships, and work from multiple people – even if it was myself who executed all of this to make it happen. I often take on the persona of my corporation because I think in that manner.

I’m blessed to have developed into an "exceptional generalist" who can do multiple things competently. Design, user experience, programming, SQL, marketing. I’m good at all of the above. I’m a one man wrecking crew. It might sound a bit self centered…who cares? It’s the truth.

I average perhaps 10 to 12 hours daily working on Cashboard…for the past year and a half. It’s worked extremely well…until now.

Cashboard is at a stage in its growth where I constantly need more time.

I can only drink so much hyphy juice or rockstar cans to power me before my heart explodes. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to do what I want.

I’ve come to a realization. ~~I need a clone…~~ (Fuck that) I need a clone army.

Finding the right people

Since cloning humans is frowned upon and we don’t have the technology for replicants yet I’m in a tough spot. I’ve quickly moved past my clone dreams to realize I need co-conspirators. It’s scary and exciting at the same time.

I’ve worked in all of the classic good and bad computer company situations. I was the 17 year old working at Hewlett Packard who lost his job because he stayed out late painting graffiti every night. I also was the 19 year old interviewing CS grads from Berkeley at a "dot com". That 25 year old user experience consultant who designed a brilliant product to see it die because of poor management? I’m all of those guys. I’ve seen the million ways to FAIL.

Up until a few months ago I would have told those war stories with a sad face.

I realize now that all of that just has prepared me for this latest chapter in my software life, and I’m pumped.

I’m not looking to instantly add a ton of people and make a bad choice. I have the luxury of time for now. There’s a few people I have in mind who I’ll be approaching when that time comes. Still, if you’re a technology fanatic, code Ruby on Rails like a bat out of hell, and have a drive as strong as mine I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Bulking up

Google lead me to a great article by Dharmesh Shah on the subject of finding a co-conspirator. It’s written for people exactly in my position. All it did was whet my appetite for more information.

Whenever I’m at a crossroads tackling a new challenge I always do the same thing. Grab a ton of books and immerse myself in the subject.

This should hold me for a week or so.

Watch out suckers, I’m coming for your customers.

Cashboard sponsors Rails Rumble 2008

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:34:00 -0500

We love Ruby on Rails at Subimage LLC. We know a lot of our customers love Rails as well, so we’re proud to announce that we’re sponsoring Rails Rumble 2008 by giving away free year-long Cashboard accounts to the winners.
The competition in their own words

Spend the weekend of October 18th and 19th with us, designing, developing, and deploying the micro application you’ve been dreaming about. And in case the launch isn’t enough reward in and of itself, our kind event sponsors have offered up a bunch of really kick ass prizes that the community will help award to the best new web properties.

Crack open those source code editors and get hacking people!

Micro addictions

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:15:00 -0500

Jonathan Mead has a great common-sense article over at Zen Habits on “Micro-Addictions”.

The article resonates with me, but especially this portion where he describes what common Micro-Addictions are.

The inability to stop checking your email 10 times a day, when you could be making progress toward building your own business.

The frustrating habit of seeking approval from other people when you know that you should trust your own instincts.

The deceptive habit of using television as convenient entertainment, rather than participating in life.
The addiction to having everything figured out in advance. Instead of going for what you want, you commit to thinking about it a little longer; possibly for the rest of your life.

I never was a big television fan and I’ve weaned myself off checking email constantly all day long after reading 4 Hour Work Week, but I still have my bad habits.

What micro addictions are impeding you from realizing your goals?

New Cashboard branding

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:19:00 -0500

Here’s a promotional business card I made for Cashboard a day ago.

It’s part of a larger rebranding effort which includes a site and application design refresh.

I love designing with letterforms.

Wish I had more time to design and could spend less time coding.