Period Three Blog » Software

Jan192009

Tweetdeck gets funding, insanity? really?

Posted by Gene in Software, Web Development, Twitter

Just perusing my RSS feeds and came across this article “Another Twitter App Funded: TweetDeck Raises an Angel Round. Next Up: A Business Plan” where Tweetdeck (or specifically it’s creator) is getting 500K in funding. I then came across this article on gigaom.com where Om Malik thinks it’s insanity. Or Twitter insanity. Reading his replies to other commentors he’s really not hip to it.

[Tweetdeck] one of the many Twitter desktop apps that use Adobe Air and has been downloaded 250,000 times, is getting just shy of half a million bucks from New York-based incubator Betaworks. I’m not quite sure why! Though I think I understand — it uses Bit.ly, a service that shortens URLs to be exchanged on Twitter and is also backed by Betaworks.

He goes on to reply later that he doesn’t understand it, since Tweetdeck is JUST and Adobe Air app…

I think is one of the things that people working in/on this industry (the internet) falls prey to. We get so caught up in how it all works and how its put together we forget the big picture. Normal people don’t give a crap. People will respond to something that looks neat and works, things that make them feel cool for what they are doing. Maybe Tweetdeck does that for ya, who knows. Now I know Mr. Malik is “IN” on the internet and he needs to write stuff, but seriously, I’m happy for Tweetdeck, I think it rocks they got some money for their creation. I’m not going to take anything away from them for getting investment money to continue the cause, especially in today’s financial climate.

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Sep012008

Google Chrome

Posted by Gene in Software, Web Development

In case you missed this due to being offline on your day off. Google accidentally announced they are launching a competing browser. TechCrunch has some images and movies from a beta preview.

So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.

Google says to check back today to get the preview beta download for Windows.

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May012008

Adobe - Open Screen Project

Posted by Gene in Software

Adobe and about a dozen other top-flight technology companies have started the Open Screen Project. This is a pretty big play for Adobe to push for their technologies (Flash & Air) to be standardized across the web. Of course that all depends on it’s adoption. Going open source is pretty huge for Adobe, they pretty much own this market, the only thing that comes close would be the use of “Ajax” itself, which could put Flash in direct competition for mind-share among web-developers. Adobe is notably doing the following to help this project to gain it’s foothold:

1. Opening up the runtime to its Flash player.
2. Removing licensing fees for Flash on mobile devices.
3. Publishing the APIs for porting Flash to other devices.
4. Publishing Adobe protocols for pushing content to devices.

Again, this is huge… Will Apple finally port Flash to the iPhone?

To support this mission, and as part of Adobe’s ongoing commitment to enable Web innovation, Adobe will continue to open access to Adobe Flash technology, accelerating the deployment of content and rich Internet applications (RIAs). This work will include:

- Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
- Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
- Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services
- Removing licensing fees - making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

“Adobe is spearheading the Open Screen Project with support from industry leaders who share a common vision to provide rich, interactive experiences across computers, devices and consumer electronics,” said Shantanu Narayen, chief executive officer at Adobe. “A consistent, more open platform for developers will drive rapid innovation, vastly improving the user experience.”

Read the press-release here

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Apr152008

Cabel Sasser and the epic development back-story behind Coda

Posted by Gene in Business, Software

This is a really great presentation given by Panic’s Cabel Sasser about the epic development back-story behind their recent product Coda. He reviews design decisions, development roadblocks, how they overcame their biggest issues and the ins-and-outs of product development. It is specific to developing a Mac application but the lessons really transcend the platform I think.

In style and substance, Panic is arguably the canonical indie Mac dev house. A day after their tenth anniversary they shipped Coda: an app that history will record as changing the face of website development software.

The always-entertaining Cabel recites Coda’s epic development back-story along with tangential takes on software design, usability and what it’s like to be resolution-independent.

View the entire presentation on Viddler here.

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Mar262008

mintemail.com

Posted by Gene in Software

This is kind of nuts, mintemail.com. You just go to the site and it throws an email address into your clipboard then you just watch the page and it’ll automatically load your message. Great for signing up for random stuff on the web that you just want to check out and don’t necessarily want to get spammed from.

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Jan222008

Sun to buy MySQL

Posted by Gene in Software

So Sun ~~is going to buy~~ has acquired MySQL, this only looks like a good thing to me, though I do worry that eventually we’ll be paying hefty fees for licenses to MySQL but somehow I sort of trust Sun’s Open Source spirit. Overall it seems like the community is open and happy about the news.

Mark de Visser, Chief Marketing Officer of Zend Technologies released this statement on behalf of Zend.

“This is a very good deal for the open source and web economies. It confirms the success of the LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) stack as a web platform. The valuation of the transaction reflects the broad enterprise adoption of this platform, which is also driving our strong revenue growth at Zend Technologies. We have a long history of working closely with MySQL and are encouraged to see the senior roles the MySQL executives will play at Sun. It gives us confidence that we will be able to work with Sun, like we did with MySQL, to progress the innovation and open standards that power the adoption of the LAMP stack.”

See Also: Cnet, WSJ, Computer World, Info World.

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Dec282007

So long Netscape

Posted by Gene in Software

So AOL has finally decided that Netscape is to be no more. I say it’s about time, I can’t imagine anyone really using this thing anymore, save for those precious few that haven’t updated to a new OS in about 7 years… Windows ‘95 anyone?

Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008, the company has said.

In the mid-1990s the browser was used by more than 90% of the web population, but numbers have slipped to just 0.6%.

I say 0.6% is a bit generous…

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Period Three - Simple, Measurable, Powerful.

Tweetdeck gets funding, insanity? really?

Google Chrome

Adobe - Open Screen Project

Cabel Sasser and the epic development back-story behind Coda

mintemail.com

Sun to buy MySQL

So long Netscape

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