Posts filed under 'Marketing'
Pushing your limits
A few of my best friends are in Japan, doing their higher studies. One of them has come back on vacation, and while talking to him I was amazed to hear about the insane hours he’s working there. Apparently he gets two hours of sleep before heading off to work on the night shift at a restaurant, and then comes back to have one more hour of sleep before going to uni the next day. I never thought the human body could endure such torment, seeing how I get dizzy after a couple of days of sleep deprivation. I mean, it’s not like my friend is using polyphasic sleep, but here he was, fit as a fiddle, and yet sleeping only three hours a day.
OpenDarwin not open anymore
The project to build a free (as in freedom) Mac-like OS is dead. The team says it has failed to achieve its goals in 4 years of operation, and moves further from achieving these goals as time goes on
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The reasons?
Availability of sources, interaction with Apple representatives, difficulty building and tracking sources, and a lack of interest from the community have all contributed to this.
I don’t know what commitment was there from Apple when the project was initiated, but they don’t look like a company who want to share information, let alone source code. As far as I know, Apple representatives speak in legalese, not the ideal way to communicate with hackers. No wonder the community was not interested.
But above all, OpenDarwin was destined to fail because it was trying to fix a problem that didn’t exist. The Cult of Mac is not searching for a way out of Apple’s tight grip. They just want more ways to play with the system. John Gruber speaks for many of them when he says:
I don’t want the source code to their software; I just want to be able to script the hell out of it.
Pricing a Project
The talented folk at Blue Flavor have detailed their pricing methodology. It’s an insightful article that’s a must read for any web designer.
Wikipedia - Being Bold
Over at the Orielly radar, there’s an insightful post, Wikipedia and the Future of Free Culture.
Getting Real about Getting Real
37Signals released their book Getting Real as a PDF. I’m sure the book is excellent, but I can’t say the same about the terms and conditions under which it is released. If it were a printed book, I would have been free to share it with my friends, but if I buy this PDF, I have to agree that it’ll reside only on my computer, only to be seen by me. 37Signals are not the first to use this PDF distribution model, but it’s the first book where I really felt the hurt; it’s one book I’d love to have, if not for the need to compromise my freedom and agree to be an asshole by not sharing it with others.
Microsoft Recommends Apple?
Isn’t that a Mac this MSN user is using for a pillow?
Web D, cooler than Web Design
Web design has always been a bit less prestigious, less glamourous, and not quite tangible enough compared to Graphic design. Ours is a cheap medium, with very low barriers of entry (perhaps without which some people, like yours sincerely, wouldn’t be able to do it after all). It even shows in the resolution: 72dpi on screen vs. 300dpi on glossy art paper. Hell, after so much overuse even the very title “Web Designer” sounds cheap.
The Myth of Intellectual Property
“Intellectual Property” is a phrase worth avoiding, as explained by much better people. Free Software advocates would be familiar with the reasons (I’m not very sure about the Open Source guys - ESR goes as far as to say that GPL is no longer needed, which, atleast to some of us, seems to be an unacceptable stand) but it’s not often you find the “management types” buying this idea.
Vesess featured in “Web Designing”
After launching our second redesign a few months back, vesess.com was featured in several online design/css galleries. However, making it in to a printed publication is always a special thing, especially when it’s Japan’s leading web design magazine Web Designing.
I heart GPL
There are many businesses that value the freedom of their customers. They don’t want to apply vendor locks, but they don’t want to be leeched either. For them, GPL is not an option; it’s a necessity.
