Monthly Archives: March 2010

Five reasons smart startups use Rails

By colin | Published: March 24, 2010
It’s 2010. You want to build an web application. PHP is dead. Java is dead. Use Rails If you’ve got a blank slate, use Rails. If you’ve only built a prototype, switch to Rails as soon as possible. If you decide to ignore Rails you’re one of two things: Much smarter than me. You’ve won [...]
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37 Signals new book: Rework

By colin | Published: March 22, 2010
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37 Signals have created the Anti-Business – a deliciously small, opinionated organization that scoffs at the structures and mantras of the traditional corporation. In Rework, JF and DHH refine many of the concepts from 37 Signals previous book: “Getting Real“. Frequent readers of the 37 Signals blog “SVN” [...]
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Seven things I learned at SXSW

By colin | Published: March 17, 2010
1. Everything will become a game +10 – you flossed +10 – you brushed Congratulations, you unlocked the “Dentist’s pet award” 2. Avoid trending parties unless you’re on the VIP list If the party is trending, you’re too late… unless you can sneak in the back door 3. We need a unified checkin now more [...]
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Spoons vs. Sticks – How signaling can enhance user experience

By colin | Published: March 17, 2010
The best coffee shops in New York provide spoons to stir your coffee rather than wooden sticks or plastic stirrers. Spoons are more effective than plastic stirrers and wooden sticks at mixing sugar and milk in to coffee. However, I don’t think that’s why coffee shops offer spoons. I think they provide spoons because it [...]
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I’m on a panel at SXSW

By colin | Published: March 13, 2010
Due to a last minute change, I’ll be taking Brandon’s spot on the panel Why Challenge Prizes are the future of Innovation. If you’re at SXSW, come and check it out. Everyone on the panel is fantastic: Billy Bicket NetSquared/Techsoup.org Billy Bicket is the Director of NetSquared, a social-technology initiative of TechSoup Global. Billy spends [...]
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Links should always be blue and underlined

By colin | Published: March 10, 2010
So you thought it would be clever to make your links pretty? Don’t do it! If you’re short on time, follow these simple rules: Unvisited links should be blue and underlined Visited links should be purple and underlined Active links should be red and underlined Searching for “links should be blue” turns up enough reading [...]
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A response to “Why don’t startups hire MBAs?”

By colin | Published: March 4, 2010
Why don’t startups hire MBAs? A friend posted the following text on Facebook and I decided it warranted a response below. The problem with startups is that they think that just because you’ve never been involved in one, you would be incapable of adding value. This especially true if you have “MBA” painted on your [...]
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