Workflows busted, courtesy Web 2.0

thanks for nothing 37signals!
Originally uploaded by superpixel

Well no sooner did I finish bitching about Gmail breaking some macros, only to find 37signals has really hosed me. I've been using an excellent dashboard widget from chipt.com to set timed reminders. These reminders would pop up on my desktop via Growl, but I could re-arrange them on the web via Backpack's site.

Until today. Today, I got the lovely surprise of what you see in the pic. All my daily reminders are "undefined." Now, I'm no real programmer, but to go in and monkey with data in such a way that it breaks a simple bit of text string? That either takes talent or utter stupidity.

So now I'm on the hunt. I don't need an online calendar thing. I need a quick dashboard-based widget tool to put timed reminders in a bin, and quickly schedule them (I loved the "tomorrow morning" presets). I need something with Growl support. I also need to be able to log in on any machine and monkey with my triggers.

37signals used to provide this, but I'm sure as hell glad I never paid them a dime. I'm considering canceling the groupware tools I've set up on other accounts just because if this is the kind of dumb arrogance I can expect, I'll not trouble them with my rather simple demands. Y'know, make shit that works and don't break it needlessly.

UPDATE: Jason Fried of 37signals responded almost instantly to my email (which contained a link to this post). He said:

"Why do you rush to judgement and assume "dumb arrogance"? Do you think we meant to hurt you? We're just human like you -- sometimes things don't go as planned. 

Thanks for reporting the issue. We'll take a look at it. You may also want to let the chipt.com guy know since he's pulling data from our API. 

Thanks. 
-Jason "

Now look, I never suggested anyone did this maliciously. My problem is that creating a tool where the primary data object is text with a time stamp, then making a change whereby the primary data object changes in such a way as to break the core functionality is inherently wrong. Not wrong as in immoral or evil-- just wrong in that the user has to scramble to figure out what is wrong. Even when the user didn't actually "do" anything.

It's like a school where they lack the funds to upgrade to OS X. If all apps were web apps, they'd be really SOL, wouldn't they? Maybe OS 9 is working for them, maybe they have legacy apps that no longer exist. But we're obsessed with upgrades, building features, and essentially breaking whatever we've made in the vein of progress. I'm all for progress, but the reason I railed against web apps to begin with (long ago) is that the user is no longer in control. You have no option but to accept the upgrade-- or get lost. How is that good business?

While I'm impressed Jason reached out so quickly, and I'm also generally impressed with the work at 37s, I'm also tired of being burned by online apps and I'm considering a more stable workaround/kludge to get back the functionality I lost. 

UPDATE 2: PackRat update 1.5.2 crashes on startup, which is also due to the new Backpack update. Boom!

Why do birds suddenly disappear?

Over the weekend we made a bunch of bug fixes and improvements to Twitter which resulted in more reliability in message delivery—this increased overall traffic.

Heh, and as I speak, Twitter down. Like, completely down. Oh wait, it's up again! Nope, back down. Jimmy says it's back up for him. Wait, no, down.

Anyway, this has me thinking about the reliability of services overall, and how we're truly in the dark ages-- still. But the remarkable thing is that we persist. There's a graph someone must have made, in a world I've never seen, where a user's affinity to a service ultimately trumps the unreliability of said service.

Take MySpace, for example. Notorious for growing pains, it grew nonetheless. But MySpace provided a compelling value, and thus the user persisted. I know this is rudimentary to some, but it isn't readily apparent to others. And frankly, I think folks in corners of the tech industry would do well to remember these basic concepts.

Twitter may be ephemeral, and not entirely "useful" to a mass audience. Not yet anyway. But stuff like Vox, where you can essentially lock down posts for a certain audience, and open posts to a larger audience, plus the bells and whistles it provides (I really need to update my books, but I love that feature) make it a very compelling service.

Still, it isn't without frustrations. Last night my wife tried to add "widgets" to her page. She doesn't use the Dashboard in OS X, nor does she give a crap about Vista, so the very notion of widgets is essentially new to her. Unfortunately, the widgets in Vox presume a certain level of technical sophistication she lacked. It really broke down when she tried to add widgets from Weatherbug just as she'd seen on another person's blog. She couldn't, and after damn near an hour trying, she gave up-- chances are, like most consumers, she won't try again for a very long time.

Oh, just try doing a Google search for "widgets" and see what you get. Even if you add Vox to the mix, you aren't presented with a very useful explanation! Again, there's a lot going on here. There's the presumed tech know-how at SixApart. There's the unwillingness of the consumer to learn a whole range of nomenclature, no matter how cutesy you make the jargon. Ultimately there's the way any system handles an error or unexpected user input.

Tonight in game design class we played a number of really tight games: Assassin's Creed, Bioshock and Mass Effect. Know what was one singular thread throughout them, and any successful game? They don't presume a damn thing. They walk you through the system. They teach you, they accept faulty inputs gracefully and the really good ones let you succeed despite repeated failures. That doesn't mean they are facile or silly. It just means they are designed well. I fear many modern web services are failing to gain traction because they have lost sight of truly great design-- opting instead for whizzy new features that most people don't care about.

Personally, I'd rather have stability than the ability to see my Tweets do backflips over the moon.

Wired learns to link... kinda

No, they didn't start linking to TUAW, that would point far too many readers in the direction of a blog that would really put them to shame. Instead, this piece on Threat Level about the undersea cables that are dropping like a once-industry-leading-magazine's readership is chock full of links.

So clearly Wired "gets" the whole hyperlinking phenomenon. Why, there are up to 10 whole links in that article! Of course, the first link is to another blog.wired piece, which (as you may know) helps the ol' Google juice. Other links include such high-profile sources as Scholars for 9/11 Truth, SMBlog and the venerable Galloping Beaver-- I think that's where Walt Mossberg got his start. Let's not forget their clever links to the Navy and two, TWO links to TeleGeography. SEO gold, for sure.

When SEO douchebags run your content, your content will be as brilliant as SEO douchebags.

Epilogue: The original article on Wired about the iTunes movie rentals that got me so pissed about all this to begin with? After two angry emails they actually added a link. Not to what Christina said, mind you (because citing sources would be the mark of a journalist, naturally), but a link to TUAW's trick regarding the duration of a movie rental. Of course, this was well after the story moved off the page at BoingBoing and other places, so, as my imaginary redneck uncle Jimmy used to say: "gotcha good!" Well played Wired, well played.

Why do I feel like bloggers will be fighting this same fight for at least another 5 years?

Passing the "spouse test"

I usually stop by Flickr just before I go to bed. Perhaps because I'm a visual learner, or perhaps because I like to see the slices of life my friends and acquaintances leave lying around, but it calms me. Tonight I saw a photo of a Kindle from Scott.

When the Kindle arrived late last year to much ado I just couldn't get excited. My main beef remains: cost. But who am I to complain about cost? Hell, I'm a Mac-using Apple-breathing unabashed fanboy par excellence (even if I can't afford the latest gear, I do lust after it). It only makes sense that the Kindle will come down in cost. So I can't exactly pooh-pooh the darn thing on that one criteria.

In fact, I want the Kindle to succeed, but my fear, shared by many sharp gadget-loving folk, is that the features are too esoteric for the mass market. My wife, albeit quite above average, is such a consumer. But when I extolled the virtues of the Kindle, cleverly avoiding the issue of cost, she was intrigued.

For example, I explained the e-ink contrast ratio. I described the cellular modem. I detailed how books, magazines, and even websites can be loaded onto the thing... And now she's really intrigued. The Kindle passed what I consider to be a foolproof mass market test: my wife.

So Amazon, you have just a few months to knock about 50% of the cost off that damn thing before we'll even consider it. Just so you know.

Microsoft wants to eat Yahoo's breakfast, lunch and dinner

Wow, just completely huge news today: Microsoft looking to put a little Yahoo! in their bag. Feeling the pinch from Google, eh kids?

Coverage on Download Squad and a funny poll on Engadget. This is crazy times, I tell ya!

In other news, I had to quit using Safari for Gmail because the out of memory errors just got out of control. Camino FTW! Get on with your State of Perfection Google, the heat just went up a LOT.

Anyway, I tried to find that animated GIF of the kung fu guy smashing the other guy's head, but Google failed me. Noticing a theme here?

Can't wait to see the curbing M$ give the famous Y! usability!!! (If it's approved, yada yada)