SoHo Trends

I’m sure you’re familiar with Murphy’s Law… “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”  In computing, Murphy couldn’t have been more spot on.  Things happen.  Disk drives crash.  Blue screens of death occur unexpectedly.  A construction crew cuts a line and your T-1 goes down for next three days.  It’s happened to all of us.  What’s refreshing is when a vendor proactively informs its customers about a bad situation, explains what’s going on and how its customers are affected and takes steps to insure that it doesn’t happen again.  Unfuddle is such a vendor.

Unfuddle provides Subversion hosting, Git hosting, bug and issue tracking in a secure, hosted environment.  I use their free, “Private” service to host several small Subversion repositories.  Unfuddle offers five different plans, ranging from free (Private) to $99/monthly (Enterprise), that appeal to an audience ranging from a single developer (me) to very large, geographically diverse development teams.  When I outgrow their free servce — which will happen fairly soon, hopefully — I will definitely subscribe to the Micro service for a reasonable $9/mo.

One evening last week, I received an unsolicited e-mail from Unfuddle stating that the hardware which hosted my account had experienced a failure with its attached storage earlier that morning.  I don’t access my Unfuddle account daily.  On that day, I hadn’t committed any changes or otherwise accessed my Unfuddle account, so I wasn’t affected  by the outage (or even knew it occurred).  I was very impressed with how Unfuddle handled the situation and really appreciated the open and honest discussion of the outage within their e-mail.  Unfuddle certainly wasn’t obligated to tell me about the outage.  I’m not a “paying” customer and, frankly, I probably woudn’t have known about the outage if they didn’t tell me.  The important point is that Unfuddle did inform me about the outage.  Not only that, they discussed improvements to their service that would deal with these types of outages in the future AND they also waived my entire June payment.   This is their response to a non-paying customer.  If they treat non-paying, “free” customers that way, just imaging how they would treat me as a paying customer!

My blog entry today is to praise Unfuddle for their actions and tell as many people as I can about my positive experiences with them.  It’s far too easy to criticize companies when they do something wrong.  This time, I’m complimenting Unfuddle for what they did right.  Try Unfuddle today!

Adobe BrowserLab is a web-based service that allows you to view websites on popular browsers and operating systems. Supported browser/operating system combinations include:

• Firefox 3.0 / Windows XP
• Firefox 3.0 / OS X
• Firefox 2.0 / Windows XP
• Firefox 2.0 / OS X
• IE 7.0 / Windows XP
• IE 6.0 / Windows XP
• Safari 3.0 / OS X.

BrowserLab runs inside your favorite browser as a Flash application.  It takes a few seconds to load the first time; subsequent loads were faster.  It’s quite easy to use.  You simply choose the environment you want to simulate and enter the URL (for a public web site) that you want to test.  A few seconds — okay, maybe more than a few seconds — later, BrowserLab will show you how the web page looks in that browser/OS combination.  Here’s an example of how the SohoTrends web site looks in Firefox 3.0 and IE 7.0 (both on Windows XP).

BrowserLab 2-up view

As you can see, the user interface is pretty simple and straightforward.  In addition to viewing how the same URL looks in two different browser/OS combinations side-by-side, a really neat (and helpful) option is the “Onion Skin View”.  In this view, both screen are laid on top of each other.  There is a slider that you can use to adjust the transparency (or alpha channel for you purists) of each view so that you can see how the views differ.  Take a look at the same information as above, but in the onion skin view.

BrowserLab onion skin view

With the Onion Skin View, you can see where the two environments differ.  There’s not much difference; however, the exact placement of items does differ slightly when comparing Firefox 3.0 and IE 7.0.  Even if you had both browsers installed on your machine, the onion skin view is a helpful way of identifying differences visually.

According to the Adobe BrowserLab FAQ, the service is currently in a “limited free preview” mode.  The FAQ also states that:

There is no charge to use BrowserLab during the limited free preview. It will eventually be released as a paid subscription service, and the final price has not been determined at this time. There will be no limit to the number of pages a user tests.

So, take advantage of the free BrowserLab service while you can.  In order to use the service, you’ll need to sign up for an Adobe ID.  Also, you’re not guaranteed access to the free preview.  I was able to sign up for the service today with no problem.  As always, your mileage may vary.

As many of you know, I do some Flex development on the side (see my post about Ribbit for an example).  One of the most helpful resouces I have found is Flash and Flex Developer’s Magazine.  The magazine is published six times per year and is a great source of articles for both Flash and Flex developers.  The February 2009 issue contains articles such as:

• Flash Flex developer interview with Dave Schroeder about the Flashbelt Conference
• BannerSnack – A quick alternative to Flash?
• Working With Flash CS4 New Features: Inverse kinematics (IK) with Bone Tool
• Tracking Time with Screenweaver HX
• Using all the different components within CS4 to built a complete site
• Model View Controller – What’s the Secret Sauce… ?
• JSFL Quirks
• SWX: The Native Data Format for Adobe Flash
• An introduction to Flickr In Flash
• Flash video and AS3
• WebORB tricks
• Multi-user Applications in haXe
• Achieving a retro-style using only Flash
• Secrets of a professional Flash game programmer
• Interview with Lee Brimelow.

Walk, don’t run to the Flash and Flex Developer’s Magazine web site and check them out!

After my first visit to the International Franchise Expo, I’ve compiled this list of tips.

1. Don’t eat before visiting the show.  There were plenty of franchises that offered free food to visitors.  Vocelli Pizza offered several different types of pizza.  Baja Fresh offered tacos (for a dollar).  Wings Over had three different kinds of boneless buffalo wings (the wings were awesome).  Robeks offered fruit smoothies.  One or two booths offered cookies.  Many booths had candy bowls.
2. Don’t register for the show with your home phone number.  I have a Google Voice phone number as my main business phone number.  That was the number I used to register for the International Franchise Expo.  I was glad I used that number, instead of my cell phone or home number.  Follow-up phone calls from various franchises I had visited started coming fast and furious within 48 hours of my visit.  While all the callers were polite, they were persistant.  To their credit, I haven’t received any more calls from any franchise after telling them that I wasn’t interested in what they offered.
3. Wear comfortable shoes.  Unless your used to standing on your feet all day, comfortable shoes are a must.
4. Make a list of companies to visit prior to attending the expo and STICK TO THE LIST. Since this was the first time I visited a franchise show, I felt it was better if I simply wandered around the show and stopped in at various booths that looked interesting.  If I was really serious about buying a franchise, I would do my homework before the show and narrow the list of companies to five or six per day.  Any more than that and you simply won’t have time to get into a good discussion.  Also, having a list of companies to visit and sticking to that list will reduce the likelihood of being drawn into a conversation with a franchise that you have no interest of purchasing.

Got more tips to add?  Add a comment to this post or e-mail your tips to me.

After my baptism by fire with the printing guys, I wandered next to a booth from a premium tutoring and test preparation company.  I knew that education was a hot industry, so I figured I’d find out a little more about what this company had to offer.  Similar to my previous encounter with the printing franchise, a well-dressed man (WDM) pulled me close to the booth and handed me to his well-dressed colleague (WDC) who gave me his spiel.  Almost the same modus operandi as with the printing franchise.  There were a handful of music stands located in the back of the booth and each had a spiffy binder.  Before the WDC and I made it to one of the music stands, I asked him why so many company booths had the same physical setup.  Large open space in the back of the booths with several music stands spread out.  WDC explained to me that potential franchisees were more willing to stop by and learn about the franchise while standing up talking across from the salesman.  It was a lot more intimidating to people to have to sit down at a table.  Made sense to me.  I cracked a lame joke about getting into the music stand business.  He lauged, opened his binder and went through the pages, one at a time, reading the highlighted text on each page.  This particular franchise was pretty interesting and had a few unique things going for it.  After a few minutes, I thanked WDC and continued my trek through the IFE.

I attended the 2009 International Franchise Expo show that was held at the D.C. Convention Center last weekend.  It was my first time attending this type of show.  While I’m not actively looking to purchase a franchise, I thought it would be interesting to talk to people in the industry and learn more about what business concepts are “hot.”

After walking around the main show floor for a few minutes, I was pulled in (literally) by a well-dressed man (WDM) standing in front of one of the booths.  The booth was for a popular printing franchise.  He asked me if I was interested in learning about the franchise and I said sure.  He handed me off to a well-dressed colleague (WDC) who introduced himself and walked me over to a series of music stands that each had a binder on it.  WDC proceeded to go through each of the pages in his binder and read the text that was highlighted on each page.  After a few minutes of listening to him read each page (think Charlie Brown’s teacher), I was ready to scream and run away.  I held my tongue, took a deep breath and managed to (politely) excuse myself from his spiel.  Little did I know that this was only the first of several encounters with music stands, salesmen reading pages out of a binder or being pulled in to booths.

Part Two to follow soon…

Just got a flyer from O’Reilly offering free shipping (within the US) when you order direct from them and use this code: AFSKP.  I haven’t tried this code yet; please let me know if it works (or not).

Quick question for the audience today… am I being over-protective when I watch over valuables, such as a laptop computer, briefcase or coat, when at a public place like a restaurant or library?  I was working at Panera Bread earlier this week and a guy sitting at the table next to me leaves to go get something to eat and just left his laptop, computer bag, jacket and who-knows-what-else just sitting there at his booth.  Is he crazy for doing so?

If I was working by myself and needed to go to the bathroom for a quick break, I would pack up all of my things and take it in with me, rather than leave it unguarded.  Am I being paranoid?

I’ve been using GrandCentral actively for six months now and am generally satisfied with the service.  Google announced a re-branding of Grand Central to Google Voice and, along with the new name, they introduced several new features, such as voicemail transcriptions, SMS support and conference calling, to the already-impressive list of features.

What is GrandCentral?  GrandCentral is a web-based phone management system that launched in 2006 and was purchased by Google in 2007.  I signed up in September 2006, grabbed a number in the (703) area code (Northern Virginia) and used the service sparingly.  It wasn’t until I started my new business last September that I started to use the number more actively.  I work in several different locations throughout a typical work week.  Most days I work from home.  Other days I may work at a client site.  Regardless of my physical location, I can provide my clients and business contacts a single phone number and tell GrandCentral, uh, I mean Google Voice, where to forward my calls.  Another great feature of GrandCentral/Google Voice is the ability to screen calls.  I’m always amazed at the number of marketers that call my business number.  I can filter calls from certan numbers or even play back a “The number you dialed is not in service…”

Google Voice now adds several great, new features, including:

• Voicemail transcription
• SMS support
• Conference calling.

All domestic U.S. calls in Google Voice are free.  International calls can also be made throught the system.  Voice calls from the U.S. to China are $0.02/minute.  Calls to India are $0.07/minute.  Complete rate information is here.

I just upgraded to Google Voice earlier this afternoon.  I’ll be trying out the new features in the next couple of days and reporting back on my experiences soon.

What’s a reserved instance?  According to this post in the Amazon Web Services blog:

…we’ve created a new EC2 pricing model, which we call Reserved Instances. After you purchase such an instance for a one-time fee, you have the option to launch an EC2 instance of a certain instance type, in a particular availability zone, for a period of either 1 of 3 years. Your launch is guaranteed to succeed; there’s no chance of encountering any transient limitations in EC2 capacity. You have no obligation to run the instances full time, so you’ll pay even less if you choose to turn them off when you are not using them.

Steady-state usage costs, when computed on an hourly basis over the term of the reservation, are significantly lower than those for the on-demand model.

So, what does this mean to the layperson?  Well, it means that Amazon is going to guarantee that you will be able to run your reserved instance when you need it.  Great for disaster recovery (DR) situations.  In addition, your hourly cost is much lower for a reserved instance than for the current pay-as-you-go model.

Reserved instances are available for US customers with Unix/Linux instances.  I posted a question to the blog asking about availability for Windows instances.  Received a reply from Jeff Barr stating that:

We do plan to offer Windows Reserved Instances. We still have a few things to work out before we are ready to start talking about this, however.

Good work, Amazon.