Thinkmetric
From: Eli Duke
i live in seattle and recently drove up to vancouver (bc) for a friend’s bday. there was a long line at the border check, so i got out of the car and took a few pictures. i thought that you guys might appreciate this one:
it’s simple, effective, and clever; and just the right amount of each.
—
Tax Preparation Software Pricing Comparison
From: Samuel Peery
I recently posted a tax software provider pricing comparison with some interesting results. I calculated and compared “out-the-door” pricing including both state and federal tax-prep and e-filing. I think you’ll find the results very interesting.
—
Talk to Wesabe
From: Siddharta Govindaraj
Hi! I’m Jason Knight, the CEO and co-founder of Wesabe. Every afternoon, from 12 to 4 p.m. PST, you can reach me directly at (800) 511-8544. If you have comments about our product, questions about how it works, or just want to chat a bit about what inspired us to create Wesabe, please give me a call. Sure, I could have an intern man the phones, but I can’t think of any job more important at Wesabe right now than talking to our new members and people who are thinking of signing up.
Very cool that you can talk directly to the CEO.
—
VC Failures
From: Ed Raynham
Thought you may find this interesting..
Venture Capitalists are usually quick to tell you about their successes but Bessemer Venture’s anti-portfolio tells you about the companies they turned down…apple, google, intel, paypal, ebay to name a few.
Refreshing to see a large company telling you about their failures rather than covering them up.
—
In Praise of Slowness
From: Dhrumil K. Purohit
Why I’m recommending this: 37signals mantra is about more by doing less. This talk by Carl Honore is about getting more from life by going slower.
—
Woot copy
From: Kevin O’Malley
Don’t know if you all have ever written about woot.com, but their copywriting is consistently excellent. And funny.
I can’t help but think the sarcasm and most-important detail nature of it is a true reflection of their audience.
Example 1: The blog shows past product write-ups. Always interesting to read, and well-executed considering the context – single item, undoubtedly loyal geek-followers.
Example 2: The ‘What is Woot?’ page:
Will I receive customer support like I’m used to? No. Well, not really. If you buy something you don’t end up liking or you have what marketing people call “buyer’s remorse,” sell it on eBay. It’s likely you’ll make money doing this and save everyone a hassle. If the item doesn’t work, find out what you’re doing wrong. Yes, we know you think the item is bad, but it’s probably your fault.
—
Embracing constraints
From: Peter Hentges
Thought you’d like to see one way someone is embracing constraints: Exactly 101 word short stories.
—
Washable PDA for doctors
From: Jason Turgeon
A PDA for doctors designed to fit in a shirt pocket and survive thousands of trips through disinfectant, via today’s Boston Globe.
Relevant snip: “It’s not the technology that drives this market,” Caspe said. “It’s the usability. The form and function is going to determine the success of this product.”
—
Kaizen software manifesto
From: Robert Hoekman, Jr.
Since you guys have talked about kaizen and other Japanese-related approaches before, I thought you might be interested in this:
http://www.kaizenmanifesto.org/
It’s about applying kaizen to the software industry, its products, and its customer experiences. Instead of religiously following defined processes (Agile, UCD, etc), the goal is to help people see that they can look for ways to improve those things, and to find new solutions.
—
Saw this in St. Louis and thought of 37s
From: B.J. Schaefer
I saw these hours posted on a breakfast/lunch restaurant in St. Louis and immediately thought of you guys.
Got an interesting link, story, or screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Contact svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.
Shaun Andrews
on 26 Mar 07I love the restaurant hours – I’m totally stealing that for when I explain my availability to clients.
sandofsky
on 26 Mar 07People who try to save money filing taxes are no different than companies who hire $10/hr coders thinking they’re all the same. Use an accountant. I got back thousands more than if I used software.
Ian Waring
on 26 Mar 07The best training to use metric measures was (IMHO) the winner of a competition on BBC TV’s “Tomorrows World” a few years back. Works for UK weather anyway… to convert all those still using Fahrenheit to Centigrade:
1, 11, 21, Winter, Spring and Summer Sun.
Ian W.
Eric Franklin
on 26 Mar 07I actually think the “thinkmetric” at the Canadian sign is pretty confusing. I think it should say “30k/m is 20MPH” – it would remove ambihguity about the time element. Using “was” introduces ambiguity about what the conversion might be now, as in: “I know 30k/m used to be 20mph but that sign indicates it may have changed…”
Eric
on 26 Mar 07I thought Canada went metric for road signs almost 30 years ago. How much “was” room do they need, or is this just a passive-aggressive dig at the US? :)
Barry Hess
on 27 Mar 07Embracing constraints – 101-word stories
I hesitate to do this, but the above link to 101-word stories lands at a pretty inactive site. The 101-word story concept is incredibly similar to my latest, active, experiment, Scrawlers.
It’s in public Alpha right now, but feedback has already been positive and intriguing. It turns out people see a lot of benefit in practicing constraints-based writing. While the creative benefits are clear, there are also practical benefits that apply in the corporate world or anywhere else written communication is required.
Jason DiMambro
on 27 Mar 07Noticed that the 37signals font is the same as the “Thinkmetric” font. Any stories behind the Interstate font choice?
Robert
on 27 Mar 07Wesabe – great that you can talk to people, but means very little if it’s a small one dozen employee startup. Context means a lot, too.
Eli Duke
on 27 Mar 07hey!!! i’m famous! i made it onto SVN, and at the top of the page nonetheless! thanks for the props 37signals! this made my day.
Paul M. Watson
on 27 Mar 07I found that metric sign confusing. At first I missed the km all together and thought they were saying the speed was dropping by 10. Then I thought someone had made a mistake by putting two speed signs on one. Only then did I spot the mph.
To be fair, I come from a metric country and never had to deal with mph so don’t have the mindset for it.
Bernd Goldschmidt
on 27 Mar 07Karl N
on 27 Mar 07I realize this would require an impossible level of cooperation, but the km/hr signs would do better in distinguishing themselves from mph by using a shorter font size, so that high numbers appear shrunken and remind you it’s not as high as the number in mph.
tom
on 28 Mar 07I was also confused with the km/miles per hour sign. And the restaurant hours post reminded me of your post about the deli that closes “when the bread runs out.”
Good stuff. I will continue to send the cool stuff I find to svn.
This discussion is closed.