John Gruber interview
“A Mix of the Technical, the Artful, the Thoughtful, and the Absurd” is an interesting interview with the Daring Fireball writer.

Here Gruber talks about how it’s a challenge to write things with lasting value:

Concentrate on writing things with lasting value. I’m not sure I’ve been doing a good job of this at all lately — I think too much of what I write currently at DF is about stuff that’s only relevant right now. I’m certain that what helped me make a name for myself, what built the DF readership, were the long pieces I did in the first few years, most of which are still relevant, or at least still interesting. There are a lot of people writing for the web today; but there aren’t that many at all who are trying to do great writing for the web.

After a while, the style part of the equation comes naturally:

That’s hard to put into words. Early on, I had to think about my “voice”. I was conscious of my style. Now, not so much — I “just write”, and the style seems to come naturally. Part of that is that you get used to anything over time, but a bigger part is that the style changed slowly over time — I kept tweaking it until I found the perfect pitch, at which point it became something I didn’t have to think about to achieve.

Put another way: early on, I had to concentrate both on what I was saying and how was I saying it. Now I just concentrate on what I’m saying.

I also find it much easier to write now that I have a regular audience. The hardest thing for me starting out at the very beginning was trying to shake the feeling that I was writing something no one would read. It felt like delivering a speech in an empty auditorium.

Create a narrative:

For me, much of the effort in writing, especially on technical topics, is in creating a narrative. By that I mean writing a piece that reads straight through, pulling the reader along. A perfect example of this is the way John Siracusa writes his epic-length reviews of major new Mac OS X releases for Ars Technica. What makes them so substantial, and so good, is that he crafts them into a narrative. Most reviews of something like Leopard read like bullet lists — a list of features and what the reviewer thinks about them. What graphic design is to a visual idea, writing is to a verbal idea. My goal is to craft my writing in such a way that makes it as easy and obvious as possible for the reader to “get” exactly what it is I’m hoping they get.

On finding the truth of a thing:

One of my favorite quotes of all time, probably my very favorite, is this one from Stanley Kubrick: “Sometimes the truth of a thing is not so much in the think of it, as in the feel of it.” A lot of times when I’m reviewing something, what I’m trying to do is capture the feel of it, rather than the think of it.

It’s never the right time to start:

It would seem like a missed opportunity never to write a book. Most novels are just dreadful; I don’t know if I could do a good one, but I know I could do better than most. But it never seems like the right time to start. I just stumbled across an apt quote from Emerson last week: “We postpone our literary work until we have more ripeness and skill to write, and we one day discover that our literary talent was a youthful effervescence which we have now lost.”

Paul Graham on “The Art of the Essay”
In that interview, Gruber references this Paul Graham essay which is full of meaty thinking on writing.

Continued…

I love that OS X automatically fires up iPhoto when I plug in my digital camera. It’s one of the Mac’s many little touches that make it such a pleasure to use.

But ever since I got an iPhone, I’ve been frustrated that plugging it in opens up iPhoto, too. The combination of iPhoto and iTunes opening and syncing slows my computer to a crawl. And it’s particularly painful when most of the time I just want to sync my address book or music.

Fortunately it’s pretty easy to work around this annoyance. Keep reading to see how you can teach your Mac to open iPhoto when you plug in your camera but not your phone.

Continued…

Yesterday’s big Backpack update was a huge success. It was the best day in Backpack’s history — even better than the last big update in July ‘07 and add anywhere in Oct ‘07.

We usually don’t share numbers, but we thought we’d break tradition and give people a peek into Backpack’s signups, upgrades, and financial performance yesterday.

317 Upgrades

Yesterday 317 people upgraded their Backpack accounts. This includes free → paying upgrades and paying → paying upgrades. Here’s how they broke out:

• 2 Max ($149/month)
• 1 Premium ($99/month)
• 12 Plus ($49/month)
• 54 Basic ($24/month)
• 111 Home ($12/month)
• 137 Solo ($7/month)

61 New Pay Signups

Yesterday 61 people signed up for new paying plans. This means they selected a pay plan on the signup page. Here’s how it broke out:

• 1 Max ($149/month)
• 1 Premium ($99/month)
• 13 Plus ($49/month)
• 26 Basic ($24/month)
• 11 Home ($12/month)
• 9 Solo ($7/month)

We had about 200 new free signups as well, so about 30% of all signups yesterday were pay signups.

$4,131 New Net

Upgrades + pay signups – downgrades – cancellations = $4131 new net revenue for yesterday. On an annualized basis that’s about $50,000/year. We’re very happy with that number.

Thanks to all our paying customers for putting your trust in us. We hope you continue to find the new Backpack useful and valuable. We’re already finding it invaluable in keeping our own company organized (and, man, do we need it).

Virtual Gallery of Origamic Architecture features 3-D pop-ups and paper sculptures hand-cut using an X-acto knife and a ruler.

MOO.com takes a look at Kirigami, the art of folding and cutting paper.

And here’s a photoset on Flickr of snowflake-like Kirigami.

Backpack Grows Up

Today we unveil the major updates to Backpack we’ve been blogging about over the past week. We’ve been working on these for months and are excited to finally let them loose.

The Intranet Is Back(pack)

Intranets were big five years ago, but fell out of favor because of they were too hard to use. Back when we did client work we were hired to “repair” a number of intranets. They were a mess.

No matter the company, people’s goals were similar: They just wanted to share common information across their organization, keep a simple shared calendar so they knew when their co-workers would be out of town or at a meeting, make an announcement or two, and grab a few important files here and there. Simple things, right?

But man, the systems they were forced to use would confuse Mensans. They weren’t intranets, they were mazes. Clicks to who knows where. Clicks to nowhere. When something is too hard to use people don’t use it. No one used these intranets.

Backpack brings the promise of the intranet back and delivers real value by keeping things simple. Now you can easily share information, files, and a calendar across your company.

And for those who don’t need a company intranet, Backpack remains the same familiar personal intranet it’s always been. A place to organize your thoughts, ideas, to-dos, notes, files, calendar, and reminders.

Here’s a list of what’s new:

1. Multiuser

Since we launched Backpack in May of 2005, Backpack has been a single-user product. You could share pages via email, but you were the only person who could log into your account to make pages, add calendar items, set reminders, etc. Backpack has been our only single-user commercial product. It’s time for it to grow up and branch out.

People have been asking us how they could use Backpack to easily share information and knowledge with their co-workers, group members, or organization. They’ve wanted to use Backpack as an intranet, but they were turned away because it was single-user. The answer is multiuser.

We have a new set of subscription plans that allow you to add from 3 to 100 users to your account. Now you can use Backpack as the small business tool it’s always dreamed of being. Or, you can stick with your current plan and keep Backpack to yourself. It’s your call. If you already have an account just log in and click the Account tab to see your upgrade options.

1a. What happens to existing customers?

There’s been a lot of speculation about what multiuser means for people who are happy using the good old single-user version of Backpack they’re used to.

The short answer: Backpack can still be used exactly the same way for the same price (or less). We appreciate the fact that you’re currently satisfied with Backpack. We want to keep you happy.

Here’s how the changes will work:

• Backpack customers who were on the old $5/month Basic plan will be grandfathered on the $5/month plan (which will no longer be offered to new customers). Same price, same specs. Nothing changes. And now for just $2/month more grandfathered customers can upgrade to the new Solo plan. Just log in, click the Account tab, and upgrade to Solo or any other plan you’d like.
• Backpack customers who were on the old $9/month Plus plan will be moved to the new $7/month Solo plan. It’s the same specs but you’ll save $2/month. More on the new Solo plan below.
• Backpack customers who were on the old $14/month Premium plan will be moved to the new $12/month Home plan which includes 3 users. Old premium customers will also keep their 1000 page limit (Home is normally limited at 100 pages). Even though the Home plan doesn’t include SSL encryption, folks who were on the old Premium plan which did include SSL will also get SSL on their Home plan.

2. Flying Solo

We’ve condensed the old single-user plans into one new plan called the Solo plan. The Solo plan is perfect if you just want to use Backpack alone to organize your own stuff. The Solo plan includes a single user, 100 pages, the calendar, SSL, and 1 GB file storage. The plan is priced at only $7/month (this is actually $2/month less than the old Plus plan that it replaces). The Solo plan becomes the new entry level Backpack plan.

3. Calendar updates

If you have a multiuser Backpack plan you can now share the calendar with your co-workers. You can see each others schedules and who’s available when. The calendar is color coded to make it easy to spot each person’s appointments.

Also new in this update is the ability to toggle a calendar on or off. Just click the checkbox in front of the calendar name to toggle the visibility.

Finally, since you can share calendars you may also want to keep some of those calendars private. No problem. When you credit or edit a calendar you can decide who can see it.

Read more about the Backpack Calendar on our weblog or watch a video demo of the Backpack Calendar.

4. Newsroom

When you have two or more users in your account you’ll see a tab called Newsroom. The Newsroom tab gives you an overview of the major activity in your account. You can see who created a page, who changed a page, who added a calendar event, etc. People on single-user plans (“Grandfathered” account and “Solo” accounts) will not see the Newsroom tab. Upgrading to a multiuser plan, and adding another user to your account, will unlock this feature.

Take a tour of the Newsroom.

5. Messages

Customers on Basic or higher plans will see a new feature called Messages at the top of the Newsroom. Emailing multiple people back and forth gets messy real quick. Backpack’s message board cleans up your communications by centralizing discussions. Post a message and other people can comment. Clean, organized, and all in one place. No more endless email threads.

Watch a video overview of the new Messages feature.

6. Multiuser Reminders

Folks on the multiuser plans will notice they can also assign reminders to other people on their account. Reminders also get a new “Now” option if you just can’t wait. And since Backpack reminders can be sent as text messages to mobile phones, Reminders become a great way to make a quick announcement to multiple people in the field.

Watch a video overview of the Reminders section.

There’s more to check out…

We’ve updated the examples page with some new inspiration on how you can use Backpack in your business. We’ve also updated the tour to include screenshots and videos of the latest features. And for those who’ve never made a Backpack Page before, check out how easy it is.

We hope you love it

We’re really excited about the new stuff in Backpack. Multiuser, an updated calendar, the new Newsroom and Messages section, updated reminders, and a pile of other small updates and optimizations.

We hope you find the changes useful and valuable. Thanks again for your support and happy Backpacking!

Special $5-off offer

Use coupon code SVNLAUNCH when signing up or upgrading your account to save $5 on your next Backpack bill.

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.” -Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut

I’ve been a virtual desktop user for a long time. I have Rails development on one, 37signals apps on another, communication on a third, feed reading and browsing on a third, and a few spares for clean-slate thinking.

These desktops all fall under the notion of task partitioning, not app partitioning. They all have Safari windows, many have TextMate windows and terminals too. Gruber has described the trouble with trying to fit this pattern on Spaces in the past.

But it seems that all you need to have bliss is two things: The latest version of TextMate (1455), which forces the Find windows to appear on the current desktop instead of the last on they were used on.

And then this neat hack from Mac OS X Hints that let’s you turn off the default Spaces behavior of switching desktops when you select an application that doesn’t have a window on the current. Which is mighty annoying when you want a Safari window on your communication desktop, but are forced to either right-click the dock for one or go to the programming desktop, click new, and then drag the window down to communications.

Between these two fixes, I’m now a content Spaces users and no longer wish for a Leopard port of the good old DesktopManager.

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

The Weekly Review offers tips on using GTD with Highrise
“The key with any GTD setup is to make sure your tool fits your working style. So far, Highrise works for me…You add each project as a person. That’s it. Then add the different tasks for each project. Each project will now have it’s own page where you can add tasks, notes, tags and summary information about the project. Each of these pages also has a timeline summary of activities that have occurred.”

Backboard is a new app that makes Backpack more Mac-like
Backboard is Lars Steiger’s new app which bills itself as “the far side of Backpack.” That means it gives Backpack customers a dashboard-like overview of tasks, the ability to edit and search them with a more Mac-like interface, and the ability to attach dates and priorities.

Script to import Salesforce data into Highrise
In “Salesforce to Highrise conversion successful,” Highrise Forum member mikesax offers up a conversion script that takes a Salesforce offline backup (what you get when you close down your account or you request it) and converts it to an Outlook-style CSV file that you can import into Highrise.

Export a Basecamp project as a PDF file
Terrence Ryan created Basecamp CFC so he could export an entire Basecamp project as a PDF file.

Continued…

I’ve now been using the Air for some time as my only laptop. The Pro still hasn’t left the desktop and I doubt it ever will while I own it. My girlfriend replaced her regular MacBook with an Air as well. The verdict after extended use? L-o-v-i-n-g it. Both of us.

Gruber has a great post today on the appeal of the Air, which serves well to sum up the experience. The machine is plenty fast for everything I do with a computer. It’s plenty fast for emailing, browsing, photos, programming, and more. Probably the only people who wouldn’t find the performance of the Air good enough are the same people lusting after an 8-core Mac Pro.

That’s certainly a fair position. If you do computational intensive work, then you’ll want all the firepower you can get. Most people are not like that, though. I think we’ve reached the point where the computational firepower for laptops is simply Good Enough in the Innovator’s Dilemma sense of the term. Meaning that the puck is going to go somewhere else. That we’ll start caring about other things now.

For a laptop, those other things are exactly what the Air is optimizing: Thin, light, and sleek. But what I continue to be impressed with the most on the Air is simply the build quality. The MacBook Pro has OK build quality, but the regular MacBook frankly blows in this department in my mind. The plastic feels too cheap, it creaks and bends, and the black surface gets permanently smudged way too quickly. It just doesn’t feel tight in the same way the Air does.

The Air also works great with a 24” screen hooked up. I actually enjoyed working on one of those at the office the other day. No, it’s not as gorgeous as the 30” running at home, but it’s still pretty alright. So the only reason I still have the Pro is to run that 30” at home and even that is somewhat of a dubious argument if I hadn’t already invested in it.

That’s a long way around of saying I couldn’t agree more with Gruber. The Air is a perfect one-machine solution for a heck of a lot of people. Dismissing it as merely a 3rd computer vanity accessory, as I’ve seen many do, is misguided and not based on actually using one for a longer period of time.

If you fall into the category of feeling your machine is fast enough to do what you’re currently doing, I’d strongly encourage you to take a look at the Air and enjoy somebody optimizing for other factors than just performance.

BTW, I promise this will be the last love song I write for the Air. At least for a while :)

Art on a matchbox. Beautifully balanced, hand-drawn, great colors, cool type, simple imagery, appealing propaganda and advertising.