I’ve been working this week to make our applications compatible with Internet Explorer 7.

Some background: As a Mac shop, most of our exposure to the pain of the Windows world has been through support emails we receive. But recently we installed Windows Vista in a Parallels virtual machine for IE 7 testing.

Parallels is an indispensable tool that lets us test our applications in all the browsers we support on a single computer. We can even test IE 6 and 7 side-by-side by running Windows XP in one VM and Vista in another. As a web developer, Parallels is easily the single best reason to own an Intel Mac. But starting with Vista’s release, Microsoft wants us to pay for the privilege: you’ll legally only be able to install the most expensive versions (Ultimate and Business) in a VM, even if all you’re doing is clicking on things in IE.

And even testing things in IE isn’t easy. For example, here’s what you see when you click View Source in Vista:

This is just one of the endless confirmation dialogs Microsoft has added in the name of security. Here, the language doesn’t even make sense: No, a “website” doesn’t “want” to “open web content,” I clicked View Source! And the dialog box defaults to not letting me do what I want. So you can’t even trust Vista to do what you tell it to do.

But the most painful experience yet has been installing Microsoft Script Debugger, an ancient artifact used to debug JavaScript in IE. After finding the link on Microsoft’s web site, it takes a stunning 35 clicks through nearly as many dialog boxes just to get the thing installed. (Keep reading for videos and an explanation.)

(via Craigslist)

Here’s a thumbnail shot of a beautiful support email from a customer: documented, screenshots, + highlights! Bravo.

William Utermohlen’s self-portraits reveal his descent into Alzheimer’s (story).

1998

1999

2000

We recently gave some love to Threadless’ RSS shopping feed and pointed out the Chicago Tribune (finally) profiled the company. More things to like about Threadless:

1. It’s not Web 2.0.

Threadless isn’t about Web 2.0 buzzwords, technology for technology’s sake, doing the VC tango, etc. Threadless is about kicking ass as a real, profitable company and taking care of its customers (the loyalty of customers is the #1 priority).

2. Community…no, really.

A lot of sites pay lip service to the notion of building a community. Threadless actually does it. And it’s not just having a blog or a forum (though the site has those too). Check out the site’s navigation where “Shop” and “Participate” are given equal treatment:

It’s no accident. Threadless isn’t just a place to buy stuff. It’s a place where people do stuff too. The people design the shirt ideas, decide which shirts get made, post to forums, upload photos of themselves wearing the shirts, etc. The result? People are attached to Threadless. As Don Norman says, “We are much more emotionally attached to products for which we feel some involvement.”

Threadless makes people feel like partners, not just customers. That’s why people become MySpace friends with Threadless. They start blogs about Threadless (like this or this or this). They care what happens.

3. It’s playful.

Threadless nails the playful part of the process. Check out the “A song about this tee” MP3 on shirt pages like the one for Happy Hospital. Or how about the Willy Wonka inspired Find the Golden Tag and Win! (“if you receive your order and your shirt has a gold foil tag you win a free tee of your choice!”).

This coy tone extends to copywriting and staffing too. Check out this bit from the coffee-stained FAQ.

Q. How do you become a skinnyCorp employee? How can I become a skinnyCorp employee?

A. You have to be amazing. When we hire, which we don’t do very often, that’s the first thing we look for. Amazingness. Followed very closely by awesomeness, and then insaneosity. You also have to be able to hold your breath for 6 minutes while completing a mile-long sprint. Do you have what it takes?!

When the site asks for a birthdate it follows up with a link that says, “Who wants to know?” instead of the typical “Why do we need this?”

This playful attitude is part of why people get excited about Threadless. Here’s what Kathy Sierra says about playfulness: “Brains love play. Find a way to bring more play (or at least a sense of playfulness) into someone’s life, and you might just end up with a fan. Brains evolved to play, and apparently the bigger the brain, the more likely it is to play. Play turns the brain on.”

If you’ve got a Mac, and you use Campfire and iTunes, you can now use Kumbaya to broadcast the name and artist of the song currently playing into a Campfire chat room. Some configuration is required, but if you’re into this sort of thing you should definitely check it out. It’s also open source so you can download the source.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón:

Our desire to adapt The 9/11 Report arose from the desire to render the complex accessible. After both of us struggled with the verbal labyrinth of the original report, we decided there must be a better way. Then it occurred to us (though to be precise, it occurred to Ernie Colón first) that visually adapting the information in the report—comics, the graphic medium—was the better way. We could tell the story graphically to make it more easily understood. For example: by creating a visual timeline of the four planes on that terrible day, we could tell the simultaneous happenings of that calamity more clearly than any attempt to do so using just words. What was more, we could make it more informative, more available, and, to be frank, more likely to be read in its entirety.

Here’s a Flickr photoset with photos of the book.

I just wrapped up a new UI for sharing pages in Backpack. Each Backpack page has a ‘Share this page’ link in the footer.

We decided that a block should appear above the footer when the page is being shared. The mockup will show the most complex state, where someone is sharing the page with their friends and sharing it via a public URL. People normally do one or the other, but we must accomodate the ‘both’ case.

Nothing like waking up on a Monday to a threesome of good press. 37signals got featured in a video short on Apple.com and won a Chicago Innovation Award presented by the Sun-Times. On top of that, Jason and yours truly were featured in Crain’s Business 40 under 40 treat for the year.

You have to understand that when I say it’s over, it’s over. No, we can’t talk about this. No, I don’t want counseling. I want you to leave my life. Now. Not when you get around to it. It was what it was and now it’s gone. Let go.

(Yes, LinkedIn, I’m talking to you. The fact that you require me to contact support to close my profile is a disgrace. Why on earth would you want to invite more costly support requests? And why does this have to feel like a big drama break up?)