Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

nContxt lets you access your Highrise contacts from your mobile phone
“nContxt is a mobile interface for 37signals‘ Highrise contact manager. It works on iPhones. It works on Windows Mobile phones, non-smartphones. It works on any phone with a web browsers. It’s free for the first week, and then $5/month.”

AARP site recommends Ta-Da List
“So I decided to find a Web site that offered an easier way to manage my to-do list. The one I like best is Ta-da Lists™. This site is easy to read, the list is simple to use, and there’s nothing to download.”

How to use Backpack for GTD
“As someone who has tried a slew of GTD software, I’ll never abandon Backpack. It’s the definitive solution.”

Highrise and Backpack are “essential tools for the online bootstrapper”
“If you need to keep track of who you talk to, what you said, and what to do next, Highrise is the product for you. I personally use this tool daily for all of my clients, and any business contacts I meet along the way.”

How to end a Backpack calendar event with a number
Any number at the beginning or end of a calendar entry will be parsed as a time. So, in this case [“Midterm 1”], Backpack thinks the 1 indicates 1 o’clock. There’s a workaround though. Use “Midterm 1.” — with a period.

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Some recent postings at the 37signals Job Board:

Lucky Potatoes is looking for a Rails Programmer in the US.

BatchBlue Software is looking for a Full-time Ruby on Rails Developer on the East Coast.

jaxtr, Inc. is looking for a Director of User Interaction & Experience Design in Menlo Park, CA.

Kadium is looking for a Designer in San Francisco, CA.

University of Notre Dame is looking for a Web Developer in Notre Dame, IN.

The College Board is looking for a Director of Content Strategy in New York, NY.

Leapfrog Online is looking for a Software Engineer: Ruby or Python in Evanston, IL.

NYTimes.com is looking for a Web Designer – Editorial in New York, NY.

Trinity College is looking for a Manager of Web Services in Hartford, CT.

Positive Digital Solutions is looking for a PHP, Python, Django Web Developers in San Diego, CA.

Geezeo is looking for a Rails Programmer on the East Coast.

Knoware is looking for an Interaction Designer (IxD, UX, IA) in Grand Rapids, MI.

Netflix, Inc. is looking for an Art Director / Senior Interactive Designer in Los Gatos, CA.

More jobs…

These are just some of the recent jobs posted on the Job Board. The Job Board is linked up on over 1,000,000 page views a month on some of the industries most highly regarded sites. If you’re looking for a design, programming, copywriting, or IT executive job, take a look.

Interview with author of "Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow"

“Make customers feel like they’re part of a bigger cause. Hummer buyers may feel that connection, but most people would say that it’s lacking a socially responsible element. Patagonia – the company, not the region in Argentina – runs its “1% for the planet” campaign, and its loyal customers are “Patagoniacs.” They love being associated with Patagonia because it’s part of a bigger cause. For people who buy from Apple, it’s not just “I’m an iconoclastic rebel,” but “I’m part of a bigger cause,” the anti-Microsoft attitude. At Whole Foods Market, you may go there because you love the product, but lots of people buy there because they love the sustainability cause.”

Blind boy masters echolocation

“Ben has learned to perceive and locate objects by making a steady stream of sounds with his tongue, then listening for the echoes as they bounce off the surfaces around him. About as loud as the snapping of fingers, Ben’s clicks tell him what’s ahead: the echoes they produce can be soft (indicating metals), dense (wood) or sharp (glass). Judging by how loud or faint they are, Ben has learned to gauge distances.” Related: Video profile.

Recently flipped Zimbra: Building to flip doesn’t work

“We set out to build a great company with a real business behind it. That’s what I think people should do when they start a business. They [have] got to think about: How do I make this an independently successful cash flow self-sustaining business? Then, there’ll be very interesting M&A opportunities that will come and knock on the door. If instead we started a company thinking that there is going to be a quick flip, [in] 90% of the cases that does not work out because no one is interested in buying – or they want to buy you off really cheap. We were not thinking of an ideal nor were we thinking of an M&A. We were just thinking: Let’s go and create a compelling product and create some real business in specific markets. That’s what we started out to do and that’s what we did.”

Irrational exuberance makes a comeback?

“Internet companies with funny names, little revenue and few customers are commanding high prices. And investors, having seemingly forgotten the pain of the first dot-com bust, are displaying symptoms of the disorder known as irrational exuberance.”

Creating online charts and graphs

“This article presents an overview of tools, applications and techniques for visualizing data in charts and graphs. Among other things both free and commercial chart tools, services, desktop-applications and web-based solutions (Flash, JavaScript, CSS) — you can use them on your server — are presented.”

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

Create an electronic invite with Backpack
Niranjan V., President of Applied Materials Toastmasters, wrote us an email detailing how he used Backpack to create an electronic invite…”I was pleasantly surprised about how easy it was to use. The ability to embed Google Maps and add images (hosted on other websites) was very handy!”

Basecamp Case Study: How Sounds are Active rocks Basecamp
Chris Schlarb uses Basecamp to run his independent record label, Sounds are Active, and work on audio/video projects for clients. He’s also got a solo album coming out on December 4th on Sufjan Stevens’ record label Asthmatic Kitty and he’s using Basecamp now to coordinate the press and promotional campaign for the album. Chris talked with us about how Basecamp helps him coordinate his projects.

PackRat adds support for newest Backpack features
PackRat is a desktop client for Backpack which lets you use your Backpack data when you can’t be online. The newest version brings Packrat in line with the new Backpack. That means better syncing, better page display, support for dividers, etc.

Music industry “gets it” eight years too late

“Amazon’s finally done what was clearly the right solution in 1999. Music in the format that people actually want it in, with a Web-based experience that’s simple and works with any device. I bought tracks from Amazon (Kevin Drew and No Age), downloaded them, sync’d them to my new iPod Nano, and had them playing in my home audio system (Control 4) in less than five minutes. PRAISE JESUS. It only took 8 years. 8 years. How much opportunity have we lost in those 8 years?...We certainly didn’t gain mass user adoption or trust, two prerequisites to success on the Internet.”

Black Google would save 750 megawatt-hours a year

“Take at look at Google, for instance, who gets about 200 million queries a day. Let’s assume each query is displayed for about 10 seconds; that means Google is running for about 550,000 hours every day on some desktop. Assuming that users run Google in full screen mode, the shift to a black background will save a total of 15 (74-59) watts. Now take into account that about 25 percent of the monitors in the world are CRTs, and at 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, that’s about $75,000/year, a goodly amount of energy and dollars for changing a few color codes.” [tx AK] (Update: Google responds)

Two weeks with Django (and then back to Rails)

“Despite it’s warts, Rails is still the fastest, easiest way to get things working and out to customers, which is absolutely critical. I’m now back to quickly adding new features into our app. And by tomorrow, we’ll just have a web host that specializes in Rails. Depending upon user acceptance and incoming revenues, it might make sense down the road to invest time, money, and mental angst in rewriting in something like Django for better performance, but not right now.”

Zappos brings customer to tears

“When I came home this last time, I had an email from Zappos asking about the shoes, since they hadn’t received them. I was just back and not ready to deal with that, so I replied that my mom had died but that I’d send the shoes as soon as I could. They emailed back that they had arranged with UPS to pick up the shoes, so I wouldn’t have to take the time to do it myself. I was so touched. That’s going against corporate policy. Yesterday, when I came home from town, a florist delivery man was just leaving. It was a beautiful arrangement in a basket with white lilies and roses and carnations. Big and lush and fragrant. I opened the card, and it was from Zappos. I burst into tears. I’m a sucker for kindness, and if that isn’t one of the nicest things I’ve ever had happen to me, I don’t know what is.”

Natura pet food comments on safety
Chris Schlarb writes:

My family has two beautiful Siamese cats and with all of the issues surrounding wet or canned cat food I decided to take a look into the brand we purchase, Innova & Evo.

Well, I went to their website and what did I find?

A video from the co-owner/co-founder explaining, in great detail, the state of their products. He even goes so far as to mention they considered discontinuing their wet foods, even though they are safe, because of the nature of the plant/manufacturing system.

Anyhow, I was really impressed. This sort of small gesture will go a long way to ensuring that I continue to use their products. Not only did the video inform me that their products are safe (and why!), it let me know they have respect for me and are operating transparently in a time of industry-wide crisis.

Mark Cuban wants candidates to do less
Bill Litfin writes:

A 37Signals-esque blog entry from Mark Cuban. It’s about politics… but some quotes struck me as, well, 37Signals-esque… it’s a whole diatribe on picking the candidate that does the least—and why.

“When I vote in any local or state election, I vote for the candidate who I think will do the least. Not the least of anything specific, just the least amount of everything.”

“What I would love to see is a candidate who says he/she is going to start removing laws and programs. Give me a candidate who’s primary platform is to spend 4 years removing federal programs and laws. If it was a law or program worth anything the states or local municipalities will find much more creative ways to make them work.”

“So if you want my vote in 2008, don’t tell me what you are going to add, tell me what you are going to remove. Tell me how you are going to simplify the government. That’s how you get my vote.”

Movie theater warning screen
Matt Griffin writes:

You might enjoy this image. They show this “serious” warning before every movie at the North Park Mall theater in Dallas, TX.

This is serious stuff. Here’s how you tell:

• Red background with white text
• Capitalized the first letter of each word
• Uses an exclamation point
• Bold text
• Centered on the screen
• Mixed in italics
• Multiple fonts – Are parts of this statement more important than others?
• Is a statement and not a complete sentences

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

New Backpack feature: Add Anywhere!
Add anywhere makes it easy to add the content you want right where you want it…The secret is the “Add here” control that you’ll find when you move your mouse above or below or between two pieces of content on a page. You’ll reveal the “Add here” control when your mouse is “in the gutter” to the left of the existing content…The best way to see it in action is to watch this video (Quicktime required).

NY Times: Basecamp is “a powerful project management and collaboration tool”
“A powerful project management and collaboration tool called Basecamp allows teams to store online entire project management plans, including performance targets, to-do lists, files, collaborative documents and messages.”

The Tech Brief: Campfire is a great alternative to in-person meetings
“There is no longer a worry of interrupting others or the inevitable fear of public speaking…Campfire allows people, miles apart, to work together better and easier than ever.”

Basecamp: Writeboard comments now show up on Dashboard and Project Overview
Now, any new Writeboard comments show up on your Dashboard and Project Overview pages.

New: Sort files by size in Basecamp
Another new Basecamp change we just rolled out: You can sort by file size within the “Files” tab (it’s one of the sorting options in the right sidebar).

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The first rule of career planning: Do not plan your career

“The world is an incredibly complex place and everything is changing all the time. You can’t plan your career because you have no idea what’s going to happen in the future. You have no idea what industries you’ll enter, what companies you’ll work for, what roles you’ll have, where you’ll live, or what you will ultimately contribute to the world. You’ll change, industries will change, the world will change, and you can’t possibly predict any of it. Trying to plan your career is an exercise in futility that will only serve to frustrate you, and to blind you to the really significant opportunities that life will throw your way. Career planning = career limiting. The sooner you come to grips with that, the better.”

“Four Principles of Interpersonal Communication”

“We don’t actually swap ideas, we swap symbols that stand for ideas. This also complicates communication. Words (symbols) do not have inherent meaning; we simply use them in certain ways, and no two people use the same word exactly alike.”

Yahoo revival meeting features Steve Jobs

“Among the key focuses of this ecosystem mentioned Friday was: the building out of Yahoo’s ad network, taking advantage of its ‘consumer insights’; the creation of a healthier corporate culture where fresh ideas could bubble up more effectively and be launched with less agony; and a new move to create a more open network a la Facebook on Yahoo for third-party developers to publish on and create more robust offerings.”

NASA on using color in info display graphics

“The process sketched below is intended for design of color usage in complicated graphics that support high-information-load, high-threat decisions, as in aerospace applications. Design of the color scheme must take into account the overall design of the application’s functionality—what the user is trying to do and how.”

Life as a barnacle on Facebook’s hull

“Last month, there were reports that Microsoft was considering a $500 million investment that would value the three-year-old company at up to $15 billion. Now it appears that such exuberance has infused the expanding Facebook universe, even though no one has yet proved it is possible to build a profitable business with sustainable revenues on the site. Some developers report earning tens of thousands of dollars in advertising with the applications they have created. Yet their applications are mostly running ads promoting other Facebook applications — a situation that recalls the earliest Gold Rush miners, who earned a living selling shovels to other miners. And developers must cover the cost of hosting the applications on their own Web servers.”

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

Liven up your pages with embedded Google maps
Embedded Google maps are a great way to add info to Backpack pages (or Basecamp posts, etc.)...You can also embed a set of driving directions, a local search, or maps created by other Google users.

Backpack is PC Magazine’s Site of the Week
“Backpack is an incredibly easy-to-use Web-based organizational service. This deceptively bare-bones-looking app provides straightforward functionality you can use to organize a wildly varying array of projects. The genius of Backpack is that it’s so basic. It’s like having an online loose-leaf notebook to use as you please.”

Intro message best practices for getting people started in Basecamp
A thoughtful intro message can help Basecamp users hit the ground running. This post contains several examples of successful, personalized messages Basecamp customers use to get others up and running with Basecamp.

Another thoughtful Basecamp welcome message
“Together we’ll use it to keep all our notes, files and drafts in one place. And whenever you have something you’d like us to take a look at, just upload it here and we’ll comment right back.”

A new Campfire notifier plugin from Bruce Williams
“I’m aware there are a couple campfire_notifier plugins floating out there, and all certainly have their merits. I wrote mine specifically to address the need for custom messages and to support the full range of CruiseControl.rb events—which I didn’t find elsewhere.”

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Has the tech industry forgotten the lessons of the first tech bubble?

AuditoriumA.com: “The only criticism that we’ve received from some members of the press is the fact that we currently charge a fee for the Paid Edition of our service. Sigh. It seems that the tech industry has already forgotten the lessons of the first tech bubble and is back to the self-deluded idea that great technology alone is enough to survive over the long term. The past few weeks we’ve felt a lot like the owners of a restaurant that gets a five star review only to have the reviewer rant on about how the restaurant is planning to charge for its delicacies. Shouldn’t the restaurant owner just line his walls with advertisements and be happy?”

“From Scratch”: NPR show about the entrepreneurial life

“We meet with the nation’s leading pioneers from the business world, the social sector, entertainment, and the arts. From Scratch personalizes the lives of these entrepreneurs by providing listeners with a candid, first-hand view of their launching process. Guests speak about their sources of inspiration, set backs, financial hurdles, partnership dynamics, feelings of self doubt, helpful allies, and break though moments.”

Great interviews of the 20th century

“The Guardian and Observer’s unique series of the best interviews of the last century….From David Frost’s conversations about Watergate with Richard Nixon to Marilyn Monroe’s last interview, Princess Diana’s confessions to Martin Bashir and Bill Grundy’s disastrous grilling of the Sex Pistols on live television.” [via JK]

Chart junk in the New York Times?

“Checking out the New York Times’s infographic on the housing bubble, I thought ‘Wow! Look at how much prices climbed!’ Then I read the fine print and realized they’ve completely distorted the vertical scale to make the increase look enormous.”