You’re reading Signal v. Noise, a publication about the web by Basecamp since 1999. Happy !
Jason co-founded Basecamp back in 1999. He also co-authored REWORK, the New York Times bestselling book on running a "right-sized" business. Co-founded, co-authored... Can he do anything on his own?
I was set to speak tonight in NYC at an AIGA Small Talk event, but I had to cancel due to illness. You don’t want what I’ve got unless you have a coughing fetish.
The event has been rescheduled for May 31. Sorry I wasn’t able to make it tonight. I’m glad the AIGA was so cool about it and they were able to reschedule. Special thanks to Khoi for being so accommodating.
“Home” takes you to the top of the page. “End” takes you to the bottom. They’re easier and faster than scrolling all the way up or down a page. I see people scrolling to the top or the bottom an awful lot.
The more I watch people use computers the more I start to think that “Home” and “End” should be bigger, given new positions on the keyboard, or renamed “Top” and “Bottom”.
These keys are usually stacked in the middle of a six key cluster. They’re small and their function isn’t all that clear. You can just press one to see what happens, but I’ve also noticed people don’t experiment with their keyboards. They use the keys they know and avoid the rest.
None of this is a big deal of course, I just wanted to share it. I’ve been observing it a lot lately so I figured I’d toss it out there for comment.
By crazy popular demand we present the Highrise API. The Highrise API now joins the Basecamp API, Backpack API, and the unofficial Campfire API.
So what can you do with the Highrise API? You could create useful things like Dashboard/Yahoo/Vista widgets for quick contact lookups or adding notes or tasks. You could write a tool to sync Highrise with Outlook, the Mac Address book, Plaxo, or your mobile phone. You could make a Highrise Quicksilver plug-in like this Backpack Quicksilver plug-in. There are a thousand ideas out there waiting for you. Here are some of the things developers have done with the Basecamp API.
Let us know what you build and we’ll happily help you promote it to our Highrise customers. Have fun and build something useful!
Highrise has always been able to import contacts from vCards or Basecamp, but now Highrise can also import your contacts from Outlook and ACT!. It feels great to check “Importing from Outlook and ACT” off the “top requests” to-do list.
Supported formats include Outlook 2003, 2007, and Outlook Express. The ACT! import works with ACT! 9.
You can import by clicking the “Import” link in the sidebar on the Contacts tab. The help section provides further guidance for importing and exporting.
We hope this helps making the move to Highrise easier!
When it’s no longer politically correct to call it a “Boarding Pass” the next logical step is the “Departure Management Card” by United.
Roger Ebert’s salivary gland cancer spread to his right lower jaw. Part of his mandible had to be removed. It’s not pretty and he can’t speak.
Tomorrow night his Ninth Annual Overlooked Film Festival opens at the University of Illinois at Urbana.
Most folks in this condition (especially public figures) would stay away from the event in order to hide from the cameras and gawking gazes. Ebert says no way.
I was told photos of me in this condition would attract the gossip papers. So what?... I have been very sick, am getting better and this is how it looks. I still have my brain and my typing fingers. We spend too much time hiding illness. There is an assumption that I must always look the same. I hope to look better than I look now. But I’m not going to miss my festival.
And what a positive attitude:
Why do I want to go? Above all, to see the movies then to meet old friends and great directors and personally thank all the loyal audience members who continue to support the festival. At least, not being able to speak, I am spared the need to explain why every film is “overlooked,” or why I wrote “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.” Being sick is no fun. But you can have fun while you’re sick. I wouldn’t miss the festival for anything!
I can’t imagine I’d have this kind of courage. Check that: I know I wouldn’t. It’s such an inspiration to see Ebert approach his current condition and life with such optimism. What a wonderful thing.
This weekend Highrise had its one month anniversary. 30 days is a fun number, but we wanted to share some additional first-30-days numbers as well.
Those numbers, the uptake, and the fact that Highrise is our fastest selling product ever tells us we’re off to a great start.
In the first 30 days we also made some significant improvements:
We’re working on some more flexible importing features now and have some other great stuff planned this year. Stay tuned.
And remember, for a limited time if you sign up for a Max or Premium Highrise account you get Campfire Premium for free. This also applies if you upgrade to a Max or Premium plan from any other Highrise plan.
Thanks again for making the first 30 days of Highrise memorable.
Paul Graham recently proclaimed Microsoft is dead. Time will tell, but at this very moment I’d rather be Microsoft than Yahoo.
Microsoft is still a leader. They rule the OS space, they rule the corporate desktop. They remain influential in many areas. They may not rule the web, but at least they remain leaders in very profitable spaces. And they have $40 billion in the bank.
Where is Yahoo’s leadership? What are they leading in? If they are leading, are their leadership positions profitable? Is their trajectory up or down? Their revenues are relatively flat, growth is flat, it’s all flat. You can stand to be flat for awhile when you are way ahead, but when you’re #2 and flat you’re not in a good place.
And it’s not like Yahoo is being attacked on all sides. They’re not being eaten alive by a gang of rats. They are being devoured by the 900-pound Googlerilla in the room. Google’s revenue is growing at twice the rate of the Internet ad business overall and 9x faster than sales at Yahoo.
Yahoo’s woes seem like a management issue. Semel’s gotta be on the way out soon. Yahoo has a boatload of talent. Yahoo is full of good people. But they’re not being led in the right direction. That’s on Semel.
So, yeah, for now I’d rather be Microsoft than Yahoo.
What about you?
Henrik Fisker, the man responsible for designing the the most beautiful car on the road (Aston Martin V8 Vantage), talks design, inspiration, materials, light, shadow, size, proportion, and more in this detailed three part interview. Here’s part two and part three.
...a design that is beautiful – except for the manufacturing challenges – is no more expensive to make than an ugly design. There is no excuse, really, for doing an ugly design.On inspiration…
But where do I get the idea for the design? Whenever I’m awake, I think about cars. It’s not really something that’s from 9 to 4, and it’s not even exclusive to the 5 days a week; it’s 7 days a week. It’s when I drive to work, I look at cars and I wonder, “why’d they do that? I would not have done it like that.” Whenever I watch television, I always watch what cars people are driving…everything, it’s always cars. I think my inspiration just comes out of looking at cars, looking at what type of people are in cars, looking at how light reflects on the cars, that’s how I get my ideas. And I always have more ideas than I have cars to do, so I don’t think there’s ever a danger of running out of ideas. It’s more the other way around; you don’t have enough opportunity to actually put your ideas out.
One of the things I wanted to change – which is just a detail, really – is that I wanted to get away from having carpet on the doors. I felt it was really ridiculous to have carpet on the doors, just because a lot of people kick the door. I thought, “this is an Aston Martin, this is a high quality car, and the interior is like an expensive leather couch.” You don’t put a carpet patch on an expensive Italian leather couch at home because somebody might kick it. You clean it after, or you make sure they don’t kick it. So, there is no carpet on the doors of the DB9. This was an important thing to take out.Continued…
Later this year we’re considering holding our first 37signals Customer Summit. We’d like to bring together anywhere from 100-300 of our customers to share our ideas, their ideas, and see if we can all learn a few things from one another.
The summit would be in Chicago. It would be priced at about $100 per person. The summit would be between 6 and 8 hours.
Some agenda ideas we’re considering include demos of all our products, a conversation about building useful software, lengthy Q&A with our designers and programmers, tips & tricks, demos of third party products that integrate with ours via APIs, “15 minutes of fame” sessions where customers can demo how they use our products to run their own businesses, and more.
We’re looking to make it casual, accessible, and valuable. It’s primarily about sharing ideas to help our customers get the most out of the products.
If you were to attend what would you like to hear? What sort of talks or demos would you find interesting? Any and all suggestions would be helpful so we can put together a valuable agenda.
Thanks!
