Mail Pilot, which was recently covered in Techcrunch (and the New York Times if you missed it!), is doing very well. Development is going great, and besides having to take a few days off for finals and graduation, we fully expect to have everything out on schedule.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions, head to our Google Moderator page.

Dining Services, I issue you a challenge: Give me a quarter what you paid them, and well before the Fall semester begins, I’ll build you exactly what you’re looking for, including Sheetz-style picture-based menu ordering, and multiple screens. And, of course, feedback when someone submits. I will build you the most polished, beautiful, user-friendly iPad menu ordering system. It’ll be done plenty before the start of the Fall semester. I challenge you to take a chance on a student / soon-to-be alumnus (36 days!).

I do hope this offer is accepted; Hungry Hokie could use a bigger brother. If you need to see my previous work, including iOS apps (and, yes, an extensive iPad app made in only a few weeks) see my projects page. Finally, I run my own company in Blacksburg, so I’ll be plenty close after graduation for you to make sure everything is going smoothly.

Challenge accepted?

I noticed this psychological phenomenon in myself some years back, and have since kept many goals to myself. It definitely helps me to stay motivated to get it to a “completion” state, when I can tell people about it.

1. Ram your face in to an Apple store’s glass facade
2. Sue Apple
3. Profit!

Joking aside, crap like this has got to end. The courts are an easy money game where the objective is to see who can do the stupidest thing.

Your joy, their needs

I challenge us to think differently. In 2012, let’s solve real problems. Don’t be afraid to go after that big idea you had that has that big competitor. Scare people with your good ideas and your willingness to give them a go.

At a recent conference about Strengths Finder that I attended, the speaker said something really profound: that your calling (in our context, maybe also your company’s calling) is the intersection of your greatest joy and the world’s greatest need. Think about this – Is what you’re doing needed? Could you be doing something with your gifts and talents, something that brings you the greatest joy, but something that is more meaningful, more remarkable, or more needed by the world today or tomorrow?

What is it that the people around you need? Hope? Joy? To get out of debt? What is it that the people of the world need? What do you do, and what do you love to do most? Where do your greatest joy and the worlds’ greatest needs intersect?

We believe

“The Year of Thinking Different” is about something very strong: our own personal values. Coincidentally, we recently wrote a post on substituting a mission statement with a credo, titled “Things should suck less.” The best companies in the world have values that closely mirror the values of its founders. These companies bake their values into everything they do, from customer service, to shipping, to software development. Anyone outside these companies knows what their values are, and those inside it can profess them and use them in their work. It brings an entirely new level of meaning to the work a company does.

What are your values? What are your company’s values? Try starting your own mission statement, or credo, with, “We believe…” Repeat that a couple of times, and see what comes out. What is it that you truly believe in? What are your values; those values that you are so passionate about that you can’t avoid professing, and that you bring to every project you work on? How do you make the world a better place, and how is that a core part of your company’s soul? Answer these questions thoughtfully, fold these answers into everything you do, and you’ll probably be a company I’d like to do business with.

The means to an ends

Rethink your understanding of what you’re creating: as software developers, we’re not making an ends to someone’s wish, rather we’re making a means to an ends. This is something I once heard Steve Jobs say, and I’ve embraced it since. He said people don’t want boxes and screens; they want to create documents, they want to communicate messages with others. Similarly, people want to worry about their email less, be more productive, and to spend more time outside of their email and desktop. Mail Pilot is the means to these ends, and we are honored to build the means that helps people to such great ends. Understanding this concept has been instrumental in the design and development of our applications, and has altered how we feel Mail Pilot should work.

2012: The Year of Thinking Different

So have it. Let’s make 2012 the year we bake our efforts or our companies with those core values that we are too passionate about not to do everything we can to pursue. Let’s make 2012 the year we recognize our strengths, and the year we identify our our joys, and the needs of the world. Let’s make 2012 the year we rethink the role our software plays in people’s lives, and how it can be the means for our users to a better life. Let’s make 2012 the year of thinking different.

Inception Explained – An interactive animated infographic.

If this does turn out to be true, one has to wonder, “Which institutions will be left?” The thoughtless might immediately say those institutions constantly ranked in the top 20 or so. If Thrun is correct, however, I believe that these ten institutions will be the ones so heavily embracing technology, connecting better in brand new ways with students, and making large jumps in the field. This is the case for basically any industry, and higher education may not be different in that regard.

This is a dead simple modification, super useful, but who would have thought of it? I love this kind of stuff. Great work, TOKI WOKI.

Check it out: Fluid Corners by TOKI WOKI..

via A List Apart: Articles: In Search of the Holy Grail.

No need to compute widths in javascript to have a semi-fluid layout (some static, some fluid columns). This pure CSS solution works in all browsers, including IE6.

6 years later, this thing remains one of the holy grails of CSS.