On Software Development

Seems Skype Has Lost Their User Loyalty Since The Purchase

Alex Obenauer — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:13:36 +0000

Skype just released a blog post about their issues with Fring. http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/07/fring.html

I think the more important thing that has come out of this blog post are the comments. People are saying things like:

“Skype seems to be damaging its brand without any assistance from Fring.”

and:

“about time people realised there are other voip options than skype anyway”

It seems like ebay’s purchase of Skype really took away its indie-developer feel, especially since the people at Skype haven’t been communicating anything going on with development. Seems like they lost any user loyalty. Not that people don’t enjoy their product, just the loyalty they once had, especially from the early adopters, is gone.

Sencha Touch

Alex Obenauer — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:57:55 +0000

Not sure how I missed this one… Ext JS changed to Sencha, and released Sencha Touch (currently in Beta) which is based on JQTouch, the fabulous mobile web development framework that they acquired recently.

Looking in to using Sencha on our VT Bus Tracker instead of JQTouch.

Check it out: http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/

The Android Hardware may be Inferior

Alex Obenauer — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:07:22 +0000

But Google sure does make a compelling case with some of their apps.

http://openspot.googlelabs.com/

One of the Coolest Spy Stories of our Time

Alex Obenauer — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:30:11 +0000

..and it’s true.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/08/spy-swap-russian-spy-ring

While You’re Prepping Your Web Application

Alex Obenauer — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:48:54 +0000

Great article about preparing your market before launch.
http://www.rocketwatcher.com/blog/2010/01/prelaunch-marketing.html

“Blink” tag was supposed to be an easter egg

Alex Obenauer — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:06:40 +0000

Oh good. http://www.montulli.org/theoriginofthe%3Cblink%3Etag

Implementing Your Own Programming Language in 3 Minutes

Alex Obenauer — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:09:27 +0000

http://matt.might.net/articles/implementing-a-programming-language/

Something too cool to pass up on a rainy day. The article also has a lot of interesting little nuggets, definitely worth a read, even if you’re not so nerdy it seriously inspires you to write your own one-up of Java.

I Used to Think We Needed More Tech Savvy Politicians

Alex Obenauer — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:15:59 +0000

I may be changing my mind soon. http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100625/tc_pcworld/whitehouseseekscommentontrustedidplan

Apple’s WWDC Session Videos are Free this Year

Alex Obenauer — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 03:12:58 +0000

What was $500 last year, is now free. Great move, Apple.

http://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2010/

Newspapers & New Media

Alex Obenauer — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:14:44 +0000

Just when I thought at least one newspaper company was finally getting the whole new media thing right, the New York Times, whose iPad App (direct link) looks incredible, pulls this sweet move:

The Times will stop using the word because “tweet” isn’t standard English, “and standard English is what we should use in news articles,” Corbett said. (link)

The New York Times is refusing to use a new media word because its too new. If you’re afraid of people not recognizing it, a simple “tweet, a Twitter update, …” would do just fine. There’s also this great bit of news:

Pulse was being pulled from the App Store after it received a written notice from the New York Times Company (NYT) declaring that “The New York Times Company believes your application named ‘Pulse News Reader’ infringes The New York Times Company’s rights.” (link)

Pulse, a gorgeous RSS aggregator, reads the NYT’s RSS feed. Yes, RSS, the free, open, standardized, open… I’m thinking the Times doesn’t understand standards or openness.