I think it is about time to put things right. So I've started making the necessary changes for Poker Copilot to be in French, German, Spanish, Luxembourgish, and many other languages.

So far I've translated the menu bar into French...

...and German.

Unfortunately my limited language skills won't take me much further. So I'm hoping to draw on the awesome power of my globally-dispersed customer base to volunteer.

The text to be translated is stored in property files, one for each language (or language/country combination where necessary):

I'm still researching and pondering a good way to undertake this distributed task. If you have ideas on how I can pleasantly manage this task please post them in the comments.

You can download the latest version here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/web2project-mod/files/Project-Importer/

The purpose of the Project Importer is to allow users to import their project plans from other systems. Currently Microsoft Project and WBS Gantt Chart Pro are supported.
The significant changes in this release include:

• Fixed a major issue where dependencies weren't being imported properly or sometimes at all.
• Added a tweak to the MS Project processor to make sure the project title is retrieved properly.
• Fixed an issue where the Project Start Date was not set properly in the MS Project import
• Tweaked the import process so that if there's no Company match, it default's to the current User's Company. This resolves the issue where a Project could accidentally get assigned to no Company and therefore disappear due to permissions.
• Changed the licensing to align with the coming web2project license shift.

There is a goal to support additional file type imports. At present, CSV - as an Excel export - is one option but is the most difficult due to a lack of formal/official column/field structure that a user could create. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to share them in our forums.

The Project Importer can be downloaded here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/web2project-mod/files/Project-Importer/

• Does it solve my particular problem.
• Is it easy to use.
• Does it have the set of features and capabilities that I need.
• Will it continue to meet my needs as I become more adept.
• Does it include good documentation.
• Will it save me time (will I be more productive).
• Is it worth the cost (both financial and time to learn & use).
• Is it robust and well supported.
• Also see: Before purchasing software

Software developers must take all of these issues and more into account when we design our products. I’ve specifically not used the term software or program here as a product is a lot more than just the software. Unfortunately there are quite a few software developers that don’t realize this.

Basically we perform a juggling act, continually weighing up the pros and cons of everything we do. New feature requests must be assessed on the value they add to the product, how broad the interest for our users might be, the impact they have on usability and added complexity, extra documentation and additional support (costs).  See my Creeping Featuritis post for more on this.

So developing a product that ticks all of the right boxes  is always challenging. Exposure to customer needs, our overall depth of experience and an affinity with the product all help.

Let me finish by telling you that this was not a post that I had intended to write. Instead I was going to write about a review of Surfulater that has recently been published. The review was undertaken by three different people responding to the same set of questions. The outcome is quite interesting and clearly shows how various people can view the same product so differently. It also demonstrates the difficulty there is in ticking all the right boxes.  I’ll hold over linking to the review for another post.

Neville

I would however point out that our Krypton version is not intended as an exact copy. It is very similar but it might not contain absolutely everything that is possible with the operating system version of the dialog. However, something is better than nothing and so here is what we have.

Basic Settings
The most basic settings allow for a window title, main instructions, content details, associated icon and the specification of dialog buttons.  You can omit any of these values in which case they will not be displayed. Here is an example of the dialog when they have all been specified with simple values…

CheckBox Settings
You can optionally define a CheckBox that is presented in the same area as the dialog buttons. You can define the text for the control as well as the initial checked state. This is more useful than it might first appear. A common scenario is to present warning messages to the user, but ff the user finds these annoying the checkbox could be checked to indicate that the warnings should be suppressed in the future. Or maybe the checkbox is used to indicate that the selected option should always be used in the future without the need to ask again.

Footer Settings
Additional information can be shown to the user in the footer area of the dialog. You can set an image, footer text and hyperlink text for this area or any combination of the three values. This is very useful if you want to allow additional help documentation or webpages to be shown in response to a hyperlink being pressed.

Radio Button
Use the radio button feature to present a multiple choice to the user. A simple collection property is used to specify the list of possible options and the selected value is available as a property on the KryptonTaskDialog class when the dialog has been removed.

Command Settings
This is similar to the radio buttons except the choices are presented as a set of buttons. Each button is assigned a DialogResult value and so on return from the dialog being dismissed you can check the return DialogResult to see which command was selected by the user.

As an extreme example you could even specify all the possible features and show the following…

…although I am not sure your users would appreciate such a monstrosity!

It reminded me of a couple of paragraphs in John Ruskin's 'unto this last', written about the same the Brooklyn bridge was being constructed:

"We have studied and much perfected, of late, the great civilized invention of the division of labour, only we give it a false name. It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided; but the men:- Divided into mere segments of men - broken into small fragments and crumbs of life; so that all the little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin, or a nail, but exhausts itself making the point of a pin or the head of a nail

[...]

we manufacture everything [in our cities] except men; we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, and shape pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advantages"

Powerful stuff, and a partial answer to Seth's question.

Sony PS3′s new fancy gadget is the Move motion controllers. Those funny looking sticks with ball of light in one end. Half of the hardcore gamers in the world are laughing at their appearance, half are silent about getting one (to ensure the other half won’t laugh at them).

This is how the Move controller looks like:

I was browsing for some more info about Move (since I’m planning to get the thing) and saw some old discussion about it. Some gamers were laughing at it’s appearance and said something that the marketers could have listened.

“Sony should have made them gloves.”

I think that’s a brilliant statement. A brilliant idea. Sony’s marketing team took Wii’s controller, improved the tech, and are now bringing a bit funny looking cone saying that “hardcore and casual gamers will all love it”.

Well, maybe. Sony probably has a bit more experience in marketing stuff than I do, but I must say that the current solution looks bit like “we are like Wii except better and try to cater for everybody”.

What if Sony would have made a bold move instead, and play from their strengths?

What if they would have decided to:

• Make the motion controller a glove (or pair of gloves)?
• What if they would have branded it to be the hardcore gamer’s motion controller?

Now they compete with Wii (who already has all those sports games) and Kinect (which has the extra coolness factor of “you don’t need a controller – you are the controller”).

I don’t know if it would sell more this way, but I think Sony could have made a bolder move in this thing – and differentiate them from others.

You know, they could have done something like this that was done 4 years ago (“Wii power glove mod”) – but of course in black…

Move is technically superior in accuracy (from what I’ve read), but I sure would buy a pair of motion gloves more happily (and pay extra) than a stick or two with light ball in one end.

This is the detailed statistics window you see when you click on a player's HUD panel.

When the first test fails, one gotta do what one gotta do.

That is: use profanities for ***** sake.

Update: Hey, now it works!

Up to 1,000, the # of hands played is shown in full. From 1,001 to 9,999, you'll see something like 1.2K - that is, to a precision of hundreds. From 10,000 onwards, the precision is thousands: 13K.

If everything goes as planned, I should see this thing tweeted.

Both these problems are now fixed in Poker Copilot 2.63. You can download it now.

Sorry for the time some of you had to spend without a HUD.

What's changed:

• The hand replayer now can record hands to a video file
• Winamax hand history files from before 30th August, 2010 are no longer supported, as these tended to have incorrect numbers
• PokerStars.FR step tournaments now handled correctly
• Sometimes Full Tilt hands omit important information. Poker Copilot now detects when this is the case and reports an error, rather than pretending everything is alright.

What's fixed:

• All-in equity value difference calculations with split pots has improved
• The new Winamax hand history format from 30th August, 2010 onwards is now handled correctly
• Cereus Network hands without a hero no longer cause an error

Update Instructions:

1. Download the latest version here.
2. Open the downloaded file.
3. Drag the Poker Copilot icon to the Applications icon. If prompted to replace an existing version, confirm that you do want to replace.

Now you're done and ready to hit the tables.

Michael Crichton once said;

“In the end, science offers us the only way out of politics. And if we allow science to become politicized, then we are lost. We will enter the Internet version of the Dark Ages, an era of shifting fears and wild prejudices transmitted to people who don’t know any better. That’s not a good future for the human race. That’s our past.”

Worthy of keeping in mind – if it’s not too late already.

Scott Kane

PS:  Does this apply to “Anthropomorphic Climate Change” debate too?  Oh I forgot!  The Watermelons have told us that there “…is no debate” between cat calling those who sift through evidence as “deniers” whether they’ve “denied” it or not. 

Related posts

• Now Download . Com – Yes folks searching for this. It is a SCAM! (45)
• What’s Not To Like About Micro ISV Fails? Release Early? You’re Doing It Wrong! (14)
• VPS Update – Need For Speed (11)
• Fail – Degrees Of Separation – Negatives And Pluses ISV Style (8)
• Zero To Page One On Google In A Week – I Can Live With That – Content Still King On The Web Micro ISV Or Not (2)

I’m using Fraps to record game movies (it’s good for that, totally recommend) and then I have used Screenr to record screen. Screenr is cheap (read: free) to use, can record up to 5 minutes of video (you can record mic too), simple but the video quality could be somewhat better (smoother and sharper).

Any recommendations?

At last count I had owned four Jaguars over the years, I love Jaguars. Unfortunately the budget never stretched this far ... Probably the most beautiful vehicle ever made ...










RSS Feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Lonelyhacker

]]> http://microisvcentral.com/?feed=rss2&p=12110 http://www.gameproducer.net/2010/09/04/youve-tried-ps3-move-or-xbox-kinect-share-your-findings/ http://www.gameproducer.net/2010/09/04/youve-tried-ps3-move-or-xbox-kinect-share-your-findings/#comments Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:06:24 +0000 Juuso http://www.gameproducer.net/?p=5204

Discussion is taking place here. As a PS3 owner, I’d be really interested to hear from you guys how you liked that. (And of course Kinect info too)

Several years ago, Nintendo Wii changed the way how families play games. Yes they did. A chap told me that he was never interested in games… but bought Wii and was hooked. So, this proves my statement.

Now, few years later, Sony brings Move for Playstation 3. Move is a odd looking stick with a light ball in the end. Bit like those yedi lightsabers, with a ball instead of blade in the end.

Today I watched some Move game trailers and it sort of hit me that these Wii & Move (and Kinect for Xbox) are helping change the whole nations. I think these things can really have impact on our health. I remember trying Wii at my bro’s house and after a few minutes of boxing I was sweating. It wasn’t “just a video game”, it was bloody exercise. With fun games coming out, I can imagine how these games can help get gamers in better shape.

I still think that nothing beats going out and getting some fresh air… but at least if our kids (and we) play a bit more of these games that get their asses off the sofa, we are heading to somewhere better place.

Here’s a video aobut a game called The Fight: Lights Out (reminded me about the Fight Club movie for some reason). I don’t know how much you can “cheat” nor how accurate the move stick – or two – are, but looks pretty slick to me.

I guess much depends how accurate the system really is.

I’m becoming more of a console man. (Yaiks.)

• Regular expressions: With regular expression support now part of the RTL, that is one less 3rd party component that you need. The way the RegularExpressions unit is implemented is particularly nice. It uses records instead of classes to mimic .NET’s regex support. It only takes one line of code to use a regex. You don’t need to worry about memory management.
• Subversion integration: Check out projects from version control and commit your changes without leaving the IDE. The Differences subtab of the History tab in the code editor allows you to quickly compare any two revisions of the file you’re editing. All this works even if you don’t have a subversion client installed, though you’ll probably want to keep the client you have to manage files that you edit outside the Delphi or C++Builder IDE. The CollabNet subversion client that is part of the installer is the command-line svn tool. You don’t need to install it unless you really want to work from the command line.
• Beyond Compare: Delphi and C++Builder do not include the full directory comparison tool. They do include the file differ that is part of Beyond Compare. If you don’t like the built-in differ on the Differences subtab of the History tab in the code editor, you can make a change in Tools, Options to use the Beyond Compare differ instead.
• AQTime: AQTime from SmartBear Software is a code profiler that supports a wide range of development tools for Win32 and .NET. Delphi and C++Builder XE include a version of AQTime with reduced functionality. It only works with the XE versions of Delphi and C++Builder, and does not include some of the more advanced profilers. Even so it offers everything most developers need for profiling their applications. AQTime normally costs $599, so that’s a nice bundle even with the limitations.
• CodeSite: CodeSite from Raize Software is a logging tool. A logging tool can be very helpful for debugging code where breakpoints are cumbersome. The main benefit of CodeSite is that you can log almost anything, including complete Delphi objects. CodeSite can also log what your application does on your customer’s computers if they install a redistributable with the CodeSite logging application (or if you make it part of your own installer).
• IP*Works: IP*Works is a set of Internet components, much like the Indy components that have shipped with Delphi and C++Builder for many years. Since IP*Works is not written in pure Delphi, Indy is likely a better choice for Delphi developers. IP*Works is included with Delphi and C++Builder mainly because it is also included with RadPHP, which is now part of RAD Studio XE. If you want to use the same internet components in Delphi and PHP, then IP*Works may be an option.

FinalBuilder is only included with the Enterprise and Architect editions of Delphi XE and C++Builder XE. All the other goodies are included with all editions, including the Professional edition.

I was anti-Flash before Steve Jobs made it cool. I have as much anti-Flash credibility as anyone.

For over a decade I've steered organization after organization away from building solutions in Flash, often against great resistance. I was evangelizing SVG — what I saw as the biggest opportunity for a more illuminated, open solution than Flash — back when it's strongest corporate sponsor was none other than Adobe.

Aside: Humorously Adobe was leveraging SVG in their battle against Macromedia's Flash/Shockwave empire, before finally giving in and buying 'em out.

I have railed loudly against Flash on many occasions.

The Great Flash of Propriety

Yet Flash is fairly pervasive, despite my valiant attempts.

Up until around 2005 and the birth of YouTube, Flash had very little presence in the video space: That realm was dominated by Real Player, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, among others. Flash fit in the RIA niche where it displaced the short-lived empire of ActiveX and Java Applets. It was the tool for great web entertainment like You Don't Know Jack, the Net Show.

Then YouTube rose with Flash at its presentation core, and the rest is history. Soon Flash was the oddball foundation for video.

If you mention Flash today, however, the topic will immediately veer violently to the great Flash/Apple battle of 2010, where Apple has loudly rejected Flash (where it represents a proxy for "rich applications they don't control"), and Google, perhaps being a bit antagonistic, has embraced it with their Android and Chrome solutions.

Ok, embraced is probably a bit of an overstatement. In reality Google's initiatives have top notch HTML5 support, the best JavaScript performance, and are probably the best mobile/thin platforms for rich HTML5 applications, but they just happen to optionally support Flash as well, perhaps providing a bridge from the past.

A Very Personal Flash Experience

I've been running Flash on my Nexus One for several months now. I have it configured to On Demand so the scourge of animated, CPU-clogging Flash adverts don't destroy my web browsing experience. When there is Flash content that I want to view, I click the little arrow and voila, Flash is running on my mobile phone.

Overall it has been a very welcome addition to the device. From restaurant sites, to small videos like Zero Punctuation reviews, to games for my children, to product information pages, I like having the option of engaging Flash when the need arises.

So when I saw entry titled "Just How Bad Is Flash on Android" on Daring Fireball, of course I was drawn in. There Gruber indirectly linked to some demonstrations of Flash failing miserably on several Flash video sites.

To which, I say, no kidding.

Anyone under any illusion that having Flash on their mobile device opened up any and all content is willfully or technically incompetent. That or it's link bait trying to herd in the people who desperately need their biases confirmed, and a lot of people desperately need to believe that Flash isn't necessary on mobiles. I'd probably say it's that second option at play.

Of course not all content will play. This is, after all, a mobile device with a little power-sipping mobile processor. While 1Ghz sounds pretty pimp, the Snapdragon in the Nexus One is in many ways a weakling, particularly in video decoding and 3D graphics tasks where it fell behind even the iPhone 3GS.

On this 1Ghz processor I've had trouble playing local 720x480 h264 videos encoded at 1Mbps, encountering frequent stuttering and dropped frames. Compare that to the iPhone 4 which allows for up to 7Mbps+ videos at 1280x720, which it plays flawlessly, owing to the excellent hardware decoding.

When it comes to video the iPhone 4 simply kicks the Nexus One (and virtually every other HTC Android device, as HTC is addicted to Snapdragons) to the curb. Then again, the Samsung Galaxy S kicks the iPhone 4 around and calls it Sally, while the OMAP in the Droid 2/X offers a fair fight.

Snapdragon processor devices are not the top of the pile by a long measure.

So the Nexus One really isn't a great platform to highlight video prowess anyways.

Enough with the hardware excuses.

Add that Flash is often its own worst enemy: When you enable the plug-in, your enable in the Android browser is browser wide for that page, meaning it simultaneously enables the twelve punch-the-monkey animated ads surrounding it, often destroying the experience.

So there is no surprise at all that a high bitrate 1000x500 video surrounded by Flash adverts — a scenario that clogs a high performance 2.4Ghz core on a modern x86 PC (which would be equal to about a 8Ghz or higher snapdragon) — probably with a layer of DRM adding more demands, doesn't run so great on a mobile device.

"So Steve Jobs Was Right! Flash won't work on mobile!"

Given that I've enjoyed Flash on my smartphone on many occasions, I find such claims — which I keep seeing made by seemingly non-stupid individuals — ludicrous. It is fervent, desperate doublespeak.

Mobile Flash exists. It's far from perfect. The available content usually isn't even aware that it exists. Yet still, it is.

And really, it isn't a fair fight anyways. When sites provide HTML5 video, they do so often specifically for the iPhone/iPad because of the massive namespace territory they conquered. Most sites don't even feature sniff for the functionality — they don't care if you are running Chrome or Safari or IE 9 and can run HTML Video — but will instead refuse to serve up HTML 5 video for anything but those Apple devices. Given that, they encode specifically and only for that platform, with appropriate bitrates and complexity profiles ideal for those devices.

There's no big surprise that it often runs well.

That isn't a very encompassing, scalable solution though. One device family isn't meant to rule, and at some future point HTML5 will start to leave the iOS devices behind. The iPhone lived through a special moment in time where it was handled as a blessed child, getting its own special treatment, however that moment is passing.

Of course the Flash people have a solution for disparate devices, using dynamic streaming that is based upon the consuming device (resolution and bitrate scaling based upon the capabilities of the device, very similar to some technology in Microsoft Silverlight). Not surprisingly there is little use of it yet given that mobile Flash devices just started appearing very recently, and still comprise a tiny market.

"So...Steve Jobs Was Right?"

No.

When I originally thought about how to respond to this, my first idea was to make a video demonstrating a smartphone failing miserably at rendering and interacting with various HTML5 sites. But then I thought better because someone might confuse that as a serious criticism of HTML5 when I love the technology stack and pragmatically realize that it can't (and shouldn't) always be universally accessible.

Yet still, contemplate the failings of HTML5 on mobile devices:

• Layout can be ill suited for the screen dimensions and resolution of a smartphone.
• Functionality can be overwrought and too heavy for a smartphone.
• Input techniques might not work on smartphone.
• etc.

Anyone who has browsed on their smartphone or tablet has experienced all of those. If someone were looking to go out of their way to act shocked that such an experience exists, source material can be found everywhere.

Which is of course why many sites, like the atrocious script pig TechCrunch (seriously, load it up in Firefox with Firebug and check the net tab), created special mobile pages that they force you to, against your will, when you try to visit on a mobile device.

The next time you see a TOP 10 CANVAS DEMOS on your social news site of choice, pull them up on your tablet or smartphone and check out how well they work. Chances are overwhelmingly that they will fail miserably. Almost every HTML5 game demands that you use a keyboard to control it, if they aren't simply too resource demanding for a little mobile device.

So do we write off web browsers on mobile devices? Do we say, in a tut-tut-tut fashion, "No mobile browser exists. WAP is the world for portable devices!" I hope not.

Punching Monkeys Coming in HTML5 Soon To You

One trend that is accelerating is the movement of many ads to HTML5 and away from Flash. That short period where iOS devices came with an almost intrinsic AdBlock+ in the form of the lack of Flash capabilities is rapidly disappearing. Soon every page you visit is going to be a mishmash of computationally demanding canvas renders and DOM manipulations, and it's going to become much more difficult to avoid their cost.

Closing Notes

For those who are on the fence about the whole Flash thing — whether they care about it on their mobile or tablet — take a look a the quick video I put up above. The videos did not run perfectly, the auto configurator didn't provide a seamless, perfect experience...yet if the option is that or nothing, I think most reasonable people would agree that it's better than nothing.

Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

I have a problem. The very first that I wanted to buy is goddamn free!. I demand a possibility to pay $4.95 to get that game.

I’ve read & checked out half of the games on that list, and so far especially these got my attention. Especially the oddly catchy phrase got my attention.

I’ll go through the list and grab some games.

Thanks everybody who participated.

Did that sound like Greek to you?

Great, you might benefit from this translation of Financier into Geek.  (P.S. If you haven’t figured out the significance of it originally being written in Financier instead of in Geek, please, think it through.)  I originally wrote it as a comment on Hacker News but somebody asked me to put it somewhere easily findable.  I have elaborated with standard blog post formating and graphs where I thought they helped the explanation:

Why We Care About Angel Investing

Startups raise money from investors to accelerate their growth into, hopefully, massively profitable businesses and/or massively large acquisitions from big companies.

One particular type of investor that invests in startups is called an angel investor. An angel investor is often an individual human being who is wealthy, frequently as a consequence of successful entrepreneurship. They invest anywhere from $25,000 to $250,000 or so.

Fundraising is painful, and requires a lot of time and focus from startup founders. To mitigate the pain, it is often structured in terms of “rounds”, where the startup goes out to raise a particular large sum of money all at once. For an angel round, let’s say that could be a million dollars. (n.b. It is trending down, as companies can now be founded for sums of money which would have been laughable a few years ago.)  Clearly we’re going to need to piece together contributions from a few angels here.

Why Angel Investing Frustrates Founders

Traditionally, one angel has been the “lead” angel, who handles the bulk of the organizational issues for the investors. The rest just sit by their phone and write checks when required. (Slight exaggeration.) Investors are often skittish, and they require social proof to invest in companies, so you often hear them say something like a) they’re not willing to invest in you but b) they are willing to invest in you if everybody else does. This leads to deadlocks as a group of investors, who all would invest in the company if they company were able to raise investment, fail to invest in the company because it cannot raise investment.

Startup founders are, understandably, frustrated by this.

What “Valuation” Means

All numbers below this point were chosen for ease of illustration only.  They do not represent typical valuations, round sizes, or percentages of companies purchased by angels.

One item of particular interest in investing is the valuation of the company. This gets into heady math, but the core idea is simple: if we agree that the company is worth $100 at this instant in time (the “pre-money valuation”), and you want to invest $100, then right after the company receives your investment, the company is worth $200 (the “post-money valuation”). Since you paid $100, you should own half the company.

Traditionally, the company has exactly one pre-money valuation (which is decided solely by negotiation, and bears little if any relation to what disinterested outside observers could perceive about the company). All investors receive slices in the company awarded in direct proportion to the amount of money they invest. Two investors investing the same amount of money receive the same sized slice of the company. This can be written as “they invested at the same valuation.”

The thesis of PG’s essay is that allowing investors to invest at the same valuation is not advantageous to the startup. Instead, by offering a discount to valuation for moving quickly, you can convince investors to commit to the deal early, thus starting the stampede from the hesitant investors who were waiting to see social proof.

For example, take the company from earlier. We said it was worth $100 prior to receiving investing, but that is not tied to objective reality. Say instead we’ll agree that it is worth $80… but only with respect to the 1st investor. He commits $20. $80 + $20 = $100, so he gets $20 / $100 = 20% of the company for $20, or $1 = 1%. This convinces a second investor to invest. He says “Can I get 20% for $20, too?” Not so fast, buddy, where were you yesterday? The company isn’t worth $80 any more. We think it is worth $105 now. (Did we just get through saying $100? Yes. But valuations are not connected to objective reality.) So you get $20 / ($105 + $20) = 16% of the company for your $20. Think that is fair? You do? OK, done.

This continues a few times. The startup raises money — possibly more money, depending on how much the angels want in — with less hassle for the founders.

What Is A Convertible Note?  Why Do Founders Like Them?

We’ve been talking about just dollars so far, and alluding to control of the company as if it were equity like stocks, but there is a mechanism called “convertible notes” at play here. A convertible note is the result of a torrid affair between a loan and an equity instrument. It looks a bit like Mom and a bit like Dad. Like a loan, it charges interest: typically something fairly modest like 6 to 8%, much less than a credit card.

The tricky thing about convertible notes is that they convert into partial ownership of the company at a defined event, most typically at the next round of VC funding or at the sale of the company. So, instead of the first investor getting $20 = 20% of the company, he loans the company $20 in exchange for a promise like this: “You owe me $20, with interest. Don’t worry about paying me back right now. Instead, next time you raise money or sell the company, we’re going to pretend that I’m either investing with the other guy or selling with you. The portion of the company which I buy or sell will be based on complicated magic to protect both your interests and my interests. If you want to sweeten the deal for me, sweeten the magic.”

Do we understand why this arrangement works for both parties? It incentivizes investors to commit early, which lets startups raise more money with less pain. Because startups are in the driver’s seat, it also lets them avoid collusion among investors (“We decided we’d all invest in you, but we don’t think the company is worth $100. We think it is worth $50. Yeah, that has no basis in objective reality, but objective reality is that your company is worth $0 without the $100 in our collective pockets. What is it going to be? Give up 2/3 of the company, or go broke and get nothing.”)

How Do You Calculate The Equity Value of A Convertible Note?

OK, back to complicated magic. When the company takes outside investment, the convertible notes magically convert into stock, based on:

• a) the valuation the company receives for the investment round  (higher numbers are better for both founders and angels)
• b) a negotiated discount to the valuation, to reward the angel investor for his early faith in the company (higher numbers are better for angels)
• c) possibly, a valuation cap (higher numbers, or no cap,  are better for founders)

For example, continuing with our “low numbers make math comprehensible” startup, let’s say it goes on a few months and is then raising a series A round, which basically means “the first time we got money from VCs”. We’ll say the VC and startup negotiate and agree that the company is worth $500 today, the VC is investing $250, ergo the VC gets a third of the company.

How much does our first $20 angel investor get? Well, he gets to participate like he was investing $20 today, plus he gets a discount to the valuation. So instead of getting $20 / $750 = 2.67% of the company, maybe he got a 20% discount to the valuation, so he gets $20 / (.8 * $750) = 3.33% of the company. (We’re ignoring the effect of interest here for simplicity, but he probably effectively has $21 and change invested by now in real life.)

After this is over, the convertible note is gone, and our angel investors are left with just shares (partial ownership of the company), which they probably hold until the company either goes IPO or gets bought by someone. So if the company later gets bought for $2,000 by Google, our intrepid angel investor makes $66 on his $20 investment.

How Does A Valuation Cap Work?

We haven’t discussed valuation caps yet. Valuation caps are intended to prevent the startup dragging its feet on raising money, thus building up lots of worth in the company, and then the angel investor getting cheesed. For example, if they had just grown through revenues for a year or two, they might be raising money at a valuation of $1,250. In that case, $20 only buys you 2% of the company (remember, he gets a 20% discount : $20 / (.8 * $1250) = 2%), which the angel investor might think doesn’t adequately compensate him for the risk he took on betting on a small, unproven thing several years before. So we make him a deal: he gets to invest his $20 at the same terms as the VCs do if, and only if, the valuation is less than $750. If it is more than $750, for him and only him, we pretend it was $750 instead. This means that under no circumstances will he walk away with less than $20 / (.8 * $750) = 3.33% of the company, as long as the company goes on to raise further investment. (Obviously, if they fold, he walks away with nothing. Well, technically speaking, with debt owed to him by a company which is bankrupt and likely has no assets to speak of, so essentially nothing.)

Perhaps This Will Be Clearer With A Picture

Angels ultimately benefit from higher discounts to the valuation of the Series A round, and lower valuation caps.  Higher discounts, and higher effective discounts, mean you get more of the company for less money.  That is an unambiguous good, as long as you keep the quality of the company constant.

Let’s see how valuation caps affect how much of the company you end up with.  The better the company is doing by Series A time, the less of the company the angel ends up with.  This shows the incentive for the founders: do as well as you can prior to raising money, which is the same incentive founders always have.

As you can see from the below graph, a valuation cap essentially gives the angel an artificially higher discount for if the Series A valuation exceeds the valuation cap.  Obviously then, it is in the interest of angels to negotiate as low a cap as possible, and in the interests of founders to negotiate a high cap or no cap at all. According to Paul Graham, this becomes the primary “pricing” mechanism in the new seed financing economy: if a founder wants to reward an angel, they award them with a lower cap.  If they don’t, the angels get a higher cap, or no cap at all.  This kicks discussions of valuations down the road a little bit, and allows you to simultaneously offer the company to multiple angels at multiple “price points”.  That allows you to reward them for non-monetary compensation (mentoring, having a big name, etc) or for early action on the deal.

This Is Not My Business. Take With A Grain Of Salt.

Lest anyone get the wrong impression, my familiarity with angel investing is very limited and, to the extent that it exists, it is mostly about angel investing in small town Japan.  (Oh, the stories I can’t tell.)  The above explanation is based on me processing what I’ve read and trying to prove that I understand it by explaining it to other people.  If I have made material errors, please correct me in the comments.

My current business is not seeking funding (and would be an extraordinarily poor candidate for it).  I’ll never say never for the future, but for the present, I rather like getting 100% of the returns.

[Edit: Want to use some or all of this, including the graphs, for your own purposes?  Go ahead.]

What I needed in the drugstore was a big sign that said "This is the shampoo for everyday men like YOU". Below the sign would be a marble pedestal, upon which a glowing bottle of shampoo would just want me to purchase it. No choices. Just an easy solution.

You've been there right? Whether it's pasta or water or digital cameras or mobile phone plans, we are burdened either with choices that are inconsequential or with choices that we are ill-equipped to make.

Worse even is the choice some software gives you when you download it ("professional version or extended version?"), install it ("Where shall our product install its Quidjibo data?"), or run it for the first time ("Would you like classic mode or postmodern mode?"). I want to defiantly say, "I don't know, I've never used your software, just do all the defaults for me please".

I try hard to keep Poker Copilot free of options. Every time I add an option I feel like I've failed slightly in the user interface design and implementation. People want the option to increase the font size? The hand replayer speed? The keyboard shortcuts? Then I've probably done a poor job in that part of the program. Instead i consider improving how it works so that more people are satisfied with the defaults. Naturally some options are helpful. But most aren't.

This mentality drove the design of the new Hand Replayer 1-click video recorder. When you click "Record" there are no options. You are not asked where to save the file, what to call it, what type of video encoding to us, or what resolution you want it. You shouldn't have to know about these things. Instead I copied the approach used by taking screenshots on the Mac - press [Cmd] + [Shift] + 3 and a screenshot is immediately saved onto your desktop with the word "Screenshot" and the current date and time in the filename. Likewise with Poker Copilot's recorder. The recording starts immediately. The file is saved to your desktop with the poker room name and the game number. It is in a video encoding liked by both QuickTime and YouTube.

Then I stumbled across Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon.

I picked it up expecting a book like all other business books. It would have, I thought, a single idea that would have made a good essay. That idea would be padded out to 200 pages, because that's the length business books have to be. It would include examples from WL Gore, Whole Foods, Best Buy and South West airlines. It would have a coherent set of principles and a checklist I could follow to help improve my business. It would probably do those things exceptionally well.

It didn't.

It totally under-delivered.

But it doesn't matter.

Why doesn't that matter? Because it surprised me in so many other ways. It's not a traditional business book - it's a mashup between a business book and a reflective essay. It meanders between marketing and philosophy, spending as much time discussing what it means to live in the modern world as how to build brands. As you'd expect, Youngme talks about Google and Apple (how could a book that talks about brands that insult their customers, polarise consumers and revolutionise product categories fail to mention Apple?). Less expectedly - but still within the category of 'business book' she's careful to keep one foot in - she writes beautifully and conversationally about Mini, Marmite, Red Bull and BAPE. But she also talks about Richard Feynman, the Onion and the Fonz. She even uses the word 'motherfucker' once. How many business books do that?

Youngme's thesis is that the way businesses are taught to compete is flawed. We're encouraged to talk to our customers and add the new features they demand. We examine our competitors, figure out where they're better than us and then we copy them. We find out what our weaknesses are, and fix them. We repeat, repeat, repeat, stuck on a treadmill of incremental innovation as we try to become better, faster, cleaner, cheaper, tastier - whatever it is that our customers tell us they want. The end result is entire product categories (bottled water, shampoo, detergent, cars, beer, operating systems, accounting software) stuffed with thousands of near-identical, micro-differentiated products that nobody can tell apart.

Youngme thinks there's a better way. She believes that the way to compete isn't by being better. It's by being different. The products and brands that people love are those that fail to give us what we expect, but which then surprise us in some other way. They refuse to be judged on the same axes as their competitors. They change our perception of what a product ought to do. Sometimes, they insult us. They cultivate their enemies as much as they nurture their friends. They're flawed, and they shout about their flaws to whoever will listen. They polarise. They refuse to be bland.

Youngme doesn't pretend this book is complete. Some of its ideas are tentative, and it has flaws. But rather than pretend those imperfections don't exist, she embraces them. Youngme describes Different as a 'leaky, leaky boat'. It takes what could be a weakness - its lack of absoluteness - and turns it into a tremendous strength. Sure, the book is ambiguous, its arguments aren't perfect and it offers few conclusions. But that's what the real world is like.

There's no way I can summarise this wonderful book in a single review. Go buy yourself a copy.

Youngme Moon is speaking at Business of Software 2010. There are still a few tickets left. Book now!

Fabulous article and some gorgeous photographs:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html?ref=nf

Here’s one of the photos - beautiful and dramatic - I love it :-)


RSS Feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Lonelyhacker]]> http://microisvcentral.com/?feed=rss2&p=12014 http://successfulsoftware.net/2010/09/02/im-a-millionaire/ http://successfulsoftware.net/2010/09/02/im-a-millionaire/#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:08:49 +0000 Andy Brice http://successfulsoftware.net/?p=3761 ]]> Well, not in pounds or dollars.  But, according to WordPress.com and to my considerable surprise, this blog has now had over a million impressions since I started it, 3 and a bit years ago.

OK, I know Joel Spolsky or Jeff Atwood probably wouldn’t get out of  bed for a meagre million impressions, but I still couldn’t resist crowing about it.

As you can see in the graph below the traffic is very uneven, dominated by a few posts that made it on to the front page of social news sites.

In fact over 40% of the total impressions come from just 5 (2%) of the posts:

Here are a few things I have learnt along the way:

• As with many things in life, persistence is the key.
• Choose your audience and write for that audience.
• Pick a realistic posting schedule and try to stick to it.
• Find your own voice.
• The titles of posts are important.
• Don’t expect lots of clickthroughs from social media sites to translate to lots of subscribers.
• Get your posts proof read (thanks Claire!).
• I am lousy at predicting how much interest a particular blog post will generate.
• Don’t blog about blogging.
• Be prepared to break the rules from time to time.

Although time is sometimes scarce for blogging I have lots of ideas for future blog posts. But if there is anything you would particularly like to see on this blog, please leave a comment.

• Delphi XE: Develop native 32-bit Windows applications using the Delphi language. Since Delphi now generates Unicode applications, only Windows 2000 and later are supported.
• C++Builder XE: Same as Delphi XE, but using C++ as the language.
• Delphi Prism XE: Delphi Prism XE integrates into Visual Studio 2005, 2008, and 2010. If you don’t have Visual Studio, the VS 2010 shell is installed when you install Delphi Prism. Delphi Prism was first included with RAD Studio 2009. It allows you to develop .NET applications using all the frameworks supported by Visual Studio, including WinForms, WPF, and Silverlight. Delphi Prism uses a language that is very similar to Delphi, but not identical. Unlike the Delphi for .NET compiler that was included with RAD Studio 2005 to 2007, it is not intended to make it easy to share code between Win32 and .NET. Instead it is intended to fully exploit the features offered by the .NET framework.
• RadPHP XE: RAD Studio XE is the first release that includes RadPHP. RadPHP is the new name of Delphi for PHP. The old name was a bit of a misnomer because while RadPHP is inspired by Delphi, they’re totally separate tools. RadPHP is a development tool that looks and feels very much like Delphi and includes a framework very similar to the VCL, but creates web applications using PHP and JavaScript.

All in all that’s quite a bundle. There are 3 editions: Professional, Enterprise, and Architect. Enterprise has all the Professional features plus dbExpress server connectivity, DataSnap (for multi-tier database applications), WebSnap, UML modeling, and build automation. Architect has all the Enterprise features plus database modeling using ER/Studio.

A few months ago I got interested in JRuby while researching for text mining algorithms. I found some gems but they are either unmaintained or inadequate while the mature libraries I found were written in Java. No problem! JRuby to the rescue. Thank God.

Next stop, I decided to take Rails 3 and JRuby for a spin. Incidentally, I will be on a 3-city Rails tour in the Philippines this September and since there are many Filipino Java developers, they might find it interesting to see their favorite Java platform works nicely with Ruby on Rails.

Setup

I will be using the following for this tutorial:

java 1.6 + JDK
tomcat 7.0.2
rvm 1.0.1
jruby 1.5.0
ruby 1.9.2p0

Further below, I outline how to install these software. First, let’s see my current environment.

$ more /etc/issue
Ubuntu 9.10 \n \l

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_20"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_20-b02)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 16.3-b01, mixed mode)

$ rvm -v
rvm 1.0.1 by Wayne E. Seguin (wayneeseguin@gmail.com) [http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/]

$ jruby -v
jruby 1.5.0 (ruby 1.8.7 patchlevel 249) (2010-05-12 6769999) (Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM 1.6.0_20) [i386-java]

$ TOMCAT/bin/version.sh
Using CATALINA_BASE:   /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.2
Using CATALINA_HOME:   /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.2
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.2/temp
Using JRE_HOME:        /usr
Using CLASSPATH:       /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.2/bin/bootstrap.jar:/usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.2/bin/tomcat-juli.jar
Server version: Apache Tomcat/7.0.2
Server built:   Aug 4 2010 12:23:47
Server number:  7.0.2.0
OS Name:        Linux
OS Version:     2.6.31-22-generic
Architecture:   i386
JVM Version:    1.6.0_20-b02
JVM Vendor:     Sun Microsystems Inc.

$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.2p0 (2010-08-18 revision 29036) [i686-linux]

Install JDK and Tomcat

$ aptitude install curl sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre sun-java6-jdk
$ wget  http://apache.mobiles5.com/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.2-beta/bin/apache-tomcat-7.0.2.tar.gz
$> tar zxvf apache-tomcat-7.0.2.tar.gz
$> mv apache-tomcat-7.0.2 /usr/local

Of course, these assume you want to use 7.0.2 and you want it installed at your /usr/local.

Install JRuby, Rails 3

I assume you already have rvm installed. If not, I highly recommend that you do. I can’t imagine a Ruby developer not using rvm :)

$ rvm install jruby
$ rvm jruby
$ rvm gemset create railsjam
$ rvm jruby@railsjam
$ gem install rails

Try a sample app

I’ve created sample app for the RailsJam tour. This have several functionalities already and better than creating a Rails app from scratch.

$ git clone git://github.com/gregmoreno/railsjam.git

Update the Gemfile

You need a separate set of gems to make your Rails 3 application work with JRuby. For learning purposes, I want my Rails 3 application to work other than JRuby. To accomplish that, we need to specify what gems are needed solely by JRuby.

source 'http://rubygems.org'

gem 'rails', '3.0.0'

if defined?(JRUBY_VERSION)
  gem 'jdbc-sqlite3'
  gem 'activerecord-jdbc-adapter'
  gem 'activerecord-jdbcsqlite3-adapter'
  gem 'jruby-openssl'
  gem 'jruby-rack'
  gem 'warbler'
else
  gem 'sqlite3-ruby', :require => 'sqlite3'
end

(A copy of this Gemfile is available at the ‘jruby’ folder of the railsjam application.)

Now, it’s time to intall the gems.

# Must do this. Otherwise,  bundle picks up wrong version of jdbc
$ rm Gemfile.lock
$ jruby -S bundle install

Prepare the database.

The first time I worked on this tutorial, I needed to specify the jdbcsqlite3 as the database adapter. However, when I tried the tutorial on the same machine with a fresh gemset, it worked pretty well with just ‘sqlite3’. Just to be sure, I modified ‘database.yml’ to check for JRuby.

development:
  adapter: <%= defined?(JRUBY_VERSION) ? 'jdbcsqlite3' : 'sqlite3' %>
  database: db/development.sqlite3
  pool: 5
  timeout: 5000

production:
  adapter: <%= defined?(JRUBY_VERSION) ? 'jdbcsqlite3' : 'sqlite3' %>
  database: /home/greg/dev/railsjam/db/development.sqlite3
  pool: 5
  timeout: 5000

When you deploy to Tomcat, it will be on ‘production’ mode by default. Since sqlite3 is file based and for simplicity, I used the same development database.

Now, do the migration.

$ jruby -S rake db:migrate

Deploy to Tomcat

We use ‘warble’ which is an excellent tool for packaging your Rails application. It packages everything you need to run your Rails application inside a Java container.

$ warble
$ cp railsjam.war  $TOMCAT/webapps

# start Tomcat
# assuming you arein $TOMCAT dir
$ sudo ./startup.sh

Check your Rails 3 application

# You should see the famous Rails welcome
localhost:3000/railsjam

# Play around with your application
localhost:3000/railsjam/users

Deploy Rails 3 using Ruby 1.9.2

Without shutting down your JRuby and Tomcat version, let’s try to run our app using Ruby 1.9.2

# In a new console
$ rvm 1.9.2
$ rvm gemset create railsjam
$ rvm 1.9.2@railsjam
$ gem install rails

# Assuming you are in the ‘railsjam’ folder
# This will install sqlite3-ruby gem
$ bundle install

$ rails server

Now, go play with your Rails 3 applications

# jruby + tomcat

http://localhost:8080/railsjam/users

# ruby 1.9.2

http://localhost:3000/users

In case you encountered some problems, here are some ways to solve them. If your problem is not listed here, you can email me. I only accept Paypal :)

JRuby does not support native extensions

You did not update the Gemfile to use the jdbc version of sqlite3. You will encounter this error when you install the gems.

$ bundle install
....
Installing sqlite3-ruby (1.3.1) with native extensions /home/greg/.rvm/rubies/jruby-1.5.2/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/installer.rb:482:in `build_extensions': ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError)

/home/greg/.rvm/rubies/jruby-1.5.2/bin/jruby extconf.rb
WARNING: JRuby does not support native extensions or the `mkmf' library.
         Check http://kenai.com/projects/jruby/pages/Home for alternatives.
extconf.rb:9: undefined method `dir_config' for main:Object (NoMethodError)

undefined method `attributes_with_quotes’ for class `ActiveRecord::Base’

I first encountered this problem when doing migration.

$ rake db:migrate
rake aborted!
undefined method `attributes_with_quotes' for class `ActiveRecord::Base'

This is caused by an old version of your jdbc gems. In my case, sometimes bundler installs the old versions:

Installing activerecord-jdbc-adapter (0.9.2)
Installing activerecord-jdbcsqlite3-adapter (0.9.2)

As of this writing, the latest version is 0.9.7

Installing activerecord-jdbc-adapter-0.9.7-java
Installing activerecord-jdbcsqlite3-adapter-0.9.7-java

Bundler keeps installing 0.9.2

$ rm Gemfile.lock
$ jruby -S bundle install

no such file to load — sqlite3

$ rake db:migrate
(in /home/greg/dev/projects/jruby/railsjam)
rake aborted!
no such file to load -- sqlite3

‘sqlite3’ is the default name of the database adapter but with jruby, it should be ‘jdbcsqlite3’. (another) But, when I tried ‘sqlite3’ with a fresh gemset and a new machine, it went well. Anyway, just in case you run into the same problem in the future, add a condition in your database.yml

development:
  adapter: <%= defined?(JRUBY_VERSION) ? 'jdbcsqlite3' : 'sqlite3' %>
  database: db/development.sqlite3
  pool: 5
  timeout: 5000

We’re sorry, but something went wrong.

If you see the famous Rails error message, you need to dig in Tomcat’s log files.

$ cd /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.2/logs
$ ls -al localhost*

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1181 2010-09-01 00:17 localhost.2010-09-01.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1062 2010-09-01 00:18 localhost_access_log.2010-09-01.txt

$ tail -f localhost.2010-09-01.log

In the log file, you will see the errors like missing database.

org.jruby.rack.RackInitializationException: The driver encountered an error: java.sql.SQLException: path to ‘/home/greg/dev/tmp/apache-tomcat-7.0.2/webapps/railsjam/WEB-INF/db/production.sqlite3′: ‘/home/greg/dev/tmp/apache-tomcat-7.0.2/webapps/railsjam/WEB-INF/db’ does not exist

Related posts:

1. Rails 3 upgrade part 1: Booting the application It’s time for another Rails upgrade! We all have our share of bad experiences and frustrations every time we upgrade a piece of software. Even for technical people who live...
2. How to setup a Rails 3 app I finally decided to give Rails 3 a spin after beta was released 20 days ago. In geek time, that’s being a late adopter. But first, a warning. I’ve read...
3. Rails 3 upgrade part 4: Prototype helpers and Javascript Rails 3 is embracing the unobtrusive Javascript (or UJS) mantra which is good because it is the right way; at the same time, it is bad because many applications will...

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a long-time admirer of Seth Godin.  He’s one of those “big thinkers” that has the added talent of being able to articulate high-level concepts in an immensely approachable way.  That’s a very rare, and dare I say remarkable intersection of abilities.

The following is a list of short, pithy insights that I’ve been collecting from Seth’s Blog over the past few months.  They were not all written specifically for startups, but I found them to be particularly relevant for entrepreneurs.  I, like many, think Seth's ideas deserve to be spread.

Enjoy.

If you find any of these particularly resonant, there’s a convenient link to tweet it. 

23 Tweetable Startup Insights From Seth Godin

1) Reliance on the tried and true can backfire. [tweet]

2) Sell the problem. No business buys a solution for a problem they don't have. [tweet]

3) Every activity worth doing has a learning curve. [tweet]

4) As the world gets faster, the glacial changes of years and decades are more important, not less. [tweet]

5) Cultural shifts create long terms evolutionary changes. [tweet]

6) Being 1st helps in the short run. Being a little more right pays off in the long run. Last is the worst. [tweet]

7) Build in virality. [tweet]

8) Subscriptions beat one-off sales. [tweet]

9) Treat different customers differently. [tweet]

10) Generate joy. Don't just satisfy a need for a commodity. [tweet]

11) Plan on remarkable experiences, not remarkable ads. [tweet]

12) Don't build a fortress of secrets, bet on open. [tweet]

13) You can get even more done if you give away credit, relentlessly [tweet]

14) Create scarcity but act with abundance. [tweet]

15) Competition validates you. It creates a category. It permits the sale to be this or that, not yes or no. [tweet]

16) There are lots of good reasons to abandon a project. Having a little competition is not one of them. [tweet]

17) It's not who can benefit from what you sell. It's about choosing the customers you'd like to have. [tweet]

18) The customers you fire and those you pay attention to all send signals to the rest of the group. [tweet]

19) 100 people doing something at the same time has far more power than 300 people doing it over time. [tweet]

20) Are you chasing or being chased? Are you leading or following? Are you fleeing or climbing? [tweet]

21) Get it right for ten people before you rush around scaling up to a thousand. [tweet]

22) Highlighting what's working helps you make that happen more often. [tweet]

23) Perfect is overrated. Perfect doesn't scale, either. [tweet]

Which is your favorite?  Any that I missed that you have in your secret stash?

Looking for other startup fanatics?  Request access to the OnStartups LinkedIn Group.  130,000+ members and growing daily.

Oh, and by the way, you should follow me on twitter: @dharmesh.

August is pretty much over, I’d say… but August contest will remain until tomorrow morning (or day, depending when I – or at least my brain – wake up).

Last chances to convince me (for now).

There’s already couple of good looking purchase candidates. See you here.

Alright, I'm kidding.. most people thought everyone else was just mostly wrong.

First, some high points:

• The venue was fantastic. The wifi worked pretty consistently. The food (and coffee!) was reasonably priced. Lunch each day was well-done and generous and delivered by an excellent staff. If you're ever in Addison, TX, check out the Crowne Plaza.
• More importantly, the event gathered some fantastic minds from all over the place. I had dinner with a significant portion of the Joomla! team including Open Source Matters President Ryan Ozimek. I met most of guys that organize DrupalCamp Dallas and chatted on how Austin & Dallas might collaborate. And of course, I had the chance to meet with friends and colleagues like Josh Holmes of Microsoft and make some new acquaintences like Caleb Jenkins and many, many others.
• Finally, attending a regional conference was great. The vast majority of people here lived within 200 miles and many were from right there in Dallas. A conference has a completely different vibe when you're in someone's backyard. As "hosts," they work hard to take you to the good restaurants and make sure you have a good time.

Next, some low points:

• The vast majority of the talks were not technical in the slightest. Sure, they mentioned technical concepts and a few even went into them.. but considering the flavor of conferences I normally attend, this was a little jarring. It's not that this was bad, just a little unexpected.
• Next, the presentation format was just plain screwy. Thirty minute sessions without transition time are terrible. It meant each session was trimmed down to 25 minutes or more like 22 minutes if they left room for questions. Since 15 minutes is normally considered a lightning talk, this just seemed awkward. That said, some of the sessions were a full hour.
• Finally, some of the presenters were just plain terrible. They all seemed to know their material, but it was apparent that some rarely stepped away from their computers. To be an active contributor in Open Source, a person has to be smart and passionate. The passion was definitely lacking.

Some final thoughts:

While the sessions were not a great match for me, the "hallway track" was fantastic. Through a combination of dumb luck and excellent introductions from good friends, I managed to spend quite a bit of time talking with smart people:

• I learned more about Drupal modules, permissions, and how to abuse them for fun and benefit;
• I heard some details about the inner workings of the Joomla! team;
• I argued about the GPL more than I care to consider;
• I gathered some patches on code I manage and shared a few with others; and
• I learned how to make our (web2project's) stuff work better on Microsoft's infrastructure.

Would I attend OpenCamp again?

Yes, but I would go in with clearer expectations and take a more active role in the Birds of a Feather schedule. I know there were people actively looking to share technical ideas and compare implementations. It's just a matter of finding and gathering them in one room. Finally, the best but most unexpected part of all..

I got to spend a good amount of time with people I call friends and may have made some new ones.

The next generation 3D (that’s the term I use to describe 3D screens that display 3D stuff in a new way). I experienced a 3D movie for the first time about a year ago, and had to check that blog post to see whether I liked it or not. (I did, if I understood my comments from that blog post properly).

I talked about 3D screens and friend of mine pointed out that there’s new televisions coming… where you won’t need glasses. I know Nintendo has some hand held device that somehow uses two “layers” to create 3D effect (without need for glasses).

Now, will this “next generation” 3D (where the “depth” effect can be so much different than in other movies) happen in games? Will we see more and more next generation 3D that we forget “regular 3D” completely?

I have mixed feelings about this. I can predict that there will be tons of people who say how unhealthy it is for your eyes and how your brain will be messed up and all that… but I feel that we people adapt. I think 3D tech will evolve and at some point it’s not any more unhealthy than staring regular computer screen.

But… will games support it? Will manufacturers go for it?

I find this a really tricky question to be answered. Tons of social & casual games are 2D, and they have become increasingly popular. Wii is doing pretty well in the console side of things, and it has old graphics in it.

I somehow feel that for some games, this next generation 3D will be a breakthrough that will at some point be always used. First person (shooters/rpgs/adventure) games, the 3D will be a hit. (My prediction). I would expect that the immersion of 3D is just so much greater that at some point we won’t see regular FPS games no more. Instead, the new 3D is always there.

Also, some horror games start to use it more and more. There will be more horror games created in 1st person perspective, using the new 3D effect to create more scary environment.

(And as long as games have good writers who understand that horror isn’t about screaming and blood and trying to scare people with sudden loud voices… it’s about waiting for something to happen, this will be good).

In some games, for example RTS games, the new 3D effect won’t be used. Same goes for sports games like NHL, it just won’t cut it.

New 3D requires certain camera view, in my pretty humble opinion. And some camera angles just aren’t good for it, or can just become a mess.

With this all being said… what you think?

(I really think that the 3rd generation 3D will be something that we need. Holograms. We will see graphics that will really fill the living room…. now, that will be something really cool)

"I kept thinking and thinking about this grindstone" - he said - "It was the only question sitting in my head. I went to sleep and woke up with it. I really needed that stone, I would love to buy it, but where? And all of a sudden - I just found it. Just like that, lying on the ground near the bus stop. I've bent the universe."

© Jitbit Software

This is nothing new to us at Stack Overflow, which purported to cover the exact same material as hundreds (if not thousands) of other programming sites. There’s no rule that says that there needs to be exactly one Q&A website per topic.

There is, however, a compelling case for the Stack Exchange technology. WordPress.org’s forums don’t have voting, so you have to read through every answer and decide for yourself which one might solve your problem. They don’t have reputation, so there’s no way to see whether you’re getting an answer from someone who knows what they’re talking about. They don’t have wiki-style editing, so collaboration is impossible. You have to log on to ask or answer a question, so the burden of participation is higher. Stack Overflow is simply better than traditional forums, which is why it largely replaced proprietary forums. I remember hours of discussion with John Resig and the folks at jQuery who couldn’t decide whether to replace the jQuery Google Group with a forum or with a Stack Exchange. Ultimately it didn’t matter that much, because most of the jQuery Q&A activity happens on Stack Overflow anyway.

One day, the features that are standard on Stack Exchange will be copied everywhere. Until then, we’ll keep churning out new sites.

Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

• PokerStars Tournaments are now imported again correctly. Sorry all for screwing up this important feature in last week's update.
• UltimateBet's (aka UB's) all-new broken currency format is now auto-corrected by Poker Copilot. They have been showing $3.50 as $3.5.
• Winamax have fixed some problems in their hand history format which means that Poker Copilot, as far as my tests tell, now gives correct stats for Winamax.

• Once you fold, the hand replayer still shows your hole cards, but in a faded colour.
• The hand replayer shows your info with a different background colour to the other players. This lets you find yourself in the replayer immediately.

This rider survived – walked away, in fact – because he was wearing a special protective jacket.  As the rider fell, a ripcord attaching his jacket to the saddle was pulled. By the time he hit the ground, a CO2 canister had inflated an airbag inside his jacket and cushioned his fall.

How do you price something like this? If you’re selling a product people are familiar with – a fizzy drink, a car, a house –then it’s straightforward. You look at the price everybody else is charging and charge a little bit more or a little bit less depending on whether your product is better or worse than the competition. You know that your customers will look around at similar products in the same category to decide if they’re being charged a fair amount or not.

But if you’re creating an entire new category then you’ve got the chance to set the fair price for all products in that category. Customers try to find reference point so they can judge value. If there aren’t any obvious reference points within their immediate grasp then you can create them. In this case, you’d get customers to think about the price of their life (or that of their child). Or you’d encourage comparisons with similar categories, and then emphasize the differences (it’s like a normal jacket, but ten times safer; it’s more likely to save your life than a $500 hat).

There’s something else even cooler about this jacket though: its versioning. Versioning lets you sell different editions of the same product at different prices. A premium version of a product should target a distinct group of customers who get additional perceived value from the extra features, and who are able and willing to pay for it.

In software, this is often done with ‘standard’ and ‘pro’ versions (if you work in a corporation you’ll want to use Outlook and your company will pay for a premium edition of Office. If you’re using it at home, you’ll get the entry level edition and get fewer features). Fast food outlets do it with portion size (hungry customers will pay more money for more food). Airlines do it with travel classes. Normally, the extra money a consumer pays has little to do with the extra cost to the provider (some more bits and bytes, a handful of fries, some more legroom) – it’s simply about finding multiple price points to fit different customers’ preferences.

The riding jacket gives a vivid example of how versioning can be done on anything customers perceive as valuable. You can buy the standard edition of this jacket for about $580. But you can get it in pink for $725. It’s not a meaningful, practical distinction. A pink jacket is no more likely to save your life than a black one. It costs the manufacturer no more to manufacture it in pink than in black. It delivers no more value. But it’s a difference that some people are willing to pay for.

It’s clever in another way too. Since the jacket is innovative, and people lack reference points, it creates its own reference point. Suddenly, the $580 seems like good value.

For product versioning to succeed you need to make sure that:

• The features you’re adding provide extra value to a subset of your customers
• Those customers can, and will, pay extra for it
• There is a coherent story that identifies those customers, and why they need the extra features (‘hungry people want and will pay for more fries’)
• This coherence is important. If all you’re doing is adding a bunch of features to your product or if the people who value those features aren’t the people who can pay for them, then you’ll struggle.

Pricing’s a fascinating topic. It’s often far more about psychology ($580? Is that expensive? Is it cheap? Am I being ripped off? I want it in pink!) than economics (would I rather spend $580 on a jacket or on a holiday? How much utility would I derive from those two options?). If you want to learn more about product pricing then check out my free eBook (‘Don’t just roll the dice – usefully short guide to software pricing’).

Enjoyed this post? Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my RSS feed

Sharing.

Sharing stuff is that makes all the difference in the world. Earlier in my life I’ve bought things separately and haven’t given much thought about connections. For example, I’ve bought PC and do PC stuff with it. I have a separate radio/CD player that can play radio. Then I have TV which I use to watch TV.

(Being slightly oversimplistic here to make the point, but hopefully it helps)

This has changed a bit. Now I think about connectivity and sharing things. For example, I can use my PS3 with my tv but also want to connect it to home cinema system to get nice sounds. And then I’ve found information about setting the PS3 media server to speak with PC so that it would be possible to get to play spotify via PS3. And then I’ve given though about a new mobile phone so that I could connect it to different devices and listen to music. And of course this mobile phone could use the wlan to connect to net at home.

And so on, and so on. This is probably very familiar to you guys.

Separately, PS3 (without a network connection for example) loses its value. By making it possible to connect PS3 to other devices, the value of all devices is greater. When adding new things (such as the mobile phone) I can leverage the existing system, thus increasing again the value of all pieces.

And this is due the possibility to connect devices with each other.

Now… to think gaming.

How could your game benefit from connectivity? (Might be a tough question in some areas (for example people who do epic single-player RPGs), but very relevant in some areas (especially games for social platforms))

Some food for thought.

Generating secure passwords is a subject that many people struggle with. For generating passwords for services that you don’t need to re-enter often, for example Wireless Network WPA2 passwords, you should check out this page from world renowned security expert Steve Gibson.

Steve’s page generates these passwords for you as well as educating you in the process should you wish.

Interesting, and useful Stuff.

RSS Feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Lonelyhacker]]> http://microisvcentral.com/?feed=rss2&p=11893 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PhilWrightComponentFactory/~3/FZmJ8xLNkw0/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PhilWrightComponentFactory/~3/FZmJ8xLNkw0/#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:52:49 +0000 Phil Wright http://www.componentfactory.com/blog/?p=662 Due to popular demand, well at least 2 people anyway, I have added a Kryptonized version of the standard windows MessageBox funtionality. In order to make it fully backward compatible I have provided a set of static methods that have identical parameters to the existing MessageBox methods. So you need only perform a search and replace of the existing MessageBox.Show methods so they become KryptonMessageBox.Show instead.

Here you have some examples of the appearance using different palettes…

The text used in the buttons is localizable and exposed via the KryptonManager component. So if you need to define text for non-English systems you can update the new GlobalStrings property of the manager and all message boxes will then use those updated strings.

I spend quite a bit of time coding in front of my computer (especially when handling tricky bug hunting…) but there’s two places where I do much of progress:

• Sofa
• Bed

I might sit down a sofa and make notes on paper. I might build pseudo code in order to solve certain coding dilemmas. I might lie down and just stare the roof and think. This is all without a computer. Pen & paper you know.

The other place where my code is refined (without even thinking it) is in my bed, while at sleep. I might have some tricky coding puzzle that won’t solve by staring the screen. After failing to see the solution, I might realize that now I just need to stop, go to bed, and see the solution the next morning. And this has yet to fail me.

Sure, I can do “puzzle solving” in front of my computer, but I’ve found it good to prepare and plan the code in my mind while somewhere else. That’s where the hard part happens. That’s where the thinking process takes place.

After the plan is made, it’s easy to sit and start typing the code together.

Maybe I should get out more. I have been told that. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the design of the new ZT Club Guitar Amplifier is stunningly beautiful in it’s simplicity. If Apple designed Guitar Amps ...

This would make an incredible amp used in conjunction with my Boss GT-8 ... I almost *need* this amp ...



RSS Feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Lonelyhacker
]]> http://microisvcentral.com/?feed=rss2&p=11817 http://www.gameproducer.net/2010/08/28/im-so-close-to-showing-something-cool/ http://www.gameproducer.net/2010/08/28/im-so-close-to-showing-something-cool/#comments Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:59:17 +0000 Juuso http://www.gameproducer.net/?p=5178

But won’t do that just yet.

Can’t almost wait.

(Talking about the game stuff I’m working on)

Off I go, there’s coding to do!

Just a gentle reminder that I really, really want to purchase your game (if you convince me).

We are very grateful to receive such positive feedback and testimonials. Thank you! We really appreciate it. If you also want to contribute a quote, please email us. You can see more TestRail customer testimonials and reviews on our website:

TestRail Testimonials

• Colours in the Head-up Display (HUD). Configure the colours in the HUD Preferences.
• "Day" summary
• An optional "My playing day starts at" setting
• Odds in the hand replayer now take into account known opponent cards at showdown
• Work-around for Winamax changes and "Dealt to <player> null" problem

• Sometimes PokerStars tournaments were not being imported properly
• Winamax hand histories were no displaying showdown correctly in the hand replayer
• Hand replayer keyboard shortcuts were sometimes inactive
• Added support for PokerStars European Poker Tour steps tournaments

1. Download the latest version here.
2. Open the downloaded file.
3. Drag the Poker Copilot icon to the Applications icon. If prompted to replace an existing version, confirm that you do want to replace.

Moment ago I downloaded Plain Sight game from Gamersgate summer sale, and few minutes later made a few tweets.

Check the below discussion (click the image)

Basically: I made a comment about corrupted download file (at 11:20). 11 minutes later (11:31) gamersgate replies to me that they want to help me get it working. And a minute later (11:32) they give me idea of redownloading the whole thing. Few minutes later (11:35) I got the thing working.

If customer service is about following people who talk about your game… you certainly are doing something very right.

Kudos Gamersgate.

I’ve been discussing this with the Insiders and they are showing quite green light (as long as certain things are handled “the right way”), and I thought I’d post a poll in this blog as well.

Basically, I’ve been brainstorming this idea about an indie game portal where people could play any games in the portal for paying $9.99 per month. Gross sales (most of it, let’s say for example 70% to 80% of the Real Money) would be split among developers based on how much people play their games in each month.

Links to more detailed posts part 1, part 2 and part 3.

So, what’s your take in this? Would you submit your game to this indie only games portal?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I am thrilled to announce my most recent — and most ambitious — startup project to date. 

My wife Kirsten and I are now expecting our first child — I’m going to be a dad!

New Ambitous Startup Project: The Details

1. Funding:  Unlike my current startup HubSpot (which has raised $33 million in venture capital), this particular project will be self-funded.  Hopefully, it won’t be quite as capital intensive.

2. Founding Team: Though both founders are new to the domain, we hope to make up for the inexperience with passion and perseverance.

3. Launch Date:  Scheduled for January, 2011. 

4. Branding:  We haven’t kicked off a branding project yet — will do that as the scheduled launch date approaches.  Meanwhile, we'll use the term, NewBay, Inc. (inspired by that fantastically inspired name, NewCo, Inc.)

5. Management:  Luckily, we have many people interested in helping with this project.  Some will be helping grow the effort on a volunteer basis.

6. Parallel Startups:  Generally, I’m not a fan of working on multiple startup projects simultaneously. But, in this case, it was not avoidable.  HubSpot hasn’t quite hit adulthood yet (and still wants the car keys every Friday night), and this new project couldn't really wait. 

7. Distribution:  We believe there is a market need as evidenced by some recent survey respondents: “Quit working so hard and focus on life a bit. You’re not getting any younger -My Mom”.  “Listen to your mom.”  -My Dad.  Though the sample size for these surveys is not statistically representative, seems like finding early interest in the project will be easy.  Then, using lean startup principles, we’ll iterate from there based on what we learn.

Looking for other startup fanatics?  Request access to the OnStartups LinkedIn Group.  130,000+ members and growing daily.

Oh, and by the way, you should follow me on twitter: @dharmesh.