Last time I looked at one aspect of what Google did right with their very intuitive and fun to use Reader.
This time, I’d like to focus on the group management and collaboration software: Basecamp.
Designed and built by 37signals. They really hit the nail on the head with a easy to use and intuitive product. Today I’ll be looking at a specific aspect that really made me go ‘wow, that’s so simple – why doesn’t everyone do that?’
Originally created to cut down on blog spam, the nofollow rel for links in all actuality hurts your blog/website as well as your visitors. There’s less incentive for them to leave comments – which helps their pagerank a little.
Read more about it at Randa Clay.
Check out this really easy to use plugin and start following!
I’ve been quiet these last couple of weeks, and for that I apologize. It’s not really my fault you see, it’s the evil space monkey’s that have been staying in my living room. They’re really pushy and, well – see they love to play Bioshock and Rainbow Six: Las Vegas. I tried telling them that I had shit to do, but they would have none of it.
I finally figured out I could get rid of them by driving them to a wild grove of bananas and sneaking away while they basked in the banana induced orgasm. (Wow, that sounds a lot more dirty than I meant it to…)
Anyways, I’m still here.
Alright, so I’m thinking about starting a weekly/bi-weekly column here about some of the stupid shit that happens to come out of some people’s mouths.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Idiot: Danny Carlton bans Firefox Users.
So apparently Danny Carlson has banned all Firefox users because of the popular extension adblocker (which blocks annoying flash/image ad banners from being displayed). Alright, I can understand that you might be losing some ad impressions and ad views. But to toss them completely out of the site? Are you out of your mind? You don’t drive away your visitors man! Are you nuts?
What a wackjob. This guy deserves a swift kick in the groin.
I’ll be taking a week long vacation to the north woods of Wisconsin. Unfortunately this means instead of writing clever, witty articles for you people I’ll be sitting around drinking beer in the sun occasionally getting up to stretch and maybe swim in the lake.
Have fun without me 
I’ve been using Google Reader to handle all my RSS feeds and be my primary start page for nearly 2 years. For handling RSS feeds, I’ve found nothing better. I’ve used Netvibes, Pageflakes, Google Home, and an assortment of desktop RSS aggregators.
The one thing that keeps me coming back to Google Reader is so simple it’s laughable:
Amazon has an invite-only grocery-delivering service testing right now in Seattle. Remember those startups back in the 90’s where you could order groceries online? Looks like Amazon’s doing it. Only this time I’d like to think they’re going to do it right. Amazon’s got some pretty big capital to throw around, hopefully by starting in one location they can focus their energies into getting it right before expanding.
Here’s to hoping we’ll all be able to order our groceries online and have them delivered right to our doorstep. [via TechCrunch]
Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe the things that come out of people’s mouths. Elton John recently claimed for the sake of music – the internet should be shut down for five years. Seriously.
Wait, what? Shut. Down. Internet?
I was sitting in on a meeting today where we were discussing redesigning a website. Keep in mind that I was probably the only one there that had any actual idea of what goes into a good website. I knew this, and I was ok with this – until one of the ladies spoke up and said she wanted the ability to be able to have pop-ups. You know, to pop-up promotions. As in pop-ups.
I stopped her dead in her tracks with a stare I’ve honed by practicing on infants and small rodents. “Why on Earth would you want to do that?” I asked.
Finally Microsoft gets some sense and has started to utilize one of the best p2p protocols out there: BitTorrent.
If you haven’t used BitTorrent before because you were either too confused or simply hadn’t heard of it it’s really quite simple. The basis is a decentralized sharing system that splits the files up into hundreds of smaller files which are then shared bit by bit among all the clients.