Vishu My old buddy Ben Joravsky's on the "front page of the reader":http://bit.ly/biKU6v. Here's my outline: <div style="margin:5px; background-color:white;padding:5px;border:1px solid #333"> h3. How a developer got $5.3M of TIF money * A developer is accused of bribing an alderman ** The developer benefited from a zoning change from industrial to commercial & residential ** The alderman already plead guilty, the developer is going to trial * The city also used TIF money to buy industrial land from the developer ** The TIF was intended to keep the area industrial ** The land was given to a union to build a training facility </div> <hr /> "Jump in on the open outline":http://thinklinkr.com/outliner#6621 2010-02-18T21:40:26Z false 40 2010-02-18T21:40:26Z Jason The first thing I do before starting work on a new feature is check out what other people are already doing. We are working on adding premium and business accounts to <a href="http://thinklinkr.com">thinklinkr</a>, so naturally the first thing I did was check out the subscription and pricing structure of some other web apps. There are lots and lots to look at, but I compiled a list of 50 good and not so good ones here. <table> <tr><td>acrobat.com</td><td><a href="https://acrobat.com/pricing.html">https://acrobat.com/pricing.html</a></td></tr> <tr><td>backboard</td><td><a href="https://www.getbackboard.com/users/pricing">https://www.getbackboard.com/users/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>basecamp</td><td><a href="https://signup.37signals.com/basecamp/Plus/signup/new">https://signup.37signals.com/basecamp/Plus/signup/new</a></td></tr> <tr><td>binarycanary</td><td><a href="http://binarycanary.com/en/uptime-monitoring-pricing.cfm">http://binarycanary.com/en/uptime-monitoring-pricing.cfm</a></td></tr> <tr><td>cheddargetter</td><td><a href="https://www.cheddargetter.com/pricing">https://www.cheddargetter.com/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>clientspot</td><td><a href="http://www.myclientspot.com/signup/">http://www.myclientspot.com/signup/</a></td></tr> <tr><td>colaab</td><td><a href="http://www.colaab.com/Home.mvc/PricingAndSignUp">http://www.colaab.com/Home.mvc/PricingAndSignUp</a></td></tr> <tr><td>cozimo</td><td><a href="http://www.cozimo.com/pricing">http://www.cozimo.com/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>creately</td><td><a href="http://creately.com/plans">http://creately.com/plans</a></td></tr> <tr><td>deskaway</td><td><a href="http://deskaway.com/pricing/index.php">http://deskaway.com/pricing/index.php</a></td></tr> <tr><td>doingtext</td><td><a href="http://doingtext.com/subscription_plans">http://doingtext.com/subscription_plans</a></td></tr> <tr><td>etherpad</td><td><a href="http://etherpad.com/ep/about/pricing">http://etherpad.com/ep/about/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>expresso</td><td><a href="http://www.expressocorp.com/pricing/">http://www.expressocorp.com/pricing/</a></td></tr> <tr><td>funnela</td><td><a href="http://funnela.com/signup">http://funnela.com/signup</a></td></tr> <tr><td>github</td><td><a href="http://github.com/plans">http://github.com/plans</a></td></tr> <tr><td>glasscubes</td><td><a href="http://www.glasscubes.com/pricing-and-packages/">http://www.glasscubes.com/pricing-and-packages/</a></td></tr> <tr><td>gliffy</td><td><a href="http://www.gliffy.com/prodcomparison.shtml">http://www.gliffy.com/prodcomparison.shtml</a></td></tr> <tr><td>hipchat</td><td><a href="http://hipchat.com/plans">http://hipchat.com/plans</a></td></tr> <tr><td>inpreso</td><td><a href="http://www.inpreso.com/account/login/">http://www.inpreso.com/account/login/</a></td></tr> <tr><td>lighthouse</td><td><a href="http://lighthouseapp.com/plans">http://lighthouseapp.com/plans</a></td></tr> <tr><td>mailchimp</td><td><a href="http://www.mailchimp.com/pricing/p1/">http://www.mailchimp.com/pricing/p1/</a></td></tr> <tr><td>mindmeister</td><td><a href="http://www.mindmeister.com/home/editions">http://www.mindmeister.com/home/editions</a></td></tr> <tr><td>mineful</td><td><a href="http://www.mineful.com/pricing.html">http://www.mineful.com/pricing.html</a></td></tr> <tr><td>mydataanest</td><td><a href="http://www.mydatanest.com/pricing.php">http://www.mydatanest.com/pricing.php</a></td></tr> <tr><td>newrelic</td><td><a href="http://newrelic.com/get-RPM.html">http://newrelic.com/get-RPM.html</a></td></tr> <tr><td>pbworks</td><td><a href="https://plans.pbworks.com/business1?utm_campaign=Business+Trial&utm_source=Web+biz-overview">https://plans.pbworks.com/business1?utm_campaign=Business+Trial&utm_source=Web+biz-overview</a></td></tr> <tr><td>planio</td><td><a href="http://plan.io/pricing/">http://plan.io/pricing/</a></td></tr> <tr><td>planzone</td><td><a href="http://www.planzone.com/pricing/euros.html">http://www.planzone.com/pricing/euros.html</a></td></tr> <tr><td>prefinery</td><td><a href="http://www.prefinery.com/pricing/">http://www.prefinery.com/pricing/</a></td></tr> <tr><td>producteev</td><td><a href="https://www.producteev.com/?page=pricetable">https://www.producteev.com/?page=pricetable</a></td></tr> <tr><td>projectoffice</td><td><a href="http://projectoffice.net/HostedSolution.aspx">http://projectoffice.net/HostedSolution.aspx</a></td></tr> <tr><td>projectspaces</td><td><a href="http://www.projectspaces.com/section/pricing">http://www.projectspaces.com/section/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>proofhq</td><td><a href="https://www.proofhq.com/signup">https://www.proofhq.com/signup</a></td></tr> <tr><td>proposable</td><td><a href="http://www.proposable.com/pricing">http://www.proposable.com/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>putplace</td><td><a href="http://putplace.com/pricing">http://putplace.com/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>schedule thing</td><td><a href="https://www.schedulething.com/signup">https://www.schedulething.com/signup</a></td></tr> <tr><td>scriblink</td><td><a href="http://www.scriblink.com/business/MemberAction.action?planprices=true">http://www.scriblink.com/business/MemberAction.action?planprices=true</a></td></tr> <tr><td>socialtext</td><td><a href="http://www.socialtext.com/products/pricing.php">http://www.socialtext.com/products/pricing.php</a></td></tr> <tr><td>sosius</td><td><a href="http://sosius.com/en/mysosius/options.asp">http://sosius.com/en/mysosius/options.asp</a></td></tr> <tr><td>squad</td><td><a href="https://squadedit.com/signup">https://squadedit.com/signup</a></td></tr> <tr><td>survs</td><td><a href="http://www.survs.com/pricing/">http://www.survs.com/pricing/</a></td></tr> <tr><td>swirrl</td><td><a href="http://www.swirrl.com/pricing">http://www.swirrl.com/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>teamworkpm</td><td><a href="http://www.teamworkpm.net/pricing">http://www.teamworkpm.net/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>tgethr</td><td><a href="http://tgethr.com/signup">http://tgethr.com/signup</a></td></tr> <tr><td>timetonote</td><td><a href="http://www.timetonote.com/plans.html">http://www.timetonote.com/plans.html</a></td></tr> <tr><td>ubidesk</td><td><a href="https://www.ubidesk.com/pricing.php#pricing">https://www.ubidesk.com/pricing.php#pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>wikidot</td><td><a href="http://www.wikidot.com/plans">http://www.wikidot.com/plans</a></td></tr> <tr><td>woosabi</td><td><a href="http://www.woosabi.com/pricing">http://www.woosabi.com/pricing</a></td></tr> <tr><td>youlink pro</td><td><a href="http://www.yoolinkpro.com/en/offer">http://www.yoolinkpro.com/en/offer</a></td></tr> <tr><td>zephyr</td><td><a href="http://register.yourzephyr.com/pricing/buy_test_management.php">http://register.yourzephyr.com/pricing/buy_test_management.php</a></td></tr> </table> false 2010-02-17T21:39:03Z false 39 2010-02-17T21:41:36Z Vishu A lot of people use outliners to keep track of tasks and projects. Last week's "thinklinkr.com":http://thinklinkr.com build added a feature just for you: checkboxes. <div style="width:400px;overflow:hidden"><img src="http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/7513/checkboxes.png" /></div> We've also improved improved public outlines and "linking":http://thinklinkllc.com/blog/30. h3. Complete list Here's a complete list of updates for version 0.9.20 (02-12-2010) <hr /> * Added optional checkboxes to line items * Chat window links are now clickable * Editing a public outline is no longer awkward * Following links between public outlines no longer reboots the UI * Public outline urls are now the same as normal outline urls * Public outline viewers can now chat as guests * Indenting a line item into a collapsed node now opens that node * Updated all emails to use more plain-text and less images * Added an unsubscribe link to emails * Fixed a bug that aliased CTRL+TAB to TAB * Fixed a bug that prevented the chat sound button from toggling * Fixed a bug that caused public outline viewers to send invalid server requests * Fixed a bug that caused some daily digest email avatar images to not appear * Fixed a bug that sometimes incorrectly identified urls in line items 2010-02-15T19:09:31Z false 38 2010-02-15T19:09:31Z Vishu Freshman year at St Ignatius means world history. I had Mr Kelley. He had a dry sense of humor and would drop little jokes in his lectures that kept me laughing the whole 50 minutes. Every night we had to do some reading and make an outline. Nearly every day we had a quiz where we could only use our notes for reference. Answers were marked wrong if they were written in the passive voice. It's safe to say we were learning more than world history in Mr. Kelley's class. One of the things I remember him stressing 20(!) years ago was the importance of generalization. Generalizations, the commonalities between different instances, are the evidence of historical principles. For example: civilizations sprang up near rivers. What does this have to do with outlines? The hierarchy in outlines is perfect for expressing this sort of knowledge: * Civilizations spring up near rivers ** Mesopotamia ** Indus Valley ** The Yellow river in China ** Egypt and the Nile ** Chicago A similar type of outline structure you see a lot is categorization: * River Civilizations ** Mesopotamia ** Indus Valley ** The Yellow river in China ** Egypt and the Nile ** Chicago * Mountain Civilizations ** Basques ** Albanians Categorization is somewhat out of fashion right now. In "this interview":http://bigthink.com/ideas/17862 (around 3:30) Stephen Fry, actor, tweeter and all-around erudite guy, says that while Aristotle was obviously a great genius - the inventor of logic after all - there's a black mark on his resume where he's responsible for the role of categorization in western thought. My response is "If categorization is so horrible, why is it so common?" Now that you've read this post you'll start to notice how often conversations boil down to questions of categorization. For example, in the news today a lot of people are talking about recent changes to the way mental illnesses are categorized, specifically changes to the descriptions of autism spectrum disorders. Categorization is ubiquitous because it's a powerful way to make generalizations and generalization is a fundamental tool for understanding things. How do you get into trouble with a generalization? You try to smash an instance into the general template. This fatal flaw of generalization is most obvious when applied to people, but it's really true for anything. It's what people mean when they say you shouldn't make generalizations. Similarly, when you categorize things, you have to accept that things won't always fit in your scheme. You want things to be either a mammal or a bird. But sometimes you encounter a platypus. (Check out this "hilarious presentation":http://windycityrails.org/videos#3 it's about problems software developers have with modeling, but it's full of of great examples of how rigid hierarchies break down in funny ways) Categorization and generalization are critical thinking tools. They are very powerful for understanding things, but you should be aware of when you're invoking them so that you use them wisely. false 2010-02-11T18:57:41Z false 37 2010-02-11T19:50:53Z Jason If your web page has a search or a login box, *make sure that box is highlighted* when the page loads. I went to some minor lengths to make this happen at <a href="http://thinklinkr.com/login">thinklinkr.com/login</a>. Put this in a window.onload callback function: <pre style="font-family: courier; border: 1px solid #ddd; background-color: #eee; padding: 10px"> document.getElementById("login").focus(); </pre> <br /> <object classid='clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000' codebase='http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,115,0' width='560' height='345'><param name='movie' value='http://screenr.com/Content/assets/screenr_1116090935.swf' /><param name='flashvars' value='i=44079' /><param name='allowFullScreen' value='true' /><embed src='http://screenr.com/Content/assets/screenr_1116090935.swf' flashvars='i=44079' allowFullScreen='true' width='560' height='345' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed></object> false 2010-02-02T21:28:28Z false 36 Save them a step at login. 2010-02-02T21:30:37Z Vishu We have elected a couple of bad governors in Illinois lately. There's another race coming up. I thought I'd start an outline to capture any arguments I could find. Feel free to "jump in":http://thinklinkr.com/outliner?outline_id=4723 and add anything I may have overlooked or clarify anything I mumbled. <iframe src="http://thinklinkr.com/outlines/4723.html" width="100%" height="640px"></iframe> Edit this outline at "http://thinklinkr.com/outliner?outline_id=4723":http://thinklinkr.com/outliner?outline_id=4723 2010-02-01T23:02:14Z false 35 An Outline of the issues in the Democratic Primary 2010-02-01T23:02:14Z Jason Collaboration is a key feature of thinklinkr, so naturally we keep an eye on new http push solutions. <a href="http://www.ape-project.org/">APE (Ajax Push Engine)</a> is one of these new solutions and it's awesome. The only problem is it doesn't have very good documentation yet. This screencast will help you get started with APE and rails. You can view the outline from the screencast here: <a href="http://www.thinklinkr.com/outliner?outline_id=3907">Steps to setting up APE on Rails</a> <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aA2lY1HyQd4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aA2lY1HyQd4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> <br /> And here is the code from the video: *lib/ape.rb* <div style="width: 640px; overflow: auto;"> <script src='http://pastie.org/780307.js'></script> </div> *public/index.html* <div style="width: 640px; overflow: auto"> <script src='http://pastie.org/780308.js'></script> </div> false 2010-01-15T23:43:40Z false 34 2010-01-16T19:09:45Z Vishu So, you're taking notes on the computer with "your favorite outliner":http://thinklinkr.com. Someone says something and you don't know where to put it. What do you do? If you freak out or hesitate, someone else is going to say something and you'll fall further behind and then be completely plurked. I am awesome at taking notes during a meeting. Most of the time I can send out a useful outline with my notes within a couple of minutes. As you can imagine, it's very valuable. My clients appreciate it and we often refer back to the outline. If you want to be awesome at taking notes, the one thing you have to learn is: <em> Collet | Organize: Separate collecting information from getting it organized and you'll be better at both.</em> "Thinklinkr":http://thinklinkr.com helps me be more awesome at taking notes because I can both collect and organize. It's efficient and I can switch back and forth during a meeting as the energy of the meeting ebbs and flows. If you're not used to using a tool that lets you both collect and organize (like if you take notes with paper where you can't edit) you might feel pressure to organize up front. Don't bother. It's too hard. Trying to be organized too soon will completely freak you out. <em>Don't freak out. Just hit enter and start typing</em>. Collect can be frantic. Organize is cool. Collect | Organize applies to a lot more than just note taking. Here are a my two favorite others: Getting Things Done and Test Driven Development. h3. Getting Things Done Ever hear of David Allen's book, "Getting Things Done." I can, and probably will, write at length about this, but for now let me just say that the book describes a system for keeping track of all the things you have to do. For some reason it's a magnet for programmers like me and my partner, Jason. We've each written our own implementations of his system. Jason's version had two prominent tabs. Guess what they were. His wife walked into the room and said "What are you working on? 'Collect Organize?' What does that mean?" It means that David Allen observed the same pattern in personal productivity: separate the act of collecting all the things you want to get done from the act of getting them organized. If something pops into your head, make sure you can capture it right away. Then, later, process what you've captured and get it all organized. h3. Test Driven Software Development Some people think "refactoring" is one of those made up words that we programmers use to confuse business people and make them give us money. "Hey business people - we need to do some refactoring here. I hope you've got some cash!" That's too bad because refactoring is one of the best ways to make better software. Here's how it's officially described: "Code refactoring is the process of changing a computer program's internal structure without modifying its external functional behavior." In other words, reorganize code without changing what it does. Here's how we take advantage of refactoring with Test Driven Development: 1) RED: Figure out what you want your code to do. Make a test. The test will fail because your code doesn't do that yet. 2) GREEN: Write whatever code you need to to make the text pass 3) REFACTOR: Reorganize your code so it expresses your intent clearly Perhaps you've noticed that step 2 is collect and step 3 is organize. If you talk to people in software development, they'll tell you that these tasks should be kept completely distinct. It should be like you have two different hats - one for adding features (Collect) and one for refactoring (Organize). 2010-01-13T20:54:50Z true 33 Separate the collection of ideas from getting them organized. If you don't know where to put something, just hit enter and start typing. You can organize it later. It's like editing your writing or refactoring code. 2010-01-13T20:54:50Z Vishu These are "my notes":http://thinklinkr.com/outlines/3764.html on "this essay":http://bit.ly/herbet_on_teachers by Bob Herbert. <iframe src="http://thinklinkr.com/outlines/3764.html" width="100%" height="640px"></iframe> 2010-01-12T16:40:56Z false 32 2010-01-12T16:40:56Z Vishu Have you heard people talking about that "A-Ha" moment when you finally *get* wave? Apparently after someone explains it to you and shows it to you for a while, you finally realize what it's for, say "A Ha" and then you understand wave. The problem with wave is that you feel like an idiot until then. Thinklinkr is not like that. With thinklinkr, it's easy to get started and then easy to get better. Don't be afraid - you already know how to outline. Just get going. I learned this from Kathy Sierra: Our job is to help people be awesome. You can't be awesome if you don't know what to do. It's not a question of having simpler features. As you become more powerful, you need a more powerful tool. It's about letting you get started and then helping you get more and more. Later on I'll drill into how separating "Collection" from "Organization" of information will make you a better brainstormer and note taker. But for the nerds, it's just like refactoring! false 2010-01-11T22:38:21Z false 31 Thinklinkr vs Google Wave Round 4 2010-01-12T07:06:59Z Vishu Here's a quick demo. <object width="580" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aAHi8gEmV6Y&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aAHi8gEmV6Y&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="580" height="360"></embed></object> We recognize when your outlines include a URL. Also the secret code for linking to an outline is a pound sign and the outline number. Like #3453. false 2010-01-08T21:18:32Z false 30 Link to other outlines or external urls 2010-01-08T22:26:34Z Vishu When I was a kid I used to read the paper and then argue about it with my father. Sometimes if I lost, he would make me switch sides. The goal of these discussions is really to understand an issue from different points of view rather than to win. I think this is the most fun thing you can do. One of the things that got me into outlining is how well an outline can crystalize an argument. I think this is why law students spend so much of their time with outlines. Over the weekend we were mentioned by James Fallows, a very distinguished writer for The Atlantic magazine. It's really an honor to be mentioned by him. And now we have a lot of new users who might be fans of his. So for fun, I thought I'd use some of his writing to demonstrate how well outlines can express an argument. First I outlined of a post from "Fallows's blog":http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2010/01/krugman_protectionism_and_the.php. He's basically saying that Paul Krugman is right to "challenge Chinese protectionism":http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/opinion/01krugman.html. <iframe src="http://thinklinkr.com/outlines/3310.html" width="100%" height="640px"></iframe> After reading it, I had a couple of questions: # What is the estimated damage to the US economy? # What policy response, if any, should the government take? # The dollar is already weak compared to the Euro ## Are we doing that on purpose ourselves? ## How would changes in China's currency value affect the dollars value with respect to the Euro? I had read the Krugman article, but I didn't remember everything about it. So I outlined that too <iframe src="http://thinklinkr.com/outlines/3315.html" width="100%" height="540px"></iframe> Also, after doing this analysis, I realize that Fallows isn't so much agreeing with Krugman as saying that he predicted this response. h3. I want to hear from you OK, now some of my old questions are answered but I have some new ones too. Here is an outline of the current response. <em>Anyone can edit this outline and I encourage you to jump in if you feel like it. Err on the side of boldness rather than safety.</em> <a href="http://thinklinkr.com/outliner?outline_id=3321">Contribute to the analysis at thinklinkr.com</a> <iframe src="http://thinklinkr.com/outlines/3321.html" width="100%" height="540px"></iframe> <a href="http://thinklinkr.com/outliner?outline_id=3321">Contribute to the analysis at thinklinkr.com</a> false 2010-01-06T18:04:30Z true 29 A demonstration of how you can use outlines to get a better understanding of an issue, specifically in this case: Chinese trade policy Using outlines to help you analyze an issue 2010-01-08T21:08:41Z Vishu One of our users asked: <blockquote>At the start of the tutorial it says, "We also get an artifact when the conversation is over." I think you mean to say you get an archive of the conversation when it's over.</blockquote> We actually really meant artifact. Let me elaborate a little: One of the many ways a meeting can go wrong is when it lacks a purpose. You end up going on and on for hours or even days with no direction. When you use thinklinkr for meetings you create an outline together. Because there is something you're working on, an 'artifact', you turn the meeting into a working session. This changes your attitude dramatically: you are producing something. It's the difference between talking about something and doing something. 2010-01-05T21:54:59Z false 28 2010-01-05T21:54:59Z Jason Getting RMagic to work on Snow Leopard is notoriously hard. I wasted a couple of hours trying a dozen different solutions. This is what finally worked for me: <pre> sudo port selfupdate sudo port sync sudo port upgrade --force installed sudo port install ImageMagick sudo gem install rmagick </pre> false 2009-12-30T18:10:41Z false 27 2009-12-30T18:11:35Z Vishu I am a huge fan of Kathy Sierra. One of the ideas she promotes is that you should stop talking about how awesome your product is. Instead you should talk about how you help the people who use your product be awesome. One way to express this is with the Kathy Sierra mad lib: <blockquote>BLANK (your product) makes BLANK (a group of people) be awesome at BLANK (you better have something here!)</blockquote> For example, <blockquote><em>thinklinkr</em> helps <em>my mom</em> be awesome at <em>organizing the holidays</em>.</blockquote> <hr /> h5. thinklinkr helps <em>meeting organizers</em> be awesome at... * keeping their meetings on target * getting participants up to speed before meetings * getting input about an agenda before the fact * bringing those absent from a meeting up to speed on what happened * building a common thread between a meeting and a follow up meeting * producing valuable artifacts from expensive meetings * quickly sharing the artifact of a meeting with the attendees thinklinkr helps meeting organizers be awesome at <em>running meetings</em> <hr /> h5. thinklinkr helps <em>teachers</em> be awesome at... * getting their students to collaborate * giving their students a framework in which to structure their thoughts * sharing a syllabus with their students * giving students open-ended notes as a guideline for taking notes in class * interacting with their students after class is over thinklinkr helps teachers be awesome at <em>teaching</em> <hr /> h5. thinklinkr helps <em>students</em> be awesome at... * taking and organizing notes * sharing notes with each other, especially those who couldn't attend a class * reviewing notes from lectures to ace their exams thinklinkr helps students be awesome at <em>learning</em> <hr /> h5. thinklinkr helps <em>people with lots of responsibilities</em> be awesome at <em>keeping track of everything</em> <hr /> h5. thinklinkr helps <em>project planners</em> be awesome at <em>breaking down work into manageable chunks</em> <hr /> h5. thinklinkr helps <em>investors</em> be awesome at <em>organizing information about prospects</em> <hr /> These are just a few of the ways that we've seen thinklinkr help people be more awesome. I'd love to hear your awesomeness stories too. 2009-12-22T20:50:56Z false 26 thinklinkr helps (blank) be awesome at (blank) 2009-12-22T20:50:56Z Vishu Although most people used outlines in school, a lot of people had bad experiences. Will Kelley just posted a great description of his "rediscovery of outliners":http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/12/19/rediscovering-outlines-as-a-productivity-tool/#comment-334389. I thought it was interesting that he got started again because Omni Outliner just happened to be installed on his Mac. That's one of the great things about web based outliners like thinklnkr: anyone can just get started very easily. I also love how he just jumping in and started playing around. Once he started using it he saw some patterns in the types of outlines he makes that I think are useful to review. When you first start using an outliner there is so much you can do and this is the best approach to getting comfortable. 2009-12-21T20:08:31Z false 25 2009-12-21T20:08:31Z Vishu <blockquote>It’s got an absolutely top-notch browser interface (it’s the only browser-based outlining tool I’ve found that is <em>as responsive and fast as Ecco on the desktop </em>— bravo for that!)<div class="attrib">-"Scott Rosenberg":wordyard.com/2009/11/09/mac-life-after-ecco/ author of "Dreaming in Code":dreamingincode.com</div><div class="attrib">(emphasis added)</div></blockquote> I love hearing that. You've probably noticed that most web sites that try to behave like programs are a drag. Think about the difference between outlook and gmail. Web apps are just not as nice to work with as similar programs you install on your local computer. On the other hand, web-based software has its own advantages. The benefits are listed prominently on "37signals' home page":http://37signals.com and they boil down to "you just use it - you don't have to take care of it." But as long as web-based applications are so clumsy there is a threshold beyond which you'd rather just install something locally. With "thinklinkr":http://thinklinkr.com, we worked hard to make the user interface as pleasant to use as possible. It's really nice to hear users appreciate it. h3. What about wave? Wave is amazing. A tour de force from one of the most awe-inspiring tech companies of the last 100 years. "Thinklinkr is snappier than wave" says my friend who works at google as he tries thinklinkr for the first time. We really really really care about the feel of thinklinkr.com. We have to. When you're using an outliner, the tool needs to fade into the background so you can concentrate on your thoughts. And we use thinklinkr every day. Here's a simple example: In thinklinkr when you want to undo, you hit ctl-z and it undoes. (If you're like me and a growing minority on a Mac, it's cmd-z). Nothing to remember or learn, it just does what it's supposed to. Same thing with copy and paste, indent and outdent and everything else. So thinklinkr feels like a real desktop application; Wave is a really great web application. Is there a difference? Less and less, actually. Thinklinkr may be a little better, but wave is really outstanding too. The differences between thinklinkr and wave are less important than the differences they both have with the previous generations of web applications. h3. The Web 2010 It's been a long time since O'Reilly coined the term web 2.0 in 2004. The changes since then have been mostly incremental: updated standards, better-performing browsers, and more powerful frameworks and development tools. But recently something fundamental has changed: <em>In 2010 it will no longer be acceptable for web applications to suck.</em> They will be held to the same standard as desktop apps. It's not something new, it's something that's been coming for a long time and is finally here. This is going to affect both web apps, which are going to have to get a lot better very quickly, and desktop apps, which are going to find more and more that the web provides useable alternatives that also have all the benefits of the web, including collaboration, automatic revision managment and awareness of your social network. I started these posts in response to people asking me about thinklinkr competing with wave. Some people think having better browser-based experiences is part of the competition, but it's not. What's actually going on is that thinklinkr and wave are both on the cutting edge of something you're going to see more and more of: "Finally, real applications in your browser":/. false 2009-12-15T20:07:27Z false 24 Thinklinkr vs Google Wave Round 3 2009-12-15T20:10:57Z Jason Recently we moved thinklinkr.com sessions from rails' CookieStore to SqlSessionStore. This broke our swfupload integration :( Looking around I found a quick fix for "ActiveRecordStore":http://blog.airbladesoftware.com/2007/8/8/uploading-files-with-swfupload, but none for SqlSessionStore. Add this snippet to the initializer file you probably already created for swfupload and you'll be in business: <div style="width: 500px"> <script src="http://gist.github.com/246934.js"></script> </div> false 2009-12-02T04:23:44Z false 23 2009-12-02T04:30:57Z Vishu I was so excited when I heard google was going to reimagine email. As a consultant, I've had it up to here with email. And I love google. So let's see what they've got. How disappointing to discover it's just a threaded message board that doesn't even integrate with my regular email so now I'm supposed to check both. I'll stick with Basecamp for now. "But what about collaborative editing? You can't do that with Basecamp!" cries the google fanboy inside of me. The problem is I don't know how to collaborate on a conversation. h4. Collaboration != Communication Collaboration and communication are not the same thing. Collaboration means working on something together. You have something you're working on - an object of the collaboration. Communication means sharing ideas. You need to communicate to collaborate, but not all communication is collaboration. Wave is a tool for communication that also allows collaboration. What do you work on? The conversation itself. Blip by Blip, you can edit anything (blips are kind of like a email messages). So now I need to understand why someone else is going to be editing a note I posted. Are they clarifying it? Or are they incorporating new information? How does this work? What am I supposed to do? The answer is probably: you'll see and it will be awesome. I mean this is google after all and people are able to develop new conventions in new environments. But for now the way wave mixes collaboration into your conversation is confusing. h4. When you collaborate on an outline... With thinklinkr, it's more straightforward: you're working on an outline. It works just like collaborating on a document or spreadhseet with google docs. Some people think there's no real point to collaborating in google docs and ask why an outline would be any better. Others ask why anyone would want an application just for outlines. The answer to both is: the power of outlines. Outlines provide a framework for structuring information that everyone understands. It starts with the high-level, the bullet points. You can drill in as necessary. Plus, outlines encourage you to write concisely. When you use this structure, it makes the information very clear. Here is an "outline of this post":http://thinklinkr.com/outlines/985.html to demonstrate how well an outline can capture and convey ideas. When you collaborate on an outline, you know what to do because everyone already understands how outlines work. This convention lets you share your thoughts very effectively. Sometimes, instead of talking we'll just collaborate on an outline. I want to stress that there's no preparation necessary. We just make a new outline and go. This is the main way thinklinkr competes with wave. It's incredibly powerful, but there's only so much you can grok from an explanation. "You have to try it":http://thinklinkr.com/signup. false 2009-11-24T20:46:05Z false 22 Outlines vs Blips; Collaboration vs Communication 2009-11-24T20:46:32Z Vishu "Are you going to do that exclusivity thing where you build cachet by requiring invitations?" asked my friend who works at google. The answer is no. What's the point of a collaborative tool if your friends can't use it? Anyone can "sign up right now":http://thinklinkr.com/signup. Admittedly, this advantage is a silver lining around a huge cloud. Google's problem, if you can call it that, is that everybody knows them and loves them. If they opened up wave to anyone, everyone in the world would sign up. This makes it hard for them to follow the standard protocol of "release early and iterate rapidly":http://www.paulgraham.com/newthings.html that modern web development requires. But from where we're standing having the whole universe chomping at the bit to try anything you release is a high-class problem. The irony is that since we're an outliner and they're a replacement for email, thinklinkr is actually useful even if you're the only one using it. Collaboration is where we can really help you be awesome, though. We use thinklinkr for all our meetings. Here's what you should do if you want to try: Before your next meeting, create an outline with a couple of the bullets you want to cover. Share it with the other participants and have everyone collaborate on it while you work everything through. You'll be amazed how effective you'll be. Don't worry - if you share an outline with someone who's not a registered thinklinkr.com user, they are invited automatically. false 2009-11-18T21:18:33Z false 21 You can sign up for thinklinkr.com 2010-01-12T07:04:33Z Vishu Someone asked me again, "How do you feel about competing with google wave?" "We're not," I replied as usual. "Sure, we both use realtime collaboration to improve communication, but we are an outliner. They are a replacement for email. Totally different." But then I got to thinking about it a little more. If everyone is asking that question, then we _are_ competing with wave whether we like it or not. So now I feel like a kid on the playground, goaded by the crowd into facing someone much bigger and stronger. But I'm pretty scrappy. And to be honest, I think it will be fun. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll use this space to drill into the comparison. We'll talk about outlines vs. blips, scroll bars, in-browser experience and much more. Is there anything specific you'd like to see addressed? 2009-11-17T19:42:10Z 20 2009-11-17T19:42:10Z Vishu Those of us who have been using outlines for a while know that not everyone sees what the big deal is. Now that we've got "thinklinkr":http://thinklinkr.com, I find myself a little more motivated to spread the word :-) Here's a public outline of the "economist's take on last week's elections":http://thinklinkr.com/outliner?outline_id=744 Notice how quickly you can scan it and get the gist? Don't you wish your colleagues got to the point so effectively? 2009-11-09T21:53:23Z 19 2009-11-09T21:53:23Z Vishu You will be more awesome when you collaborate on outlines with thinklinkr.com. And as of this morning's release, anyone can sign up - no invitation needed. We use it ourselves: we have more efficient (and fewer) meetings, clearer project plans and better communication in general. Outlines are perfect for sharing our ideas because the structure forces us to organize our thoughts clearly. And thinklinkr's intuitve, responsive interface makes it a pleasure to get started. "GO TRY NOW!":http://thinklinkr.com <br /> h3. For Professionals I can write forever, but you really have to see it for yourself. Next time you need to work something out with a colleague, instead of sending them an email try collaborating on an outline with them. When you both work on the outline you'll see how much more effectively you communicate. h3. For Students You're already taking notes in an outline. Try using a tool that's optimzed for creating them. Share your outlines with a couple of classmates and outline the lecture in real time. You'll naturally help each other process the information as it comes in. And when it's time to review, play back the revisions and you'll reinforce the connections in your brain. Bottom line: better understanding, better grades. h3. For Outliners We've all been waiting for so long for a real, web-based collaborative outliner. Now you can finally create outlines in your browser and share with others. When you do, you'll spread the power of outlines and help other people communicate the way you already know works best. false 2009-11-05T15:16:31Z false 18 Now in Public Beta 2009-11-24T20:44:01Z Vishu Chrome frame is almost awesome. Unfortunately only almost. It looks like Google is going to save us the extra, painful and sometimes impossible step of trying to make real applications run in Internet Explorer. I'm dripping with gratitude and amazement to have our apps just work in IE like they do in all other browsers. We are stoked to use Chrome Frame for thinklinkr, but there are a couple of glitches that mean our users can't just turn it on: # The page does not automatically reload after chrome frame is installed. # I sometimes have to stop and restart IE after installing the chrome frame plugin in order for it to really take effect # The login flow doesn't work. After you submit your userid and password, you are logged in, but you are not redirected into the application. You have to manually point your browser at /outliner. It's not really surprising considering Chrome Frame is only in developer preview. We're just going to have to wait a little while before everything is perfect. And once you get past those issues that, it's amazing: everything works like it should. Unfortunately, since our IE users are some of our least adventurous, I'm worried these issues are going to be too much friction to get started. So for now, We're going to recommend they use Chrome or Firefox instead of installing Chrome Frame. 2009-11-03T14:51:27Z 17 2009-11-03T14:51:27Z Vishu I was having a drink with Ryan Graves ("@ryangraves":http://twitter.com/ryangraves) at "founder fire":http://founderfire.com and I said "thinklinkr.com":http://thinklinkr.com has the best in-browser application experience you've ever had. He said that was a really bold claim and I agreed. But the more I think about it, the less bold it seems. Most in-browser applications are so painfully horrible. The reason you're using web-based software is because it has a bunch of "technical advantages":http://37signals.com/webbased: you don't have to download anything, you're always on the latest version, and there's no "IT Guy" required. But the actual interaction with the user is terrible. Sure in 2005 it got a little better with Ajax, but that's a band-aid. The most successful web applications have been the ones that did the best job of working around the constraints of deploying an application on a platform built for pages. With rio:js we've reimagined the entire architecture and taken advantage of the very-recently emerging improvements in the browser: Finally real applications in your browser. Upon reflection, it's not really that bold a claim that we're the best. Most other web apps are horrible. We are awesome. Don't get me wrong. There are a number of web apps we admire: "Remember the Milk":http://www.rememberthemilk.com/, "Mindmeister":http://www.mindmeister.com/ and "pivotal tracker":http://www.pivotaltracker.com/ are the first that come to mind. It's great to be in such good company on the cutting edge of software development right now. I'd love to hear about others our reader may like too. 2009-10-26T18:04:44Z 16 A little rant about the quality of browser-based applications. 2009-10-26T18:04:44Z Vishu As of today, existing thinklinkr users can invite their friends just by sharing an outline with them. We had punted on the sharing interaction for a little while and it was finally time to do it right. This week's release drastically makes it much easier and cleaner to share outlines with your friends and coworkers just by entering their email addresses. If they're already using thinklinkr, we'll send them an email with the outline and a link back to the latest where they can edit. New users will be able to sign up immediately. Just like we did with revisions, we're releasing these sharing improvements over a couple of builds. That means there's a couple of gotchas you should know about until we do another release: # View only collaborators is not implemented yet. If you designate someone as view-only they will still be able to edit. But the will not be able to invite other collaborators. # Publish and Notification don't work yet. They're just not implemented. Clicking the boxes has no effect. ver. 0.9.7 (10-7-2009) <hr /> # Completely revamped the sharing interface # Sharing is now done with email addresses rather than logins # Emails are now sent out as part of the sharing process # The outline body is now included in share emails # Sharing settings no longer get mixed into the undo queue # Users can now invite their friends # Refactored a large amount of code related to users, sharing, and collaboration # Added more QA features (migrated from cruise control to team city) false 2009-10-08T19:22:54Z false 15 As of today, existing thinklinkr users can invite their friends just by sharing an outline with them. 2009-10-26T18:07:12Z Vishu As promised, this "thinklinkr.com":http://thinklinkr.com release addresses the limitations of revisions to make them fully web 5.7 AWESOME compliant. Other than that (really, you want more?) we fixed a bug where trying to go to a specific outline didn't work if you had to log in first because the outline id got lost. Here's the full list for ver. 0.9.5 (9-16-2009) <hr /> # You can now revert, duplicate, export, and link to a specific revision # The login name and avatar associated with a particular revision is now displayed # You can see revision history for outlines that you don't own but are shared with you # The time of the currently selected revision is now displayed # You can now jump between editing sessions on the revisions page # You can now toggle on and off highlighting for the current revisions changes (green=add, red=delete, blue=modify) # Made improvements to revision history load performance # Added a loading overlay to revision history # Fixed a bug that truncated direct links if a user wasn't logged in # Fixed several bugs related to correctness of revision history edge cases false 2009-09-17T13:07:08Z false 14 Revisions are complete and completely awesome. 2009-10-26T18:07:02Z Vishu This week's release of "thinklinkr":http://thinklinkr.com is out a little early and, wow is it a cool one: the first pass at revision history. Revision history is big enough that we're splitting it across a couple of releases. So this one is kind of the "alpha". It has some limitations you should know about: # Revisions are view-only - you just click a button and revert # You can't see revisions on outlines owned by other users # You can only look at one outline's revision history per application session That last one is maybe the biggest, but it just means you will have to reload the page. But I don't want to focus on the limitations - the functionality that is there is pretty awesome, especially the revision playback. Check it out! There are other changes as well. Maybe the most notable will be that we modified the hover style so it doesn't show a little red bar. That seemed to freak people out because it looked like an error. ver. 0.9.4 (9-8-2009) <hr /> # Added revision history! # Added a revision history viewer and playback interface. # Fixed copy for safari on snow leopard # Added smart caching to speed up page loading and prevent faulty cache hits # Fixed a bug that sometimes caused line item text to flickr on hover and focus # Deleting the current outline now opens a different outline # Updated the line item hover style. It used to be a confusing and distracting red bar. false 2009-09-08T21:59:39Z false 13 This week's release of "thinklinkr":http://thinklinkr.com is out a little early and, wow is it a cool one: the first pass at revision history. 2009-10-26T18:06:50Z Vishu h3. Chat improvements Sometimes when we're collaborating we are so focused on the outline we miss chat messages. Now the chat window will play a sound when there's a new message. It only plays a sound if you do not have the chat window selected because we didn't want a racket if you're going back and forth with someone. Of course, you can turn off the sounds if you don't want them. We also fixed the scrolling on the chat window so long conversations are not so frustrating. h3. Working with large outlines This release has a couple of little things that make working with big outlines a little easier. We changed the icons for collapse and expand all because no one seemed to understand what these did. But I use them all the time: the first thing I do when I get to a big outline is collapse everything so I can get oriented. Then I'll alternate between the collapsed and expanded view as I scan the document. Of course there is also a keyboard shortcut: &lt;CTRL> + &lt;SHIFT> + &lt;ALT> + &lt;LEFT> &lt;CTRL> + &lt;SHIFT> + &lt;ALT> + &lt;RIGHT> We also added a keyboard shortcut to navigate to a line item's parent (&lt;ALT> + &lt;UP>). It feels a little asymmetric because alt-down doesn't do anything. But we'll try this out for now. h3. Multiple Tabs I am pretty much addicted to tabs in my browser. There were a couple of issues that prevented this from working with thinklinkr, but they are resolved now. I'm really looking forward to having multiple outlines and conversations open at once. h3. Conversational interaction One thing that seems to surprise new users is that you don't have to save. We're so used to losing our work if we don't save that it's a little surprising not to have to click every few minutes. We've added a new users welcome popup where we can include orienting messages like "don't worry about saving". Also, a few of our beta users asked about being notified when we do new releases. (If you haven't noticed, we tend to do them on Wednesday.) Now when we do a new deployment, you'll be notified the next time you log in. h3. Complete List # Fixed a bug that made having multiple tabs of thinklinkr open cause errors # Fixed a bug that capped the length of a line item at 255 characters (now unlimited) # Added a notification to users when a new release has been deployed since last login # Added a shortcut for jumping to a line item's parent line item (ALT+UP) # New chat's now beep if you don't have focus in the chat box (can turn sound off) # Fixed bug that prevented the chat window from auto-scrolling to show new chats # Added a first time user popup (explains that outlines auto-save) # Made the outline name a required field # Updated the misleading collapse-all and expand-all icons # Updated the collapse/expand triangle icons to have transparent backgrounds # Added more quality assurance features (continuous integration server and selenium tests) false 2009-09-02T14:35:23Z true 12 Our latest build includes a couple of nice additions to "thinklinkr.com":http://thinklinkr.com: better chat, features for large outlines, multiple tabs, better conversational interaction and more. Tell us what you think! 2009-09-02T17:25:28Z Vishu We just deployed a new version. Here's what we added: # New users start with a default outline # Made keyboard shortcuts work intuitively in Windows # Updated help menu to display OS specific keyboard shortcuts # Fixed cut/copy/paste in Windows # Tightened up the spacing on line items # Made avatar animation smoother # Fixed copy in Safari # Pasting into an empty line item now consumes that item, rather than pasting after it. # Added no-javascript and no-flash warning messages # Added more quality assurance features (client-side error logging, selenium tests, etc.) We'd love to hear what you think. 2009-08-26T01:03:54Z 11 We just deployed a new version. Here's what we added: # New users start with a default outline # Made keyboard shortcuts work intuitively in Windows # Updated help menu to display OS specific keyboard shortcuts # Tightened up the spacing on line items # Fixed cut/copy/paste in Windows # ... and more ... We'd love to hear what you think. 2009-08-26T01:03:54Z Vishu We just deployed a new version. Here's what we added: # Added support for Firefox in Linux. # Exporting an outline will now use the outline's name as the filename. # Display version number & release notes # Fixed eager loading of line items. This makes loading big outlines significantly faster. # Fixed line item association caching. This improves the performance of indents and outdents. # Fixed bug that caused share settings to be reset when outline's name was changed. # Fixed bug that didn't properly highlight the selected outline on the open outline page. # Fixed some grammatical errors on the help page. # Added tons of quality assurance features (staging server, selenium tests, admin interfaces). We'd love to hear what you think. 2009-08-19T21:41:55Z 10 We just deployed a new version. Here's what we added: # Added support for Firefox in Linux. # Exporting an outline will now use the outline's name as the filename. # Display version number & release notes # ...and more... We'd love to hear what you think. 2009-08-19T21:41:55Z Vishu The story of "thinklinkr":http://thinklinkr.com starts with the story of "mocklinkr":http://mocklinkr.com Jason and I had been talking to a potential client for a little while. To show how well we understood what he wanted, we used sharpies to sketch out the pages. Then we tried out "mocklinkr for the first time":http://mocklinkr.com. We scanned and uploaded the images and went through and created the links. Then we sent him the url of a site that did exactly what he wanted. We were really pleased with how well mocklinkr worked for us so we started using it with our other projects. After we'd put it through the ringer some more, we had our friends try it out. Then we released it at TECH Cocktail in November '08. In building mocklinkr, we directly addressed a number of items that had become the bottlenecks for application development for us. We addressed everything on an ad hoc basis as we encountered actual problems. As a result, we developed a very powerful developer-centric javascript ... (i want to say 'development platform', but I'd rather cut out my tongue. maybe 'universe', maybe system, maybe potato) Whatever it is, we built it. We were ready to take on the outliner. The uninitiated sort of scratch their heads when you tell them you've "made an outliner":http://thinklinkr.com. If you're feeling an itch up there don't feel bad. For now, the uninitiated are a solid majority. But some people use outliners extensively. There are a lot of benefits to using outlines to organize information hierarchal. But don't ask me, ask my history teacher at St. Ignatius, Mr. Kelly. Anyway, we decided to build an outliner. We're nearly done and it's pretty awesome. It runs in the browser and it's fully collaborative in real time. false 2009-08-03T19:21:16Z true 9 We built a lot of the javascript for "mocklinkr":http://mocklinkr.com from scratch. By the time we were done we solved many of the problems we'd encountered in the past. We extracted those solutions into a toolkit we call rio. We used rio to implement the amazing in-brower outliner we created for "thinklinkr":http://thinklinkr.com. 2009-09-08T22:22:08Z Vishu I just heard from Frank Gruber confirming that we will demo the worlds first "web-based collaborative outliner":http://www.thinklinkr.com at "next week's TECH cocktail":http://techcocktail.com/home/2009/07/28/tech-cocktail-chicago-11-next-week/ . I always have a good time at tech cocktail and I'm looking forward to meeting new people and seeing some familiar faces. false 2009-07-31T17:45:26Z 8 2009-07-31T18:19:45Z Vishu I came upon an idea for drawing the "paths between wireframes":http://nform.ca/tradingcards/wireflow (via "wireframes mag":http://wireframes.linowski.ca/?p=239). The wireframes guys say it would be nice if design tools could generate these. I could imagine generating a report like this from mocklinkr. I think the real problem is that their mockups are not interactive. 2009-02-04T12:34:36Z 7 2009-02-26T12:26:50Z Vishu Mocklinkr is a great tool to use when you're pitching a new job. Recently, a friend of mine introduced us to someone who needed some custom development. I gave him a call and we had a fairly common initial conversation. It started out with a long, rambling, abstract discussion, and eventually got down to the nitty gritty of what they wanted. That afternoon, I sent them a link to a prototype of their app. Of course, all I did was sketch the screens and put them in Mocklinkr. The prospect was impressed. He could really tell I had understood him and even gave specific feedback on some of the functionality I'd misunderstood. I was worried that the hand-drawn wireframes would be too distractingly ugly, but it was fine. In fact the fact that they were clearly sketches set the level of detail appropriately. Next time, I think I'll use "Balsamiq Mockups":http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups instead of hand-drawing the images. It preserves the sketch-like feel, but looks a lot nicer. 2009-01-12T09:28:03Z 6 2009-01-12T09:28:03Z Vishu If you got to preview the first word processor, what you you have done to check it out? If you typed a sentence or two and played around with the formatting you wouldn't get the full experience. Maybe if you were just about to write a memo anyway you could have banged it out, but otherwise, you're kind of stuck with a superficial impression. We noticed a few people signing up for Mocklinkr without uploading any images and we figured maybe they were in the same boat. They wanted to check it out, but they didn't have any mockups handy, so they couldn't take it for a spin. This week we added sample mockups. If you have not yet uploaded any images to a project, you can just click a button and we'll get you started with something you can play around with. I used "Balsamiq mockups":http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups to make the sample images. It's pretty sweet and I've been telling everyone who will listen about it ever since. For the uninitiated, Balsamiq mockups is a tool for drawing wireframes. It works kind of like a visio template where there are standard elements you can drag into your drawing. Using Balsamiq and Mocklinkr together is a great way to instantly get your client working with something tangible. 2009-01-07T14:45:41Z 5 2009-01-07T14:45:41Z Vishu A number of people have mentioned that you don't have to actually be a web designer to use mocklinkr. Anyone with an idea can draw it up and get it online. As a project sponsor, this would let you bring something concrete into your conversations with the people you hire to get it done. My question is: how do we find them? Web developers are a specific group. It feels like "someone with an idea who wants to put it on line" is very broad. It's going to be very hard to find them and start conversations. If you know anyone, make sure to send them our way. 2008-11-13T20:25:17Z 4 2008-11-14T11:16:15Z Vishu We just published the first <a href="/screencast_proxy?target_url=http://mocklinkr.com/assets/mocklinkr.flv" class="lbOn">mocklinkr screencast</a>. Like my friend John Krause said: It's "short, but very informative" We took the video loop we made for TECH cocktail and added a quick intro and a voiceover. Check it out and tell me what you think. false 2008-11-12T15:16:28Z 3 2009-04-23T20:06:43Z Vishu We had a great time tonight at TECH cocktail. We met a lot of interesting people and got some really great feedback. It was really inspiring that everyone was so positive. We'll see how that translates into actual users over the next couple of days. For now I'm just glad I had a good time. Jason and I are going to go have a night cap and re-group tomorrow. true 2008-11-06T23:29:09Z 2 2009-04-23T11:16:46Z Vishu We're officially launching mocklinkr at tech cocktail tonight. Deciding to do tech cocktail has really helped us finalize a lot of loose ends we'd been sitting on for a while. It reminds me of when I was in a band and how every thing comes together for the first gig. We're really excited about the product. It's been very helpful to us and our friends since we started using it. Mocklinkr is very simple and very useful. Unlike other tools we checked out, it fits in with how you're working right now. Please let us know what you think. -Vishu 2008-11-06T15:46:01Z 1 2008-11-06T15:48:11Z