Communiqué

1. Patrick: Hey, how do you ungroup objects in Inspiration?
2. Will: Bah, who needs groups? That's like using directories in a file system.

(Side note: We use Inspiration to generate site architecture diagrams. It is designed to be easy enough for children to use, which means we can use it too. It's one of the fastest, easiest ways around to turn an outline and a bunch of notes into a clear, simple diagram to get us all on the same page. And costs about a tenth what Visio does.)

Here at iMarc, we have a Wiki to keep track of our plans, process, and documentation.

The Wiki's home page starts with a quotation. Any employee can change the quote. When a new quote is posted, the old one gets archived.

Here are some of the quotations we've seen over the last year:

Premature optimization is the root of all evil

— Donald Knuth, computer science professor

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked…A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.

— John Gall, author

I'm a pretty lazy person, and am prepared to work quite hard in order to avoid work.

— Martin Fowler, author, software architect

In a perfect world, the client would’ve had the business rules worked out prior to starting a project, leaving the designer to wallow in artistic brilliance while a co-ed rolls by on a Segway drinking a soy protein shake, but as you all know, utopia doesn’t exist and it’s almost impossible to drive a Segway with one hand.

— Greg Storey, business owner

I like when good things happen to me, but I wait two weeks to tell anyone because I like to use the word fort-night.

— Demetri Martin, comedian

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

— Antoine de St. Exupery, writer, aviator

Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window.

— Steve Wozniak, woz

Q: What makes you believe Linux will continue to gain momentum?

A: I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things. I compare it to science vs. witchcraft. In science, the whole system builds on people looking at other people's results and building on top of them. In witchcraft, somebody had a small secret and guarded it -- but never allowed others to really understand it and build on it. Traditional software is like witchcraft. In history, witchcraft just died out. The same will happen in software. When problems get serious enough, you can't have one person or one company guarding their secrets. You have to have everybody share in knowledge.

— Linus Torvalds, software engineer

If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.

— Albert Einstein

Even if a man's whole day [is] spent as a servant to an industrial concern, in his spare time he will make something, if only a window box flower garden.

— Eric Gill, typographer, printer, author

Design is what you do when you don't yet know what you are doing. Real design is done during the unstructured, informal, noodling around that occurs before the structured and formal 'design' methods are employed.

— George Stiny, professor

It is crucial to find a way of routinizing, even bureaucratizing, the exercise of imagination.

— The 9/11 Commission Report

Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three.

— Old fisherman's saying

There is no spec; to me, the spec is the interface screens... [T]here is nothing functional about functional specs. The only functional part is a real running application; so we try to get to real running applications as soon as humanly possible, and then that’s the spec. So, whatever the way the application works right now, is supposed to be the way the application works right now - and if we disagree, we change the real application. We don’t go back and try to find some spec and rewrite some of that.

— David Heinemeier Hansson, programmer

BusinessWeek has published an excellent article on web standards this week. Short, readable and understandable, author Jessie Scanlon has managed to distill the evolution of web coding into meaningful business benefits:

“For companies with a Web presence—needless to say, most companies—CSS means "You can control you branding, your image, and still deliver content to users in the most appropriate style," [web standards advocate Jeffrey] Zeldman says.”

iMarc is absolutely committed to web standards; we produce completely valid XHTML web sites and applications. And that article really explains why this is of benefit: One site, all audiences, future-compatible, at a lower cost.

Of course, it's not a perfect world. We still have to work around browser-specific bugs. But when I look back on the sites I worked on in the late 90's and the hacks I put together to get them to render correctly on both Netscape and Internet Explorer, it's clear how very far we've come.

And from a business viewpoint, one of the greatest benefits is that valuable development hours aren't wasted on making variants for different browsers, but on implementing useful, informative web sites.

Apple is really good at hype (see iPhone). Unfortunately, they tend to contradict themselves and over-simplify complicated issues when it suits their goals. Actually, lots of companies do this, but Apple sticks out to me because of their tongue-in-cheek methods.

You’ve probably heard Apple rag on how insecure Windows is, but then you may have also heard how awesome it is that you can run Windows apps on a Mac.

Guess what? To run Windows apps on a Mac, you have to run Windows in a virtual machine. Here’s a news flash for you: your computer isn't so secure anymore. Watch out for those 114,000 viruses infecting your computer.

All sarcasm aside, you shouldn’t have any problems with your Windows installation on a Mac if you take steps such as keeping Windows up-to-date and running a virus scanner. However, it is much easier to become vulnerable running Windows in a virtual machine. It’s also a good possibility that if you run a Mac, you may not know the steps needed to secure Windows.

When using Windows as your main OS, you probably run it almost every day. This allows Windows to fetch its updates, and for your virus scanner to do its thing. When your run an OS as a virtual machine, you may or may not boot it on a regular basis. I know this happens on one of my computers at home — I run Linux as the main OS, and run Windows via VMWare every few weeks.

Since you may not boot your Windows install on a regular basis, you might not get those updates in time. You might be more vulnerable than if you ran Windows only.

Moral of the story: You need to be even more concerned about Windows security if you run it on top of OSX. Perhaps someday you won’t need to run Windows to use Windows apps, but from what I have heard, darwine still has a way to go.

In case your were wondering, I currently don’t own a Mac (just two linux boxes and a Windows XP laptop). However, I must say that a Mac mini running Leopard and the new iMovie does look very tempting for editing and cataloging my home movies.

There seems to be a downward trend in the quality of voicemail messages.

People seem to be leaving long messages and waiting until the very end before leaving a callback number. Even worse, when the caller finally does leave a phone number, they suddenly turn into the world's fastest talker.

When leaving a message on someone's cellphone, stating a callback number isn't as important. The person's phone can automatically dial back. However, most office voicemail systems still require the recipient to listen, write down a phone number, then dial it.

When a caller talks for 5 minutes then does a John Moschitta impersonation while leaving their callback number it's maddening. If you miss the phone number, you're forced to playback the entire message and try again.

Next time you leave a voicemail, do this:

1. State your name
2. Leave your phone number, talking slower than normal.
3. In one sentence, tell the person why you called.
4. Repeat your name and number.
5. Hang up

Example

Hi Steve, this is Dave Tufts. Please call me back at [slowly] 978 - 462 - 8848.

I got your email about the database exports and have a question.

Again, this is Dave from iMarc and my number is 978-462-8848.

Our office's T1 line was down this morning. I called Speakeasy, our provider, hoping to resolve the problem.

It took almost two minutes before I got through their phone menu. I dialed their 800 number, pressed 5 for business support, pressed 2 for T1 support, then pressed 1 to report a network problem.

This is the current network status as of 6:39am Pacific Time.

We are experiencing an outage in the Boston, Massachusetts area which is causing connectivity problems for customers there.

For more information, please visit speakeasy.net/systemstatus

Let me paraphrase: "Your internet is down. Go to our website for more info."

The only reason anyone cares about system status is when their system has no status. I'm sure speakeasy.net/systemstatus is an excellent page filled with useful information. However, while experiencing an outage, the page is useless to me. A more contextually appropriate message would be, "For updated information call Business T1 Support directly at 800-000-0000".

Digg, del.icio.us, and every other social bookmarking site seem littered with enumerated lists. There are lists for the 5 Greatest Sculptors of All Time. Lists for 85 Ajax Solutions for Professional Coding. Lists for anything.

Following this trend, I present the 4 Greatest Numbers Less Than Five:

1. One - In the words of the 80's Swedish pop duo, Roxette, "one is such a lonely number". Fortunately for this lonely digit, it also tops my list of the 4 Greatest Numbers Less Than Five.
2. Two - The smallest and first prime number is two. In my youth, two was my favorite number because it was Jerry Remy's number.
3. Three - Three is the first odd prime number on my list. It's also, according to De La Soul, the magic number.
4. Four - The smallest composite number, four, is kind of cool, but doesn't have the cache of one, two, or three. Therefore (intentional pun), four is at the bottom of my list.

I was just randomly playing around with my account details on Amazon and noticed they've tracked every order I've ever placed.

Your Account >> View by Order >> Complete order history sorted by year

My first order on Amazon:

Order Date: February 22, 2000
Items: The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business As Usual

What was the first item you bought off Amazon?

Yesterday, Rob showed me an interesting article on subtraction.com called Designed Deterioration. In the article Khoi Vinh talks about how the simple act of using an object has a positive or negative effect on the object's design.

Vinh points out that certain items, after prolonged use, actually improve their design aesthetic. A cast iron skillet doesn't get old and dirty, it gets seasoned – it looks nicer, it cooks better. My home has reclaimed wide pine floors full of knicks, knotholes, and nail holes. We've made the conscious decision to leave the floors unfinished. Yes, three coats of clear polyurethane will look beautifully pristine for the first 24 hours, but as soon as someone drops something, that scratch will stand out. By leaving the floors in their natural state, new scratches and dents continue to add character and wear well.

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