My girlfriend and I thought about booking tickets to see Michael Jackson at the O2 arena, but decided against it. We were unsure that he would be well enough to perform in concert, let alone for such a long run of appearances. This morning we heard on the radio that he had died aged 50.
I don’t have anything special to add to the media and public discussion of the man, his life and his contribution to music. I’d just like to mark this sad day by linking to his legendary appearance at the Motown 25, where he performed Billie Jean and showed off his iconic dance moves for the first time.
This Michael, an artist in his prime, is something I would have paid a great deal to see. Sadly it wasn’t to be. I’m sure his music will live on for many years to come.
I consider myself a gamer. I’ve had a multitude of computers and consoles dating back to the Commodore 64 (aging myself I know!). From Boulderdash to Bioshock I’ve loved playing games and I would defend the validity of the medium to anyone. There is however a peculiar trait of many so-called “hardcore” gamers that I’ve noticed before and recently I’m seeing again.
I’m not talking about the kind of platform fanboy-ism that’s been going on in the playground since the C64 and Spectrum (probably before that). I don’t mean the contempt some people have for the “casual” gamer (as if enjoying a bit of Wii Sports was a badge of shame). Nope - I’m talking about the resistance (borderline hostility) towards industry newcomers, or platforms that aren’t exactly the same as everything else, but with x% better graphics.
History repeating
Sony announces the Playstation. They make TVs, not consoles! Ridiculous!
Microsoft announces the Xbox. They make Office, not consoles! How dare they!
Nintendo announces the DS and Wii. Control Zelda or an FPS with a stylus? It’ll never work! Wave a wand around to control Mario? Who’d buy that?
And yet, Microsoft and Sony are now major players. You might even say the hardcore gamer’s choice. The DS has confounded its skeptics by being a smash hit.
Now I see it with the Apple iPhone. Apple have created a games console. I’d argue that they didn’t fully recognise that at first - it took the development community to persuade them. The clear message of the hardware upgrade in the iPhone 3GS is that they understand it now. With 40 million units shipped (the DS recently broke the 100m barrier), it has a significant installed base who clearly want to be entertained.
A wide spectrum of games, from Peggle to Real Racing are proving that non-traditional interfaces (which admittedly don’t apply easily to certain genres) aren’t preventing some excellent games being released for it. Watch the video below if you’re unconvinced. Then watch it again.
I’m not going to rant like one of the fanboys I referred to, listing games and the virtues of the device until I fall asleep at the keyboard, but I will say this:
I’ve been playing games for a long time. Frankly, I’m bored with many of them. Playing “Generic Space Soldier in Grey Future War 3″ doesn’t appeal to me like it used to. I’ll commit my time to a game if it enthralls me, and precious few games do that these days. Can someone explain to me how an intriguing new platform that demands innovation is a bad thing?
These “catch-up” posts have become too frequent and regular posts too infrequent for my liking. I’m in a transitional period at the moment after which I’ll re-evaluate this website’s content and direction. I’ve not decided yet, but I may retire this blog, or “reboot” it.
Obviously, I’ve not posted here in a while. That’s not because I’ve been idle - quite the opposite. The energy that I would have invested in writing this blog has been spent on the simpleContact support forum. There are refinements to be made (search is a particularly glaring omission) but there is now a substantial amount of content there.
Forums have an in-built Catch-22. As an administrator, you want people to use a forum. You want it to become the front-line of your support offering. You want to be able to receive and answer questions in one place, so common questions can be answered quickly without duplication of effort.
The problem is that unless people can see that other people have posted, they won’t post themselves. It takes time and dedication to build a forum to the point where enough dialogues have occurred that newcomers feel inclined to post.
I’m happy that the forums have now reached that point of sustainability and value.
Soft launching lets you tweak and revise. You get the word out there and you gauge interest. You know what works and what doesn’t. Plus, you get to make mistakes while you’re still in the shadows. Messing up in front of a smaller crowd means you’ll be better off when the bright lights eventually do shine upon you.
You can find any bugs in the initial release. Answer early-adopter questions. Discover where the immediate friction is between what the application can do and what users need. Sometimes you learn surprising things about your own product and how people use it.
Migration to the new, dedicated website simplecontactform.com is in progress. Support materials have moved. This weekend I plan to move purchase and delivery mechanisms to their permanent home. After that, I start building web pages based on the new design. I hope to have the new website live in a month or two.
Here’s an interesting little clip that I happened by today. John Gruber of Daring Fireball gives a short presentation at Macworld: a theory of his about collaborative design and the quality of a resulting product.
My daily job role doesn’t cast me as designer, but I often take it upon myself to make suggestions (or *coughs* alterations that I see as beneficial) so I know where he’s coming from.
On a side note I like the style of his slides, which punctuate his words rather than reproduce them. In a discussion of taste, I think Gruber’s own is pretty good.
Ugly. Glitchy. Problematic from a readability and accessibility standpoint. I think CAPTCHAs are horrible and I won’t be adding them to my applications.
A simple question/answer spam challenge – as on Building Findable Websites – is a far more elegant solution. This is definitely *on* the roadmap.
Seth Godin has released a Q&A eBook from the social network that he established called Triiibes, which was set up beside his new book Tribes (in paperback and audiobook). All about fostering active community, it is interesting because it was written by Triiibes members – proving its own message.
If you are interested in marketing you really should read Seth’s blog.
The Unscary, Real World Guide to SEO Copywriting
Ian Lurie of Portent Interactive has released a new eBook called The Unscary, Real World Guide to SEO Copywriting. At just $5 and 31 pages it’s a bite-size snack and a useful intro to search engine optimised copy for any writer who wants to learn but is put off by the dubious advice and technobabble that surrounds SEO.
Seth Godin’s latest blog post is short, sweet and sums up my marketing strategy:
Your customers and employees and investors will remember how you treated them when times were tough, when they needed a break, when a little support meant everything…
I can build a product and I’m enjoying getting into online marketing but it doesn’t come naturally to me. I find a happy customer is the best sales rep.
I touched upon this issue in a post about “Save For Web” colour discrepancies so it seemed fitting to remark on a bit of Apple news that caught my eye.
According to AppleInsider, the next version of Mac OS X (dubbed “Snow Leopard”) will default to 2.2 gamma. This small change will please many, myself included.
In a nutshell, this means that Mac OS X will display colour in a manner that is more consistent with other systems like Windows and TVs. This is generally beneficial to end users and designers of screen-based media like websites, DVDs etc.
As observed in my other post, print designers may argue that this is detrimental. That the darker, higher-contrast image represents Apple pandering to the mass market.
… Which of course they are. Apple are in business to sell product. Designers are an important part of the Mac market, but the best selling Mac by far is the MacBook.
Any self-respecting print pro should know how to calibrate their colour settings to suit their needs. The rest of us have one less headache.
I don’t normally blog political, but I had to post a video that I saw via Daring Fireball:
To paraphrase a film you may know, fear and ignorance are a path to the Dark Side. They seem to be all the McCain/Palin campaign is based on – which can only be hurting decent Republicans who want to tackle the real issues, not trade slurs.
I don’t see Obama as some sort of saviour who can right all the world’s wrongs, but I choose the hope of people like Charles over fear.
If I were a voter in this election, I know where my cross would go.
I’ve kept my promise of an October release with just a couple of days to spare!
simpleContact Pro is made for the professional, or indeed anyone building a website that wants a bespoke contact form and mailing list opt-in. No programming is needed and you can be up and running in just a few minutes.
I always intended to build ‘Pro, even when I started working on simpleContact Lite. ‘Lite is used by individuals and companies of all sorts and the response has been wonderful. Now features including custom fields, a double opt-in mailing list and CSV export are available to anyone. ‘Lite users can upgrade easily, migrating their settings and data with just a click.
My highest priority has always been a polished, user friendly interface. I do not work to implement a laundry list of functionality. I am a web designer / developer by day – this is what I do. I understand which features are important and that time is money.
To be able to deliver a sophisticated result with a minimum of fuss is key. Even the most skilled programmer knows that the easy solution is often the smart choice. With simpleContact Pro you can dispense with one of the trickiest, most time consuming development tasks and focus on your content.
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