Well we did our first public demo of Wonderfile last night at Minnedemo. I think a good time was had by all. Our demo went fairly smoothly with no significant hiccups. A heartfelt thanks to the ArcStone contingent and some friends who came to show their support.

If you’re into web tech and you live in the Twin Cities you really should go check out the Minnedemo community - it seems to be vibrant, interesting group of folks. I know I’ll keep going to their events.

We’re dialing down our initial Wonderfile beta to just five external customers this next week on the 15th. I think I was a little over ambitious on my earlier blog post. We’re going to take a couple weeks to make a few refinements and do video tutorials so users can better understand how to set-up their libraries and get the most out of the system. We want to be truly well prepared for the bigger beta - we’ve been so focused on developing the app itself we haven’t gotten to some of these other essential niceties. We’ll get it tidied up and then off to the beta test. I’ll post more as things develop.

Tags:Wonderfile

My wife and I have been using Microsoft Money since 1997 to manage our personal finances. Overall it has been good - but over the last couple years the system has started to break down for us.

We have found that we both need access to the account information so we can discuss it, track it, and maintain the accounts (you know, all those things you’re supposed to do with $$ as a couple, right?). Microsoft Money, Quicken and other software systems are problematic because we have to install them and access them on one machine or else do two installs and swap files, etc. We’ve found using Money that it was hard for us both to engage because one of us invariably had to do most of the entry (Lisa in our case).

So we went looking for a web based personal financial system. Our journey has led us to Mint, Wesabe, and Mvelopes and have now come out with a clear winner - ClearCheckBook.com.

It is simple, easy to use, works with my iPhone and best of all is free. We got all our accounts loaded within 20 minutes on Saturday. If you’re looking for a register to track personal expenses - this is a really good tool that I can recommend.

We’re getting soooo close to our Wonderfile beta launch….

An old salty dog programmer (also very successful money-wise) once told me. “A software application isn’t really done until it’s been rewritten from scratch at least five times.”

We’re on our fourth rewrite of Wonderfile. It doesn’t encapsulate our complete vision for the app, but we feel that it’s quite useful as it is, and definitely good enough to publically beta test.

What is Wonderfile? It is a completely new way to think about organizing electronic files. We’re done with the nested folders of the 80’s and have created a hierarchical tag-based framework for managing files. This is really different stuff - a paradigm shift. Comments from experienced IT pros we’ve shown early demos to…

* “Why hasn’t anyone else done this?”

* “I can use this in a ton of different ways.”

* “How can I invest?”

We’ll be posting the access code for our limited beta on this blog October 15th. We’ll let 250 testers in to the system - first come first serve. They’ll be given privileged account status (i.e. less expensive after the test is over) and will be able to influence future development of the system.

For a sneak preview, come see us demo Wonderfile to our peers at Minnedemo Oct. 11 (free beer for the first 200 attendees). Minnedemo is held at O’Gara’s in St. Paul - the demo’s start at 7:30 and we’re the fourth company on stage…

Visit - http://minnedemo.org to register.

I have a theory.

A web application will be at least 100% better if the developers who create it also actively use it.

It is akin to a meal prepared by an expert chef. The best chefs constantly sample their creations as they prepare a meal. When it is ready, they’ll serve it to their patrons and then sit down themselves to enjoy what they have lovingly created.

Like a chef, expert developers need to actively sample (test and use) their software while working on it, then sit down and consume their own code as a user would.

QA provided by testing experts definitely has its place - but I fear that sometimes developers (even good ones) miss significant opportunities to write better applications because they rely too heavily on testers / users to catch bugs and provide interface feedback. This reliance costs time - but even more significantly, we lose opportunities to improve the user experience because those who know how to change the code don’t take the time to actively engage and use the application. This lost opportunity for creative improvement could be avoided if developers spent an hour actively using the application for every 10 hours spent coding.

When I say using - I don’t mean quick tests, scripted testing, a little demo or anything like that - I mean actively using the application like their users will have to. I’m talking really, really use it and engage. A good chef will sit down and eat the meals he prepares - from that he draws inspiration for improvement. Programmers who consume the applications they write will create better software - hands down.

I use a tablet PC - an IBM X41 for most of my computing. I was running Windows XP for Tablets, but recently upgraded to Vista mainly because I had heard that the handwriting recognition was really good.

It is eerily accurate - with no training, out of the box it converts my scrawls to perfect type face 99.99% of the time. I haven’t had to correct it at all this week. For kicks I wrote this sentence with a pen. Pretty good, huh? I bet you can’t even tell the difference….

On a side note but not entirely unrelated - I like the upgrade to Office 2007 mainly for the improvements made to Outlook - 1. It syncs with my iPhone (Office XP did not work). 2. The task / calendar / email integration is really tight - if you’re a fan of David Allen - you’ll definitely dig the new sidebar views and calendar / task integration in the weekly calendar view.

So as the hardcore Mac and Open Source users within ArcStone hang their heads in shame as I publicly talk about liking Vista. Do not give up all hope - as I am a fickle computer user and a big fan of using the best tool for the job.

I’ve posted a little snippet of Austin demo-ing ArcSite. ArcSite enables our clients to browse to any page on their web site, click a button and edit text, images and links. It is infinitely customizable and will work in any design.

The same division within Microsoft that makes its mice and keyboards plans to launch a new interface for interacting with computers. Dubbed “Microsoft Surface” it turns your desktop into your desktop.

The surface lays flat on your desk - you no longer have the keyboard, mouse or monitor, you simply interact by touching the surface of your desk. There are some videos if you want to see it in action. They are predicting a price point between $5K and $10K.

This is a classic example of a technology created first, seeking a market second - fairly risky. Where it would be nice is when you’re in a highly interactive, collaborative environment - say working with an architect. You could move design elements around interactively - rather than huddling around a screen and fighting over the mouse.

I’m going to wait for the 3-D Microsoft Holo-Surface. I think I saw that on Star Trek once, so you know it’s gonna happen….

A few random thoughts about a web development company working on its own web site….

First and foremost - it’s hard.

Client work always comes first, we have hundreds of other related obligations, it has to be good, creative, effective - which makes it a little scary. At the end of the day we’ve spent all our juice working on our client’s sites, there’s not a lot left over for our own stuff. (more…)

We have been selected to present at the Push Technology Conference held annually at the Walker Art Center (this year June 10 - 12). They select eight companies as “Emerging Leaders” / presenters. Each has six minutes to pitch their globe changing idea to the entire gathering - fabulous prizes to the winner.

We will be presenting Wonderfile - our online document management and collaboration platform. Can we have a moment of silence for our competition?

I recently set-up a completely ridiculous guppy cam in my office. Web cam software has come a loooong way from when I first used it. From start to finish it literally took 15 minutes to get set-up (including the 5 minutes to purchase and register the shareware). It feeds the web server a new image every few minutes - for complete, up to date guppy excitement! I could stream video via the included Java applet, but that seemed a little too far over the top (even for me).

I used Active Webcam from PY Software which I found on Downloads.com. It cost $29 and seems to be extremely full featured. I can definitely vouch for its ease of use.

Anyway - wanna see the guppies?

Next up? Evidently it should be a new camera.