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If there is an Mac program you wanted to buy a long time ago but were postponing the final decision for one reason or another then now is a good time to make it. MacSanta brings holiday discounts to hundreds of Mac shareware programs. The prices are great, but hurry up, there are just 4 days left.
I am going to MacSanta right now to pick myself a copy of Snapz Pro X and CSSEdit :)
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!
Oliver Breidenbach from Boinx Software writes about his experience with MacHeist:
The MacHeist crew has to be applauded for developing and testing new ways to market Mac applications. If they succeed, it may well be that this becomes a good revenue stream for Mac developers. Because if they succeed, the next time, the amount of money that we will demand will increase dramatically. And if it turns out that it was all not worth our while, we simply will have to mark it down as another way not to get rich.
You can find real jewels in Oliver's responses to comments:
> If these guys made $5k in a regular week, they would have no need for Ryu.
If we made just $5k a regular week on FotoMagico, we'd have to close down business.
> Actually, if you are wrong, it could be 52 lousy weeks with an overload of customer support that saps all your development energy.
If FotoMagico were such a bad quality that we couldn't handle a couple of thousand more customers, we would have to close shop as well.
> And they'll discover that they have ideas that it "should" work differently than you have designed the product to work.
Yes, and that would be a good thing because then we would know more about the market perception, user expectations and all the other things we like to base our product plans on. We might even discover new markets that we haven't thought of yet.
> I know that TextMate doesn't need more salespeople
In my experience, Mac "shareware" usually sells well below the market potential. I would be surprised if TextMate would be the exception. You never have enough (unpaid) sales people. Of course you can be happy with the business as it is in a philosphical sense.
See also: Give and You Shall Receive.
From adotas:
IBM has announced that it will be spending about $10 million over the next year on virtual massively multiplayer worlds like the game Second Life. CEO Sam Palmisano will be meeting with 7,000 Chinese IBM employees inside Second Life on November 17th, and then meeting with another group of employees on one of IBM’s private virtual islands.
ScreenCastsOnline, the website hosted and produced by Don McAllister, provides great video tutorials for Mac users. The quality of work done by Don is outstanding.
This is why I am so excited to write about the 1Passwd presentation published on ScreenCastsOnline a few days ago. If you ever had any questions about how to use 1Passwd then this video is the best place to get them answered.
Don also made a special high-resolution video for us:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/donmc/SCO0078-1Passwd-Free-832x468-h264.mov
You can also see the embedded version directly on this page. Note that it has slightly lower resolution compared to the link above:
From BBC News:
The number of passwords and logins web users need makes it inevitable they will re-use phrases, warned the International Telecommunications Union.
Re-using these identifiers puts people at serious risk of falling victim to identity theft, said the ITU report.
It called on regulators and businesses to find better ways for people to identify themselves to websites.
This morning I've stumbled upon an interesting blog post by Matt Inglot: What It Means to Wake Up and Take Charge of Your Life.
It is a great post but what struck me the most was the comment by Thomas Holmes:
Choice. Taking the time to choose. I did the degree which i quite enjoyed and led me on to other things. Then I got the job. Which I liked, did well at but most importantly i was accepted. So I overworked - taking out an advance on my health. and then i started an mba. my body was pretty quick to shut everything down though. and i stopped and breathed.
It’s funny how quickly your life can become a rollercoaster and one you didn’t choose. If we don’t choose there are plenty of circumstances and other people who do choose for us. Not choosing is a choice. It’s more likely to suck as a choice though.
Congrats on the entrepreneurial life! I’ve just started my own thing too. It’s much better!
Every day we have to take time to choose.
(The image is taken from Through The Maze).
NewsBlaze Daily News published a top story on how to find an extra hour a day if you are spending it online: How to Find An Extra Hour A Day Online.
This independent story confirms that interactive password managers, like RoboForm can save quite a bit of your time:
Use RoboForm — Using a password manager like Roboform.com cuts down on time spent tearing your desk or email program apart looking for usernames and passwords for an account you haven't used in a while.
Secure and immediate access to all your passwords will save you an average of 5 minutes per day.
I agree with this conclusion 100%. And if you also use its autofill feature to automatically fill the web forms, you can save 5-10 minutes more. Over a single month this can add up to 7 hours of extra time!
