Disqus - Friends of Ben14

Re: Elastic – Make your textareas grow Facebook style jQuery plugin

Joel Gascoigne — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:59:56 -0000

Thanks for a great plugin! I am using for a current project.

One thing I've noticed is that it does not work as expected with % width textareas, since the twin (hidden div) is appended to the body and hence becomes the % of body rather than the same width as the textarea.

My initial thought was to fix this by changing the appendTo to textarea.parent(), but with it being absolutely positioned it does not seem to work, and I had some issues with it only working when removing the display:none from the div.

Needless to say, I've spent as much time as I'm going to debugging the issue at the moment, but thought I'd put it out there in case anyone else has come across it already or wants to have a go at fixing it.

For now, I've switched my textareas to pixel widths and the plugin is working very nicely. I'll look into this again when I get a bit more time.

Re: Elastic – Make your textareas grow Facebook style jQuery plugin

Joel Gascoigne — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:02:01 -0000

And why aren't you using the elastic plugin on this comment textarea!

Re: How StalkDaily Opened a Gaping Hole in Twitter

Joel Gascoigne — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 06:50:41 -0000

I really can't believe there was a huge security hole like this in Twitter! And that it's only just been exploited.

Re: Learn A Language, 10 Words At A Time

Joel Gascoigne — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:43:59 -0000

Another great language learning web app is http://smart.fm (previously iknow.co.jp). They are expanding fast and have nice features like Facebook Connect and OpenID. Definitely worth checking out.

Re: When Google Latitude Stalking Isn't Such A Bad Thing

Joel Gascoigne — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:11:45 -0000

This is really great, and I agree with Suraj in that people really need to look past the privacy issues with these location based services.

I believe there is a huge amount of potential uses of these services once they become a bit more widespread and this really is just the tip of the iceberg.

I think people are gradually embracing the openness and transparency of the way the web is progressing with things like Twitter being completely public, and Facebook making steps to let people be more open (with their Everyone option). I think similar openness is going to be hard for people to have on a location based service, but has many benefits.

Re: MY QUEST TO SAVE FACEBOOK…I AM SERIOUS!

Joel Gascoigne — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:58:13 -0000

Great post.

The reason I think you won't get rid of Twitter just yet is the opposing ways Twitter and Facebook deal with openness, and this is the reason I've been able to use Twitter in such useful ways to network with people more than with Facebook.

Robert Scoble hit the nail right on the head with his post yesterday:

"Facebook is still keeping most of its users’ data private due to the privacy contract that it has made with its users."
http://scobleizer.com/2009/...

Twitter is public by default, Facebook is private by default. Companies can't find out what people are saying about their products on Facebook.

Also, another related blog post is by ReadWriteWeb: http://www.readwriteweb.com...

I have to say, openness and search are the two big ones in my opinion. Search is vital.

Re: Understanding the New Web Era: Web 3.0, Linked Data, Semantic Web

Joel Gascoigne — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:38:12 -0000

I think the key to the whole concept of Web 3.0, the Semantic Web and Open Linked Data is for the entrepreneurs of the next big breakthroughs to be engaged and on board with these advancements and do their bit.

We all know the power of Web 2.0, even for the entrepreneurs themselves in terms of the possible virality of their marketing campaigns and the power to spread quickly.

There is also a great deal of power to be had from moving forward with the idea of Open Linked Data, and things like Microformats, Data Portability, OpenID and OAuth come to mind as ways the new and current entrepreneurs can develop their applications and link their publicly available data on their service.

I will certainly be doing my bit with my upcoming ventures.

The main thing here, is that like people have said, terms like OWL, RDF, SPARQL, etc are very academic and the typical web user will not be able to get on board if we use those terms. Usability is key here: phrasing and presenting these concepts in a way which gives value to the user.

Re: Jump Into The Stream

Joel Gascoigne — Sun, 17 May 2009 11:13:54 -0000

There is a serious problem of information overload right now. In addition to this, the information for any individual is dispersed right across the Internet in many different channels (someone's videos, pictures, musings, etc).

What we need is filtering and to give meaning to all the information, and this is where microformats and the semantic web come in.

There is a lot of value to be had in being able to organise your online activity appropriately and show it in the right form each person (whether that be all your current activity in a constantly changing stream, or a more concise summary and ways to delve in further).

Re: Calling all Twitter tool providers to implement OAuth

Joel Gascoigne — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:51:50 -0000

I couldn't agree with this more! Very important. I'm currently working on OnePage which makes use of the Twitter API. We've developed it with OAuth from the outset. If anyone wants to support and try out a new beta service please check out http://getonepage.com :)

Re: Power.com Countersues Facebook Over Data Portability

Joel Gascoigne — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:29:23 -0000

The Data Portability project is an ambitious one and I can see why companies such as Facebook want to keep hold of their data.

But this isn't to export your data and move to a different platform, this is to enhance the Facebook experience along with your other social network activities through a social network aggregator.

I think Facebook should open up and it seems they are with the recent public status messaging. Society is gradually becoming more open and I think it's a good thing.

Re: How to implement a launching soon page with PHP and jQuery

Joel Gascoigne — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:54:04 -0000

This is a nice little script. It should be noted, however, that this particular implementation uses relative time. This means that it's useful for events relative to the user such as Christmas or other seasonal events, but not for things which should occur at the same time for everyone. Therefore this is not ideal for a launching soon page, as you will want the page to be launched at the same time for everyone. For universal time countdown you'll want to adapt this by using the Dynamic Drive Universal Countdown Script at http://www.dynamicdrive.com.... I've just implemented this on http://getOnePage.com and it is working nicely.

Thanks

Re: First Look: Firefox 3.7′s New Design

Joel Gascoigne — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:13:41 -0000

Really like it! Currently torn between Chrome and Firefox, as I'm a developer and I use a lot of extensions. However gotta say Firefox and doing a good job right now :) Glad Chrome came into the scene to stir things up though :)

Re: Code in your browser with PHPanywhere

Joel Gascoigne — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 05:35:28 -0000

I really like the look of this, and it's definitely the kind of step forward we need. Unfortunately, SVN/Git support is the make or break for me. Even more important than FTP. Hopefully they will get that built in soon, and I may give it a go!

I do believe the concern most have with these types of things though is that the code is hosted by PHPanywhere. I think there are a lot of benefits to be had from moving to the cloud, but this is a definite concern. Security needs to be emphasised a lot.

Re: Gmail+Kisses+%26quot%3BOn+Behalf+Of%26quot%3B+Goodbye%2C+Enables+Support+For+Third-Party+Outbound%26nbsp%3BServers

Joel Gascoigne — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:42:14 -0000

That's good news!

Re: Ow.ly And Bit.ly Fastest, Most Reliable URL Shorteners. Tr.Im Comes Up . . . Short.

Joel Gascoigne — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:11:01 -0000

This is a great post, and just goes to show that there is good reason why bit.ly is so popular, and that there is more which can be evolved from a very simple idea. The competition in this space is healthy.

I've been observing what's been happening with Tr.im over the last weeks and I'm not impressed at all. They certainly shouldn't be putting blame on Twitter or others and should be coming up with strategies to offer something different or find other USPs.

I once heard the phrase "Competition doesn't kill a startup, they commit suicide."

Re: Web Industry Misunderstood

Joel Gascoigne — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:30:02 -0000

I feel your pain Greg. For me, it just drives me to prove them wrong. Stay positive, keep it up!

Also, in my opinion, there's a big difference between "making websites" and taking the plunge to make a startup and create a web app. The potential is huge, but until you get there many people just won't understand.

Re: Design by Contract - for efficient coding - Andy Young.

Joel Gascoigne — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:56:32 -0000

This makes a huge amount of sense Andy.

I agree that it's important to keep things simple, and not write twice as much code for each function you're writing. I do however think that, as you have said, it depends on the situation. In my case, we are actually writing an API which will be exposed to the public, so it's important that we take our testing seriously.

The way I see it you need a balance - since you can easily end up replicating the validation checks at every stage in the code, which obviously doesn't make sense. Putting it that way, DBC is clearly a good idea.

I would probably argue though that the contracts should be tested via unit testing if coding is done this way. Do you agree with that or would you say that is again extra work that isn't necessary? I think it's important that this idea of a contract doesn't end up being the equivalent of "I won't bother, someone else will do that"!

Re: Design by Contract - for efficient coding - Andy Young's Blog

Joel Gascoigne — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:41:23 -0000

This makes a huge amount of sense Andy.

Re: Design by Contract - for efficient coding - Andy Young.

Joel Gascoigne — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:19:06 -0000

I agree with this. I now see a good use for design-by-contract, i.e. for protected methods. That makes sense.

Cheers Dave and Andy!

Re: Cerego Raises $3.4 Million For Smart.fm, Launches Facebook Friend Quiz

Joel Gascoigne — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:57:22 -0000

I used this during university when I was studying Japanese. It's very good. These guys deserve it!

Re: Forgot Password done the right way

Joel Gascoigne — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:59:12 -0000

This is certainly the right way to do it, you're spot on :)

The main point is that the password can only be reset after action coming from the email inbox of that user. This is the way to verify that it is indeed the user who has made the request.

Keep up the good work.

Re: How Being Scrappy Made Grasshopper Profitable Within 2 Months – with Siamak Taghaddos

Joel Gascoigne — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:51:41 -0000

Thanks for this Andrew! As always, each interview is really inspirational and it keeps driving me to keep working on my startup. I haven't commented until now, but from now on I have made a promise to myself that I will comment on every video I watch (which is lots now! I love them). It's not only to give you feedback but to let me find in my own mind which parts of the interview I found really useful and by commenting I hope I will reinforce them in my mind and take them forward with me for the future.

In this interview, the part where Siamak described the way he sees how small business (or lifestyle business) owners differ from entrepreneurs: entrepreneurs have much more aspirations and a real vision. It's no right or wrong choice, and I think it's great that some people can create lifestyle businesses and be happy for them to bring in enough to give them a decent standard of living. I think, however, I certainly fall into the entrepreneur category here - I really want to make a difference in the world, and there is no limit to how far I want to go.

Keep up the fantastic work Andrew, I'll be in touch again.

Re: MB1 – Play 8 – Work only on What is Important

Joel Gascoigne — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:05:46 -0000

This is definitely an interesting topic, thanks for sharing and opening up for discussion.

I certainly can't agree with "do it fast, simple, and right the first time". One thing I've learned as I've been working on OnePage is that you really should be relating everything to improving important metrics. If you're pre-revenue, then that's probably growth or finding a fit in the market (perhaps user retention). Otherwise it's probably mostly revenue.

I think one of the best things you can do is ensure you're flexible enough to try new ideas very cheaply. Luckily for startups, being small should mean flexibility. This includes being able to split-test without it being a burden, and to split-test and measure the macro level metric to determine an improvement in the key metric. In the spirit of the Lean Startup, instead of "Build it and they will come", "Build, Measure, Learn til they come" :)

Combining this with the idea of the Minimum Viable Product, I would argue that you can determine what to build based on what will give you the best return. Of the new areas you're working on, could you not create the initial interface for one of the features without actually creating the full feature, and then show half of your users the version with the new feature available, and half the version without? Then measure the effect and determine whether to fully build the new feature. This obviously can be difficult with features which you charge for, but those which you do not can certainly be tested this way.

Another interesting point is that of avoiding letting your users guide where you take your startup. Sure, it's great to listen to all your users, but we always try to ensure the feature requested by a user is both useful for users and also inline with our vision for OnePage before we decide to start developing it. It's great to ensure that each feature builds on getting users to pay, but not necessarily if the aim of the feature is for growth. I guess what I'm saying is it's important to decide the purpose of the feature.

I'm definitely with you on finding the 80/20 and I think that's one of the difficult jobs startup founders are tasked with.

As a side note, we're currently undergoing a redevelopment and I do often wonder whether refactoring would have been the preferred route. I think with startups, smallest steps as possible are the best, and getting the product in front of users as frequently as possible. Months of development without users seeing any of it is certainly a bad thing.

"Right for the first time" implies there is only one time. But does product development ever actually end?

Re: MB1 – Play 8 – Work only on What is Important

Joel Gascoigne — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:34:20 -0000

Cheers for the reply Manoj, I think you're spot on with ensuring it's a balance between gut feel and metrics.

You might want to look into KISSmetrics (I'm on their beta and it is very good), and MixPanel as alternatives or additions to using Google Web Optimizer. Also, I'm implementing goals in Google Analytics right now and it sounds like a similar issue I came across with regards to breaking the front-end. Google normally want you to have two completely separate versions of the same page to measure analytics, or have separate pages for steps in a funnel where you might actually have a page with the same address but dynamically generated steps. There is a way around this, and I'm implementing it right now. If you'd like me to chat to your tech guys about the way to do this then the offer is there :)

Re: Sending email with Gmail using the CodeIgniter PHP Framework

Joel Gascoigne — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:15:07 -0000

Hi Ricardo! I'm glad you found it useful.

I'd love for you to translate it to Portuguese, please go ahead :)