IFTTT raises $7M
I've been using IFTTT a ton lately. I would pay for the service without blinking an eye (especially if it supported things like multiple accounts per channel). This big round of funding is well deserved.
Blog
Longer-form posts and essays.
Writing helps me think more clearly. This archive is longer posts; quick updates now live in notes.
Topics: AI, blogging, photography, programming, projects, Signboard
Welcome to Silicon Docks: Dublin’s tech scene is booming
Issie Lapowsky for Inc. on Dublin's booming tech scene: Now, despite the country's ongoing economic struggles, a slew of emerging growth start-ups are flocking to the city of pints and pubs. This year alone, tech darlings including Indeed.com, Hubspot, Zendesk, and, most recently, Dropbox, have opened or announced plans to open offices in Dublin. I really enjoyed visiting…
How Safari got its name
Well, not really. This post is really about how Don Melton doesn't remember how Safari got its name and how there are a lot of stories to tell you about later. So, to whoever suggested the name “Safari,” thank you. Though I'm a Chrome guy now (Safari is just far too slow) I too thank the person that…
Top 10 Flickr for iPhone tips
Great list of tips and features for Flickr's new iOS application. Iparticularlylike number 3: 3. Apply a single filter to multiple photos at once. Did you fall in love with a particular filter? We’ve made it easy for you to apply it to multiple photos at once. You simply select the photos from your camera roll that you’d…
The advantages and disadvantages of feature roll outs
If you're a member of a fairly popular web service you're probably becoming more and more familiar with feature roll outs. A feature roll out is when a new feature is added to a service for a certain number of users at a time and, after some duration of time, every user on that service ends up with…
Quit Instagram, They Said.
MG Siegler, who inexplicably still writes for AOL TechCrunch, writes about people "quitting" Instagram. The real world:Quit, verb, to leave (a place), usually permanently. The internet:Quit, verb, to threaten to leave as loudly as possible, usually over something stupid, then do nothing. I'll admit it. When I first saw the Instagram news I too wanted to look at…
Nilay Patel on Instagram’s policy changes
Nilay Patel, of The Verge and a guy with a law degree on his wall, chimes in about Instagram's policy changes.
Temporary Insanity
Fantastically written piece from my teenaged friend Abby Wagner: People want to secure material in something more reliable than a single website. I think she has a future in writing.
Instagram’s new privacy policy
In short; Instagram is now going to share your information with its parent-company Facebook in order to serve more relevant ads. Instagram will share things like the places you visit, your interests (remember all those photos you've liked?), and even your photos in order to tailor advertising to you. You can look at this any number of ways….
Instagram responds to backlash
The web has been ablaze yesterday and today about the new Instagram policies. Instagram has written a blog post to ensure everyone that there has been some confusion and they are going to do whatever they can to make everything more clear. Good. I hope everyone didn't go and delete their Instagram accounts without waiting until everything really…
Instagram backlash is Flickr’s gain
Tom Warren, of The Verge, agrees with me about Flickr gaining from this recent Instagram policy change: With a nicely redesigned client and support for filters, Flickr is finally catching up to battle Instagram on the photo sharing front. And its dormant community of lapsed Pro users (who are required to pay a nominal fee each year) could…
How Flickr can eat Instagram’s table scraps. I’m Instagram’s table scraps. And so are you.
Before I even get started; Flickr can not stop Instagram at this point. Flickr can not beat Instagram in terms of hockey-stick-growth. Even with Instagram's recent policy changes Instagram is on a trajectory to hit the nearest star and Flickr nor Bruce Willis can stop them now. But, to succeed they do not need to win – they…
Your most productive time
Todd Troxell, ex-coworker and co-founder of Vid.io, asked an interesting question on Hacker News that got some great responses: Your most productive time. How do you do it? For me, I'm most productive early in the morning and mid-afternoon when I get back from lunch. I'm worthless just before lunch and anytime at night. That is, unless I…
You can now download all of your tweets
Or, at least soon you will be. The Next Web has all the details. With over 26,000 tweets under my two-sizes-too-big belt I can say that I'm very happy about this. Twitter has now given me a way to relive the last 6 years of my life whenever I choose.
Open Google Maps with Siri
Just about everyone is saying that the new Google Maps app for iOS is a big win for users. But, one thing that is holding it back from being truly great is the level at which it can be integrated into iOS. Well, here is one tip to open Google Maps with Siri that should help. Now we…
Goodbye Viddler
Working at the same company for six years is a privilege that many do not get to enjoy. I've been extremely privileged to be able to do just that at Viddler from early 2007 until now. My relationship with the Viddler team actually began before my first day as a team member. My friend and ex-coworker Mike Stickel…
You are not your code
Sam Stephenson, creator of Prototype JavaScript framework and team member at 37Signals, explains why our self-worth should not stem from the longevity of our code. He also puts forth this worthy nugget: In order to advance the state of the art, we have to be willing not only to try new ideas, but to retreat when those ideas…
Why founders shouldn’t be the developers
Swizec explains why founders shouldn't be the developers: There’s no getting around that, no matter how good a programmer you are, no matter how experienced, it’s just hard. Programming doesn’t require a lot of attention, it requires _all_of attention. I agreed. As much as the founder wants to be the developer they shouldn't be. I don't think it means that…
The web we lost
Anil Dash waxes poetic about the web of turn of the century before Facebook and Twitter. But then talks about what is happening now: But we're going to face a big challenge with re-educating a billion people about what the webmeans, akin to the years we spent as everyone moved off ofAOLa decade ago, teaching them that there…
Why I’m shutting Nilai down
Nilai began as a labor of love for me. For a few months I'd spend an evening or so per week tapping out some code while watching a basketball game in my home pub. It was a lot of fun to work on and experiment with. While the day job got in the way of me being able…
Why Twitter introduced photo filters
Matthew Panzarino: As photos and other media become a bigger part of Twitter’s strategy in the future, it can’t have this kind of thing completely at the mercy of a service owned by a competitor. Instagram's being able to simply yank Twitter's ability to embed images inline on their site and apps is far too much control for…
Viddler, now with multi-user sign on
The Viddler Blog: Decide who can access your dashboard, setup their own Viddler username and password, and choose what they will have access to in your account. Select who can view and/or manage certain videos or playlists, who can edit account or billing settings, and for those customers with sub-accounts, you can set permissions for accessing these accounts…
Pageview journalism
Jim Dalrymple at The Loop: We aren’t focused on pageviews, but rather posting things that interest us. Of course, the hope is that they’ll interest you as well. This is an interesting topic. And "pageview journalism" is an interesting phrase. The post that Jim links to on ZDNet describes pageview journalism as the act of writing about topics…
It all starts as a hobby
Tom Tunguz on how so many big products and entire companies started out as just a hobby. He should know: Google AdSense’s internal CRM is a Rails app called Toothpaste that I cobbled together one (late) night that now serves the global team. What is your hobby project?