Disqus - Latest Comments for thursdayb

Re: How to replace Google Reader for Content Curation

Thursday Bram — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:05:17 -0000

Does this set up let you send items to different social media accounts (including sending an item to one Twitter account but not another)? I've had some problems doing that through IFTTT + Hootsuite and would love to figure out how to do it. Thanks!

Re: RSS, I quit you. Please subscribe to email updates for this blog instead.

Thursday Bram — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:46:16 -0000

I'm afraid I have to weigh in as one more voice in favor of RSS. I make a point of going through my RSS reader on a regular basis, because I choose what content to put in there. I als go through email regularly, but I ignore as much as possible in my inbox, because the odds are good that I didn't ask for a significant chunk of what's sent to me. I'll always be more positively predisposed to the RSS feeds I read than email subscriptions.

Re: Mint.com Knows the Value of Personal Analysis

Thursday Bram — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:55:19 -0000

10 million users — thanks for catching that!

Re: Handling a Natural Disaster with Style

Thursday Bram — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 10:36:04 -0000

There was a 7.7 magnitude earthquake south of Masset, Canada on Sunday night. Tsunami warnings were issued as far away as Hawaii. (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/...

Re: ‘Don’t Make Me Think,’ civil rights and more

Thursday Bram — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:28:01 -0000

I wouldn't say that it's a more secure CAPTCHA, but I do think it's an interesting concept.

Personally, I wouldn't expect to see it used by anyone who hasn't already committed to discussing civil rights in some form on their website, in which case I would assume that the website owner can expect readers to have some personal investment in civil rights as well.

Re: TextExpander and Take Control: Why Intuitive Software Still Needs Manuals

Thursday Bram — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:04:13 -0000

I'd suggest that for many users, Zen Coding isn't all that intuitive. For it, as well as Sublime, having a manual would still be necessary to be able to use all of the features that aren't obvious to a new user.

Re: How to Choose Your First Office Space

Thursday Bram — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:43:19 -0000

While a party zone does sound fun, I'd personally save it for the first office after the IPO.

Re: When Does Going Back to School Help a Developer?

Thursday Bram — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:18:14 -0000

I suppose I've been lucky enough to mostly have instructors who had a lot of personal experience and better teaching styles than that.

Re: When Does Going Back to School Help a Developer?

Thursday Bram — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:17:27 -0000

That definitely makes sense. Personally, I'm not sure that I could tackle Mandarin without a lot of help, so it's definitely a skill where a classroom helps.

Re: 5 Project Management Tools Recommended By Startup Founders

Thursday Bram — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:13:00 -0000

I'll have to check out TargetProcess and Trello!

Re: Why Blogging About the Project You Plan to Start is a Good Idea

Thursday Bram — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:39:06 -0000

It's interesting that you say that because a number of successful startups have used this exact approach. No one is going around and blogging about their exact code, but there are plenty of companies that have written about what they see in the market long before they were ready to launch. Even the much vaunted Airtime had a blog in place over a month before the details of the launch were public knowledge.

Re: Why Blogging About the Project You Plan to Start is a Good Idea

Thursday Bram — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:37:04 -0000

It's definitely a matter of balance. You can reveal a lot of the context for what you're thinking about without giving away your competitive edge, in most cases. But you're absolutely right — a connection with your user has to be the take away.

Re: Why Basecamp Got Rid of Free

Thursday Bram — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 10:38:09 -0000

Ads just aren't that lucrative for certain user bases. Many particularly web-savvy users (a group that I expect many of Basecamp's users fall into) never click on a single ad. Personally, I can't remember the last time I clicked on an ad. Ads that don't get clicks just don't pay out online.

Maintaining an ad sales program is also time intensive: you've got to make sure that the people who might advertise on your site know that you're selling. It can cost money to sell ads.

Re: The CISPA vote, where Alexis Ohanian thinks the web is headed and more

Thursday Bram — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:35:13 -0000

Bad news on CISPA (the first link in our round up). Yesterday, after I finished compiling the link roundup, the vote was moved up until yesterday afternoon. Amendments were also added that expanded the scope of the bill dramatically. You can read the details here: http://www.techdirt.com/art.... The bill is now headed to the Senate.

Re: http://garry.tv/post/21486292531

Thursday Bram — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:50:25 -0000

I actually went with the laptop approach — it's worked out nicely for me because the newer mactops can hook up to two Thunderbolt displays at once. It's not quite the three monitors you were looking for, but I've got a lot of screen real estate. The downside is that it's not the cheapest option, either.

Re: 4 Reasons to Develop an API

Thursday Bram — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:47:27 -0000

Thanks for bringing this to our attention! We'd fixed the missing item.

Re: HoCo Rising: The Best of What's Around (Tuesday LINKS)

Thursday Bram — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:55:38 -0000

I'm very confident that there's a major change coming to Howard County as gas prices rise. But it's definitely something that the county can take advantage of, by putting a little more local business infrastructure in place. With the MARC train and other commuter options still available, it is unlikely that a huge number of people will move out of Howard County to be closer to work — provided that public transportation continues to grow and the county puts an emphasis on creating the types of infrastructure needed for telecommuters and other workers that may be able to work locally at least part of the time.

Re: 5 Problems with Gmail's New Design

Thursday Bram — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:29:29 -0000

Oddly enough, the octogon and exclamation mark combo worked for me — but I think that's because I could feel a direct connection between the icon and the keyboard shortcut in Gmail for marking a message as spam (shift + 1).

But if there's anything I've learned about usability from watching scores of older clients use their own websites is that almost no one actually uses keyboard shortcuts. The icons could definitely be better, or they could just stick with actual words on the buttons.

Re: Self-Employment From Home – Crunching The Numbers

Thursday Bram — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:37:10 -0000

You've got a really good breakdown of the numbers here. I would add that it's worth the cost of going to a couple of networking events, as well — I landed a lot of my early freelance work through personal connections. $45 might seem like a lot for a lunch, but if you can use it to bring in a grand worth of business, it is more than worth it!

Re: Who Takes Care of Your Finances?

Thursday Bram — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:57:11 -0000

I handle the day to day bookkeeping in my business. When I incorporated, though, I made a point of finding a phenomenal CPA. Not only does he handle my taxes without blinking, but he's always willing to answer my questions, help me tweak my system and generally make my business run better.

@thursdayb

Re: What is the best marketing/sales book?

Thursday Bram — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:26:10 -0000

I'd absolutely recommend "Trust Agents" by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. No matter what your business model is, this book can show you new paths to successful marketing.

@thursdayb

Re: How To Make Content Go Viral?

Thursday Bram — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:18:55 -0000

Try a little retail promotion. Rather than trying to drive big batches of traffic in one go, take the time to send emails to a few potential visitors personally. Of course, those visitors are, by preference, people who have the network to drive your content much further. But it's the personal touch that will get the ball rolling.

Re: How Do You Use LinkedIn?

Thursday Bram — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:22:15 -0000

I've been using LinkedIn for quite a few years now and I've found that, by far, the most valuable aspect is the Answers feature. I've been able to easily establish expertise on different topics as my company has evolved. It makes it easy to connect with prospective clients when they're first learning about the subjects that will eventually lead them to needing a specific product or service.

Re: On Being Accessible…but Drawing the Line

Thursday Bram — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:58:09 -0000

I've made a conscious effort of late to set emails and other communications aside until it's the right time for me to answer them. Just because someone feels that now is the perfect time to send me a message is no reason for me to assume that I need to respond to it immediately.

Re: What’s Next In Social Media?

Thursday Bram — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:24:15 -0000

Email. It always comes back to email. How do people know if they've got new stuff to look at on Facebook or Twitter? Email. How do people follow up on products they've already bought? Email. What tool lets you build an ongoing relationship without getting caught up in someone's 1,500 Facebook friends? Email.