Family guy and web developer
Products and companies get acquired all the time. The concern that many have is that Instapaper will eventually be pulled as a product. Not a crazy theory considering that many tech acquisations do this.
I'll keep using Instapaper until that day but there's room now for a similar product that will continue to run on it's own. Any takers?
The notes app Vesper has closed down. I wasn't a user of Vesper but I did give it a try just over a year ago.
I'm never happy to see a product close down that the people behind it have invested in and love using, but there's a lesson here that many people ignore.
You need revenue.
John Gruber's analysis of what went wrong is simple and a lesson for anyone thinking that pricing a product is just a matter of slapping a price on it.
What went wrong was very simple. We never made enough money. Why we didn’t make enough money, what we should have done differently to make more money — those are complex questions (which I’ll tackle below). But what actually sunk Vesper was not complicated. Even as a relatively popular app at a relatively high price (for iOS), revenue was never high enough.
— Vesper, Adieu by John Gruber
Sad to see Vesper go, but hat tip to John for providing such a detailed breakdown of what went wrong and what the Vesper team should have done to generate revenue for the app. This is required reading for anyone getting in the apps game with an idea of their own.
Find a reason and write.
Wanted: A folder in the iOS Photos app that deletes photos older than 30 days.
Or is it just common sense?
During his 15 minutes with each executive, Lee explained his simple method for achieving peak productivity:
- At the end of each workday, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.
- Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.
- When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.
- Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.
- Repeat this process every working day.
The strategy sounded simple, but Schwab and his executive team at Bethlehem Steel gave it a try. After three months, Schwab was so delighted with the progress his company had made that he called Lee into his office and wrote him a check for $25,000.
— This 100-Year-Old To-Do List Hack Still Works Like A Charm by Fast Company
$800 for the new box set of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It's hard to see what you're really getting for your money on this one.
I won't be buying it!
Safari beach balling when I open up a client’s repo on Github. It’s gonna be one of them days.
Quit Safari. Start Safari. Github page opens. groan
Pinterest acquires Instapaper. I really hope Pinterest allow Instapaper to run as is.
Great, now I’m mechanical keyboard shopping. #geeklife