My Amazon aStore

Amazon recently came up with a really simple idea for their associates but one that is so obvious I’m surprised they hadn’t thought of it before.  Basically they let their associates specify a list of products and then they generate a mini-store for them. They call these mini-stores an "aStore."   Amazon even provides a clean …

Kudos to Microsoft: Visual Studio Express Tools Free Forever!

I just learned that Microsoft has decided to make the Visual Studio Express tools free forever. This to me shows Microsoft’s acknowledgment that people are not willing to invest their time learning a product that they will eventually have to pay more for then they have funds available or earmarked, especially young people. I greatly applaud …

Simple technologies recombined, not technological breakthroughs, spur disruptive innovations

Yesterday when I blogged about simplicity I forgot to mention Clayton Christensen‘s take on simple technology. Clayton’s ground-breaking book was entitled "The Innovator’s Dilemma" and is a must-read for any developer who wants to understand the business dynamics between market incumbency and innovative uses of technology. From his extensive research Christensen states in The Innovator’s Dilemma …

BaseCamp Project Management: Blinded by Ideology

Some people just don’t get it.  They are so caught up in their own blind ideology they won’t consider alternative views. I’ve been looking for a reasonably-priced web-based project management system for quite some time, and yesterday I thought I found it: BaseCamp from 37Signals.  Problem is, after an email exchange with the founder Jason Fried, …