Category: Business

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Business Technology

The Forgotten Industries

Within the realm of “hot startups” and “amazing technology” on the internet are some forgotten industries.

No, these industries won’t be prompting you to write a review about that blade of grass in that new dog park in San Francisco while geo-tagging your whereabouts while you do it so that their application might be able to offer you a discounted grass shake from the local shake shop … and then filter the image of the grass shake so that you can share it with your friends.

These industries are also not filled with multi-billion-dollar VC funds handing out multi-million-dollar rounds of VC funding to high school kids (and a dog) to build the next great social-media-geo-tagging-geo-fencing-filter-inducing-vomit-forming startup. Oh no.

No, these industries are older and more entrenched than that, but the possibilities within are almost endless.

My life is dominated by my family, my faith, and my work. Luckily, all three come together at various points.

Both agricultural and church software is in a woeful state for the sorts of customers that 37signals targets in business. Now there is a lot of overlap to be had with applications like Basecamp and Campfire and the groups I am talking about, but right now there is also an extreme need for newer, better applications tailored specifically for the needs of churches and small-to-mid-sized family farms.

That forgets completely about the fact that there is always the need for better software and better services everywhere. I was reminded of this when looking around for RAM to upgrade my MacBook Pro and Mac mini. I spent over an hour looking around for the best prices but it really came down to what retailer I trusted the most. Which place did I have the best experience with in the past, regardless of the price.

Think about anything you do within that context as well. It isn’t enough to just have a great product to sell, but you want to also have a great relationship for your customers to enter into. It is mutually beneficial on both sides, which should make it even easier, but so many times the relationship is neglected on one or both ends and it ends poorly.

So many parallels.

So I’m asking for other people out there to turn an eye, or two, over here and spend some time and effort into looking into how these industries might be best served. I think there is a huge potential to get some great products up and running.

Maybe I’ll just do it myself.

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Business Life Technology

Fear of Imperfection

When I get stuck, I tend to try and think my way out.

As my wife of almost six years would tell you, that’s probably not the best thing for me to do. However, it is a habit I cannot seem to break.

In my current rut of which I am stuck in I’ve been doing some reflection on why I’m in this rut. It is not a fun rut. I really don’t like being here and I know that things are better when I am out of this said rut but … here I sit. Stuck. In a rut.

Here’s the thing, I’m afraid.

I’m not afraid of failing, per say, or of the unknown (because who really knows what is going to happen even when we do think we have a decent idea of where things are going). No, I’m afraid of doing some imperfect.

Mainly this revolves around programming. What is stuck in my head is that I can’t do anything unless the entire project, from start to finish and every step in between, is going to be perfect. Every step clear. Every decision the correct one. Every line of code exactly where it should be and typed the correct way the first time. Having to clean up later or remove code that really didn’t need to be there is not acceptable. In my head, it shouldn’t be that way. Not that this should be easy, but that I should be able to, somehow, do it perfectly even if it is hard.

I’m not wholly sure where this has come from or how long it has been here, but that is what has been surfaced during my current reflection. It is amazing what a person can find out about themselves even after 26 years.

So what to do? Really, it is to get the fingers moving and the code going again. It is to force through even if things aren’t going perfectly. Embrace the ugly, as it may be in a way. Focus on small wins.

All stuff I know.

It also means putting down the books and tutorials, at least in the obsessive, “this will surely teach me the perfect way” style that I have been reading books recently. What good is the knowledge if not harnessed for something bigger, for moving ahead? It isn’t worth anything except to help me sound smarter when sitting around the table.

What good is that last part anyway? Meaningless.

So I move ahead, with fits and starts, with ideas. With failure behind and ahead and move forward, hoping to find something and knowing that going anywhere is infinitely better than standing still.

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Business Life Technology

Separate Computing

With the addition of the Mac mini into my computing environment, I now will get to test out a theory I’ve had for a little while. Also, Ben Brooks published an article in the most recent addition of The Magazine title One Computer Worked Better which flies directly in the face of what I am trying to accomplish, so it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Basically, I’m splitting my computing needs in two, or at least working with two computers and two mobile devices.

For a long time I’ve been a one-computer user. I’ve had a laptop that I take with me between home and work, setting it up between places with a monitor, mouse, and keyboard wherever I go. This has worked quite well. I keep all of my data on a single machine, back it up daily, and have everything at my fingertips whenever I might need it.

However, I have two purposes. I have a day job and then I have the work that I do for myself and other clients. This means that I can have a co-mingling of data on a single machine.

Which is never good.

As much as I hate to say it, I also don’t like constantly plugging and unplugging my MacBook Pro to take it from work to home and then back again the next day. There is the obvious wear-and-tear on the machine itself, but it also takes just that little extra bit of time in the mornings to get everything setup before I can start work. A minor annoyance, but it is still an annoyance.

The New Setup

There are now four devices that are part of the setup, which does add complexity.

At Home

The base-model Mac mini (Late 2012) sits on a shelf near my desk, attached to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Attached to this Mac mini is a bus-powered USB hard drive for local Time Machine backups and that’s about it. It sits there, quietly waiting for me to come home and work.

There is also an iPad mini as the mobile, non-tethered computing for at home. I’ll talk more on that later.

The best things about the Mac mini at home don’t even have to do with the fact that it is a Mac or the benefits of that. No, it is the fact that it is a desktop tethered to my desk that I like the most. I’m not going to pull it up to the first floor and work on something. By forcing me to go work in my office I keep work apart from the family and I also eliminate distractions by “retreating” to my office.

Being a desktop also means I have less chance of component failure due to movement. At least I hope I do. I also have the option of expanding the storage easily using USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt external hard drives.

I am tempted to try a home-made Fusion Drive at some point as well.

At Work

This is where I have the MacBook Pro perched up on a stand and connected to an external monitor. It works well. I wish I had a Thunderbolt Display so that I could eliminate all but two cables (Thunderbolt and power), but I make do with the five hanging off of the side.

Having the portable here means I can take it to meetings if I need to, but that I can also take it on longer vacations if there seems to be a need for that. It has enough storage to get the job done, but if I move all of my personal stuff (photos, music, videos, etc.) to the Mac mini at home, I’ll probably get a smallish SSD just for fun. Development doesn’t always require a ton of space.

On The Road

Here is where it gets interesting. I always have my iPhone with me and that is not going to change. The iPhone 4S has probably been the single best device I’ve ever owned.

However, the iPad mini has now moved into the category of being my main mobile computing device. It can handle the important tasks I need to accomplish and in a smaller package than any laptop I could bring along. It also has the benefit of having cellular internet built into it.

I won’t even get into the fact that there are no moving parts in an iPad either. No fans. No hinges. No spinning disks. Those are all good things.

However, you can’t do everything that I do on an iPad, and so for some longer trips (or trips where I know that I will need to be developing something) I will pack up the MacBook Pro and lug it along. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to eliminate the need to bring along the larger laptop on more and more trips in the future.

It is probably good to just leave work at home anyway.

In Conclusion

Basically, this is an experiment in the syncing and “cloud” infrastructures of today. While there are definite breaks in what data is stored where, there are some things that I have to toss into Dropbox to keep it on both machines. I also keep a lot of stuff in iCloud and … we’ll see how it goes.

You can probably expect a post recanting my current position within six months.

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Business Technology

Apple’s Executive Shakeup

If you haven’t heard, Apple just announced some shuffling on their executive team. Here is the overview:

  • Scott Forstall (iOS SVP) is leaving
  • John Browett (Retail SVP) is leaving
  • Jony Ive is taking over UI design duties
  • Craig Federighi is taking over iOS development
  • Eddy Cue takes over Siri and Maps
  • Bob Mansfield takes over a new Technologies group

That’s a pretty big shakeup. Bob Mansfield went from retiring to the SVP of an entirely new Technologies group in less than a half-year. Scott Forstall went from the stage of WWDC announcing iOS 6 to … nothing. John Browett seemed to be heading this direction from the start, I’m just glad it happened sooner rather than later.

The Apple Stores are probably the single biggest advantage Apple holds over every competitor outside of the actual products they are selling. Having a direct link with customers is so incredibly valuable that anything, or anyone who could damage that link should be tossed out and handled quickly. Browett seemed to be getting in the way of making the Apple Stores even better, so getting rid of him seems like a great move. I will closely watch who they might tap as the next SVP of Apple Retail.

The other departure was Scott Forstall. He always seemed just slightly creepy as “Mr. Intense Eyes”, but he shepherded iOS from the beginning so I have to give him some respect. It seems, though, that his departure has more to do with his personality and management style than the “skeuomorphism wars” that were supposedly going on within Apple. I have liked the move to more textured software, but I’m also strange … so take that as you like.

However, the interesting thing is that now you have much greater integration amongst the SVPs. The separation between products is no longer there, but the divisions happening on a more general level. Here is how I see things now:

  • Jony Ive – Design
  • Craig Federighi – Software
  • Eddy Cue – Services
  • Dan Riccio – Hardware
  • Bob Mansfield – Technology

Of course, it isn’t quite that clear-cut, but what you now notice that it takes collaboration across multiple areas to get things done. This means that the executives, at least, are more generalists than anything else.

Ive, Federighi, and Cue will be in charge of making sure iOS and OS X are great and wonderful. Ive, Riccio, and Mansfield will be in charge of making sure each piece of hardware is great and wonderful.

Notice a name that is in both of those groups?

Jony Ive now has really taken on an even greater roll in Apple than anyone else. He touches pretty much every aspect of every device that will now leave Cupertino. He’s involved not just in the hardware design but the UI design for the software as well. That’s really interesting, and I think entirely deliberate on Tim Cook’s part.

Needless to say, this is going to take a while to settle in at Apple, but it really does change some more of the culture as well. The SVPs are now more generalists than ever and, hopefully, this will lead to even better software and hardware integration which is really the hallmark or the company as a whole.

As an addition: I have to say that Bob Mansfield is maybe my favorite executive at Apple at the moment. Always like his appearances in the promotional videos as well. When I was training in Cupertino our group ate breakfast every morning at the cafe inside of 1 Infinite Loop. There we saw Mansfield eating his breakfast every morning. Always was pleasant and seemed like a nice guy.

Categories
Business Technology

The Need for a 37signals

37signals has been one of the most influential companies to how I think about software, software development, and business. It is amazing how it has even crept into how I think about the family farm that I grew up on and am now working to become a larger part of.

One thing has become abundantly clear since getting more involved: the software space for agriculture is terrible. Not that there are not options (there are plenty), but that the options look so terrible or offer no ability to work on anything other than Windows 95 (exaggeration on my part) as to be almost considered criminal. The sites don’t show pictures of the software working, there are very few web options that are easy to find, and mobile? What is mobile?

Farming is in need of a 37signals. A small firm to come in and blow up the farm management space with a lean, attractive, small farm software option that takes some of the pain away. The “big win” here is that any metrics or historical record keeping would be a huge step up for many operations, and digitizing the whole thing and storing it “in the cloud” (I hate that term) would mean that backups would be handled and it would be a simple thing to get up and running on a new machine.

Do I know what this software would do? No, not yet, maybe not never. However, I do see a need and with the farming economy where it is right now I also know that there is money available in the industry. I hope that someone, anyone, will fill this void.