Posted by hardin on 09 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Technology
I will post more details about Hardin Design and Development’s presence at CES 2008 later, but here are some pictures for now. The shear scale of this show is amazing, and the potential clients that we have been able to interact with have been awesome. So without further ado, here are the pictures:
Posted by hardin on 07 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Technology
In the last year, Adobe has continued to transform Flash from a simple animation platform to an incredibly powerful software development environment that allows for sophisticated applications to be deployed on the web. Action Script, the underlying language that powers Flash applications, used to be relatively primitive. With the advent of Action Script 3, Flash now incorporates a full implementation of ECMA Script (the standard behind JavaScript). This combines a complete, object-oriented programming language with an efficient virtual machine and a state-of-the-art graphics engine.
Since it based on ECMA Script, Flash also has the ability to directly interface with web applications driven by popular AJAX technology, using an External Interface system that allows it to send and receive events to and from JavaScript. The Flash virtual machine can be used to complement AJAX systems, instead of being isolated from the container webpage like previous versions of Flash.
Finally, the popularity of sites based on Flash, such as YouTube, means that Flash has a very high deployment rate. Adobe’s Flash browser plug-in is installed on a higher percentage of browsers than any other, with over 75% of current internet users able to access Flash content. This number continues to climb, as more and more sites are built using applications developed in Flash. As the Web 2.0 is becoming a reality, Flash stands at the forefront as one of the primary technologies driving innovation on the web.
Posted by hardin on 04 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Design
I should preface this article by stating that I am not a theorist when it comes to computer science. I like theory, and I think it’s interesting, but I make a living by building cool applications, not by building cool theories. That said, I occaisonally read the Communications of the ACM, especially when clients have it in their offices while I am waiting for a meeting. This happened to be the case the other day, when I picked up the (quite out of date) April 2007 issue of Communications, and came upon a very interesting article by Jenova Chen, founder of That Game Company, entitled Flow in Games (and Everything Else). It is based on her thesis at USC, and focuses on applying Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory to software design. Basically, good interfaces that captivate the user transport them to the Flow, which “represents the feeling of complete an energized focus in an activity, with a high level of enjoyment and fulfillment. To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur.”
Chen applies this idea to games, identifying eight major components of Flow: a challenging activity requiring skill; a merging of action and awareness; clear goals; direct, immediate feedback; concentration on the task at hand; a sense of control; a loss of self-consciousness; and an altered sense of time.
When I read this list, however, I don’t think of games. I think of some of the great web applications I have interacted with. Basecamp, for example, fulfills many of the components of Flow. I have certainly lost myself in that program for hours as I direct Intelli-Computing, so I have personally experienced it. When we design web application interfaces, there is no reason why we can’t incorporate the euphoria of the Flow that makes the games of Chen’s theory so successful.
Posted by hardin on 22 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Technology
As you might expect, one of the most common questions I am asked is, “What is the Web 2.0?”. When I was asked that by one of my employees earlier today, I figured that it was time to answer it. Much ink has been spilled trying to define the Web 2.0, including huge quantities of techno-babble and buzz words. If you are completely unfamiliar with the concept, In Business actually has a very enlightening article entitled Web 2.0: Come Closer, Said the Spider to the Fly that talks about the basic concepts behind the Web 2.0. Instead of just a technological advancement, the Web 2.0 is a cultural development:
“Web 2.0, he explained, is an emerging cultural phenomenon. It isn’t just using the Internet as a platform to conduct business or as a convenient way to earn a master’s degree in your pajamas. It is the mental acceptance of the web as a dimension, with social components and memberships. It’s seeing it as something we contribute to, as well as benefit from. It isn’t a work-play separation, but a work-play blend.”
For those who are still stuck in the original Web 1.0 paradigm of the late 1990’s, this cultural phenomenon may be hard to grasp, but it is absolutely essential to understand.
Posted by hardin on 16 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Design
In an extension of one of my previous articles, Why do enterprise interfaces suck?, I have recently had many experiences with terrible interfaces in a search for accounting software for Intelli-Computing. There seem to be a lot of terrible interfaces in the accounting business. The first software that we tried as Peachtree Pro Accounting by Sage Software, which had an intimidating interface that seemed powerful, but was completely unintuitive and felt like it had been designed for Windows 95 and not updated in a decade.
After a lot of trial and error, I eventually settled on a disturbing conclusion: the best small business accounting software currently in existence is made by Microsoft. I was hesitant, but upon installing Microsoft Accounting 2007, I was astounded to find an interface that was extremely easy to use, that simplifies common tasks and shows how they relate via diagrams. It isn’t often that an interface surprises me like this one, and it is truly enjoyable to use.
Posted by hardin on 16 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Startups
As I have worked with different companies throughout the Midwest, I’ve noticed that different cities have different characters when it comes to expressing status and image in business. Madison, for example, tends to be a more laid-back city, where the number of Bentleys and other supercars can be counted on a single hand. Chicago is completely different, however, where I frequently see extremely nice and expensive cars. Driving a $100,000+ car seems to be one of the ultimate status symbols among Chicago businessmen, like the Aston Martin DB9 that I recently saw parked near Wabash Avenue:
Posted by hardin on 11 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Startups
I have recently been expanding the design team for Intelli-Computing, bringing in a few people with unique talents that will allow us to create richer designs and web applications. I have quickly noticed something: designing things as a team is fun and effective, but very difficult to do on a deadline. We had a meeting on Sunday, where we worked together to layout a web application, design the color scheme, and incorporate copy and photos from our creative team. We then developed a plan of attack for our programmers to develop the system, and set out to execute it. This all sounds good, but it introduces a lot of latency when different people are responsible for different components of a project, and one person can’t simply stay up all night to finish the project themselves (which I’ve done many times). We use Basecamp to enhance communication and make our collaboration more efficient, but there are still delays when one person becomes a bottleneck. In this case, it is actually me, since I had another project come up yesterday which prevented be from implementing the site layout for our programmers (in this case Mike) to go to work on.
We only have a team of four people: Matt, Brendan, Mike, and myself. I can only imagine what it would be like to try to manage a production team with hundreds or thousands of developers. I remember reading an article in the Communications of the ACM entitled What Road Ahead for Microsoft and Windows?, back when Windows Vista was still in alpha. It describes how Microsoft had so many developers independently working on so many different components of Windows that the OS eventually grew to 50,000,000 lines of code developed by more than 4,000 programmers. Dependencies led to the project grinding to a halt every time small changes were made, and eventually the codebase was scrapped as the team returned to a base of Windows XP to create the version of Vista that we have today.
In my experience, there is a critical mass of developers that you need to optimally solve a problem, beyond which additional staff actually slows down the project. It is the classic dilemma where too many cooks spoil the broth, which is an age old idea. However, big companies like Microsoft seem to have forgotten it. I see startups with teams of less than ten developers churn out huge amounts of well-written code with a speed unmatched by the juggernauts who employ thousands. That’s one of the many things that make startups so exciting, where teams can still work together to create amazing products without being weighed down by the bureaucracy of a large, established company.
Posted by admin on 30 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: Startups
I just got back from three whirlwind days in Chicago, where I worked with MediaRiver to push out several of their widgets. It was great fun to actually meet everyone on the team face to face, and to see what life was like at such an intense startup. MediaRiver is home to a diverse blend of programmers, designers, quality assurance people, and others. Our worked involved widgets for Motley Fool, MSN Money, and Haystack’s Roadrunner Records, which are syndicated on sites to provide contextual content from the publishers. Widgets are a booming market, and MediaRiver is courting some of the biggest companies on the internet with the offer of producing widgets that will virally deliver their content to the masses.
While in Chicago, I took a bunch of pictures that show both my experiences at MediaRiver, as well as other cool things that I saw in the city. One thing that I really liked about visiting MediaRiver is that it feels like a true startup, with long hours, a relatively low-key office, and a casual dress code. Hopefully, some of that feeling is captured in the slideshows below.
Posted by hardin on 21 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: Technology
According to a post on Slashdot, a beta update for Flash Player 9 has added support for H.264 standard video. This is a huge upgrade for the Flash video industry, and I believe that Adobe is continuing to make excellent strides to retain their market share in online video, with the threat of competition from products like Microsoft’s Silverlight. The new upgrades to the player, which is codenamed “Movie Star”, give support for true HD video to Flash. Tinic Uro, a Flash engineer for Adobe, discusses it in an entry on his blog entitled What Just Happened?, and the release has also received press on ReadWriteWeb.
Posted by hardin on 16 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: Startups
A very interesting offshoot of Flying Cart called eBay Converter has just been announced and is generating quite a bit of publicity, such as a feature on Killer Startups. The eBay Converter tool converts eBay stores to regular online stores, and eliminates the transaction and listing fees charged by eBay, as well as providing all of the other benefits of a Flying Cart store. There is currently a waiting list for invitations prior to the launch of the tool, but it looks like it has the potential to explode in the ecommerce world. It’s definitely something to watch in the coming months, and to check out if you are currently using eBay stores to sell your merchandise.