Longtime aficionados of the Palm OS were very displeased when the entity now known as PalmOne lost a patent infringement suit to Xerox over their single-stroke text entry system called Graffiti.
This time, the good guys finally won one. The suit has been invalidated.
I sincerely hope that PalmOne will now bring back Graffiti as an option in their operating system. The new version, created because of that dratted lawsuit, sucks.
OK, I’ll add my two cents to the list of “How I use MT” trackbacks. I currently have one author and two blogs. I expect to add one more blog every 6 to 12 months within my own personal blog. Plans are in the works to add two more blogs and two more authors for friends/family members.
But I also want to make it very clear that my personal concern is not ultimately about the number of authors and weblogs allocated to each segment of the license. That’s a symptom of the bigger problem. Simply put, it’s about perceived value for price. The issue is not “I don’t want to pay for MT”. The issue is, I don’t want to pay this particular price for this particular feature set.
I would be quite willing to shell out $ for MT above and beyond what I already paid last fall *if* there were a current and/or future feature set worth paying for. Optimizing existing code is fine but that plus one questionable new feature (spammers have already begun to register over on typekey) is not enough change. Right now there is no compelling reason for the user like me to upgrade except for the fact that if we don’t do it now, it may well cost more to upgrade in the future. Maybe you can get away with that if you’re Microsoft, but not if you’re a startup like SixApart.
Here’s a few examples: Give me a CMS that does not require me to rebuild my site because I add one link to my links list. Give me more and better tools for managing comments that does not force me into a 3rd party service. Give me more and better tools for creating and mangaing templates. Make it easier to integrate graphics into posts, or even a whole photo album.
Give me stuff like that and I’ll get out my credit card again.
Since Mena said she was going to delete trackbacks that are “commentaries on SixApart” this one probably won’t stay in the trackback list for long. But I hope that it at least gets read and the message gets through.
That seems to be the overwhelming issue in the Movable Type blogosphere this weekend.
I respect the folks at SixApart, but the way they have mishandled the launch of 3.0 clearly shows that they do not have enough people with communications skills on staff. Not surprising in a tech-oriented startup, of course, but in this case – a startup that creates software used to communicate – it’s a big problem. Mena Trott gives some clues to their thinking in her revised announcement about MT 3.0.
I’m willing to bet that SixApart made a few classic mistakes in coming up with their licensing. They trusted their survey results too much, and they didn’t talk to enough users at critical stages.
One of the most valid comments we heard is that the personal licenses do not work well for many people who are currently using Movable Type. This surprised us because in a survey of 2500 people, a whopping 85% of respondents had 5 of fewer weblogs or authors. This help educate our final decisions about the weblog and author limits.
The more important question is, who were those 2500 users? Were they self-selected or was any effort put into making sure that a broad cross-section of users, from little bloggers like me to big users like Jason Calacanis, participated? Not balancing your participant base is a very good way to get data that is accurate yet ultimately wrong.
The second question is, did SixApart vet this new licensing package with any customers before launching it? With a level of upset as big as this one, if they had bothered to talk to even a handful of customers before going public with their pricing they would surely have gotten some indication that they needed to rethink things. Instead, they have had to handle a very public firestorm.
Now, to their credit, they are trying to calm the waters, and with some success. But they are at a critical junction. I hope they respond by putting one or more people on staff who are more practiced in the arts of marketing, product management and corporate communications. I’m tempted to send them a resume myself, but I suspect they’re already flooded with them.
When I started this blog, I chose Movable Type because several blogger pals (most notably my friend Mashby) were using it and all seemed quite happy with it. I know just enough about HTML, CSS, and configuring software to be able to tweak a package into something that works for me, and the lingering ghost of the techie I once was makes me unwilling to use a hosted service if I can run things myself. MT fit the bill. I gladly sent in a $25 donation last fall to SixApart, and had no expectation that I would want to look elsewhere for blogging software. Movable Type definitely has some annoyances and limitations (rebuilding is an ongoing PITA) but overall it does what I want it to do without getting in the way too much.
I have not yet decided whether or not I am going to stay with MT for the long haul. I’d like to see a clearer product evolution path for one thing – what features are going to be offered in the future, and which of those will not be in the free version? It could well be that MT 3.x is worth paying for, but right now there’s not enough information for me to make a decision.
I’ve invested time and energy getting my blog set up the way I want it. I don’t particularly want to have to spend a lot of time starting all over again with a new system if I don’t have to. But right now, SixApart is not giving me enough information with which to make an informed decision. That’s frustrating, and it’s another sign that SixApart badly needs someone on staff who knows how to communicate with customers.
I’m going to wait and see what happens for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully by the time I get back from New York more dust will have settled and I’ll be able to make a more informed decision about whether to upgrade or not.
Buzz Machine and Stupid Evil Bastard both have interesting takes on this issue as well. They’re worth a read.
I installed Gallery today as part of the preparations for getting the Rome photos online (they’re being developed currently). Gallery, like Movable Type, is an excellent freeware application with more features than you can shake a stick at, and lots of room for plug-ins and customizing.
It was a very smooth install; the only hitch being I had to upgrade my Java VM before I was able to run the Gallery Remote tool that makes bulk uploading of pictures MUCH easier. I used one of the included skins, which doesn’t really match the color theme for this blog, but it’s cute. Over time I may tweak the CSS some to bring them closer in line, but this is a personal site, so 100% consistency in look & feel is not my most important priority.
There’s a link the the galleries over on the right side of this blog, or you can see them here. Pix from Rome should go online in the next couple of days.
It’s coming up on two years since my last layoff, but even so, news of a layoff affects me deeply. Today it was PalmOne, the company formerly known as Palm, Inc that recently acquired Handspring.
I’m well aware that businesses cannot guarantee employment to their people if the tides of business change. Nor am I enough of a Socialist to think that it’s their obligation to do so. But after having been laid off multiple times in the dot-com implosion and also once back in the recession of the early 90’s, my sympathy is much more with the people being let go than with the companies who make the cuts. Especially so because the trend these days is that jobs which vanish do not come back. Bob Herbert’s latest column is one of many pointing out this trend.
The good news in today’s announcement is that PalmOne is going to be focusing more heavily on smartphone convergence devices like their Treo line. As a longtime Treo fan, that pleases me. But to do so at the cost of people’s jobs also gives me pain.
Ironically, I found the URL reporting the layoffs because the battery on my much-loved Treo 180 is showing signs of permanent failure and I’m starting to think about replacing it. I don’t have the cash in hand for a new Treo 600, and even if I did, there are other things on my “to buy” list that come higher – like a new SLR camera to take with me to Italy.
There’s an abundance of Treo 180s on eBay for about $100, so if necessary I can go there for a replacement. Despite its slow processor and B&W screen, the Treo 180 is an excellent balance between a PDA and phone and I’ve been really happy with it. Faster access to the Internet, a color screen, and other bells and whistles would be nice, of course, but that’s what my Tungsten C is for.
But getting back to my original point, I hope that what comes out of PalmOne in the future is really, really good. Otherwise those people’s lives will have been kicked to pieces for nothing.
Thanks to the ever-so-generous people at AlphaSmart, a fabulous new PDA landed on my desk today – the Dana Wireless. Now I can blog from anywhere in the house, untethered to my PC.
The only problem is that the DanaWeb browser, which takes advantage of the Dana’s widescreen capability, is quite buggy. The two problems that I find most annoying are it has issues with scrolling and the forms handler doesn’t like extended text entry (a big minus for bloggers!). Eudora’s PalmOS web browser, although not widescreen enabled, seems to handle forms a bit better and is thus more suited for WiFi blogging, although it doesn’t take advantage of the Dana’s ample screen real estate.
Other PalmOS Internet apps I’ve tested seem to work fine too. Verichat and upIRC, my two favorite messaging apps, both work flawlessly with the Dana, although neither had widescreen capability. And SnapperMail, an awesome email app, IS widescreen enhanced and works quite well.
The Dana keyboard is full sized and handles nicely, although some of the keys tend to be a bit sticky. I’m not sure if that’s an issue with my Dana or if I’m pounding the keys too hard (a bad habit). At any rate, I’ve long wanted a simple laptop or laptop alternative that was wifi enabled so I could do some basic online tasks without having to leave the bedroom or living room.
Now I can.
Go Dana go!