Nick Bradbury

Spanning Salesforce 2.0

Just wanted to congratulate Charlie Wood for the launch of Spanning Salesforce 2.0.

BTW, in his announcement, Charlie mentions a reeaalllly annoying duet between William Shatner and (no joke) Henry Rollins that he uploaded to help me resolve an issue with FeedStation. This "song," of course, stuck in my head like spaghetti on a wall.

So, I'd like to pay Charlie back by putting this song in his head :)

ANN: FeedDemon 1.6 Beta 3a

OK, I know it has only been a day since I announced beta 3, but we wanted to get one specific bug fix out as soon as possible. This particular bug sometimes meant that the location entered in FeedDemon's welcome wizard wasn't being created, which could potentially cause feeds not to synchronize correctly.

So, without further adieu, here's the FeedDemon 1.6 Beta 3a download. The release notes have been updated with the changes.

Note that the download link is the same as beta 3, but the file is definitely beta 3a. If after downloading it the installer reads "Beta 3" instead of "Beta 3a," it's most likely because your browser (or proxy) cached the previous download. Clearing the cache should correct this.

ANN: FeedDemon 1.6 Beta 3

I'm pleased to announce that FeedDemon 1.6 Beta 3 is now available to FeedDemon customers. But before you download it, please understand that this is a beta release, which means that it's not complete. As I mentioned in the original beta announcement, you really shouldn't download this unless you're prepared to run into some bugs.

If you encounter a bug or have feedback about the beta, let us know by posting a message in the FeedDemon 1.6 Beta Forum on NewsGator's site, and please include Beta 3 in the subject line of your message. When reporting a bug, be sure to state:

• The exact steps to reproduce the problem
• The versions of Windows and IE you're using
• The "Call Stack Information" if you're seeing a detailed error message (the rest of the error detail isn't necessary)

Before installing beta 3, you'll want to check out the release notes to see what's new, and which bugs reported in Beta 2 have been fixed (short answer: a lot!). When you're done reading the release notes, click here to download FeedDemon 1.6 Beta 3.

Kudos to TypePad

I'm really impressed with the way Six Apart is using their Everything TypePad blog to introduce customers not only to new features in TypePad, but also to the engineers responsible for creating these features.

One way or another, people will talk to you

Although I use - and love - the iTunes/iPod combination, it bothers me how Apple continues to be opaque. At a time when a number of companies (including Microsoft, but not, I should add, Google) have made themselves more transparent by opening themselves up via blogging, Apple keeps everything close to their chest.

That's their decision, of course, but it ignores the fact that customers will find ways to talk to you. For example, take a look at this screenshot from iTunes which shows how people are creating iMixes for the sole purpose of letting Apple know which bands they want added to iTunes.

Customers are subverting the iMix feature in order to provide feedback to Apple - feedback which wouldn't even be necessary if Apple just let everyone know that they'd love to offer bands like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin on iTunes, but they're still haggling over the details with the record companies and/or their lawyers.

One way or another, customers will talk to you (and if that fails, they'll talk about you instead).

Update: In the comments for this post, Eric Dolecki points out that Apple has a request music form on their site.

Link Dump: August 24, 2005

As you've probably guessed from my lack of blogging lately, I'm in hardcore development mode right now, working to get the next beta of FeedDemon 1.6 out. So here's a slew of interesting links to make up for my code-induced silence:

• A blog a second- Wait a second
• AttentionTrust.org Explained Better
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Berners-Lee on the read/write web
• BBC Sees Big Gains in RSS Clicks
• Blogs as an e-mail replacement
• Digital Web Magazine - Web 2.0 for Designers
• Google stealthily monitoring clickthroughs from search-results
• Micro Persuasion: What Role Will Web Designers Play in an RSS World?
• NFL Players Blog
• particletree · The Importance of RSS
• Protecting RSS Feeds From Commercial Republication - Robin Good's Latest News
• Who wants to own content?
• Wired 13.08: We Are the Web

ANN: TopStyle 3.12 RC1

TopStyle Pro 3.12 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is now available to registered customers. Details on changes in this release may be found in the release notes. As always, just install RC1 directly on top of the previous version, and your existing settings will be retained.

Music to Code By

Like many developers I enjoy listening to music while coding, and my musical selection changes depending on what I'm working on. When I'm in mad scientist mode and can't seem to make my fingers type fast enough to keep up with me, I put on some variety of loud, obnoxious music to keep me going. But I usually put on something more subdued when I'm in bug fixing mode - which is the mode I'm in right now.

During my latest round of bug fixing I've been listening to an instrumental band called Shark Quest a lot, especially their latest CD Gods and Devils (which, btw, is available on iTunes). It's perfect for more thoughtful coding, too.

So, how about you? What do you listen to while working?

TopStyle, FeedDemon Donations

Seth Dillingham has found an interesting way to raise money for cancer research. Seth participated in the Pan-Mass Challenge, a bike ride across Massachusetts that took place earlier this month, and he's asking development companies to donate software which will then be auctioned off to help him meet his goal.

We're donating five copies each of TopStyle and FeedDemon, which we hope will get Seth closer to his goal. Looking at the list of software donations, it struck me how few Windows products are represented - any other Windows shops want to join in?

Zappa on iTunes

As some of you know, I'm a bit of a Frank Zappa fan. So I was pleasantly surprised this morning to discover that 48 Frank Zappa albums are now available on iTunes. Given that Zappa himself proposed a very iTunes-like idea way back in 1983, it's about time his work appeared on iTunes.

If you haven't listened to Zappa before, it can be duanting figuring out where to start - partly because he was so prolific, but also because so much of his stuff is crap (yeah, I know I'll get dinged by Zappa-heads for that, but it's true). So here's an iMix I created which I hope will be a good introduction to his music.

I should warn readers that Zappa wasn't exactly politically correct, so he's not for the easily-offended. If you'd rather skip his sometimes raunchy lyrics, try this iMix of Zappa instrumentals instead.

Update: Sadly, Zappa is no longer available on iTunes - here's why.