Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
Basecamp's mobile platform subscribes everyone to messages, making it nearly useless. With up to 20 people on a single project, spanning design, programming, SEO and content, notifying everyone is a nightmare. That's an average of 2 minutes per person digesting notifications which are not relevant to him or her across 18 people who don't need the information.
Basecamp mobile message notifications:
there is no way to specify recipients
I.e. every time a client posts a message from a smart phone Foliovision loses over half an hour of work time. Way to pick our pockets and/or steal our day, 37 Signals.
Keep reading Basecamp Mobile Platform Subscribes Everyone. Note to 37 Signals: Mobile has to work to be useful
By Alec
IT |
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
Dear Foliopress WYSIWYG users,
Thank you to everyone who reported the issues with our editor not working properly in IE 9.0. After doing some testing we found that there are some issues. The issues are related to FCKEditor which is the core editor. The same issues affect CKeditor (a newer version as well).
Here is the error message from debugging console when the post is being saved:
"Not enough storage is available to complete this operation."
The post is saved, but the editor stops working. Other messages appears when using the Link dialog:
SCRIPT65535: Invalid calling object
fckdialog.html, line 778 character 4
SCRIPT65535: Invalid calling object
fckdialog.html, line 111 character 4
SCRIPT65535: Invalid calling object
fckeditor.html?InstanceName=content&Toolbar=Basic, line 233 character 4
Other issues relates to the WordPress Linking Dialog which we added into the last version. It has issues for some users, so we've disabled it by default. Go to Settings -> Foliopress WYSIWYG -> Advanced -> Use WordPress Linking Dialog to re-enable it. There have been issues with the our original javascript linking pop-in as well.
For now, what we've done are:
- to disable Foliopress WYSIWYG in IE 9 offering a bare html version and a visible warning.
- to recommend Safari, Firefox 3+, Chromium (Chrome is spyware but works) or IE 7/8 instead.
- we've also made the WordPress linking dialogue optional and made our original javascript version default
We will keep working on an IE 9 version as people gradually solve the IE 9 security and javascript issues. For now, please use another browser.
If you are having any of these issues, upgrade to the new version now!
More information
By Martin
WordPress |
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
This post is a continuation from a recent post about Scientific Management and the Toyota Way.
Something we are working on is some additional capacity in peak periods (as auto manufacturers have additional suppliers they can bring online if a sudden surge in demand appears). Gradually we are getting there. In the meantime, I take great care not to take on more work than we can handle. There's at least a $100,000/month of business which I'm not seeking as we just couldn't maintain quality standards yet. We are working on increasing capacity first and then slowly adding those additional clients.
My girlfriend is shocked and horrified that we are leaving this kind of money on the table. Her shock diminished when I explained that every day Foliovision leaves millions on the table in Slovakia alone:
Keep reading Focus in Business Means Leaving Money on the Table: Apple
By Alec
Business |
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011
A new order for some advanced Basecamp features came in. I checked the weblog of the client to see where they are coming from and ran into a new term: neo-Taylorism. Taylorism apparently had very negative connotations. My only acquaintance with Taylor is with the sails manufacturer and the association is positive. I decided to go digging and in the process ran into the concepts of:
- scientific management
- human relations movement
- Toyota production system
Running a company is a pain in the neck tremendously challenging.
If you are in the knowledge business, there are two major challenges:
- managing people
- managing process
You are spared the pain of managing inventory. In a sense, time becomes your inventory but it does at least take a third dimension out of the equation, in comparison to auto parts production where you really, really need to manage raw materials and parts.
What's cool about business theory is that it's all been invented before.
Scientific Management: neo-Taylorism
This Taylor is Frederick and he died in 1915, before Henry Ford's factories were built. Frederick Taylor came up with something called Scientific Management. The basic idea was to improve workflow (hey I need some of that) and labour output (work faster!).
The basic idea is that best practice methods should be documented and taught: all workers should produce quality work. A good start. The problem remains that with equal pay, there is no disincentive for workers not to dog it or goldbrick. Taylor called this slow working "soldiering". Many workers call it "getting through the day". I've got a friend like this. Once someone approaches work like this, that person is nearly unemployable at Foliovision or anywhere else where enthusiasm, productivity and quality of work are valued.
Keep reading Neo-Taylorism vs Toyota Production System vs Human Relations Movement for Knowledge Work
By Alec
Business |
