You recall that I was testing a new feature on Tuesday when the sprinkler disaster occured. We released it last night – only a 24 hour or so delay. Antonio blogged about it on the Tabblo blog. You can see mine on the left-hand side of the page. And – you can make your own!
Category Archives: Tabblo
Ignore the Harpoon Tabblo Post
If you read this by coming to my website, you can ignore this message.
For those of you with RSS readers, please ignore the last post I just made. I was testing some new Tabblo feature stuff, and I inadvertantly published a link to our test environment. You’d be really bummed if you made a tabblo on the test area, and then we deleted the test database. . . .
Disaster at the Office
I was at my desk. I was doing the final QA cycles on a new mini-feature (if you use Tabblo, and you have a blog, you’ll like it, but it has been . . . delayed by events). The feature was working for most cases, and Eddie and Dave were ironing out the final implementation details while I was trying to break it.
Suddenly, I heard shouting and a loud roaring noise. I jumped up and ran to the door of the office and was met by a spray of water. The sprinkler was hosing down the central hallway outside the door. I turned back inside and Dave closed the door. Eddie, Dave, and I ran around in circles lifting computers, hubs, power cords etc. off the floor and onto high ground as fast as we could. Water was coming in under the door at a good clip, and the fire alarm had started to go off.
We opened the door and scooted across the hallway to the fire exit on the opposite wall, and went outside. We had time to catch our breath and contemplate (dread) what was happening to our office. The fire trucks came and, a few minutes later, the water slowed from a deluge to a dribble. By 8:30 it was stopped for good.
The rest of the night was a lot of sweeping water, shop vacs, brooms, and separating trash from salvage – nothing worth reliving, let alone asking anyone to read about.
Antonio made a tabblo right after it happened (heck, as it happened). I took photos too (more after the fact than during) and created a variation of his tabblo. Despite how tired I am at this point, I like the variation. You get to see Antonio’s perspective and my perspective on the same event. Some things look the same, but others are very different.
Good night.
The Week In Review
I haven’t found my writing rhythm yet, as evidenced by this week’s output. Catching up with a grab-bag of topics.
It was a very busy week. We pushed a bunch of minor features and good bug fixes that kept me hopping. I had lunch on Tuesday with Jason Butler. He’s at Boston.com with a very interesting job. Ask him about search – he’s doing some vThat night I went to the Red Sox game. I was hoping to see Ortiz hit 50. Instead I stood in the rain and watched Wakefield give up 6 runs. I’ve enjoyed better games.
Wednesday, or course, was Grandma and Grandpa’s 65th.
Grandma and Grandpa’s 65th Anniversary
On Wednesday I was in Dedham for my grandparent’s 65th anniversary. I made a tabblo of the event. Check out the tabblo to see photos and recap of the event.
I did a couple new things with that tabblo. First, I used my camera’s video mode to record a few clips of Grandma and Grandpa talking about their wedding. Then, I uploaded the clips to YouTube and linked to YouTube from the tabblo. I wonder how we can make video “work” as a product within Tabblo.
Digg Tabblo, Please
We’re trying to get Tabblo a bit of free publicity. Would you please be kind enough to go to Digg.com and “digg” the story about Tabblo? If you’re not a member of Digg, you’ll have to register. Think of it as a learning experience: Digg is one of the poster children of Web 2.0.
I’m sure my legions of regular readers are enough to get us to the top of the list (hah!).
Thanks in advance.
Colors, But Not Primary Colors
Here we are, the night before the primaries. You’d think I’d have something to say, wouldn’t you? Too tired. Check out the pretty pictures instead.
The swamp’s colors are fall’s precursor.
Taken on Saturday on my ride up the bikepath.
Variations, Tabblo, TechCrunch, and the first 113,000 users
Marshall Kirkpatrick of TechCrunch did a writeup of Tabblo today. It was quite positive.
He was particularly focused on our new “variations” feature. With that feature, one author can permit other authors to make a copy and “riff” on the original. For instance, check out my tabblo of Spy Pond Sunsets. There are a ton of photos there, and it is really busy. Say you think a couple of the photos are great, but you think I’ve made something that is too busy and cluttered. You can click the “variations” link (be sure to be logged in, or you can’t see the link). You can then start with my tabblo, but make it your own. I encourage you to do this – it’s a great way to get a feel for what our website can do.
This really points out one of the challenges we’re facing with Tabblo. We’re getting excellent reviews and return visits from people who actually try to make a tabblo. The trick, we find, is getting them to give it that first try. When they just look at it (or hear about it), they don’t necessarily get it. But once we get them clicking at it a bit, they see the usefulness. You can see that in the comments on TechCrunch: off-the-cuff negativity followed by positive reviews from people who tried it.
So, what does this new press mean for Tabblo? It’s positive, to be sure, but it’s not going to change our world. Brad Feld’s analysis of the effects of a press hit is a great read. (I am amused to note that the “10,000 user” question had already become the 53,651 user question in May, and today TechCrunch boasts 113,000 subscribers).
TechCrunch is a good review, and I’m glad to have it. But we have to build our business a user at a time. We have to win over the moms, the dads, the friends, the co-workers, the event organizers, and the gift givers with one good experience after another. We’re not going to build our business because 113,000 geeks checked us out on a September afternoon.