RadioFree: December 2006

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Eventful is a great tool

Using Eventful.coms api is about the best tool I know of for bands to get show announcements across the internet. Its powerful because not only does your show get listed on Eventful's site, but other sites use the api to fill in content on their site too. I've even seen more creative uses of Eventful data like Podbop. When people talk about Web 2.0, they are talking about things like Eventful letting other sites access and contribute to its event database. A very cool thing.

I've just pushed an update to 4gauge that allows bands to submit new shows they create to Eventful. It brings a lot of power and usefulness to the site.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Nextcat

This is a good site for bands to get thier name out there, and hook up with other indie artists / producers / labels.

www.nextcat.com

From their site -
At Nextcat, we’re hoping to create the first global online networking community
for all things relating to the entertainment industry.

We’re 100% independent, and not beholden to any large corporation. With
Nextcat.com, we hope to provide a marketplace of ideas and opportunities for
both established and emerging talent, as well as a forum and meeting place for
fans and enthusiasts.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Puzzles

4Gauge Update

I've put up some new features on 4gauge.com. You can now add photos of shows you've done, and see pictures from other bands who've played the venues on your schedule.

Check it out, and bands should get an account if you don't already have one.

Podbop

This is soo cool. If you want to know what bands are playing in your town, get this podcast. If you are a band, make sure you're listed.

www.podbop.org

Friday, December 22, 2006

Good user facing CMS

Allowing users to do their own content management is difficult to get right from a usability standpoint. I've been working on a form that allows users of 4gauge.com to build custom email reminders that will go out to the venues they are scheduled to play.

The first goal is to make it clean and simple to understand. The challenge is to achieve the first goal while still giving the user enough wiggle room that they end up with a product they are happy with.

Here is what I came up with for the email -

I like the way this turned out. The system has control over most of the email, even the dynamic part like band name and show date. Then there is a text box right in the middle of the email. This gives the user a feel for what the final email will look like as they are creating it. I made the background of the email just a little off of white, so the white background of the text field gets pushed to the foreground. That makes it more obvious that there is an area for the user to edit.

What do you think?

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Heckle Your Tests

Heckle is getting some well deserved attention. I think it is important for development team managers who want to make sure that the code being checked in each week has adequate test coverage.

Gluttonous : Tormenting Your Tests with Heckle

Trademark vs. Service Mark

We've just spent some time obtaining a Service Mark for the phrase "Like Dating For Jobs" on this site - Climber.com. It raised the question for me, what is the difference between a Trademark and a Service Mark. The answer is kind of subtle. Trademarks are for things you sell. Service Marks are for services you provide. Climber provides the service of finding people jobs in a way very similar to dating, thus its a Service Mark. If we were selling a "Super Duper Resume Spellchecker", that would be a TradeMark.

More here - Trademark vs Service Mark

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Happy Holidays

Performancing for the new Blogger

The new Blogger breaks many of the old Firefox plugins that allowed posting to your blog from the page you are viewing. Thankfully, Performancing is the exception. It works nicely.

acts_as_solr

Acts_as_solr is a great plugin for all your rails apps that need search. It takes all of 10 minutes to install Solr AND the plugin.

http://acts-as-solr.rubyforge.org/

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Simple Tools for Hardworking Bands

Yesterday 4Gauge went live. It is the beginning of a much larger project, and larger still ambitions. I'm very proud of it.4Gauge is a tool for bands out on tour to easily keep in communication with the venues they are scheduled to play. Bands can choose to send a 7 day reminder, 1 day reminder, or both.

Friday, December 15, 2006

techno weenie

Good things are coming to rails with ActiveResource

RadioFree