Micro ISV Digest

Posted by Gavin Bowman on Monday, May 12, 2008 at 9:15 AM

A weekly roundup of Micro ISV news, announcements and relevant blog posts.

News and Announcements

Paul launched YesCalculator, a calculator. via BoS.
Give away of the day results on BoS (followup).
BdJ results from Follow Steph.

Relevant Blog Posts and Articles

Why making a fool of yourself is a good thing, from Neil Davidson.
It's the tech guy, obviously, from KC.
Amazon S3 for Micro ISVs, from 47hats.
Also, Information overload tips for Micro ISVs.
7 steps to speed up your technical support, from Dennis Crane.
Notes from MIT Underground 2008, from OnStartups.
The evolution of a software startup, from Instigator.

Further (mostly relevant) Reading

That big project and your relationship, from WWD.
The art of war for entrepreneurs, from Pam Slim.
What do you know? from Seth Godin.
Big Bucks from tiny computing startups, from Information Week.
Aesop's top 7 tips for a happier life, from The Positivity Blog.

Micro ISV Digest

Posted by Gavin Bowman on Monday, May 05, 2008 at 9:00 AM

A weekly roundup of Micro ISV news, announcements and relevant blog posts.

News and Announcements

Starr Horne's live chat service, ChatSpring, opened for Beta. Via BoS.
AJ launched PDF Merger, a tool for combining PDF files. Via BoS.
Virgil launched Desktop Icons Arranger. Via BoS.
Guy Kawasaki interview on WorkHappy.
DotNetInvoice is for sale.

Relevant Blog Posts and Articles

Getting customer feedback, from Andy Brice.
1 tip to make your customers love you, from Ben Curtis.
Large vs Pancake buttons, from Praveen Angyan.
How to make it hard to find your startup online, from Onstartups.
How to stop competing, from Micro ISV Asia.
What the recession means for the software business, from Business of Software.
Web Worker 101: Cashflow management, from WWD.
And, How to be a stress free web worker.
Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor, from 37signals.
Progress update from Ian (six products).

Further (mostly relevant) Reading

Architecture astronauts take over, from Joel Spolsky.
Explaining web working to the uninitiated, from WWD.
And, building a career on bursty work.
Your equity isn't a payment, it's an IOU, from Wil Schroter.
Who's doing what when, from Dr Dobbs.

Tags: microisv digest entrepreneurship startups shareware

Micro ISV Digest

Posted by Gavin Bowman on Monday, April 28, 2008 at 9:00 AM

A weekly roundup of Micro ISV news, announcements and relevant blog posts.

News and Announcements

Dennis Bottaro launched ebay Item ProfitCaster, a profit forecaster for ebay. Via BoS.
Bob on DHH's Startup School presentation.
A Startup-a-week looks interesting.
Andy Brice started a Business of Software FAQ, to try to reduce repeating topics.

Relevant Blog Posts and Articles

Selling software at retail, from Andy Brice.
Transitioning from client work to products, from 37signals.
The perils of working alone, from Andrew Duffy.
User interface before code, from Joel Marcey.
Focusing on Focus, from 47hats.
What I wish I'd known, from Jon Fox.
The startup lottery, from Dennis Forbes.
Stop waiting for the magical startup fairy, from OnStartups.
Also, Startup School Takeaways.
Lessons from a year in SF, from Andrew Chen.
Are you sure you want to be in SF, from 37signals.
Bootstrapping in bits and pieces, from BootStrapMe.
Progress updates from Joel Marcey, Ian (Six Products), Follow Steph.

Further (mostly relevant) Reading

Becoming a lifestyle Entrepreneur, from AnyWired.
The long tail and indie game devs, from Psychochild.
Lessons for weathering a downturn, from FoundRead.
Also, 9 people you meet at Y Combinator.
Change your work hours to get more done, from WWD.
Also, Hands on with Google App Engine.
About Amazon FPS, from Tim Haughton.

Tags: microisv digest entrepreneurship startups shareware

Step 2 (rant averted)

Posted by Gavin Bowman on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 11:00 AM

Since changing the hosting over for this domain went smoothly, I decided to transfer the registration away from my current (UK based) registrar. I hate paying 3 times as much for the renewals as I do for other domains, and finally decided it was worth paying more than 2 years renewal fees to wrangle the domain away.

I'll stop there, because Neil Davidson wrote a nice post yesterday that tackles customer lock-in much more eloquently and usefully than any half baked rant about domain transfer out fees ever would.

I'll also spare you my "stuff costs more in europe" ranting, paying nearly $10 a gallon for gas and close to $400 for Rock Band is just awesome... really.

Back Again

Posted by Gavin Bowman on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 5:52 PM

As far as I can tell, everything is back up and running on the new server. Relatively quick and easy. Had to eliminate a few ASP pages because the new host is Unix, but all things considered, not bad at all.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Posted by Gavin Bowman on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 11:15 AM

In the first of several changes to the setup here, I'm going to be moving the hosting of this domain to another host over the next few days. So, if everything goes wrong, this blog might be down for a while. It should be back up and running in time for next monday's digest post, but if not, you have my apologies in advance :).

Future changes may or may not include a change of url for the blog, and a switch to WordPress. That'll depend on how well this goes, and whether I manage to get around to it.

Fingers crossed...