I love Lifehacker

1. Firefox (see also: The Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3)
2. VLC Media Player (see also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC)
3. Ubuntu (see also: Hardy Heron Makes Linux Worth Another Look)
4. Open Office (see also: A First Look at OpenOffice.org 3.0)
5. Pidgin (see also: Ten Must-Have Plug-ins to Power Up Pidgin)
6. Launchy (see also: Take Launchy beyond application launching)
7. Digsby (see also: Digsby Improves Performance, Supports LinkedIn)
8. Gmail (see also: Our full Gmail coverage)
9. Adium (see also: Adium Chat Improves Menu Bar Item, Corrects Your IM Grammar )
10. CCleaner (see also: CCleaner 2.0 Decrapifies Your PC)
11. Picasa (see also: Organize your digital photos with Picasa)
12. AutoHotKey (see also: Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut)
13. Google
14. Quicksilver (see also: A beginner’s guide to Quicksilver)
15. GIMP
16. Foobar 2000 (see also: Roll your own killer audio player with foobar2000)
17. Thunderbird (see also: Eight killer Thunderbird extensions)
18. 7-Zip (see also: Top 10 Windows Downloads, #10: 7-Zip (file archive manager) )
19. DropBox (see also: Dropbox Syncs and Backs Up Files Between Computers Instantaneously)
20. uTorrent (see also: Our complete uTorrent coverage )
21. Winamp (see also: Our complete Winamp coverage)
22. Google Apps
23. AVG Antivirus (see also: AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008 Released, Much Improved)
24. Evernote (see also: Expand Your Brain with Evernote)
25. IrfanView (see also: Download of the Day: IrfanView (Windows) )
26. Opera (see also: Opera Updates to Version 9.6, Gets Faster, Adds Features)
27. Chrome (see also: The Power User’s Guide to Google Chrome)
28. Google Calendar (see also: Black-belt scheduling with Google Calendar)
29. HandBrake (see also: HandBrake Media Converter Gets Even Better)
30. Skype (see also: Our complete Skype coverage)
31. Linux (see also: Our complete Linux coverage)
32. Paint.NET (see also: Top 10 Windows Downloads, #3: Paint.NET )
33. Ad-Aware (see also: Cleanse thy PC with Ad-Aware)
34. Avast Antivirus (see also: Download of the Day: Avast anti-virus)
35. Google Docs (see also: Our complete Google Docs coverage)
36. LogMeIn (see also: Use LogMeIn for remote tech support)
37. Transmission (see also: Manage Your BitTorrent Downloads with Transmission)
38. TrueCrypt (see also: Secure your data with TrueCrypt)
39. Amarok (see also: An Early Look at Amarok 2)
40. FileZilla (see also: FTP File Transfer Across Platforms with Filezilla 3.0)
41. Notepad++ (see also: Top 10 Windows Downloads, #6: Notepad++)
42. PortableApps.com (see also: Download of the Day: PortableApps Suite 1.0 (Windows))
43. Rocket Dock (see also: Download of the Day: RocketDock (Windows))
44. Spybot Search & Destroy (see also: Spybot Search and Destroy crushes evil)
45. UltraVNC (see also: Tech support with UltraVNC SingleClick)
46. VirtualBox (see also: VirtualBox 2.0 Adds 64-bit Support, Updated Interface)

In Scotland we aren’t really aware of thanksgiving but i have been thinking about it.

It seems to be about people who contribute with no expectation of anything in return.

There are superstars, the folks who have found a great platform for generosity.

I cant pay back Seth Godin or Chris Brogan or Carsonified or 37signals or the people behind all the free services that have helped me get a decent start in the web app game.

If you’ve been reading my blog, thanks for giving me the chance to teach.

If you’ve been helping at Twitter or on your blog or your social network of choice, and doing it without regard for repayment, thanks. I appreciate it more than you know.

When i started in April it was too difficult and i think its my job to make it easier.

Thank you.

Twitter isn’t amazing. The ability to connect to many voices in a collaborative way is amazing. Facebook isn’t the future. Having mutual social environments that permit deeper understanding of each other’s interest is the future. It’s important that we learn how to talk in terms of benefits and not the features.

This was an old sales lesson that I learned from Jason Chudnofsky, the CEO at Pulvermedia. He had a course that he’d been teaching for many years on that exact point. It’s not the various features that convince someone to buy. They might influence your purchase, but you buy benefits. With this car, you’ll save on gas. With this car, you’ll draw lots of attention. With this software, you’ll stay closer to the pulse of the larger community.

Do you see the difference?

Far too often, I hear social media enthusiasts talking about the software from the perspective of its features, but we’ve already proven that features don’t trump benefits. Twitter has fewer features than Pownce and Jaiku, and yet, we’re all on Twitter.

Blogging isn’t cool because you can tag, because you can use RSS, because there are all kinds of hot templates. Blogging improves a company’s organic SEO, gives their leadership a voice in the conversation, brings potential wide-funnel sales activity into a business.

By Rob Diana of Regular Geek (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Most people have heard the KISS acronym (Keep It Simple, Stupid). There is a very good reason for this. If you keep something simple, it is hard to mess it up. Why do I bring this up today? Well, I recently wrote about a conversation with my brother where he asked about Twitter and the conversation moved to FriendFeed. He immediately saw some point to Twitter, but FriendFeed was hard for him to understand. Many people have written “what application XXX needs to go mainstream” posts as well. Kyle Lacy wrote a “What Twitter Needs” post on Tuesday, and I commented that Twitter is going mainstream whether the early adopters want it to or not. There was also a thread on SocialMedian regarding what sites were your internet addictions. A few comments mentioned that they did not “get” FriendFeed or they found it “confusing” or “hard”.

This got me thinking about the differences between Twitter, FriendFeed and SocialMedian. Why is Twitter so popular? Because it is simple. Is there a learning curve? No, or at least nothing you could not figure out in about 10 minutes. Is it hard to use? No, just go to the website, type your update and click the update button. Because of their API, there are several client applications that make using and listening to Twitter even easier. The other benefit is that it is very similar to a widely accepted application, instant messaging. Many people know how to use instant messaging applications, so moving to Twitter is not a big stretch of the imagination.

SocialMedian is finding success for slightly different reasons. Parts of SocialMedian are not the easiest to use. The concepts of Noise/Volume, filters, relevance of topics and sources are definitely advanced features. However, when SocialMedian started importing blog feeds and Google Reader shares, they made it simple to contribute to the site. Unlike Digg, Reddit and Mixx, I do not have to go to the site to share information, it comes from my daily activities. I only need to go to SocialMedian if I want to read some other posts I have not seen, or to participate in some of the conversations. The other major “simple moment” were the networks and the widgets that the team is creating. If you wanted to follow the election, you could just use the election widget. They just created another widget for President-Elect Obama Transition news. These widgets grab posts related to these topics only. How easy is that!

FriendFeed is a different story entirely. Once you add your accounts and subscribe to various people, the site is fairly easy to use. However, many of the early adopters are used to subscribing to a blog using RSS and seeing every post. If they are subscribing to people’s activity, they typically expect to see all of the posts for all of their subscriptions. If you subscribe to even just a few “active” people, you will miss a lot of posts. The important thing to remember is that you have to accept the fact that you will not see everything. Once you “let go” it is much easier to get used to. Generally, it is difficult for the average person to get used to the firehose of information that is fed to you.

Personally, I am an information addict and struggle trying to limit the amount of information I consume. FriendFeed is a very good service for information addicts like myself or even on a greater scale with the likes of Robert Scoble and Louis Gray. Am I saying that FriendFeed will never go mainstream? No, mainly because they are continually making things simpler. First, you could hide entries from a particular service. Then you could segment your subscriptions into lists. Recently, we received the ability to hide a specific feed for one user. With each iteration they are trying to make things simpler.

Why is simple so important? Because simple drives adoption in greater numbers. FriendFeed is gaining popularity already, but massive growth requires simple.

Why

You can share more personal and rewarding goodies that are for your committed tribe of customers. Its a neat update that customers can keep, it can cover multiple topics and its totally based on permission marketing that people want.

How

I’m a beginner when it comes to coding so MailChimp and Campaign Monitor are awesome for me. Simple HTML with some CSS which anyone can do, if they have an HTML editor. I’m using dreamweaver cs4.

Go lead your customers and reward the ones who think you really kick ass.

When was the last time you saw a design that was so simple and was so easy to use, you didnt even notice it?

Thats extraordinary design.

If you design anything make it so simple to use it then make it more simple.

Scott

Here is a pretty detailed log of what iv done with my startup in 5 months. (I know, too long, but I had to start from scratch)

I researched my ass off, finding amazing companies in the web app and events industry, i admire what they are all doing, but especially those who make money!

I found go2web20.net which helped me find loads of amazing companies which helped me find some great people to follow.

I started to use Google Reader to follow tons of blogs and learn like hell.

Saw some wicked presentations from startupschool.org and found the DHH presentation which totally inspired me against the advice i was getting from local guys in Scotland. Seriously bad advice.

Came across Seth Godin who is probably the smartest guy iv ever come across, truly incredible. You must read his books, especially Purple Cow, none of them will disappoint.

I then spotted Ryan Carson and Carsonified who kick ass in the UK although I hope I can pass on the word about them and people listen to me because i never knew they existed (and everyone should know about what they do).

I started as a newbie and its been a helluva hard ride to just find awesome people and its taken me longer than most developers because i don’t code, i was just an idea guy.

So i began on a wireframe to solve the itch i had, which was to make something that meant i could put and event page online quickly and if i wanted to, sell tickets from it.

I also learned to use services and then find their value like Firefox plugins, WordPress plugins, using HTML etc

I created a personal blog to store all the gems i find and share them for free, so hopefully nobody in the UK has to start where i started.

Then i refreshed my photoshop skills and started working on some logos and testing them out with people and my new ones kick ass!

Went to incorporate a business, they took the piss and it took 5 weeks to complete it all. So far iv waited 2 weeks for the bank account gear to get setup but it takes AGES!

Read Getting Real, by 37signals - One of the best startup tools in the world!

I’m now getting to grips with grid hosting and burstable servers such as Amazon Web Services, Flexiscale and Media Temples Grid.

I went back to my wire-frame and stripped it to its bare bones because i want the users to find a use for it when it launches and tell me how they use it, i cant wait.

I built an the Eventzi Blog on Tumblr and threw in some hacks to make it better, I’m so proud of its simplicity.

I’m using GetSatisfaction for user discussion.

I’m using Slinkset for my forum and new feature recommendations.

I’m using Twitter as a customer support element where i can interact with users and update them quickly.

So now I’m waiting on digital banking and the credit card coming through as well as the domain transfer from the crappy Fasthosts to GoDaddy.

In the meantime iv been playing with Campaign Monitor and looked picked up an html editor to help me out

Then Ill be setting up Google Aps for my business email, docs etc then I can send out my work to a back-end freelancer to build the app, as well as a designer to make my app look simple and hot!

Ill be creating an E-Book, probably with Issuu about how to start a web app with the target audience being complete newbies.

Your pal,

Scott

So Kathy Sierra kicked ass!

She started off by asking the audience to think of something they really wanted or want to do (play football with Man Utd or code)

With that dreamy thought in my head she then went on to ask how we could give this dreamy thought to our users by satisfying it.

So when i began to think of an idea, i tried to solve an itch i had when managing a few small events. There wasn’t anything for small event holders to use to set up their event online, analyse invites and sell tickets to the event, it WAS a PAIN IN THE ASS.

HELP YOUR USERS TO KICK ASS!

So the VC’s have advised startups to:

• Control spending
• Throttle back growth assumptions
• Cut earnings assumptions
• Focus on quality
• Lower risk
• Reduce debt

What was their advice before the tough times?

Telling people that they should do this or that after the event has happend, arent experts, the ones who do it before are.

Did anyone say NO SHIT to themselves when they saw “focus on quality”.

How to do it

I would say you only need three people if you want to strip it back to the bare minimum, which would look like this:

• One developer
• One designer / front-end developer
• One blogger / PR person

How much did it cost?

On a basic level it cost us a week of salaries (around $10,000). There are some other small costs which I’m not including like rent, electricity, coffee and taxes. We got hosting for free because of a connection we have with the company but if you paid for that you might expect to pay not more than $400 for the first month (for a simple app).

Team building

Building a web app quickly is not only a great idea if you need to get your idea to market fast but it’s also a great way to build team morale.

You don’t need to build a brand new app in order to benefit from this idea. You can actually take time off to work on a new feature or direction for your current app.

There are some serious benefits to stepping away from your normal work and producing something totally new and creative:

1. The best boost you can give you or your team is to provide the time to be creative. Turning off your phones and email and just focusing on something new and exciting will do wonders for your energy level.
2. It could generate some amazing buzz around you and your company or products.
3. You’ll come back to your current projects with a new perspective and renewed energy.
4. It will push your team to learn new skills. For example, Will, our head of sponsor relationships, spent the whole week doing PR - something new for him.

Tips on working wisely

Here are a few tips that you should keep in mind if you’re focusing on building apps quickly:

1. Limit meetings to one 10 minute chat in the morning and one 10 minute wrap-up at the end of each day. Meetings are the best way to kill productivity and crush creativity so keep ‘em short.
2. Get people away from their machines at lunch. Go for lunch together and maybe throw the frisbee or play Wii. The excitement and creativity will quickly deteriorate if you don’t have a break during the day.
3. Simplify the site and app as much as possible. Try launching with just ‘Home’, ‘Help’ and ‘About’.
4. Make sure to build on a great framework like Rails, Symfony, Django or Objective-J. Part of our experiment was playing with Django and comparing it to Rails and Symfony (a PHP framework). We’ve found that Django lacks the rigor of Rails or Symfony, thus might not be an ideal choice for future projects.
5. Go with the first logo idea and color scheme from your designer. You shouldn’t over-analyze the look and feel of everything as this process can go on indefinitely. Design the logo and move on. This is why you need to hire good designers and trust them to be good at what they do.
6. Be technologically agnostic. If your developers are saying it should be built in a certain language and framework and they have solid reasons, trust them and move on. Again, this is about hiring smart people and getting out of their way.
7. Coordinate how your designers and developers are going to work together. Our designer creates static HTML and then passes it to the developers who use the HTML as a basis for creating templates. These templates are then committed to a Git repository and from then on, the whole team works from that one repository.
8. It’s not enough to just have a designer and a developer. You need a dedicated person who’s focus is solely spreading the word about your application and working to get media coverage. There’s no way we could get the kind of coverage for Matt that we hope to achieve without several of us working full time on it. However, do not hire a PR agency for this - there needs to be an authentic passion for the app that can only come from your team. (For instance, I asked TechCrunch to cover it, and Erick came back with the suggestion to write this post).
9. Get your ‘Creation Environment’ setup correctly.

Building your Creation Environment

If you want to build quickly and creatively, you need to set up an environment that encourages and facilitates that process. If you don’t have the following basics down, your team will be constantly battling annoying issues instead of getting on with building. You’ll need:

1. Good version control. I suggest Git.
2. An easy-to-use source and changeset browser. We use Codebase.
3. Solid server infrastructure. Why not build on Flexiscale, Grid-Service, Mosso or EC2 and let the big boys worry about uptime and server load?
4. A ‘one-click’ deployment system. This means that deploying the code from your repository should take just one click. If it’s any more complex than that, there is potential for complications and downtime. Capistrano is brilliant if you’re using Rails.
5. Printers, chalk boards and meeting space. People need the physical space to throw around ideas. Try painting a wall with blackboard paint so the team has room to sketch ideas.
6. Coffee, water, music and healthy snacks.

If you really get these right, it makes building and creating so much more enjoyable and fast.