One of the interesting things about Devin’s list is how many are hosted services – outside of a user’s control. The Jekyll-style blog generators might end up being a threat on the other end where people want to control/customize/run their own platforms.

Our automation tools and WordPress hosting configurations are getting better and better; thanks in part to the generosity of so many in the community. I’m proud that Jon is taking the time to return the favor.

But with major user interface changes such as Aqua or iOS 7, Apple has another tendency: they overshoot the mark. Their incremental approach then becomes one where unnecessary items are removed (such as Aqua’s stripes) or improved (excessive shadows and transparency are toned down.)

It’s really hard to design any system with an unknown number of permutations and get it right the first time. Iteration is needed, as Craig outlines.

Given a choice, in most situations I would opt for a blog over a traditional news section. That blog should be aimed at existing customers and have a focus on providing excellent customer support, while building a sense of customer loyalty.

This is what we’re doing in the next iteration of the Crowd Favorite website. I’ve resisted a company blog for about 10 years now, but the way we’re approaching it now makes sense to me.

Interesting… (thanks mrgan)

The Capistrano automation tools that we’ve created at Crowd Favorite have been a huge time saver. It’s on a list to package them along with “required set-up” docs so they can be useful to other shops as well.

Congratulations to my friends Dave and Brent (and John, who I’ve only casually met) on the launch of Vesper. I’ve been testing it and it’s a very well thought-through and executed iPhone app.

I loved Camino back in the day, but I agree with the decision to let it ride off into the sunset.

I don’t think I’m the target market for the Pixel, but I’d be curious to try it for a week if someone wanted to send me one.

The changelog in the jQuery blog post is fantastic.

And me without any planned trips to Manhattan.

Ever wonder what it’s like to accept a job at Crowd Favorite and move to Denver? Craig does a great job outlining his past 6 months. My favorite bit is probably this:

There’s still much that I don’t know, and I’ll always be asking questions, but my coworkers are incredibly intelligent, helpful, patient, and they challenge me – a great combination to help further my career.

The statement made by Google yesterday, instead, is that the war for mobile will not be won with devices or operating systems. It will be won instead with services.

I like this approach for Google. Good things generally happen when companies play to their strengths.

This is a great overview. It should be easy and simple, but has certainly gotten more complex of late.

When people talk about using Capsule for code snippets I think that’s fine, but that’s not what it’s designed for. GistBox is beautiful (appears to be free – no idea how they plan to support it) and finally provides the ability to tag Gists. This is great for code snippets, lousy as a developer journal. That’s the difference between Capsule and Gistbox – both look to be great tools for different jobs (though you certainly can put code snippets in Capsule if you’re also using it as a journal).