Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 - 1 Comment
So I finally got round to cleaning up Feeddit and releasing it under an MIT license for anyone to use how ever they like, just like I said I would.
The site and service will keep running and providing a decent RSS feed for Digg for the foreseeable future, and any improvements or patches that are suggested to the system will likely be pulled back into the live site to improve it too.
I decided to host it on github, which is the best thing since sliced bread in the ruby development world, everyone who is anyone is forking projects left right and center over there!
Grab a copy of the source code here: http://github.com/andrew/feeddit
Githorde.org
In light of the fun I’ve been having on github, I’ve got together with some other developers to create Githorde.org.
Githorde is a collection of developers, we pick an open source project to contribute to and swarm around it for a short amount of time, adding features, fixing bugs and generally helping to improve and promote the project.
Anyone is free to join the project, if you think you can help with design, coding or testing then join the horde!
Other gitables
If you have an account on github you can follow me to see what projects I’m currently working on: http://github.com/andrew
Find out more about Git here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)
Loads of useful articles/tips/guides here: http://swik.net/git+Rails
nb. Git is not a rails/ruby only thing, it was originally designed by Linus (of Linux fame), it’s just another source code management tool
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 - 5 Comments
So there has been a lot of buzz about the new Google App Engine, right now it only supports Python.
So unless I take the time to learn Django it’s pretty much dead to me for the moment.
Rails Support?
But if Google continue to expand on it and add support for more languages (like Ruby) then it could make deployment and running applications in a scalable production environment a whole lot nicer.
They have already given out all of the initial invites, so you won’t be able to deploy any apps you right yet but you can signup and get the SDK for all the major platforms and have a play with it.
As long as this project doesn’t become like a lot of other google projects and fade into the background, this may kick off a lot more interest in the future of development, inspiring other companies to compete with them in exciting ways, raising the bar for cheap and easy application hosting in the process.
It will be interesting to see how Amazon with their Web Services responds to this, I’m currently using S3 for image hosting on a number of my rails apps and there are a ways to run rails apps completely from EC2 but it’s too expensive compared to a cheap 256mb Slicehost account.
The Google app engine is completely free under a certain level of usage which would make it perfect for trying out small new apps whilst allowing them to stand up under a heavy digging.
The Blogosphere loves the Google
Here’s a list of all the interesting links I’ve seen about it on the web this morning:
Monday, March 31st, 2008 - 1 Comment
I read an interesting post on the Red Sweater Blog earlier today, titled: It Should Be Free?
It which got me thinking about the price of software and all the factors involved in deciding how much or even if you should charge for a piece of software that you have developed.
Should you charge?
This choice of pricing is always going to be up to the individual developer or their employer but here are some of my thoughts on it:
-
Complexity - I would never feel right charging for something that only took a couple hours to put together, the more time you put into something the more it’s worth.
-
Competition - If there is no real alternative or competitor to your piece of software then I would definitely charge for it. If you’ve found a gap in the market and there is demand you deserve it.
If there is a lot of competition in the market providing it for free could be very disruptive, even if you only have a half the feature set of the leading competitor.
-
Quality over quantity - The core offering is important but just as important is the level of polish and the quality of your software. Have you smoothed off all the sharp corners, got rid of any annoying UI bugs and made it simple, effective and enjoyable to use?
If so customers are going to be much happier to pay for your product than a buggy, painful one, even if it has more features (just look at the iPod)
-
How much can you get for it? - At the end of the day, charge what you can for your software. If you think it’s worth £50 and you’ll get enough sales then go for it, if the only people who will use it wouldn’t pay a penny for it then maybe you should make it free and work out another way to make money from it.
Supply and demand are big drivers in any industry, especially software, ignore it at your peril!
Other reasons for free
I often give away a lot of my work for free, or at least I don’t try and monetize them with adverts and the like. I use these free bits of software as learning exercises, to build my portfolio and to help anyone with the same itches that the software I build usually scratches (very geeky itches).
I’ll be releasing Feeddit’s source code under the MIT license in a few weeks for the same reasons, with the added bonus that the collaborative nature of open source software will help evolve it and grow beyond what I can do with it alone.
How do I charge for software?
The only time I charge for software (as in web sites) has been when I’m making something with someone else specifically asked for.
Everything else that I’ve made has either been to scratch my own it, so I give it away for free since I made for myself and it’s done so why not, or has been something I’ve made for a friend.
But if your trade is as a software developer then you have to earn a living somehow, I earn my money by providing a service, using my knowledge and skills to creating software for other people or business on a per hourly basis, or a salary in the case of my day job.
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 - No Comments
No of course not you morons, now get back to letting Facebook spank you with a paddle!
This post isn’t aimed at any tech blog(ger) in particular, more the whole sector and its inability not to wet themselves at the sight of a slightly useful and/or successful web app
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 - 8 Comments
Last week Feeddit reached a pretty big milestone, 3,000,000+ hits on the main feed after 6 months of providing a free, bigger and direct linked rss feed for Digg.
To be honest I had completely forgot about the little rails app that could after it’s launch, it worked so well and asked for so little in return, ever day providing me with direct links to the stories on digg front page. It’s just sat there working away for the past 6 months, I simply forgot that other people use it too.
I don’t think I could ever go back to living without it!
Other People Love it too
Feeddit has received quite a lot of blog love, from other hardcore diggers too, here are some places I’ve noticed it posted:
And the pure feedy goodness of it has made it quite a utility as well people are using it together with other services like this:
If you see anywhere else that has blogged about it, mashed it up or you blog about it yourself let me know and I’ll add you to the list.
Future Features
Since it’s doing so well maybe it could do with a bit more love, I might add some support for categories soon.
The other thing I’m thinking about doing is releasing the source code under an open source license, taking suggestions, patches and features on the open source branch (prolly hosted with google code) and rolling the best bits back into Feeddit.com.
I can’t really see a downside to doing it so once I get some free time to clean up the code I’ll get on it.
Show some Feeddit love
Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Diggfeedr
Delicious: http://del.icio.us/url/f19d6508d460f2287445b08f7e388c23
Taking on too many projects is the bane of my life at the moment
