37signals just launched a digital sketching application for the iPad. The hat is off to them: it seems interesting enough, and it is interesting to see them step away from the web and dabble into different platforms. This post isn’t about their app, however, but about something I just read on the comments to its release. The user Gregg posts, chiming about the app’s $9.99 price tag (emphasis mine):

I don’t think $9.99 is too expensive. What you’re paying for is the Campfire integration and the judicious removal of features. How soon do you think this app will pay for itself if you consider the cost of your time involved in drawing, scanning and emailing a sketch?

There’s a lot of food for thought in that comment. $9.99 for the judicious removal of features. Is doing less actually worth more? The guys at 37signals have long been advocates for doing less than the competition^[1], but actually seeing a client put a value on the lack of features is interesting. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it, as I wrap my head around the idea and think about it myself.

^[1] Disclosure: in my day job I do belong to the competition, even though we serve somewhat different audiences, with slightly different needs.

I spend quite a chunk of my time writing html and css. Lately I’ve been using 960 grid system as my go-to “framework” for designing grid-based layouts. While that saves me quite a bit of time that I used to spend writing CSS code to float elements around, there’s always ways to shave off a few minutes (or hours) of code writing. If you’re on a Mac and use Textmate to write your code, you may be interested in using the Textmate Bundle I just added to Github.

The video below shows a few examples of the functionality the bundle provides. In short, it lets you write grid-based layouts with just a handful of keystrokes. The video takes about two minutes.

Instructions for installing the bundle as well as a bit of documentation are both available on the project page at GitHub. Feel free to contribute by forking the project and sending me a pull request. If you don’t know how to use git, give me a couple more days to start providing versioned zip files you can download and double click to install. Time to crank a bit more code – have a great weekend!

It is not the first time I read about how Chrome is beating Firefox in the browser race. Every time it happens, however, I can’t help but think two things: 1) that I’m contributing to the numbers by being one of the Chrome converts, and 2) that the good old days are sadly just that – old days.

I remember Phoenix (I can’t believe it’s been eight years), and how promising it was – it was fast, open, with great standards support. Then you were forced to change name to Firebird – people weren’t very fond of that name either. Then the second and final name change, to Firefox. Things were great for a while, there. Phoenix was built as an alternative to the Mozilla suite, which installed a number of things real users just did not need. Launching the browser was a delightful experience – it was a great combination of simplicity and raw power. It was beautiful.

Now allow me to fast-forward to today: you’re hard at work at version 3.7 of Firefox, with 4.0 on the slate soon. Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt left for Facebook; Dave Hyatt left for Apple. Firefox slowly (but surely) slowed down to the Mozilla Suite-like speeds. Firefox has personas, and themes. I, as I’m sure you’re guessing by now, don’t need themes (just as I don’t need many of the things in the 3.0 cycle). I need the fastest browser I can get, I need it to keep pushing the envelope and complying to standards – why not 100% on the acid 3 test yet, by the way? Chrome, fortunately for me, fills that gap. It is both fast and standards compliant. It feels light even with extensions. I love it almost as much as I loved Phoenix back in the day.

Which brings me full circle to Phoenix (now not the browser but the mythical bird). You guys need to reinvent yourselves and come back from the “ashes” of what Firefox is today. What Hyatt and Ross did one day for the Mozilla Suite, Chrome has done for Firefox and just like you guys slowly bit off IE’s market in the past, so is Chrome slowly biting at your potential share gains, month over month. There’s a ton of really smart people working at Mozilla today. If only you could focus on getting us, your community, a light, fast browser again I would jump onboard again in a second.

Thanks for listening.