micro ISV Incubation

I've had this idea for a while now and it come up again the other day. I think we need some kind of investment in micro ISVs to help incubate them. My idea is to have an investor agree to pay a micro ISV a fixed amount of money each month. This would be a minimum amount that would cover the developer's monthly expenses. This way the developer could be freed up to pursue their idea full time without doing such things as contracting out their services to make money. As it stands now, I work 4 days a week to make money to live on and dedicate one day a week to work on my products. This is a loss for me right now and it doesn't yet pay for itself, but it will eventually. I have lots of other ideas I'd like to work on and I'd like to devote more time to my current project. I can't do it. Imagine if their was an investor or some kind of union or association of micro ISVs that would provide this funding. Obviously there would have to be a limit on the total funds or the length of time funds are provided. And there would have to be some kind of return on investment for investors. If the details could be ironed out and some kind of system like this put in place, I think a lot more micro ISV could be started and be successful and eventually become full software companies.

Maria Sharapova Nike Commerical

I just bet Maria loves this commercial. I know I do. I love the McEnroe brothers singing "I feel pretty". Wouldn't it be great to see them in a booth together announcing a game.

Why You Need PackRat

Even the big guy's web apps go down. Nobody can guarantee 100% availability of your data.

PackRat 0.88: Create and Delete Pages

I just released a new version of PackRat. This one adds the ability to create and delete pages. Create pages with the New Page command under the Backpack menu or the Action toolbar button, or the + button at the bottom of the page list. Delete pages with the delete this page link on a page or by pressing the delete or backspace key, or by pressing the - button at the bottom of the page list.

I've also added an Activity Viewer for help in tracking down those Backpack commnication problems and there are a few bug fixes. For more details check out the release notes in PackRat Help.

We're getting close to full editing. All I need to do is add the ability to reorder your lists and add support for editing reminders.

PackRat 0.87: Links

I finally got a new release out. I've been having too much fun on the weekends playing tennis and baseball and hanging out with friends.

Anyway, the main event of this release is the addition of link editing. Now there is a New Link command on the action menu and the Backpack menu for creating a link on a new page. There's an Add link link on a page with existing links. And of course, you can delete links and links are included in synchronization. A nice touch is that you can drag a page in the page list to another page to create a link. There's a few bug fixes as well. Check the release notes for the details.