I've looked at used some of the online tools from 37signals, such as Writeboard, Ta-da List and Backpack, and so I was interested to learn that they've written a book about their philosophy and company ideas. The basic theme is how to start out in a new technology venture, using the contrarian approach of providing less, releasing early, and above all - staying small.

"All the cash, all the marketing, all the people in the world can't buy the agility you get from being small."

The book is available online here. You can also pay US$19 to get a copy in pdf or US$29 for a paperpack copy. The online content is exactly the same as the printed version, which I'm actually contemplating purchasing ... I always find it easier to make my notes directly in the book :)

"Keep it small. Keep it simple. Let it happen."

I was forwarded the following link to a pretty comprehensive list of online generators.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2006/11/09/online-generators/

It seems there’s one for any occasion. I particularly like the ColorBlender.com which will give you a colour matching palette based on a preferred starting color. Perfect for those of us not trained in Graphical Arts to produce something aesthetically pleasing!

SpiralFrog, a free music download service, is due to be launched this December. The interesting part is that they believe they can support their venture by advertising alone, and by the fact that they have signed up with Universal Music Group, must mean that the numbers sound good!

The deal is that music and video downloads are free to use for 6 months from the download. The catch is that before the download starts, the user has to watch 90 seconds of advertising.

90 seconds is a long time to be forced to wait for a download to start for each song/video … how many people will just set it going and walk away? Mind you, it’s a novel concept that I’m pretty sure will see them become a popular site … everyone loves “free”!

I came across a great web site today, www.mapmyrun.com. Using Google Maps, you can plot your run on the map and then get distance and speed calculations based on the route. The geocoding support from Google isn’t there for NZ, so you can’t search by address, but there is nothing stopping you from searching for the city and moving around manually. The bit I love best, is that you can view by satellite and also via Google Earth …

If you want to see the runs that I do most often, go here :-)

It took me a while to decide on which ASP.NET hosting company to go with to host this (and future) sites. It was often difficult to make fair comparisons between company's plans being especially careful of all those hidden costs lurking in the small print! In the end, after lots of deliberation, I chose CrystalTech based in Arizona, US. CrystalTech simply provided an ASP.NET 2.0 plan and service that couldn't be matched here in NZ (a 25Mb Sql2005 database will almost double your plan cost!).

The inspiration for writing this 'recommendation' however, is that I had a problem with one of my email accounts not functioning and so I emailed support. Two minutes later I received an email response with my tracking number and a message saying that "… Our average response time for the last eight hours is 15 minutes". Sure enough, 5 minutes later I had an explanation and resolution.

Now that's service! I wouldn't have minded if it took 2, 4 or 8 hours to fix … it's the fact that I got an answer from a human being that made sense! Compare that to talking to Telecom NZ when Jetstream (broadband) goes down (which is often!), whereby after 20 minutes on hold you get some guy trying to tell you that "… maybe the wiring in your house is faulty!?!".

I came across the Microsoft Office Live site today, which marks Microsoft's new drive towards an ASP (Application Service Provider) model. The emphasis is on getting small business sites up and running, complete with domain name and email registration, which will be free even after the beta period. This is great news for those businesses that don't know where to start with regards to the web, especially when the domain name registered through Office Live can be transferred if/when they outgrow it!

On top of the basics there are other paid services, based on the Office suite, to aid your business to function. I was particularly keen to try the project and sales lead tools, but unfortunately for myself and other Kiwi's, it's not available this side of the world. Hopefully soon.