I seem to have had this discussion a few times lately, so I’m going to save myself the trouble of repeating it and just write down all the problems I have with hackathons. (Yes, I know lots of people have previously posted about what they don’t like about hackathons; I’ve linked some of them at the bottom of this post, if you want some other opinions too.) They’re too much commitment Me: I’m kind of interested in your thing. How can I get involved? Them: Continue reading → You’ve probably heard the tech startup aphorism “do one thing well”, or a variant on it. “Don’t try to do too many things”. “Focus.” Whatever. I’m not very good at following it, as is pretty apparent from what I’m working on. Growstuff has several things it’s trying to do (crops database, garden journal, seed sharing, community building), all interlinked. Every so often someone points me at a website that does just one thing of the set of things we’re trying to do. For instance, the Continue reading → Printfection – Looks like I’ve got a new favourite t-shirt supplier: Printfection has organic cotton Ts in fitted (“women’s”) sizes up to 54″ in 13 different colours, and at $19.99 each which isn’t too bad. They do zazzle/cafepress style fulfilment, though it looks like they’re aiming more for a pro market than a hobbyist one. Fine by me! I think I’m about to start selling t-shirts! (I’ve been putting it off for years because I couldn’t find tshirt stock I wanted to wear.) Joshua Ellis Continue reading → How Headphones Changed the World – “A short philosophical history of personal music”, at The Atlantic Amanda Palmer And Steve Albini On ‘Piracy’: It Only Helps Musicians – Surprise! (NB: not actually surprising) Steve Albini “rejects the term piracy” and thinks sharing music for free helps musicians, especially those who tour and play lots of live gigs. BTW, if you’ve never read Steve’s rant about where money goes when you sign with a major label (linked from this article) then you definitely should. A respose Continue reading →