I had the opposite experience as well -- I tried Page.ly first but could not import any of my sites (which all use a variety of custom post types). Their import process seemed more attuned to vanilla installs. Closing out my billing with them was also somewhat arduous.
WPE has been great so far -- very responsive support -- and their caching handles about 8 million pageviews a month with 600-800 simultaneous visitors and very little downtime.
car2go? I moved down in October and was lucky enough to borrow a friend's car for awhile. It feels generally necessary, but I don't have one yet either. Are you downtown/soco?
I think with code, there are a million ways to clone something (...especially when you haven't seen the source) so it's harder for developers to understand what it feels like when you see someone copy your designs (to clarify, I'm speaking generally here.) Best allusion I can think of is joke stealing. A lot of work can go into a one liner. Does it matter if it took 5 seconds (or 11 hours in this case) to copy it?
Fact is, if Dustin hadn't done anything innovative (ie, worth cloning), we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Innovative and worth cloning are completely different standards. There is nothing at all innovative about what Dustin did. Someone else thought it would be nice to play around with, and made it. I am part of this conversation because it is about "theft", not because I think that either post is in itself notable.
Let me make a better parallel: a lemonade stand. Dustin thought "wow, the weather is nice. I'd like some lemonade." He made some especially good lemonade, added a little cranberry, and wrote about how good it was. Someone else, who hadn't previously wanted lemonade thought, "hey, I would also like some lemonade. Hadn't thought of cranberry before, I wonder if that's any good..."
And now we're having a conversation about how anyone who makes cranberry lemonade is stealing from Dustin.
Or rather Dustin made some cranberry lemonade but only for himself and his friends. Dustin posted a picture of him and his friends enjoying this lemonade together and Nate sees this and thinks it's sad that Dustin is so stingy with his great lemonade. So Nate makes his own lemonade that's really similar and shares the recipe with everyone and invites them to make it better. Now, everyone can make, mix and enjoy their own lemonade - and it is good.
I think our respective metaphors for the situation show we're coming from different places -- I'm definitely biased towards the design because I think it solves a functional problem rather than just adding a dash of zest. Appreciate your thoughts and perspective, ynniv. Now to buy some lemonade...
I'm missing the substance beyond the zest. Are you saying that a drafts folder is innovative? I think that beyond bias, you're focused on the design. I suspect that if Obtvse did not use the same visual design, and show up in a similar forum in close proximity to the original announcement, I expect you would likely think nothing of it.
Didn't see this and brought up the Samwers as well. I think we're still in a transition around here in terms of how "design" is valued but overall it seems like things are improving.
It's pretty clear that the innovation in Dustin's work wasn't the code -- it was the interface. Pointing out that Nate built Obtvse in a day from scratch is pretty meaningless and the fact that he bothered to recreate it makes it pretty clear that Dustin built something cool. As a designer... it just feels like this wasn't Nate's to open source and hopefully this will transition further from the original.
On the flipside, if the Samwer brothers launched a version of Svbtle next week in 15 markets, would the reaction be the same?
The list of articles/ideas/drafts? The full screen editing mode? Which part?
I'll grant him the UI is new, but in essence, it's a skin over existing concepts. And, to be clear, when I say UI, I'm referring to the the colors and graphics. Sort of like someone coming up with a new theme for Firefox. You still have the form of a browser, just with different colors, padding, and images.
So again, I pose my question, where is the new, unique, non-obvious innovation here? You seem to have some interest in defending this idea, so maybe you can answer this.
I'm not a designer, so clearly, I might be missing something.
Edit: Just to be clear here, for one example, was when I saw his distraction free writing screen, it reminded me of the countless other implementations I've seen for other blogging platforms, not to mention what's built into Word and Pages (with Word's being far more elegant).
This is basically a rite of passage for all freelancers/lawyers/service workers unfortunately. My rule of thumb: If someone doesn't want to give you at least 20% upfront for a project, you don't want to work with them. Always give yourself checkpoints in the project for partial payments instead of a lump sum at the end.
I seem to remember a lot of media coverage in the early 90s when I was younger about how almost all software engineering would be outsourced. Definitely played into my thought process years later when I majored in architecture ;-)
I was an architecture undergrad myself and immediately moved to the web upon graduating a few years ago. Thing is, I would still highly recommend it is as a major (...at least, the program I was in -- definitely varies school to school). My experience was of four years of mixed media problem solving through models, mylar, computer animation (Flash/Actionscript/Maya), etc. Definitely shaped how I think/approach everything I work on.
If I had a startup that was looking to hire innovative UX/design people right now, ex-Archs would be towards the top of my list.
3 bedrooms are definitely rare but there are pockets of them around town. I had a 3.5 - 4 bedroom near Columbia off Central Park & 109th and it was huge and affordable ($3300 I believe and one block from the subway). If you're hunting for one, I'd start up there if having the Park as your front yard floats your boat.
WPE has been great so far -- very responsive support -- and their caching handles about 8 million pageviews a month with 600-800 simultaneous visitors and very little downtime.