EdgeCloud

Although Techcrunch has highlighted a number of interesting video-oriented sharing sites in the web2.0 arena none of them are really all that compelling. I’ve tried both JumpCut and MotionBox and although it’s nice to have a place to share videos from my “still” camera it still doesn’t feel like a fluid experience on either site. Both of these sites offer online editing and “mashup capability” but the problem is that I don’t care. All I want is a nice interface to share videos of Sebastian (my 1 year old) walking for the first time. I use my regular camera for videos a lot now because dragging out my miniDV camera for anything but long-ish engagements is just a PITA. (And I love that iMovie makes things nice and fast, but I only pull that out if I want to author up a DVD.) Additionally, the 100MB, while not something you may run into a lot can be a problem. What I really want is to have flickr’s interface adapted for video. Beyond that, an export plugin for iPhoto (like the current flickrExport - which kicks major ass) would seal the deal. Uploading video through a browser sucks. And it was hard enough to find the locations of the video files that had already been organized by iPhoto (thank goodness for Spotlight) so having an exporter would really provide a seamless way to get things done. (And while we’re at it, Broadband upload speeds suck…but you already knew that.)

So…why aren’t there any open source video sharing platforms? Every programming language has a few “photo gallery” type packages available for them. Gallery is certainly popular (php) and rails has Gullery. So where are all the video gallery projects? A cursory check on google, sourceforge, and freshmeat yield next to nothing…hrmmm…

I think I’ve found a theme that I’m happier with. I started using it on my personal blog and immediately started hacking it to make it more suitable to my liking. It’s very nice and the stylesheets are clear enough to do some meddling with. If you are looking for a “less is more” kind of theme that is yet clear and “perty”, then give Hemingway a shot.

*whistle*

Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time, there were two geeks that decided to start a company. Well, these two little geeks thought they were smart, what can I say? Anyhow, the Big Day finally rolls around. You know the one.. FIRST PAY DAY! They figured it’d take them an hour or so, then they’d go see superman. Oh ho HO! Little did they know… Enter that crafty guy, Uncle Sam.

So we’re using quickbooks online ( slick in some ways, painful in others ). We wisely opted for the payroll module to help us calculate taxes. Sadly, it does not “do it all”. Indeed, all it really does is multiply two numbers and say “you owe this much”. Even better - to *get* to the multiplication point on unemployment taxes, we had to apply for an unemployment tax id. But.. To get the tax id, you have to pay your first payroll.. To do the payroll, you need the tax id.. Wait a minute..

Looking more closely, we realized that what the state actually wanted to find out was whether or not you were liable for unemployment taxes yet. You have to have a working employee at least 20 different weeks in the calendar year or have paid an employee over $1500 in wages for a quarter. What complicated silliness! Anyhow, we definitely qualified, so we went through about a million pages of questions, some repeating, and some extremely confusing. Apparently, our incantations resonated with some unholy bell and we received that coveted Unemployment Tax Id.

Now we can get back to cutting a paycheck! Much more pleasant! Well, it was until we saw the amounts that *weren’t* going into our pockets. *sigh* Ah, well.. Nothing much you can do about that. Quickbooks did it’s multiplication and we have our numbers that we owe each taxing authority. Back to the unemployment website!

This trip wasn’t as painful - enter some account numbers, say how much we think we owe, and watch it go bye-bye. Done! One more to do - US Treasury..

For an enjoyable trip down memory lane circa 1997, check out the design on the official online payment system website for the IRS: EFTPS. After recovering from the physical and psychological damages afflicted by this site design, we entered our information and were told “sorry, you actually can’t make any payments online yet, because we have to send you a secret code through snail mail [ostensibly] for security reasons”. Man, what a ripoff!

Well, to sum up a long, probably boring story, after about three hours of work, we finally got our first paycheck cut! That’s right! One paycheck! And we’re still not done, because we’re waiting for our super-duper ultra-secret code which will unlock the secrets of life, errr, online tax payments.

Anyhow, I’d just like to thank all of the great minds that came up with all this complicated silliness. Rick has a screenshot of how you figure out if that 20-week thing applies to you.. It’s fantastic! Until next time…

I love the K2 theme. But I’m sure I’m not the only one tired of the “usual” schemes that blogging themes produce. Anyone have a tip for a better theme (one that’s at least easy enough to hack up to support a good, clean design)?

The open source mantra is alive and well today. Whether it be in the realm of software development or the sphere of ideas, the wisdom of crowds is alive and well. Tracy asks about the role of the small business in this idea and it is a good question. I wish I had more data so as to provide a break down of contributions made to various projects, whether the majority are backed by bigger companies (say, an IBM) vs. smaller ones (say 37signals size, or smaller).

It’s interesting to note because I think the perception from this side of the community might be that the smaller companies are often the bigger contributers. Take a look at any mailing list or blog and you’ll find that most folks in the blogosphere contributing tirelessly to make things better are either a) doing it on the side because it’s fun (and despite all the “regular” work they have to do), b) are doing it because it solves a need they are currently facing and have a vested interest in making things better, or are c) doing it because their work has asked them to take an active role somehow. I wouldn’t say that having support from bigger companies is helpful in many instances and can provide a great amount of exposure. (A good example is the support that Dojo has received from IBM and AOL.) But how important are the big guys? Not very. Previously, there were instances where one would wait for larger companies to take things up, shake things out, and support a technology or idea by name (think “Java”). These days all it takes is a blog entry. Anyone remember when script.aculo.us came out or when TurboGears started up? (I do! I do!) Both projects serve fairly small subset of folks within their communities but are highly regarded and well supported within them.

The small business community has a vested interest in helping out with the heavy lifting. Smaller, more focused projects that solve niche problems, are of higher quality because of the folks involved and because of the increased communication and awareness that new tools on the net provide. I can admit, given all the other things that small businesses must deal with on a day to day basis (something I’m very aware of at this point), that giving back is not easy. But whether it is through software development or the sphere of ideas, giving back is the most important thing you can do.

Aside: At Axiomfire, while we were always on top of what was going on in the community we weren’t ever able to be in a place where we could be more than just helpers on the mailing lists or offer up smallish bug fixes. This was certainly not out of lack of desire. We were, as they say, getting work done to pay the bills - Tracy is right though - it was one of the best work environments one could ask for (despite the rough times)…

The manifesto at the end is right on…inspirational. Take a peek.