New MacBook
Posted on October 15, 2008
I picked up the new MacBook. I have been realizing over the last few weeks that the Eee PC, though fun and little and catchy - has halved my productivity! OSX is the primary driver for getting the new computer.
It feels really sturdy. Typing on the keyboard is as sturdy as the flat aluminum keyboard that Apple produces and the trackpad is incredibly usable!
I called the Boston-area Apple Stores at 10:30 and nobody said they had them. Varying stories were told, like they weren’t sure if they’d have them or that they would have them tomorrow. Then, on the second round at 11:45, Cambridgeside Galleria confirmed they had a few. I jumped in the car with some co-workers and hauled ass through the back roads to get there. None were on display and they had to go into the back to grab the item for me. Checkout was as easy as always. Now I have the computer… Unix power + hardware support + really usable + solid feeling laptop at good weight and size.
» Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Eee PC
Posted on October 9, 2008
I Picked up the Eee PC 1000h, a 10″ little netbook with a suggested battery life of over 7 hours for $475 shipped. At this price, I can get a new netbook every year and I’m better off than my previous habit of buying a workstation class notebook every 3 years.
It is running Ubuntu, and can’t turn off the webcam, bluetooth, and USB, so my battery life isn’t as nice as Windows but it’s an amazing little computer. One of the most amazing things was that I used the Ubuntu 8.10 live CD and had a working desktop with visual effects comparable to Vista, modern coding tools (Eclipse), and a web development environment with working WiFi, Bluetooth, Webcam (for Skype), Audio, etc…
Ubuntu/Debian is my server operating system of choice, and I feel like it is quickly becoming my desktop operating system of choice as well.
Something of note is that there is an amazing trend of people running Mac OSX on netbooks with really great results. It is tempting to run OSX on my netbook as well since I run Macs for my workstations, but at the moment I feel very comfortable with Ubuntu.
» Filed Under Open Source | Leave a Comment
Group Edition AppExchange
Posted on August 29, 2008
Due to the number of Salesforce companies we’ve dealt with using Group Edition and missing out on apps like MintFly, Vertical Response, and Jigsaw, we’ve created an “idea” on the Salesforce IdeaExchange:
Please allow AppExchange and other partner applications to work with Group Edition.
» Filed Under Salesforce.com | Leave a Comment
Staples Print Shop Online
Posted on August 3, 2008
It’s amazing that so many people in this day and age (of rising mac popularity, iPhones, Firefox usage) would choose to limit their web site and require only Internet Explorer. For instance, with the virtually unlimited number of online print shops, Staples requires a Windows computer running Internet Explorer.Here is the error page:
Interestingly enough, I would expect the message to say something like “Sorry, we still have our web development team from 1990 who is really good at Visual Basic.” Instead, they’re taking the “act natural” approach, as if this is something you should expect from using the internet.VistaPrint seems to be at least mostly in touch with this whole “internet thing”. They require at least Firefox:
Does anyone know of good print shops online that let you use Safari?
» Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Salesforce.com for your iPhone… NOW!
Posted on July 2, 2008
Too many times we have tried to look up a contact or account in Salesforce.com on our iPhone and give up after waiting 10 minutes for each page to load. The reason is that the iPhone is just not capable of loading the 50+ images, 10+ javascript files, 5+ CSS files, and then process all the javascript code in the user interface.
We are putting the finishing touches on MintFly.com - a system that creates iPhone friendly pages from your Salesforce.com account. This way, we can look up an address, update a record, or search our database within seconds instead of minutes.
» Filed Under Salesforce.com | 1 Comment
Open Source Code Contribution Visualization
Posted on June 13, 2008
This stunning visualization of of code contribution to an open source project (Python) is not only a stunning display of colors and motion. The video starts with one contributor for the longest time. The code is completely circling him and there is no other input. There is so much effort put into the project over such a long period of time before any other contributors were introduced. Once other contributors come about, their additions are few and far between. The little contributions slowly start to build up and accelerate until they become a full stream and eventually eclipse the original person who started the project.
The fact that one person took so long to build it is a testament that open source projects are in fact very similar to our businesses. Someone out there is putting in a lot of effort, working toward a vision, and is dedicated to the goal. Businesses aren’t an over-night success with a grand opening event, they are a consistent challenge to the owner to acquire customers and keep the bottom line low.
code_swarm - Python from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.
» Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Beauty In Advertising
Posted on May 17, 2008
Creating beauty in advertising makes people appreciate your brand. Jet Blue’s new advertising campaign thanking you for not flying, as they do the flying for you, and numerous silly images make it a pleasant experience to see run into their brand. It is a risk, as not all of these endeavors turn out well, but when it’s slightly quirky and improves your day - you do crazy things like spending a dozen more dollars on a short-haul flight because you want to try out Jet Blue, those guys that made you smile a few times last week.
If you’re looking for advertising inspiration you should check out SkaryIdeas.com:
» Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Ajax Loading Animated Gif Generator
Posted on May 14, 2008
AJAX web applications typically use a processing or loading indicator when pulling data back from the server. We use them in S-Controls for Salesforce.com integrations and for our other web projects. Recently when performing a web search for a generic animated loading indicator (this search) I was amazed and surprised at a great tool that someone created:
The site gives you a lot of different styles of moving gifs and then lets you assign colors (or transparency) to the indicator and then you can download it for use in your site. Awesome little tool site!
» Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Help! I need to Lock an Opportunity after Close!
Posted on February 20, 2008
Problem: We’re using a “Closed Won” Opportunity as a financial booking and we need a way to lock the record from people editing it once it reaches this state. This also means we can’t allow people to modify the Opportunity LineItems (aka Opportunity Products).
Solution: Validation Rules to the rescue!
I originally searched Google / SFDC Help for validation rules and triggers for delete but didn’t find any articles that made it apparent. A validation rule is executed any time a record is saved either through the Salesforce.com Application or through the API (including Outlook, Excel Connector, and custom code). In our case, Opportunities are only allowed to be deleted by Admin role (me). This means that they can only be edited (1/2 the battle).
This means we need two Validation rules…
- Disallow editing of an Opportunity once the stage is “Closed Won”: and(PRIORVALUE(StageName) = “Closed Won”, not( $UserRole.Name = “Finance”))
- Disallow editing of Opportunity Products once the Opportunity Stage is “Closed Won”: AND( NOT($UserRole.Name = “Finance”), ISPICKVAL( Opportunity.StageName , “Closed Won” ))
Now, when someone (sales, support, whoever) tries to edit the Opportunity to change the date, they will receive the error message from validation rule 1, hopefully stating they need to go to finance to make changes. If someone tries to update an Opportunity Product amount, description, or custom field they will receive an error from validation rule 2. In this example, only Finance can edit your Closed Won Opportunities but you could also unlock it for Admin or other roles depending on the size of your organization.
This was implemented for use in a close process where Salesforce.com is tied out completely to contract values so we can use Lucidera and Salesforce.com reports for real business decisions as we are completely confident the data is correct. What do you think?
» Filed Under Salesforce.com | 3 Comments
Salesforce.com: Start and Approval Process from custom links and buttons
Posted on February 1, 2008
At one company we have adopted an Opportunity close process using Approval Processes. It is a smallish (70 person) company which uses a desktop finance package and relies on Salesforce.com for the majority of the bookings reporting. To make the data more reliable there is now a process that requires the approval process to change the Opportunity stage to “Closed Won”, what we now consider an “Order”.
To make it more intuitive to the salespeople, we wanted to have a link or button at the top of the Opportunity titled “Convert to Order” which would kick off the approval process. Here is a picture of it in action, a button that submits for approval:
Want to do the same thing?
Navigate To: Setup > Customize > Opportunities > Buttons and Links
Press the “New” button and use these details:
Label: Convert to Order
Name: Convert_to_Order
Display Type: Detail Page Button
Behavior: Execute JavaScript
OnClick JavaScript: if ((Modal.confirm && Modal.confirm(’Once you submit this record for approval, you might not be able to edit it or recall it from the approval process depending on your settings. Continue?’)) || (!Modal.confirm && window.confirm(’Once you submit this record for approval, you might not be able to edit it or recall it from the approval process depending on your settings. Continue?’))) navigateToUrl(’/p/process/Submit?id={!Opportunity.Id}&retURL=%2F{!Opportunity.Id}’);
» Filed Under Salesforce.com | 1 Comment