turntable / as the table turns

So how did I get roped into designing an accounting system? I’ve wanted to develop a web product ever since I started Turntable. I came up with various concepts and prototypes over the years, but for a host of reasons I was never quite ready to make it happen. With web 2.0 fever in the air, I once again got the strong itch to build a product. After brewing up some ideas, I approached Rod Drury with some of my ideas, just to see if I had anything worth pursuing. I only knew of Rod from reading his blog, but everything he wrote resonated with me. We met for coffee and we hit it off immediately. The next time we met, Rod blindsided me with an offer to join his new venture as one of the founding team.

When Rod pitched his idea to me, a “web 2.0 accounting system”, I didn’t have to think twice about it. I hate accounting. Obviously, accounting is a major factor in determining whether or not a venture will be successful. Yet, it’s such an excruciating process. I know that first hand from running my own business. So it was immediately clear to me that this was a perfect opportunity to design an accounting system that I could love rather than hate, while at the same time learning the ropes about building and running a software product from the best mentor in the business.

It also appealed to me because it’s a major business problem that’s begging to be solved. Accounting is something that every business must do. Literally, every business is required by law to do it! There’s no need to convince or educate anybody. Plus, most businesses hate the options that are on the market now. Meanwhile, nothing on the market is taking full advantage of network effects.

Finally, I was on board because Rod had the resources (aka cash) to do it right, to hire the best of the best designers and developers so we can build a great product and build up a strong brand very quickly.

So that sums up why I got involved. Next, I’ll write about how we got things off the ground.

Since July 2006 I’ve been working on Xero, an online accounting system. I can hear your internal dialog now, “A business accounting system? Gee, that sounds real fun.”

Believe it or not, it actually has been lots of fun. Seriously. I rate it as one of the best, if not the best, professional experiences of my life. That’s saying something, considering some of the projects and clients I’ve been lucky enough to work with over the years.

How could it be so fun? For one, the people involved are a true joy to work with. And, two, as Todd Dominey stated so eloquently, “Client / service work has its advantages, but there’s something to be said for pouring all your heart and mind into a product people use and enjoy. It’s the most satisfying work I’ve ever done.”

Last week, we officially launched, moving out of private beta into public release. I have to say that I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done. Doing an accounting system certainly is a major challenge, so it’s a big thrill to get the get the response we’re getting.

Over the next few days I’ll post some details of how and why I got roped into designing an accounting system, how it got off the ground, and some of the techniques we’ve used to get it done.

I might be taking another seemingly contrarian view on things (me hating Macs would be another), but I’m not sold on Apollo, or any of the other psuedo browser platforms like Microsoft’s competing WPF. Even though my whole career has revolved around Macromedia and Flash.

The browser is so entrenched and Flash is so notoriously bad at handling data heavy content and text heavy content that it seems like a long shot. Ages ago we were lobbying Macromedia to support full HTML rendering in Director, at a time when the browser and the even the web itself was still an exotic concept. That’s the time when a rich media application could have potentially captured serious marketshare as a means to accessing and interacting with the web. Now, I think it’s too little, too late. The browser is the clear and obvious winner.

Macromedia has had previous attempts at this same strategy. Some people might remember all the hype and enthusiasm around Central. I’m actually somewhat stunned to see that Central still exists.

Do I think that a browser and some other ‘rich’ platform couldn’t live together in symbiotic harmony? I tend to think that’s quite unlikely. Especially with browsers adopting an offline strategy. The browser is simply a better platform. As far as I can tell it can do everything Apollo does (Flash, AJAX) but better and easier to develop (CSS, HTML). Based on past experiences with Flash components I’m not convinced that Flex or Apollo based components are superior to standard browser interfaces enhanced with some javascript. In addition, browsers have a rich extension architecture that is extremely powerful.

I’ve seen the iscrybe demo video. It’s very impressive. I’m still not convinced that a browser isn’t a superior platform.

So what am I not getting?

Well, what do you know? Another of my predictions for 2007 is just now coming to the surface…

Internet advertising works best when anyone can produce a simple ad. This was first shown with Doubleclick ceding ad prominence to Google and now it will be shown in internet video with blip.tv’s new DIY ad program.

It doesn’t appear to be as advanced as what I proposed – bidding for ad placement, different ads served to different users, with green screened product placement ala in-game ads. However, that will emerge. Count on it.

This is making the rounds, so you’ve likely seen it. Even if you have, it’s so good that it’s worth watching over and over again. Once a day, at least. Let it permeate you.

It lucidly demonstrates what the concept of “web as platform” means, how it has come to be, and why the web is already the most important operating system we all use.

UPDATE: I sincerely appreciate all the comments people have left. I’m shocked anybody found this blog, but good on ya. I’m not going to argue against anybody. You’re all right. I think it boils down to two things:

• It just didn’t feel right…for me. I wanted to love it, but I didn’t. It felt wrong, to me. It’s different, but not different enough to blow my mind. It’s different enough to annoy me.
• I wasn’t unhappy with my existing system. I wasn’t unhappy or unsatisfied with my experience in Windows. Therefore, I had no real motivation to switch. The fact that I have a lot of work to get done is a motivation for me not to switch.

Ultimately, my experience lead me to stick with XP until Google OS or something similar comes along.

And now back to the original post…

You know those popular Apple ads featuring a smug, partronising Mac boy? The computer itself even comes shrink wrapped in that same smug, partonising state.

I found the Mac OSX experience to still be incredibly flawed. Despite so many top designers gushing over it, I have to say that it is a really poorly designed product – both the hardware and software. I am truly baffled how anyone can tolerate it, let alone gush over it and pay a premium, to boot. Then again, label whores do that. They love to suffer, as long as they are making a fashion statement.

The fundamental flaw was the nose dive in my productivity. I completely acknowledge that there’s a necessary learning curve when making such a conceptual leap. There’s a period of adjustment. I recently switched from Photoshop to Fireworks, which is widely acknowledged to be a relatively significant mental switch. So it’s not that I can’t switch, or that I’m not willing to switch.

So why do I dislike the Mac so much?

• Expose looks sexy, but it’s worse than a schizophrenic girlfriend. Once you start using it, you quickly realize that it seriously disrupts your workflow, often inadvertently. A simple flick of the mouse and you’re suddenly thrown into an unwanted screen warp. It’s like getting tangled up in a fishing net. On the other hand, when you actually do want to quickly jump to another document, then the travel time to get your mouse over to the opposite corner of the screen takes forever, at which point you need to bring it all the way back again. That’s when the real fun begins: it’s time to start guessing which of the puzzle pieces is the one you want. It’s like doing a jigsaw. Is this it? No. Is that it? No. It’s not just a first timer issue – I’ve seen Mac zealots doing the same head twirling jigsaw hunt. In Windows, I can instantly locate my document in the task bar; it takes a fraction of a second to jump to the proper place.
• All of the Macromedia and Adobe apps are dogs on the Mac. They look twice as ugly and they run half as fast. I spend a large portion of my life working in those apps. That alone is a deal breaker.
• iPhoto is pitiful. I rely on Picasa, not only for my personal photos, but more so for my screenshot collection. I have 4500+ screenshots that I’ve collected over the years. When I grab a screenshot in SnagIt the image instantly shows up in Picasa, automagically. On the Mac, Snapz is the closest thing to SnagIt, and it can’t grab a scrolling window. That in itself is a serious problem. I wound up installing the ScreenGrab Firefox extension – which partially solved things. Then with iPhoto I needed to import the images manually, so more wasted time and effort – assuming I could even remember everything I captured. It also meant that I had two copies of every image, archived in different places, in different ways. My blood was boiling.
• Welcome to the Micky Mouse Club. The Mac is a computer that begrudgingly has a keyboard attached to it. Apple would love to ship with just a mouse. The only reason they provide a keyboard is so people have a way to activate the right-button keyboard combo (yes, I do know that the clit mouse does have right button functionality).
• ClearType? Is that supposed to be a joke? Design wankers love to point out the typographic superiority of the Mac’s font rendering. The simple truth is that computer screens cannot render small type sizes properly. Blurring fonts to render them more “accurately” only makes it more obvious that screens are still low resolution. Most importantly it’s harder to read. I don’t care how theoretically accurate it is.

Shall I go on? I could, but I’d rather not. I am a little ashamed that I made a stink to get the Mac, only to give it up so quickly. In the end, I just wasn’t able to get things done on it. And I did sincerely try. After I made the final call to end the abusive relationship, I was overcome with a powerful sense of relief to get back on my Vaio. I immediately started getting things done once again.

I’m pretty confident that my next platform is not going to be Vista or OSX. I’m holding out for Google OS. I love Gmail, calendar, docs, spreadsheets, Picasa, maps, Earth, etc etc. Bring on Google OS.

I am a Google.