Inspirations

Startup Tools and Resources. The Web & Business Tools Startups Use Most [INFOGRAPHIC] Putting the likes of the super-funded aside (Color, anyone?)

, most early-stage startups operate on tight budgets and spend their dollars sparingly. A bevy of web services have made start-up costs all the more affordable, but now there's the conundrum of nearly too much choice. The folks at BestVendor surveyed 550 startup staffers — most in marketing and executive administration positions — on their favorite tools for email, accounting, web analytics, CRM, productivity, design, storage, payment processing, operations and so forth.

Their answers, in aggregate, speak to the growing trend in startups moving toward predominately cloud-based operations. The most popular selections also highlight the rising stars (Dropbox) and impressive veterans (Paypal and Salesforce) in the business-to-business services sector. So what's hot among startups these days? Check out the infographic below for even more insight on the web and business services that today's startups are selecting en masse. Productivity 101. Some people think of Evernote as your external brain and in a sense this is true.

Over the course of the last 4 years I have learned to use Evernote in more ways. It is far more than my external brain. Getting Things Done setup I have written on this blog about setting up Evernote for GTD. I still use it the same way as I did four years ago. Others like Ruud Hein and The Secret Weapon are using a tag based system. Filing is a problem In my home office I do have a reference file system that is setup as David Allen describes in his book Getting Things Done, The Art of Stress-Free Productivuty. Projects — Monterail · offshore Ruby on Rails development agency. Joel on Software. Successful Freelancing With Ruby On Rails: Workflow, Techniques And Tools. Advertisement Warning: Freelancing Is Not for Everyone A freelancer is a self-employed person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any particular employer.

Your curiosity in this opportunity was probably sparked by posts marked “Freelance” or “Work from anywhere” on the myriad of job boards around the Web. Freelancing is equal parts freedom and responsibility. While you have the freedom to choose when you work, where you work and what you work on, you are also responsible for everything: deadlines, finding work, the quality of your work, communication and so much more. Photo by Dmitry Belitsky Ruby, with all of its frameworks and libraries (such as Rails, Merb and Sinatra), is a practical tool to use in your freelance Web development career because of its focus on clean code, object-oriented syntax, efficient development practices and strong community (whether a simple IRC chat room or large conference).

Pros Photo by Giorgio Montersino. Be your own boss. Cons Job Boards. 10 Commandments of Modern Web Design. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.

It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. — Albert Einstein I would argue that a huge part of that genius Einstein refers to can be found in clarity of purpose and principles. We all wind up in those situations where we're focusing on technical details, implementation and points of process, and missing the bigger picture. I confess I've been there far too often. When we find ourselves in those situations as designers, it's important to have some guiding principles we can remind ourselves of and even share with our team and colleagues.

Below I've documented some of my emerging, fundamental design principles. The mobile web is important! Secret: 98% of the following three paragraphs I learned directly from Luke Wroblewski. Why care so much about mobile in our design process? But wait, there's more! Back to List Create once, publish everywhere. Release early and often. Successful Freelancing With Ruby On Rails: Workflow, Techniques And Tools. Michael Mahemoff – Google+ - DHH rather dampened my fantasy of a Rails 5 focused on… DHH rather dampened my fantasy of a Rails 5 focused on fat-client JavaScript apps: Rails is great for fat-client JS apps as it stands today.

Everything on the controller and model side of things makes for a wonderful backend for fat-client JS apps. But if you're going to use Rails for the view, the focus will remain on making Basecamp-style apps (turbolinks, russian caching dolls, etc). - Although I agree Rails is presently a great option for fat-client apps, it could be a lot better without compromising its core workings. The other practical downside with Rails right now is view assets are shoved inside one subdirectory as a kind of afterthought. I'm very happy with Rails today, but I see the industry moving towards Meteor ( and friends if Rails stays in the conventional website mode. Rails 4.0. Joel on Software.