I been a huge fan of Tinderbox over the years, using it since I got my first Mac in 2002. It has revolutionalized the way I conceptualize, the way I organize information, and the way I handle tasks as disparate as planning a new search engine and automating my weekly Shaw’s list. I’ve evangelized it here a time or two; I even bought The Tinderbox Way.

I upgraded to Tinderbox 4 over the weekend. Unfortunately for me, my spam filter chomped the email containing the license key, so I was SOL for the project I was working on. When I called Watertown’s Eastgate Systems, Chief Scientist Mark Bernstein answered the phone on the second ring and helped me out immediately.

Amazing things here:

1. A person answered the phone
2. The man who wrote the software personally helps the users

I make a living selling information and software, so I’m always happy to pay for software for my Mac. I’m glad to be able to help support people like Mark who keep putting out great tools.

Technorati Tags: Tinderbox

Former Lotus Notes developer Dave Delay defends Notes against Internet critics.

In my opinion, people dislike Notes because their expectations don’t jive with the original intent of the product. At its core, Notes is a runtime environment for collaborative applications, but when people complain about Notes, they are usually not talking about core Notes at all. They are talking about the Notes Mail and Calendar applications.

I’ve been there. Many people didn’t “get” Abuzz; some were even puzzled by Life Times Voice. But, it’s still wrong to blame the users, especially those forced to use the product.

I have to use Lotus Notes every day at work, and it routinely costs me at least a half-hour a day in lost productivity, precisely because I have to use it for mail and calendar. I design and develop software for a living, and I find myself continually baffled by Notes. I feel for Mr. Delay, but Lotus Notes needs some serious usabilty work in the parts of the application most folks actually use.

Technorati Tags: Lotus Notes, Software, Usability