August 2011

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2011.

Healthcare, software, politics

August 30, 2011 in Books, microISV startup by ag | 1 comment

Quantum Leadership 3rd Edition

Cover of the 3rd Edition

I’ve just started to work my way through a textbook on the healthcare industry called Quantum Leadership:  A Resource for Health Care Innovation by O’Grady and Malloch.  My good friend Denise recommended it to me the other day.  She’s a masters-qualified RN and the book was a required text in a course she took a couple of years ago.

It’s a sign of how much I respect her that I would voluntarily buy and try to read a 460+ page college textbook.  (The current, 3rd, edition is 500+ but I bought a used copy of the 2nd edition so my copy would match hers.)  In our previous professional lives, Denise and I were co-founders, along with several others, of a moderately successful bootstrapped software company.  And I have learned that, when she says something is useful to know and think about, I should pay attention.

Denise is not the only person I respect who draws parallels between the healthcare and software industries and their practitioners.   Read the rest of this entry »

RUPRecord now works offline

August 17, 2011 in Android development by ag | No comments

We published version 1.1.0 of RUP Record yesterday.

This version has the critical Outbox feature. You can now enter the details of a pesticide application and successfully hit Send out in a field where you have no cell service. With the Outbox feature (which we ported over from our SnapToMe Plus app), the record email is queued up and simply waits until you get back in cell phone range and then is sent.

Other, minor enhancements:

  • The app may be moved to the SD card.
  • Matt simplified and unified the various settings into a single preferences list, which should make the app easier to set up and maintain.

Three SnapTo’s and an ERG in the approval process

August 9, 2011 in Android development by ag | No comments

Matt published new versions of all three SnapTo Android products today, with small but significant usability improvements.

All three apps now show a progress dialog after the Capture button is pressed, while the phone is processing the image. Having the Send button dimmed until the Capture was complete was a bit subtle and led to some users to think they had sent the photo when they hadn’t, if they hit Send before it was activated.

All three can now allow themselves to be moved to an SD card to free up memory on-board the phone.

And SnapToMe Plus and SnapTo Scott Hininger now have Retry All and Resend All buttons to help manage the Outbox queue when connectivity is spotty.

Also exciting:  We submitted our very first Blackberry app to the BB markeplace today.  It is a new version of DOT Placards that we are calling, simply, ERG2008 since that is what it is.  This app is the product of one of our interns, Sara, who has just finished with us and is about to start a full-time job.  We wish her the best of luck and promise to nurse her product through the BB approval process as quickly as we can.