skrbling

INERTIA

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:44:00 +0000

in·er·tia - (ĭ-nûr'shə)

According to wikipedia - "the tendency of a body to maintain its state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force"
More aptly in my case - the resistance of a programmer to get started on the work that so obviously needs to be done... :(

It's been a while since my last update, there are many skrblers I've not responded to, to you, and to all who noticed my absence, my sincere apologies.

Just want to let everyone know, I am back, and trying to be good.

Outage

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:17:00 +0000

Our servers skrbl & teamskrbl were down from around 11.30 PM last night to about 8.10 AM this morning. My apologies to users.

The outage was at my ISP CI-Host (www.cihost.com) and apparently caused by a broken access cable that brought down their data center. I thought hosting providers were supposed to plan for these kind of contingencies by having multiple access points, aren't they? 8 hour outages are ridiculous, & I will investigate more and also look for alternative co-lo providers (suggestions welcome).

Once again dear users, please pardon us for the inconvenience.

skrbl on.

Thank you kindly

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:47:00 +0000

Dear User,

Its been a year since we first met. Ajaxian broke the ice last December, others helped too later like Stephen Downes, Lifehacker, Websare and many many more. Most of all you, dear user, have worked to make this a strong relationship and for this our thanks.

Its been a hectic and exhilarating time, you have been demanding (of performance) and understanding (of our bugs). For our part we've tried to listen, and build and test and deploy (though not necessarily in that order :). To recap, essentialy we kept building it and you came, 221,000 skrblers, from 174 countries, creating 72,000 whiteboards - thanks much.

Its been educational, we've learnt a great deal - what you like (one click start without registering - very popular), and what you don't (complicated features - duh!). Now at the end of a year there are, of course, things that I wish had gone differently, but all in all 20/20 hindsight & your ongoing feedback gives us good clarity for the future and things to get done next.

Work has been slower recently as we struggle to overcome some mundate distractions (money, survival ... silly little things like that) but worry not, things will work out, they always do in this fairy tale (with a little bit of help from friends) and we shall continue to skrbl together happily evermore.

Once again dear user, thanks for coming, thanks for adopting skrbl & helping us grow, thank you for your continued encouragement and inspiration, you make me want to be a better product!

Sincerely
skrbl

- plug - Try out skrbl for teams. Features listed here

To scribble and perchance to learn?

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:43:00 +0000

This week, November 12 - 17th is "International Education Week". Organized "... to recognize the global exchange environment between the United States and other countries".

The official site lists a lot of global events, but here is something else I came across. David in New Zealand is planning on using skype and skrbl to teach a couple of graphics classes to students in the UK. What better way to establish a relationship between two schools and students in two different countries.

NZ to the UK is very nearly as distant as you can get while still staying on planet, more power to you David. I hope things go smoothly (Please send me your feedback). Here's hoping you and the students all have an exciting story to tell, I look forward to seeing your video.

Go Team!

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:22:00 +0000

Thank you all who have been giving us feedback on the - team edition. We really appreciate your involvement and help in improving skrbl.
New users we need your feedback too, pls. feel free to mail your comments, suggestions & critiques to rashidATruvekaDOTcom. Please be gentle ;)
And for those who haven't tried out the team edition yet, check out the features on this comparision chart.

Have you checked out the changes in the video? Instead of a person to person call it is now to all users on the whiteboard. Of course you still have to be a registered team user to initiate a video conference but all whiteboard participants are invited to the video conference by default. The logic being - the team is on the whiteboard to work together, so a video conference with the whole team is more natural than one on one calls.

Of course if you want to communicate one on one with a team member there is skrbl's one click skype call or text chat.

More changes are in the works, a simple new widget for your whiteboard, changes in how tasks are handled. We will continue to try making skrbl "harder, better, faster, stronger"...

Happily ever after?

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:39:00 +0000

This is what I came across on our home page today (on the graffiti board).

Skrbling a marriage proposal!!!
Talk about user participation, this is a first for us, a use case we never dreamt up(guess I need to update the user documentation :). The online equivalent of shouting it out from the rooftops, a new paradigm for the new Millenium (I do 2.0 ?).

Good luck kids, hope it all works out for you, and if you feel like sharing, do write in and tell us how it played out... always love a happy ending.

skrbl in class 2

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:03:00 +0000

"The best compliment anyone can give your product is to actually use it" - ???
I dont know if someone ever said that, but if not, someone should.

Last week it was a classfull of students discussing Steinbeck on skrbl. This week it is a classfull of students discussing Arthur Miller, read about it on the blog and see it on VIDEO...

skrbl in the classroom

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 04:43:00 +0000

Users keep coming up with cool new uses of skrbl and (perhaps not surprisingly) teachers are particularly innovative in using skrbl in the classroom. Here is a good example. 19 students discussing Steinbeck, no less, collaborating on the skrbl whiteboard, writing, commenting, reacting... tres cool.
Here is end result.

Much thanks Mr. Lewisberry for using skrbl and writing about it, it's users like you that keep our wheels rolling.

Introducing skrbl team edition

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:59:00 +0000

What it is - team collaboration, sharing, communication features built around the skrbl whitebaord.

Some of the new features on the group whiteboard are -

Co-browsing - open up a website in skrbl, co-browse & annotate. Your annotations (notes and freehand) are saved and reloaded anytime you return to the site on your skrbl whiteboard.
Documents - upload and view word documents, annotate - great for discussing, reviewing drafts.
Video phone - make a video call to online group members or whiteboard guests.
Skype calls - if you prefer skype calls (and how wouldn't :) just add team members Skype ID to their account and call them on a click.
Text chat - for when texting is better than skype or video phone :)

There's a whole lot of other stuff I need to talk about but I need to update documentation on our site first (tomorrow hopefully). Once that is done I will come back to plugging the team skrbl. It is really a big deal for us.

Right now you get to evaluate it risk free before we ask you for payment and even then your first month is free. In any case introductory fees for team skrbl are $10/month which is really low for a team of 5 users.

So do try it out, we think you will find it useful.

Mouse Writing!

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:13:00 +0000

What do you call digital handwriting done with a mouse on computer (instead of a pen on pad) - Mouse writing?
This is a screen shot of the skrbl home page this afternoon.

I guess it takes effort, but you can scribble legibly with mice (a tablet is much better though). Now if only the system could read... sigh!

my skrbl page

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:27:00 +0000

Publish your skrbl sessions for the World to see.

Creating a webpage has never been easier, draw, design, doodle... skrbl what you want to show the world, hit the publish button, give your page a friendly name... Voila! Done. The skrbl whiteboard is published as a web page that anyone can see. Use skrbl to create cool pages, layout content as you please, draw freehand et al and show off your creativity to the World. The FAQ has more info if you need it.

We still have some work to do, next will be to provide tools to organize your published pages and showcase them to the World.

So go ahead, sketch a grand plan, chart a roadmap, layout your manifesto, pencil a cartoon... impress the World. If you can use a mouse, you can create your skrbl page, so go ahead, claim your piece of the Web today.

skrbl Art

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:46:00 +0000

Here's a picture I saw on Myspace describing the scene from the snickers jingle -

"Happy peanuts soar..
Over chocolate covered mountaintops and waterfalls of caramel..
prancing nougat in the middle,
sings a song of satisfaction tooooo the wooooooorld."

Good fun, a literal rendition of the words complete with happy flying peanuts, a lump of nougat and 'The World' sitting coyly at the side listening. Here it is in all its full size technicolor glory.

Hows that for a new skrbl use case!!! Me likes.

So easy even a 4 year old can skrbl

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 18:20:00 +0000

My niece is the youngest skrbl user I know of.
Basically she likes sitting in front of the computer drawing 'pictures'. Happy with her creations and eager to show off 'artwork'.
Seeing her in action one day I had a brilliant idea, "If she thinks this is cool, how amazed will she be when I skrbl on her drawings over the web?" I thought I'd impress her by magically changing her drawing right in front of her eyes.

sigh!!!

Skipping over the unnecessary details (it is deflating to admit defeat to a 4 year old), here is the moral of the story.

Life lesson - never mess with an artist's work (no matter how gentle, young, small and defenceless the artist seems).

Ready, set, skrbl NOW!

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:40:00 +0000

We launched the 'skrbl now' widget yesterday. he power of instant collaboration, now on your site, just a mouse click away.

The idea is simple, a button you add to your website, web page or blog. Clicking on the button starts a new skrbl whiteboard session so your users have a tool for online collaboration. No registration, no login... anyone can skrbl, infact you don't even have to register to get the button.

Here's a sample -

-
Just get the code from our home page www.skrbl.com, and paste it into your site. Its that simple. So put the button on your site, let your users collaborate, let them share, let them skrbl.

Would I pay for that?

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:38:00 +0000

We have been preparing for the launch of a premium paid version of skrbl within the next few days. Got some great features built, and other cool features planned for the future.

A major release is always a hectic and exciting time, but as we plan, design, build and test (and repeat, and repeat...) one question bugs me again and again - Would you pay for that?

Do we have the right feature mix? Will you find it as useful as we do? Will you like it as much as we do? Agonize, agonize, agonize... The fact is, startups like us have very little margin for error. Since we don't have the bankroll to cushion our mistakes, potentially the future of (our) World rides on every decision :)
Hmm, maybe I've been thinking about this all wrong. We actually sound like super heroes (The ginormous coder guy?) saving the World day after day. And as everyone knows we super heroes are the good guys, and in the end the good guys always win.

So fear not dear heart, up the caffeine doze & CODE ON.

My laptops near death experience

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:20:00 +0000

Last Wednesday my laptop flatlined.

Basically the laptop did not 'stand by' properly, or somehow started up in the bag. The fan eventually failed & that triggered all kinds of system level alarm bells (not mention things got even hotter)... To cut a long story short, my laptop got cooked :( And here's another funny story, by an amazing coincidence, Thursday we also blew both hard drives on our office server, sigh!

Much ranting, raving and gnashing of teeth later my laptop is back in play, and we got lucky with 1 hard drive (the one with most data :), the other drive I've kept aside for now, trying to build up the courage to fiddle with the MBR.

Work continues apace though, we have a skrbl update planned for tonight. Todays update is to enhance the drawing toolbox on skrbl, delivering some features users have requested. You can get a taste of these new features on graffiti on the skrbl home page or in this blog.

Until next time and as always, thank you for skrbling.

Graffiti of the Future

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:44:00 +0000

Check out the 2012 London Olympics logo, also here.

IT IS GRAFFITI, it is different, the 'establishment' hates it ergo, they must have done something right ;)

The reaction is hysterical. Check out the negative press (just google it). News reports have compared it to everything ranging from "a monkey on a toilet" to the nazi 'SS symbol. It even may be the first logo ever (olympic or otherwise) to come with a Health Warning.
There's even a campaign to have it changed.

I have nothing against the 2012 logo, it showcases the disruptive power of Graffiti. And if you don't like it skrbl your own free variant on our graffiti board (the original cost $800,000/-).

In users we Trust

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Fri, 18 May 2007 16:36:00 +0000

What would the skrbl home page look like if we turn it over to user control? What if we replaced most of the page with a graffiti board for user scribbling?

Think about it - Anonymous strangers crowded into a shared virtual space... it is interesting enough as a social experiment but it is potentially far more. Here are some reasons why I think this is such a big deal.

The fundamental question is - do you trust users? I mean Really trust them. First that they wont be put off by a radical new take on the whole 'home page concept. And second, that they will take to the interactivity and transform the page into a living thing with a mind of its own.

We are going with the idea on skrbl, changing our home page to give pride of place to a graffiti board & squeezing off most of the present content. Our users will write, draw & skrbl creating a dynamic, continually changing home page for all visitors. What you see will depend on when you happen by and how long you stay. And if you dont like what you see, wipe it off and put in your own stuff.

Graffiti Rules. OK!

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:24:00 +0000

SKRBL graffiti is a community whiteboard for your community. A place for your users to draw, write, scratch, scribble, create, interact, fight, flame... basically whatever takes their fancy.

The first graffiti we built we put on this blog to check response & get feedback. It proved popular enough that I moved graffit to our home page and its taken off. There's something complelling about a blank space and handy color - perhaps it calls to our muse or maybe it tempts the repressed vandal in all of us.

Putting skrbl graffiti in your site is simple enough, as easy as embedding a YouTube clip. Go to the 'My Graffiti' section of your 'My Skrbls' page, click on 'Create a new Graffiti', that's it, you have a new graffiti board to embed in your page. Copy & paste the embed link to your page and done. Put some graffiti in your site & on your blog... anywhere where you want your users to hang around and have some fun.

Try it out, watch your users have some fun let them doodle, or play with strangers, or get in someone's face, everything goes.

Back in the groove

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Mon, 07 May 2007 19:04:00 +0000

Whoops! its been a while since my last blog.
Just to catch you up, this is what I've been busy with during this time.

1 New skrbl features - Enhancing the skrbl drawing menu et al...
2 An entirely new online collaboration product (to be launched soon).
3 skrbl mash ups with other applications (under development).
4 Graffiti - the embeddable whiteboard (check out the sample on this blog) AND
5 A business product, still in its early stages but really exciting.

Of course this is in addition to the business of business (a regular paycheck is quite a motivation no? ;)
These are exciting times for us as we prepare to launch new products and skrbl enhancements and try to step up to the next phase.

Hope you find our new products as exciting as we think they are.
As always we are counting on you, wish us luck.

Write Here, Write Now.

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 23:55:00 +0000

This is a test of graffiti - skrbl's embeddable whiteboard. Try it out and let us know what you think.

Delete Whiteboard

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:25:00 +0000

Users have asked for the ability to delete whiteboards, as a tool to manage their whiteboards & ergo we've built it. The 'My skrbls' page has a new 'delete' button. A user just clicks on the button to delete the corresponding skrbl board along with all text, drawings, file shares & pictures shares on that whiteboard. Naturally the original uploaded files & pictures are not affected, they remain safely in their owners account (it is just the links that get deleted).

Other users who may be on the whiteboard when it is deleted get a message 'Owner has deleted this whiteboard', and are redirected to the skrbl home page, or if they are logged in, they are redirected to their 'My skrbls' page. Users who try to access a deleted whiteboard get the 'Invalid session' message.

There, another user feature delivered, a 'few' more to go :)

Just Delete it

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 05:53:00 +0000

We have a new delete button for Drawings now.
To delete a line you just point & click."
Here's the flow
1 Select delete mode from the drawing menu - (the new button on the left that looks like a arrow with a red 'x' below it.)
2 Point to the line you want to delete, - (the cursor changes to the arrow mode to show the line is selected.)
3 Click mouse to delete.

You can switch back to drawing mode by clicking on the 'pencil button'.
Please try it and let us know what you think.

Thank you.

PS - BTW, The 'apostrophe bug' is also fixed. You can can now have apostrophes in your skrbl title, it won't hinder your 'my skrbls' page from loading.

Confessions of a coder

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:45:00 +0000

When we deployed drawing on skrbl we were working to meet a self imposed deadline, the launch date we'd committed to our users.

So it was that late one night, with the delete function nearly built, we were discussing UI when some one :( I) suggested 'context menu'. Blame the late hour, or my coffe frazzled brain but it just made sense at the time... In my defense though, please bear in mind that we try to value simplicity very highly and avoid adding new buttons & features as far as possible.

This was one place though, where adding a button would have been better than the alternative we actually went with, viz, "Select pointer tool, Right Click on line, Delete from Context Menu". Whereas adding a button would have meant "Switch to delete mode, click on line to delete...". Basically you switch to 'delete mode' and then you point and click to delete any/all lines. When done deleting, switch back to drawing mode by clicking on the pencil icon. Simple, a no brainer, but yet I managed to goof ...sigh!

Anyways, we've been busy the past few days, got the delete functionality fixed (in the office). We are now working on integrating a new cursor (to denote delete mode). Once the cursor is integrated, we will deploy the NEW IMPROVED delete function and save our users' fingers some unnecessary clicks. This should happen today or tomorrow.
Meanwhile, as always, thank you for your patience. We do appreciate your using skrbl and also giving us the time to fix bugs.

Oh yes we are also working on reported Mac & linux bugs and will be deploying fixes as we have them. The next feature we plan to release is the ability to 'Delete skrbl session'. This is #2 on our current priority list right after the 'line delete', by user demand.

Monday Morning Blues (& Blackouts)

noreply@blogger.com (rashid) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:58:00 +0000

skrbl was down for a few hours due to a power outage at our Web Hosting company this morning. Sigh! Theoretically an outage like this shouldn't happen what with the failsafe power supply and stand by generation that data centers provide, but then "The real world is a special case".

My apologies to the users whose work was interrupted, sorry, & thank you for your patience.