stephan.com
scattered thoughts

OK, I’m feeling a bit better now. On the same site, someone wrote another thing that I can’t find now… to which I responded:

Thank you for helping me to understand better what I’m trying to do; I’ve been meaning to write a sort of philosophy page for my widget site, and this is getting me closer.

The first version of starman was a full iTunes controller. You’re right, getting/setting the rating was the easy part, I spent a lot more time on other aspects, and came up with a cool way to handle formatting the artist/title/album data.

I looked at it, and I realized that _I_ didn’t want it. I didn’t want all the controls over again. I don’t use them - I just use “next track”. I don’t care how much time has elapsed. I don’t want to control the volume. I don’t want to pick a playlist, or turn on repeat or shuffle. I don’t want the buttons right next to each other. I’d rather have a Growl notification for the artist/title/album/art. So, I spent more time taking OUT all the code I had just written, breaking it up into three parts. That’s how I use it now, and _I_ like it! _I_ would pay for it. To me, it’s fun and original.

So what I realized now is I’m trying to make stuff that not about MORE information and control but LESS. I don’t need more information; I have enough, too much; I need less information.

I think that’s why flores is popular: a) it looks different, b) it doesn’t matter if you’ve got 30 unread emails, if 29 of them are spam. It matters if you got an email from your girlfriend.

My correct response should not have been to make starman free. In fact, I’m going to see if I can retract a CC license, I think I can. My response should have been to make a free, but boring and ugly version. Perhaps even the full iTunes controller.

I’m not even really trying to sell the code. As you said, it’s easy. Some people buy ring tones and graphics for their phone, it’s big business. They don’t DO anything, they’re just cool and fun. Is that wrong? No. (yeah, OK, I think it’s dumb, I just bluetooth free midi ring tones and jpeg’s into my phone, but not everyone knows how to do it, or can do it - I was involved in the decisions about that in a previous job. Cell phone operators are evil.)

So, I’m going to try that out. Whatever I come up in the future will come in a free, ugly, functional version, and a cool version. So no one can complain about me trying to charge for widgets; I’m not, I’m charging for the graphics, the metaphor, the simplicity.

“ratings widget” : $0. “starman”: $3 (? still thinking)

Go use my free widget if that’s all you want, or better yet, use someone else’s product. But if the upscale version inspires you, makes you smile, makes your life a little better with _just_ the information and control you need… buy it.