I love Maciej's writing. His recent post on idlewords.com about his trip to Yemen was great, and his annual reports on Pinboard are up there with Buffett in terms of eloquence and wry humor that just skirts the edges of being laconic.
I also love Pinboard, as well as joshu's original del.icio.us, and all services that find that completely narrow utility that I like to call "stripped and liberated". Stripped in the sense that they seek to do one thing well, on the face of humanity, forever. Liberated in the sense that they are liberated from the need to be beholden to investors or broader corporate strategies which shred their utility and focus in service of some other imperative.
Has the day of the "stripped and liberated" service come and gone? Or are there still opportunities waiting to be discovered?
Stardock (one of the few indie desktop ISVs) also writes an independent annual report. Their 2014 report talks about the Windows 8 start button and the economics of mobile apps.
I don't know, "liberated" associates strongly with "liberty" for me -- as in the software freedoms, and the users right/opportunity to self-host, like email. I think "stripped and independent" better conveys what op means. I suppose in the tradition of "indy" that should be shortened to "strindy" or something. Or perhaps just "an indy service" (stripped aesthetic implied by virtue of being "indy").
I also love Pinboard, as well as joshu's original del.icio.us, and all services that find that completely narrow utility that I like to call "stripped and liberated". Stripped in the sense that they seek to do one thing well, on the face of humanity, forever. Liberated in the sense that they are liberated from the need to be beholden to investors or broader corporate strategies which shred their utility and focus in service of some other imperative.
Has the day of the "stripped and liberated" service come and gone? Or are there still opportunities waiting to be discovered?