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So I have been using the new Odeo service for podcasting - I must say, overall, I am impressed with it.

I think I should start by talking about my current iPod habits - they probably aren’t best practice type stuff ;). I hook my iPod up to my laptop about once a week because it is a pain to haul out the cable, remove my case, and plug it in. I am going to purchase a case I found that will allow me to dock it while still in the case. Anyway, I don’t update it very often, which is my point. This leads me to the first feature I like, playing podcasts straight from their site.

I like the fact that I can be at work, and maybe I forgot to sync my iPod the night before, but I can still snag the latest version of TWiT to listen to (something that is blocked normally). The Odeo website grabs the file straight from the feed when you go to listen to it (I would recommend saving that file for future people that might listen, as some of the slow feeds can be frustrating to wait on). That brings me to the second feature, my ability to browse podcasts from anywhere.

Yes, I am usually on the internet 12-18 hours a day, so I can pretty much queue a podcast from anywhere! I actually find that I hear about a podcast during the course of my work day, so it is nice to snag it, and then have it tossed on my iPod when I get home later… That is proper use of technology in my opinion - set it up and forget about it until you need it, then it is ready to go. A third feature, you say?

I have mixed feelings about the third thing I want to comment on, support. It seems their support can be hit or miss on Odeo. My second support request was responded to within 24 hours and a feature was added to the website (The ability to manually force a sync with a podcast rss feed). I love that rabble responded so fast, and when I couldn’t find the link, he pointed out why; we both frequent the RubyOnRails IRC room. My first support request is why I have mixed feelings. I initially spoke with rabble about my issue and he asked me to submit feedback, which I did. I included the only log file I could find with the request. I received a response within 24 hours, but after two responses back to them I still haven’t heard back. In a beta web service, I think support is the biggest thing you can do to keep people around - especially when you have to go up against iTunes & Steve Jobs now. It is probably a good thing that I have been through this process, as I have gained insight for the Agnda beta (yes, we are working as fast as we can on it).

The last thing I want to mention about Odeo is the fact that they have a good layout/design and they use Ajax! If you haven’t seen Ajax, what rock have you been hiding under? So far their use of Ajax has been well placed and superbly implemented. Kudos to Odeo on the “web 2.0″ features so far - keep it up! While the Ajax is great, the color scheme and logo leave something to be desired in my opinion (but who am I to say… look at Agnda). The overall design of the layout and the buttons are very good, I really like the large 3 buttons at the top - they give you the simplistic feel that any web service should have.

Overall, I give Odeo an A-. Keep up the good work guys!

P.S. How in the world did they get so viral?

So the question is, did we announce Agnda too soon? Per posts I have read about stealth start-ups, is it best to wait or not wait? We have a handful of interest so far, but we are still plugging away hard! I guess as we get screenshots and more info out the door, the interest will come knocking - but I tend to be a tad impatient sometimes :). The other question is, To VC or not To VC? We are afraid that we will lose too much control in our app if we do go with VC funding… Comments?

*Sidenote: I guess our SEO is good because we are the number one hit for Agnda on google! Now we just have to figure out how to take the word calendar by storm.

So, here it is! Our big announcement about SteelPixel’s first web service. We are working on a social calendar system named Agnda. Please feel free to sign up for our mailing list, as we will be choosing beta users off of it once we are ready. We look forward to showing off our free calendar system once we get a bit further along, so keep checking back to the website often.

As to Om Malik & Russell Beattie’s posts about stealth start-ups - they are right, they are very easy to start now-a-days… Just look at Chris, Dave, and me. I think we have a great idea, and combined with Rails we hope it has the foundation needed to be something HUGE. And Russell - don’t knock the power of Rails & an agile daytimer! We hope ours will be flexible enough to fit into all kinds of planning systems, from paper to PDA to cell phones - not to mention how easy it will be to tailor to a GTD type system!

We traveled out of town this weekend and I think we all had a good time! We headed to the love area of Gatlinburg Tennessee, for what may be the last trip we take before Brayden is born. It was a short trip, but we packed a ton of activity in two days of time. One of the most exciting things was our trip to Cherokee to Harrah’s casino - I walked away with an extra $260 in my pocket from Blackjack. I was also able to lack the smack down on my new Rails project during the drive home! It is called incoming! and it monitors contraction times and graphs a chart based on them. I would say I have it about 50-60% done, just after a 2-3 hour effort. Rails rocks!

Yip, the ship is sailing and we are getting behind! Slashdot posted a question on the killer calendar, and it is dishearten to see all the misdirection and struggle people have in this area - because we know we have the idea of what would work for 95% of these people. We have 90% of the database in place (we even have data in some tables!) but rails seems to be our stopping point. We have considered doing our app in PHP, but that just seems so archaic and wrong; by going with rails we gain cool features like built-in Ajax libraries. We now have three of us working on the project, but we are all in a deep learning mode at this point… Perhaps turning off the IRC chat room would be helpful (*cough* we aren’t junkies, honest!).

If anyone is interested, I really don’t like the latest Weezer album but I must say I LOVE the new Nine Inch Nails album… go figure!

Yeah, yeah corny Spaceballs reference…

So Miami was good, just damn humid and hot. We got small amounts of sleep while I was there, but it was still a lot of fun. We started to code our project, but realized despite all our study we still had no damn clue with rails. We scraped that bit of work (which was severely broken) and found the new “beta” book from Pragmatic Programmers - the guys in the RoR irc chat room recommended it highly. While hanging out in the IRC room, we found out about the railsday competition - very cool idea! We ended up sponsoring the competition with a free hosting package from Steelpixel to the top-rated one man team. I can’t wait for the results to flow in!

Working wirelessly in Panera is a lot of fun, but people watching can be dangerous to productivity…

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