Here's an interesting article about "adtech" -- those automated algorithms that companies like Google and Facebook use to spy on you and serve up advertisements that they think you will respond to. The major upshots are:

• Adtech is at best wildly ineffective, and at worst actively damaging, for brands that are trying to advertise.
• The core precepts ( Read more... )

What I set out to do: add "Unsubscribe" links to the bottom of all emails sent from Querki, so we properly comply with CAN-SPAM requirements.

What I find myself doing: implementing not just Guest Mode (the long-long-desired ability to use a Querki invitation without having to become a member), but today implementing Shareable Links (because Guest ( Read more... )

Here's an *immensely* speculative idea, looking for thoughts from the folks who've used Querki (or simply been listening to me burble about it for all these years).

As I read through Ars' review of the new Google Home (tl;dr: it's the Google version of the Amazon Echo), which mentions that they're going to be opening up APIs, it occurs to me that ( Read more... )

One of the interesting lessons of working on the Querki project has been to be suspicious of the phrase "user error". It's a commonly-enough heard term in programming -- dismissing a bug report on the grounds that the user just didn't read the documentation closely enough. It's often accompanied by just the *tiniest* bit of sneer (or sometimes, ( Read more... )

See the latest release notes on the Querki Development Journal for details, but suffice it to say, Querki now has its own Cassandra cluster, and we're going to be transitioning most of the application data over to that (from the existing MySQL database) in the next month or two.

It feels almost trendy, but we're finally joining the NoSQL Age...

One of the more radical plans I have for Querki, which I'm about to start playing with, is a UI with multiple "levels", so that you can choose the complexity you're comfortable with.

The thing is, Querki has several distinct audiences:

• The *vast* majority of users just want solutions. They don't want to build anything, they just want to use what' ( Read more... )

Howdy, all! Major milestone today: Querki has now officially transitioned from "closed" to "open" beta. In practice, that only means one change, but it's an important one: there is now a Sign up button on the Querki homepage. No more complicated invitations or anything like that -- you can now just sign up and start using it ( Read more... )

This isn't yet certain, but Querki will probably be down for several hours tomorrow afternoon/evening, as we move to our new home.

Really, today's XKCD summarizes my elevator pitch remarkably well:

( Read more... )

Anyone interested in the design of software (or anything, really, but particularly software) really should take a read through this short but correct articleIts point is simple: software is often designed for (in the telling of the famous physics joke) perfect spherical users, who are all cooperative and well-intentioned towards each other. ( Read more... )