So we couldn’t help following the string of TechCrunch stories over the past couple days releasing confidential Twitter company information and strategy on their blog. TechCrunch was e-mailed the info by a hacker who managed to answer the password safety questions of one of the Twitter founder’s gmail account. Yikes.

TechCrunch’s actions are highly controversial, and everyone is up in arms about whether or not posting the stolen info is wrong. TechCrunch didn’t do any stealing themselves, but many people still contend that chosing to act on the news tip was unethical.

To be honest, right now we are completely undecided. We see arguments for both sides.

We want to know what you think?

With all of this said, I googled Chahal and it seems he has a kind of playboy, ego, consumption-addict image which was a bit of a disappointment…who knows what he is really like…and honestly, I could care less really. The book was a good read, especially if you are like us here at Smibs, a tech start-up.

Some other reviewer comments:

“While success like his is often attributed to luck, Chahal’s story, like that of many immigrants, is more one of sacrifice … it was years of hard work, persistence and faith, along with the support of his family, that brought his financial rewards–not chance.”–San Francisco Chronicle

“Chahal is a prodigy, a successful entrepreneur, and a writer. His story is remarkable and we think it is a prime example of what can be accomplished with a little motivation and ingenuity. Young Hollywood wants to know what this young man can’t do!”–Young Hollywood

Book image courtesy of Amazon

The conference was an excellent event for me. It gave me real insight about where the web is going next and on the seriousness and progress rate of the current developments. In the opening panel (video below) Ron Conway describes the real-time web as having multiple multi-billion dollar opportunities. He goes so far as to compare the current development with the early days at Google, when they still hadn’t figured out a business model and could only imagine what an impact Google would have on how we use the web today. Watch the video below for the full opening panel on ‘The Realtime Opportunity’ …

The day was packed with interesting panels and presentations and after getting an idea of how far people and companies are along in developing new platforms, tools and services, I have to say I am once again astonished. The world might be in a recession but Silicon Valley is bursting from the mass of innovation it’s producing, and its buzzing with people who will eventually turn that innovation into striving businesses.

I keep repeating myself but every time I am in the Valley I notice its biggest advantage in the tech sector: A huge amount of people who want to try new stuff - not just entrepreneurs but also consumers and businesses of all sizes. This results in new ideas getting traction early on. By the time the rest of the world notices a new idea like twitter already has a couple of million users, and the rest of the world watches as they reach critical mass.

TechCrunch put on a nice after party and I met a lot of people from last year and some people I have only met online so far. All in all it was a great trip that opened my eyes with regards to the next big wave of innovation. I look forward to taking the opportunities that come with it ;-).

Oh, at the conference someone noticed that I didn’t wear socks in my business shoes so I had to explain my reasons on camera. Watch the third video under the ‘Channel’ button in the embedded video box below!

Some of the reviews on Amazon are critical of this title for using CORBA as the basis for some examples, being old (published in 1998) or using obscure analogies (The Grand Old Duke). I did not find those issues impacted the relevance of the material. The languages and technologies used for examples are old, however the same mistakes, in new languages and technologies, continue to be made.

In my experience I’ve seen lots of these “problem patterns” used. I’ve done some of them myself. The project I’m working with at Smibs is fairly new, but some antipatterns have already appeared. I’ve seen the Yo-yo problem (A structure which is hard to understand because of excessive fragmentation), Input Kludge (not validating user input properly) and Error Hiding (not informing the user of errors). None of these are of a crippling nature, but they all need to be addressed to provide a quality, usable product.

I’d also suggest checking out the Wikipedia article on antipatterns. It expands on the material by detailing additional antipatterns and giving more contemporary examples.

As you can tell from the photo Smibs is pretty excited about something…

Today we are happy to announce that our first online business tool Doorbell is in full production and ready for formal launch. We took the time in beta to listen to the suggestions of our users, and we have optimized our interface and workflow to meet their needs. Our software is elegant and powerful, but we also made sure it is easy and fun to use.

Smibs Founder and CEO Peter Urban has prepared a short video message for you:

First time visiting us?

Our Products

Doorbell – Described as “Sales software for non-sales people,” Doorbell is a simple CRM system, contact list manager and sales tool that helps you and your team win more business while you’re busy with work that pays the bills. You can share contacts, leads and tasks with your team and always be better prepared for your next call by keeping a history of who said what to whom. Doorbell gives you access to the vital information you need in an intuitive and efficient interface, so you can focus on what matters: your business.

Smibs Network – A truly collaborative business network. Use it to promote yourself and your company and to connect with potential new talent, clients and friends. You can also use the Smibs Network to find and build a team for your upcoming project. The Network acts as the launching pad for all of our business software, so you can find the tools you need to collaborate and get started.

Ready to get started?

Doorbell is offered through a Freemium subscription model – you can sign up and use the basic account completely free, or select one of our low priced packages to fit the usage and resource needs of your company. All Smibs Network activities are always free.

We look forward to meeting you on the Smibs Network!

The Smibs Team

This is what utilities look like with the new windowing system.

One of the more obvious changes are utilities. We’ve launched our first two: a message center utility, and a centralized task list. Both of these aggregate information across all your accounts, and let you work with that information from anywhere in Smibs via the navigation bar. This magic is performed by the windowing script I wrote about a few months back. You can drag, resize and adjust columns. We even carried over some tricks like holding down shift to select multiple messages. After working with desktop browsers, our interface should be really intuitive for users.

The next trick is less obvious, but even more useful. While Ajax is great for loading data from the server without reloading your webpage, the back button stops being useful. Doorbell used to jump back to the Dashboard when you pressed the back button. I am now proud to announce that we no longer suffer from this annoyance. Thanks to a handy tool called HistoryKeeper, we can now use JavaScript to add items to the browser history in the form of anchor tags. This may result in a messy url, but now Doorbell keeps track of your history for more that 4 items. Once you have browsed through several contacts, groups, or opportunities you can use the back button to search through a true history of your browser.

We’ve had a lot of fun building Smibs and Doorbell, and hope that you’ll have as much fun using them. Login, check it out, and let us know what you think. We love feedback.

It was nice to see the city acknowledging and supporting the arts by sponsoring the event. The reaction was great, the outdoor venue inspired thoughts of community building and sustainable growth. Music producer and master of ceremonies, Trevor Anderson insisted that we should “resist monoculture and encourage polyculture”. He encouraged the more than 1,000 people in attendance to become active members of society and broaden their attitude towards arts by experiencing multiple events of different styles and involving themselves in community arts and culture.

By embracing the idea of “polyculture” you  will inevitably meet new people, discover cool events, be inspired by new ideas and  gain access to exciting opportunities. By being an active participant in society, you not only benefit others but undoubtedly will find your life enriched as well.

I recently came across an incredible set of articles about keyword maximization on Copyblogger.com. There is no way I can top Brian Clark’s summarization of why keywords are important, how you can discover what keywords can impact your blog, and what effects they have on your traffic, so I will refer you to his handiwork:

Click here for the Copyblogger.com tutorial on keyword research.

I think every blogger can learn a lot from Brian’s suggestions.

But one point that he doesn’t cover in his articles is the fine balance between too many and too few keywords. I’m also interested in keyword usage on webpages, where I think the frequency of keywords can just as easily break as make your browsing popularity.

You can request a free keyword ranking report from seo.com to see where you stand against search engine heavyweights.

For example – while the average web surfer will likely come across your homepage more easily with the help of keywords, if an excessive amount of marketing jargon awaits them they might be less inclined to stay and click around.

I doubt there are hard and fast rules for how much keywording you can get away with without your homepage sounding identical to the top ranked search result for your niche market.

Do you have a keyword strategy? Is there a magic formula for focusing on keywords while still maintaining your own unique marketing brand?

As someone who spends a lot of time trying to maximize the quality, clarity and relevance of my marketing copy, I’d like (read: I need) your input.

Further SmibsTV coverage highlights young entrepreneurs and community leaders who were in attendance at the artsScene event launch. Episode includes interviews with Alana Williams (artsScene organization committee), Kristi Sainchuk (owner of Ginger Apparel), Cam Linke (organizer of BarCamp/DemoCamp), Denise Lefebvre (visual artist), Amedeo Pagliuso (owner 29 Armstrong), and Kris Harvey (The Collective).

Check out Amadeo, 29 Armstrong and other businesses this Saturday June 13th as they host the “Al Fresco Block Party,” which begins at 4:00 pm and is located at 104th street and 102nd avenue. Expect to find a variety of food, beverages, and entertainment as the businesses on 104th street showcase themselves in a block party style event that will be a night to remember.

Also look for Cam Linke as he hosts BarCamp this Saturday June 13th from 10:00am to 5:00pm on the 6th floor of the Edmonton World Trade Centre. If you’re interested in the tech community this is definitely an event you dont want to miss. In the spirit of the Smibs Network, it’s also a great forum to meet creative professionals, share ideas, experiences and potentially collaborate on current and upcoming ventures.

Paul Steier of Smibs talks to Poet Laureate and performing artist Cadence Weapon (Roland Pemberton) at the artsScene launch event. They discuss corporate involvement in the arts, how the arts scene in Western Canada is perceived and how he found success as an internationally recognized recording artist.