The Small Idea Company is a small Ruby on Rails web studio based in Austin, Texas. We develop web applications like Donor Tools.Tumblr (3.0; @mysmallidea)http://mysmallidea.com/<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/37signals/beMH/~3/TYZomiETJJc/2704-george-nakashima-it-requires-a-genuine-fight-to-produce-one-well-designed-object-of-relatively-permanent-value">George Nakashima: "It requires a genuine fight to produce one well designed object of relatively permanent value"</a>http://mysmallidea.com/post/2338094647http://mysmallidea.com/post/2338094647Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:58:06 -0600<p>Maybe it’s not coincidence - I’ve read two articles this morning about dealing with distractions: <a href="http://garrettdimon.com/post/2156026308/worrying">Worrying</a> by Garret Dimon, and <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html">Good and Bad Procrastination</a> an oldie but goodie by Paul Graham.</p>http://mysmallidea.com/post/2166238114http://mysmallidea.com/post/2166238114Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:45:54 -0600distraction,workentrepreneurship<p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjw226YvR1qbxnz4.png" alt="Donor Tools Homepage"/><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjvt7ewkb1qbxnz4.png" alt="Donor Tools - Edit Donor"/><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjvwzpUv91qbxnz4.png" alt="Donor Tools - Dashboard"/><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjvxnaOeC1qbxnz4.png" alt="Donor Tools - Donation List"/><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjvy5qZnP1qbxnz4.png" alt="Donor Tools - Donor List"/></p> <p><strong>Client</strong>: The Small Idea Company<br/><strong>Services Provided</strong>: Ruby on Rails Development, Graphic Design, Server Deployment, Marketing, Support, the whole enchilada!</p> <p>Donor Tools is smart, online donor management software for nonprofit organizations. We built Donor Tools because we weren’t happy with the software that was available for nonprofits to track and manage their donations.</p> <p>Donor Tools is built using Ruby on Rails, with PostgreSQL serving the database, and is hosted on Engineyard.</p>http://mysmallidea.com/post/2343416724http://mysmallidea.com/post/2343416724Fri, 01 Oct 2010 02:00:00 -0500web designweb appsruby on railsentrepreneurship<p>Here’s a neat little snippet of Ruby code for generating pronounceable passwords.</p> <p><a href="http://github.com/mysmallidea/Pronounceable-Password-Generator/">http://github.com/mysmallidea/Pronounceable-Password-Generator/</a></p> <p>Just call PasswordGenerator.generate_password! and you’ll get a nice password like “drawcansir-60-lungi”</p> <p>Of course, you should remind people to change their generated password, but this is useful for resetting passwords and simplifying a signup process.</p> <p>You can also seed the generator with your own words - just dump a bunch of interesting words into the ‘lib/words.txt’ file.</p> <p>-Ryan</p>http://mysmallidea.com/post/932243837http://mysmallidea.com/post/932243837Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:18:00 -0500codegoodies<p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjwkziUDT1qbxnz4.png" alt=""/></p> <p><strong>Client</strong>: <a href="http://communityoffers.com/">Community Offers</a><br/><strong>Services Provided</strong>: Ecommerce Integration</p>http://mysmallidea.com/post/2343590713http://mysmallidea.com/post/2343590713Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0500ruby on railsecommerce<p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ld8jn1jmSw1qbxnz4.gif" alt="The Small Idea Company Logo"/></p> <p>Why the change?</p> <p>It took a few hundred times of having to explain that no, we’re not a mission agency, or no, we have nothing to do with historical California missions, or no, we’re not an art gallery.</p> <p>The new name gives context to our company. I’m very happy with it because in a super-sized world, it’s very contrarian. Small ideas can be some of the most powerful, and many a small idea has changed the world.</p> <p>-Ryan</p>http://mysmallidea.com/post/563549084http://mysmallidea.com/post/563549084Sat, 01 May 2010 11:28:00 -0500businessentrepreneurship<p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjwdnPuBl1qbxnz4.png" alt="Biola Associated Students Home Page"/><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjwe7YdPM1qbxnz4.png" alt="Biola Associated Students Web Page"/><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjwemQYup1qbxnz4.png" alt="Biola Assiciated Students Content Management System"/></p> <p><strong>Client</strong>: <a href="http://as.biola.edu">Biola University Associated Students</a><br/><strong>Services Provided</strong>: Web development and server deployment. Designed in cooperation with <a href="http://www.steadymade.com/">SteadyMade</a>.</p>http://mysmallidea.com/post/2343544524http://mysmallidea.com/post/2343544524Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600<p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjwxipKlP1qbxnz4.png" alt="Moral Metric Homepage Builder"/></p> <p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjwy5u0NU1qbxnz4.png" alt="Moral Metric Content Editor"/></p> <p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjwyla1Cd1qbxnz4.png" alt="Moral Metric Content Editor"/></p> <p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldjwz22clw1qbxnz4.png" alt="Moral Metric Discussion Forum"/></p> <p><strong>Client</strong>: Marketing Solutions Ltd. <strong>Services Privided</strong>: Ruby on Rails Development</p>http://mysmallidea.com/post/2343695084http://mysmallidea.com/post/2343695084Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:00:00 -0500ruby on railsweb apps<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ld8e3m49A11qbj4pjo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><strong>Client:</strong> Internal Project<br/><strong>Services Provided:</strong> Graphic Design</p>http://mysmallidea.com/post/2168507445http://mysmallidea.com/post/2168507445Wed, 20 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0500portfolioweb design