Bryan's posterous http://bryanminihan.posterous.com Most recent posts at Bryan's posterous posterous.com Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:23:00 -0700 is rubber ducking: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RubberDucking http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/is-rubber-ducking-httpc2comcgi http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/is-rubber-ducking-httpc2comcgi

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:22:00 -0700 How much would XYZ web site cost? http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/how-much-would-xyz-web-site-co http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/how-much-would-xyz-web-site-co

I get this question a lot: "How much would it cost to make a web site like 'XYZ Stuff!', except with A, B and C?"
 
It's not a bad question, and honestly, ask any one who's built one or more sites before, and you'll get a different answer from each. However, I just recently responded to one such question, and thought I'd share with you, in case you were wondering the same thing. It might not help or be applicable to your case, but just in case it is...enjoy =]:
 
Q: How much would it cost to build a site like [small-to-medium sized somewhat-custom web site]?
 
A: To answer your question, you could build what you need for free, with just a monthly hosting cost ($5-$50) to keep it running, using tools like Mambo, Drupal, or Joomla (a Google search should bring up lots of info on these). However, these free or low-cost solutions are pretty complicated and buggy to get running just the way you want them, so you always trade cost for comfort, pretty much. If you had someone build what you want it shouldn't cost more than 5-10K to get the basics up and running, but you'll be paying more every month to get small changes, bug fixes and new features. Another option is looking at higher-end services like Kick Apps, a Facebook community or a YouTube group to house what you want to do.
 
To be honest, there are a lot of easy options for an individual to post and share docs, videos, blogs and chats with everyone in the world - but they're not very customizable. There are also lots of free tools for businesses to use to put together custom experiences (like the example given), but you have to be really technical and patient to figure them out.
 
Probably the most economical solution would be to find someone or a small web development group to set up a Joomla, Mambo or Drupal site like your example site has, then teach you how to keep it running. You might still pay $5-$10K for it, but you're more likely to get something that will last longer for your needs than a custom-built web site would. I don't think either of those 3 tools would have a problem hosting or storing videos for your combines.
 
As always, your mileage may vary, but I would be wary of anyone who promises to build an entire web experience from scratch for less than $1000, and especially wary of someone who promises you an exact duplication of a moderately successful, well-running web site for less than $20K. These numbers, of course, depend on what the site does and who does it, but honestly, would you spend 3 months of your life to make $500, or would you trust your business to a web site built in 8 hours?
 
Anyway, hope this is useful. If not, I'm always open to other opinions and perspectives =]
 
Bryan

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:54:42 -0700 Blackberry Snob: Someone who thinks you can text as fast as they can, even tho you have an ancient cell phone http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/blackberry-snob-someone-who-th http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/blackberry-snob-someone-who-th

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:50:47 -0800 Takin max for a walk...time to go find the lake! http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/takin-max-for-a-walktime-to-go http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/takin-max-for-a-walktime-to-go

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:58:56 -0800 From the "oh FINALLY" file... http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/from-the-oh-finally-file http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/from-the-oh-finally-file http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/14/the-death-of-web-20/

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:06:08 -0800 They don't make em like they used to http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/they-dont-make-em-like-they-us http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/they-dont-make-em-like-they-us I think my house has gremlins.

Things keep breaking all over the place.  Old things.  New Things.  Complicated things.  Simple things.  Things that shouldn't break, and things that broke before and are now broken in a completely different place.

Broken crap. 

All over the danged house.

What I hate the most...what *eats* at me...is that I can't fix any of them.  I have a garage full of (mostly non-broken) tools - very expensive and well-cared-for ones, at that - yet all the king's screwdrivers and all the king's hammers cannot put humpty the dishwasher together again.

Here's a very short list of the things that broke - all by themselves, look-ma-no-hands - in the past year:
  • Dishwasher - those little plastic wheelie things keep falling off the racks after snapping in half
  • Oven - The heating element burst into an awe-inspiring display of fireworks and melted right through itself.  I thought there was an arc-welder in my kitchen
  • Lawn mower - The steel bolt that holds the left side of the handle on broke, so now it mows in circles
  • Heater - Our 5 year old heat furnace blew a propeller.  No idea how or why, it just rusted right through.
  • Garbage disposal - Started leaking.  Mind you - it's the third one we've installed in 4 years
  • Fire alarms - Every 2-5 months, on a random day of the week, half of them go off by themselves, mostly during naps, dinner, showers and other mostly inappropriate times.  Changed the batteries and vacuumed every six months.
  • Refrigerator - Don't get me started.  Plastic doohickies and thingamabobs fly off constantly.  The water dispenser stopped working for a month, soon after the whole cooling element was replaced.
  • Washing machine - Recently started spouting water when we wash pillows
  • Laptop - Compaq or HP.  One or the other.  It's our fourth one, and died last month just like all the others - internal power supply is completely shot.
  • Lawn Umbrellas x 2 - Fell over once and the spokes broke.  Whee.
  • Vacuum Cleaner - The handle broke clean off.  Snapped right in two.  I swear I didn't hit it, and I'm pretty sure all we did was *vacuum* with it.
  • Stereo receiver - Volume now works backwards.  Clockwise turns it down, counter-clockwise turns it up.  

Now, we don't buy always buy the most expensive stuff - we tend to go middle of the road + a little more, most of the time.  Almost all of the above are name-brand products known (more or less) to be respectable.

What I would really hope (in my wildest dreams) is that some enterprising company (or companies) out there can figure out a way to market and sell products that last longer than 2-3 years.

Then again, maybe my expectations are too high.

Bleah.

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:10:37 -0800 18 billion snowflakes can't be wrong... http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/18-billion-snowflakes-cant-be http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/18-billion-snowflakes-cant-be My backyard was THE place to be a few weeks ago. Today it's a soggy mess.

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:07:08 -0800 Never ceases to amaze me... http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/never-ceases-to-amaze-me http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/never-ceases-to-amaze-me Every single time you sit down to do something you haven't done in awhile, it takes 2-3 hours to get everything situated just the right way again. I'm missing the Tekton font, and I have NO idea what I did with it.
 
*sigh*

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:38:22 -0800 recently fell into the market (rather abruptly) so I'm looking for Interaction Designer contract work... http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/recently-fell-into-the-market http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/recently-fell-into-the-market Bryan Minihan
bjminihan@gmail.com

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:44:42 -0800 Gonna go play in the SNOW!!!! http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/gonna-go-play-in-the-snow http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/gonna-go-play-in-the-snow Bryan Minihan
bjminihan@gmail.com

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:04:16 -0800 Listening to Tag's Trip on Somafm.com http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/listening-to-tags-trip-on-soma-0 http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/listening-to-tags-trip-on-soma-0 http://somafm.com/tagstrance/played

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:09:00 -0800 My First Robot http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/my-first-robot-0 http://bryanminihan.posterous.com/my-first-robot-0
Not much to look at, and it just sits there, twitches a little, and eventually goes in circles.

I'm working very hard on the next one - same thing, just the size of a V6 engine to go in my car.  Hoo doggy!

Yay!
 

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/unknown75.gif http://posterous.com/people/KPdzuKuBmV Bryan Minihan Bryan Bryan Minihan