Introducing… Connect-A-Sketch

It was a dark and stormy night, well after business hours and the pizza was already cold… we were pitching Pointless Corp ideas around the table, writing each of them on the white board without passing judgement as any good brainstormers would. I asked if anyone wanted to help me do something useful and interesting with all of the sketches and wireframes we make when we’re designing a new site.

After a brief discussion, an idea was fully born into our hearts. We’d let users upload their design docs and quickly turn them into clickable prototypes! It would be just like paper prototyping… Without the paper, the scissors, or the glue sticks. Ok, so it wouldn’t be all that much like paper prototyping. We liked the idea anyways. Also, we thought it would be easy.

It wasn’t quite as easy as we thought it would be, turns out we’ve got high standards for this kind of thing. So, our talented team has been putting in extra hours ever since to breathe life into the idea, polish it up, and test it out. We just couldn’t wait any longer to share our baby with the world. Behold: Connect-A-Sketch.

Here at Pointless Corp (which, we remind you, is neither Pointless nor a Corporation), we have a soft spot for fun and games (a round of Tweets of Fury, anyone?), but nothing compares to our love of usefulness. We hope you’ll find the utility of this little gem as endless and satisfying as we do.

Here is the gist:

  1. Load up some sketches (drawings, wireframes, comps, whatever you’ve got).
  2. Create links to connect them together.
  3. BOOM. Click around, test your design, share it, edit it, go nuts.

It could not be more simple, but if you are confused, then you should watch the intro.

Like its namesake, Etch-A-Sketch, we wanted Connect-A-Sketch to be highly satisfying to use. It does a very simple thing, but it does it well and using it to make something come together is pleasurable and — dare we say — fun.

Connect-A-Sketch is brought to you by people who build complex web stuff every day, all day long, and know the value of a simple sketch. We also know that being able to connect that sketch to another one is freaking awesome.

Use it. Love it. Tell us how to make it better.

We’re still working out the kinks, but if you want to give Connect-A-Sketch a spin, you can request an invitation. You can also follow us on Twitter if you want to see what we’re up to.

Date9/09 From the Desk ofJackson Fox In Regards ToConnect-a-Sketch Tagged , , , , | Comments2

HeyCraig on Lifehacker

Lifehacker has their eye on Pointless Corp again, this time Adam Pash providing coverage.  This week he wrote about HeyCraig, our super simple tool for getting alerts via email when new items go up on Criagslist.  To quote Adam:

“Simple but useful — just how we like ‘em.”

Good thing, since that’s how we like to build them.

Date8/09 From the Desk ofBrian Williams In Regards ToHeyCraig CommentsZero

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Theft

Update (7/18/09): The offending image has been removed (along with the ClinicalReader Twitter account … strange.)

We owe a great deal of our early success to FeedStitch’s fantastic visual design. What you see today was no small feat for Owen, our designer, who subsisted on nothing but Tab and Run DMC records while we pelted him in the head with box after box of Adidas. When he finally emerged from the haze, we were treated to this:

Feed Stitch | Take Your Jumbled Mess of Feeds and Make Them one

While it has been a boost to our collective egos to see the design featured on numerous CSS and design galleries across the web, we were really flattered when we saw this gem:

Clinical Ripoff

I’m happy that the folks behind Clinical Reader (clinicalreader.com) thought so highly of our design that they decided to pay tribute to our original (thanks to Chris Martin for the head’s up).

Date7/09 From the Desk ofPatrick Reagan In Regards ToFeedStitch Comments3

Serve Your Customers

Here at FeedStitch, we care about our customers (and would-be customers). So much, in fact, that we make it our business to appeal to their egos first and their problems second. This exchange sums up how much we care about our users:

01 Fuck you

Read More »

Date7/09 From the Desk ofPatrick Reagan In Regards ToFeedStitch CommentsOne

FeedStitch Featured on Lifehacker

Jason Fitzpatrick has a nice little write-up on Lifehacker called FeedStitch Combines Multiple Feeds Into One.  Yep, good title — that’s the idea in a nutshell.  Judging by the surge in traffic to the site and the increase in FeedStitch references on Twitter, I’d say a lot of people were paying attention.  Thanks for the write-up, Jason.  Thanks also to everyone who has been sending good feedback and suggestions to feedback@feedstitch.com.  Keep them coming.

Date6/09 From the Desk ofBrian Williams In Regards ToFeedStitch Tagged | CommentsZero

HeyCraig Goes International!

Here at Pointless Corp. we always aim to please.  A lot of people liked HeyCraig, our craigslist search and automatic notification application, but were upset to find out it was limited to cities in the United States.

Well, not anymore!

We’re pleased to announce that people living in the following countries will now be able to enjoy HeyCraig: Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Germany, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Russia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States, Venezuela, and Vietnam!

heycraig-intl-final

If your country is not listed, and you know you have craiglist cities, send us an email and let us know.  Also, feel free to leave any comments and/or suggestions.

Have fun!

Date6/09 From the Desk ofmig In Regards ToHeyCraig, Pointless Corp. Comments3

WARNING: Tweets of Fury Will Ruin Your Life

OK, not really. But it might ruin a friendship, your reputation on Twitter, or your hopes for a productive day at work.

The latest Pointless Corp project is by far our most destructive and menacing endeavor. Tweets of Fury lets you battle your Twitter nemesis in a Rock-Scissors-Paper duel. You and your opponent will face off in a best-2-out-of-3 match and we predict your hands will be sweating by Round 2.  Your initial challenge to your enemy is tweeted publicly. The battle happens privately on the TOF site.  And the next thing the twitter-sphere will see is a tweet from the loser … a tweet that was written by the WINNER (cue ominous music). To the world it looks like any other tweet.

Do you use twitter to promote your personal brand? Is it a big part of your professional networking strategy? THEN DON’T PLAY TWEETS OF FURY. We can attest that the thrill of the battle will tempt you. But this application is best suited to daredevil fun-lovers who have little to lose.

We had a great time building TOF, but we did it pretty quickly and so, it’s still a little rough around the edges. We are going go to be cleaning up the design/codes over the next couple of weeks and hopefully adding a couple new features.  Meanwhile, we’d love to hear from anyone playing the game about their experience. Send your comments, suggestions, and/or hate mail to support@tweetsoffury.com. We’ll take all ideas under advisement. Then we will CRUSH YOU in a TOF battle. Look out!

tweets-of-fury-battle-small

Date6/09 From the Desk ofKevin Vigneault In Regards ToTweets of Fury Comments2

Introducing … HeyCraig

Today we’ve decided to announce our newest Pointless Corp. application: HeyCraig

With HeyCraig, you enter an item you are interested in purchasing, followed by your email, and your location. HeyCraig will keep an eye on Craigslist, and email you when items you want are available. It’s that easy.

We wanted to keep the interface as simple as possible, and we’re busy adding new features to the application as we speak. We’re always looking for feedback so feel free to post your ideas in the comments.

Here are some testimonials for you to enjoy from people already using HeyCraig:

“Before heycraig, I had no idea how much crap there was up on craigslist.
Now, I’m notified within an hour whenever the crap I’m looking for becomes
available. As a result, my acquisition of more crap has increased
dramatically. Thanks, heycraig!” – Brian Williams from Falls Church, VA

“heycraig helps me find what i need without getting distracted”
… “by ridiculous things like missed connections and free dirt and adult employment” – Kendra, from Chicago, IL

“I can’t get onto Heycraig tonight. You haven’t taken it down, have you? I NEED it!!!” – Michael, from the Woods of NC (editors note: We were having some server problems, sorry folks!)

Happy Craigslisting!
http://heycraigapp.com

Date4/09 From the Desk ofmig In Regards ToHeyCraig Comments13

FeedStitch and JSON

Recently, we introduced FeedStitch, our quick and easy feed aggregator. As we mentioned previously, one of the objectives for FeedStitch was to make it easy for computers as well as humans to use. Towards that end, we chose JSON as one of the output options. In this post, I’ll show you how you can use FeedStitch’s JSON output to integrate a group into a web page.

Read More »

Date3/09 From the Desk ofMark Cornick In Regards ToFeedStitch CommentsZero

SpeakerRate on ReadWriteWeb

Rick at ReadWriteWeb has a good write-up about SpeakerRate.  He sets up the reason why SpeakerRate exists really nicely with this intro:

If you’re a speaker, you know that standing in front of a crowd isn’t half as hard as getting critical feedback on your talks. People who disliked it will generally remain silent or opt for a snarky tweet or two. Those close to you will tell you “You did great!” no matter how poorly you performed. Getting the feedback you need to improve can be the most difficult part of the whole process. 

Exactly.

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Date2/09 From the Desk ofBrian Williams In Regards ToSpeakerRate CommentsZero