State of the Union
(closed account) says:
I have two suspicions about Remember the Milk. I’d like to state outright that I have utterly no proof that either belief is true.
The first is this: I think that they have no engineer, or don’t want to pay one. By “engineer,” I’m speaking of someone who can get under the hood of what makes Remember the Milk function and add features to its very underlying system -- its GUTS -- etc. The improvements that the webapp has seen have mostly been items that are tinkering: the introduction of new keywords, etc. The most significant development was the Smart Bar, and that’s merely a new way of data input into the same recording medium/database.
The second is this: I think that the very underlying STRUCTURE of Remember the Milk’s database probably can’t handle subtasks. I suspect that per one, they have no one in their organization who can build them a system that can handle subtasks, and per two, converting all of Remember the Milk’s users and all of their respective tasks to a database format that could handle subtasks (even presuming they hired someone to build it) would be so computation-intensive as to knock the system on its butt.
Let’s look at all their improvements – iPhone. iPad. Android. Blackberry. Outlook. All of this has been sync, sync, sync, sync, sync. And it’s stuff they can contract out or hire external developers for. Here, hungry iPhone developer, we want to pay you to make an iPhone app. Here, hungry iPad developer, etc., etc.
I don’t think we are ever going to see massive, tangible UI overhaul with RTM. Why? They’re never going to do anything that modifies or changes the database structure of Remember the Milk.
I don’t think the UI is going to ever progress past the tabs-on-the-top interface. I don’t think we’re going to see new keywords introduced. I don’t think we’re going to see subtasks or dependent tasks. I think the whole “Ideas” section is one big freaking placebo.
I used to use an application called Life Balance. The developers there did what the developers here are doing … they trumpeted the smallest bug fix as a new “feature” worthy of a point upgrade. Look at the new iPhone UI post to see what I mean.
In short, Remember the Milk’s state of the union is and will continue to be forever stagnant, but they will continue to forever obfuscate and spin that fact, because admitting so would lose them pretty much all their customers.
The first is this: I think that they have no engineer, or don’t want to pay one. By “engineer,” I’m speaking of someone who can get under the hood of what makes Remember the Milk function and add features to its very underlying system -- its GUTS -- etc. The improvements that the webapp has seen have mostly been items that are tinkering: the introduction of new keywords, etc. The most significant development was the Smart Bar, and that’s merely a new way of data input into the same recording medium/database.
The second is this: I think that the very underlying STRUCTURE of Remember the Milk’s database probably can’t handle subtasks. I suspect that per one, they have no one in their organization who can build them a system that can handle subtasks, and per two, converting all of Remember the Milk’s users and all of their respective tasks to a database format that could handle subtasks (even presuming they hired someone to build it) would be so computation-intensive as to knock the system on its butt.
Let’s look at all their improvements – iPhone. iPad. Android. Blackberry. Outlook. All of this has been sync, sync, sync, sync, sync. And it’s stuff they can contract out or hire external developers for. Here, hungry iPhone developer, we want to pay you to make an iPhone app. Here, hungry iPad developer, etc., etc.
I don’t think we are ever going to see massive, tangible UI overhaul with RTM. Why? They’re never going to do anything that modifies or changes the database structure of Remember the Milk.
I don’t think the UI is going to ever progress past the tabs-on-the-top interface. I don’t think we’re going to see new keywords introduced. I don’t think we’re going to see subtasks or dependent tasks. I think the whole “Ideas” section is one big freaking placebo.
I used to use an application called Life Balance. The developers there did what the developers here are doing … they trumpeted the smallest bug fix as a new “feature” worthy of a point upgrade. Look at the new iPhone UI post to see what I mean.
In short, Remember the Milk’s state of the union is and will continue to be forever stagnant, but they will continue to forever obfuscate and spin that fact, because admitting so would lose them pretty much all their customers.
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
Hey wcitypoe,
I'll bite. :)
We have awesome engineers coming out of our ears here (7 of them, in fact -- all full-time members of the Remember The Milk team). If anyone would like to join us, we have a couple of openings, too.
All of the big mobile updates (complete redesigns of Android and iPhone, and the launch of iPad) are largely the handiwork of one (overworked!) mobile engineer... which means, yes, there are 6 other engineers working on big stuff that hasn't launched yet. ;)
It's thanks to the support of Pro members that we can have engineering efforts like this (we have no outside funding; Pro memberships are our funding), so the feedback we receive from users is instrumental in helping us decide what should be part of Remember The Milk in the future. (Yes, there's very good reason for voting in the Ideas forum. ;)
I hope this can go someway to allay your suspicions (neither of which, I might add, could be further from the truth!). We're super privileged to be working on something that we love, and we're excited to keep building and make Remember The Milk the best it can be. :)
I'll bite. :)
We have awesome engineers coming out of our ears here (7 of them, in fact -- all full-time members of the Remember The Milk team). If anyone would like to join us, we have a couple of openings, too.
All of the big mobile updates (complete redesigns of Android and iPhone, and the launch of iPad) are largely the handiwork of one (overworked!) mobile engineer... which means, yes, there are 6 other engineers working on big stuff that hasn't launched yet. ;)
It's thanks to the support of Pro members that we can have engineering efforts like this (we have no outside funding; Pro memberships are our funding), so the feedback we receive from users is instrumental in helping us decide what should be part of Remember The Milk in the future. (Yes, there's very good reason for voting in the Ideas forum. ;)
I hope this can go someway to allay your suspicions (neither of which, I might add, could be further from the truth!). We're super privileged to be working on something that we love, and we're excited to keep building and make Remember The Milk the best it can be. :)