Picking a name can be extremely easy or incredibly hard. Mike and I make it much harder than it should be because we always like to look for plays on words and secondary meanings in our titles. But, we always try to stick to a few basic rules when we name things:

• Easy to spell
• Easy to say
• Related to simplicity (small, slim, simple, etc)
• Appropriate domain is available at a reasonable cost

If we can satisfy those criteria we will try to push things a bit and make a play on words. SmallChange, for example, refers to a few coins or a simple change to the way you do things. A play on words that is applicable to our application! 

Here are a few of the names we didn’t think made the cut: Continue reading…

As Mike mentioned, we have come up with hundreds of ideas for web applications. Some are good and some are so terrible it is embarrassing to even go back and read them (those are mostly my ideas). But what makes a good idea worth the time to create it? For Mike and I, it was down to a few criteria:

• We both used an expense tracking software we were not 100% satisfied with
• The time required to create something tangible seemed achievable 
• There were many popular examples to follow if we got stuck
• None of the popular examples are functional for us Canadians

Mike also happened to be taking a class on software usability. This project fit in quite well, so it allowed us to justify spending a bit more time on it than we could have otherwise. All together, we had a very convincing case to move SmallChange from the idea stage to reality.

I’ll admit it, I am addicted to brainstorming. I do it while driving, watching movies, cleaning, and yes, even while I am showering. The problem is that ideas come too easy and are forgotten just as quick.

Ryan and I wanted a way to store all of our ideas, so that we could hand-pick the best.

• We started with text files, but that lacked remote sharing.
• We used a free Backpack account and added lists and writeboards until a pay account was necessary.
• We setup a private Wiki and in no time our little idea garden grew to well over a hundred.

As the Wiki grew, we realized that tracking ideas is pointless and a huge a waste of time.

• Documenting every idea takes the fun out of brainstorming.
• We rarely looked at old ideas, except to count how many we had.
• The good ideas continually pop-up, evolve, and change with time.

This isn’t a new realization and many software developers have had the same thoughts toward feature request tracking. Regardless, we ignored what we had read and had to experience it first hand.

Mike already introduced himself, always so organized and on top of things. He also painted a clear picture of what we are doing with Fresh Air and why we are doing it, so I won’t bore you with the same details.

My name is Ryan Felgate. I am helping with the business side of SmallChange. You will see posts from me about how we decided to start SmallChange, how we named it, how we work on it and other important items from SmallChange and the web in general.

Continue reading…

We are proud to present a new feature for SmallChange: Reports!

SmallChange is a simple tool for making sense of your income and expenses.

However, until today, there was no way to make sense of your data - at least not a simple way.  All you could do was enter data… enter some more data… and then admire that data.

Understanding Your Money

We do not intend for reports to be an all-knowing, fortune teller.  Simply, they help you decide if your money is going where you want.

Hello and welcome to the first blog post of Fresh Air!  The blog will be a collection of thoughts from Ryan Felgate, myself (Michael Brooks), and you.  We want to share our experiences on web application development, get to know you, and learn from your advice.

We have started this weblog for two main reasons

1. To talk about our Web application SmallChange (you’re welcome to sign up and use it!)
2. To open our voices to the Web application community and become more involved

Continue reading…