Brain Murmurs

Why does Pulse use a Proxy?
First off, why *do* we use a proxy, anyway? Well, the short answer is, we’re outsiders. If we had access to lower-level Blackberry APIs, we could probably get away without using a proxy. Or, if we had access to the Blackberry Internet Service’s backroom servers, we could get away without using a proxy.

But we have neither. We were, at one point, in conversations with business development managers at RIM about Pulse. At the time, they politely but firmly made it clear that our goals were not well aligned, and sent us on our way. Eventually they stopped returning our emails. So, as they say, the negotiations were short

In any event, we talked to Alex King, and he said “better with a proxy than no tethering at all.” A friend of mine also threw one of my own favorite sayings back in my teeth as well: ‘better’ is the enemy of ‘good enough.’

So, even though I myself would have preferred to use a non-proxy based solution, we ended up using one anyway.

Why is there a charge for the provided proxy service?
Brain Murmurs is not a service provider. We are not set up to handle the accounts, and we do not have the infrastructure in place to guarantee reliable service for our customers. Once we commited to using a proxy, that meant that the business suddenly included a service component, so we sought an outside partner to host the service for us.

The fees charged for the hosted proxy service go primarily to covering AWB’s bandwidth costs, although hopefully they will enjoy a modest profit from this venture.

That said, I’m really glad that Pulse can be used with a professional service provider: our own server at Brain Murmurs crashed this morning, which would have left all of our customers without service if we’d taken on the hosting job ourselves. Austin Web Development does this kind of thing for a living, so they’re able to provide very reliable service at an extremely reasonable price. We, in turn, support AWD by maintaining the proxy code and working to help make their infrastructure as efficient and reliable as possible.

Do I have to use the for-fee proxy?
NO. We are currently working on a very easy to use version of the proxy service that customers can download for free and use on their own networks, so people are definitely not locked into having to use a paid service in order to use Pulse.

The price seems high to me, why aren’t you giving this away?
The money people are spending on Pulse is being used to keep us in business and make Pulse better. We have a slew of new features to add, and many of them have not yet been publically announced. Existing customers will be able to upgrade for free. Charging a fair price for Pulse gives us the means to make those improvements and still feed our families.

While some businesses charge all that market will bear, I made a point of not charging any more than I myself would expect to pay if someone else were providing the service. If it cost $50 for the client (or some hidden service fee) and an additional $3.34/month from T-Mobile to get a service like Pulse, I would have paid it without batting an eye. I use Pulse all the time, and I need it. That’s why we made it in the first place. I think that I may spend more on my voice mail and call waiting, and I use those even less than I use Pulse.

-Daniel

Filed under: Pulse by Daniel