An organization with eight people in it might be happy, profitable and growing. The same business with twenty might be on the way to bankruptcy.

Ideas, markets, niches and causes have a natural scale. If you get it right, you can thrive for a long time. Overdo it and you stress the inputs.

The earth has a carrying capacity, certainly. It might change as a result of technology (we know how to grow food more efficiently than we did a century ago) but in any moment of time, there's a limit beyond which degradation kicks in. I don't think many would say that we currently have a people shortage. (Impossible to pull off, but worth considering: what if we skipped a growth cycle in the population and everyone in a generation had just two kids? Or even one...)

Your industry might have room for six or seven well-paid consultants, but when you try to scale up to 30 or 40 people on your team, you discover that it stresses the market's ability to pay.

Interesting note: there's also the common problem of under-staffing. More lawyers in a market might create more lawsuits. More effective ad vehicles certainly create more advertising. More lanes on the highway have been demonstrated to lead to more people commuting to work. Sometimes, adding capacity is exactly the right strategy if your goal is to add more revenue.

The next time you find your business struggling, take a minute to think about scale. More people (or fewer) might be the simplest way to solve your problem.

I found this to be a super interesting post. Seemed to speak to the level of success we've had at CSI over the years. I think one of the main reasons why things have gone so much better over the past year is that our scale is in better alignment.

The Five Chrome Extensions Every Developer Needs

Confession time: Somewhere down the back of my T-shirt drawer there's a black tee with a red dinosaur and the word "Mozilla" in blocky soviet-industrial type. It's from a time when Firefox was young and easy and free, and we were in love.

Ah, Firefox. Whatever happened to us?

Taking Chrome out was no big deal at the time -- just for a lark at first. It felt smart and airy and clean, but I'd always wander home to Firefox when it was time to for serious stuff.

Chrome was my fun weekend "sweet ride," while Firefox was my sensible work SUV with trailer.

The problem was, I was taking longer and longer to come home. One day I realized I hadn't opened Firefox in a week.

I was now a Chrome user.

Maybe you've been flirting with the idea too, but have been thinking, "Oh, I'd miss extension X too much."

Well, perhaps not. Let me run you through the five Chrome extensions I've come to rely on.

Pendule

One of the earliest and most enduring developer extensions for Firefox has been Chris Pederick's wonderful Web Developer Toolbar.

Its closest Chrome equivalent is Christian Frey's Pendule.

Pendule in action

Pendule opens as a single large panel opening from the Pendule button and offers the veritable Swiss Army knife of web development tools, including validators, generated source views, image dimension views, color pickers, screen rulers, and more.

In short, indispensable.

It's also probably worth mentioning Filippo Baruffaldi's Chrome Web Developer Tools, an unashamed clone of Chris Pederick's extension. Although it packs a lot of punch, the labyrinthine UI needs some work before it becomes really useful.

It's certainly one to watch in future.

Firebug Lite

I suspect that the single biggest reason developers might feel anchored to Firefox is Joe Hewitt's revered Firebug extension.

Before Firebug came along, elite developers were part shaman, part browser whisperer -- gifted humans with the uncanny ability to look into the mind of a troubled browser and understand it.

Firebug was the first extension to let anyone get inside the browser's head and see exactly what it was thinking.

This was a revelation for many of us.

Firebug Lite

Currently Firebug is only available in its Lite incarnation on Chrome. This means there's no access to the Net and JavaScript debugging panels. That may well be an issue for you, but it certainly has no big impact on the way I work most days.

Then again, you may even have no need for Firebug at all. Chrome's built-in Web Developer Tools panel (shared by Safari, of course) has a sophisticated tabbed interface that echoes many of Firebug's coolest features, with even a few new ones up its sleeve.

Chrome's increasingly advanced, built-in Web Developer Tools

Webpage Screenshot

There are two approaches you can take here. Both Aviary and Picnik make nice screengrabbing extensions that are designed to interface directly with their excellent online editors. These are great, but often I just want a full-page screengrab that I can paste straight into Fireworks or Photoshop for remodeling.

Happily, Webpage Screenshot fits the bill perfectly. The cute camera icon lets you choose between capturing the visible screen area only or the entire rendered page. It also throws in some basic image-labeling options. And that's all there is to it. It's super simple and just works.

Resolution Test

Although the current trend towards fixed-width design has made it less important than it was, we all test our sites in a range of resolutions. Resolution Test gives you quick access to a ready-made set of common screen sizes, plus the ability to set custom screen dimensions. Enough said.

Webpage Screenshot

If you're looking for an alternative, Window Resizer performs a similar task and includes some interesting screen presets. These include "iPhone, Android, Palm Pre," "Old Computer," and "Not That Old Computer."

Eye Dropper

Eye Dropper is another pared back, perfect, one-trick pony of an extension. I'm quite sure you can guess what it does.

Although it's true that Pendule incorporates a simple color picker too, I prefer Eye Dropper, as it lets you sample screen colors as well and mix colors from scratch.

Eye Dropper

Wrap-up

Let's be clear: in general, Chrome's extensions are currently a little less polished than their Firefox counterparts. The Chrome platform and community is obviously still in its early stages, and there's every chance a given extension will be lacking minor features or some reliablity. I would also add that in my experience the Chrome Mac is currently a little more raw than the Chrome Windows.

On the other hand, the Chrome extension library is growing in size and sophistication daily. We also know from experience that marquee Google products (for instance, Gmail, Docs, Maps, Android, and so on) develop continuously and rapidly, so expect the gap to shrink swiftly.

And one other small but significant joy. Chrome lets you install and remove any extension without having to restart your browser.

Yes, I know this seems fairly inconsequential, but I love it.

So, what do you think? Is your relationship with Firefox rock-solid enough to withstand a trial separation?

And yes, that's a dare ...

I'm a huge Chrome fan and have also found myself less & less in Firefox. Some nice plugins to help stay in Chrome.

How to invite all your friends on Facebook to your event in one go

The newly redesigned Facebook has led inviting members to an event/group/page to an even more complex process. Why can’t they just make a “select all” button? Initially I got tired of clicking several hundred times on all the pictures to invite people to my event, so I came up with this small piece of Javascript:

Killer shortcut. Works great.

Thought this was cool! Don't remember where I stumbled on it. Because of the propensity of hot dogs to cause choking due to their shape, there is a call for a redesign of the hot dog. Just thought it was cool.

A FREE Seamless-Pattern-Background Design Resource

Add your own colors to contemporary and retro pattern designs, or browse from thousands of pre-colored patterns in the seamless pattern background library. All artworks on this site can be used freely for web and graphic design projects, blogs, Twitter, scrapbooking, MySpace profiles, mobile phone wallpapers and personal artwork. - If you use the PatternCooler resource for digital commercial projects, then please consider making an appropriate donation. For printed commercial products, please contact us outlining your proposed usage - many thX :)

Totally dig this super cool seamless patter background generator. With all the platforms out there, find something you like & dress up your profile.

WordPress going after Posterous. Both rock. Will be interesting to see what happens here.