In my day job, we've been working on redecorating our office space for the last few months. It started with new *matching* desks replacing the old ones. I swear, I don't know the original reasoning behind it but everyone literally had a different modeled desk. It was so bad that I thought our office manager had a secret blog that reviewed different models of office desks.
However, now that all desk problems are solved, we're running into issues on how to divide up the space. Again, we now have various models of dividers and partitions none of which are standard cubicle stuff.
Anyway, I found this Office Snapshots link today which I thought was cool. Maybe one day when our startup upgrades to an office, we'll have something to look forward to. In the meantime, maybe we can get some ideas to save my day job space.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The Freedom of Self Employment...
I miss the freedom of self employment. Where else can you hold two separate iChat work meetings (development and marketing), blast iTunes, watch TV, surf Facebook and be logged into 3 computers all at the same time?
Did I mention I wasn't wearing pants? Alright, I was wearing pants... but still
I certainly don't have that kind of freedom during the day.
On a separate and completely unrelated note, can someone help me figure this out?
iPod earphones work on the Macbook
iPhone earphones work on the Macbook
iPod earphones does not work on the iPhone...
what gives?
Did I mention I wasn't wearing pants? Alright, I was wearing pants... but still
I certainly don't have that kind of freedom during the day.
On a separate and completely unrelated note, can someone help me figure this out?
iPod earphones work on the Macbook
iPhone earphones work on the Macbook
iPod earphones does not work on the iPhone...
what gives?
Monday, November 26, 2007
Web Design 101 - Wireframe in Practice
A couple of months ago, I talked about the importance of designing a website in wire frames. Now that we finally secured the design and the xhtml code, I can finally go into some details into the thought process behind the whole thing. By-the-Wei, if you haven't checked out our old post, you should check it out and the link that's associated with it. It will give you a much better idea of the information below.
Because our site isn't officially launched yet, I will only cover part one of the design process for now. We feel comfortable disclosing this part because it actually looks like nothing like the final product, but maybe this will give you some ideas for your site while we wrap up our stuff.
Before we officially began the project, I did a quick research to see what web 2.0 design was about. Whether you think "web 2.0" is a fad term or not, there is definitely something about the look of the new breed of websites that gave you a cleaner, more Zen like feel. Web 2.0 design is about balancing text with white space; it's not about cramming as much text and information as you can above the fold to get the most out of your real estate. If you get a chance to check out many of today's new start-ups, you'd get that feeling.
Some of the examples I've found... Oodle.com vs. Craigslist.org, Apple.com vs. MSN.com. When you go there, you see a distinct clear vs. busy.
Some other things I've noticed while doing research... web 2.0 sites are mostly about 960 pixels wide and most of them have a bold statement, text explaining the site. While our site will still be catering to people with 800x600 resolutions, future web logs will tell me if width expansion will be necessary.
The first mock-up our designer came back with was the above image. Like most of you are probably thinking, I too was wondering why certain elements are positioned the way they are. There just appeared to be so much wasted space around the logo; even if the goal was branding. Also, the bold line of text was new for me... new being uneasy.
I went back to the designer and insisted that we needed to do something about the prime real estate that was wasted up top. Even though I'm all for embracing web 2.0, some things as a biz dev guy, I just can't let go of. Unfortunately, real estate is one of them.
The second comp the designer came back with was the above. This one was heavily influenced by me jamming my ideas and requirements into the mix. Since I didn't understand the research section, we condensed the top to focus on just buyers and sellers. After all, we're thinking that someone who comes to our site has a need... and we're here to fill that need for speed (to buy and sell).
However, the second comp above presented a problem. Even though it crams more data together, we have two ad units placed right next to each other. Although this may be okay for some of our competitors... we felt that it would be unfair to our potential advertisers to be grouped that close to a potential competitor. So with that, we made a minor tweak to separate the two a tad bit.
This iteration of the design came out pretty well and it was something we stuck with for some time as we moved towards designing the internal pages. The next time we cover this topic, I will finish up with what we did for the home page and internal pages.
Because our site isn't officially launched yet, I will only cover part one of the design process for now. We feel comfortable disclosing this part because it actually looks like nothing like the final product, but maybe this will give you some ideas for your site while we wrap up our stuff.
Before we officially began the project, I did a quick research to see what web 2.0 design was about. Whether you think "web 2.0" is a fad term or not, there is definitely something about the look of the new breed of websites that gave you a cleaner, more Zen like feel. Web 2.0 design is about balancing text with white space; it's not about cramming as much text and information as you can above the fold to get the most out of your real estate. If you get a chance to check out many of today's new start-ups, you'd get that feeling.
Some of the examples I've found... Oodle.com vs. Craigslist.org, Apple.com vs. MSN.com. When you go there, you see a distinct clear vs. busy.
Some other things I've noticed while doing research... web 2.0 sites are mostly about 960 pixels wide and most of them have a bold statement, text explaining the site. While our site will still be catering to people with 800x600 resolutions, future web logs will tell me if width expansion will be necessary.
The first mock-up our designer came back with was the above image. Like most of you are probably thinking, I too was wondering why certain elements are positioned the way they are. There just appeared to be so much wasted space around the logo; even if the goal was branding. Also, the bold line of text was new for me... new being uneasy.
I went back to the designer and insisted that we needed to do something about the prime real estate that was wasted up top. Even though I'm all for embracing web 2.0, some things as a biz dev guy, I just can't let go of. Unfortunately, real estate is one of them.The second comp the designer came back with was the above. This one was heavily influenced by me jamming my ideas and requirements into the mix. Since I didn't understand the research section, we condensed the top to focus on just buyers and sellers. After all, we're thinking that someone who comes to our site has a need... and we're here to fill that need for speed (to buy and sell).
However, the second comp above presented a problem. Even though it crams more data together, we have two ad units placed right next to each other. Although this may be okay for some of our competitors... we felt that it would be unfair to our potential advertisers to be grouped that close to a potential competitor. So with that, we made a minor tweak to separate the two a tad bit.This iteration of the design came out pretty well and it was something we stuck with for some time as we moved towards designing the internal pages. The next time we cover this topic, I will finish up with what we did for the home page and internal pages.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Amazon AWS Follow-up: Start-Nots.
Amazon announced their final 7 more than a week ago, but we finally got the email over Thanksgiving break. No, our idea was not cool enough to make the list; but then again, there were only a couple of cool ones on the list that caught my attention.
---
Thank you for participating in the AWS Start-Up Challenge! We were amazed by the innovation -- and sheer volume -- of the applications we received, which made choosing a handful of finalists a challenge in itself.
We're sorry to say that your application was not amongst the few finalists. We wish you success in your start-up and we hope that AWS’ infrastructure services (Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, and Amazon SQS) will help you build a strong foundation for your business.
You can read about the seven finalists at http://aws.amazon.com/startupchallenge.
Best wishes,
Tracy Laxdal
Amazon Web Services
Simply sign-up and start building at aws.amazon.com
Check out our tech resources at aws.amazon.com/resources
---
Are we bummed? Yes and no. It'd be great to get some free money to use to test the S3 solution (which we did), at the same time, getting tied up with a bunch of investors at this early of a stage can also be distracting. As they aay... too many chefs in the kitchen... blah blah.
A Good Night
You know you've had a good night programming when the screens are glowing in a dark room, to the left I've got a half finished can of Red Bull and 3 empty Mountain Dew cans. To the right, I've got a mostly eaten Chipotle Burrito bowl. Two or three Python references manuals are on the desk and all sense of time has been lost.
I'm a huge fan office ergonomics. I have a hard time focusing unless my surroundings feel purposeful and suit all my spacial needs and I thusly spend a large amount of time setting up my work area before I start a project. Having a purpose built office in my new house has really lent me to designing a good space. On this particular Thanksgiving weekend though, I'm at my future in-laws and have found the kitchen table to be the optimal place to work. Huge kitchen table workspace with a center leaf added holds the laptop and my secondary screen. A spiffy Ethan Allen chair (though it desperately needs proper lumbar support) supports me bum. A refrigerator within reach helps productivity as well.
In the end, it comes down to this. Without a proper work space, the work suffers. Spend some time getting your place together and figuring out what you need. It really can make quite a difference.
To respond to Wei's post, I didn't state all my reasons for this project. As you can see, feeding two dogs (one that eats as much as the entire population of Somolia) motivates me as well:
And seeing Wei's picture only solidifies my impressions of him over the last few months. Dog people rock. Wei and his pups are living proof of that. It's really great to work with such motivated and solid people.
I'm a huge fan office ergonomics. I have a hard time focusing unless my surroundings feel purposeful and suit all my spacial needs and I thusly spend a large amount of time setting up my work area before I start a project. Having a purpose built office in my new house has really lent me to designing a good space. On this particular Thanksgiving weekend though, I'm at my future in-laws and have found the kitchen table to be the optimal place to work. Huge kitchen table workspace with a center leaf added holds the laptop and my secondary screen. A spiffy Ethan Allen chair (though it desperately needs proper lumbar support) supports me bum. A refrigerator within reach helps productivity as well.
In the end, it comes down to this. Without a proper work space, the work suffers. Spend some time getting your place together and figuring out what you need. It really can make quite a difference.
To respond to Wei's post, I didn't state all my reasons for this project. As you can see, feeding two dogs (one that eats as much as the entire population of Somolia) motivates me as well:
And seeing Wei's picture only solidifies my impressions of him over the last few months. Dog people rock. Wei and his pups are living proof of that. It's really great to work with such motivated and solid people.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Marketing Research
After contacting over 20 car dealerships, I (Bryan) was able to speak with 6 general sales managers. The rest were not available, out of the office, or being screened by receptionists. For those I did not speak with, I either left a message or will call back in the near future. I called dealers from every end of the spectrum: small local used car dealers, large car dealers, and high-end dealers. The list is below...
- Jackson Acura
- Toyota of Roswell
- Rick Case Hyundai and Mitsubishi
- Saturn of Roswell
- Roswell Infiniti
- Landrover
- Roswell Auto Sports
- Jordan Motors
- Town and Country Motors
- Nalley Lexus
- Nalley Jaguar
- Classic Cadillac and Subaru
- Nalley Audi
- United BMW
- Honda Carland
- Palmer Dodge
- Aston Martin of Atlanta
- Porsche
- Roswell Chrysler Jeep
- Regal Nissan
- Mazda of Roswell
- Classic Suzuki
- Lotus of Atlanta
The six dealers I actually spoke with were Rick Case Hyundai and Mitsubishi, Saturn of Roswell, Roswell Auto Sports, Nalley Audi, Aston Martin of Atlanta, and Landrover. Of these six, only one acted as if they would not be interested in utilizing our website and that was Landrover. Apart from being almost cocky, they did mention that 99% of their business already comes from internet sales. I told him "hey, why not add another 1% by taking advantage of Easyautosales.com." Overall, most dealers said that with a site like ours, they are looking for simplicity, ease of use, and for immediate inventory updates. Apparently, when most of them update their cars, the changes are not made until midnight. Some dealers said that they would not be interested unless we are getting a large numbers of hits. My overall impression is that most dealers will be willing to try our site and if they sell cars, they will keep using us, if not, they will stop. Makes sense to me. The other interesting thing I found was that the moment I used the word "free" the mom and pop dealerships were all over it...
- Jackson Acura
- Toyota of Roswell
- Rick Case Hyundai and Mitsubishi
- Saturn of Roswell
- Roswell Infiniti
- Landrover
- Roswell Auto Sports
- Jordan Motors
- Town and Country Motors
- Nalley Lexus
- Nalley Jaguar
- Classic Cadillac and Subaru
- Nalley Audi
- United BMW
- Honda Carland
- Palmer Dodge
- Aston Martin of Atlanta
- Porsche
- Roswell Chrysler Jeep
- Regal Nissan
- Mazda of Roswell
- Classic Suzuki
- Lotus of Atlanta
The six dealers I actually spoke with were Rick Case Hyundai and Mitsubishi, Saturn of Roswell, Roswell Auto Sports, Nalley Audi, Aston Martin of Atlanta, and Landrover. Of these six, only one acted as if they would not be interested in utilizing our website and that was Landrover. Apart from being almost cocky, they did mention that 99% of their business already comes from internet sales. I told him "hey, why not add another 1% by taking advantage of Easyautosales.com." Overall, most dealers said that with a site like ours, they are looking for simplicity, ease of use, and for immediate inventory updates. Apparently, when most of them update their cars, the changes are not made until midnight. Some dealers said that they would not be interested unless we are getting a large numbers of hits. My overall impression is that most dealers will be willing to try our site and if they sell cars, they will keep using us, if not, they will stop. Makes sense to me. The other interesting thing I found was that the moment I used the word "free" the mom and pop dealerships were all over it...
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Let There Be Marketing...
The founders met again on Saturday... We were due on the status of the project plus we scheduled a meeting with Bryan who we have been considering for business development / marketing position for the last month.
Overall, we are still on track with programming and now with the additional help, I think we are now better equipped to hit our target beta release date and properly market it (or try to). Granted, I would love to get some additional help/backup on both programming and marketing but we're going to tackle it one step at a time.
With regards to "why we're doing this..." my reasons are slightly different than Randall's. As you can see, my dogs love food and I feel the need to provide them with such. They really are spoiled... but I can't help it; they're just too cute.
Overall, we are still on track with programming and now with the additional help, I think we are now better equipped to hit our target beta release date and properly market it (or try to). Granted, I would love to get some additional help/backup on both programming and marketing but we're going to tackle it one step at a time.
With regards to "why we're doing this..." my reasons are slightly different than Randall's. As you can see, my dogs love food and I feel the need to provide them with such. They really are spoiled... but I can't help it; they're just too cute.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Why Are We Doing This?
Often times I get distracted from new projects, exciting projects, like EasyAutoSales and while plugging along, trying to get to my next milestone I read a quote or hear an inspirational line that really helps me push to the next level. Today it was a quote by Theodore Roosevelt. It goes a little something like this:
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
Wei had a great idea. It's something I've belived in myself as a car buff and he put into words and pictures that which I couldn't. I believe that together, we can turn this idea into something greater than just a bunch of car pictures online of cars for sale. It's about being passionate about an idea and not afraid to fail. By taking the risk and putting yourself out on a limb, spending time and money on something that might or might not work, you're already winning. Success means winning the game. Failure means learning and trying again. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. As they say, nothing worth doing was ever easy...
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
Wei had a great idea. It's something I've belived in myself as a car buff and he put into words and pictures that which I couldn't. I believe that together, we can turn this idea into something greater than just a bunch of car pictures online of cars for sale. It's about being passionate about an idea and not afraid to fail. By taking the risk and putting yourself out on a limb, spending time and money on something that might or might not work, you're already winning. Success means winning the game. Failure means learning and trying again. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. As they say, nothing worth doing was ever easy...
Friday, November 16, 2007
Testing the Skribit Widget
Just in case the content on here is SOOOOO good that you don't even think about looking at the right column... The Skribit Widget is available for testing on this blog and it's posted on the right.
If there are any topics you'd like to see covered here whether it'd be about Startup Weekend, Skribit or even the status / lesson learned from my own EasyAutoSales startup, feel free to drop us a comment and let us know.
Again, the goal of this blog is to let you know where we suceeded and where we failed so that you can learn from our experience (and maybe put us in your e-book.)
=)
If there are any topics you'd like to see covered here whether it'd be about Startup Weekend, Skribit or even the status / lesson learned from my own EasyAutoSales startup, feel free to drop us a comment and let us know.
Again, the goal of this blog is to let you know where we suceeded and where we failed so that you can learn from our experience (and maybe put us in your e-book.)
=)
Thursday, November 15, 2007
So Back to the Startup at Hand...
Time seems to be a luxury we don't have these days. In between the day job, the Startup Weekend and my house falling apart due to a slow leak in a pipe that was finally found and resolved, I feel like we've lost a couple of weeks in between where I couldn't focus on the project at hand.
So, where are we now?
Design - the design has finally been completed, which means I can now blog about the design process and tell you guys what we learned. Overall, this has been a lot less painful than hiring programmers so it was a great experience.
Web Hosting - for whatever reason, we're still stuck here. We're at a stand still between what we need vs. what we want. Also, because we feel like we need to scale up pretty fast in terms of storage, regardless of actual usage, this has been an ongoing issue of finding the affordable, scalable solution. Of course, our limited technology know-how of how to manage the cheaper solutions may be what's killing us here. I think we'll need to make the executive decision this weekend and just get something otherwise nothing will ever happen.
Business / Marketing - We have not had time to properly search and interview for our VP of Marketing yet. However, I did meet a ton of great people at Startup Weekend whom I can learn from. Will keep the search going for now...
So, where are we now?
Design - the design has finally been completed, which means I can now blog about the design process and tell you guys what we learned. Overall, this has been a lot less painful than hiring programmers so it was a great experience.
Web Hosting - for whatever reason, we're still stuck here. We're at a stand still between what we need vs. what we want. Also, because we feel like we need to scale up pretty fast in terms of storage, regardless of actual usage, this has been an ongoing issue of finding the affordable, scalable solution. Of course, our limited technology know-how of how to manage the cheaper solutions may be what's killing us here. I think we'll need to make the executive decision this weekend and just get something otherwise nothing will ever happen.
Business / Marketing - We have not had time to properly search and interview for our VP of Marketing yet. However, I did meet a ton of great people at Startup Weekend whom I can learn from. Will keep the search going for now...
Monday, November 12, 2007
What I Learned in My 54 Hour Skribit Blitz...
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For the people who have been following this blog, we posted a video of Truemors a couple of months ago where Guy Kawasaki talked about how he started a web based business with $12k and a few weeks of time. Well, after this past weekend, Guy posted a truemor about the Atlanta Startup Project, Skribit and how we were able to start a web business with $0 financing.Well $0 is of course a stretch, there were SOME costs... but what does $0 really mean? Well, here's the dirty dirty truth based on my observations.
$50 in domain names - I don't have the hard numbers but in registering our name and in registering a few more variations to protect the brand, we're looking at least $50 in expenses.
$1,000 in legal, misc fees. I admit, I completely ignored this part of the project, on purpose. I can't wrap my head around it.
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$2,400 in food - we were fed; a lot... I can't say they were all great or healthy food, but we were well fed. There was also a ton of beers and drinks and so forth. If we didn't have this, people wouldn't stay.$5,000 in office space - I'm not sure of the actual costs but I'll throw in $5,000 as an estimate for renting the entire floor of where we needed to be. In addition to the main room, the various groups worked out of several different, smaller conference rooms which was necessary or we'd probably end up with nothing.
$96,000 in laptops/equipment - If the 64 people who showed up came with just pen and paper, we probably wouldn't have accomplished too much in the 54 hour period. If you estimated the avg. laptop cost to be $1,500, then there would be close to $100,000 in equipment alone.
$185,000 in free labor - We worked about 36 actual hours... So if our average comes out to be $80 in consulting fees x 64 people, then that's how much work we've put in in that time.
Priceless - Things we got for free due to networking. Things we will get for free as a result of this weekend's networking. We got a few freebies from this weekend. A few months of web hosting... a few connections into the blogger world, connections to VC's in the event this project takes off. All great and amazing things if you're a struggling startup.
Even MORE Priceless, internal networking - You know how hard it is to find people who don't make excuses, have a variety of talents, hop over any and all obstacles and apply that determination to businesses? Close to impossible. I'm really glad I was able to experience it cause... without seeing it for myself, it would have been hard to believe.
So is free really free? No, not really. Even though I worked about a week's worth of hours in 2.5 days, I guess the difference is that we all think this project may turnout to be greater than the $290,000 of Monopoly money (and effort) we invested.
All I've gotta say is... if it's possible to get $300,000 to start a company, find a group of smart business "snipers" who come in, do what's needed and hop out, I would be all over it. After all, in the web world speed and execution is way more valuable than the alternative.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Skribitastic!
It's been a long, hard, smelly but rewarding weekend. I seriously had planned on going home at about 3PM today to get some much needed sleep. However, working with a dynamic team of talented people that churned out stuff every few minutes; it was hard to pull away.
It was seriously like listening to the morning radio talk show on the way to work. Every time you think you are ready to pull away, they tease you with the next iteration, the next release or the next meal to make you stay just that much longer. In the end, I stayed for pretty much the whole event, but I really had to pull away at the 11th hour since I still have a day job tomorrow that I can't sleep through.
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While the event was tiring... the hard work paid off! Before the weekend even ended, we'd already got some press for our efforts.
"Duuuude! Pull up TechCrunch right now... we were just featured." Seriously? No, you're lying. We made TechCrunch?!
While I'm not sure what will ultimately become of this venture other than producing a cool and useful widget, it was at least great to have worked in an incubator environment that simulated a successful startup. I am definitely going keep in touch with a number of my peers from this weekend. It was a blast!
It was seriously like listening to the morning radio talk show on the way to work. Every time you think you are ready to pull away, they tease you with the next iteration, the next release or the next meal to make you stay just that much longer. In the end, I stayed for pretty much the whole event, but I really had to pull away at the 11th hour since I still have a day job tomorrow that I can't sleep through.
.jpg)
While the event was tiring... the hard work paid off! Before the weekend even ended, we'd already got some press for our efforts."Duuuude! Pull up TechCrunch right now... we were just featured." Seriously? No, you're lying. We made TechCrunch?!
While I'm not sure what will ultimately become of this venture other than producing a cool and useful widget, it was at least great to have worked in an incubator environment that simulated a successful startup. I am definitely going keep in touch with a number of my peers from this weekend. It was a blast!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Startup Weekend: Day 2
I must admit, it was hard getting up this morning after feeling a little bit defeated in the whole "ideas" thing. The clear business opportunity was out voted and instead, our group is working on a blog widget.
However, if there's one thing I love, it's a challenge. I've always prided myself in monetizing ideas and after a night of minor tossing and turning, I think I finally came up with something late last night.
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It's a shame that these pictures aren't sexy and don't offer much else besides a bunch of guys pointing at a bunch of words. However, after spending a whole day locked inside the atdc, my one word to describe day 2 would be: surreal.
.jpg)
What impressed me the most is how everyone, and I mean EVERYONE took what they did best and bulldozed the sh*t through it. (This includes Lance taking out the trash on multiple occasions!) While there were definitely varying ideas about the product and of course arguments; in the end, what we designed came out pretty awesome.
Let's face it, when you group a bunch of type A people who want to be heard cause they care, there will be arguments. In the end, it's just business and we're doing what's best for the company. I was impressed by the speed in which we took a brand and then claimed everything we could claim off the name. Within a 15 minute period, everything Skribit was setup. Twitter, Facebook products, Wikipedia, various blogs, MySpace, etc. Also, I saw some pretty amazing prototypes done in just 12 hours of code. Hrmm, I also think I did a power point this morning; I vaguely remember someone calling me the "powerpoint ninja." Wow, 12 hours seemed like a lifetime ago. If I had a whole team of these people that GOT IT for all my ideas, imagine the possibilities...
Anyway, tomorrow will be the final day. As much as I love the product and the group, I'm really hoping everything can be done by 3pm. At this point, I really could use some sleep.
However, if there's one thing I love, it's a challenge. I've always prided myself in monetizing ideas and after a night of minor tossing and turning, I think I finally came up with something late last night.
.jpg)
It's a shame that these pictures aren't sexy and don't offer much else besides a bunch of guys pointing at a bunch of words. However, after spending a whole day locked inside the atdc, my one word to describe day 2 would be: surreal..jpg)
What impressed me the most is how everyone, and I mean EVERYONE took what they did best and bulldozed the sh*t through it. (This includes Lance taking out the trash on multiple occasions!) While there were definitely varying ideas about the product and of course arguments; in the end, what we designed came out pretty awesome.Let's face it, when you group a bunch of type A people who want to be heard cause they care, there will be arguments. In the end, it's just business and we're doing what's best for the company. I was impressed by the speed in which we took a brand and then claimed everything we could claim off the name. Within a 15 minute period, everything Skribit was setup. Twitter, Facebook products, Wikipedia, various blogs, MySpace, etc. Also, I saw some pretty amazing prototypes done in just 12 hours of code. Hrmm, I also think I did a power point this morning; I vaguely remember someone calling me the "powerpoint ninja." Wow, 12 hours seemed like a lifetime ago. If I had a whole team of these people that GOT IT for all my ideas, imagine the possibilities...
Anyway, tomorrow will be the final day. As much as I love the product and the group, I'm really hoping everything can be done by 3pm. At this point, I really could use some sleep.
Startup Weekend: First Impressions
After an extremely long day at work, I fought through Peachtree traffic and arrived at the atdc to kick off the Startup weekend. First impressions? Definitely a LOT of hackers. In fact, when I arrived, I had a really "Legally Blonde" moment cause everyone brought their laptops to the event while all I had was a measly iPhone as my "computer"..jpg)
Overall, there are a lot of smart people at this thing but I honestly do not think the hackers here think beyond their immediate needs. It mirrors most of my encounters and frustrations with developers which is above all else, they want to develop something with X number of features; creating a monetizable business is secondary... (sadly)Once we hammer out the idea tomorrow I'll write about it in my next post. On a side note, I did have the pleasure of going back to my ransacked jeep which was broken into while I was at the event. Of the things they took that I actually cared about: my community gate opener and my iPhone protective case and earphones. They also took a pair of cheap sunglasses which was partially broken anyway; have fun with that one. *sigh* That's what I get for parking near Cheetah and leaving the area late instead of paying the ridiculous fee to park in the garage.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Money Talks (Part II)
Welp... it seems like I was able to buy my way into the Atlanta Startup Weekend for a mere $20. $$$ > waitlist
Even though I am in desperate need of some sleep, this should be a lot of fun. Besides, Thanksgiving will be here in a couple of weeks which means I'll have a few days to hibernate if I want to.
I'll try to get some pics and do a couple of posts about the event if time allows.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Random Ramblings...
It's been a busy few days trying to port over all the existing data from my HP laptop to my network drive and getting important programs for the new Macbook so I can carry on business as usual. An odd but great thing I'm now getting used to is the lack of crappy programs I have to install to make everyday things work. iChat replaced two chat programs that I would have had to download on the PC. Various iLife programs have replaced all the random and off beat programs I would have needed to install to watch and burn CDs and DVDs on my PC. The Mac version of the Office have pretty much eliminated my need to use Office 2007, even though the two are somewhat different. (I do remember hearing that the Mac version will be upgrading in a couple of months or so.) The last and somewhat annoying piece of the migration is the Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver that I'd like to have, but currently lack.
Now, MS has a student version of Office that they sell for $150 on the Mac platform; which is great. Adobe however, has ridiculous pricing on all their products which results in tons of people pirating and cracking their software for distribution. Since so many freelancers depend on these software, why doesn't Adobe come out with a student or startup friendly version of their software? Wouldn't they in theory be able to get more legit customers and possibly make a lot more money if they price themselves a little bit lower and became startup friendly? I mean, no one spends time hacking a $15 program... the pro's just doesn't outweigh the con's. On the other hand, I don't think Adobe should charge $15... but somewhere closer to $100 instead of $600+ would be greatly appreciated by everyone in the industry I'm sure.
So the Atlanta Startup Weekend is this weekend here and unfortunately I found out about it too late and could not get in the program. It does seem like they're doing something cool even though I have no idea what it is. I will have to get some reports from the other people I know who are going... mabbe next time I guess. On a side note - they do hold these things all over the country so if you're interested in meeting like-minded people, I would check to see if they have any events in your area.
Oh yeah, I stumbled across a Facebook ad the other day, (I swear being in marketing makes me hyper sensitive to ads no one else will ever click on). The ad was trying to appeal to entrepreneurs to do something. I'm not sure if this would be of interest to anyone but apparently Intuit, the makers of Quickbooks and Quicken is launching another startup contest where they will award $50k for the best idea submitted. The website is IWillJustStart.com and if you're interested, check it out and submit your idea.
You will find on the backside, it's a slick way to get you to participate in yet another social network dedicated to entrepreneurs. I'm not sure if that site's navigation is easy enough to make the site sticky for me. I personally find the whole thing a bit hard to use and a bit hard to see the other entries. Then again, who ever said accountants were great UI designers?
Other things to note... Ad:Tech in NY this week. I originally was going to go through my (day job) company but unfortunately they ended up picking someone else to go instead. Talk about a major bummer; considering I did all the leg work to get the trip approved in the first place. If there's one major pet peeve I have, it's the lack of educational investment a company make or doesn't make in their employees. Yes, for some, the drive is money. For others, the drive is job security and/OR education. Here's me, someone who is obviously motivated to learn, especially knowing that both MySpace and Facebook are making some pretty big announcements this week on the future of interactive marketing. There's the company saying: "Thanks for doing the work" but we're going to send someone else who won this spot (in a stupid raffle) and had absolutely no interest in going prior to hearing about a random raffle. Am I bitter? Yeah, just a tad bit. What can I say? I get bored easily and if I'm not learning, I'm out there looking for other opportunities to learn... *sigh* Sometimes I wish employers would pay a bit more attention to their overworked staff and make the necessary investments instead of worrying about an extra $10-$20k on their bottom line. Heck, if we are more educated, we can probably make the company significantly more! Instead now you just have a bitter employee... (Good job!)
Note: Make sure when the dot com makes it big, we put employee satisfaction above the bottom line.
Now, MS has a student version of Office that they sell for $150 on the Mac platform; which is great. Adobe however, has ridiculous pricing on all their products which results in tons of people pirating and cracking their software for distribution. Since so many freelancers depend on these software, why doesn't Adobe come out with a student or startup friendly version of their software? Wouldn't they in theory be able to get more legit customers and possibly make a lot more money if they price themselves a little bit lower and became startup friendly? I mean, no one spends time hacking a $15 program... the pro's just doesn't outweigh the con's. On the other hand, I don't think Adobe should charge $15... but somewhere closer to $100 instead of $600+ would be greatly appreciated by everyone in the industry I'm sure.
So the Atlanta Startup Weekend is this weekend here and unfortunately I found out about it too late and could not get in the program. It does seem like they're doing something cool even though I have no idea what it is. I will have to get some reports from the other people I know who are going... mabbe next time I guess. On a side note - they do hold these things all over the country so if you're interested in meeting like-minded people, I would check to see if they have any events in your area.Oh yeah, I stumbled across a Facebook ad the other day, (I swear being in marketing makes me hyper sensitive to ads no one else will ever click on). The ad was trying to appeal to entrepreneurs to do something. I'm not sure if this would be of interest to anyone but apparently Intuit, the makers of Quickbooks and Quicken is launching another startup contest where they will award $50k for the best idea submitted. The website is IWillJustStart.com and if you're interested, check it out and submit your idea.
You will find on the backside, it's a slick way to get you to participate in yet another social network dedicated to entrepreneurs. I'm not sure if that site's navigation is easy enough to make the site sticky for me. I personally find the whole thing a bit hard to use and a bit hard to see the other entries. Then again, who ever said accountants were great UI designers?
Other things to note... Ad:Tech in NY this week. I originally was going to go through my (day job) company but unfortunately they ended up picking someone else to go instead. Talk about a major bummer; considering I did all the leg work to get the trip approved in the first place. If there's one major pet peeve I have, it's the lack of educational investment a company make or doesn't make in their employees. Yes, for some, the drive is money. For others, the drive is job security and/OR education. Here's me, someone who is obviously motivated to learn, especially knowing that both MySpace and Facebook are making some pretty big announcements this week on the future of interactive marketing. There's the company saying: "Thanks for doing the work" but we're going to send someone else who won this spot (in a stupid raffle) and had absolutely no interest in going prior to hearing about a random raffle. Am I bitter? Yeah, just a tad bit. What can I say? I get bored easily and if I'm not learning, I'm out there looking for other opportunities to learn... *sigh* Sometimes I wish employers would pay a bit more attention to their overworked staff and make the necessary investments instead of worrying about an extra $10-$20k on their bottom line. Heck, if we are more educated, we can probably make the company significantly more! Instead now you just have a bitter employee... (Good job!)
Note: Make sure when the dot com makes it big, we put employee satisfaction above the bottom line.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Wei is Mac'n It!
After years of swearing by PC's and receiving recommendations from friends that swear by Windows, .net and other MS technologies, I've finally decided to analyze my personal computing needs and ended up switching to the Mac. More specifically, I just bought a 15" MacBook Pro.
I must admit, my PC needs have changed over the years. What used to be games, programming, movies and music have now changed to music, emails and web. My needs have become simpler (more common) over the years and ironically, the one thing that would have kept me on a PC (gaming) has now been replaced by the Xbox 360; which leaves me free to do texting, web, email and PHOTOS on my iPhone and Mac. That's not to say the Mac can't do anything like programming or games, but that I think overall, OS X can do more of the things I need better than Windows.
Though, a lot of different things came together at the right time to make my switch happen. It all started with a simple announcement over 10 months ago about a certain iPhone. I watched then waited and finally got one after the price drop. My first impression? I was extremely impressed with the usability and intuitiveness of the phone; much more than my old Treo 650. From there, I became a bigger and bigger OS X fan and then met Randall who's all about Mac's. We even checked OS X server as a hosting option; something I hadn't considered since deciding on the Apache platform for our next website. However, it can make sense... since Linux distributions isn't something we understand and OS X in theory is more stable than various Linux distributions...
I'm sure we all know the common praises of the Macbooks so I won't get into the details here. I will say comparing the new laptop vs. my HP laptop, the MacBook has it beat on many levels. However, portability (thin and light body) is what sold it for me. I really can't stand to lug around a 8lb laptop any longer.
It was kind of a pain in the ass to pay the Apple tax buying the hardware and software combined. But maybe there's something to this... just look how well the Xbox 360 and its blades dashboard did! I really hope that some day Microsoft will also choose to stop supporting ancient hardware and make a non-bloated version of Windows. Let's face it, you can't please everyone; by choosing to try, you are costing yourself millions in tech support and are forced to write bloated software with thousands of drivers that results in an overall, poorer quality product. In the end, while you have volume, you are hurting your brand and your core product. That will result in... well, people jumping ships.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how the market shifts in the next couple of years. I still like Windows but it may be a different story once I figure out how to do everything I need to do on the Mac without the virtual Windows environment.
I must admit, my PC needs have changed over the years. What used to be games, programming, movies and music have now changed to music, emails and web. My needs have become simpler (more common) over the years and ironically, the one thing that would have kept me on a PC (gaming) has now been replaced by the Xbox 360; which leaves me free to do texting, web, email and PHOTOS on my iPhone and Mac. That's not to say the Mac can't do anything like programming or games, but that I think overall, OS X can do more of the things I need better than Windows.
Though, a lot of different things came together at the right time to make my switch happen. It all started with a simple announcement over 10 months ago about a certain iPhone. I watched then waited and finally got one after the price drop. My first impression? I was extremely impressed with the usability and intuitiveness of the phone; much more than my old Treo 650. From there, I became a bigger and bigger OS X fan and then met Randall who's all about Mac's. We even checked OS X server as a hosting option; something I hadn't considered since deciding on the Apache platform for our next website. However, it can make sense... since Linux distributions isn't something we understand and OS X in theory is more stable than various Linux distributions... I'm sure we all know the common praises of the Macbooks so I won't get into the details here. I will say comparing the new laptop vs. my HP laptop, the MacBook has it beat on many levels. However, portability (thin and light body) is what sold it for me. I really can't stand to lug around a 8lb laptop any longer.
It was kind of a pain in the ass to pay the Apple tax buying the hardware and software combined. But maybe there's something to this... just look how well the Xbox 360 and its blades dashboard did! I really hope that some day Microsoft will also choose to stop supporting ancient hardware and make a non-bloated version of Windows. Let's face it, you can't please everyone; by choosing to try, you are costing yourself millions in tech support and are forced to write bloated software with thousands of drivers that results in an overall, poorer quality product. In the end, while you have volume, you are hurting your brand and your core product. That will result in... well, people jumping ships.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how the market shifts in the next couple of years. I still like Windows but it may be a different story once I figure out how to do everything I need to do on the Mac without the virtual Windows environment.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Google OpenSocial Now Live
Per Mashable's blog post, Google's OpenSocial API is now live. This comes only a few days after the announcement, which is somewhat bittersweet for me.
On one hand, if Facebook joins this program at a later date, it means we can potentially code widgets for all these networks with one fell swoop. In fact, it may also be interesting to be able to code something that taps into all social networks at the same time.
On the flip side, as much as I like Google, it's just another way for them to force themselves to be the authority on something they weren't number one at. Being that we work in the web industry, that's a 'lil dangerous and a bit too close to home.
OpenSocial Launch Partners
On one hand, if Facebook joins this program at a later date, it means we can potentially code widgets for all these networks with one fell swoop. In fact, it may also be interesting to be able to code something that taps into all social networks at the same time.
On the flip side, as much as I like Google, it's just another way for them to force themselves to be the authority on something they weren't number one at. Being that we work in the web industry, that's a 'lil dangerous and a bit too close to home.
OpenSocial Launch Partners
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