February 2013
1 post
1 tag
Long Term Planning in Startups
We interviewed a job candidate recently. He was just a kid, really. 2 years out of college and spent most of that at “big blue”.
He asked us what our company would be like in 5 years. I laughed.
I told him we only had the roughest ideas of what our system would look like in 5 weeks. We have firmer ideas after our next spring planning session. This seems to surprise him quite a...
March 2012
2 posts
Leaving the Peach
The short version: I’m leaving StarPound and moving back to Orlando with my family.
Atlanta has been my home base since I moved here in 2003 after the small company / startup I worked for mostly imploded. I’ve thought about moving back a lot because I still have family and friends there. Recently an opportunity came up to make that happen and after giving it a lot of thought I...
February 2012
1 post
Lesson Learned... #aws
So it turns out this:
elb-configure-healthcheck prod-lb —healthy-threshold 2 —interval 30 —target “http:80/index.php” —timeout 15 —unhealthy-threshold 5
and this:
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https
RewriteRule !/status https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R]
are not compatible…
January 2012
1 post
Resolutions are for Suckers.
So once a year you decide you’re going to lose weight, get in shape and finally learn to speak Italian? to hell with that.
Here’s what you need to do. Write down some things you NEED to get done. READ that list to yourself EVERY DAY. If anything on that list is still on that list in a year then YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.
Pursue. Attack. Destroy. Repeat.
Here is your homework:...
December 2011
4 posts
Just Do Something.
To all the non-believers:
unlike what you’ve been taught by your television, it is necessary to alter the world in order to have lived in it. If you fail to change the course of history at all then no action you ever took meant anything. if that doesn’t bother you then you are already dead.
if you don’t know the shape or size of the dent you will make in the universe then...
“I’ve been doing location and mobile stuff for a while - for more than 10 years...”
– Dennis (via brycedotvc)
People that do research reports are like that friend you have that bets on sports and never wins. You have no fucking idea how or why they continue to do the same losing thing over and over again but they do. And the best part is they are always confident that at sometime in...
Recruiting begins with Selling Yourself
For a long time it’s been status quo for companies to have a “jobs” or “careers” page on their website.
Sometimes it’s something hideous like a link to some outsourced portal that will suck the life out of you the moment you try to search for an opening in one of their 117 global offices (Looking at you, multinational defense contractors…).
At small...
October 2011
3 posts
Obama for America: Hi, Tumblr. →
barackobama:
It’s nice to meet you.
There are lots of reasons we’re excited to be launching the Obama 2012 campaign’s new Tumblr today. But mostly it’s because we’re looking at this as an opportunity to create something that’s not just ours, but yours, too.
We’d like this Tumblr to be a huge…
While many CAN, some DO
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about motivation. What is it that makes some people willing to push themselves to the breaking point? Why doesn’t everyone have that drive?
Mostly I’m curious about the subject because I have an 11 year old daughter and I’m trying to inspire her to think big, dream big. Think Different. I wish I could go back now to talk to my 11 year...
June 2011
1 post
I thought I lost my Gogo!
So I know I said I wasn’t going to go online during this flight. It turns out I’m not good at Kindle reading for 4 hours and even though I fell asleep before we even took off that liter of Dr. Pepper kicked in somewhere over Arkansas.
Ultimately the temptation to use the free GoGo Wireless code I received for upgrading to Priority Seating™ was too great… the 572 digit coupon...
February 2011
1 post
December 2010
4 posts
Register for StartupRiot
Here’s the thing, StartupRiot is going to be HUGE! I mean like GIANT HUGE ENORMOUS.
You should go. Seriously. If you have any interest in startup companies or new technology ventures you will love it.
So here’s how: Go to http://startupriot.com/ and sign up to attend or present. (I presented last year and it was incredible) and put my email address (sur@gleep.org) down as the...
Kudzu Playhouse Presents: A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story Jean Shepherd’s memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940’s follows 9 year old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas. Directed by Jeannie Hinds and Jessica Alexander Stage Managed by Carla Flack For tickets call 770-594-1020 www.kudzuplayhouse.org All seats are $8.75 November 27-December 24, 2010 Every Saturday and...
FCC Proposal "Compromise" Not Good For...
Read this story on NPR.org first… Now back to me. Now back to them. Now back to me.
A little about me
I worked in the engineering department of a major MSO (AKA “the cable company”) for 6 years. I’ve spoken at CableLabs (the big MSO conference). I’ve met engineers and executives from a lot of other MSOs as well. In short, I know more about this issue than I...
November 2010
6 posts
Trend Developer in Atlanta →
This looks like a really interesting group and I’m looking forward to attending their kickoff event on Wednesday. If you’re in Atlanta and you are a developer you should check it out!
bijan sabet: Thoughts about seed startups and... →
I have felt this pain…
bijan:
Over the weekend I read my friend Antonio Rodriguez’s post about the challenges of creating mobile apps in lean startups.
Antonio points out that’s is much harder for a seed funded company to build mobile apps today than startups that had only been focused on the web just a few years back:
I opted out, then they opted out. →
izs:
By now, if you haven’t heard the outrage at the TSA’s “enhanced” pat-down procedures, then you don’t use the internet, and you’re not reading this blog.
They grope children. They touch your junk. The procedures are ludicrously ineffective and harmful from a security point of view. And the…
Response from the GA Secretary of State's Office
30 minutes ago I submitted this complaint to the Georgia SOS office via the form on their website:
The wording of amendment 1 was disgustingly misleading and it was created that way with the intent to fool people into voting against their own best interest. There is no way that was a fair way of representing the issue to the people of Georgia.
Admittedly, it was a short complaint. :)
I was...
1 tag
Competitive Non Compete Agreements would have...
In a footnote on a PDF that I found on Lance Weatherby’s excellent blog I discovered an interesting tidbit of information about Fairchild Semiconductor.
Fairchild was a spin-out of a company called Shockley. What’s a spinout?
A “spin-out” is a new firm founded by employees of an incumbent firm in the same industry. Unlike a “spin-off” the choice to form the...
October 2010
1 post
Not a Fan: Why I Removed OneTrueFan
I wanted to like OneTrueFan. It’s the Foursquare of websites and at first the novelty of seeing other people’s avatars in the toolbar was interesting. I especially thought it was interesting when browsing my company’s site (coffeecup.com) because I immediately wanted to know more about them.
That’s when it hit me. I’m not paying for this app… therefore...
August 2010
6 posts
I'm a Featured Twilio Developer!
Wow! Check me out! (Scroll down…)
I’m hugely honored! The Twilio team and the Twilio API have been great fun to work with since I founded OtherNum back in early 2009.
The new API is HUGE and has TONS of features. You can search for new numbers that contain strings or are in certain LATA, zip codes or regions. You can say find me a number near this number and you can combine all...
eyeslice asked: do you eat ramen?
Google Voice Calls in GMail? Not so much.
So I tried out the much hyped Google Voice / GMail integration tonight with mixed success. I was able to place outgoing phone calls fine and it largely worked.
Making calls in to my GV account though didn’t work. I quickly found a new setting in my GV account where my Chat identity had been added to the list of phones tied to my GV account.
So I thought I had it licked. I checked the...
Thought I was crazy...
saw USC vs. Cal on TV. Then saw Pete Carroll on the sidelines. It’s a replay from 2003.
relieved.
More ways that "social" application can be...
Ever since I developed a FourSquare plugin (well, 2 actually) for OpenVBX from Twilio I’ve been thinking about this idea that social application might actually be useful. It’s time somebody made one of my ideas a reality!
Imagine this: you’re a Busy Person™ in a big city. You have lots of appointments and social entanglements. You lead a hectic life.
You use Google...
a starwars.com soundboard remix. Yoda encourages...
July 2010
15 posts
Great Article about Starting Up in Atlanta
I just stumbled across this article in my TwitterStream..
http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/07/how-to-find-commercial-real-estate-in-atlanta.html
It’s a pretty good article that covers a lot of the dimensions of starting a business in Atlanta. It has a few issues though…
The title of the web page says “How to find Commercial Real Estate in Atlanta” and so does the URL....
Mobile Banking Should Be Easier w/ Android
I just opened an account with Suntrust a couple of weeks ago and I was checking out the “mobile banking” options on their website.
Unfortunately, to get the right “app” you have to tell them which wireless provider you use and what model phone you have.
Well, T-mobile wasn’t listed so I lied and said I used AT+T. Then, of course, the myTouch3G wasn’t listed...
You're wrong to tell me I'm wrong to say you're...
I’m tempted to write a long post that gets into some controversial topics but I think I just haven’t had enough caffeine today and I’m itching for a fight.
Social Music
is rdio too social? is Pandora social enough?
I hooked my Pandora favorites up to friendfeed which gets tweeted. that’s only one way though.
your thoughts?
“Once, my friend Simon was rushed to hospital to have his appendix removed and I...”
– http://www.27bslash6.com/easter.html
James Siminoff: Stalker Ads →
Online advertising relies heavily on the concept of relevance. The better a company can figure out the relevance of a ad to you, the higher percentage they will convert.
I am heading to Monterey, CA for a weekend trip so yesterday I was looking for rooms on Expedia. Afterwards I went to …
“white people like the World Cup because it allows them to pretend they are...”
– http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2010/06/01/133-the-world-cup/
David's Log: Michael Pollan's Food Rules →
Eat food.
Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.
Avoid food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed…
David's Log: Life Improvements →
Things I’ve changed this year:
I added a bunch of mail filters.
I don’t use a computer at home. I keep an eye on my Inbox (and occasionally browse the web) with my iPad.
We don’t turn our TV on unless we’re watching something with undivided attention.
We replaced all of our big…
having stuff blows. indeed. do you own things or do they own you?
“The final thing I’d say about optimism is this. If we took the loopiest, most...”
– Clay Shirky: ‘Paywall will underperform – the numbers don’t add up’ | Technology | The Guardian (via thewavingcat) (via rafer) (via thegongshow) (via bijan)
June 2010
4 posts
4 tags
Initial impressions of RDIO
Image by Gubatron via Flickr
I’ve had an RDIO account for a couple of days now so since my 3 day trial membership is about to expire I thought I’d share my thoughts on it.
The Model
The model is interesting because you can put any music you can find in your queue. It’s not like Pandora’s “we play songs and you have limited control over what gets played”...
bijan sabet: Leap of faith →
Here we are in the early days of summer.
Lots of things come to mind each summer. It’s a time when we spend a lot of time outdoors as a family. Our weekends are beyond crazy. Every summer we get to see friends from out of town and we have a few vacations planned. Our firm makes a number of new…
8 tags
Virtual Telephony Changed Today
What Happened?
As you might have heard, Twilio launched a massive new product this morning that’s going make a huge dent in the Virtual PBX market. It’s called OpenVBX.
A little history
Twilio flew me out to San Francisco in March to get a look at an early version and I was very impressed. We had a weekend hackathon and created plugins for it… but more about that later.
The...
“A second plugin (which was actually created by a third-party developer) hooks...”
– Twilio Releases OpenVBX, An Open Source Google Voice For Businesses (via fred-wilson) 