January 2012
6 posts
Web 3.0: What Facebook Could Help Me Understand
Is how content gets distributed, who reads it, their comments and who shares it and when as important as the content itself? I think so.
If you’re in Facebook, you’ve seen this: A post of a political or religious graphic offering an opinion, questioning something, etc. The one that comes to mind is here:
I have no clue whether or not this is true or false. I’m sure someone...
2 tags
The Value of an Icon
I wrote this because I was questioned about the relative impact of changing a twitter icon to say STOP SOPA.
Why would anyone want to change their icon to support something they believe in? It is perhaps as fundamental a question as “Why does someone blog?” or “Why does someone use social media?”
Symbols can be just as much of a hueristic or a call to action as the...
2 tags
GoDaddy Over the Last Week - All Positive
GoDaddy was a SOPA supporter and then thousands of tweets, blog posts, and domain migrations later, GoDaddy changed their postion to being against SOPA’s present wording/form. Given the situation, they responded as well as can be expected.
People are quick to pile on. I admit I’m one of the “pilers.” If I have a connection, my typical post is “Say it ain’t...
4 tags
Is there another Solution instead of SOPA and PIPA
Here’s what I know so far:
Rights holders have legitimate concerns. They do lose lots of money to pirating. Here’s a good presentation by @FastGirlFilms (I think it is slanted against advertisers but if you look at their losses and their efforts to leverage DMCA, they have a point.)
The content creator/delivery/blogger/search/payment ecosystem has lots to lose too by getting filtered...
2 tags
What Anonymous Proves
If you’re at all plugged in to the ‘net, the LulzSec (Anonymous) group has been extremely busy lately. They promise to be more active on January 3rd.
This post is not commentary about the legitimacy of their actions save one thing:
The hackers prove that laws won’t stop piracy or hacking. If something is out there, it is likely to be hacked. Why? It’s a challenge for a...
2 tags
December 2011
9 posts
4 tags
If you're a Linker, You Might be a Stinker
A few things that are alarming beyond comparison striking about the SOPA bill. Of course, this is saying that it’s needed - that it’s not redundant to existing law, that existing law (DCMA) doesn’t do anything.
Here are a few things that get me - beyond the fact that both SOPA and PIPA are not needed - in fact they make things worse for common folk…
Misbranding and...
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“It’s been fascinating to watch the fallout over GoDaddy’s support of SOPA. The...”
– People are missing the point and Avi nails it.
No one that is against SOPA is anti-business. They are anti- “loss of rights” and anti- corporate influence over personal rights.
Please, please just sit on your butts and watch television. Let the world go, let your rights get taken away,...
3 tags
Stop SOPA Week Starts January 1, Join Me.
Let’s start 2012 off right!
71 of our representatives and many content providers and distributors want to add mechanisms that can ultimately restrict your voice and your freedoms. Stop SOPA Week is about telling Washington that for this one time, doing nothing is the absolutely right thing to do.
I’ve been vocal and so have many others. Over the last week, I’ve observed the...
2 tags
Why Stop SOPA?
I’ve tweeted and blogged about this all week. I’ve contacted over 100 people about it and some have responded including Brad Feld, some members of the TechStars community and other notable techs.
Here’s why I’m against it and why you might consider being against it too:
1) HR 3261 gives our government the ability to restrict which sites do business based on a simple...
tumblrbot asked: WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?
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Stop SOPA in its Tracks Week
So everyone got a single service provider, GoDaddy to change their position. Why stop there? I believe we can make a bigger dent.
What if you didn’t watch television (new or reruns), watch, rent, or buy a movie, download or buy a song or CD for just one week? And perhaps you don’t buy a book as well?
Stop Consuming SOPA Supporter Media. Just for one week. January 1 through January...
4 tags
SOPA - Ways to Fight It
Please engage and let’s get this fixed. I believe artists who wish to protect their content should be allowed to protect it - but let’s do this the right way - without changing the internet.
It occurred to me that there are more than a few ways to fight SOPA. Here are a few:
1. Write Your Representatives
The President
Senators
House of Representatives
2. Boycott anyone on this...
3 tags
The Value of Feedback - Do or Not Do
I think I’m running synchronously with Brad Feld & Mark Suster these days. Brad posted Mark’s post about direct feedback and what amounts to no feedback at all. In the last 24 hours, the lack of serious feedback hosed me and my productivity.
If you look at my linkedin profile, there’s a recommendation by Gregg Hogan saying I can be blunt - and that’s a good thing. I...
November 2011
3 posts
1 tag
Code Hell...
Developers understand what code hell is. I had to define it to a layman…
Laymen’s explanation of some of the challenges behind it: When software crashes, developers are penalized in three different ways: the crash itself and the realization that it’s likely you didn’t do something well, the time to find the bug, possibly the worst part: the reports you get back that point...
4 tags
Code on iPhone versus Android
After almost two years of coding on each platform, I have to say Android has less overhead. I believe that iOS has a richer SDK; however, line by line, element by element, it’s Android hands down.
Now, if the Android Market could overtake the App Store, I’d be a happy man and only dev on one platform.
It took me a while to actually make that conclusion. I’m in the middle of a...
August 2011
1 post
4 tags
Successfully Failing - Handling a Positive Problem
My mobile apps company, Cexi Me recently came out with something called POP apps - Point of Presence Apps - or branded applications which highlight a specific brand or company or individual. They’ve been incredibly well received and I’m grateful for that. (For more info: PoP Apps)
So what’s the problem? We’ve got ten POP apps committed and we can’t deliver any of...
June 2011
3 posts
cDev Workflow - The Next Stage in Community...
A friend of mine at cDevWorkflow just released their community-based and inspired .Net-based Workflow engine a while back and I recently got a chance to take a look. The company has been in the BPM market for years - developing highly complex solutions for a highly complex industry: Bio-Pharma.
cDevWorkflow is a developers workflow engine with strong support for step configuration,...
Does the Android Market Game Search Results?
Maybe I’m wrong but if you search for a specific application name, the application should appear in search results.
We released Brand Your Photo two months go.
If you type in Brand Your Photo in the search box, it does not appear. Other apps appear but none of their descriptions have Brand Your Photo in them.
What exactly is going on?
The Android Market Team provided me with the...
5 Mistakes Startup Founders Make Out of the Gate
Having touched base with all of the startups I’ve been working with in the last couple of weeks, the following mistakes emerged:
Not listening - Contrary to your strong personal will to succeed, you do have to listen and should. If you hear the same thing more than once, it is critical that you take a good look at what folks are saying. You can’t lead if it’s all you all the...
May 2011
2 posts
Startups - Long Odds - A continuation →
A long time ago I posted something about how difficult it was to get funding. These numbers line up.
2,000 companies present > 200 get a green light for mentorship (10%)
200 companies mentored > 20 get funding (1% of the original)
18 got follow on funding (.09 of the original get to fight another day).
You’re one in 100. Be original and be excellent or be like the rest.
Brand Your Photo - Version 1.0 released
My mobile apps company, Cexi Me just shipped Brand Your Photo for Android.
Download your organization’s logo and place it directly on photos you’ve taken or new ones. Brand Your Photo by Cexi Me LLC is perfect for product photos, product placements, customers and events such as sporting, dinners, anniversaries, nights out, parties and other special events.
Developing it was an...
April 2011
1 post
Flip Video: What Could Have Let It Thrive
Today, Techcrunch stated that Flip Video could not have survived - given iPhone’s video features.
I think this product could have survived but not in it’s present form. I believe that at $590M, Cisco paid too much; especially considering that the company was not generating enough revenue to justify that purchase price. I was given one by my friends at Native Instinct. They...
March 2011
4 posts
Differences and Similarities between Startups and...
It’s not often that I complete an enterprise consulting engagement at the same time I complete a startup engagement but it happened this month. As a result, it gave me a great opportunity to think about the differences between startups and enterprises. Here they are:
Enterprises should be as agile as a startups. Startups should make mature, well-considered decisions.
Companies both small...
The Startup Visa - We need it. →
A great bill, adjusted to address different concerns. Most notably:
“To accommodate this new type of visa, adjustments would be made to the existing EB-5 visa – which grants visas to foreign nationals who invest $1 million towards the creation of 10 jobs. Under a new EB-6 category, a visa would be granted to the innovative entrepreneur with intellectual capital, instead of a wealthy...
Nurdles. Ever hear of them?
Nurdles. They’re those tiny little plastic pellets found in stuffed toys. Kids from the Newburyport Science Fair found 28 per square meter just on top of the sand near Sandy Beach (Plum Island). Only 7 per square meter up at Hampton Beach.
Pollution effect? Unknown.
Also a verb, used in Cricket for moving the ball into a little-played area.
February 2011
4 posts
5 tags
Nokia and Who? Microsoft or Adobe #feb11
Nokia sat up, took notice of what’s going on in the mobile world and said whoops!
Next?
Who will they adopt?
Microsoft plays well for the following reasons:
Microsoft is a platform and it is built for adoption.
Partners get a rich toolset, a great many tools and existing software products that can be ported.
No matter how hard Microsoft tries, unless they get a boost from a major...
3 tags
AcuApp puts Healing in Your Hands - A New Android...
Recently, we worked with our friend David Sollars, author of “The Complete Idiots Guide to Acupuncture and Acupressure” to create AcuApp for Android. AcuApp demonstrates the self-healing techniques of acupressure through instructional videos.
AcuApp reveals the powerful healing techniques of acupressure. Users are guided through an introduction to acupressure and identify pain areas...
Could TopicMarks be the next SEO tool?
Attention-starved websites erring on the side of verbosity might benefit.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/03/topicmarks/
This leaves me wondering if bloggers might just use this product to see what people read, what search engines find, and in general, reduce the number of words on websites.
Heck, Twitter forces you to be economical with your words, why not be economical everywhere!
(Erring on...
January 2011
1 post
Myspace - put a fork in it. It's dead.
http://rootmusic.com
December 2010
1 post
3 tags
My annual tech things that p_ _ _ me off list
Each year about this time, I think about all the tech and programming things that have annoyed me. Surprisingly, some don’t change.
If you have some of your own, add them here!
Browser fragmentation - yes, year after year developers make scads of money programming for differences between browsers when they could be making sites cooler...
November 2010
9 posts
3 tags
Global Startup Battle Week 2 Roundup
#startupbattle
Last week, I just voted for the company I worked on: Hitchery.
This week’s contestants had a week to study the previous week’s contestants and to determine who won and how. For me, they were all winners for getting through the weekend and winning in their respective cities and regions. Here’s my take:
Best Presentations: Easy Answers (Miami), Reschedule.Me (Lexington),...
2 tags
Not Unuseful. Two useful sites that start with Un
: @Unfuddle @Unbounce
Interesting branding approach - naming your company the opposite of what happens when they buy your product or service. Here are two I know and use.
Unfuddle.com - Subversion and Git Hosting. Simple. We used this last weekend for Boston Startup Weekend - where the team I was on, Hitchery won top honors. I’ve been using it ever since.
Unbounce.com - Onboarding. ...
2 tags
All Encompassing World Clock →
4 tags
Naitonal Entrepreneur Day Thoughts
Happy Entrepreneur Day!
To celebrate, some thoughts about my journey as an entrepreneur.
Most entreprenuers are not serial entrepreneurs. Not in any way shape or form. They have to wear lots of hats. Possibly have multiple sources of income. Have many different thoughts and ideas almost simultaneously. Most don’t do one business right after another. They try lots of things.
There is...
2 tags
Software should be smart. Dropbox is.
Applications and sites need to be really smart. Dropbox is. Here’s what I got today, it sensed that I was using it on three different computers and told me to dl their software.
“We noticed that you’ve only installed Dropbox on one computer. By installing Dropbox on more than one computer you can:- Access your Dropbox files from every computer.- Save a file on one computer...
5 tags
Porting Issues Analogies
Here are some analogies that might be useful when explaining porting to someone.
Porting to Android is like trying to tell someone from another country with limited English skills that your house is down the street,
You have to be willing to try it several ways to make it work:
My house is at the end of the street.
My house, you know what a house is, right? It’s down that road.
Rue de...
3 tags
Mobile Platforms: Can Android put the Genie back...
This article is for people considering hiring someone to build a mobile application. I’ve learned a few things and thought I would share. Hopefully, this is useful.
I started Cexi.me with to solve a simple problem: Help businesses extend their brands by building useful mobile apps.
Originally, I started out thinking that I would just build with Apple’s iOS. However, due to Android’s sales...
3 tags
Startups: Its not your idea that gets in the way...
I come across (and sometimes try to help) quite a few startups that fail to launch. It’s usually not your idea that gets in the way of your launch. Unfortunately, if it’s a good enough idea, someone gets it off the ground in a big way. Here are two identical startups to ones I’ve helped:
http://flattr.com (
...
September 2010
2 posts
“The very first company I started failed with a great bang. The second one failed...”
– Max Levchin, PayPal cofounder: FailCon: Failing Forward To Success : NPR
(saw this inspiring quote on my friend @nabeel’s facebook profile. can’t link to it but I’ll leave that topic for another day)
(JS: This speaks volumes about guts - founders must have the guts to keep trying. Bet what...
1 tag
Online Worker Site Odesk Passes 1M Hour Mark →
Last month, I referred to Odesk - I am almost at the end of the engagement and I couldn’t be happier. email me if you want the java html jscript flash developers name jstack of 3bigheads.com
August 2010
4 posts
1 tag
Social X in the maturity phase? Not quite. →
This article nuts social networking. It’s extensive and thorough. Only one thing I might disagree with - nothing is in the maturity phase yet…
Voice of the Product: Its role in Innovation
I read a fascinating blog post about how easy it is to see patterns in innovation in new products.
Innovation Perspectives – Voice of the Product
So, is it possible to follow a pattern to innovate? Sure!
To paraphrase: “A majority of new and inventive products can be categorized according to only five patterns:
Subtraction: Taking an essential component away
Task Unification: Assigning an...
1 tag
Platforms are like Diamonds
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to a few folks that the mobile applications startup I was working on was on track for a September 1 launch. I think that’s still the case; however, at the last moment, I thought we’d try adding the Android platform. Today, I was reminded about the merits of last minute decisions and the phase shift that happens when you add platforms.
If...
2 tags
Chutzpah - Ya Gotta Love it!
I needed a small application to be built. I put up a description in Odesk and priced it modestly.
While I specified that the developer had to be experienced, I received a bid from a gentleman in Pakistan asking me all sorts of detailed questions about the functionality. I answered his questions and then him a single question: What is your background in building applications such as this?
He...