Andrew Thomas Blog

The iphone was an MVP

2012-02-04T14:38:00.001-08:00

Lately there has been a sentiment that lean startup and minimum viable product are code for making crappy products. Someone even assert the iphone was the opposite of a minimum viable product. I disagree. The iphone was a minimum viable product. The lean movement is not about creating a new process. It's about articulating and formalizing the existing process that successful companies already follow. The iphone obviously is a great device now, but I think people have forgotten how lean it was when it was launched.

Here is a short list of some features the original iphone lacked (many of which the blackberry had):

no mms

no copy/paste

no app store

no 3g

no video

no flash

no email search

and it cost $500

Remember Steve Balmer scoffed when the iphone came out.

Birmingham Startup Summit: A free, one-day event featuring talks by local startup founders.

2011-12-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

April 24th Birmingham Startup Summit: A free, one-day event featuring talks by local startup founders.

iCloud and the curious state of cloud computing

2011-12-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

iCloud stores files in the cloud, but it can also store data for apps. The data is not visible to the user, but does get removed during the app uninstall process. As a developer it's nice because you don't have to worry about maintaing a web infrastructure with high availability for backups and synchronization. As a consumer I would rather pay once to store all the info from web apps instead of paying each service a few bucks a month to maintain their own cloud. Plus I increasingly use native apps with cloud backends instead of web based apps.

The other cloud product companies have a different strategy. They charge consumers for cloud file storage (DropBox, Google Docs, Amazon Cloud Drive, Microsoft's SkyDrive). And they charge developers for cloud data storage (Google App Engine, Amazon Simple DB and RDS, Microsoft Azure, database.com).

Curiously, Apple is the only company, I know of, offering cloud data storage to developers, but charging consumers. Unfortunately, the iCloud api won't run on non-Apple platforms like Android or Windows. Also, Apple tightly controls the relationship with the customer.

I think there is an opportunity here to start a company (or for existing cloud services companies) to offer a cross platform api for cloud data storage that offers the consumer a freemium model (first 5 gigs are free). The service would be free to developers, or even offer a cut of the profits. It would also need to offer access for developers to the customers.

Let me know your thoughts on companies that might be doing this... or other solutions this issue.

Ideas are wothless: the definitive list

2011-12-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

I have been to several tech meetups and I have met people with product ideas. I have tried and failed to explain to them that the conventional wisdom is that ideas are worthless. This happens despite the fact I read an article on Hacker news to this effect regularly (here is one from today). In response, I have compiled a list of tech startup luminaries that have formed my thinking on the matter.

“Actually, startup ideas are not million dollar ideas, and here's an experiment you can try to prove it: just try to sell one. Nothing evolves faster than markets. The fact that there's no market for startup ideas suggests there's no demand. Which means, in the narrow sense of the word, that startup ideas are worthless.” - Paul Graham

"Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats." - Howard Aiken

“Ideas are pretty much worthless.” -Joel Spolsky

“I particularly like his notion that the person with the idea should not command a premium on equity allocation.” - Fred Wilson

“So now I ask you, what have you done to earn a technical co-founder?
And don't say that you're the idea guy. Having an idea is one piece, but it's a very, very small piece. In fact, it's so small that it's actually better to earn a technical co-founder without the idea in place so that you guys come up with it together.” - Jason Freedman

“We all have that one friend who says, “I had the idea for eBay. If only I had acted on it, I’d be a billionaire!” That logic is pathetic and delusional. Having the idea for eBay has nothing to do with actually creating eBay. What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan. Think your ideas that valuable? Then go try to sell it and see what you get for it. Not much is probably the answer. Until you actually start making something, your brilliant idea is just that— an idea. And everyone’s got one of those.” - Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hanson

“I dare you to try to get a company to steal your idea.” - Eric Ries

"So if you want to get into technology and don’t code, if you think you have a knack for product and a killer idea, start reading and learning. Then convince an engineer, as an equal, without blustering. Until you get there, you just have an idea. That’s nice, but it’s the very first step in a long road." - Aaron Harris

Let me know if you have any other good examples.

Mobile is better

2011-12-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

Everyday, I keep finding apps that I think are better on the mobile device. Here are some examples:

-At work, I sometimes check my gmail on my phone, even though I'm sitting at a computer. I rarely check email on my home computer.

-I use the remember the milk to do list mobile app, but never did use the web site.

-I recently setup a Sonos speaker system and their desktop software wouldn't run properly. However, I was able to set up to stream Spotify and Pandora just using my iPhone.

-I use OnSite Time Tracker which automatically tracks my time at a location to invoice clients. I wrote the app myself and currently, it has a feature to export a csv file. However, I am planning to synch it to iCloud, generate pdf invoices to email, come up with a basic system to assign invoice numbers and track what's paid and due. At that point, I can stop emailing the information to my PC to invoice.

Stubborn on vision and flexible on details

2011-11-16T11:27:00.001-08:00

I saw a great quote from Jeff Bezo's today. "We say we're stubborn on vision and flexible on details." This helps resolve a paradox that I see in product development between being visionary and practical.

Steve Jobs was a hustler

2011-11-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

In the wake of Steve Jobs death, I and others look to him for inspiration and instruction on how to achieve success. He has been hailed as a genius, a visionary, an inventor, even a tweaker.... but to me the single quality that accounts for his early success is none of those things. Steve Jobs was first and foremost a hustler. Were it not for his hustle, his relentlessness, his brazen acts of manipulation, I think it’s unlikely he would have had the opportunity to achieve the success he did.

-In high school, Jobs cold called Bill Hewlett, the co-founder of HP, and convinced him to give him free electronic chips and a summer job.
-While taking a high school electronics class, Jobs called Burroughs and lied to them in order to get them to send him a free electronics part.
-Jobs convince Wozniak to build and sell blue boxes, a device for making illegal free long distance phone calls.
-Jobs got Wozniak to design parts for Atari (his employer at the time), and lied to him about the payment he received.
-Jobs convinced Wozniak to sell circuit board that became the Apple I instead of giving the plans away as he originally intended.
-Jobs sold the first 50 apple computers to the Byte Shop before they existed and before they had the means to build them.
-Jobs parlayed the invoice from the Byte Shop into getting a line of credit to buy the parts for the first 50 Apple computers.
-Jobs convinced Wozniak to quit his job at HP and work for Apple, partially by going behind his back and convincing others that influenced Wozniak.
-Jobs convinced Xerox to show him their GUI and mouse technology in exchange for options to buy Apple stock.

From this point forward, Steve Jobs had money and was less of a hustler, less underhanded, and more of a shrewd negotiator. From my perspective this energy, resilience and hustle is the root of Steve Job's success.

Marketing an iphone app

2011-11-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

I recently made an iPhone app called OnSite and I have been seeking suggestions on the increasingly difficult task of marketing it. Here are the most interesting suggestions I have gotten...

1) Selecting relevant keywords and getting good reviews to move up app store search rankings. Also, having good app icon, copy and screenshots help get downloads. I got my app icon done at 99 designs. I am planning to add more custom graphics possibly with another 99 designs mobile app contest.

2) After a user uses the app 7 times you might prompt them to do a review. If they are using it that much, they will likely give a good review. My friend Evan that makes iExit said his rating improved by 1 and 1/2 stars.

3) Internet advertising using adwords, and unbounce campaigns can be used to A/B test for effective keywords, copy, and images. Also, search advertising is useful for harvesting demand, not creating it. So, may not be effective for a new type of app.

4) Viral features. Add a feature to "tell a friend email", unlock features if you post to social networks (eg. facebook connect), or include an ad for your app in an compelling feature that emails or posts to a social network.

5) Get app reviewed by mobile app blogs or niche blogs related to your product. You will need to prepare a media kit. There are services that will do this for you, although I don't know about the quality.

6) Include a link to email you complaints and feedback. If you implement the features let the people know and ask them to give you a good review.

7) Mobile Advertising like admob.

8) Make a free version of app or temporarily change the price to free for paid apps.

9) Make a video.

10) Get featured in the Apple app store. This, of course, is the holy grail, and may be difficult to achieve.

The main recurring advice is to make a great app, and that it may take several months of trying to get noticed. What strategies have you used?

Marketing iphone apps

2011-10-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

Loren Britcher discusses Tweetie, an ios twitter client that was eventually bought by Twitter (after this video was made). He attribute his success to luck, marketing, and quality. He talks about the events that preceded his sales spikes. He released a fart feature as a joke, got featured by apple, created controversy over app store rejection, got featured by twitter, and got press for releasing Tweetie for Mac. Each sales spike went away, but afterwards there was solid increase in sales. He also discusses how he thinks he to the balance between simplicity and features right.

3 Inspriational videos about marketing technology

2011-10-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

I recently made an iPhone app, and I am thinking about the marketing aspect. Today these three videos came to mind. The theme in all three videos is to not focus on the features or technical specs, but focus on the experience, stories, people and emotions. The current site for my app lists nothing, but features. Over the next few weeks I will be thinking about how to take a boring business app and turn it into a story about people and making their lives better. What marketing inspires you?

1) Mad Men - The Carousel

2) Steve Jobs introducing think different commercials

3) Patrick McKenzie on marketing software to underserved markets

OnSite

2011-10-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

I recently wrote an iOs app called OnSite Time Tracker. The app automatically tracks the time you spend at locations you specify. I am using it to track my time for billing purposes spent on site at customer locations, and tracking my time at the gym.

It's pretty cool because it doesn't require any manual intervention other than specifying the location and giving it a name. iOs has a feature called region monitoring that fires an event when you arrive at and depart from an area. Region monitoring was introduced earlier, but it has been improved for iOs 5 and and is now practical for detecting location accuracy to 100 meters. Strangely, it works on all iOs devices, even those lacking a gps, like an ipod. The reason is it primarily detects it's location based on the wifi signals that it detects.

The app is 5 screens and I estimate the whole process took about 100 hours. I ran a 99 designs contest and I paid $295 for an app icon and a splash screen. I also had to pay $99 to join apple iOs developer program for a year. I am planning to charge $.99. Apple takes %30 of the revenue. However, I think it's a good deal. They handle all the issues associated with collecting payments, like fraud, refunds, sales tax, and the fees and hassle of dealing with payment processors. They also host the store and I don't have any server side components, so I am off the hook regarding hosting maintenance or scalability issues.

I am optimistic about OnSite because it's a cutting edge app. It wasn't pracitcal to do this on an iPhone before iOs 5. My primary challenge now will be to market the app.

I just submitted the app and it is in the approval process. It should be available soon. iOs 5 is available on Wednesday October 12th.

Fred Wison's cardinal Rule of Social Media

2011-09-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

Fred Wilson's cardinal rule of social media:

1% will create the content, 10% will curate the content, and the other 90% will simply consume it.

Lion gestures cheat sheet

2011-07-20T23:48:00.000-07:00

4 finger pinch in/out = launchpad open/close

4 finger up/down = mission control open/close

3 finger swipe = change spaces windows

2 finger scroll = scrolling (reversed from previous os)

2 finger swipe = back/forward navigation

Apple Lion gestures page

Always ask for something in return

2011-06-08T15:33:00.001-07:00

Steve jobs appeared before the cupertino city council showing plans for apple's new campus today. When asked if they would provide free wifi for the city, Steve Jobs, always the shrewd negotiator, humbly responded that he would consider it if they were willing to cut their taxes.

Fake it before you make it

2011-05-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

I recently went to a few Lean Startup events and one theme that recurred is the idea of making exteme minimum viable product. Instead of writing code, you fake it before you make it to see if users are interested.

-Steve Blank claims you should close sales with wireframes and presentations before they are developed (particularly in a B2B context) in his customer development methodology.

-Dropbox produced a video that went viral explaining their product. They used this to produce a large list of emails of potential users.

-Paul Howe, founder of blue spark, used a $40 greasemonkey script to simulate his product (it put fake posts in user's facebook stream) then recruited people via craigslist for a social media focus group. His conclusion was the people hated it, and he changed course.

-Food on the Table did the tasks for their early customers by hand. Rather than creating web software, they implemented the service in person.

-Aardvark, the question site, used what people call the wizard of Oz approach. They build software to collect the questions, but provided results manually.

Fake it before you make it ideas don't have to be for the initial product. Numerous people suggest that once you have some traction you can introduce features as links to see if people even click on them. If the users do click on them present them with a form saying the feature is in development and they can choose to be notified when it's completed. If few people click it, don't implement it. Also, you don't have to show the feature to all your customers.

The underlying principle is that the biggest risk is making things that people don't want. So the measure of efficiency is how quickly you can determine if people are interested in your product or feature.

If you're interested further in lean startup, I recommend Eric Ries's blog and upcoming book The Lean Startup. (I read an advanced copy that I got at SLL conference)

The paradox of entrepreneurship

2011-05-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

The paradox in entrepreneurship is that on one hand you are supposed to be determined, and visionary. There is the idea that customers don't know what they want. Henry Ford famously said "If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses." On the other hand there is a school of thought that says you need to be flexible, practical, and that you have to listen to customer feedback.

This idea of being visionary is steeped in mythology. Steve Jobs is famous for not doing focus groups and being visionary. Yet he appears to read numerous emails from customers and is also famous for snooping around his retail stores. So clearly he takes into account customer feedback.

I have been researching lean startup and customer development and they are trying to resolve this paradox with the now overused concept of the pivot. The premise is you have to have vision and stick with it ("You can't split test your way to a vision"). You also have to gather customer feedback and metrics. Once your metrics stall and show diminishing returns on tests and changes, it's time to consider a broader change or pivot.

Dropbox CEO lessons learned

2011-05-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

I watched a video of Drew Houston, the CEO and founder of dropbox, a cloud based file storage and sharing service. Here are some key points I found interesting:

-They created a video that went viral to drive interest in their private beta. The video had references to xkcd, office space, etc. (I can't find the video)

-They planned to ship in 8 weeks and it took 18 months.

-They ran ad experiments on adwords, but found that search harvests demand but doesn't create it.

-They used 2 side incentives for referral. Both the referrer and referred get extra space. This viral marketing was the key to their growth.

Crossing The Chasm

2011-05-09T16:50:00.000-07:00

Crossing the Chasm is a marketing book for high tech companies selling disruptive technology to mainstream users. It assumes the company has traction with early adopters and outlines a plan for companies to “Cross the Chasm”, which is the gap in time between early adopters and the first mainstream users (early majority) in the technology adoption life cycle. (illustrated below).

Early adopters are visionary and driven by a dream. The early majority are pragmatists, and don’t want disruptive change. They want references from other pragmatists, not from early adopters. They are risk averse, loyal and like to buy from the market leader.

How To Cross the Chasm
The plan to cross the chasm is to target and dominate a niche market and use it as a base for further expansion. It’s a key point that a market in this context consists of customers that reference each other. The tighter bound a market is the more word of mouth and opportunity for sales referrals. Those sales references and referrals are what make the strategy viable versus just going after the entire mainstream market at once.

Which niche market to target first?
The decision for the niche market to target can be a difficult one because there is limited information about new markets and you need to move quickly. The conclusion is you should gather as much information, but the decisions should be driven by informed intuition.

Whole Product
Whereas early adopters may accept a minimal viable product, mainstream users want a whole product. A whole product is the ancillary products and services to make the product compelling to buy. Examples might be training, support, or after market parts. Often mainstream customers choose inferior products that are superior from a whole product perspective.

Competition
If there is no competition, it may be too early to cross the chasm. You need competition to validate the market. Mainstream users want to buy from the market leader. Although you want general competition, you also want to position your product as the best solution for your niche. Having a name (like “middleware” or “cloud computing”) for the market also helps validate it.

Distribution and Pricing
Direct Sales is the recommended distribution method for crossing the chasm. It allows you the best opportunity to control your destiny. After the market is dominated, the most efficient long term distribution channel should be considered. Premium pricing is recommended to reinforce your position as the market leader in your niche and the price has to be enough money to get the sales guys excited about selling it.

One example of this niche strategy that stands out to me is Blackberry. They so dominated the corporate business market that a myth persists that it’s still their primary market although it long ago crossed into the mainstream consumer market. Do you know any more examples of a company that got it’s foothold in the mainstream market through a niche?

Bad Marketing

2011-04-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

I think MSNBC and CNBC need to change their names to NBC News and NBC Business, or NBC Money. MSNBC originally stood for the partnership between Microsoft and NBC. CNBC stands for consumer NBC. MSNBC and CNBC obscure the NBC brand, and it's not clear what is on the channels. Changing the names would be more bold, informative, and similar to Fox.

Steve Blank: The Democratization of Entrepreneurship

2011-03-21T17:57:00.001-07:00

Watching Steve Blank lecture about startups... it mentions the book business model generation, i think i need to check it out.

Startup Advice

2011-03-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting decision tree about startups for gabriel weinberg, the guy who single handedly runs duck duck go.

A Place to Bury Strangers - To Fix the Gash in your head

2011-03-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

5 surprises about programming C2DM

2011-03-15T20:57:00.001-07:00

I have been writing code to use C2DM, Android Cloud to Device Messaging (i.e. notifications). Here are 5 surprises that I spent a lot of time figuring out.

1) There are two popular pages (here and here) about how to program C2DM. However, developers typically don't use these code examples. Most people copy several files from the chrometophone app as outlined in this tutorial. I would guess at some point the chrometophone code will be added to the Android API.

2) The project is in beta, so you have to register and be approved. Upon approval you receive an email that states "you should be able to start using it to send messages to Android 2.2 devices within the next day or so." There is no further notification confirming that you can send messages.

3) Unlike apple, a device id is not used in the notification. Android uses a registration id that they generate and send to you. The registration id is not returned when you register. It is received asynchronously and sent like a notification to your program.

4) Google can change the registration id at any time, and you need to handle it.

5) C2DM only runs on Android 2.2 and higher. However, if you set your emulator target to "Android 2.2 - API Level 8" it will not work. You need to use "Google APIs - API Level 8."

Good luck, my app still doesn't work.

2 SEO tips

2011-03-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

1) To get high in search results for a keyword you need backlinks that use the keywords. Like this Birmingham Movers.

2) To determine what keywords to use, do keyword advertising (SEM) and see what keywords drive the most traffic to your site.

Three Inspirational Steve Jobs presentations for entrepreneurs

2011-03-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs talks about branding

This is How Steve Jobs pitches a startup

Stay Hungy, Stay foolish. - Stanford Graduation Speech

The peer to peer economy

2011-03-10T23:27:00.000-08:00

There is a long standing business model commonly called two-sided market. These companies have 2 different customer segments and the platform offers value by matching them up.

-Credit card companies (matches consumers and banks)

-Operating system like Windows, and Apple ios (matching software dev companies and consumers)

-Gaming platforms like XBox, wii, and PlayStation (matching consumers and game dev companies).

-Advertising platforms like tv networks, newspapers, and google (match consumers with advertisers)

These types of markets increase in value as they gain users creating a network effect. They also have the chicken and egg problem, they need users to make it attractive to users.

There is an emerging group of two-sided markets on the internet. Some are calling it the peer to peer economy. Here are a few thoughts...

- They rely on reputation systems and search.

- They make money by taking a percentage of the transaction.

- The users aren't likely to do business again, which increases value of reputation system.

- Often transaction done without the users meeting face to face. If the users do meet, like airbnb and uber, steps are taken to prevent users from bypassing the system and transaction fees.

ebay - matches buyers and sellers.

elance - matches professionals with people needing work done.

99designs - matches designers with consumers.

prosper.com - matches lenders with borrowers. eliminates banks.

uber - matches drivers and passengers. eliminates cab companies

airbnb - matches travelers with people renting their space.

openmile.com - matches truck drivers with shippers. eliminates brokers.

khan academy - matches students with tutors.

babysitters.com - matches baby sitters with parents.

etsy - matches buyers and sellers of handmade and vintage items.

Four Step to the Epiphany

2011-03-06T18:14:00.000-08:00

Winning
Four Steps to The Epiphany is a book about a structured methodology, customer development, for early stage startups to follow. Customer development lies somewhere between product development and sales. The premise is that “Products developed with senior management out in front of customers early and often - win.” It pays lip service to consumer products and products in existing markets but is primarily for business applications that are breaking new ground. It contains the seeds of several popular ideas like iterating, pivoting, and minimum viable product.

Ground Breaking Ideas
The book contains lots of radical ideas... for instance, you should build your initial product to suit the needs of your early customers, not the mainstream market. Early on you shouldn’t hire any experienced sales people that are used to executing a sales plan, because there isn’t one. Think about those for a moment... it’s counter-intuitive to think your initial product may not be suited to a mainstream customer, but think about the Apple I. What if you pitched the idea that you don’t need a kick ass sales person. However, the most interesting in my opinion is that you should sell your product to 3-5 visionary customers months or years before it is completed without a professional sales team. Think about that.... Selling customers a product that doesn’t exist. I think you got to have real balls to pull this off... Here is how to do it:

The right customers
One key aspect is to find customers that are forward thinking. These type of customers are not the mainstream consumer. They are risk takers. They need to have the problem that your product will solve. They need to be aware of the problem. They need to be looking for a solution. They need to have a budget. It would be nice if they are working on a home grown solution. You will have to meet a lot of people before you find them. Why would they do this? Competitive advantage, bragging rights, political advantage. For more about the psychology of early adapters read the Tipping Point (which Steve Blank cites as an influence).

How do you find Visionary customers?
You will need to find potential customers that don’t know you and are willing to give you their time. You need to start with your network and get a reference. Prepare an email that describes your company, get a person to forward it to their contact. Follow up with a phone call, try to set up a meeting. Not to sell, but just to understand how they solve the problem now. In order to give them an incentive frame it as an opportunity for them to find out where the technology is going. FSE says you and your founders should make 10 calls a day and try got get 3 meetings a day. Expect rejection and if people turn you down try to get a referal. Once at the meeting, ask open ended questions... like “How much does this problem cost you?” “What are 3 things I need to learn before I leave. Use these meetings to get customer feedback and adjust your product as needed. The first meeting is where you discuss the problem and then you follow up with one where you discuss more of the details of your solution. You iterate this process until you get to a solution you can present, and then close.

Closing
Here are a few things you need to have to close a sale without a product. First of all, you need to be solving a problem that you know they desperately need based on your previous meetings. You will need to disarm obstacles, like people who have a stake in the current way they solve this problem. You may need to convince them they are not in the software business and don’t need to maintain a home grown version. There is a lot of preparation and product development but by time you go to close this sale here are some of the things you need:
You need to instill confidence, the customer will have met senior management and possibly the VCS.
You will need to hire a “closer”, a sales person that can help close the deal and get a signature.
You will need a dummy demo... a presentation.. sales literature, ROI white papers, etc.
You will need a delivery date, and pricing.
You can be flexible on terms, i.e. no payment till deliver.
However , you can not give away the product for free, because you will not validate your sales road map. Also, you can’t make promises to customize features for the different customers, because you won’t be validating your product.

My Experience/Your experience...
The idea of selling before it’s complete is consistent with my experience. I have worked at several software companies that began as consulting engagements and turned into products. I’m curious to hear your stories... and thoughts on selling before you deliver a product.

The three Is

2011-01-26T22:53:00.000-08:00

The three Is... with any trend or innovation, there are the innovators, then the imitators, then the idiots. I have seen this quote a few places, but I believe it's originated by Warren Buffet.

Test your ability to detect emotion in eyes

2010-11-17T15:35:00.000-08:00

http://www.questionwritertracker.com/index.php/quiz/display?id=61&token=Z4MK3TKB

Why the apple app store is a revolution

2010-08-10T09:58:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs stated at D8 that the app store is a revolution. I thought he was overselling it, but app store is a revolution because people install apps without the fear of it screwing up their phone. It's rare I download an application to my pc and run it. For fear of crashing the computer, corrupting the computer, compromising personal information, pop ups, degraded performance, being in a botnet, viruses, etc. Those fears are mitigated in the apps store. Here are the reasons:

1 The app store is the first time a large, reputable company vouched for the integrity of hundreds of thousands of applications.

2 the lack of multi-tasking (and now true multi-tasking) ensures rogue apps don't waste your cpu cycles, and degrade performance.

3 the sandbox ensures apps can't affect the files in other applications. Users can't even mess up the files since there is no system file browser.

4 the uninstall process is handled by the operating system. you don't have to worry about the app not uninstalling properly.

5 the login/purchase process only involves entering a password. this reduces the overhead of entering all your payment information to buy an application.

SQL Server 2005 Index suggestion

2009-07-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a query to run on sql server 2005 that will suggest index to add, it even gives you the sql statement to create the index.  It's best to run it after your database has been running for a while.

SELECT migs.avg_total_user_cost * (migs.avg_user_impact / 100.0) * (migs.user_seeks + migs.user_scans) AS improvement_measure, 'CREATE INDEX [ix_' + LEFT (PARSENAME(mid.statement, 1), 32) + ']' + ' ON ' + mid.statement + ' (' + ISNULL (mid.equality_columns,'')   + CASE WHEN mid.equality_columns IS NOT NULL AND mid.inequality_columns IS NOT NULL THEN ',' ELSE '' END   + ISNULL (mid.inequality_columns, '') + ')'+ ISNULL (' INCLUDE (' + mid.included_columns + ')', '') AS create_index_statement, migs.*, mid.database_id, mid.[object_id] FROM sys.dm_db_missing_index_groups mig INNER JOIN sys.dm_db_missing_index_group_stats migs ON migs.group_handle = mig.index_group_handle INNER JOIN sys.dm_db_missing_index_details mid ON mig.index_handle = mid.index_handle WHERE migs.avg_total_user_cost * (migs.avg_user_impact / 100.0) * (migs.user_seeks + migs.user_scans) > 10 ORDER BY migs.avg_total_user_cost * migs.avg_user_impact * (migs.user_seeks + migs.user_scans) DESC

The Osborne Effect

2009-07-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

Apple goes to extreme measures to keep their product announcements a secret. They even have people go through the garbage cans near the campus to make sure no one throws anything out. One reason for the secrecy is obviously competitors copy them... Another reason, according to the book, is the Osborne Effect, where the announcement of a new product kills the sales of the existing product. I worked at a company that announced a new product, then it ran behind schedule, and sales were so bad it resulted in layoffs.

George Bush Expressions about Saddam Execution

2009-06-22T18:22:00.001-07:00

In this 60 minutes interview in 2007, (at around 4:40 in the clip) George Bush reacts to questions about seeing Saddam Hussein's execution on the internet. He is showing microexpression for happiness. Microexpressions are involuntary responses when you are trying to conceal emotions. Happiness is indicated by the upturned corners of the mouth, but also by slight lowering of the skin between the eyebrow and upper eyelid.

During the interview Bush says "I though it [the execution] was discouraging"

When asked about Saddam's execution on the internet: "You didn't want to see him go through the trap door?" Bush responds "Yes, I didn't want to see." Then he makes this microexpression, pictured above, that indicates happiness.

Asked If he got any satisfaction out of the execution Bush said: "I'm not a revengeful person. I'm glad he received the justice he was due." His facial expression after this statement is shown above.

What do you think?

MicroExpression: Sadness

2009-06-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

This is the face of an Air Force official after he was asked if they ever get it wrong when making missile strikes from unmanned drones. This is a sadness microexpression. If you watch the clip it's quick, he's trying to hold it back. It's about 16 seconds into the clip.

Obama's body language

2009-05-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

46 seconds into this press conference about the stimulus plan, in the middle of a statement about the people of Elkhart, Indiana, Obama quickly flashes a microexpression that indicates contempt, a smile on one half of your face (captured in photo above). "The people who have lost them [their jobs] have no idea what to do, or who to turn to."

Contempt is an intense feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless. The connotation of contempt is repulsive, but a more nuanced definition is "my way is better than your way."

Other examples of microexpressions can be found here and here.

Live Scribe

2009-05-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

This is cool. Live Scribe is a pen that records what you write, lets you transfer it to your computer and does character recognition. you can then search the results. Great for students, doctors, etc.

Jacob Golden - out come the wolves

2009-03-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

thanks to george for this...

Jim Cramer on the Daily Show

2009-03-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

Everyone is talking about Jim Cramer's recent appearance on the daily show. Here is my take:

Jon Stewart seemed to have 3 main criticisms:

1) They give bad investing advice on CNBC.

2) Journalists on CNBC have a responsibility to dig deeper and be ahead of these scandals and meltdowns.

3) Jim Cramer and hedge fund managers in general are corrupt and unethical.

1) I think cramer was ready to defend himself on making bad calls, which he admitted to. Everyone makes bad calls, Warren Buffet just got his credit rating cut. I should have sold goog at 750. Anyone that invests will loose money at some point. Also CNBC often interviews people with conflicting views and most people take people comments at face value within the context of their usually disclosed self interests... whether they are analysts promoting their firm or stocks they own, CEOs promoting their companies.... economists promoting their profile or books, etc. Even Cramer has to be taken in context. He is a guy that used to run a hedge fund, and is used to changing direction on a dime, and turning a profit every day. His experience doesn't fit well in a format after the market closes. Plus he is shilling his books and his web site and Action Alerts Plus, a service where he trades and notifies you before he makes the trade. Most people that invest are aware of these interests. However, I think there is some value in what these people have to say.

2) The 24 hour news channels, fox, cnn, cnbc, etc. will never be a platform for serious investigative journalism. There are outlets for serious investigative journalism, 60 minutes, npr, the economist, the New York Times (largely the people that are guests on the daily show). Fortune famously ran the article "Is Enron Overpriced?" that began the unraveling of their fraud. However, in depth journalism doesn't seem practical for stations with a 24 hour news cycle.

3) However, the death blow was that Stewart called him out for unethical behavior when he ran a hedge fund. That was awkward. Zing.

Wavves: So bored

2009-03-14T22:17:00.001-07:00

Peter Bjorn and John - Nothing to worry about

2009-03-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

Why I think engineers are bad spellers

2009-03-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

It's proverbial that engineers are bad spellers. There is a street on the campus of Georgia Tech named Ferst Street. The joke is that it's first street, but misspelled. Like most engineering jokes, it's not funny, but does make a point.

There was a study recently (I can't find the link), but it asserted that part of intelligence is the ability to remember things that are important. Good memory is less important than distinguishing what to remember.

So..... since you can always look up words, or use spell check, there's not much use in remembering how to spell words.

MicroExpressions: contempt and scorn

2009-03-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Since I have been studying micro-expressions, I see them frequently. Here is a recent example: Jim Cramer called the Obama Budget the "Greatest Wealth Destruction By a President". Rober Gibbs, Obama's press secretary, was asked to respond (video below). At 11 seconds, he flashes a micro-expression for scorn (disgust and anger). Watch the first video on Paul Ekman's site and he explains it with an example of Kado Kaylin. Gibbs also shows the contempt micro-expression at 35 seconds. He then validates the expressions and admits he is concealing the way he really feels by saying "This is where I have to probably be careful."

Scorn at 11 seconds

Contempt at 35 seconds

Bad Bank

2009-03-05T09:55:00.001-08:00

This episode of American Life, Bad Bank, has some sobering statistics and explanations of the current banking crisis. Bank of America and Citigroup have 25% of US deposits. Top 20 banks have 90% of US deposits. Citigroup has balance sheet with 150 billion in assets, yet market cap is only 10 billion. Household debt to gdp chart has been 30-40% through 1940s and 1950s. It hit 50% in 1980s. It skyrocketed to 100%. The last time it was at 100%.... 1929 :-/ They also say that part of the reason the FDIC can't seize Citi or Bank of America is because they don't have a large enough staff.

Secret Histroy of Silicon Valley

2009-02-22T21:05:00.001-08:00

In this google tech talk, the secret history of silicon valley, Steve Blank talks about electronic warfare and intelligence in WWII and the cold war, and how that funding led to Silcon Valley as we know it, including the influence of Fred Terman, the father of silcon valley.

Some of the interesting facts in this video are how the US figured out Germany's radar and integrated air defense system, and the Soviet Unions. For instance, before satellites were launched in the 60s, the moon was used as a reflector for detecting radar installations in the Soviet Union. It's strange how engineers seems non-threatening in life, but have created weapons, intelligence, and defense systems that have been used to devastating effect. Probably the best example of that phenomena (not mentioned in this video) is Richard Feynman, one of my heros, who worked on the manhattan project, and picked locks.

Turning oil rig into a resort

2009-02-22T21:02:00.000-08:00

This article about turning an oil rig into a resort captures my imagination. I don't think it's practical, but it's fascinating and I didn't know there were 4,000 oil rigs in the gulf of mexico.

Web based application redundancy

2009-02-13T08:42:00.001-08:00

Today I have been looking into redundancy for a web application that is hosted at rackspace. Rackspace offers 2 load balancers: Webmux and Cisco 11501. The application runs on windows IIS and from there you need multiple machines that run as a web farm. The key to a web farm is to store the session data in the database. To handle redundancy at the database layer, a high end solution is to use a SAN and then have two (or more) database servers that use Sql Server clustering. Another lower cost solution is to use database mirroring with a third witness server that handles the fail over. Rackspace also has 2 levels of support: managed and intensive, which is more expensive. Intensive will support a SAN with SQL server clustering, but they don't support the database mirroring.

John Thain and micro expressions

2009-02-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

I have been interested in micro-expressions, facial expressions that last only a fraction of a second that indicate emotion, since I read blink, and more recently after watching the show Lie to me (which is based largely on the work of Paul Ekman). Today I was watching WSJ report and John Thaine, the recently ousted CEO of Merryl Lynch, was interviewed and he really gave himself away. On this clip watch as he says "I would first say I was surprised", then a quick grin flashes across his face. I'm not exactly sure what it means, but I suspect he was not surprised at all and that he's quite pleased with himself for pulling a fast one on Bank of America.

There is another point in the interview where Maria Bartiroma asks him about about them loosing 15 billion dollars in the 4th quarter, and he says "Well Maria as you know over the course of the year" he then pauses and does a half smile that indicates contempt.

I had been skeptical, but this is the first time I have actually spotted a micro expression.

contempt

House of Saud

2009-01-31T19:29:00.000-08:00

This is a documentary about Saudi Arabia. How the kingdom was united, how they found oil in 1931 drilling for water, how Aramco was formed, how Roosevelt made pact to provide protection in exchange for cheap oil, and Dhahran military base to fight Japanese. It covers their struggle with modernity and westernization against their Islamic traditions, their objections over Israel being created, their role in the cold war, their citizens involvement in 9/11, and the Gulf Wars (They paid the US 50 billion dollars for protection from Iraq). Here is a good summary.

MOSS - Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server

2009-01-31T10:23:00.000-08:00

Lately everyone has been talking about MOSS or Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server. The clever thing is Microsoft gives away WSS (Windows SharePointer Services) for free with Windows Server 2003, but it has limitations. So to overcome those limitations you have to buy MOSS. A few of the compelling features are search and online documents, like Excel Services.

Exxon Mobil sets record with $45.2 billion profit: Financial News - Yahoo!

2009-01-30T11:24:00.000-08:00

Exxon Mobil sets record with $45.2 billion profit: Financial News - Yahoo!
Finance: "reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago."

GDP shrink 3.8% Less-Than-Expected in 4th Quarter

2009-01-30T07:41:00.000-08:00

Pullback Less-Than-Expected in 4th Quarter - NYTimes.com: "The gross domestic product — a crucial measure of economic performance — shrank at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. The decline would have been much steeper — more than 5 percent — if shipments of goods had fallen as sharply as orders did."

Yesterday's Market 1/29

2009-01-30T07:04:00.001-08:00

The market and bank stocks were down today after a gun run after harsh language from barrack obama and chris dodd about irresponsibility of banks and getting back bonuses. Also there was some profit taking after a multi-day run up.

Gold is up because of inflation worries over stimulus package.

Amazon beat earnings, as did netflix a few days ago.

Pfizer continues to tank due to wyeth buyout. Wyeth has a big alzheimer's drug in the pipeline.

Sequenom has a blood test for pregnant women to detect down syndrome that replaces amniosyntesis, which carries risk of miscarriage. Also it may encourage all pregnant women (not just older women) to start taking the test.

Amylin got Icahn lift after he tried to appoint board members. They have a diabetes drug in the pipeline.

More chatter about long rumored G-drive

2009-01-26T14:42:00.000-08:00

Article in the Guardian about long rumored GDrive

"The Google Drive, or "GDrive", could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive. Instead a user's personal files and operating system could be stored on Google's own servers and accessed via the internet."

One reason there it is suspected is because of this icon on google's site.

Whether GDrive pans out or not, as the article states, the move to cloud computing is clear.

Google Q4 2008 Earnings

2009-01-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

Google anounced earnings thursday 1/22/09 after hours. The main headlines were profit down 68% year over year. However, they have $5.7 billion in revenue (+18% yoy), and $382 million in net earnings, but they had $1.1 billion in write downs of investments in AOL (-$726 million) and clear wire (-355 million). Their core business seems to be strong. Their earnings would be up 25% if it hadn't been for the write downs. Their stock has gone up from 306 on thursday's close till around 326 today.

Language reference comparison

2009-01-19T20:51:00.000-08:00

I have create a programming language comparison spreadsheet... let me know if you have any additions, corrections.

I'm so hood

2009-01-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

i love rap...

Louis C.K. talks about modern day society on Conan O'Brien.

2009-01-01T14:59:00.000-08:00

This is pretty funny...

http://www.wimp.com/realtalk/

Crystal Castles: history repeats itself

2008-12-29T23:48:00.000-08:00

In the 80s, technology progressed to the point of making low resolution electronic keyboards financially practical. The sound has made a huge comeback for some time now... from Intergalatic by the Beasty Boys to more recently Crystal Castles.

Truthfully, the keyboards sucked... eventually they were replaced by keyboards with higher resolution and sampling frequencies... Today I think we are seeing the same thing in finance... Long Term Capital Management imploded in 98, was bailed out by the government, and probably set a bad precedent. Complex mortgage backed securities and quantitative hedge funds wouldn't be possible in their current form without the advances in computers. I'm saying Long Term Capital Management is the Herbie Hancock of finance.

I have worked on programs that are used to do analysis for mutual and hedge funds. At this point, computers can only do what they are programmed to do. Many expert systems fail because they don't take into account the real factors experts use like intuition, of which the experts aren't fully cognizant.

CRYSTAL CASTLES - Crimewave (new official video)
Uploaded by Differentrecordings

The Great Crash 1929, and current financial crisis

2008-12-26T20:55:00.000-08:00

I read "The Great Crash 1929" and I have compiled my thoughts on the book as it relates to the .com bust and the current financial crisis.

What caused the Crash in 1929?

1) Low Interest Rates. One conventional explanation is that the US Federal reserve cut interest rates too low and it enabled speculators. Winston Churchhill was largely blamed because he returned to the gold standard. Eventually, this caused Britian to beg the US to cut interest rates. When the US obliged credit was cheap. Cheap credit alone doesn't explain the crash. There have been other periods of cheap credit without a stock market crash. Although I think it is considered a factor in the 1929 crash as well as the 2008 crash.

2) Speculation. Another cause of the 1929 bubble was too much leverage. Individual investors did large buying on margin. Furthermore, holding companies and investment trusts indirectly added leverage to the markets.

3) Optimism. One of the biggest causes of any bubble is optimism. In 1929 there were several emerging technologies that brought great optimism about the future, namely the auto, radio, and airline industries. Lindenbergh had accomplished the first solo, transatlantic flight. People had trust in leaders due to hearing them over radio. Irving fisher even argued that prohibition of alcohol would increase worker productivity. Similarly, the optimism about the potential of the internet fueled the .com bust. The idea that everyone should own a house and that house prices never go down helped fuel the 2008 crash. In 28 and 29 there was the term "new era", a term nearly directly reflected in the .com bubble with the "new economy."

In 1929 Irving Fisher was the poster boy for optimism. He famously said "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." only a few days before the crash. On the flip side, shortly before the crash, Roger Babson said "Sooner or later a crash is coming, and it may be terrific."

Irving Fisher shortly after the crash

Another similarity after the 1929 crash and the 2008 crash is the assertion by Presidents and economic luminaries that the "fundamentals are sound." In 1929, it was Irving Fisher and President Hoover, among others. In 2008 President Bush, John McCain and Hank Paulson have repeatedly stated that the fundamentals are sound when in fact, it's obvious they don't know.

During the .com bubble Alan Greenspan famously warned of irrational exuberance on December 5th, 1996. It would be over four years before the stock market crashed. The genius of the book the great crash is that it explains the psychology and paradox of investing during a bubble. "Temporary breaks were serious trials for those who declined fantasy. People who knew there was a bubble were fooled by small dips and eventually began to give up."

Timing

The 20s are characterized as the run up to the crash, but 28 and 29 were the years where it really went off the charts. I had always heard the stock market lost 90% of it's value during the crash, what I didn't realize was it took nearly three years.

September 3, 1929, the times industrials hits a peak 452

October 24, 1929 - black thursday - the market crashed and largely rebounded the same day.

October 29, 1929 - black tuesday - worst day in market. times industrial down 43 to 275

July 8, 1932 - the times industrials bottomed at 58. It took nearly 3 years to find a bottom.

Just as the computers get backlogged currently on days of high volume, the tickers couldn't keep up with falling prices. This induces panic because people don't know how much they have lost until later or after the fact when they may not be able to sell because the markets are closed.

In some cases stocks gapped huge. Often mondays saw huge losses because people reflected over the weekend. (Similar to Monday March 10, 2000 during the .com bubble)

Aftermath

John D. Rockafeller, the richest man in America at the time, wrote letter assuring the public the fundamentals were sound and he was buying common stock on October 30, 1929. Similarly, Warren Buffet, the current richest man in America, wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times on October 17, 2008. Bill Gates, the richest man in America at the end of the .com bubble was probably relieved because the bubble was causing high rates of attrition at Microsoft.

"The Great Crash" asserts that the common belief in large increases in suicide is largely a myth. There was the high profile suicide of Ivar Kreuger. In the 2008 crash there have been 2 high profile suicides, namely English financier Ross Stephenson, and De La Villehuchet due to Bernie Madoff scandal.

Scandals are often uncovered during crashes and depressions because people become concerned and suspicious, whereas they are more lax in times of prosperity. This was true of the crash in 1929, there were numerous embezellments, the worst of which was the union industrial bank of flint michigan. The executives embezzled about 4 million (which is a lot inflation adjusted). The .com bust saw a slew of embezzlements: Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, HealthSouth, Cendant, Global Crossings, Tyco, and the demise of Arthur Anderson. The 2008 crash has exposed Bernie Madoff.

Taxes

Hoover enacted tax cuts after the crash, but enacted large tax increases in 1932. There was a strong perception that the budget had to be balanced to restore confidence, but that seemed to only worsen the crisis.

Depression

The depression from 1873 till 1896 was known as "the great depression" before the great depression of 1929 - around 1940. There is an article about how that depression is more similar to the 2008 crisis.

The book claims the crash of 1929 started as a simple recession due to high inventory. The book is largely about the crash, not the depression. The long term depression is harder to explain, but there are four contributing factors.

1) Unequal distribution of wealth. The top 5% of the population received 1/3 of the personal income

2) bad corporate structures, namely holding companies and investment trusts. these companies depended on dividend, so there was pressure to maintain the dividends rather than invest in capital expenditures.

3) bad banking structure. In the first six months of 1929 346 banks failed with deposits of $115 million.

4) the dubious state of foreign trade. At the time the US was mainly an exporter and Hoover raised tarrifs to protect that status.

The big question is can or will it happen again. Or is it happening again? There were a lot of government regulations passed that have helped preventing the problems. The Glass Steagal Act created the FDIC, which was crucial to restoring confidence and stability to the banking system. It also separated commercial banks from other financial institutions, most notably brokerage firms. The Fed was given control of how much speculators could buy on margin. The SEC was created. Insider trading was outlawed. Also outlawed was mass coordination to manipulate the markets (I was surprised to learn they were at one point legal). There were numerous pump and dump scams preceding the crash, just as there were during the .com bubble largely thanks to email providing an easy way to pump up small stocks.

2008 Crisis and Deregulation

Many of these safeguards have been removed, namely, the repeal of Glass Steagal (Gramm-Biley-Leach Act) which enable the merger of banks and brokerages. In addition, the uptick rule was eliminated in 2007, that was designed to prevent bear raids. Deregulation of banking is a peculiar position in light of the fact that the goverment is an insurer of the banks through the FDIC and an ad hoc insurer to other financial institutions that are "too big to fail" through TARP. No reasonable insurer would encourage their clients to take on more risk. The irony is that senators like Phil Gramm that espoused free market capitalism have forced the fed to the verge of nationalizing the financial system.

The current financial crisis can be traced back to deregulation of even older laws. Credit default swaps, which are side bets and unregulated insurance on securities, were made illegal after the Panic of 1907, as is discussed in these two 60 minutes segments, but were legalized in 2000 by the Commodities Future Modernization Act. Sub-prime mortgages, CDOs, mortgage backed securities, and most importantly credit default swaps are what brought down the likes of Bear Stearns, Leahman Brothers, and AIG. As Warren Buffet said "Wall Street drank their own Kool-Aid." There is the cliche that those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it... I suspect people knew their history, but were too idealogical or greedy to act on it.

The Blow: Parenthesis

2008-12-22T02:10:00.001-08:00

There is a line in this song... "something in the deli aisle makes your cry." I'm going to speculate they are vegetarians. It always seemed like the line should be "something in the deli aisle makes you smile." because it would rhyme, and meat is delicious.

Resonance

2008-12-22T01:42:00.000-08:00

Resonance, according to wikipedia is "tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude at certain frequencies." It was discovered by Galileo by using pendulums.

"One familiar example is a playground swing, which acts as a pendulum. Pushing a person in a swing in time with the natural interval of the swing (its resonance frequency) will make the swing go higher and higher (maximum amplitude), while attempts to push the swing at a faster or slower tempo will result in smaller arcs. This is because the energy the swing absorbs is maximized when the pushes are 'in phase' with the swing's oscillations, while some of the swing's energy is actually extracted by the opposing force of the pushes when they are not."

Here are some more examples of resonance...
-the shattering of a crystal wineglass when exposed to a musical tone of the right pitch (its resonance frequency).
-why your car make shake at a certain speed, but not at others
-when you are trying to break a small tree there is a certain rhythm that is needed to break it.
-In 1981 resonance caused by people dancing on walkway at the opening of a hotel in Kansas City caused it to collapse.

Some people think that the biblical story of the walls of jericho crumbling may have been caused by resonance from the blowing of the horns that preceded the walls falling.

Napoleon knew to have soldiers not march in unison over bridges for fear of collapse.

A dramatic, documented example of resonance is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The wind was blowing at a certain frequency that matched the natural frequency of the materials of the bridge, and it collapsed rather dramatically.

Was Jesus Short?

2008-12-21T22:04:00.000-08:00

Today at church the preacher talked about how people make out jesus the way they want him to be... even the physical idea of jesus is probably wrong, for instance it's unlikely that he had a beard because they weren't popular when he lived... also was he short?

Luke 19:

[1] Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. [2] A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. [3] He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. [4] So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

Traditionally, it's assumed that Zacchaeus is short, but notice that there is no definite reference to who was short. It states "being a short man." It doesn't indicate who the short man was Jesus or Zacchaeus.

LCD Sound system:

2008-12-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

LCD sound system, their name has always reminded me of tv on the radio... because I think of LCD tvs... and then radio and sound system sort of go together...

loosing my edge is cool and it has a talking heads feel to me. also the words make me think of scene in train spotting where they talk about how everyone looses their edge as they get older, like david bowie. Tribulations has always been my favorite LCD sound system song, and someone great reminds me of my old alarm clock.

Loosing my edge

Tribulations

TV on the Radio: Staring at the Sun

2008-12-10T20:58:00.000-08:00

TV on the radio defies explanation for me... I saw them in Atlanta a year or two ago and the singer said the keyboard player wrote one of their songs (it might have been this one)... when he was in kindergarten.

A place to bury strangers: I know I'll see you

2008-12-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

in the vein of the cure, joy division, bauhaus... or more recently she wants revenge. plus i like all the shots of microprocessors. the vocals seem sort of low in the mix.

cool emerging technology companies

2008-12-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

Smart Dust

There is a company called Dust Networks that has created small wireless sensors that will detect open parking spaces on the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco and allow drivers access to the information. The trend is gaining momentum in manufacturing. Other potential uses of smart dust include sensors in medicine, and military applications, including detecting temperature, poisonous gases, radiation, as well as surveillance (as was popularized in Michael Crichton book Prey).

I worked on a project recently that used remote sensors and connectivity and power are difficult problems.

Thin Film Solar Energy

Companies like NanoSolar are creating light weight film that captures solar power.

Do you want to live forever? - Aubrey De Gray

2008-12-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

This is a fascinating documentary about Aubrey De Grey, the eccentric computer scientist turned biologist who predicts that we will be able to live forever in the foreseeable future. The documentary covers a lot of ground including the scientific debate over the validity of his claims, the ethical issues, including overpopulation, and his underlying psychology and passion.

It mentions the M Prize (Methuselah Prize) which offers several million dollars to anyone who can double life span of a middle aged mouse. It also touches on the tradition of prizes to spur scientific advancement including the Orteig Prize that resulted in Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a solo non-stop flight. It makes me think of other prizes like the X Prize, which, among other things, has challenged people to build private space ships and was won in 2004. It also brings to mind the google lunar x prize which is so far unaccomplished.

It takes you on a tour of Alcor, a company that uses Cryonics to store your body (or just your head) after you die.

It also mentions the diet caloric restriction (CR) that claims to extend life expectancy. CR is also mentioned in the fascinating book, Microtrends.

Regarding the scientific debate, it's largely inconclusive. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that increased life expectancy is possible. Currently the record for a human is 122 years old held by Jeanne Calment. The average life expectancy of some tortoises is 200 years. Then there is hydra, which regenerates and never dies. The documentary is light on the actual science which is extremely complex... although you can read up on SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescense) , his plan for curing human aging.

One striking point made in the documentary is a lot of the most high profile people that believe his claims are involved in computer science, like Ray Kurzweil, and Marvin Minskey, not biology. His critics claim he is offering psuedo-science and invoke an interesting term coined by Richard Feynman, cargo cult science. That is where primitive tribes near landing strips built their own landing strips and towers hoping planes would come.

Lykke Li: Little bit

2008-12-06T11:09:00.001-08:00

Little Bit

Cut off your hands: still fond

2008-12-06T11:06:00.001-08:00

The Hold Steady: Stay Positive

2008-12-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

Control and responsibility

2008-12-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

There is a simple idea many people, including myself, struggle with. You are not responsible for the actions of other other people, and you have no direct control over anyone.

It's important to make the distinction that you do have responsibilities to people, but not for them. You have a responsibilities to your children, family, friends, and to humanity, but ultimately they make their own decisions. So if your kid kills someone or stays in an abusive relationship, if your spouse cheats on you, if your friends betray you, if your friends drinks themselves to death, it was their decision. The decisions you make and the way you treat people can have influence on others, but everyone, including yourself, is responsible for their own actions.

There is a phrase in the recovery movement: give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

teddybears w/ iggy pop: punk rocker

2008-12-01T11:11:00.001-08:00

reminds me of the cars... great song. iggy pop is old...

Visual Guide to Housing Crisis

2008-11-28T22:50:00.000-08:00

Nice chart porn...
"Housing prices never fall"

"Everything our parents told us was good for us turned out to be bad. The sun. Milk. Read meat. College" - Woody Allen

PJ Harvey: Shame

2008-11-28T22:47:00.000-08:00

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

2008-11-28T22:38:00.000-08:00

Today someone told me about Progressive Muscle Relaxation as a way to manage stress. The basic idea is that you lie or sit down and tense up and then relax muscles. After practice you are able to relax your body to the point of not even being able to feel it.

why good people are key to business

2008-11-25T08:20:00.001-08:00

i'm learning slowly that the key to a good business is to have good people that you can trust to do things right. there is a tension in trusting them because you know if they screw up they can make things worse for everyone, their mistakes can affect other people's ability to get their job done. in addition, you may end up having to do more work than if you had just done it yourself in the first place. however, if a business is going to grow, you have to train and trust people... so you had better make sure they know what they are doing and that you can trust them.

Life Span

2008-11-21T06:55:00.000-08:00

"Maximum life span for humans has remained about 115−120 calendar years throughout recorded history, despite steady improvements in life expectancy. " - from wikipedia on maximum life span

The limiting factor in life expectancy is related to cellular degeneration, and there is a study that the protein telomeras could extend life expectancy. "As we age, and our cells divide, these caps become frayed and shorter and eventually are so damaged that the cell dies. Scientists believe boosting our natural levels of telomerase could rejuvenate them."

Someone once described it to me by saying our cells make copies of copies and like a cassette tape they eventually degenerate.

There are a lot of theories about aging and cellular degeneration and life extension, including lowerig caloric intake and anti-oxidants to reduce free radicals.

First transplant from organ grown in lab

2008-11-19T13:29:00.000-08:00

In England today they performed a transplant from an organ grown in a lab using the patient's own stem cells. Because of this advance, the patient won't have to take anti-rejection drugs. In this case a graft from a donor was used, but eventually donors won't be needed. Soon I won't have to feel guilty about not being an organ donor.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3479613/British-doctors-help-perform-worlds-first-transplant-of-a-whole-organ-grown-in-lab.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5183686.ece

electric cars

2008-11-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

60 minutes did a story about Telsa Motors, the Silicon valley start up company that has created an all electric car. It costs 109 thousand dollars and runs off Lithium ion batteries (like in your laptop or cell phone). It goes about 244 miles per charge. The clever thing, considering the high cost, was to make it a sports car that competes with companies like porsche with similar price tags. It goes from 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds.

The story also mentions the EV-1, General Motors electric car that was recalled and destroyed, and portrayed as a conspiracy in the documentary Who Killed the electric car. It reminds me of the General Motor StreetCar conspiracy. Since the story ran gas prices have plummetted and GM has declared they may not have enough money to make it to the end of the year..... strange times.

Example of Ray's Kurzweil's Theory of Indirection

2008-11-03T14:49:00.000-08:00

Last night on 60 minutes was a story about how scientist are developing ways for people to control computers with their brains. They interviewed a guy who has Lou Gehrigs disease, and has no muscle control except over his eyes. However he is able to put on a cap with electrodes and write. The way it works is you concentrate and stare at a screen of letters and numbers and when the one you are thinking of lights up, the electrodes detect that your brain reckognizes it. There was another woman who has sensors implanted inside her brain and she is also paralyzed but using it to control a mouse and her wheelchair. They have fused man and machine, and it could solve problems for amputees, and people who are paralyzed.

The way it got me to thinking about Ray Kurzweil's theory of inderection and exponentional growth of technology is the fact that the guy who has Lou Gehrig's runs neurological research lab. Only a few years ago he would have been a vegetable, but now he is still contributing to science. It's a unique example of how technology snowballs. It ties into the larger theme that increased life expectancy allows more people more time to contribute to the advancement of technology.

The difficult task of making math and physics fun

2008-10-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

When I was in 9th grade my teacher told this story...
About 200 years ago Carl Friedrich Gauss had a teacher that liked to give busy work to keep the students occupied. One day the assignment was add all the numbers from 1 to 100. Gauss, who was 10 years old, shot back the answer, 5050. The teacher was amazed and asked how he knew so quickly. He told her. He found a pattern, 1 + 100 = 101, 2 + 99 = 101, 3 + 98 = 101, and it continues up to 50 + 51 = 101. There are 50 sets of 101, so answer is 50 times 101, 5,050.

A quick google search revealed to me that he probably read the book Making Pre-Algebra come Alive

I got to thinking about that story and about how great teacher shape our lives after watching this TED video by Clifford Stoll. He is a physicist, I have read his book, The Cuckoos Egg about computer hacking in the 80s, and now he teaches 8th grade physics. He has taught 8th graders how to measure the speed of light and he demonstrates quickly how to measure the speed of sound. Plus he is a dead ringer for the Doc on Back to the Future.

The Airborn Toxic Event

2008-10-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Seek and ye shall find

2008-10-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

I have heard this... "Be careful what you look for, you will find it." It seems that people don't have much control over what they look for. They seem to compulsively recreate their childhoods, frued called it repitition compulsion.

I suspect it's an evolutionary instinct. In the days of early man, life expectancy was not very long, and your parents were likely to die before you finished raising your children, so I think it's ingrained in us to recreate our childhood. For some people that had relatively good childhoods, that's a good thing, they recreate that type of environment for their children. For others that were traumatized as children, it's not so good... it's why some people seem to make the same decisions repeatedly, even if they are unhealthy... whether it's choosing your relationships, the way you treat your children, whether you believe in god, or if you abuse drugs or alcohol. It influences what is in your heart. How do you recreate your childhood?

Tapes 'n tapes: Hang them all

2008-10-16T19:56:00.001-07:00

This video cracks me up : )

Les Savy Fav - the sweat descends

2008-10-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

Meditation, and Relaxation

2008-10-12T13:24:00.000-07:00

I have made an effort to relax and lower the stress in my life. Hot baths, and massages have been helpful. Meditation has been relaxing and it helps me fall asleep, and add routine and discipline to my life.

Here are the basics, largely taken from Transcendental meditation
-Find quiet comfortable environment where you feel safe.
-Sit comfortably and close your eyes
-Relax your muscles starting with feet and working up to face.
-Become aware of breathing, as you exhale say to yourself a one or two syllable phrase, often called a mantra. It should contain soft consonants. For instance, you might say "one" or "om" (as the budhist of do) or "amen" (as christians often end their prayers).

The key to the technique is to focus on the breathing and let your thoughts wash over you, and maintain a passive attitude. One person said the key is being in the moment. We spend so much of our lives thinking and worrying about the future or the past, and this process allows our brain to take a break. One technique I was told about was to count on each breath and don't have any thoughts, once you have a thought start over. However, part of the technique I have learned says not to worry if you do start to think and loose focus on your manta, just gently start back up. The point is relaxation, not discipline or concentration, but with practice you become disciplined.

When I first started, I noticed sometimes there were things that would come up that I just couldn't let go off... For instance, I would think, I need to check the mail, I need to pay my bills. I need to post about meditation on my blog. I need to do this and that. Some times I would even get up and do it. I now have a list of stuff I usually check that is done so that I'm not distracted. So it's added some routine to my night. However, there will always be something that you need to do so at some point you just have to let it go.

It's recommended to do it twice a day for 15-30 minutes. I usually do it once at night, often it will put me to sleep. That has been part of my problem with sleep, I can't cut off my brain, I toss and turn and worry about stuff.

Dr. Herbert Benson, has done research that shows this invokes what they call the relaxation response. It is a hypothalamic response that is the converse of adrenaline. It lowers blood pressure, improves sleep and has other health benefits.

(I got a lot of this info from Ray Kurzweil's book Fantastic Voyage)

Pete Bjorn and John: Young Folks

2008-10-12T13:17:00.001-07:00

I like whistling

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The Gods aren't Angry

2008-10-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

My last post was about Rob Bell's video "The God's aren't angry", which discusses the broad trend across ancient civilizations to make sacrifices to appease the Gods. Today I saw the conclusion, and he said we look back on ancient civilizations as barbaric, but he asks is it still true today... People sacrifice large pieces of their lives for success, and acceptance... some people still even cut and mutilate themselves. Today we would say those people have disorders, but it's not significantly different from the psychology of ancient civilizations. Today there is a sense of coming to God to avoid going to hell... or God will help you prosper, but that's the same mentality of ancient religions.

The message of the first Christians that you can let go of the guilt, shame, anxiety, and reasons you make pointless sacrifices. That the Gods aren't angry... and to those who sacrifice their lives... "You don't have to live like this."

The idea has a twist, and that is that you even though Christ has sacrificed himself for you, you should sacrifice yourself for others, that you should be a living sacrifice, that you should do stuff to help others out.

What's up with human sacrifice?

2008-09-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

Today I watched a video call The God's aren't angry. It explains that cavemen were dependent on plants growing and hunting animals to survive, and beyond that they were dependent on the rain and sun and birth for survival, things they couldn't control. So the early religions were an attempt to appease the gods, the forces in the heavens on which their survival depended. The way they attempted to appease them was through sacrifice. They would sacrifice part of their harvest, animals, they would cut themselves, castrate themselves and even perform human sacrifices. The strange thing is these acts weren't isolated incidents, this was a broad trend across human history and geographical areas. Examples are given from the Incas to Asia Minor.

Part of the story of Abraham, the root of all Western religions, is that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his kid and then called it off at the last moment. He sacrificed a ram that God provided instead. When you read the story today you think "how barbaric that God would even ask him to kill his son"... but consider the time. This was a change from the Angry Gods that demanded sacrifices to a God that would provide. This was a God that spoke to man. It was also a single god, rather than a god of the moon, and a god of the sun, etc. It was a dramatic shift in the evolution of religion.

It seems most religions gave up even on animal sacrifice. The jews quit animal sacrifice in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the temple. Christians believe that Christ died for everyone's sin and there is no longer the need to sacrifice animals. So for those who think religions are barbaric at least we've moved past human sacrifice and self castration.

Jay Reatard

2008-09-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

I looked on youtube for "My Shadow" which is the song it seems like Jay Reatard is known for, but I couldn't find a good version...

This song makes me think of a book I once read about intimacy issues that said most people struggle when they move away to college with breaking their bonds with their parents. However, many people that have intimacy issues struggled to form bonds with their parents. I identify with not forming much bonds with my parents. Even as a young child I plotted to run away and throughout adolescence my parents never really knew much about me.

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Who could've known
Things could have
Gone so wrong
One moment everything is here
the next it is all gone

A child's love
Turns into a bloody mom
Who could've known
Things could have
gone so wrong

Walking through the house
The photographs
line the walls
Memories they hurt
The bloodening will send them all
Please close your eyes
As the blood
makes impact
And say goodbye
cause they are never coming back

My family
They never knew
My family
They never knew
My family
The never knew
My family

Open ended questions

2008-09-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been learning about open ended questions. By definition an open ended question is one that can not be answered with a yes or no reponse. For instance, "Did you have a good day?" is not open ended, whereas "how was your day?" is more open ended, even though most people would consider them largely the same question.

Another concept along the same lines is to avoid using the word why in quetions because it sounds accusatory and makes people defensive. For instance you would say "What makes you feel that way?" rather than "Why do you feel that way?" When you ask "What makes you feel that way?" you are indirectly validating their feelings.

Always Love

2008-08-31T16:58:00.000-07:00

"But I never learned enough to listen to the voice that told me always love."

Futurism

2008-08-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

I heard a speech from a local technology entrepreneur, and he emphasized points raised by Ray Kurzweil. Specifically, that technology advances at an exponential rate. For instance, the printing press took 100 years to be adopted, it took 50 years to adapt the telephone, it took 8 years to adapt the cell phone. The same principal applies across many areas of technology from Moore's Law to disk capacity, and even in biological research, like genome decoding and brain scan resolution, and even to evolution. Here is a speech from 2005, near the time of publication of his book "The Singularity is near".

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5 tips to get out of speeding and traffic tickets

2008-08-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

I just got out of a traffic ticket. I have probably been pulled over 30 times and I've only gotten 5 tickets. The key is to show them respect because most cops deeply crave respect. Why else would they take a low paying, dangerous job?

1) It helps to have a decent car, one with no dents, that is clean on the interior, that doesn't have any offensive bumper stickers. Hopefully, you are dressed well and don't have any outstanding warrants. You can't convey respect to the cop if he doesn't respect you in the first place. One flip side to this is, if your car is really a piece of junk they may have pity on you and assume you can't afford the ticket.

2) If it's night, cut on your interior lights. This shows you have nothing to hide, and puts them at ease. It also shows respect in that you are considerate of their situation, walking up to a stranger that could be armed or have warrants.

3) Roll down you window and put your hands in plain sight. Often I put one hand outside the window and the other on the steering wheel. This also puts them at ease. Also, by showing this deference they may assume that you know a cop.

4) Address them as "officer." Don't call them dude or bro.

5) When they ask you "Do you know why I pulled you over?" Go ahead and confess. Tell them the truth... "I was speeding. You caught me." "I am running late." "I need to go to the bathroom." "I wasn't paying attention." Cops hear a lot of bullshit, and most of them are good at sniffing it out. If you give them lip or attitude they will become defensive and give you a ticket or worse, but if you are respectful the only way they have to further fill their need for respect is to be magnanimous and let you off.

As the situation unfolds you may find other ways to show respect or feed their egos. Another idea is to be sure to pull over far enough so they don't have to stand in the road. A lot of girls, say they cry to get out of tickets. I doubt that would work for men. I haven't tried it. Some times you are going to get a ticket. Usually when I get tickets, it's in a trap, and the cops barely speak to me. I assume they are trying to fill a quota.

I learned some of these techniques intuitively, and from listening to police. However, later I found the general idea is well articulated in the book "How to win friends and influence people."

Do you know any ways to get out of a ticket?

There is one more way, don't speed : )

Posture

2008-08-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have always had bad posture, and working on a computer has not helped... Here is a link explaining rather technically the types of bad posture, and how you can do certain exercise to fix it.

The most common problem, especially after being on a computer is forward head posture and protacted shoulder girdle (i.e. forward slumped shoulders).

The basic idea is to strengthen the back muscles and stretch the chest muscles. Unfortunately, the two biggest vanity exercises (bench presses and crunches) can make your posture worse. If you do those exercise be sure to do back exercise to balance them out.

Here is a link on an easy way to stretch chest muscles
Here is a video about an easy way to strengthen back muscles, and the muscles in the back of your neck.

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Practical uses for psychological research

2008-08-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a post from guy kawasaki's blog

I found a great article called "10 Practical Uses for Psychological Research in Everyday Life." It explains how to detect lies, make your smile more attractive, persuade people, avoid getting scammed, and reduce your cholesterol level.

To make your smile more attractive smile slowly and tilt your head in the direction you are looking or toward your partner.

This is great info for faking smiles when I'm suffering from crippling depression.

Love is Noise

2008-08-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

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Remembering Things: 5 examples

2008-08-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

When I was young my dad taught me about mnemonics, which is "associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that is to be remembered." It was a trick that I used repeatedly in school. Here are a few of my favorites...

1) < is the leser than symbol and > is the greater than symbol. The symbol < looks like a tilted capital L which I associate with "Lesser than."

2) "There is a rat in separate." Separate is commonly misspelled with an e (seperate) and the key to the phrase is the letter a, "there is a rat in separate."

3) "The cemetery is a place of ease (es)." Cemetery is commonly misspelled with an a in place of either of the last 2 es. So the phrase reminds you that there are lots e's, but no a's.

4) Lincoln was the 16th president. Lincoln is a car, and you can drive when you turn 16.

5) Often they are acronyms. A commonly known one is HOMES for the great lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.

I have heard when you meet someone and learn their name it helps if you can form an association between them and another person with the same name. Although, I'm still terrible at remembering people's names.

The key thing is to make your own associations for things you need to remember.

Do you know any memory tricks or mnemonics?

Happines Project and Inspirational videos

2008-08-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of the 5 most inspirational videos on youtube, (2 of them are videos I had already posted, namely the last lecture, and steve jobs commencement speech). Another interesting site is called the happiness project "a memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah." The most recent post is called "Enjoy the process" The post states that as part of her family vacation they decided to treat the whole process whether it was waiting in lines or anything else to try and enjoy it. Thanks to Angie for the intersting links.

Speaking of travelling, some friends of mine went to Paris at ate at a restaurant, Dans le Noir, that translates to "In the dark." The waiters are all blind, and you have to put all light emitting objects, like cell phones in a locker before you enter. You are then served dinner in pitch dark. They said the food was great although, not surprisingly, someone spilled wine all over them.

Remembering Things

2008-08-11T12:56:00.001-07:00

I have always been deeply introverted and have trouble remembering mundane things. One thing that I have found is something I call piggybacking... For instance, I used to never remember to charge my cell phone at night, but I always remembered to set my alarm, at least on the weekdays. So I started using the alarm on my cell phone, and now it's easier to remember to charge my phone (otherwise it is likely to go dead and not wake me up).

The point is find something you are in the habit of doing and tie it to something you want to start remembering to do. For instance, I recently put my vitamins, which I always forget to take, by my toothbrush. Thankfully, I always remember to brush my teeth.