Packing can be liberating. I've been carrying around a lot of cruft these last few years (college annuals, ancient diaries) and I have to just ask "Why?" Not because they represent good memories - so, into the garbage with them.
As with tons of old papers and now meaningless documents. I cannot say I'm enjoying the job of packing but I am enjoying selling off furniture and electronics (except for my 36" Sony - that hurt) and packing everything just right.
I've indexed all the boxes and put them in a spreadsheet. So even though I'll be a continent away, I'll know what is in what box in the locker when it comes time to move.
Of course, the boyz are stressed - not much to be done about that. But at least they'll get to move somewhere with much better weather!
Ok.. so I'm giving some serious thought to "doing it again".
Yes, creating another startup. The last one was a hell of a fun ride and I've had a couple of really good ideas in the back of my head for the last three or four years and they seem original as far as I can tell.
Better yet, the entry cost isn't too high to get a proof of concept running. Of course, whether VCs will like it and think it worth supporting is a key question. But you don't know if you don't try.
I have the name: Yellowbird. It has all the classical requisites: it has a back story, it's obscure enough that it doesn't tell you anything about the product, it has some cool imagery that can be appropriated, and the company will already have a rocking theme song.
I grew up for a short while in Jamaica (where my father and sister were born) and this is close to a national anthem. Or at least it was before reggae came along. The music is called "calypso" and it was the music of my childhood. This is the back story part of the piece, if you were wondering.
So steps for success:
2) Bounce the spec off some smart people and plug the holes.
2a) Consider finding an angel investor. Not a lot, maybe $100k to pay programming staff and keep the wolves from the door while building the
prototype.
3) Build a prototype. I'll like need some of my friends who are good coders to help here. I'm antiquated, and while I can do the research, I don't profess to be good at coding Web services ("Aha! A first hint at a product direction.") Probably build it on a Linux/OS X variant for the servers and maybe do the entire client piece in something nearly ubiquitous, like Flash or even Java. First prototype could probably be able to rock in six months or less (depending on job constraints for me and my coder friends).
4) Develop a pool of users/community/advocacy movement. This could take between a year and two years depending on whether the community thought the idea worthwhile.
5) "Monetize it". Doesn't really matter how much, just get an income stream to prove that people are willing to pay greenbacks to use the product. Key point in the entire process, here.
6) Find some VCs who will cut a half-way decent deal to scale the prototype. Luckily I know a couple. Doesn't mean that they will be the best to do business with but always better to work with people you know.
7) Run the company for a couple of years.
Hmm.. so, Day Zero. Time for me to get back to my packing, and the spec will get fleshed out in the evenings.
This was a very interesting fight. I just finished watching the download after avoiding the news (successfully) for the last few days.
It went on a split decision to Mayweather, which is a bit unfortunate. I always thought that the champion should only be dethroned if he was beaten. De La Hoya was largely unmarked, definitely the more aggressive of the two fighters and never fazed by Mayweather's punches. So while Mayweather had an advantage in punches landed, it didn't seem to hurt De La Hoya and I saw the fight as the closest to a draw I've ever seen.
In any event, it wasn't a great fight though it had great interest. Could the 34yr old De La Hoya survive and even do well against a boxer with great hand speed. Tactically, De La Hoya did much of what he needed to (though as the guy calling the fight said, he gave up on his jab too early). He forced Mayweather back into the corner, gave him some good body shots (which definitely helped slow down Mayweather in the middle rounds), and kept him on the defensive with his jab.
I couldn't really see why Oscar went away from the jab. It would have brought his punchstat numbers way up (useless really but I guess the judges use it) and it had the great benefit of keeping Mayweather on the defensive, and not using his handspeed to get through Oscar's defense.
Perhaps I just like Oscar because he's very erudite. Not just for a boxer, either.
Well, best of luck if there is a rematch.
I do believe I've divined a new Craigslist scam.
Say you wanted to harvest emails but were defeated by Craigslist's anonymization protocol (they create a synthetic email address which they redirect to your actual address to prevent harvesting by spam-bots)? What would you do?
Well, you might send an email like this:
"Hello, Kindly let me know if the item on subject posted by you, is still available for sale???"
Note the very awkwardly-worded email doesn't refer to the actual item? If I were to write a bot to cruise the Craigslist sale lists and harvest email, I would do it like this. It's sufficiently ambiguous that I think most people would respond.
When they did, they would be giving the bot (receiving the response) a known valid email address.
Pretty bloody sneaky.
Postscript: Turns out it's just that variation on the Nigerian 419 con. Some half-way bright con guy must have figured out how to write a script and just mailbombed his way through the Craigslist sales forums. When I wrote back
from a junk account, this person offered to send the money (419 style) it's even a bit more evil than I originally thought. People actually get taken every day with this con. Sad.
They never tell you that cable modem service is a party line.
I was reminded of this when I called Comcast Cable today to enquire why my 8-Mbit download was coming up as about 1.6-Mbit.
After a bit of a discussion I asked "Well, what's your minimum guaranteed service level?" (wearing my Microsoft hat).
"Our what?"
"You know, the minimum speed I'm guaranteed to get even when everyone else is on the island"
"Well. (long pause) Sir, I don't know the answer to that question."
Long discussion followed about peak times and whether they were tracking the usage (I was assured that they do) and how would I get a record of this?
"A record of what?"
"A record of the average or mean usage of my line? If you do line speed tests, I would like to see a printout of them for the last month. Could you mail that to me?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't have the ability to do that."
"Then how do I get them mailed to me?"
"You can't. You have to go to your local Comcast lobby."
"My what? What is a Comcast Lobby?"
"Oh, it's our office where you can get a printout."
"Can they have it ready for me when I go in?"
"Uhh.. no, but they can get you a printout."
Hmmm. I'm sooo tempted to actually go in.
But I have packing to be done. Damn, escalation to the physical plane just is a deal breaker.
I just got my hands on a good copy of the UCL Final from 2005, where Liverpool came back from a 3-0 deficit at half time to tie the game and then win it on penalties after extra time.
I remember it as a very, very good final. It'll be interesting to see how different both teams look from a couple of years ago (Rafa's first year in charge gave Liverpool the Champions League title).
About 19 days until they meet again. Really, it should be on a weekend, not a weekday. Truly strange scheduling by FIFA.
I am so glad that I don't eat KFC. Haven't since I was very young.
Caution: this is not for the squeamish. Or anyone who eats KFC.
I've had problems with the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and its enforcement for a while. It seems like it's been prone to abuse by megacorps for quite a while.
Recently, one talented hacker cracked the encryption on HD-DVDs because the built-in encryption wouldn't let him play it on the device of his choice. A reasonable presumption since you've bought the bloody thing. In any event, he posted the crack so that others could benefit from his work.
This was mentioned on the Digg Web site (famous for being famous) and they received a DCMA notice threatening them with a lawsuit if they didn't take out articles related to the crack (pointers to info on how to do it).
To cut a long story short, they decided to keep up their articles, inviting a big, fat lawsuit. A whole bunch of people seem to think this is suppression of free speech (I won't go there..) and posted the decryption codes in a variety of imaginative ways. To wit.
Just lovely.
I really shouldn't be buying stuff like this.
I'm trying to reduce the number of my possessions, not increase them. But I have a hankering for a nice (I hope), fast lens to go on my Leica and Leica-clone bodies. This seems like an ideal match for some fast B&W work.
Again, my uncle will think I'm crazy - who am I to disagree with him. Wherever I end up, Seattle or Amsterdam or San Francisco, I feel like I'm going to be out there photographing more and more in the next year or two..
Listening to World Soccer Daily yesterday, I was reminded of the great quote by the scholar, Conan the Barbarian. When asked what is best in life, he responds:
"To crush your enemies. To see them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women..."
I felt just that way when I heard the pundits on World Soccer Daily crying in their beer over Liverpool beating Chelsea. Of the two hosts, one support Man United and the other Chelski. Both seem to hate Liverpool.
So I say to them.. "Cry on". What a great week to be a Liverpool supporter.
This whole thing is starting to get pretty nasty. See here. Must be very stressful for those poor Dutch employees whose fate hangs in the balance.
I'm hoping that the Dutch court allows the sale of LaSalle to go through. The whole idea of maximizing shareholder returns by destroying the vehicle that brought the shareholder value in the first place seems absurd.
Saw the actress Sonja Sohn in my local grocery store this afternoon. Strange, seeing someone from TV in person like that.
She stars in the fabulous HBO series, The Wire. Pretty cool.. only my second "star" encounter.
I had wished for a better performance. I can only attribute it to the relative youth of the team because they didn't look like the same team that came back against AC Milan last week, nor like the team that destroyed Roma.
I could say that it was destiny that we play AC Milan again but I don't believe in destiny. It makes a pretty story for the papers of course and we have a decent shot of beating them. If we can control Didier Drogba over two legs then I think we have a decent chance of controlling Kaka.
There is no doubt in my mind that we are weaker than AC Milan in most positions but the question is whether the team work ethic and certain talismanic individuals (Gerrard, Carragher) will step up and make this work. Of course, if we had Harry Kewell back on the left wing instead of the hapless Boudewijn Zenden (long past his best) I would be much happier. Or just a solid left back allowing John Arne Riise to play left wing. Or to have Luis Garcia back (not going to happen).
Well, everyone from the coach on down will have to be at the top of their game to have Liverpool beat AC Milan. I have no doubt it can be done but the question is which team will show up?
I can say that September 23rd will find me in a pub, somewhere in the world, watching this game.
Liverpool won the semi-final match on penalties over Chelsea to advance the Final on 23 May.
It was a tough match, but Liverpool looked the better team for 80% of the match (and had something like 70% of the possession in the first half). A score in the 22nd minute by the much-maligned Daniel Agger (sweet revenge) proved to be hugely important.
Chelski definitely seemed short of inspiration and while they had a couple of good chances, Liverpool looked more likely to score the entire game. I thought Chelski played quite cynically, before the goal going down at every opportunity. In the second half and extra time they seemed to make a lot of very questionable tackles that the Spanish ref let go. Very poor refereeing in my opinion. I saw Per Luigi Collina (the great Italian ref) in the stands at one point - the camera cut to him right after the Spanish ref disallowed Dirk Kuyt's goal in extra time (which I think may have been another mistake). I would love to hear his explanation. What a pity that he cannot referee the Final.
Jose Reina was inspired and saved two penalties after extra time leaving Liverpool the winner (4-1) on penalties.
I'm not really sure who is the better opponent - Man Utd or AC Milan. There are definitely some interesting stories if AC Milan wins tomorrow. But I believe that Man Utd may be the better team.
But then, that's what playing over two legs is supposed to do. Remove any doubt of who is the better team.
Hear that, Jose?