1. Clear Containers – If you are in to technology you most likely like to watch movies. DVDs are something I have been trying to migrate onto a digital platform or just leverage iTunes and store it on another hard drive. As any tech guy knows DVDs can take up a fair amount of space and how many times do you really watch that DVD. I highly suggest to invest in plastic containers – use these bins to store your DVDs and other tech gadgets (camera, usb card readers, etc.). In addition rather than using boxes during the move, use containers because they last longer and if you get the clear see through kind, easy to find your DVD within a pile. In addition, containers are way better than just boxes as they are weather proof to some degree. I know from a few past experiences with flooding of the apartment above me, I was able to maintain all my DVDs! A moving box would have ruined all the DVD boxes. If you are like me, a tech guy who has tons of DVDs, Books, and old gadgets – leverage containers and keep them safe. Also great for saving space when stacking them in closets. In addition I know from the transition after college, containers are great way to move stuff – bring back and move more stuff. Boxes tend to be good for only one or two trips back and forth.

2. Buy it again – I know this kills the eco-side of me inside, but I think when products cost less than $20 – you may want to think twice before you keep moving with it. In the tech world I know personally I have owned 3 iPhones (iPhone, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4) and that’s only 4 years! You are constantly upgrading and buying stuff again, much like moving. If you move cross-country do you bring the same toilet plunger or just throw it out and buy a new one? Sometimes you want to carve out a budget for moving on top of the cost of movers. For me, this was stuff from shower curtains to hangers. This tactic is also used when traveling, I know I will forget stuff and/or not pack everything, but having a few dollars budgeted also gives me the opportunity to pickup a hoodie or shirt from a destination. I think the best story when it comes to buy it again would be working with an entrepreneur who will remain nameless, but we worked together a few years ago. Basically when traveling he would bring clothes for the next day, but that’s it. We actually ended up having to go shopping a few times where he would have to buy clothes for the next few days.

3. Maintain the move – If your business is growing so fast that you keep having to find bigger office space, why do you unpack everything? Similar with moving just think if your planning to move in the summer, 3 months until you need to move start packing up your winter gear and store it. I also tend to use my luggage for storage of seasonal clothes. By starting early you spread out the packing and you know how much stuff you have. Getting back to topic #1 containers – I have maintained the move with a container box of DVDs that sits in my closet. It may not be the best way to showcase them, but easy to move.

4. Find people to compliment your weakness – in business if your not a tech savvy person but building a tech heavy application, you need to find your tech cofounder before you can even get started. This process should be the #1 goal. As for moving, save time/health and hire a legit company. Bootstrapping can be good and a great way to get a minimum viable product (MVP) or initial boxes moved, but are you really going to lug a couch, bed, or desk up that 4th floor walk up, put in the truck and then walk it back up another 2 or 5 floor walk up? I know moving sucks as I have done it a LOT. It wasn’t until this past move that I finally hired a company, I would never go back. It’s well worth the money especially if you think of what doctors bills cost if you hurt yourself. As for a startup – just think what an acceleration program could do to your business – think of how saving time like hiring a company could expedite your move process

5. Refactor your move – In the development world you want to refactor code from hard to read or hacked together functions/classes to verified and test approved code that won’t keep you up all night. Moving is a time to reflect on what you really need and what you really NEED to throw out. All those papers, books, DVDs, etc. think in terms of 3: Keep, reflect, throwout. As for development – think in terms of features: Should I improve this, will this affect ROI, and will people complain if I kill this feature.

1) I drove a volt!
So at SXSW there is a station where you can sign up to drive a number of different GM cars, one of them was the volt. After handing over my drivers license, filling out some forms and taking a breath analyzer (yes, even at 10am!) I was able to drive around the block and open her up a bit. I was really impressed by the pickup in terms of speed for a “hybrid” but I can’t wait to see someone hack the code and get a 11 second 1/4 mile time out of a volt! The dash and whole setup reminded me of a PC rather than a MAC. Just look at BMW and the iDrive, people COPY THAT!!!!

2) Iron Works Sampler = Food Comma

If you ever come to Austin, you need to have BBQ. It’s amazing. Every year I hit up Iron Works at least once maybe even two or three times. The icing on the cake is always a RC Cola

3) DJ Battle Oh YEA
This is something that I just love. Watching DJs just kill it and even better when they have to battle others and get the crowd going crazy. I need to go to more DJ events in NYC, I just love it.

4) iPad 2

Rather than waiting and losing an entire night waiting in line. I grabbed some breakfast burritos jumped on line at 8:30am and got my white 64GB iPad2 with Green case by 10:06am More to come, but it’s AMAZING!!!!

5) SXSW – O’Reilly – Future of EDU – Google – More to come
The sessions have begun and there is so much kicking around in my head don’t know where to even start. The best take away that I have is that I need to research more into pattern recognition. We do it all the time without even knowing and could learn so much.

Okay the hotel broadband is alright, but don’t have the time to blog/post pics and market my @$$ off. So with that I will be coming back to these and filling them in a bit more to keep you posted.

More to come… enjoy

I have been doing a lot of personal reflection lately. My focus has changed a lot since this blog was started in 2006 . My personal goals and passions seem to have changed dramatically in terms of the short term and I find it so interesting reflecting back just a few years ago.

“Yup, life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and take a look around once in a while, you might miss it” Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

I highly suggest you take a look at my post about figuring out where you are in life if you want to do a quick exercise with personal development. I have been focusing a lot on personal development as well as actually getting things done. I feel like more and more of my ideas are actually becoming a reality in some shape or form, which is really exciting!

Moving forward with this blog, I want to focus more on timeless content that is a bit more in-depth as well as offers more insights into the way I think. There are so many ideas, concepts, and things I want to say but I seem to not post it or feel comfortable posting it up on my blog. I want change and to completely open up and get out of my comfort zone in terms of writing. In addition I want to give away ideas, points of view, and thoughts that should be useful to up and coming entrepreneurs.

With that I wanted to let my readers know that I will be getting more involved with startups than I am now. Which is saying a lot for me, but it will be more as a PR campaign FOR Entrepreneurs rather than pimping my own startups. What do you mean John? I spend a lot of time tracking down and looking for new startups and websites. I just love ideas but what is really exciting is action. So with that I will be launching a number of new websites focused around startups in the upcoming months. I have started to layout the template with that in mind I am and going to have a friend or two help me get these projects off the ground. Being a solo entrepreneur sucks so I am glad to have not only a friend, but a legal adviser help me launch this project. Thanks Larry

It’s time for some JFDI! I want to get more ideas out of my head and in to the world. This blog is going to be my outlet for showcasing them as well as for discussing my own life experiences.
More to come, very exciting

Now before I dive too deep, please understand that time tracking and payment for time worked is completely different. I think everyone and anyone who works a solid day of work should be paid a solid day wage.

The motto goes “A solid days work for a solid days pay.”

The problem I have is when so much focus, time and energy is spent for something that either you can control, don’t reflect on or make changes on, or better yet can’t make change as it takes X months to bring someone up to speed or by laying off someone you use X months/years of IP.

Okay, so maybe I am thinking too much into this. I just know for a lot of businesses and people I talk to, time tracking is a consuming tasks that is almost always estimated. Unless you have punch cards, why track it? Focus on getting things done and just accept paying X for Y people you have on staff.

Back to the days of basic economics. Say you have shovels and people, with 1 person you can dig a small hole, and with 2 people you can dig a larger hole, but when you have 100 shovels and 10 people or 100 people and 10 shovels you get the same results. Even if you have 100 people and 100 shovels you will reach a point where adding on that extra person doesn’t provide as much output or could even HURT digging a hole as that extra person requires the other 100 people to spend a day meeting and showing the “ropes” to that new 101 person. Think about how this relates to time tracking, you could spend so much time detailing what you worked on that you are now spending more time, tracking time and worrying about the process then getting things done. It’s the same when you have 100 people and 10 shovels, you can only dig a hole so deep or get so many things accomplished.

The only place I see timetracking as essential is when your billing it to a client or customer, not internally. Time internally should be more of an acceptance that the person is working on a specific task. If I hire a web developer, I am not going to ask for a time sheet of which code project he worked on for me or how they spend 3 hours refactoring X code. I just want to know that things are getting done and improved.

Thanks

*Update*: New blog website should be live tomorrow night. Enjoy!

At an old position of mine there was a person who did a report every Tuesday and Thursday. This report would take that person all day to compile and only be viewed by a handful of people. In my world, I tend to think in terms of automation. If you can walk through the process in a systematic form, you should be able to automate it. Maybe that is why I love scrapping data and optimizing tasks as inefficiencies drive me mad.

Okay, so what’s the point, well automation and system process need to be a foundation of every start-up. Think of any fast food place and how the same job is done at every location. As an entrepreneur you need to automate where you can and have as little or no touch points with customers or changes with orders. I try to automate everything I can and much of execution and recent work has been to focus and get organized. I realize that I am a bit disorganized especially when it comes to to-dos, projects, goals, etc. I have thousands of small pieces of paper with notes that I must rewrite multiple times a week as I write it once and then store it somewhere, but have a random idea to improve it and rewrite it then store it again. Lately I switched from a physical world to a digital world (i know, shocking!). Now I use Simple Note App where I can sync all my notes online and offline with my iPhone and any computer with an internet connect. This is a start-up from YCombinator who is still in the incubation period, but it works and is free. You can upgrade to the premium services for only $12/year.

So now that I have my thoughts/ideas accessible anytime and anywhere I can keep them organize and streamline my productivity. I can then turn those to-dos into an automated process that will get done even if I don’t follow up on it.

Automation and organization seem to fit well together. With that I wanted to find out what people are using to organize their life that is ACTUALLY working for them, none of this concept well I do GTD. Also I am trying to find some Google Spreadsheet Templates that people use for either time, projects, or whatever. I have been trying to get more into ActionMethod and have some tasks in the app on my phone, but still working on that.

I don’t have a tv and watch a lot of shows/documentaries on Hulu. I was recently enjoying the film Mixtape, Inc. that discusses the undergrounds of hip-hop and remixing copyright material for a profit. The record labels and their MBA bean counters are always looking at their projections and missed sales due to mixtapes and illegal online downloads rather then accepting $XXX Millions and trying to do some research and development into how to be more profitable. Can you say, Why do the People Making the Decisions Never Understand the Problem?

You should checkout vyemusic.com it’s a “search engine” for music. Remember that thing called Google, it’s like that as it scraps the net for content and organizes it but doesn’t host anything…so you can listen, preview, and download music that vyemusic finds. Don’t worry, under the DMCA as long as vyemusic.com removes any links the RIAA asks and since it doesn’t host any music, in should be in the clear. It’s also interesting because it was created by a 16 year old who happens to have a Dad who is a lawyer.

It makes me think of the concept of change, think about a large profitable work horse of a business. You build up this mega monster that can do so much in profit, but you just feed it enough to keep it alive.

Soon find yourself losing it all at an accelerated pace due to competition. Understand that if you are making $$$ at something, someone is going to try and beat you at it because they want a cut of the action. Your work horse that was once a profitable business is now a sinking ship because you did not upgrade it for the battle that has begun. While you were racking in the money hand over fist, your competition has be focusing on your weak spots and improving and build a monster of it’s own. Your competition just bought a gun to a sword fight and is ready for battle. Understand that you need to be always moving forward, reinventing and trying new things.

People are so scared of change, but change is the only constant we have in this world. To help prove my point visually, watch a clip from Caprica. This scene shows the CEO who just announced to the world that rather then charging for thier product (ie. holoband) that they will give it away for free. This concept of change related to Caprica just made that work horse that produced 60% net profit of his company into a sinking ship. The CEO was going to be voted out of his own company at this meeting, but he has another idea and approach for this battle (ie. Research and Development of a Project…).

Okay, so how does this relate to the music business, startup, and how much is enough. Remember Napster back in the day, kids downloading all that music for free. Record labels wanting their piece of the pie. It wasn’t until Steve Jobs steps in and announces online buying of music. The demand for digital music was there, but there was no model or company that offered up a LEGAL way to do it. In todays world, bands like Girl Talk who remix music would have to pay over 12 Million an album to get access to those 10 or 30 seconds of a song. Just to give you an idea of how many songs and timeframe take a look at the wikipedia entry for one of his albums. The world needs an outlet or way to pay a fair royalty for a song that is remixed.

So what is fair, well that gets to the point, how much is enough? How much is a song really worth, is it $0.99 on iTunes? Is some music worth more today when its new and fresh then 10 years ago. Is that Ace of Base album still worth $9.99? Do record labels and artists who make it to that 1% really need millions of dollars?

What are you thoughts on the subject and how can we fix this or will this battle continue to go on and the RIAA continues to sue everyone and their mother in hopes of getting a fraction of a pie back from it’s sinking ship.

One last thought to leave you with is Bill Gates. Think about it for a second, he built and launched Microsoft which charges for licenses to it’s software. This monster of a company has made so much money, yet Bill’s day to day now is in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he helps others. So did that profit from a copy of Windows that you bought go towards helping the poor or by pirating a copy give you cash as you are poor. (ie. pay what you think it’s worth can afford)

So the experiment was can I still enjoy TV without a TV using my external 22in LCD monitor to watch Hulu and DVDs. See what the pro/con’s are and make suggestions for people who are in a similar situation or thinking how can I save money (recession what?) and still enjoy media entertainment.

So far it’s been a couple of months and I wanted to write up what I have learned how much Hulu is better then any cable provider I have had. Now first off I have to give some disclaimers as I am comparing Hulu vs FiOS as that was my last provider. Just as a note, I am obsessed with FiOS and really really really wish I had it where I am now (it’s coming to my building in the upcoming weeks, supposedly). I had an option between RCN and Time Warner Cable (TWC). As sad as it was I elected TWC for my ISP with “powerboost”, such a crock. Although considering I already had a Cable Modem (which was a whole issue within itself) it saved me a deposit and I feel like I am saving something… anywho.

Let’s jump into the quick comparison.

Cable VS Hulu

Cable Pro’s

• I can “surf” through channels without lag.
• Every station is in real-time
• Automate Recording (DVR) of Show (including from phone)
• On Demand – Instant Movies/Shows
• HDTV (mostly 1080i/24)

Cable Con’s

• Bill every month with “imagined” fees, such as the franchise fee I got, WTF!!! (Who likes bills anyway?)
• Required Commercials – Even Fast Forwarding DVR takes time
• If not on demand or dvr, can’t get past shows, also specific time, now option to search/skip/etc.

Hulu Pro’s

• FREE, FREE, FREE!
• Shorter Commercials
• Offers Past Episodes and Behind the Scenes
• Features FREE Documentary/Movies

Hulu Con’s

• I can’t “surf” through channels, only search and browse
• Lag time loading station/show
• No need for DVR, but can’t watch in real time, “The Office is on Fridays now ”
• Not HDTV

Okay, so that’s a quick list I put together, but let’s go through this pro/con list and understand all that the cable service and hulu provide.

To start off, all the shows I watch, except for a couple on planet green and the Science channel (can you tell I’m a nerd?) hulu has it all. Not only the most recent episode, but a past season for some depending on the show and will add new ones as they remove the old. For example, I watched the first episode of Warehouse 13 on SyFi and I really enjoyed it. Maybe it’s because I like to solve problems and each case is about finding what the problem is specifically and resolving it, all in one episode. Anywho, after watching the first one, I started the moving process and missed the upcoming ones… until Hulu. Hulu has not only the current episodes, but also a behind the scense episode to show some background into the case and background. Much like a bonus or behind the scenes on a DVD, this is pretty cool. I enjoyed these bonus shows and for that I gotta hand it to Hulu. Now where does Hulu seem to fail, surfing. I can’t just easily flip through some shows, which I know most of us do. I am not always in the mood for watching a show from start to finish. I noticed this when I would watch AMC or TBS where a movie might be on and I would force myself to watch it even though I had the DVD sitting in a box next to me. Strange right? Well, I just know that sometimes I don’t want to see the whole thing, but skip around or fast-forward to a good part.

Okay, let’s dive into the cost and why I feel like I am getting $#%& by every cable provider no matter who I have had. Just to give you some background I grew up with the following providers: Comcast, directTV, Adelphia, Cablevision, RCN, and FiOS at some point in my life, yes I guess I didn’t always pay the bill, but still watched tv, saw the issues and cost.

The biggest beef I have with cable providers are the commercials, you are BUYING a service every month and yet the provider is making even more money off of you. This is similar to newspapers (which I also can’t stand) who have the same argument, the commercials offset the price and your bill is lower because of the commercials. I know I had HBO when growing up and the thing I loved back then was that HBO would go from Movie to Movie (maybe a Brain Game in between, remember those? It’s now over). HBO was a premium service where you paid and got no commercials. HBO has changed dramatically, they have way too much self promotion. Always “internal commercials” about Entourage or one of their hit shows, ugh. It’s much like Sirus, which I also have beef with, it’s not commerical free as they do all of this DJ crap that talks about the channels and ugh!!! Okay, getting over that, I just can’t help but think I would be willing to “watch” these advertisement but no bill for me, if you can “subside” the bill, then you should be able to insert another one or two and cut out my bill thanks. If anything maybe I can get paid for the amount of commercials I watch, like a credit system (any VC interested?).

Here is the pitch, for each show you watch you are forced to watch a commercials, sound simple, yeah Hulu does this. Not only watch a commercials, but you can choose to watch commercials in between or a long one up front for some shows. Talk about options! I tend to watch the long ones and grab a drink or food, just saying. So the credit system works in way to pay for view. The commercials are so much shorter then with cable providers, it’s a 3 to 5 minute commercial with the daily show on FiOS but 1 minute or 30 seconds with hulu.

So with all of this talk about commercials I just have to point out something. I am sure you have heard of TiVo and how you can’t call your cable box a TiVo but a Digital Video Recorder. Anyway, the original TiVO (dating myself) had the option to remove commercials completely. They would search for the short frames of black and cut them out. Talk about a great service, it would remove the “crap” in between and just leave the show/movie I want. None of this “fast forward” crap. Well TiVo got hit hard about this and changed their service to conform, damn capitalism! I remember when I built a mythtv box (before boxee) it had a built in system that did just this and it was awesome!

I could go on a bit more with this comparison, but for myself, I don’t see getting cable anytime soon. For the shows that I would like to watch, I can always pickup the DVD pack and be a year behind, no big deal. So for the people who are unemployed looking for a way to cut down on bills, lose your cable provider and invest in an apple tv. It pays for itself within a couple of months!!!!

Has anyone else done this, no TV? I would love to hear your experiences with hulu and what features you would like to see.

What is MySubie you may wonder, well MySubie is for Subaru Enthusiasts alike. Anyone and everyone who enjoys their subarus (thats “ur a bus” backwards…just saying) and who enjoys the scene and meeting people, need to checkout and join MySubie. Robert recently launched MySubie and we are doing this tour to help promote his site and get more subie fans together and interacting.

The next 15 days Robert and I will be driving and streaming some video on our adventure around America.

So if you are in New Jersey, Northern Minnesota, South Kent, WA, or Fremont stop by and say hi

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the Book Publishing 2.0 conference and what a conference it was. It was not only fun and exciting learning various strategies and tactics on promoting a book, but also very direct and kept you on your toes. Learning how to write your book from the ground up, but also market and test your content with different audiences to built a platform and reach your goals as fast as possible. Highly suggest attending an event like this, it just blew me away.