work in progress

Pandora gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling… until I received...

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:42:29 -0500

Pandora gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling… until I received this spam from them today.

Pleasantly surprised with some unlabeled music in my iTunes...

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:42:36 -0500

Pleasantly surprised with some unlabeled music in my iTunes library today.

Word of the Day: Portmanteau

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:43:00 -0500

While looking up the wiki-definition of Bookmarklet I came across this fun-to-pronounce one.

from Wikipedia:

A portmanteau is used broadly to mean a blend of two (or more) words.
The usage of the word ‘portmanteau’ in this sense first appeared in Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking-Glass (1871), in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky:

‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’… You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word”
‘Mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there’s another portmanteau … for you)”.

"Genetify’s software takes in all possible variations that a designer can think up, tries them..."

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:41:40 -0500

“Genetify’s software takes in all possible variations that a designer can think up, tries them out, and automatically optimizes the designs from real users’ actions. The same technique is being use by many high-profile sites like Amazon.com. Genetify will provide the same power to everyone.”

- Interesting. From Genetify’s homepage.

"Good afternoon! I found your posting on Craig’s List and I thought I’d follow up with a..."

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:31:39 -0500

“

Good afternoon!

I found your posting on Craig’s List and I thought I’d follow up with a note. My name is —— ———- and I am part of the management group here at ——— Consulting. We are a local IT consulting firm with over 100 full time consultants. We provide IT custom development within the middleware , business intelligence and application integration areas. In addition, we have the capability of providing On-site, Off-site and Offshore development and maintenance of IT projects for small and mid-size organizations. We have a development facility in Aurora, IL and fully equipped offshore development center in Hyderabad, India. Our clients “enjoy” a substantial savings in utilizing our proven On-site/Off-shore delivery model truly customized for small and mid-size organizations.

”

- Email received in response to a job posting we made for an on-site position. Spam like this makes me doubt the effectiveness of outsourcing software engineering jobs overseas.

Nintendostalgia

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:25:09 -0500

Charlie: i was struck on saturday
Charlie: as i lay on the floor in front of the 10 foot screen
Charlie: playing bomberman with 7 friends
Charlie: and i thought, "12 year old me would be SO PROUD OF WHAT I HAVE BECOME"

I was doing some web testing of our OpenID site today and...

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:53:12 -0500

I was doing some web testing of our OpenID site today and noticed that 37signals drew a line in the sand for IE6 & Basecamp.

Good for them.

It makes me happy that Google pays homage to artists on their...

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:27:32 -0500

It makes me happy that Google pays homage to artists on their homepage.

On the side of our office building. Downtown Fort Wayne,...

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:44:00 -0400

On the side of our office building. Downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Friday Morning Music

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:06:15 -0400

Friday Morning Music

Phew, it’s been a crazy month. Haven’t posted in...

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:01:12 -0400

Phew, it’s been a crazy month. Haven’t posted in awhile. I’m back in Pennsylvania this weekend after a business trip in DC for the week. This morning I got some exercise. My Mom teaches spin classes, and she makes some excellent playlists. I told her she needs to publish a book.

The 2008 open fire Corcoran cook-off has begun

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 08:34:35 -0400

The 2008 open fire Corcoran cook-off has begun

iPhone Trism game developer made $250K in 2 months

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:02:43 -0400

iPhone Trism game developer made $250K in 2 months: that’s after subtracting Apple’s 30% cut. he made a $5000 investment to develop the game.

Well, look what Apple’s Genius dug-up. Haven’t heard...

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:16:14 -0400

Well, look what Apple’s Genius dug-up. Haven’t heard this one in awhile. (via Orange Sky from yes, The OC: Mix 1. It’s good.. really!)

Firefox does installer instructions right. We’ve been...

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:51:42 -0400

Firefox does installer instructions right.

We’ve been working on new installer instructions for our TrustBearer browser plug-in, and are taking the same screenshot + limited text approach.

Vimeo has some of the best website layout design...

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:44:13 -0400

Vimeo has some of the best website layout design porn.

pile:

Beautiful (soxiam)

New York investor/incubator Betaworks raises new fund

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:34:40 -0400

wow, summize sold for $15M.

betaworks:

Rafer’s comments below on why betaworks structure may matter. Part of the points he makes below, yes, were reasons for choosing this different structure because we think it affords us the best starting place to build businesses - it’s right for what we want to accomplish, at least now. It’s why we call the things we get involved in participants in our network (as opposed to components of a portfolio).

rafer:

Rafer sez:
Betaworks is also “not a fund,” because it’s not a fund. It’s a holding company that has no inherent need to look at investment horizons, limited partner distributions, capital calls (and correlated management fees), carry calculations, etc., etc., that bias VC-startup relationships before they even start.

betaworks:

Betaworks is a small but well-connected New York investor/incubator firm that’s making a name for itself. It has put money into a number of well-hyped (and incidentally, also New York-based) startups including dating service turned social gaming site Iminlikewithyou, local news site Outside.in, joke e-greeting card company Someecards and music recommendation service Songkick.

Most prominently, it backed Summize, the search engine for Twitter — that Twitter bought this summer for $15 million. Betaworks, which uses the buzzword-laden phrase “business accelerator platform” to describe itself, has just raised another $10 million to $15 million from prominent angel investors, Silicon Alley Insider reports.

VentureBeat, SAI

Well, I would say the things we have done, if they are “well-hyped” at all (dont think they are), are innovative and potentially large businesses.

And, we are not a fund, because not only do we invest, we also build things. And the structure, from a corporate perspective, is totally different. We probably haven’t done the best job of explaining it, really in short we build businesses, and attempt to do that in a scalable, focused and accelerated manner using our specific skills, a very product centric focus, and the network of companies we have. That’s the main strategy. How we do that - invest, build, acquire, etc. - is just a tactic, a detail.

han: lamb: Radiohead’s “Creep,” as covered by an Belgian...

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:38:11 -0400

han:

lamb:

Radiohead’s “Creep,” as covered by an Belgian all-girl choir, Scala, and conducted by the the Kolacny brothers. (Found via xoxoadrienne; find song here)

Listening to this and other songs from the blog right now.

It’s a good one.

Could Wall Street Woes Set Off A Crisis?

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:32:12 -0400

Could Wall Street Woes Set Off A Crisis?: Terry Gross has truly perfected the interview.

From the good folks at Penny Arcade.

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:44:10 -0400

From the good folks at Penny Arcade.