Pintmaster

How true!

Kung fu cat.

I’ve been receiving email solicitations for Motor Trend Magazine. These are sent by Primedia, a New York, NY based company. They use a service called cheetahmail to send out their email direct marketing. Unfortunately Cheetahmail doesn’t seem to be able to unsubscribe me. I’ve done it 5 times! So, that’s their fault and I’ve filed a complaint with the FTC. If you have this problem, do the same. It’s the only way to get them to stop!

FTC Complaint Form

Scream louder? Wave your arms? Take your pants off? How do you get attention?

Simplify the message. Cut to the core and get rid of the excess. (more…)

One of the things I like to do on my blog is shamelessly promote my friends. The criteria for shameless promotion is high. It’s about as high as the criteria for me calling you one of my friends. My friend Dan Grover at Wonderwarp Software just released version 1.0 of his new app Shovebox

Shovebox is great name, because that’s what the app is. It’s a box that you shove stuff in to. It competes in the same class of apps as Yojimbo and Eagle Filer. The Shovebox approach is to have a little box in the menu bar like you see below:

When you want to add something, drag and drop it to the box. Organize your notes and clippings later. Shovebox allows you to dump your brain when you get a thought or see something interesting. This allows you to focus on the activity at hand.

Basically, I use shovebox to store “stuff” and Actiontastic to store “things I need to do”. Shovebox is a great addition to my arsenal. I had been toying with Yojimbo, but couldn’t find a reason to justify the $40. $25 for Shovebox is easier to swallow.

Things I’d love to be able to store in Shovebox

• Passwords (integration with keychain)
• Serial Numbers
• Web archive from firefox (only works w/ Safari now)

I just flew to Houston for the weekend. On my flight, it occurred to me that too few people know how to behave on an airplane. Here are the top tips on how to annoy the people on the plane around you.

1. Use the “seat pocket in front of you”… constantly. Send morse code to the person in front via their lower back. Try this one “.. — / .- -. / .. -.. .. — -” (morse code converter)
2. Play Risk. Expand your territory outward from seat 22B. The armrest is merely a guide to where your space ends and your neighbor’s begins. Don’t stop growing your turf until you feel the cold hard steel of 22C’s seatbelt. Remember, it’s your obligation to use a laptop when in the middle seat.
3. Use the built in sound on your laptop to watch a movie. That plane is loud, so turn it up. Wait till you see the jealousy on everyone’s face when you’re watching Vin Diesel’s latest flick.
4. Get up using all available seats in front of you. Be oblivious to the fact that when you do it jolts the people in front. When they turn to see what’s going on, scowl at them for being nosy. Don’t forget to do the same when sitting down!
5. Always drink coffee and/or alcohol before and during your trip (only for window seats).Going to the bathroom is never more fun when you make 2 other people move for you. For maximum pleasure, ask them to get up when the cart has just passed. This way you need to make the flight attendants move too.

Books contain a wealth of knowledge. I’ve been reading The Monk and the Riddle. It’s a wonderful book about entrepreneurship from Web 1.0 days with many great lessons. As valuable as these are, I have one thought aptly described by a quote from the movie “Good Will Hunting”. (more…)

The site I’ve been working on, PrayAbout.com just got written up in the Boston Globe:

Internet start-up PrayAbout.com marries the ultimate in user-generated content — people’s deepest prayers — with the collective empathy of the crowd, in a variation on the social dynamics that have become common on secular sites.

“I was tired of seeing a video of a grandmother falling down or someone recommending a news story — this is trying to add some real value to peoples’ lives,” said Rodger Desai, who helped develop PrayAbout.

Read the whole Boston.com article ->

It’s the weekend, and that means it’s Business Time. Enjoy!

At least that’s what a segment I saw on the today show said:

…if someone’s friend becomes obese, that person’s chances of becoming obese increase by more than half.

Siblings and spouses also have an influence, although a reduced one — people whose siblings became obese were themselves 40 percent more likely to grow obese, while people whose spouses became obese were 37 percent more likely to.

To me it makes sense. We mirror ourselves on what we see in our friends. Let’s take that a little further:

• Lazy friends make you lazier?
• Rich friends make you richer?
• Smart friends make you smarter?

So, here’s my recommendation: (more…)

Business people are the scorn of developers. “What does she do? Without us developers, this project would be dead”. Are you going to sit there and be ignorant to the mysteries of development? Or are you going to learn something about it? (more…)

Apparently for start ups, a lot! Scott Kirsner has written a cheeky article in the Boston Globe “Will Boston ever catch up?“. In it he criticizes Massachusetts for focusing too much on corporate technology and not enough on consumer technology. How does a Boston startup get Boston VC funds? Move to California! (more…)

Looksmart is a smaller PPC (pay per click) advertising platform. Google is the gorilla in the room and offers great tools to track the conversions of other systems. Unfortunately, I cant give you specific numbers. I can tell you that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are all within 1 - 2 percentage points of each other. Looksmart is around 10% lower than the others on conversions. (more…)

Check out the picture below. Kevin Rose’s lead developer for Pownce, Leah Culver is Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) minus detective skills and plus computer skills. What skills would you use to win her? (more…)

Lack of maps is a BIG problem in the U.S. It should not be underestimated.

One of the things I like to do on my blog is shamelessly promote my friends. The criteria for shameless promotion is high. It’s about as high as the criteria for me calling you one of my friends. My friend Dan Grover at Wonderwarp Software just released version 1.0 of his new app Shovebox

Shovebox is great name, because that’s what the app is. It’s a box that you shove stuff in to. It competes in the same class of apps as Yojimbo and Eagle Filer. The Shovebox approach is to have a little box in the menu bar like you see below:

When you want to add something, drag and drop it to the box. Organize your notes and clippings later. Shovebox allows you to dump your brain when you get a thought or see something interesting. This allows you to focus on the activity at hand.

Basically, I use shovebox to store “stuff” and Actiontastic to store “things I need to do”. Shovebox is a great addition to my arsenal. I had been toying with Yojimbo, but couldn’t find a reason to justify the $40. $25 for Shovebox is easier to swallow.

Things I’d love to be able to store in Shovebox

• Passwords (integration with keychain)
• Serial Numbers
• Web archive from firefox (only works w/ Safari now)

I just flew to Houston for the weekend. On my flight, it occurred to me that too few people know how to behave on an airplane. Here are the top tips on how to annoy the people on the plane around you.

1. Use the “seat pocket in front of you”… constantly. Send morse code to the person in front via their lower back. Try this one “.. — / .- -. / .. -.. .. — -” (morse code converter)
2. Play Risk. Expand your territory outward from seat 22B. The armrest is merely a guide to where your space ends and your neighbor’s begins. Don’t stop growing your turf until you feel the cold hard steel of 22C’s seatbelt. Remember, it’s your obligation to use a laptop when in the middle seat.
3. Use the built in sound on your laptop to watch a movie. That plane is loud, so turn it up. Wait till you see the jealousy on everyone’s face when you’re watching Vin Diesel’s latest flick.
4. Get up using all available seats in front of you. Be oblivious to the fact that when you do it jolts the people in front. When they turn to see what’s going on, scowl at them for being nosy. Don’t forget to do the same when sitting down!
5. Always drink coffee and/or alcohol before and during your trip (only for window seats).Going to the bathroom is never more fun when you make 2 other people move for you. For maximum pleasure, ask them to get up when the cart has just passed. This way you need to make the flight attendants move too.

Books contain a wealth of knowledge. I’ve been reading The Monk and the Riddle. It’s a wonderful book about entrepreneurship from Web 1.0 days with many great lessons. As valuable as these are, I have one thought aptly described by a quote from the movie “Good Will Hunting”. (more…)

The site I’ve been working on, PrayAbout.com just got written up in the Boston Globe:

Internet start-up PrayAbout.com marries the ultimate in user-generated content — people’s deepest prayers — with the collective empathy of the crowd, in a variation on the social dynamics that have become common on secular sites.

“I was tired of seeing a video of a grandmother falling down or someone recommending a news story — this is trying to add some real value to peoples’ lives,” said Rodger Desai, who helped develop PrayAbout.

Read the whole Boston.com article ->

It’s the weekend, and that means it’s Business Time. Enjoy!