- Scanaroo. The idea of something to manage all my cards is cool — one place to see account numbers, 1800 customer service numbers, etc etc etc. But this isn’t it. The shortcoming is the dependency on the iphone camera. If it worked more like snaptell (use the photo to ID the card in a dbase and get all the detailed info and image from a dbase) it would be better.
- Statplot. Interesting idea, charts for sports junkies. Not a lot of community around my teams yet but will be fun to watch
- Card.ly. Microsites. If 140 chars is good enough for a message, why should a website need much more? I guess. Ultimately I don’t know what I’d use this for.
- TuneWiki. Rich loves it, I am not sure I get it yet.
- Linear Programming using Google Spreadsheets. Is this really what is keeping people tied to Excel?
- Notepad++ and plugins. Not sure I will stick with, the app is busy
- SuperUser. This could turn out to be super helpful
Archive for July 5, 2009
Recent app trials
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: Google, Google Spreadsheets, Iphone, Linear Programming, Notepad, Software, Sports, Windows
Gearing up for football…
CFN’s Big Ten Preview is up. OSU gets the requisite amount of love. Though OSU needs some defensive players to surprise to achieve the promise of the team.
OSU picked to finish first at Media Day.
Here are my hopes for the season:
* OSU of course defeats SC and goes on to win the Big10
* Michigan takes steps towards respectability. You can’t have the best rivalry in sports if one of the programs sucks.
* Someone rises in the west to challenge USC.
* UW gets up off the mat and makes some progress.
* Florida and Tebow take a dive. I am so sick of the Tebow-gasm in the press every day. My 2nd favorite team every weekend will be whoever is playing Florida.
Linkfest
- My Favorite Things Mars. Amusing and entertaining
- Why Nokia and Sony are failing. Succinct. Complexity is a killer.
- Inflatable buttons. Cool, not sure practical.
- Computer Hardware Chart. Periodic table of connectors
- W* house. Your portal for great looking expensive sh$t.
- Ford developing laser ignition. Nice, car engines with laser beams!
- WarrantyElephant. Idea is promising but site useless. I need something that will automatically find the warranty policy for my products and summarize my rights for me — without me having to punch in the data myself. IE something akin to ManualsOnline but for warranty info
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: Automobiles, Business, Complexity, Computer Hardware, Design, Interface, Lasers, Mars, Nokia, Sony, Warranty
Books — Long Lost, Gone Tomorrow, House of Suns, Judas Horse
- Long Lost by Harlan Coben. Coben takes his Bolitar character into dark and personal territory. As always a fun adventure. Bolitar in Paris is great. Amazon says 3.5 stars, I’d up it to 4.
- Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child. Another fine Reacher tale. Tho I start to feel that Reacher needs some depth — the Bolitar character in the Coben is more interesting because of his personal relationships. Reacher could benefit from some commitment — personal or professional. Amazon says 4 stars but I’d drop to 3.5.
- House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. In a far distant future, the galaxy filled by humanity and it’s offspring, a galaxy-threatening crisis. A fairly typical form, some interesting elements, but ultimately somewhat forgettable. Amazon says 4.5 stars, I’d say 3.5. Maybe 3.75.
- Judas Horse by April Smith. A nicely layered tale of an FBI agent deep undercover. No one is quite who they seem, no one is a pure hero or villian. The agent’s struggles to maintain her own identity are nicely handled. Amazon says 4.5 stars, this is clearly the star of this crop of books.
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: Books
Contrasting Quarters — Apple, MSFT
Apple’s quarter (NYTimes): “We’re making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding”…”unexpectedly strong sales of Macintosh computers and a surge in iPhone purchases pushed Apple’s profit up 15 percent in the third quarter”…”PC shipments for the industry fell 3 to 5 percent over the last three months. But Apple said it sold 2.6 million Macs in the quarter, up about 18 percent from the 2.2 million it sold in the previous quarter”…”overall gross profit margin grew to 36.3 percent, from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter”…”Revenue rose to $8.34 billion, from $7.46 billion last year”.
MSFT’s quarter (NYTimes): “has been humbled, both by the recession and by problems of its own making”…”Year-over-year revenue and full-year sales of Microsoft’s flagship Windows software dropped for the first time”…”29 percent drop in net income”…”17 percent drop in quarterly revenue”…”warned that people should not expect a major bounce-back in technology spending when the economy recovers.”
Hmm. Apparently the economic downturn is worse among PC buyers than among non-PC buyers.
Connectors — 1 step forwards, 2 steps back
Rich points out that we may have some progress on using micro-usb as a universal device connector. That would be awesome. I carry the most disastrous bag of wallwarts and cables now to keep everything going.
On the other hand, a new connector type for HDMI is coming. Sigh. The A/V connector/cable world remains a disaster.
Many good refs on the net for cable and connector types. Just discovered Hardware Book for instance.
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: 2 Steps, Cable World, Cables, Connector Cable, Connector Type, Connector Types, Design, Disaster, Hardware Book, HDMI, Refs, Step 2, Universal Device
Stuff I Want But Don't Need — Themeless
- Solar Camping Lantern — I remember the old coleman lanterns using white gas, the pumping, the mantles. What a pain in the a$%. This looks way simpler.
- King Cobra wristwatch — awesome looking. Tho I have completely given up on wristwatches.
- Carabiners make everything better. So true.
- Denture ice cubes. Seriously awesome.
- Resistor cheat sticker. I can never remember how to speak resistor.
- Antitheft lunch bags — brilliant.
- Woven wood chairs. Beautiful. Probably uncomfortable as hell.
Waiting for September
2009 CFN Ohio State Preview and Who’s the bigger BCS bust. Looking forward to seeing the team on the field. Will be at the USC/OSU tilt, hoping for better results!
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: Buckeyes
Books — Enclave, Heart-Shaped Box, Inspector Cadaver, The Last Colony
- Enclave by Kit Reed. A wellmeaning nutjob tries to create a perfect closed society, which of course fails totally due to Murphy’s Law, hubris, and selfishness. Amazon says 4 stars but I thought this was quite weak, paper-thin characters, clumsy forcing events.
- Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. Stephen King-esque tale of a ghost with murderous intent. Longer than it needed to be, where was the editor? Amazon says 4 stars but I’d only give 3. With good editting there may have been a 4 star book in here.
- Inspector Cadaver by Georges Simenon. Ah I love Maigret. He ambles into a situation, stirs the pot a little, and lets human nature take its course. Detection by judo — he exerts little force himself, he takes advantage of the inevitable foibles of all around him. Agree with 4.5 stars at Amazon.
- The Last Colony by John Scalzi. Final in a series of 3, humanity struggles to expand in a crowded galaxy. Intra- and inter-race politics dominate. A solid tale, perhaps not quite worth the 4.5 stars Amazon bestows, but solid.
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: Amazon, Books, Cadaver, Editting, Foibles, Galaxy, Georges Simenon, Ghost, Heart Shaped Box, Hubris, Human Nature, Joe Hill Stephen King, Judo, Kit Reed, Murderous Intent, Nutjob, Pot, Race Politics, Selfishness, Star Book, Stephen King
Hey some seattle VCs blog!
Why Seattle VCs don’t blog – TechFlash: Seattle’s Technology News Source — John Cook wonders why we don’t blog. Obviously some of us do — myself, Rich. We do it for personal reasons, not motivated by our business — we’d be blogging if we were still at MSFT, if we were running a vinyard, etc. As such, our blogs reflect 85% our personal interests and a little bit of business interest.
John asserts that “…there’s opportunity for a VC in town to explain what is really going on in the venture industry in clear and concise terms with no BS…“ However, this is not our business. Our business is investing, and to motivate a VC-focused blog, you’d have to be convinced that such a blog would a) improve your deal flow, or b) improve your exits. Not obvious to me at all.
Additionally you’d have to be certain you could sustain the blog — the examples of abandoned blogs that John mentions seems to be a bad outcome.
Linear algebra, finite element analysis online
Reardon recommends Computational Science and Engineering. OCW links.
Books — City of Glass, Motorman, Unguentine, Finding Oz, Tall Book, Run
- City of Glass by Paul Auster. Very murky story of mystery, identity, sanity. Hard to identify with the characters but nicely paced and very odd. Amazon says 4 stars, I’m ok with that.
- Motorman by David Ohle. Ugh. Unstructured self-indulgent mess. Not sure why I picked up.
- Log of the S.S. The Mrs Unguentine by Stanley Crawford. Odd engaging metaphorical tale of a relationship. Very thinly reviewed on Amazon, I like the book. 4 stars.
- Finding Oz by Evan I. Schwartz. The story of L. Frank Baum and the creation of the Wizard of Oz. I do love the movie and the book, and this is great material on its creation — fascinating to see how the events and people in Baum’s life crept into the story. Amazon says 5 stars, I enjoyed, I’d say 4 stars.
- The Tall Book by Arianne Cohen. Father’s day gift about the trials and tribulations of being tall. Good news — higher lifetime earnings, respect, and the ability to reach the top shelf. Not so good — some cancers are more likely, airplane seats, movie theatre seats, etc. The health info was interesting, the whining about seating etc less so. Amazon says 5 stars, that is a reach. 3 stars.
- Run by Ann Patchett. Events force an unlikely family to coalesce. The children’s fortunes and paths are irretrievably changed. OK but not that memorable. Amazon says 3.5 stars, the story has already mostly faded in my mind, I’d say 2.5 stars.
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: Books