Solo, with others

Untitled

2012-01-02T11:39:00.001-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

Elvis is in the bell-ding

2011-12-15T18:46:00.001-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

Jazz in Austin

2011-12-01T21:14:00.001-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

@CentralMarket, 11/27/11 10:00 AM

2011-11-28T06:19:00.001-08:00

Central Market (@CentralMarket)
11/27/11 10:00 AM
Sun Dinfor2: Smoked salmon cakes w/ remoulade, romaine salad w/ corn salsa & ranch, tomato bisque, rolls.

Brilliant use of Twitter

Sent from my iPhone

Thankful that Celebration is out

2011-11-24T10:55:00.001-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

Kings X

2011-10-21T17:54:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

What you can learn from Apple’s marketing | Balcom Agency

2010-04-20T09:46:00.001-07:00

A lot of marketers want to knock it out the park - they want the next iPad or iPhone or iWhatever. But most aren’t willing to do what it takes to get there. After being an Apple fanboy (even appearing on CNN after the iPad launch), I decided to put together a list of things Apple does better than anyone else:
Make Great Products
This may seem very obvious, but Apple makes the best products. Notice how I didn’t say they are the most feature-rich — they aren’t. But they are the best. Apple products are just as amazing for the things they don’t include, than the features they do include.
These exciting products get millions in free media placement, including a recent episode of Modern Family. Apple created the buzz with the iPad, Modern Family wrote a whole episode around it.
Launch with a bang
At the iPad launch, the Fort Worth Apple Store felt like Times Square on New Years Eve. They had store cheerleaders, free refreshments, and a giant countdown. The excitement was contagious and made the sticker-shock less shocking.
They keep a good secret
The unknown is always more exciting. The build-up gets customers guessing and the media talking. All of this equals a giant win for Apple.
It’s all about the experience
Have you ever been to an Apple store? If not, drive to one now. You’ll notice many difference than a Best Buy, for example. No cash registers, no security and tons of smiling employees eager (not desperate) to help. Even the unboxing of an Apple product can be a religious experience.
Treat your customers like a King (or Queen)
Have you ever had a problem with an Apple product? Their customer support is incredible. I’ve gone through over 10 iPhones due to different reasons, and they’ve replaced them free-of-charge.
They own the web
Apple has always had one of the best websites on the net. Their site is a lot like their products - extremely useful and intuitive. It isn’t flashy, but gives you the information you want as quick as possible. Apple.com has continued to be tweaked, but has never deviated far from its roots.

via balcomagency.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

All This Dubai

2010-04-05T17:59:00.001-07:00

via englishrussia.com

Recent photo tour of Dubai. Insane!

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

No Underwear Subway Ride « Improv Everywhere

2010-04-01T09:27:00.001-07:00

via improveverywhere.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

This past weekend

2010-03-31T08:06:00.001-07:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

Dailymotion - Charlie Winston "I Love Your Smile" (Official video) - une vidéo Musique

2010-02-19T10:23:00.001-08:00

Charlie Winston "I Love Your Smile" (Official video)
Uploaded by ATMOSPHERIQUES. - Explore more music videos.

via dailymotion.com

There are a bunch of reasons I like this video...

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Bikes For The Rest Of Us: Raleigh Sojourn

2010-02-16T12:08:00.001-08:00

via bikesfortherestofus.blogspot.com

I like this bike. It's a great value and can be had for under a grand. It should do almost anything from road workouts, to touring to moderate off-roading.

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food

2010-02-15T10:27:00.001-08:00

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"></param> <param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/JamieOliver_2010-medium.mp4&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/JamieOliver-2010.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=765&introDuration=16500&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=2000&adKeys=talk=jamie_oliver;year=2010;theme=a_taste_of_ted2010;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=ted_prize_winners;event=TED2010;&preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;" /><embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgColor="#ffffff" width="446" height="326" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/JamieOliver_2010-medium.mp4&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/JamieOliver-2010.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=765&introDuration=16500&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=2000&adKeys=talk=jamie_oliver;year=2010;theme=a_taste_of_ted2010;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=ted_prize_winners;event=TED2010;"></embed></object>&languageCode=eng&languages=%5B%7B%22LanguageCode%22%3A%22eng%22%2C%22Name%22%3A%22English%22%2C%22Description%22%3Anull%2C%22CommunityUrl%22%3Anull%2C%22CreatedAt%22%3A%222009-05-12 22%3A17%3A26%22%2C%22UpdatedAt%22%3A%222009-05-12 22%3A17%3A26%22%7D%5D&introDuration=16500&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=2000&adKeys=talk=jamie_oliver;year=2010;theme=ted_prize_winners;theme=a_taste_of_ted2010;theme=new_on_ted_com;event=TED2010;&prerollAdTag=tconf.ted/talk;tile=1;sz=512x288;&postrollAdTag=tconf.ted/talk;tile=2;sz=1x2;&inPageAdTag=tconf.ted/talk;tile=3;sz=306x89,306x132;&postrollBeaconAdTag=tconf.ted/talk;sz=1x1;&subtitleSponsorAdTag=tconf.ted/subtitles;sz=198x11;&subtitleActiveAdTag=tconf.ted/subtitles_active;sz=198x11;&su=http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html&ga=UA-170299-1" />

via ted.com

A friend of mine shared this and now I want to share it with you. Jamie delivers a powerful message about teaching children about food. I love to cook... good food and bad. But I would like to think more about what I'm cooking and eating in order to make my life both longer and more enjoyable. Now... if only the weather would inspire me to get out on the bike more often.

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Cool Side Cars

2010-02-03T05:59:00.001-08:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chris Reyher <chris@reyher.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 10:39 PM
Subject: Cool Side Cars
To: Mike Reyher <mike.reyher@gmail.com>, Jim Thompson <jimttx@gmail.com>

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

Apple iPad: The Computer for Somebody Else | mike.reyher.com

2010-01-28T05:33:00.001-08:00

Being a long-time Mac user I watched with millions of others as Steve Jobs introduced us to the iPad. It was pretty much as expected using the iPhone platform to deliver a tablet experience with no keyboard. Everything about the product makes sense in terms of it being a device for casual use of the Internet (email, facebook, etc.) and a dispenser of iTunes (needs a new name now) content (movies, music, books, apps, etc.).

Will they sell millions? Yes. Will I buy one? Most likely not in the near term. It simply does not add enough value between my MacBook and my iPhone to justify being another object in my life. So from my perspective it is a product for "somebody else". Somebody that does not have a MacBook, somebody that is not a consultant by day creating complex documents and power using the Internet and a mobile DJ with a 500G music library to haul around at night.

Then who is this "somebody else"? These people are the ones that iTunes and Facebook have brought to the Internet and computers. These people have to be connected to maintain their connections to their friends and families. They listen to music, watch movies, exchange emails, they tweet and look at pictures on the web. There are milions upon millions of these folks out there. But they are not me. I build media centers out of Mac Minis, have terabytes of media, and maintain 10 web sites and 3 social networks.

So I do think it will be a BIG money maker for Apple. It's a true consumer product... for some other consumer.

The Macintosh was labeled "The Computer for the Rest of Us" back when it was introduced in 1984. Today they went back and picked up the stragglers.

via blog.reyher.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Spigit Brings SAAS Social Networking Tool to SMBs

2010-01-19T06:40:00.001-08:00

Spigit Brings SAAS Social Networking Tool to SMBs

via eWeek - RSS Feeds on 1/19/10

Spigit, Jan. 19 launched WE by Spigit for SMBs of 500 employees or less to work on specific projects within the Spigit construct, which ranks contributors' reputations. Spigit communities are hosted on Spigit's servers and delivered via the Web as a SAAS (software as a service) solution. Spigit rivals include Salesforce.com's Ideas application, as well as other startups such as BrightIdea and SuccessFactors.
- Spigit, a startup whose social networking application helps enterprise employees work together on specific goals, is moving downstream. The company Jan. 19 launched WE by Spigit for SMBs of 500 employees or less to work on specific projects within the Spigit construct, which rank...

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

David Letterman - Dave Discusses Conan, Leno & NBC

2010-01-16T07:54:00.001-08:00

As usual, Dave knows best how to sum things up. - Mike

David Letterman - Dave Discusses Conan, Leno & NBC

via - Google Videos - Hot videos by on 1/12/10

Dave analyzes the latest developments in the NBC late-night debacle. ... cbsepisode late show david letterman conan o'brien jay leno nbc late ...

youtube.com

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

Simple backup script for Rackspace Cloud

2010-01-15T16:47:00.001-08:00

I will have to look at implementing this one a couple of sites. - Mike

Simple backup script for Rackspace Cloud

via Capellic by Stephen Musgrave on 12/21/09

I could have installed the Drupal Backup & Migrate module for this, but then that's yet another module and yet another activity during cron -- and how would it play with my caching done at cron? I didn't want to find out.

There was a very simple backup script that I found in Rackspace Cloud's knowledge base, but it didn't have rolling backups. I've found the errors in data aren't found for a couple of days, so a backup down at 4:00 AM that morning wasn't going to be very helpful.

I wanted rolling backups for 4 days, and I found this script which did just that. I added some variables for the Rackspace Cloud environment, added some debugging statements and I was done.

The script will create a total of 4 backup directories with directory "01" always having the most current backup and "04" having the oldest backup. Two archive files will be created in each folder – one for the database and one for the file system.

While I am using this to backup my Drupal sites, it certainly isn't limited to it. In fact, if it was truly setup for Drupal, I would have some code in here that would put the site in maintenance mode, run the backup and then turn the site back on. I would proabably also opt not to backup all tables – excluding access_log, cache_* and watchdog. I'll get that in the new year.

Note that this script can also be used to run backups for any time interval. It would be easy to copy this script to use for a weekly backup. Just change the backup directory names so that they don't overwrite your daily backups and then setup the cron to run once a week. Or it might be better to copy the existing backup to a new folder once a week.

Installing the Script

Follow these steps to setup on Rackspace Cloud:

Create directory "www.SITENAME.com/backup
Create script, backup.sh, in backup directory
Change variables at the top of backup.sh
Add cron job to run once a day that isn't running when your cron.php job is running (Drupal)
1. Task name: Daily Backup
2. Email Address for Output: devnull@mosso.com (or your email address for testing)
3. Command language: perl
4. Command to run: backup/backup.sh

The Script

Just change the variables at the top of the file to match your website settings and you don't have to touch anything under that.

Of course you can remove all the echo lines, but I find they are useful for debugging. I like to have the resutls of the cron emailed to me for a week and then I'm reassured that the script is running consistently. (Cron can be moody.)

 #!/bin/bash # Modeled after http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/4172 #### VARIABLES # ACCOUNT_ROOT can be found on the Features tab in the control panel for the site export ACCOUNT_ROOT="/mnt/stor2-wc1-dfw1/394655/394685/www.DOMAIN_NAME.com" export WEB_ROOT="${ACCOUNT_ROOT}/web/content" export DB_HOST="DB_SERVER_INTERNAL_NAME" export DB_USER="DB_USERNAME" export DB_PASSWORD="DB_PASSWORD" export DB_NAME="DB_NAME" #### PROGRAM - NO EDITING AFTER THIS LINE SHOULD BE NECESSARY echo "Rotating backups..." rm -rf $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/04 mv $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/03 $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/04 mv $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/02 $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/03 mv $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/01 $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/02 mkdir $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/01 echo "... done rotating backups." echo "Starting database backup..." mysqldump --host=$DB_HOST --user=$DB_USER --password=$DB_PASSWORD --all-databases | bzip2 > $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/01/mysql-`date +%Y-%m-%d`.bz2 echo "... database backup complete." echo "Starting file system backup..." tar czf $ACCOUNT_ROOT/backup/01/web_backup.tgz $ACCOUNT_ROOT/web/content/ echo "... file system backup complete." exit 0 #### END PROGRAM

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

How to Write a Client Proposal | ITworld

2010-01-04T15:51:00.001-08:00

December 30, 2009, 05:29 PM —

Software developers, web designers, and other IT professionals who are trying to build up a consulting business are often asked to provide the prospective client with a formal proposal explaining how they'll serve the company's needs. If you're new at this, you may be amenable but also unsure what to actually say. Let me give you a little guidance.

Anybody can use open source. You might depend on open source software if you're responsible for IT in a large enterprise or as a consumer who prefers FOSS apps for her own personal computing needs. That's true whether you're simply a software developer contributing code to the open source project, a techie who customizes software that just-so-happens to be open source (such as a web developer building sites using Drupal), or an end user who appreciates the price (free!) and quality of FOSS apps.

However, while I'm not sure whether the statistics back this up, by my observation the open source community has a higher-than-usual percentage of consultants, value added resellers (VARs), design studios, and other "independent" techies who pay the rent by making a client happy. This blog post is directed to them. (This is nominally part of my random series on building a career in open source. It is the other side of the writing a résumé issue since consultants rarely need such documents to get work.)

My suggestions also might be helpful for staff developers and designers serving an internal audience. After all, as Jerry Weinberg pointed out in my most-favorite consulting book, Secrets of Consulting, anyone who offers advice is a consultant. However, mainly I'm talking to techies who, on a part-time or full-time basis, intend to get paid (by someone other than a full-time employer) for making software work.

The problem that techies have is that they want to talk about and use technology, and they hate having to "sell" anything — particularly themselves or their skills. Often, or at least to begin with, the work comes to them, either because they've developed a reputation for excellence ("My brother-in-law says you're good at creating websites") or because of a relationship with another techie who needs assistance ("A client asked me to take this on and I'm already busy; could you write the back-end code and I'll deal with the company?"). That's fine — and with the right connections you can make a living that way.

But at some point, a prospective client will ask you to give them a proposal. For example, a client may tell you what they have in mind, and end with, "Could you put together a proposal for the project, broken down by cost for the individual components?" You're willing, but sheesh, what are you going to say?

Proposal writing is an art unto itself, and I don't promise to be brilliant at it. I'm sure you can find how-to books at your local library, though back when I needed to write these documents regularly, I found the "write a proposal" books were tuned more for people writing government proposals worth millions of dollars, not a solo practitioner or small business trying to win a deal. The books were overkill, then; perhaps they're better now.

However, I did eventually learn the skill, and it got me plenty of consulting work and related gigs. This advice is what worked for me. I don't promise it's best from you, but maybe it will get you started.

There's a few distinct parts to a proposal. Length is rarely an issue — the proposal can be four paragraphs, four pages, or forty pages — but it usually covers the following:

Identify the problem.

Describe the solution, and the steps to get there.

Explain why you're the right person to do it.

Tell them what it costs.

The key part is to figure out what your prospective client wants — a matter of empathy and research. What problem do they want to solve? In the proposal, you restate the problem in your own words, backing up how you'll help them achieve their goals. In other words: "You say you want a site to serve left-handed beer brewers with editorial content that'll draw them to your e-commerce site where you sell left-handed equipment; here's what I'll do to help you succeed."

The hard part is to get into their heads. If you understand what success looks like to them, then it's mostly a matter of explaining what the steps are to get there (and pointing out how each step, or component, helps move the site towards their goals). There's several good reasons to include the problem description. One of them is to show the client that you were listening and that you understand their pain. After all, if you got the wrong idea in your head about the problem to be solved, you probably can't deliver something that will make the client happy.

If you can't write that "problem statement" then recognize it as a danger sign. It may mean that they blathered for an hour but you never understood the goal ("What does 'success' look like to this client?"). It may mean that the client doesn't actually know what they want — an extremely common situation. (Determining what the client actually wants is a mysterious subject best left to another discussion. One that includes a lot of beer.) But this is not only about client cluelessness; it's also a way for you to establish your own project guidelines. If you find that it's hard to answer, "What's the problem here?" you may need another round of user interviews, which is why I recommend that you don't write the proposal the night before it's due. (Not that I'm speaking from experience, you understand.)

The last two steps in the proposal are relatively easy. You probably know why you're the right person to solve the client's problem ("I've done lots of stuff like this before, and here's the references to prove it"), and "how much it costs" is just a number. How to reach that number, i.e. "How much should I charge?" is yet another discussion, but in proposal terms it's easy: This is what it'll cost you. If you've done your work well in the rest of the document, the implication will be, "...and I'm worth every cent."

The meat of the proposal is explaining the solution you think is best to solve their problem.

As a techie, you may be tempted to give the prospective client a vague arm-wave about the technologies you use, links to previous sites you worked on, and a laundry list of what would be involved for the project. ("I'd set up your DNS, install the software, create a custom theme....") There's a temptation to write the proposal as if it's a To Do list you'd show another software developer. Don't. Few clients will have the first idea of what you're talking about. All you'll do is demonstrate that software people speak gobbledegook and cannot be trusted. You won't get the assignment.

You'll note that none of this discussion, so far, has been about open source. There's a reason for that: It generally isn't a big part of the proposal. (But lots of open source consultants think it has to be, which is why the topic is relevant.) Here's the part that the FOSS people care about: You might be tempted to turn the proposal into a chest-beating document extolling the virtues of the open source (or other) technology in which you specialize. And, if you're certain you know don't know how to sell, you might copy-and-paste descriptions from the FOSS project documentation and clutter it up with other people's praise of the open source software you'll use.

Again: Don't. You'll have expended your effort on selling the open source philosophy instead of selling your blazingly brilliant software design and development skills. Either the client won't care that you use open source (because what they want to buy from you is a working solution, and they don't care about the box it doesn't come in), or you'll sell them on open source but forget to sell them on you. And you still won't get the assignment.

Clients want their computing problem solved with the ease of getting a pizza delivered: call a number, tell them what you want, and it shows up soon afterward. The ingredients you use in the pizza rarely matter to the hungry person who wants dinner. (When they do quiz you on the software you'll use, that's the time to bring out the open source marching band and play up its benefits. Usually, their qualms are answered when you say, "It's saving you money since I don't have to charge you for a software license, too." But you'll be amazed at how little clients care.)

Instead, the proposal should identify functional categories. That is, a proposal to build the client's website might have one stage in which you establish the Site Structure (which includes setting the DNS, installing software), another for design issues (working with client to identify custom themes, choose photos), still another for content creation functionality (get existing content uploaded, teach them how to use the system), perhaps a stage for getting the site noticed (SEO, etc.). Describe those steps in English with headings that your most non-techie relative would understand. You might care whether "install Askimet" goes into "Site Structure" or a different category, and you may want to document it in that section (under a "tools" list) if the proposal will also serve as the starting project spec (it often does). But each functional category should represent a stage in the project, accompanied by a paragraph that explains how it contributes to the client's goal. (Everything keeps coming back to that.)

Each phase also gets a time estimate and what it depends on (e.g. "4-6 weeks, starts after design signoff, requires meetings with client's marketing director"); some of this may be included in the consulting contract, which is usually but not always a separate document.

When possible, organize the phases based on the personal interaction necessary. Some chunks of project functionality require the client's input; those are the bits that I'd prefer to bill on an hourly rate or estimate with a worst-case view (meetings are scheduling pains, and you have less control over them: "Oh sorry we put that off until next week!" leaving you twiddling your thumbs). Other project phases let you work alone, without client participation (such as the DNS and installation stuff, which you're probably comfy enough with to bid on a fixed price). Whether or not you say so explicitly in the proposal, at the end of each function there's a clear product: a live site ready for content, a wireframe with a client signature, a system to track site analytics. (Do find some way to get them to sign off on each phase... but that's a getting-paid issue rather than proposal writing skill.)

Or to think of these functional categories another way: Break it up into sections that let you invoice regularly. If nothing else this means you could finish one piece of the project, invoice for it — and see if they actually pay on time. And if everything went to hell in a handbasket, they'd have that one part "done" without you needing to talk to them ever again. (Can you tell that I learned to plan for worst contingencies?)

I recommend that you include an optional phase that you think they client doesn't really have to have for the project to achieve success. Some clients need something to throw out; it seems to give them a sense of power to say No to something, and you don't want them doing that on something vital. But it shouldn't be really silly because they might want it, and it shouldn't make you sorry you offered. ("Social media services" perhaps?) Also, if they decide that they want you but can't afford everything you proposed, it lets you knock an item off the list and reduce the price without making it seem like you're cutting your rate.

Don't worry about the granularity of what you propose. I've known people who worry that the client will use your brilliantly-written proposal as a spec that they hand over to another consultant (who presumably will do it cheaper because you did all the hard design work). This does happen occasionally, but you have to learn to take it as a gift from the universe. If the client is so unethical or clueless as to imagine that's okay, almost certainly they would qualify as a client from hell.

There's more to successful proposal writing, I think, but that should be a start for those who are new to the game.

(Note: Inspiration for this post came from a thread on the Wise Women discussion lists. It's a high-volume, supportive, friendly community that I heartily recommend.)

You probably should follow me on Twitter. Because, y'know, you just should.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

via itworld.com

This is by no means a comprehensive tutorial on the subject but there are some very good ideas in this article to digest. I will try to compose something on the topic soon.

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Apple May Be On The Verge Of Kneecapping The Cable Industry. Finally. - Via Tech Crunch

2009-12-22T05:46:00.001-08:00

The cable companies suck. All of them. Some suck less than others. But they all suck. We need someone to whip them into shape. And that someone may be Apple.

Apple may be on the verge of gaining two key television network agreements, according to The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, CBS and Walt Disney (which runs ABC) are said to be considering a proposal by Apple to offer a subscription-based TV service over the Internet. Presumably, this would work through iTunes like all of Apple-based content, but also presumably it would work over Apple’s Apple TV device (though maybe a new version of it) to bring this content into the living room, where people are used to consuming it. Simply put: This could be huge.

But “could” is the keyword. Just as Apple transformed the music industry in the earlier part of this decade thanks to the iTunes/iPod combination, and the mobile industry thanks to the iPhone, a device that offered all the television content over the Internet could force the cable companies to stop sucking. Of course, Apple already offers a ton of television content over iTunes, but there are a few big problems. First and foremost, you have to buy all of this content. I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to buy 99% of the television shows I watch. I would much rather pay a fraction of the purchase cost to “rent” them, as it were, for a time being. iTunes currently has no such option — it’s all or nothing.

And buying this content has another very real downside: You need enough storage space to keep it all. Seeing as some HD TV show seasons are 50 GB in size, this is an untenable model until Apple moves iTunes to the cloud (which it will do, eventually).

Another problem for Apple is that the Apple TV device has not yet proven to be a hit. But this is just as much Apple’s fault as anyone else’s. No less than Steve Jobs has said time and time again that the Apple TV remains a “hobby” and the “fourth leg” of a stool that doesn’t yet need a fourth leg. Apple could have done a number of things to help the Apple TV, such as opening it up to the Internet for use with Hulu and other services. But it hasn’t done that, instead opting to use it to move iTunes content. And it’s actually quite good at that, provided iTunes has what you’re looking for and again, you don’t mind paying for TV shows. A recent firmware update to the device, also made the UI much more usable for scanning a lot of content.

But the Apple TV, which sells for $229, could be a hit in a hurry if Apple offered its own television subscription service that allowed you to bypass the cable companies. Just think about it: Most people pay in excess of $50 a month (and some much more) to the cable companies. For what? Mostly for a bunch of crap they don’t want and will never watch (nor would they even have time to). The problem is that the cable companies have refused to move towards an a-la-carte offering, even though there is a clear demand for it. (It’s partially the TV networks fault too since they like to package their cable channels when giving them to the cable companies.) Apple could do that. And I would bet that is the plan. They may have to start out small with just one or two networks, but if it’s proven to work, eventually they would get more on board and people could start canceling their rip-off cable packages.

I did it myself last year. I cancelled all but the most basic cable and just used my Apple TV and things like Hulu to get all my content. It was much easier than I imagined it would be. Did I miss cable? Not one bit.

But I realize that not everyone is ready for that yet. But that’s why Apple’s role is crucial here. They have a proven track record of taking new ideas and technologies that seem complicated for the average consumer and making them appealing.

The networks are likely to play hardball with Apple though. They’ve all seen what happened to their brethren in the music industry when Apple came on board (they got bullied, but possibly also saved). According to the WSJ report, Apple’s proposal to the TV industry has already changed several times. One deal is said to be a $30-a-month package to consumers that would be a “best of television” package that included several shows from several networks, and more importantly, no commercials, according to the report. Not surprisingly, not everyone liked that idea.

Another part of the report has Apple paying $2 to $4 a month to the major networks per monthly subscriber, and $1 to $2 for a cable subscriber. This is more than a lot of these guys get from their current distribution deals. But Apple would also likely put costs on top of that so they make money too — though it might not be all that much. Remember, Apple doesn’t make that much money from iTunes, instead it’s a driver of iPod sales, and now iPhone sales. The same could be true with this model and the Apple TV.

While everyone is busy focusing on Apple’s tablet device, this could actually be the hot thing to watch for from Apple in early 2010. The report says Apple was hoping to launch this service in March, but that could be delayed, obviously, as the networks fight about why they should or shouldn’t join this venture.

There are at least a dozen headaches Apple would likely have to deal with to get the TV networks on board with this, but Apple’s close ties to Disney (which counts Steve Jobs as its largest shareholder) could help. While it may be just a pipe dream for now, I, for one, hope they’re able to blow up the cable industry. For too long we’ve put up with their sub-par service, their crap hardware, and their rip-off offerings. A change of the channel would do us all good.

[photo: flickr/rickremington]

get widget minimize

CrunchBase Information

Apple

Website: apple.com

Location: Cupertino, California, United States

Founded: April 1, 1976

IPO: 1980

Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computer maker to include consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from… Learn More

Apple TV

Company: Apple

Website: apple.com/appletv

Launch Date: September 17, 2006

Apple TV is a network device for both Macintosh and PC computers that allows users to download, stream, and view High Definition television shows on demand via iTunes.

Learn More

Information provided by CrunchBase

via techcrunch.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Triumph Introduces 2010 Thruxton Special Edition

2009-12-21T11:03:00.001-08:00

Triumph Introduces 2010 Thruxton Special Edition

Triumph has unveiled a special edition of its café racer-styled Thruxton that comes in a sportier version of the classic British design. The renowned motorcycle manufacturer has given a decent re-design to the 2010 Thruxton SE that features modern engineering combined with a retro sports look. Its production is set to start in the spring of 2010.

The new Thruxton features a lot of styling specs to impart the sporty looks. What catches everyones first glance is the stunning red frame and the Crystal White bodywork with a red stripe. Furthermore, a blacked out engine case and a color-matched, factory fitted fly-screen enhances its looks.

The Crystal White paint contains a huge amount of metallic content which gives a luxurious paint finish. When combined with the red powder coated frame it creates a striking contrast which makes the overall work look appealing. Both the colors are new from Triumph and a first time feature.

The power plant that drives the bike is the 865 cc parallel-twin Thruxton Special Edition. It is named after the famous British racetrack which finds itself carved in golden letters in the pages of the history of Triumph. It was the track at which Triumph had a dream run of success in the 1960s. The fuel-injected drivetrain is the best of Triumph’s “Modern Classics” range, producing a power of 68 bhp at 7400 rpm and a peak torque of 51 ft-lb at 5800 rpm.

The engine shares the Bonneville’s 360-degree firing interval but also features a compression ratio of 9.2:1, hotter camshaft profiles and megaphone-style exhaust pipes. To commemorate the Ace Café and the racing streets, Triumph has provided Sporty, low-rise bars, 18-inch spoked-wheels and a race-inspired stripe from tank to tail.

“The Thruxton has long been a popular choice among motorcyclists wishing to experiment with custom paint, and the factory special edition introduces two premium colours to the Triumph range for the first time,” said a company spokesman.

Prices of the Thruxton SE are still to be confirmed, but the manufacturer says that it will come at a small premium over the regular edition Thruxton, which costs around $9,000 or £5,500.

They tried too hard with this one.

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Toaster loaded for the dorba party

2009-12-05T12:51:00.001-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

YouTube blocking native video API from TV devices | Electronista

2009-11-20T11:55:00.001-08:00

YouTube drew controversy with word this week that it has begun limiting the use of its native video API on devices. Reflecting new terms of service, any device that connects to a TV must have a license from YouTube to get fully native video support. The move will ban smaller-scale devices like the Popcorn Hour C-200 from directly accessing YouTube videos, although it will still allow them access using Flash.
The move will restrict TV viewing to devices from companies that can afford the license, such as the Apple TV, TiVo DVRs and a growing number of TVs. iPhones and other handhelds aren't covered by the ban.
No explanation has been given for the reversal of policy, although YouTube has increasingly allowed long-form videos and has been striking deals with major content providers that themselves have attempted to ban video playback from digital hardware connected to TVs to protect deals with cable and satellite providers. Boxee has repeatedly been excluded from Hulu for this reason despite Hulu's own support of the TV-friendly media interface. [via Engadget]

via electronista.com

Now this is just a mess. Figures that I get rid of cable and satellite and then the YouTube and Hulu start to get all freaky over where I consume bits. They were also (not so long ago) pioneers and outcasts. Now they are media companies.

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Business Blogging: Why You Should Do It

2009-11-20T07:03:00.001-08:00

Blogging can be a great benefit to your business if done well. In this post I will explore the benefits a blog can offer your business and why you should consider taking part in this method of direct communication with your audience.

What is a Blog?

Just to bring everyone up to speed…a blog is either a website or a section of a website that is updated regularly with posts from one or several “bloggers” or authors. Blog posts are often more casual in nature and offer the ability for users to leave comments, thus creating a conversation.

There are several free blog software options available to power a blog. Some of the most popular free blog software services available today include Blogger, Type Pad and Moveable Type just to name a few.

Why Should Your Business Blog?

Join the Conversation
No longer is the web a place to simply consume content, today users are content creators. Blogs in addition to other Web 2.0 services (e.g. ratings, reviews, media sharing, etc…) have helped this shift take place. This shift towards social media has resulted in millions of conversations happening on the web every day.

Blogging offers you and your business one path for participating in and creating conversations with your audience. For most businesses that conversation will be with your customers and/or industry colleagues. For many companies a blog is a great way to share and demonstrate your knowledge and experience in your industry. With time this can really enhance the reputation of the company and the blogger. A blog can also enhance a traditional business website by offering users a way to interact with your brand and share their experiences with your product. In both of these cases a blog can serve as a way of reaching out to an audience and engaging them with valuable and insightful content.

Get Feedback From Your Users
Once you are up and running and participating in the conversation you will naturally gain insights from user feedback. This is true of all social media platforms. User feedback, whether positive or negative, can be used to your businesses advantage. For example you might gain insights into what your business is doing right or wrong. What works? What doesn’t? What do your customers need and why? All of this information combined with other sources of collecting customer feedback can really help refine your product or strategy. Feedback from your audience also serves as valuable user generated content. This content will not only increase the overall value of your blog offering, but can also serve as trusted word of mouth marketing to new and potential customers. Authentic user feedback is pure gold!

Increase Search Engine Traffic
A blog will help increase your search engine traffic! One reason for this is due to the fact that blog software platforms almost always publish search engine friendly content pages. Secondly, search engines (especially Google) tend to favor blogs. Google will often return to a website or blog that is updated regularly, which all blogs should be. So this will help increase the frequency that Google visits your site looking for new content thus adding your pages to their index faster. Thirdly, a blog allows you to expand your keyword base. A traditional business website does not change often and has only a limited number of content pages to optimize your content for your targeted keywords. Blogging allows you to publish supplemental content targeting a wider basket of terms including new and related keywords that your website might not speak to. Your blog will become a new channel for customers to find you through search engines.

Promotion and Distribution with RSS
RSS feeds have become a great tool for bloggers to get their content distributed across a variety of blog networks and search engines. Many web users regularly visit sites such as Technorati which aggregate blog content across a variety of topics. Aggregation sites are a great resource for finding articles and content. By distributing your blog content through RSS feeds you open more gateways for new users to find you.

Have Some Fun
Last but not least blogging can be fun. If you choose the right people to blog for your company, and they are willing and able to do it, a blog can offer some nice variety to a person’s work routine. Blogging is also a great way to stay engaged and informed with your industry.

If you are considering if a blog might be right for your business I would suggest you give it a try and see what happens. Blogging might not be for every company (or everyone), but until you try it is impossible to know.

Happy blogging and thanks for reading!

via islco.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Steve McQueen's 1940 Indian Chief at Auction

2009-11-11T07:33:00.001-08:00

Steve McQueen's 1940 Indian Chief at Auction
by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) Nov 11th 2009 at 8:01AM

Steve McQueen's magnificent 1940 Indian Chief motorcycle, one of the most prized among his collection, is being auction off on Nov. 14 during Bonhams & Butterfields' Classic California sale at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The King of Cool was pictured with the beloved bike on the cover of the book Steve McQueen: The Last Mile. The actor had the classic moto meticulously restored by Southern California's Starklite Motors in the '70s and used it to zoom around the Hollywood Hills. It's estimated at an extremely reasonable $55,000 - $65,000. Also on offer is McQueen's original condition 1949 Chevy pickup which he used to travel incognito around Beverly Hills, wearing sunglasses and a big cowboy hat to dodge the paparazzi; it's estimated at $20,000 - $30,000.
[via Duncan Quinn]

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Dogfish Head & Sierra Nevada’s Collaboration Ale, Life & Limb, Coming Soon - Young & Hungry - Washington City Paper

2009-11-10T20:21:00.001-08:00

If you read our posts you know we have a soft spot in our livers for a handful of things, and Dogfish Head Brewery founder Sam Calagione and collaboration beers are two of them. Now that Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada are producing what will be each brewery’s first collaborative effort, Life & Limb (and companion beer Limb & Life), we seem to have hit the blog jackpot.

The supportive atmosphere and camaraderie among American craft brewers is often commented on, so it should be no surprise that brewery founders Sam Calagione and Ken Grossman decided to make a beer together over a couple of cold ones at last year’s Craft Brewer’s Conference in Boston. In early September, just months after Grossman initiated the idea, the two met to brew at Sierra Nevada’s pristine facilities in Chico, California.

The beers were designed to show the personalities of each brewery and the men behind them. We think they have done just that. According to the Life & Limb website:

Life & Limb is a 10% ABV strong, dark beer that defies style characteristics— brewed with pure maple syrup from the Calagione family farm in Massachusetts and estate barley grown on the Grossman “farm” at the brewery in Chico, CA. The beer is alive with yeast—a blend of both breweries’ house strains—bottle conditioned for added complexity and shelf life, and naturally carbonated with birch syrup fresh from Alaska. Life & Limb is dedicated to the family of beer drinkers and enthusiasts worldwide who continue to support the little guys, iconoclasts, entrepreneurs, and pioneers who risk life and limb to shape the vibrant craft-brewing community.

Limb & Life is a ’small’ beer, made from the second runnings of the larger brew, Life & Limb. Limb & Life has a roasted malt flavor reminiscent of dark roasted coffee and toasted bread, combined with a pronounced hoppiness from the use of bold and aromatic American hops. Limb & Life is an easy drinking ’session’ beer – an antidote to the heavy sippers, and a beer that begs for another glass. It is balanced yet flavorful, hoppy yet not without strong malt, and drinkable but still complex.

Limb & Life came out in October, and Pizzeria Paradiso Dupont Circle was lucky enough to get one of only 75 kegs released. According to bar manager Greg Jasgur, they are all out but will be getting Life & Limb as soon as it is available. Pizzeria Paradiso Dupont Circle is having a Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada brunch on Sunday, December 6. The Lagerheads have a sneaking suspicion not only that Life & Limb will find its way onto the menu, but judging by the inexplicable popularity of the event without much promotion, “brewery personalities in attendance” could mean the beer legend and the rock star brewer will be there themselves.

We have heard that Whole Foods, Chevy Chase Liquors, The Brickskeller, RFD, and Birch & Barley will also be good places to look for Life & Limb on draft or in 24oz. bottles starting next week. With only about 11,000 gallons out there we suggest snatching some up, especially since the beer is supposed to be great for aging.

You might also like:

via washingtoncitypaper.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Drupal wins 2009 Open Source CMS Award

2009-11-10T13:54:00.001-08:00

From the announcement:

We are pleased to announce that Drupal has won the Best Open Source PHP CMS Category in the 2009 Open Source CMS Award. This category featured a very close contest between the top three, Drupal, WordPress, and Joomla! in which Drupal ended up as the overall choice for the judges and the public.

While Drupal and Joomla! have always consistently featured among the top three in this category, WordPress made its way into the top five for the first time. The fact that it was outranked by Drupal by a very slight margin indicates how popular it has become with users as well as developers over the past year.

Runners up this year were WordPress and Joomla! who each were granted $500 prizes.

Congratulations to Drupal and it’s developers.

via cmscritic.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Ultracentric Race at Northshore | DORBA

2009-11-06T12:57:00.001-08:00

Normally, as President of DORBA, I am writing to help promote and advocate cycling events and activities in our area and on the trails that our members volunteer to build and maintain. It’s a big part of what we are about as an organization. However, when an event threatens to make the relationship between a landowner and DORBA more problematic, and could threaten public access to that trail in the future, as an organization we must take a strong position against those type of events.

Recently “The Ultracentric Experience” was a thread started to promote an event being held on the Northshore trail. The feedback on last year’s event and promoter went downhill fast with many of our members claiming mismanagement of the event and even unpaid winnings to those that were promised such. In many cases this can be attributed to “misunderstandings” or “sour grapes” and many of those issues were handled and resolved by the Race Director. However, there were some things about this situation that caused us to have even deeper concern about this event.

When an activity is held on a DORBA maintained trail and with a landowner (in this case the Army Core of Engineers, ACOE) that DORBA has diligently worked to create a long standing and positive relationship with, as an organization, we cannot condone any activity, event, or race that does not have the following in place:

1. Written permission from the landowner in the form of a permit or other document,

2. Written proof of insurance for hosting the event, and copies of that insurance in the possession of the landowner and DORBA,

3. A written plan to help and assist DORBA Trail Stewards in the repair efforts to bring the trail back up to conditions prior to the event.

Additionally, any public claims of sanctioning by USAC or other sanctioning bodies, when that sanctioning does not in fact exist, could also reflect poorly upon DORBA because of our relationship with USAC, even though DORBA has nothing to do with the event.

I think it is important to bring these to your attention as there has been a lot of discussion about the Ultracentric Experience event being held at the Northshore trail. DORBA is not in any way affiliated with this event, nor will be in support of any event that does not have a minimum of the above listed criteria in place.

As the organization that is responsible for the stewardship of the Northshore trail, we do have a vested interest in how events are run. I and the Board both felt that it was important to communicate this to you as members and volunteers that help to keep public access to the Northshore trail available and as a destination location for the North Texas community. Our primary mission is to provide for the enjoyment of trails and land access for our members and the public. The current state of this event poses a threat to that mission.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Rich
President, Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association

via dorba2.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

A wearable 1080p camcorder!

2009-11-06T04:52:00.001-08:00

VholdR 1300 ContourHD1080p Full HD Wearable Camera

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 7:37 AM Posted by Amiruddin

VholdR 1300 ContourHD1080p Full HD Wearable Camera
Other products by VHoldR
The VholdR ContourHD 1080p Wearable Camcorder is a full 1920 x 1080p camcorder for recording all your adventures on land, in the air, on the side of a mountain pretty much wherever you feel the need to explore. The ContourHD 1080p not only records in 1080p, but also offers up 4 other resolution choices depending on your needs: 1280 x 960p at 30fps, 1280 x 720p at 60fps, 1280 x 720p at 30fps and standard definition 848 x 480 at 60fps. Record whatever your heart desires with this extremely lightweight and easy to use 5MP camcorder. All your video is captured to microSD memory cards (2GB card included) up to 16GB for easy flash memory recording and transfer. When using a 16GB card you can record for up to 8 hours! Considering the built-in lithium-ion battery lasts for 4 hours on a single charge, that's pretty awesome. And you'll capture all your adventures with the fixed focus 135° lens that keeps the entire scene in focus without over-distorting things. A built-in microphone rounds out your video by capturing the sounds that go along with every adventure. Ease of use is another hallmark of this wearable camcorder. Even with gloves on you can start and stop recording with just a touch of the switch. And, because it weighs only 4.3 ounces and is mountable to just about anything, thanks to VholdR's patent-pending TRail Mount system, you'll be able to shoot without being distracted or weighed down. In addition, dual lasers, along with the 180° rotating lens
For more details about this product, please click here.

Labels: VholdR

via camcordersshop.blogspot.com

4 hours of battery life and up to 8 hours of recording capacity with a 16G SD card!

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Figuring out what your company is all about - Joel on Software

2009-11-01T16:21:00.001-08:00

Joel on Software

Figuring out what your company is all about

by Joel Spolsky

Sunday, November 01, 2009

What is your company about?

Recently I got inspired by Kathy Sierra, whose blog Creating Passionate Users and Head First series of books revolutionized developer education. She kept saying the same thing again and again: help your users be awesome.

Kathy taught me that if you can’t explain your mission in the form, “We help $TYPE_OF_PERSON be awesome at $THING,” you are not going to have passionate users. What’s your tagline? Can you fit it into that template?

It took us nine years, but we finally worked out what Fog Creek Software is all about, which I’ll tell you in a moment, but first, some backstory.

In the early days, we were all about making a great place to be a software developer in New York City.

Yep, that was all there was to it. Almost every software job in the city was terrible. You had a choice of which kind of terrible. Want to wear a suit and work long hours under crummy conditions? Take a job at a bank. Want to report to a manic-depressive creative who demands that you stretch HTML in ways that would have you put to death, in certain countries? Take a job at a media company. Want to work 24/7 in a basement with water pipes dripping on your head and get paid in worthless stock options? Take your pick of the revenue-free dotcom startups.

Why New York, then? There are lots of great product companies where software developers are treated very well in Redmond, Washington. But I was sick of trying to live in lesser cities. Sure, the Seattle area is beautiful, and green, and clean, and possesses great coffee, and I understand that there are even a couple of grocery stores open late now. But I’m staying in New York, because it’s the greatest city in the world.

I gave up the search, and decided to start a company with my buddy Michael Pryor. Making a nice place to work was our primary objective. We had private offices, flew first class, worked 40 hour weeks, and bought people lunch, Aeron chairs, and top of the line computers. We shared our ingenious formula with the world:

The tagline was “building the company where the best software developers want to work.” It was, to say the least, awkward. It didn’t make for a good elevator pitch. It didn’t really have the right format. “Abercrombie and Fitch: building the apparel store where the hottest teenagers will want to work.” Who cares? Not the hot teenagers, I’ll tell you that.

Anyway we accomplished that goal. Cross it off the list. What’s next? We needed a new mission statement.

And it has to be something of the form, “We help $TYPE_OF_PERSON be awesome at $THING.”

Bells went off. Everything we’ve done successfully has one thing in common: It’s all about helping software developers be awesome at making software.

That includes Joel on Software, Stack Overflow, all the books I’ve been writing, the conferences like DevDays and Business of Software, the Jobs Board and Stack Overflow Careers.

It includes our flagship product, FogBugz, which is all about giving developers tools that gently guide them from good to great. It’s the software implementation of the philosophy I’ve been writing about for a decade, lacking only one thing: the feature to replace exceptions with return values, while adding Hungarian prefixes to all variable names. THAT IS A JOKE, PEEPLE. Put DOWN the bazooka.

Helping you make more awesome software is why I write endlessly about what we’re doing at Fog Creek, despite the fact that people accuse me of shilling. I’m not writing to promote our products. You don’t have to buy our products to get the benefit of reading about my experience designing them and building them and selling them. I’m writing to share some of my experiences in case they can help you make better software.

Our focus on helping developers explains why one of our early products, CityDesk, flopped: it had nothing to do with software developers. And it explains why another of our products, Fog Creek Copilot, only found a market in the niche of software developers doing tech support.

So, here you go, the new tagline: “We help the world’s best developers make better software.”

Going through this exercise made it easy to figure out what belongs in future versions of FogBugz and what doesn’t. In particular, we’re adding source control and code review features to FogBugz, using Mercurial, the best open-source distributed version control system. Everything that helps developers make better software belongs in FogBugz: project planning, project management, bug tracking, and customer service.

It took almost ten years, but I think we finally got the mission for the next ten nailed.

Optional Advertainment: If you’ve got a moment, check out this 4½ minute trailer for Make Better Software, a new video training series we’ve been working on for more than a year. It’s the video edition of Joel on Software and fits perfectly with our agenda of helping developers make great software.

College students: my company has paid summer internships in New York City, including free housing, free lunch, and the chance to develop software people will really use, with great mentors on interesting projects. Don't miss this chance of a lifetime. We only have a few spaces and they always go fast, so apply today.

Want to know more?

You’re reading Joel on Software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies.

About the author.

I’m Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software, a New York company that proves that you can treat programmers well and still be highly profitable. Programmers get private offices, free lunch, and work 40 hours a week. Customers only pay for software if they’re delighted. We make FogBugz, an enlightened project management system designed to help great teams develop brilliant software, and Fog Creek Copilot, which makes remote desktop access easy.

© 2000-2009 Joel Spolsky
joel@joelonsoftware.com

via joelonsoftware.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Ribs are on for tonight!

2009-11-01T06:33:00.003-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

Ribs are on for tonight!

2009-11-01T06:33:00.001-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

Dirt Rag Magazine Blog » Blog Archive » Interbike Mini-Review: Brompton S6L

2009-11-01T05:54:00.003-08:00

During Interbike week, we borrowed a variety of bikes from companies to ride from our rental house to the indoor show, plus to parties and happenings around town after dark. Not only did this make our experience much more enjoyable, it allowed us a closer look at some of the latest offerings in the realm of transportation and utility bikes. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be presenting our impressions of our time with these bikes as mini-reviews on the Bicycle Times website.

My introduction to Brompton bicyles was at this year’s Dirt Demo at Interbike. This is where I met Emerson Roberts and Andrew Finkill, who presented me with a nice clean Brompton to borrow for my remaining week in Vegas. They demonstrated how the bike folded, then tested me to make sure I was paying attention. After I passed the test, I was sent on my way to explore my new wheels. Click here to read the mini-review.

Email this • Digg This! • Share on Facebook • Discuss on Newsvine

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 9:42 am and is filed under Fresh Dirt, Product Testing, Bike Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

via dirtrag.com

Testing posting to Drupal Blog via Posterous API

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Dirt Rag Magazine Blog » Blog Archive » Interbike Mini-Review: Brompton S6L

2009-11-01T05:54:00.001-08:00

During Interbike week, we borrowed a variety of bikes from companies to ride from our rental house to the indoor show, plus to parties and happenings around town after dark. Not only did this make our experience much more enjoyable, it allowed us a closer look at some of the latest offerings in the realm of transportation and utility bikes. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be presenting our impressions of our time with these bikes as mini-reviews on the Bicycle Times website.

My introduction to Brompton bicyles was at this year’s Dirt Demo at Interbike. This is where I met Emerson Roberts and Andrew Finkill, who presented me with a nice clean Brompton to borrow for my remaining week in Vegas. They demonstrated how the bike folded, then tested me to make sure I was paying attention. After I passed the test, I was sent on my way to explore my new wheels. Click here to read the mini-review.

Email this • Digg This! • Share on Facebook • Discuss on Newsvine

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 9:42 am and is filed under Fresh Dirt, Product Testing, Bike Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

via dirtrag.com

Testing posting to Drupal Blog via Posterous API

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Android + Drupal + Beer = Beer Cloud | INsReady

2009-10-26T16:03:00.001-07:00

This new software integrates the rich functionality and features of Drupal, the open source platform used to create GreatBrewers.com, with Android, the open source platform used to create BeerCloud. The joint utilization of powerful features including GPS, a barcode scanner, and user generated content make BeerCloud a first for the beer, wine, and spirits industry.

Created by GreatBrewers.com, BeerCloud helps you pair beer with food, track down your favorite beers in your neighborhood, and pull up a full description of any beer with a scan of its barcode.

What They Did

Scan the barcode of any beer to view the brewer’s description, specifications, and food pairing suggestions. Discover recommended beer style pairings for your next meal using the intuitive “sommelier” feature. Map the closest bars, restaurants, and stores actively carrying your favorite beers. See a list of current beer offerings at a local retailer. Seamlessly manage your saved tasting notes, favorite beers, favorite brewers, and favorite places to buy beer with your GreatBrewers.com account.

Why They Did It

Today’s beer drinkers have access to a far greater variety of beer than ever before, but with thousands of unique offerings representing more than 140 distinct styles, consumers can easily get overwhelmed. BeerCloud simplifies the process of learning about beer at the point of purchase, choosing the perfect beer to pair with a specific food, managing favorite beers and favorite brewers, and mapping the closest bars, restaurants, and stores that currently offer one’s favorite beers.

How They Did It

To provide highly accurate, perpetually updated, location-based availability data for thousands of beers at nearly 100,000 bars, restaurants, and stores, BeerCloud’s developers teamed up with dozens of America’s leading beer wholesalers in the Great Brewers network which collectively represent more than 400 domestic and international breweries. Brewery provided company profiles and product descriptions empower BeerCloud with the most comprehensive beer database on the planet. Culinary guidance from leading connoisseurs provides thousands of harmonic beer and food pairing recommendations in the Beer Sommelier.

With this powerful lineup of information built into GreatBrewers.com, Jingsheng Wang engineered an API for the Drupal website to seamlessly integrate content and saved user information with the BeerCloud mobile application.

Some Techs

Android Library:
Barcode Scanner, The library to support scanning beer UPC-A bar code.

Drupal Modules:
Services, turn Drupal into a services back-end for Android. Also, the API will be used by iPhone App, or other desktop application.

Views, Many many things are built on Views. Product Catalog is one of them, but Views is too slow for Product Catalog, so re-engineering is necessary. Also, together with Node Reference, we can pull any data together. All the data is available through Services gateway.

CCK, Fields to store data

Location, store location data, and support the proximity search, using the GPS data sent by Android

Barcode, store bar code data

Available Features:

Beer Sommelier
Product Information
Brand Information
Barcode scan beer
Beer Finder

For a full store, visit http://greatbrewers.com/story/beercloud-mobile-app

Developer Bios

Sheng is an open-source purist and an Android fanatic who takes a fresh approach to engineering. Eric, a self-proclaimed beer geek, is dedicated to helping the world discover great beer. Tom celebrates two of his passions, art and beer, by designing beer art.

Project Start Date:
2009 Jul 1

End Date:
2009 Sep 1

client_information

Client Name:
GreatBrewers.com

via insready.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Facebook Status: Resting In Peace - All Facebook users are going to die

2009-10-26T14:11:00.001-07:00

Facebook is now letting users memorialize pages of friends who have passed away.

The contact information of the person memorialized is privatized and the pages cannot be logged into anymore. You need to submit proof of death, but beyond that, I think this is going to make for some really tacky pranking. In the end, I find this to be a nice digital analogue to that which inevitably happens to all Facebook Users. [FB via BB]

Send an email to the author of this post at blam@gizmodo.com.

via gizmodo.com

I've been wondering about this...

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

WhiteHouse.gov Goes Drupal [Updated] | techPresident

2009-10-25T11:21:00.001-07:00

WhiteHouse.gov has gone Drupal. After months of planning, says an Obama Administration source, the White House has ditched the proprietary content management system that had been in place since the days of the Bush Administration in favor of the latest version of the open-source Drupal software, as the AP alluded to in its reporting several minutes ago.

The great Drupal switch came about after the Obama new media team, with a few months of executive branch service (and tweaking of WhiteHouse.gov) under their belts, decided they needed a more malleable development environment for the White House web presence. They wanted to be able to more quickly, easily, and gracefully build out their vision of interactive government. General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), the Virginia-based government contractor who had executed the Bush-era White House CMS contract, was tasked by the Obama Administration with finding a more flexible alternative. The ideal new platform would be one where dynamic features like question-and-answer forums, live video streaming, and collaborative tools could work more fluidly together with the site's infrastructure. The solution, says the White House, turned out to be Drupal. That's something of a victory for the Drupal (not to mention open-source) community.

Drupal proponents have long tried to make the case that open-source software could be just as safe, just as stable, and and just as reliable as pre-boxed software, even if hundreds, thousands, or even millions of volunteer developers had their fingers in the mix at some point along the way. The White House's seal of approval doesn't hurt.

According to White House new media director Macon Phillips, working with GDIT on the competitively bid contract are both open-source software practitioners and experts in keeping systems up and running. Notably, the Drupal specialist firm Acquia is also working with the White House on the project as a subcontractor. Why that's worth noting: Acquia founder Dries Buytaert is also happens to be credited as the programmer who created Drupal in the first place, and he currently serves as the Drupal community's project lead in the software's development. Acquia, writes Buytaert, "is to Drupal what Ubuntu or RedHat are to Linux." (Translation for the rest of us: the source for a polished, established, and supported version of a free and open-source software system.) Drupal specialists Phase2, based in Virginia, is also serving as a subcontractors on the GDIT-managed WhiteHouse.gov contract, as are the IT infrastructure firm Terremark Federal Group and Akamai, the distributed computing company already tasked with keeping the White House website up and running.

Let's really try to extract the last drop of possible meaning from a choice over a CMS. Squint a bit, and it's possible to see the White House's move to open-source software as a move towards the idea that collaborative programming can inspire -- or at least, support -- a more distributed politics. That idea bubbled up in 2004, when young programmers experimented with using Drupal itself to turn the Howard Dean campaign into the Howard Dean network. This idea, that a politics crafted by the people could be a powerful thing indeed, emerged in a slightly mutated way during the Obama presidential campaign, but has arguably receded below the surface during the first nine months of the Obama Administration. First the WhiteHouse.gov CMS gets more open, then the White House OS? Perhaps.

For the lay user, the White House website looks much the same as it has since inauguration day (though search should work noticeably better). But by being open source, the White House is opening itself up to all the bright ideas, powerful plug-ins, and innovative tools that the considerable community of Drupal aficionados come up with. It's a community that the White House says it is eager to tap into. "Open source is a great form of civic participation," the White House's Phillips told me this afternoon. "We're looking forward to getting the benefit of their energy and innovation."

Related: Drupal project lead Dries Buytaert reflects upon the White House's switch to Drupal.

From the Archives: Why the White House's Embrace of Drupal Matters

[Updated with details on the contractor and subcontractors involved in the WhiteHouse.gov contract.]

via techpresident.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Facebook | Mike Reyher: Information on how to control your Facebook news feed.

2009-10-24T16:34:00.001-07:00

Check out this website I found at facebook.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

daily-scrum-meeting-rules - scrumnet.org | Google Groups

2009-10-21T06:09:00.001-07:00

The daily scrum meeting is time boxed to 15 minutes regardless of the number of team members.
Hold the daily scrum in the same place at the same time every work day. The daily scrum is best held first thing in the day so that the first thing team members do on arriving at work is think of what they did the day before and what they plan to do today.
All team members are required to attend. If for some reason a team member cannot attend in person, the absent member must either attend by phone or by having another team member report on the absent members status.
Team members must be prompt. The scrum master starts the meeting at the appointed time, ragrdless of who is present. Any member who is late pays Rupees 50 to the scrum master immediately.
The scrum master begins the meeting by starting with the person to his or her left and proceeding counter clockwise around the room until everyone has reported.
Each team member should respond to three questions only:
1) What have you done since the last daily scrum regarding this project?
2) What will you do between now and the next daily scrum meeting regarding this project?
3) What impedes you from performing your work as effectively as possible?
Team members should not digress beyond answering these three questions into issues, designs, discussion of problems, or gossip. The scrum master is responsible for moving the reporting along briskly, from person to person.
During the daily scrum, only one person talks at a time. That person is the one who is reporting his / her status. Everone else listens. There is no side conversations.
When a team member reports something that is of interest to other team members or needs the assistance of other team members, any team meber can immediately arrange for all interested parties to get together after the daily scrum to set up a meeting.
Chickens are not allowed to talk, make observations, make faces or otherwise make their presence in the daily scrum meeting obtrusive.
Chickens stand on the periphery of the team so as not to interfere with the meeting
If too many chickens attend the meeting, the scrum master can limit attendance so that the meeting can remain orderly and focused.
Chickens are not allowed to talk with team members after the meeting for clarification or to provide advice or instructions.
Pigs or chickens who cannot or will not conform to the above rules can be excluded from the meeting (chickens) or removed from the team (pigs)

via groups.google.co.in

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Mac OSX Snow Leopard | FUDDYTV.COM | BLOG | The home of Chuck Storm and Car Dance Party.

2009-10-13T09:02:00.001-07:00

Aug 29 2009

Tired of Being Your Parents IT Support?
by Ryan Northcott
-->

I have a small and nagging problem. It’s my mother, and her utter lack of any expertise with the computer…bless her heart. You see, she’s stuck in the Windows XP world, waiting too many minutes to start up the machine and the constant crashes, bog downs and useless crap. It’s no surprise that many of you have this same problem, the late night calls, the early morning rants – “It said I couldn’t connect to the wireless network?”

“No, Mom, you’re trying to connect to someone else’s.”

So we, as Generation Me (ugh, that’s disgusting isn’t it?) have to come to the rescue and no doubt interrupt our Twittering and Facebooking to solve the complicated issue. How do we do it? As a PC user for all my life, I came to a realization. Now I’m no Apple Fanboy, though I have do have a large love affair with Logic, Final Cut, Soundtrack Pro and Motion. Yet the solution is true…

Get your parents a Mac.

I know, I know, you think I’m crazy. How will they live? How can they survive without right click? How will they know where the buttons are!? Ahhhh! Dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria! But really, it’s not that at all. When Apple says they work, they do indeed, just work. I’ve never had my MacBook Pro crash, never had it freeze, have updated seamlessly and run the crap out of it. In fact as I write this I’ve got Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Logic and Dreamweaver open and running as smooth as you can imagine.

Recently Apple released Snow Leopard, the next step in the OSX world. So not only did they go ahead and make something that was already fairly awesome awesomer, they made it cheap. $34 CAD. Here’s a few things Snow Leopard improves on:

1. Malware Protection. If it thinks it’s malware, no dice, it’ll tell you.
2. Better Docks. Yup, no more bendy big long list.
3. Automatic Printer Drivers. No more searching for the elusive driver.
4. Exchange Support. What does this mean? It means all those business guys in the Outlook mail world can do it on a Mac.
5. Faster performance. Applications open faster, work is faster and logging on and shutting down are simple and quick.

With all this in mind, why would anyone stick to Windows? Well, that’s a tough one. A really tough one. They suck, let’s face it and I’m saying this as a life long Windows user.

So it’s time we all got together, prepared for the intervention and got our folks off PC. Not only to save our parents from Windows, but save ourselves. Heck, if they’re so hellbent on Windows, you can get them Parallels, which’ll run Windows on a Mac. Yeah, it’s that good. It may even turn those IT working sessions into a fresh beer and a burger, courtesy of Mom.

3 comments | tags: Apple, Dad, FuddyTV, IT Support, Mac OSX Snow Leopard, Mom | posted in Apple, Mom and Dad, Techy Stuff

via fuddytv.com

Great advice here...

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Answers to most common talking points by those opposed to bicycle infrastructure « Bike Friendly Oak Cliff

2009-10-12T09:13:00.001-07:00

Dallas is the only major US city without on-street bike lanes. Bike lanes have proven to increase ridership and safety and most every major city in the US is currently undergoing major bicycle infrastructure build-outs. Below are answers to a few common debate points given by those opposed to building bicycle infrastructure:

1) Dallas isn’t dense enough for bike lanes, right?

Portland’s inner city density in the 1980’s (pre-bike lane years) was comparable to Dallas inner city area (inside Loop 12) now. This is THE time to build, not once more people arrive. As an example of the major growth occurring in the inner city area, Dallas downtown population was 500 in 2000, and projected to be at 10,000 by 2010.

2) Isn’t it too hot in Dallas to promote major bicycle ridership?

Tempe, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, and New Orleans have bike lanes and they’re hot. The latter three are extremely humid. Fort Worth just unveiled a plan for 490 miles worth. Melbourne, Australia hit 108 degrees during their summer this year, and they have a very high bicycle ridership with lanes. In the end, ALL cities have issues with climate (Portland – Rain, Minneapolis – Cold, Austin – Heat, Copenhagen – Freezing). This is not a legitimate excuse. Dallas has 8 months of extremely mild weather. Copenhagen “Bike Capital of the World” has 4 months of freezing weather.

3) Don’t Bike lanes bring out more inexperienced riders, who are fearful and actually pose a greater danger?

If this is the case, then one would expect to see an exponential increase in accidents/fatalties in cities with major bicycle infrastructure. Remember, a place like Portland has 150+ miles of bike lanes and 8% ridership (Dallas has 0 miles, and 0.2% ridership). Given the above assumption, the massive number of inexperienced students bicycling in lanes and crossing the path of cars at thousands of different intersection points would show exponential increasesin accidents. In 2008, Portland had 0 fatalities…Dallas had 7. There is not a single study out that notes where the percent increase in ridership surpassed the accident rate in any US or European city. Multiple studies now show that the reason for the inverse relationship is due to “safety in numbers” and greater awareness.

4) Aren’t the “Safety in Numbers” studies flawed, because John Forester plotted numbers on a page using random phone numbers from a phone book to show how this test’s findings are inconclusive.

Actually, John Forester’s attempt at debunking the test was flawed. Here is a complete breakdown by the study’s author on where JF went wrong.

5) There’s a study in Denmark that shows the following: Cycle tracks increase cycling 18-20%, Cycle tracks increase accidents 9-10%, Cycle lanes were less effective at increasing cycling and it was unclear if they raised accidents more than cycle tracks. Isn’t that proof that bicycle infrastructure is a failure?

Look at the numbers again. The Jensen study referenced does not show a greater percentage increase in accident rates over ridership. That’s the key. In other words, if you had 1 accident with 100 riders one month, and 2 accidents with 1000 riders the next month, you’d have an increase in accidents of 100% (a great example of how percentages can be used to scare), but an increase in ridership of 1000%. As long as the accident rate stays below the ridership level (which it ALWAYS does, and by great margins), then the accident ratio drops. Jensen also replied to us and thoroughly vetted this attempt to mask the numbers here. His final conclusion, “Dallas should add cycle tracks. Ridership will definitely increase. Accident ratios will definitely decrease.”

6 a) Bicycle Ridership will never be high because Dallas doesn’t have a single University. That’s why the other cities can have high turnout.

We have SMU.

b) SMU is in University Park, not Dallas

University Park is 3 miles long, 4 miles from Downtown, and completely surrounded by the city of Dallas. Also, Dallas Baptist University.

c) Dallas doesn’t have a University with 30,000 students.

How did this become the magic number for successful bicycle infrastructure? For this to be a legitimate excuse to not build bicycle infrastructure, one would have to produce a city with a University that has 29,000 students, and implemented bike lanes that failed. For that matter, there isn’t a city in the US that has completely removed its bicycle infrastructure. The reality: All cities with bicycle infrastructure have not only successfully attracted riders, but they’ve all added or are in the process of adding more lanes. Also, this argument goes completely counter to the “bike lanes bring out more inexperienced riders” talking point constantly returned to. If a city has 30,000 students that you provide bike lanes for, you’d have a greater number of inexperienced riders, thus an assumed greater numbers of accident ratios.

7) If you implement bicyle lanes, cars will expect you to ride in them, and become more hostile if you drive on the street.

Cars are already hostile to bicyclists in the road and expect them to stay off the road. I’ve been honked at, encroached on, and had brakes squealed/engines revved on more occasions that I can count in Dallas, and we have no bike lanes. The person in charge of informing the Dallas public at large that bicycles are allowed on the road did not do a good job of spreading that message.

8 ) Dallas doesn’t have the culture for bicycling that other cities do.

According to Mia Birk, former planner of Portland, Oregon, neither did they. Ridership started out only slightly greater than Dallas. Roger Geller, the new planner stated, “If you build it, they will come.” Now, the city has built a 120 Million dollar industry surrounding bicycling, including a major tourism, and production industry. Also, Cyclesomatic proved that the culture can be fostered and grown.

9) So where exactly are you going to build these bike lanes. Dallas is sprawled out, and it’s going to cost a fortune.

You wouldn’t create bike lanes throughout the entire metro area (read our article titled: The Transect for more). A major bicycle infrastructure should largely be developed within an urban zone (ie. inside Loop 12). Beyond that, the sprawl is an obstacle. As the inner city grows, you can’t add more car lanes. The only option is to accommodate multi-modal traffic. This is exactly what Chicago, Seattle, NYC, DC, Portland, Phoenix, Atlanta, Boston, et al. have begun doing, and to great success.

10) There’s debris in the bike lanes. No one’s going to clean them.

Dallas already provides street sweeping once a week on all Downtown streets, and once a month on all major thoroughfares.

11) Aren’t bike lanes far too expensive to implement?

Bicycle lanes in most cities are installed when the City happens to be resurfacing a road anyway. This allows the money to come from the regular budget for repairing a road and requires very minimal costs. Plus, less wear and tear occurs within bike lanes, requiring far less maintenance on the surface, since the cause of most pot holes is due to heavy trucks. Also, the return on investment for streets with bike lanes, and businesses surrounding these has proven to far offset any cost. Remember, you’re not building roads to move people as quickly as possible (that’s what highways are for), you’re building them to allow interaction between commerce and individuals, as well as transport. Forsaking the former for the latter has shown drastic effects in increased accidents, crime, and health.

For roads that aren’t being repaired, but lane implementation buildout was sought, cities around the US have opted for the following funding methods:

- TIF (Tax Incremented Financing) Districts : In Oak Cliff, we’re lucky enough to already have three in place, and they are currently allocating funds for pedestrian/bike amenities.
- PID’s (Public Improvement Districts): We have one being planned now by merchants all along multiple corridors in Oak Cliff. The Uptown PID currently pays a portion of upkeep for the MATA trolley, the Katy Trail, and McKinney Avenue streetscapes
- Parking Improvement Districts: This is a very popular way that urban communities are now applying to develop infrastructure projects from streetcars, bike lanes, and more. A municipality will build out a parking structure near an area that is tight on space to allow more businesses to bring in greater traffic. The funds brought in from these Parking Districts are then channeled to
- Federal Grants: Safe Routes to Schools, Main Street Improvements, TIGER grants, and a host of others are all being applied for now by members of the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, and other agencies to bring in funds for bicycle infrastructure. It’s the exact same funds other cities have applied for and used to build out their networks.
- Friends of Organizations: From rails to trails, to historic building renovations/upkeep, “Friends of” organizations are built out throughout the nation using fundraisers, grants, and more to build and create infrastructure projects on a routine basis.

12) Why are you comparing Dallas to Northern European cities? We’re nothing like them.

Portland used Copenhagen and Amsterdam as its model when developing its multi-modal infrastructure plan. NYC just completed its street redevelopment program with the aid of Gehl Consulting from Denmark. Currently Gehl is working with Mexico City on a plan for its downtown. So yes, European cities are a fair model. Watch the following clip where you’ll see Copenhagen streets in the 1960’s that looked much like ours. Full of parking lots and high speed roadways. Year after year, they began rolling these back and creating a more pedestrian friendly environment. Note that, the interviewee states “When we implemented this, everyone said ‘we’re Danes not Italians…we don’t have a culture for walking!’. 40 years later…

13) Do you just hate cars? Taking away a lane for bicycles will cause a nightmare for traffic.

I own two cars, but I understand that we can’t continue to build our inner cities for automobiles only. Also, every study has shown that an increase in ridership occurs when you accomodate multi-modal traffic, and that the end over end volume levels out, and capacity remains unchanged.

14) Don’t Bicycle lanes increase accidents due to Right Hooks, confusing left turns and more?

There have been multiple engineering techniques applied to overcome right hooks and left turn issues, including bike boxes, the Copenhagen-Left, no-right turn exclusions, and more. There was a rudimentary attempt at drawing a right-hook failing point by a bike lane opponent, but her methodology would have also shown how a jogger on a sidewalk could also be injured by crossing an intersection via sidewalk. Again, Portland had 0 fatalities in 2008 with 150+ miles of on-street bicycle infrastructure and 8% ridership. Dallas had 7 fatalities with 0 miles of on-street bicycle infrastructure and 0.2% ridership. Also, Copenhagen, the world’s bicycle capital, has the highest ridership levels (over 50%), and lowest accident rates (decimal point levels). New York City just released its 200+ page guide on street design. Multiple examples of how to overcome many intersection issues are noted here.

15) Experienced Cyclists do not want bike lanes.

Not so. Read multiple Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong’s take on bike lanes. Also read Boston’s new bicycle coordinator’s, racing champion Nicole Freedman, take on bicycle infrastructure. Lastly, League Instructor Paul Dorn gives a great account of the failure of Vehicular Cycling advocates position on bicycle infrastructure here.

16) So you expect to put bicycle lanes on every streets?

No. We are for a mix of infrastructure buildouts including bicycle boulevards for some residentials (mixed car and bike roads, that discourage pass-through traffic, and make safer for children in neighborhoods), and separated bike lanes on streets at 35 mph or greater, but not all streets. Separated (ie. dedicated) bike lanes have proven to bring the highest increases in ridership. Also, intersections are key areas to focus on for traffic calming. If an intersection feels unsafe, a bike lane will fail at increasing numbers to a high degree.

17) The Katy Trail is expensive, and no one rides to work on it.

The Katy is actually fairly successful for being a long linear park, which is why it was built…not as a commuter bikeway. Because of this, there are very few connection points onto the trail from the streets it crosses, and at its terminus, you are dropped onto a one way street. It would be no different than building a long highway with no ramps onto it except at a distant end and beginning point, and at its end you were dropped on a one way going the wrong way. You would expect little commuter traffic.

18) Why are you so adamantly for this?

Several reasons. 1) Our generation demands this type infrastructure, and our friends and family are leaving in droves for cities that adopt them like Portland, Chicago, and Austin. Some orginally claimed these cities have a different culture, but we’ve proved through Cyclesomatic that a major culture exists in our area, and it just needs to be fostered and cultivated. Our friends and family weren’t moving to Portland in 1990, but they were in 2009. 2) The infrastructure allows a more pedestrian friendly business environment, that allows for more “eyes on the street” which increases safety, and improves the environment, all while supporting more local business. We’ve already lived through the alternative.

19) We only need education. Everything else is far too expensive.

First of all, education for whom? All drivers? All bicyclists? Most likely both. So a statewide education campaign that educates all drivers and bicyclists wouldn’t be expensive? Also, all drivers go through testing currently, and we still have 42,000+ fatalities on the roads a year. The proven option for cities to increase bicycle ridership and safety is to create facilities and educate.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
City of Dallas Hates People With Two Wheels.
They snuck one by me
Sharrows on Morris Street
Montreal Musts, to go: Get around by bike

via bikefriendlyoc.wordpress.com

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Now Planes are Tweeting, Too

2009-10-11T09:08:00.001-07:00

We’ve seen Tweets posted by plants, a space shuttle and even a house, so we shouldn’t be particularly surprised to hear that commercial jets are now Tweeting and posting Facebook messages (sorta). In fact, we think the idea is ingenious.

Admittedly, it’s not the plane itself doing the Tweeting: it’s the airline. Lufthansa has set up a new service named MySkyStatus that automatically posts the current position of your flight to Twitter or Facebook so your friends can follow your travels (and your friends living in those cities can look up!).

Typical status updates read “flying over San Francisco Intl, California 94030, USA on United Airlines” or “flying over Grantsville, UT 84029, USA on United Airlines”. It seems the system posts the flight’s position around once per hour, pulling info from a database of flight information.

Here’s the really smart bit: I stumbled on the service because one of my Facebook friends was on a United Airlines flight today. Clicking the link in the update, of course, directs you to the Lufthansa MySkyStatus page with a Google Map of the flight’s position, meaning that Lufthansa is getting free social media promotion from people travelling on all airlines. Pretty smart.

On a long haul flight, of course, the system may post 20 updates or more, but the functionality is so cool that I’m prepared to give some slack to those Twitter (
) and Facebook (
) friends who have decided to put their updates on autopilot.

[Image credit: bribriTO]

via mashable.com

This is just the beginning of "tweeting things"....

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Fatties do fit fine!

2009-10-11T08:41:00.001-07:00

via flickr.com

Hmmm... 700x45 Panaracer Fire Cross on the Surly Cross Check. Hmmm...

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Biking to School Not allowed?

2009-10-01T08:53:00.001-07:00

Editor's Note: To comment on this story, please visit our blogs: Saratoga Seen | Parent to Parent.
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Seventh-grader Adam Marino is getting a firsthand lesson in civil disobedience.

'); document.write(''); //-->

The 12-year-old and his mother, Janette Kaddo Marino, are defying Saratoga Springs school policy by biking to Maple Avenue Middle School on Route 9. The Jackson Street residents pedal more than four miles together each way to the middle school on nice days despite being told not to by school officials and police.
"I guess you can say that we continue to do what we feel is our right," Kaddo Marino said recently. "We feel strongly we have a right to get to school by a mode of transportation we deem appropriate."
Their methods may be unconventional, but the Marinos are part of a growing number of Americans challenging the sedentary habits of today's youths and what they view as overanxious "helicopter" parenting. As fewer children walk and bike to school nationwide, parents have started groups like the "Walking School Bus," which promotes physical activity and fitness in youth by having them walk to school with adults.
Parents and teachers at Niskayuna's Hillside Elementary School implemented the state's first Walking School Bus program. Separately, this week marks the end of the first "Children and Nature: Saratoga -- Come Out and Play," a week of outdoor events in Saratoga Springs coordinated by the local chapter of a national organization that seeks to "reconnect" children and their families to the outdoors.
Riding his 21-speed Giant mountain bike to school benefits Adam Marino's health and the environment, his mother says, and Adam believes it makes him a better student. "It would be really nice if it got changed," he said of the school policy.
The youngster may get his way.
While the school district does not allow elementary school or Maple Avenue students to ride bikes to school, that could change in the coming weeks, Superintendent Janice White said. The Board of Education could vote to amend the policy on Oct. 13, when it is scheduled to discuss a recommendation from a district-formed committee.
"Supervised, parent/guardian bike riding may be permitted at specific sites in the future," White said in an interview Friday. The school has no legal responsibility over what occurs on Route 9, she added.
The biking debate started last spring, when school district officials told Kaddo Marino that Adam was violating school rules by biking to class. Walking to the school also is not permitted.
Kaddo Marino challenged the policy and asked the school board to change it. The district charged a committee to review the rule, which was instituted in 1994.
At the start of school in September, Kaddo Marino thought that she had a nonverbal agreement with school officials to allow her son to ride his bike until a new policy was resolved. But on the night before classes started, school authorities called parents to say that walking and biking to school would not be tolerated.
When the pair stuck with their plan, they were met by school administrators and a state trooper, who emphasized that biking was prohibited, Kaddo Marino said.

via timesunion.com

This is so preposterous I had to post it to posterous!

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Rain, Rain... go away!!

2009-10-01T05:48:00.001-07:00

via skitch.com

Come back some other day AFTER the DORBA race @ RCP!

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

» Ode to the Chupacabra

2009-09-30T13:44:00.001-07:00

via ridingthespine.com

Fat long-tail bikes are cool!

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

If you treat people around you like they have no choices, that's who you end up with.

2009-09-27T08:03:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

Ikea, 'Family Circle' Take Food on Tour

2009-09-24T08:33:00.001-07:00

- Lucia Moses

NEW YORK Well known for its low-cost home furnishings, Ikea is enjoying newfound popularity as a dining destination with shoppers who like its cheap, kid-friendly cafeteria.
Starting in October, the retailer will take its association with food a step further with free cooking seminars. They're part of an ad deal cooked up by Meredith's Family Circle, which is presenting the tour with Food University, a culinary events company. The five-city tour, called Food University Presented by Family Circle, kicks off in Seattle and features chefs demonstrating recipes from the magazine.
Sole sponsor Ikea also will commit to pages in Family Circle. The 3.9 million-circulation pub wouldn't disclose the number of pages, but said they represented an increased investment over 2008, when the retailer started advertising in the title.
Ikea increased its magazine spend in the Jan.-June 2009 period to $7.1 million, or 15 percent of its total media budget. In the year-earlier period, it spent $6.7 million in magazines, or 13 percent of its media budget, per Nielsen.
"We know that our readers, the moms of teens and tweens, have started cooking more and more at home as a way to save money and spend more time with their families," said Carey Witmer, publisher, Family Circle. "Our partnership...gives us the opportunity to help people feel more comfortable in their kitchens."
To help establish the event's brand name, Family Circle also changed the name of its monthly food column, "Cooking School," to "Food University."
Family Circle has been an exception in an otherwise lousy ad climate for magazines. This year through October, its ad pages grew 14 percent to 1,411 vs. an 11 percent decline in the women's service/lifestyle category and 23 percent decline for the industry overall, per the Mediaweek Monitor.

Nielsen Business Media

via adweek.com

I love their Swedish Meatballs!

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

SSWC'09 Course Map

2009-09-17T14:15:00.001-07:00

SSWC09<br/>Find more Bike Rides in Durango, Colorado

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

CO Springs to Durango - Our route yesterday

2009-09-17T13:25:00.001-07:00

View Larger Map

via maps.google.com

I think it was the most scenic drive I have ever done!

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Grand Opening and Alleycat Race at Transit Bicycle Company

2009-09-13T13:54:00.001-07:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

Steve Jobs' return and the Journal's ad placement

2009-09-12T12:38:00.001-07:00

via news.cnet.com

Wow... I'd like to think this was a total accident. Of course, I'm not sure that anyone looks at final pages before they are printed since there are regional versions of most national newspapers these days.

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Untitled

2009-09-11T16:44:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

Best Burning Man Photo

2009-09-11T07:59:00.001-07:00

via flickr.com

by vikapproved

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Cyclocross Bikes for Commuting at Urban Velo

2009-09-11T06:16:00.001-07:00

Cyclocross racing and commuting have a few things in common. Both are for the hardy, attracting cyclists who don’t mind riding in foul weather, over imperfect terrain or in adverse conditions. Although many commuter bikes are patently unsuitable for cross racing, with some exceptions, cyclocross bikes are excellent for commuting. They all accept high-volume tires (typically 32mm or higher) and some manufacturers have even created commuter-specific cross bikes that do double duty. Here are a few examples—feel free to suggest others in the comments below.

Frameset Only
Soma Double Cross - $375
Van Dessel Hole Shot - $650
Gunnar Cross Hairs - $800
Santa Cruz Stigmata - $850

Complete Bikes
Kona Jake - $899
Specialized Tricross Triple - $940
Giant TCX 2 - $975
Felt F95X - $999
GT GTR Type CX - $999
Surly Cross Check - $1050

Gary Fisher Lane - $1099
Masi Speciale CX - $1150
Raleigh RX 1.0 - $1200
Rocky Mountain Solo CX - TBA
Redline Conquest Classic - TBA
Schwinn Fastback CX - $1300
KHS CX200 - $1399
Jamis Nova Pro - $1575
Trek XO 1 - $1650
Salsa La Cruz - $1680
Terry Valkyrie Cross - $2518
Bianchi Cross Concept Race - $3499

ShareThis

via urbanvelo.org

I used a Surly CrossCheck as a commuter in Dallas and it was a perfect blend of speed, maneuverability and durability. I miss that commute.

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Crowdsourcing 101: Why Vitaminwater's Facebook App Can't Lose | Culture Buffet | Fast Company

2009-09-10T13:21:00.001-07:00

When it comes to game-changing ideas, is there really wisdom in crowds? Given several efforts at crowdsourcing creative content and product development in recent years, more than a few companies seem to think so. What's less clear is why some crowdsourcing efforts are wildly successful while others fall flat. Vitaminwater raised the question again this week when it released a new "flavor creator" app for Facebook, inviting users to vote for a new flavor and vitamin formula for a new product release, even offering $5,000 to the fan who creates a winning packaging design. The crowd gets a product of its own creation, and Vitaminwater gets a pre-approved-by-the-crowd product for release in March. Everybody wins, right?

Letting history be the judge, the answer is at best a "maybe." Doritos has enjoyed measurable success crowdsourcing Super Bowl ads with its "Crash the Bowl" contest, notching the No. 1 most watched Super Bowl ad on YouTube in 2006. But a nearly identical marketing initiative by Chevrolet asking users to create their own Tahoe ads online turned into a forum for the anti-SUV set to bash the product on Chevy's own Web site. More recently, advertising powerhouse Crispin, Porter + Bogusky learned the hard way that crowdsourcing can go seriously awry, drawing fire from its own creative community after issuing an open call to designers to create a logo for one of its clients, essentially soliciting free design work. So how will Vitaminwater avoid Crispin's crash and burn and turn its crowdsourcing experiment into a success?

The greatest advantage of crowdsourcing is that it costs relatively nothing. While Crispin failed to recognize that crowdsourcing from a professional group--that is, asking people to do something they do for a living for free--would be taken as an insult, it did garner hundreds of submissions for a logo design, gratis (the winning design scored $1,000, a pittance for graphic work). In that sense, Crispin succeeded, but at the expense of its reputation (and that of its client, a major faux pas in for a company hired to build up brands). Companies like Doritos or Vitaminwater, appealing to non-professionals who are nonetheless experts on the topic (ask a child why she like Doritos and you'll likely get a reasoned answer) for creative ideas holds far less potential downside as long as the anti-vitamin lobby doesn't sabotage the project.

But the real difference between Crispin's backfire and Vitaminwater's likely success is what the companies are really getting from the crowd. The biggest thing Vitaminwater has to fear from its initiative is that the crowd won't produce a winning product. When Crispin's logo experiment flopped, it flopped hard. But even if its product fails, Vitaminwater has a catalog of other popular flavors to fall back on, as well as tons of priceless, free market data gleaned from the "flavor creator" app that can be rolled into several future products (keep in mind, downloading the app gives Vitaminwater access to all sorts of data on your page). Couple that with the heightened brand visibility the app will create as its nearly 600,000 fans access the app and invite their friends to participate, and even a complete bust on the product development side becomes a coup for Vitaminwater's marketing team, as well as for its product development crew.

Call it hedging. Even had Crispin succeeded in crowdsourcing its logo design without the ensuing black eyes, thousands of man-hours of logo design were left in the rubbish bin. A complete failure for Vitaminwater's crowdsourced flavor, while a bummer, is still a huge success for the company. For Vitaminwater's flavor app, crowdsourcing isn't a win-win. It's a can't lose.

[via Wall Street Journal, CNET]
Related Stories:
The Rise of Corporate Games
Fisker Plays It Safe, Claiming 67.2 mpg for the Plug-in Karma
HP and Amazon Tap Into Crowdsourcing for Ads
Topics:
Innovation, Technology, Vitamin Water, facebook, facebook app, crowdsourcing, social network, market research, advertising, Doritos, Advertising, Beverages, Media, Food and Cooking

via fastcompany.com

The rise of social networks has laid the infrastructure for a lot more of this kind of thing. This intersection of technology and marketing allow simultaneous market research and creation. A sort of product creation collaboration between companies and their audience.

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Where we are staying in Durango during SSWC!

2009-09-09T12:42:00.001-07:00

Features:

The condo has a secured-access elevator and secure underground parking with two parking spaces. The building provides lots of outdoor living space. A front patio entrance provides views of the Animas River and surrounding mountains. A fenced park, walking and biking trails, and the Animas River, which provides for great fishing, canoeing, and kayaking are within easy walking distance.

The interior is 1380 square feet, with two bedrooms, two full baths, a large walk-in master closet, central heat and air conditioning, and a washer-dryer. The kitchen has a gas range, garbage disposal, and high quality appliances, surrounded on one side with a large raised stone-tiled counter.

The living/dining area is open with a gas fireplace and two patio doors that provide the entrance to a private side patio area with a gas grill and lovely views of 3rd Avenue and beyond. The condo is lavishly furnished and decorated. The interior has a leather sofa, loveseat, and armchair. There is a flat screen TV with surround sound, DVD player, and cable TV with movie channels for the living area and master bedroom. Included are telephones and a high-speed internet cable connection. No smoking or pets.

Floor Plan:

via downtowndurangocondo.com

Place looks nice. Even includes Internet!

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Chipotle iPhone App Rereleased | GadgetReview

2009-09-07T11:54:00.001-07:00

via gadgetreview.com

I think we're going to see a lot more of this kind of thing. The iPhone app market is crazy hot.

Posted via web from Mike's posterous

Untitled

2009-09-07T11:13:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Mike's posterous

Route to Clearfork

2008-05-22T10:02:00.001-07:00

View Larger Map

2008-05-08T18:45:00.001-07:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Then again...

2008-05-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

So I go back and sit on the GTS 25o and it feels even better than the Piaggio BV250. I just like the Vespas better too.

Aprilla BV 500

2008-05-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

This may be more the direction I am headed. While the Vespas are "authentic", you see more of these running around Italy and the rest of Europe than the old small wheeled Vespas.

Dealing with difficult people....

2008-04-25T09:29:00.001-07:00

"Maybe if you can't say anything nice... say nothing at all."

Stars Round 2 Schedule

2008-04-24T18:01:00.001-07:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Doing some math....

2008-04-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

This passage struck me today....

2008-04-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

"Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can’t prove that it will."

I found it in this article on personal responsibility for climate change.

Roman Holiday

2008-04-22T09:08:00.001-07:00

Hmmmm......

ACL 2008 Lineup!

2008-04-15T12:03:00.001-07:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Updated Commute Map

2008-04-14T11:28:00.001-07:00

Farstar

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Proper Cycling Technique in Traffic

2008-04-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

Good video on how to cycle safely in traffic.

Meet "Chupa"

2008-04-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Becky and I adopted what appears to be a Chihuahua - Mini Pin mix that is capable of picking up Mexican radio with her ears. She's very sweet and a little frightened right now but she'll get used to the new digs soon. We need to get her to the vet on Saturday to get checked out and get her shots, etc.

Possible Commute from Home to Farstar

2008-04-09T05:36:00.000-07:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Farstar

A Day Late But Still Funny....

2008-04-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

2008-03-27T17:15:00.001-07:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Early DARPA BigDog Prototype

2008-03-26T07:18:00.001-07:00

What a great idea for Halloween!

Bike Hashing

2008-03-19T05:50:00.001-07:00

Bike Hashing, originally uploaded by Solo, with others.

I was surprised to see the hares as I came around the corner. I did not even know this picture was taken until today.

St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl in Lakewood

2008-03-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

Kim Wheels

2008-03-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

My friend Kim called last night to inform me that her journey to rebrand herself (change her name) was complete. She is now known as "Kim Wheels". Kim lives and works in Telluride, CO and works in the energy management and conservation business. She used to design the HVAC for WalMart distribution centers and live in a suburb of Dallas.

Kim is reinventing herself. Congratulations!

MS Word is NOT a Presentation Tool

2008-03-13T05:13:00.000-07:00

I really hate it when I get Resume as a Word .doc file. Word is a composition tool not a presentation tool. If you want me to make edits for you then I can understand. But if you want real control over the presentation of your resume then send a .pdf. I'm amazed at how many people with "creative director" on their resume send .doc files.

The Mouth of Truth

2008-03-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

In an effort to fill in some glaring holes in my movie watching Becky decided it was time for me to see "Roman Holiday". I won't bore you with the details of the movie but I will share how it sat with me.

The movie has to be popular as everyone can identify with some element of it. Two people from different worlds intersect lying about their real stations in life and in the end realizing they are from different worlds; getting hurt; and moving on.

I like the way the movie ended with both of them moving on with their own lives and responsibilities. I mean, how else would it turn out? The princess marries the American reporter? To me it is a model of a valid happy ending.

I wish I had seen this movie a few years earlier.

Hey Mambo!

2008-03-04T14:39:00.001-08:00

Monkey On My Back...

2008-03-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

That's what it has been like for the last couple of years.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

I can't seem to shake self doubt as a cyclist and most of you reading this know how important that is to me. I've been off my game for one reason or another it seems for over two years now. And now there is no excuse for it.

So yesterday was the Bar H Bash race. 5 years ago this was the scene of my first XC race. Some of it is how the singles speed class has changed, but most of it is how I have not gracefully changed as things change around me. Saturday night I tossed and turned knowing how poorly prepared I am physically for the race. It's just a lack of riding and a lack of discipline at the dinner table. I was able to overcome the nagging urge to not even start and by 7:30am I was actually looking forward to the race. One of my favorite parts of racing SS is the starting line. We are the first group to go off in the morning and there is so much great energy there.

Once the gun sounded I was comfortable and settled in for long couple of laps. Everything went as predicted and I was feeling pretty good about my ability to hold it together and finish.

Then I pinch flatted as I came off Spit Ears. I would have had to run about 4 miles in bike shoes to finish.

It was not to be.

My mistake was not carefully checking the tire pressure before the race. It felt fine. Yet it was too low and one misplaced boulder the size of a fist took me out.

On to the Ouachita Challenge.

It's time to get ready for the Bar-H Bash

2008-02-29T10:48:00.000-08:00

Biker Fox Movie Trailer Bicycle Race

Add to My Profile | More Videos

In some ways... things are better without the writers

2008-02-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

Ironman

2008-02-04T12:35:00.000-08:00

I saw this trailer for Ironman last night during our SuperBowl commercial watching party. Looks like a good one.

2008-02-04T09:56:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful day on Saturday for Becky's first MTB race. Becky won the SS Women's class by being the only female that raced single speed.

Hit Me On My iPhone

2008-01-30T09:44:00.001-08:00

Catchy stuff... reminds me of Kevin.

Riding in Bandera County, Texas

2008-01-09T18:41:00.001-08:00

Bandera County, originally uploaded by Solo, with others.

While everyone else was running the trails in Bandera I took the opportunity to explore back roads and visit each of the aid stations. The Surly Cross Check seemed right at home with the fat tires.

Pork Crown Roast

2008-01-09T12:35:00.001-08:00

IMG_0509.JPG, originally uploaded by Solo, with others.

Becky and I spotted a pork crown roast at a grocery store in Kirkland, WA and they got me thinking that I want to try one. The next weekend we were in Atlanta where Mango lives now with his wife, Kat. (left). Mango is always up for experimenting with cooking meat so we found a butcher that had a roast and cooked it up in Clifford and Lisa's oven one night.

Nothing like prk garnished with pork. It was a real crown pleaser.

New Radiohead - awesome...

2008-01-02T21:04:00.001-08:00

Outlook tends to drive me insane!

2007-11-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

In my last job, I headed up a very talented team that spent a huge part of their time trying to support small business users with Exchange and Outlook as their mail platform. So, when I was asked to "fix our mail and calendar issues" at my new gig the first thing I did was get rid of exchange and Outlook.

I signed us up for Google Apps Premium Edition. We get to use our own domain, get state of the art web mail with POP and IMAP access, bullet proof and super slick calendaring, support for blackberries and iPhones, a home portal page, document sharing, and much more for $50 per user per year. We can manage it all with a web based interface. We get Postini archiving and policy management included for free. It's really a great deal.

And the nicest thing about it is that end user support is almost non-existent. Who doesn't know how to use Gmail? Now, people can still use a mail client if they want but that's their business and I don't have to support it. To provision an account I just set them up with one form and send them to start.ourdomain.com and they have all the links to all of our systems in one place. No client config instructions, nothing.

So one of our change-resistant users went back to Outlook via IMAP earlier this week. Today she said she went back to the google mail web interface because Outlook did not route some of her mail out yesterday. There are tons of reasons this can happen and I'm glad I don't need to spend time investigating them or dreading people moving to Outlook 2007 and whatnot.

Free at last! (well, $50/year/user anyway)

My Business Leadership Mentor is Dee Hock

2007-09-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

... and always has been since my days at CompUSA. I found him reading one of the first issues of Fast Company while on a plane to visit with Apple Computer. I implemented this approach at WorkFlow Designs a couple of years later and have used his approach ever since. The link below will take you to an excerpt from his book.

Future Positive : Leader-Follower

The obvious question then always erupts. How do you manage superiors-bosses, regulators, associates, customers? The answer is equally obvious. You cannot. But can you understand them? Can you persuade them? Can you motivate them? Can you disturb them, influence them, forgive them? Can you set them an example? Eventually the proper word will emerge. Can you lead them?

Who do you want to work with?

2007-09-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

If you treat your people like they have no choices, that's who you will end up working with. If you treat people like they can be inspired, grow and exceed expectations... watch out!

This has always been true in my career both as a professional and as a father. I'm very proud of the great people I have had the privilege to work with and my very own children. I look forward to the great surprises around the corner.

My Hood

2007-09-01T08:34:00.001-07:00

37/365, originally uploaded by beckbee03.

This car was parked out front of my place for a couple of days. That's all I have to say about that.

An Experiment - Failed

2007-08-27T09:03:00.001-07:00

An Experiment, originally uploaded by Solo, with others.

Two rides at moderately smooth Rowlett Creek Preserve trail kept hope alive that the drops would be workable. But a couple of ride this weekend on more technical trails let me know this was a bad idea for technical trails. The worst part was technical descents. I could do them but I was slow and very uncomfortable. My hands and back began to ache from fatigue after about 5 miles.

I really enjoy the dirt drops on my commuter, but in technical, sketchy
terrain off-road they just don't give me the comfort I need.

So, it's back to the Jones bars and I will find a way to mount the twist grip shifter for use with the Rohloff.

Chalenge...

2007-08-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Lance Armstrong was on Meet the Press this morning talking with Tim Russert. He was pitching his Cancer Forum where he is challenging presidential hopefuls to take a stand in the fight against cancer. Obviously he is a wonderful activist and spokesman for the cause.

Tim quoted him as saying that he could never have won a single Tour de France without cancer.

“It gave me a chance to re-evaluate my life and my career. Cancer certainly gives things a new perspective. I would not have won the Tour de France if I had not had cancer. It gave me new strength and focus.”

I've read his books. But this time the power of challenge rings more true. I'm in the middle of leading a very talented crew through some tough professional challenges. And I can see them getting better every day because of it. We may have bitten off more than we can chew at times, but we are becoming very good at meeting those challenges and creating better than expected results.

Sometimes I lament the situation we have been thrust into. But great things happen when we dig in and take the challenges head on. I am more and more often being pleasantly surprised at what we are able to pull off.

Let limitations guide you to creative solutions

2007-08-22T12:55:00.001-07:00

There's never enough to go around. Not enough time. Not enough money. Not enough people.

That's a good thing.

Instead of freaking out about these constraints, embrace them. Let them guide you. Constraints drive innovation and force focus. Instead of trying to remove them, use them to your advantage.

From the 37 Signals web site

Still Learning the Game

2007-08-22T12:21:00.001-07:00

If i'm not blinded my other senses and capabilities are much, much more effective.

Growing up

2007-08-18T21:20:00.001-07:00

I think when a man finally grows up... he is no longer afraid to be the boy he was born to be and the man he is expected to be... all at the same time.

Website:	apple.com
Location:	Cupertino, California, United States
Founded:	April 1, 1976
IPO:	1980

Company:	Apple
Website:	apple.com/appletv
Launch Date:	September 17, 2006