2012-07-22 Sunday - Recommended Wines

Last year I had a chance to enjoy a fantastic 5-course meal at the Different Pointe of View restaurant in Phoenix with a good friend.

As part of the meal, we enjoyed the full range of wines offered by the sommelier - and in particular, the following were exceptional:

David Girard, Roussanne, El Dorado, California '09
David Girard, Grenache, El Dorado, California '09
Treana, Marsonne/Viognier, Central Coast, California '08
Ramey, "Claret", Napa Valley, California '05'

2012-05-12 Saturday - Inspiring

2012-05-10 Thursday - News Sources for Game Companies

I had a discussion this evening with a friend about a recent investment in a video game company, Electronic Arts (EA).  From that, I thought, perhaps by monitoring some of the news sources for video game companies, I might be able to spot some new / interesting investment opportunities.

http://n4g.com/
http://n4g.com/channel/all/news

http://www.reddit.com/r/gamernews/

http://www.ign.com
http://www.ign.com/articles

http://www.g4tv.com/
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/

http://www.gamespot.com/
http://www.gamespot.com/news/index.html

http://www.gamesradar.com/
http://www.gamesradar.com/all-platforms/news/

http://www.gameinformer.com/
http://www.gameinformer.com/news.aspx

http://www.pcworld.com/products/software/games.html

http://www.1up.com/
http://www.1up.com/news/

http://www.edge-online.com/
http://www.edge-online.com/news

Another good source for some company intelligence is to look at the employee comments and recent job candidate interview comments on glassdoor.com
http://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Electronic-Arts-EI_IE1628.11,26.htm

2012-04-20 Saturday - A Perfect Year?

This is a work-in-progress blog post...I'll have to come back and expand on this thought more when I have some time...

What makes for a perfect year?  Partly, it depends on how my time is spent during the year...

My Idea of the elements of a Perfect Year:

• Write
• Work
• Create
• Explore
• Travel
• Sail,
• Relax
• Learn
• Taste
• Enjoy
• Relish
• Teach
• Build
• Uplift
• Nurture

2012-03-30 Thursday - Entrepreneurally Thinking...

This posting is a placeholder from some interesting links I've recently come across that offer something in the spirit of motivation, inspiration, lessons-learned, etc.


A nice write-up:

10 Mental Toughness Fundamentals for Entrepreneurs

http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2012/03/10-mental-toughness-fundamentals-for.html

2012-03-23 Friday - Home Library Ideas

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker

2012-03-23 Friday - Global Warming Research

Is Global Warming spin or science?

DoD on the arctic sea conditions (looking out over the next 30+ years)
http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/Tab_A_Arctic_Report_Public.pdf

2011-11-29 Tuesday

An interesting find: http://screenwritingtips.tumblr.com/

2011-10-26 Thursday - America's new CIO

Steven VanRoekel recently spoke about his vision for the future of IT in government:
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/americas-new-cio-wants-to-disrupt-government-and-make-it-a-startup.php

A few notable items from the article: 

Defense Department’s human resources management system. Dubbed the “Defense Integrated Military Human Resource System,”...was meant to take seven years to develop. Instead, it took 10, cost $850 million and had to be scrapped after 10 years of development in 2010 because it ended up being useless.

 “Going forward, we need to embrace modular development, build on open standards, and run our projects in lean startup mode,”

2011-11-19 Wednesday - Startup Resources

A friend recently mentioned that he will be launching his own consulting practice, and I thought there might be some benefit to sharing with him and others some of the links to various resources I've collected over the years...

Start-up Resources

---

Inspiration Tom Peters Joel Spolsky Paul Graham insideentrepreneurship.com Guy Kawasaki blog Knowledge@Wharton Gerald Weinberg's SecretsOfConsulting.com Sramana Mitra's blog InspiredStartup.com Elad Gil VentureHacks.com Marketing Resources Debbie Mayo-Smith logoworks.com 99designs.com Here is a list of 15 press release distribution sites, a mix of free and paid options, for you to explore. 1.1888PressRelease.com: A free and paid service that provides a number of options, including distribution outlets, visibility and tracking statistics. 2.24-7 Press Release: A free and paid service with varying formatting and distribution options. 3.Business Wire: A paid service (requires membership) that will distribute your press release to geographic, trade and industry media, and search engines. 4.Express Press Release: A paid service that includes distribution to state-based sites, industry-specific blogs and a PR forum. 5.i-Newswire: A free service that will allow you to submit one release per week to a global audience. 6.Media Syndicate: A free service that focuses on distributing press releases for small and medium sized businesses. 7.PR Leap: A paid service that distributes releases to all major search engines, newswires and websites. 8.PR Newswire: A paid service (requires membership) that will submit your release to a number of outlets, including newsrooms, bloggers, financial portals, social media networks, web sites, and search engines. 9.PR Urgent News: A free and paid service that allows up to three live links, targeted keywords and a thumbnail image with each release. 10.PR.com: A free and paid service that provides an option that includes a full company profile in addition to distributing your release. 11.PRBuzz.com: A paid service that distributes press releases to online news sites and blogs. 12.PRLog: A free service that allows you to include HTML links in the press release body, creates a PDF version of your release and allows you to submit to specific categories. 13.PRWeb: A paid service that distributes your site to numerous sites and lets you track and analyze results. 14.SBWire: A paid service that allows you to submit releases for geographical and industry targeting. They also distribute your releases via RSS to numerous third party sites. 15.The Open Press: A free and paid service that distributes press releases to numerous websites, blogs and RSS feeds. Customer Survey Resources SurveyMonkey.com micropoll.com Networking Resources linkedin.com facebook.com Finance Resources bankrate.com (mortgages, loans, credit cards) Equifax.com Taxes J.K. Lasser Insurance National Association of Health Underwriters National Association of Health Underwriters - Find an Agent ehealthinsurance.com techinsurance.com DisabilityQuotes.com insurance4usa.com National Association of Insurance Commissioners insureuonline.org/smallbusiness/ MedLion.com The Hartford MetLife Northwestern Mutual Financial Network Mutual of Omaha Brighter.com Supplies costco.com Details - A Steelcase Company Action Business Furniture (Seattle/Tacoma) CWS Marketing (auctions) U.S. Treasury Auctions Washington State Surplus News Sources StartupJournal.com - from The Wall Street Journal Contracting Opportunity Resources Washington State Vendor Registration Association of Washington Businesses onecle.com - good sample conctracts Accounting Resources smallbizaccountants.com outright.com FreshBooks.com SimplyBill.com PipelineDeals.com WORKetc.com TickSpot.com Legal Resources startupcompanylaywer.com findlaw.com uspto.gov - Basic Facts About Trademarks Ropes and Gray Communication Resources Vonnage IP Telephone Service for Small Business affordableconferencecalls.com gotomeeting.com - web demo service ustream.tv EventBrite.com skype.com - Internet Phone through your PC direcway.com satellite internet Trillium Instant Messenger Service Resources Washington State Limo Services execustay.com - Marriott rentnet.com officenomads.com commuteseattle.com Publishing/Printing Resources BookSurge.com printingforless.com MagCloud.com Government Resources Small Business Administration Staffing Resources rentacoder.com elance.com longerdays.com odesk.com

2011-09-28 Wednesday - Starting a Small Business, Part-1

A friend recently asked me for advice on starting a small business (a small retail shop)

This is the initial guidance I offered...

 Step-0: Initialize

 Register to obtain a business tax id with the IRS

Starting a Business

 Step-1: Legitimize

Register a Doing-Business-As (DBA) with your the State's Department of Commerce

 Step-2: Publicize

Setup a web site

you can create a very nice looking (and free) web site via
http:sites.google.com

you can also create a free gmail account

Alternatively you could pay for a domain name - and get an email account setup with your domain name.  Yahoo hosting and professional email are what I use - about $12.95/month for the hosting, and $19.95 for the professional email service.

 

 Step-3: Electrify

Register with one or more Crowdsourcing Fund Raising Services: A few possibilities:

http://www.kickstarter.com/
 
http://33needs.com/

https://www.profounder.com/
 
https://www.microplace.com/

http://www.dreambank.org/

http://www.advertactivist.com/

 Step-4: Internalize

Schedule an appoint with a SCORE counselor
http://www.score.org/ 

There are many aspects to running a business - SCORE counselor's can help provide much needed wisdom. 

 Step-5: Monetize

Setup Bank Accounts

- look for a bank that offers a no fee checking account 

https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/no_fee_checking_main 

Other possibilities include local credit unions 

- there's a good argument for setting up a business checking account....

- as soon as you have the account, ask them about setting-up a line of credit - or - obtaining a business credit card.  This will allow you to start building the credit history for your company tax id. 

http://www.inc.com/financing-a-small-business

Inc.com article: An Easier Way to Apply for Loans 

[see: http://www.boefly.com/]

 Step-6: Stabilize

Identify merchandise supply channels:

- http://www.craigslist.org
- http://www.ebay.com

- local thrift shops

Identify some low-cost high-margin mark-up items to sell in your own shop... 

 Step-7: Energize

Setup Referral Revenue Streams

Identify other merchants with whom you can create referral agreements

For example, someone comes into your shop and needs some help painting their house, fixing a plumbing problem, etc.  You should have already established relationships with a list of merchants and service providers (who would be willing to pay you a referral fee)

Create a Facebook page for your business

Create a LinkedIn profile for yourself [search out the various LinkedIn groups that may be aligned with your business interests]

Find or create a local meetup.com group that is focused on your business interests (collecting antiques? trading merchandize? etc) 

 Step-8: Quantify

Assess Your Market

visit other consignment shops
visit thrift shops
visit auctions and flea markets

ask questions

find out what products sell fastest
find out what sells slowest
find out what has the best mark-up / margins
find out what can go wrong with your business model

 Step-9: Organize

Setup a Customer Relationship Management service account

Once you actually have sales, You can probably use  something like
SalesForce.com or SugarCRM.com to manage email marketing campaigns and
managing customer contact info

https://www.sugarcrm.com/sugarshop/product/professional

http://www.salesforce.com/crm/editions-pricing.jsp?d=70130000000s0AL&internal=true

If you don't already have Microsoft Office, you can download the free Open Source Open Office suite of tools

If you need a good email client, Mozilla Thunderbird is an excellent choice. 

2011-09-22 Wednesday - How to FAIL at LinkedIn networking

Dear Clueless LinkedIn Spammer:

In the spirit of being a Mentor - here's a little feedback for you:

a) I clearly state on my profile that I only accept invitations to connect from people that I have actually met.

b) therefore, you clearly didn't read my profile very thoroughly

c) I don't know you - so how could I be a person that you trust?

d) You didn't provide any background or context on how we might know each other

e) You didn't provide any background or context on who we might mutually know

f) You didn't provide any background or context on why I might want to accept your invitation

g) You profile indicates that you are a ceo - and yet - you only have three connections - and no recommendations.

h) You did not display a photo on your profile

i) Your profile does not indicate your background or experience

j) Your profile does not indicate your education

k) Your profile does not indicate your interests

l) Your profile does not indicate any shared groups

m) You claim to be seeking a business alliance - or selling a service - but your use of a (yahoo | gmail | facebook) email address leads me to suspect that you are not serious about your profession

n) Your email initial contact did not include any contact information | no signature block | no title | no phone/fax | address

o) You either didn't send me any literature about your service (actually that's a bad idea - don't flood my inbox with crap PDFs - or worse - huge PowerPoint decks).  Better - would be to include a linked to a document you've uploaded somewhere on the net

p) Curiously, although you have over 200+ connections - not a single one of them has posted a recommendation.  And you are trying to sell me on buying your service?

q) You either don't have a web site -or if you do - it looks like a generic template - with no thought leadership / white papers posted.

r) Where is the list of articles that you've published  - how will can I discern what value you might bring to the table?

s) Where is the list of clients you have serviced in the past?  Testimonials?

t) You either don't have a blog | or you have a single [or no] posting

u) If you're LinkedIn profile says you are in the U.S. (say, Tustin, CA) - but I subsequently track your IP to somewhere else (say, Bangalore, Karnataka in India) - then you are really not getting off to a very good start in establishing credibility.  In fact, my assumption would be quite the opposite.

v) If your reaction to this list is defensive, or in anger - then you need to look more closely at what you are doing, how you are doing it - and perhaps why you are doing it.

A THINKING MAN’S GUIDE TO VOYAGES SOUTH

A THINKING MAN’S GUIDE TO VOYAGES SOUTH~the many facets of Caribbean Cruising

http://sail.vedamind.com/www_freecrusingguide/2011/07/24/a-thinking-mans-guide-to-voyages-souththe-many-facets-of-caribbean-cruising/

2011-08-28 Sunday - Adele - Someone Like You VMA 2011 - MTV

2011-08-27 Sunday - 10 Actions to Revitalize Microsoft Shareholder Value

Microsoft (MSFT) closed at 25.25 on Friday, August 25, 2011

Here are 10 actions I would suggest to the Microsoft Board of Directors to revitalize shareholder value.

1.  Fire Steve Ballmer and replace him with an industry outsider.

2.  Cut 10% of the workforce immediately

3.  Target a 30% reduction of the workforce over a 2-3 year period

4. Eliminate low-margin products/divisions

5. Break-up the company and create some spin-offs

• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Small Business
• Microsoft Consulting

6. Create a new Linux/Cloud Services Division

7.  Create a new Enterprise Open Source Services Division

 2012-04-12 Update: Wow.  Today Microsoft announced 'Microsoft Open Technologies', "a new wholly owned subsidiary"

8. Create a new $5B Micro-cap Start-up Angel Investor funding initiative

•  Quarterly Demo Contests
• $500K each to [0-3] selected winners
• Over time, create 10,000 new start-ups, of which Microsoft shareholders would retain significant ownership.

9.  Implement an "UP or OUT" Annual Review process. 

10.  Hire me as a Shareholder Value Creative Consultant

2011-08-26 Friday - CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge

Today I registered for the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Contest 


http://milliondollar.cnbc.com/
 
Starts: September 19, 2011 at 9:30:00 ET

Ends: November 25, 2011 at 4:00:00 ET

2011-08-12 Friday - Weekend Reading Links

Java run-time monitoring, Part 1: Run-time performance and availability monitoring for Java systems
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-rtm1/index.html

Java run-time monitoring, Part 2: Postcompilation instrumentation and performance monitoring http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-rtm2/index.html

Java run-time monitoring, Part 3: Monitoring performance and availability of an application's ecosystem
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-rtm3/index.html

 

 

 

The Art of ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING

http://www.arl.wustl.edu/~lockwood/class/cs306/books/artofasm/toc.html

Programming from the Ground Up
An introduction to programming using linux assembly language
http://programminggroundup.blogspot.com/2007/01/programming-from-ground-up.html

http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/pgubook/

Neo4j Tutorial: The Power of the Daleks
http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/8771740065/neo4j-tutorial-the-power-of-the-daleks

Build a Python app for parsing shared memory dumps
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2l2B5b/www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-parse-memory-dumps/index.html?cmp=dw&cpb=dwlin&ct=dwgra&cr=twitter&ccy=zz&csr=pythonlxdumpanalysis

2011-08-12 Friday - Faster Isn't Always Better

I received an email today...which reminded me of Aesop's fable of the Tortoise and the Hare.

http://www.bpminstitute.org/roundtables/past-round-table/article/pmi-mortgage-insurance-co-s-roadmap-to-business-agility.html?m=e&s=dcevent&c=wspreview&k=bpm&v=all

"Case study about how PMI used rules management and process management to achieve business agility i.e. better, faster and cheaper changes to achieve business results. Also discusses how IT collaborated with business as facilitator and enabler."

...which reminded me of this recent news item...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mortgage-insurer-PMI-Group-apf-2378822000.html?x=0&.v=4

"Mortgage insurer The PMI Group Inc. warned investors on Thursday that it may be unable to continue selling new policies and could shut down."
(...)
"Like other mortgage insurers, PMI has been able to sell profitable policies in recent years, but the gains from those sales hasn't outpaced losses from policies sold during the bubble."

...from which one might draw a conclusion that going "faster" maybe isn't always such a good idea?

What if by adopting a Business Rule Management System, they were able to be more agile - and thus make fundamental changes to their core business model "faster"?

Which eliminated the benefit of a slower pace - that would have allowed more contemplation of a suggested change.

And as a consequence of that - they destroyed shareholder value, employee careers, and killed their company?


Technology isn't always the right answer.

Sometimes, technology can simply be a weapon that magnifies your mistakes - to the point of being the instrument of your destruction.

2011-07-09 Saturday

Chanos: China Bubble Ready to Burst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POGX8_UDhh4&feature=related

 

China is the biggest Bubble in History
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8E0VzbuP7M&feature=related

China's Ghost Cities and Malls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPILhiTJv7E

Waiting for Gravity to Hit LinkedIn
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/business/gauging-if-linkedin-signals-a-social-networking-bubble.html

Auditors: Army's huge SAP project 'at high risk'
http://www.itworld.com/software/181379/auditors-armys-huge-sap-project-high-risk

 

Robotic "Singularity Drive System"
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/youve-never-seen-a-drive-system-like-this-before

http://robogames.net/symposium/
9th annual games will be Fri-Sun, Apr 20-22, 2012. 
http://robogames.net/events.php

2011-05-26 Thursday - My response to Cody Willard's Trillion Dollar post

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/cody/2011/05/26/facebook-apple-and-google-will-each-be-worth-a-trillion-dollars

"I read an article today that took my $100 billion price target for Facebook a bit further and predicted that Facebook — not Apple and not Google and certainly not Exxon or GE — would be the first trillion dollar company. And why not?"

Here's my reply of why not:


1. Competition

2. FTC

3. Legislation

4. No "moat" - see #1

5. Lack of a product that consumers "need".  Want? perhaps...for a season...

6. Is Facebook more of a business - or more of a fad?  I'm inclined to vote fad...you know how those end, don't you?

7. Saying "a Trillion dollars" is easy.  Reaching it? Not so much.

8. Natural selection.  These companies live in a vibrant business ecosystem.  There are predators out there too.  The ant is everywhere - and a very efficient biological machine - but they don't rule the world either.

9. Things that rocket up - usually crash hard

10. The Meeks Dark Energy Conjecture: the internal politics of an organization will begin to tear itself apart as it approaches a market cap equal to the combined market cap of GOOG, AAPL, and IBM.


Note: Today's combined market cap is roughly $679.02B
AAPL - $310.76B
IBM - $201.86B
GOOG - $166.70B

 

2011-07-28 Update:

Geoffrey B. West, “Why Cities Keep on Growing, Corporations Always Die, and Life Gets Faster”

http://blog.longnow.org/2011/07/26/geoffrey-b-west-%E2%80%9Cwhy-cities-keep-on-growing-corporations-always-die-and-life-gets-faster%E2%80%9D/