Kelvin Meeks

Monday, December 31, 2012

2012-12-31 Year In Review

2012 was a year of travel...and change.

Major Highlights

Visited Zihuatanejo in February 2012
Attended the Miami International Boat Show - and had a chance to spend some time aboard "The Lost Soul" chatting with Bob Bitchin
A trip to Sedona Arizona in April with my Mom.
Attended the Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show in Jack London Square, Oakland, CA
Attended the Strange Loop 2012 conference in St. Louise
Spent Labor Day in Las Vegas at the Aria Resort and Casiono with good friends
Found and completed the purchase of a sailboat [I previously sold my last boat in 2007, in Mazatlan]
Sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge
Spent a week visiting Monterey aboard my sailboat
After almost 2 1/2 years, shook the dust of the desert off my feet for good
Sold (pennies on the dollar), or gave-away all of my furniture
Returned to the Pacific Coast - and living aboard a sailboat again
Reconnected with old sailing friends from King Harbor, Redondo Beach, CA
Signed a lease for a new office location
Explored many Friends of the Library sales, as well as many thrift stores- and added hundreds of books to my personal library over the course of the year.
Started writing a novel
Started writing a book of seafaring poetry
Published 41 blog posts to my technology blog [finally reached 30,000+ visitors]
Lost more money in one week (on a string of bad investment decisions) than most people make in a year.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Shipping Container Home Ideas

This post is intended as a collection of links to various Shipping Container Home Ideas...

http://www.dwell.com/articles/Five-Inspirational-Shipping-Container-Homes.html

http://seacontainercabin.blogspot.com/

http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-house-concept/steves-shipping-container-cabin/

http://www.tincancabin.com/

http://www.leedcabins.com/Home.html

http://www.bobvila.com/articles/316-home-sweet-container/pages/1
http://pinterest.com/whispersiren/shipping-container-buildings-cargotecture/

http://seacontainercabin.blogspot.com/

http://www.treehugger.com/modular-design/crate-expectations-12-shipping-container-housing-ideas.html

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2010/11/off-grid-container-cabins-from-15k.html

http://www.permies.com/

Friday, October 05, 2012

2012-10-05 Friday - Needing a dose of Buffett's Magic

There are times when the turbulent waters of life cause the ship to shake and shudder, and one feels the shadow of mortality looming dark and large, cold and grey. The spirit quells, the mouth goes dry, the stomach knots, the hands begin to loose their grip on the proverbial tiller of life.

Storm in the North Sea 1865
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

In those moments, we need to be able to summon courage to face the daunting shade, and summon a light that will banish the darkness, and push it back for one more day.

For some, their magic talisman may be a book, or a poem. For others it may be some favorite passage of scripture (Psalm 91).

For me, it is the magic of the music that is the living legend of Jimmy Buffett:

After having read the book, 'A Salty Piece of Land', and hearing the song, there is a special place in my heart for Captain Cleopatra Highbourne:

Thursday, August 23, 2012

2012-08-23 Thursday - MusicScore.org

I am, have been, and will always remain - an aspiring musician.

To stand on a corner and busk for the money to buy my dinner - is as yet, an unfulfilled personal goal.
Although I did once join an impromptu jam session with a sidewalk band in San Francisco, playing my original composition to Sir Walter Scott's poem, "Lochinvar".

I have a few other bits of music I've composed on various pieces of paper over time - but always longed to be able to put them in a nice sheet music format.

Also, as a musician who has often struggled with learning a particularly complex arrangement at times - I've often wondered how it should sound, if properly played.

And so, the question has lingered for some time - where could I find some software that might help me...

Until tonight...

I've installed the free music composition and notation software, MuseScore

Within about 10 minutes I was able to create a score, a midi file, and play the tune I composed.

Very impressed so far.

Other software / resources that may be worth considering:
Sibelius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scorewriters

OnlineSheetMusic.com
music-scores.com
greatscores.com

Sunday, July 22, 2012

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'

Saturday, May 12, 2012

2012-05-12 Saturday - Inspiring

Thursday, May 10, 2012

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

Saturday, April 21, 2012

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

Thursday, March 29, 2012

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

Friday, March 23, 2012

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

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

2011-11-29 Tuesday

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

Thursday, October 27, 2011

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,”

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

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

Marketing Resources

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

Networking Resources

Finance Resources

Taxes

J.K. Lasser

Insurance

Supplies

News Sources

StartupJournal.com - from The Wall Street Journal

Contracting Opportunity Resources

Accounting Resources

Legal Resources

Communication Resources

Service Resources

Publishing/Printing Resources

Government Resources

Small Business Administration

Staffing Resources

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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

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.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

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.

Monday, August 29, 2011

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/

Sunday, August 28, 2011

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

Friday, August 26, 2011

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