Monthly Archive for October, 2008

Shared Knowledge

Published
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askedrelic
on October 28, 2008
in Life
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As an avid RSS user, despite RSS usage still being reported as around 11% of “online adults,” I follow about 80 blogs according to Google Reader statistics. One of the main features that I enjoy with Reader is the ability to share posts with friends who are using Reader and also view their shared items, like another blog that you follow. Even with only a few friends using this feature, it has allowed me to view a much wider range of posts, as well as get a deeper look into my what my friends are reading, and to get a condensed version of what they read; generally only the good stuff. Also, with the ability to add notes to posts when you share them, you add a personal touch and can bring context to an individual post that might have trouble standing on its own.

So my main goal with all of this would be to harness the power of my friends to improve my knowledge base. I’ve been introduced to some good blogs and gotten my friends to start reading some new stuff that I feel would help them. The problem comes when blogs start to overlap and you start sharing the same posts that someone has already read. Fine-grain control would limit this, through sharing only with a specific friend or a group of friends, but placing those additional constraints on sharing might harm it more than help it, making a more difficult barrier of entry.

One solution would be to bring structure to the system, through grouping blogs into interests or viewing blog compatability with another friend; how many blogs that you and this person follow overlap. Venn-diagrams of tags or blogs seem like a good representation of the overlap. The idea in my mind is something like a stock trading group or book club. As an individual, you can persue and study an specific interest, but when you share your condensed knowledge with the group, everyone benefits. I read X, Y, Z blog, you read A, B, C blog, and we share your results, in effect getting the best of both blogs.  Bringing this kind of an organizational system to Google Reader would be awesome, maybe it already exists, but I will start searching. Blogs are informational sources are immensly powerful and bringing your friends together improves that power.

2008 RIT Entrepreneur Conference, Part 1

Published
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askedrelic
on October 11, 2008
in Life
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Today, I learned quite a great deal about business and would like to share. I went to RIT’s annual Entrepreneur Conference, a business, serial entrepreneur, and startup focused conference featuring many local and non-so local business minded folks. Starting bright and early at 8AM (ugh) and going until around 3-4PM, there were 3 main lecture blocks, with a keynote in the middle from Ross Mayfield, founder of SocialText, a enterprise-focused software company in Silicon Valley. I attended a “Business 101″ panel, then “Valuation of Early Risk Technology” lecture, and closed with a quite interesting “Starting a Video Game Company” talk, which made it quite a busy day and impressed me quite a deal with my college. I wish they would pull off events of this quality more frequently! Anyways, let me enlighten you on everything except the video game talk, which I will save for part 2 and its own separate article!

Business 101

Three main principles of entrepreneurship are:

  • having a market or an opportunity
  • resources; money, technology, or IP
  • a good management team; people

With your idea and these items, use your passion to make things happen. You must remain very devoted to your idea and your team. You cannot handle everything, but you should be able to trust and delegate stuff to your team. Find a mentor and advisory board to review your situation with monthly.

One of the surprising ideas that was brought up was how the current US economic downtown was a good thing for business. People with cash are willing to invest it in new and different methods, along with being able to get talented people for cheap rates. You need a plan to get to market, but with angel investors and new communities today, it’s far easier to find someone willing to invest than previously.

Valuation of Early Risk Tech

To be honest, this talk was a bit out of my league. Featuring Ted Hagelin, a professor from Syracuse University, he went deep into the economics and logistics of measuring value. He had made complaints about the USPTO, stemming from the 6 years it took him to get a patent on his method of valuing tech. It was a foreign area for me, but I able to salvage a bit from his talk.

Keynote

The keynote talk was the highlight of my day, from Ross Mayfield, mentioned above. He gave a broad overview of web 2.0, the technologies it has presented to the public, and how his company uses them to generate value in companies. He had a very open way of talking, with the ability to split the divide between the know-it-all nerd and the unfamiliar person quite well. During my time out in Silicon Valley, I found a very sharp disparity between those who know every single VIP in the Valley and those outside the Valley who could care less. It’s very easy in Silicon Valley to get wrapped up in grand ideas and have your thoughts supported by those around you, when no one else cares… He also presented some very good stories from taking risks with his business, that others would shy away from. He mentioned finding a CEO through a blog post and LinkedIn, and publicly documenting the process. Being open and accepting help from customers to generate value seemed to be the main trend from web 2.0.

Overall, a very well done conference with lots to learn from and quite an impressive show from RIT. It was a bit more formal than a Barcamp, but still informal enough that you could ask questions during a presentation, a format which I really enjoy. Keep following me for Part 2, where I will discuss the video game industry, an industry that I’m quite passionate about!

Dual Monitors Done Right

Published
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askedrelic
on October 3, 2008
in Life
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After getting back to school and settling in, I put some serious thought into my current desk setup. Considering I’m planning on sitting at this desk for the next ~14 months (which is actually quite a long time for me stay in one place), I wanted to ensure that it was ergonomically sound. My main guide was a pair of Coding Horror articles, a programmer blog from Jeff Atwood. They had been on my mind for awhile, but I didn’t have the time or money until now to do something about them until now!

Proper Posture

For the amount of time I sit at my desk, I should care about the manner in how I sit there. Computer Ergonomics was the first article which I checked. Following the guidelines:

  • I put 2 books under my iMac, raising the center of my monitor to be directly at my eye sight looking foward.
  • Raised my chair, so that my belly button is elevated at the same level as my desktop.
  • Pushed my iMac back, allowing my arms to fully rest on my desktop.

After about 2-3 weeks of doing this, I’d say it’s helped. I’m already used to sitting at my desk for hours on end, but I feel less stressed maybe, less cramps while doing so now. Recommended advice I already follow is to get up every 20 minutes or so and wander around my apartment. Keep the blood flowing!

Twice As Good

The second article, LCD Monitor Arms, had been in my mind for awhile, but I didn’t have the funds to support it. I’ve had two LCDs screens available to me for a few years now and I would never go back. However, on my current setup, desk space is at a premium and I can’t space items out as far as I would like. That means that positioning a 2nd LCD on the right hand side of my desk was interfering with my right handed mouse. The solution was a desktop mounted arm.

The Ergotron LX desk arm is awesome. I mounted my old 20″ LCD onto the arm and now I can free up the desk space beneath the LCD, along with position the LCD exactly where I would like it. It’s not cheap, around $125 with tax for me, but a worthwhile investment for the time being. I’m quite pleased with it.

My desk situation is quite comfortable right now, although I will have to wait another year before I buy the Aeron. I would highly recommend to take sometime and evalute your own situation!