eder way

Thought I would take a time to update everyone on what is up with me.

- If you know me, you know I’m dreadfully terrified of having to end up in some corporate desk job punching numbers for the man. I am so terrified of it in fact that I have moved back in with my parents for a few months, to save up some money and continue work on a few of my startup projects. It really hasn’t been that bad, and in all honestly I’m happier here then some of my past living arrangements. My brother is still at home so we have been able to hang out more, and time with the folks has been nice. The saving has been great in allowing me to pay some stuff off, and hopefully make some fun trips this summer before getting a new apartment before the fall.

- We got a new dog! He’s an Alaskan Husky named Trecker. He actually showed up out where my parents are building their new house. We were sure he was a neighbor’s dog, being that he is fully trained. Yet, after putting up signs and asking neighbors all over the area, no one claimed him. He has since become a big part of the family!

- Speaking of that new house, work still continues. I hope and pray that the folks are in there by the end of the summer at the latest.

- Those startup projects are coming to a critical point, I’ll soon be able to blog in greater detail about them.

- My Good friend Noah has had a lot of success with his TwitPic project.

All in all, I am quite happy, things have been very good in the last month and I feel like I have put myself in a much better situation to chase my dreams and work in the areas that I will excel at.

My conversation with 1&1 the other morning…

me: Hi, I need to updated my Credit Card information
1&1: mhfdsfaslkjflsjdfsa
me: I’m sorry, I’m having a hard time hearing you, could you adjust your mic
1&1: Is this better?
me: Yes, thank you. I need to update my card information, I think I had an old card on my account.
1&1: member number
me: ok, ######
1&1: Whats your card number?
me: Well I was waning to change my plan to monthly billing.
1&1: no
me: uh, why not, what options do I have?
1&1: Quarterly, 6-Monthly, Yearly.
me: OK, lets do quarterly.
1&1: No
me: (awkward pause) why not?
1&1: because that plan is not available
me: what, wait, i’m confused?
1&1: nothing

This is a bit of a summary of the conversation, but I would venture to say it was worse in real life. Needless to say, I’m looking for a new host. Any suggestions?

This story is awesome! Imagine being arrested for taking pictures of a demonstration in a foreign country. Then simply sending a text to twitter to alert your friends, who in-turn alert your school and the US Embassy. Bam! Your out of jail. Check the full story from the folks over at TechCrunch.

For years I have told companies that I work with, cold calling DOES NOT WORK, period. Matter a fact, I would argue that it is the worst way to sell your product and can even hurt your brand image. Cold calls flat out piss people off.

ReadWriteWeb has a great post this morning on “Business Development 2.0.” Here’s an excerpt,
Besides being annoying, cold calling is no longer effective. People are smarter these days, and have learned to ignore upsells. A targeted email which avoids the spam box has a higher chance of getting a response than a call. With a call, the default allergic reaction is now “no.” But with a brief and sincere email it could be, “hmmm, this might be interesting…” However, even cold emails do not work. To have a chance at making a sale, you need to get a warm introduction. It used to be that the business web was hidden inside of people’s heads and rolodexes. Today, however, a lot of it is out there in the open - inside a digital business network called LinkedIn.

In case you missed my last post on Randy Pausch’s last lecture, or didn’t have time to watch the whole thing, here is a 10 minute condensed version of the lecture.

Randy highlights some of the things that I find so important in life, in particular putting people over things. Listen for the line about pouring a coke in the back seat oh his new car, and how his parents let him paint his room.

If you have not taken the time to watch this… you need to.

Dr. Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, is not your everyday academic. He’s one of the good ones out there. He was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer in September 2006. After aggressive treatment he was told in August of 2007 that he had 3 to 6 months to live. In September of that year he gave his last public lecture at CMU, which has been widely viewed on the Internet, below is that lecture.

My favorite quote from the whole thing is “You have to choose if you’re a Tigger or Eyeore”

From Wikipedia
Pausch delivered his “Last Public Lecture,” titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” at CMU on September 18, 2007.[5] This talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical “final talk,” i.e., “what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?”

Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, “Make me earn it,” some in the audience shouted back, “You did!”

That’s right folks, yours truly has obtained an exclusive first look screenshot of TwitPic 2.0! TwitPic is a a Twitter add on using the Twitter API allowing you to post picture links to the Twitter service.

Look for exciting new features like geolocation and tagging!

If you don’t watch 60 Minutes, you should. Here a rare and powerful interview with former Vide President Al Gore.

Just made the upgrade to the new WordPress 2.5. The admin area is much upgraded. I would definitely recommend this upgrade to all my friends running their blogs off of WordPress.

I changed the background. I’m not sure if I really like it, but I thought that it needed to change a little.