Posted by mark.
Jul
21
Posted by mark.
A giant spinning sequoia caught in a tornado that throws off dollar bills instead of pine needles.
[Apologies if you thought this was going to be a treatise on creating passive income.]
ps: Can someone draw this for me?
Jul
20
Posted by mark.
Dustin Staiger has a list of 10 signs that you’re shooting down good ideas in your organization. This reminds me of someone I worked with a while back. Here are my personal favorite signs from Dustin’s list of 10:
7. Listing the top 10 ideas from your department this year, half or more are your own.
5. All ideas must be proven.
4. You only want BIG ideas.
2. Your competition is your main source of ideas.
1. No matter how much you’ve talked about …
Jul
20
Posted by mark.
…is to get it so very wrong. Via Marc Andreesen’s blog:
The European Union on Thursday authorized Germany to give $165 million for research on Internet search-engine technologies that could someday challenge U.S. search giant Google Inc.
Some politician is costing the EU $165 Megs to prove to the world he’s hip with the search wave baby.
Jul
20
Posted by mark.
A while back, Jobster CTO Phil Bogle blogged about some of the tricks I’ve used to do fast location queries in SQL. The link to my SQL query to generate the zip lookup table for radius searches is now dead (a cybersquatter stole my domain name and I don’t want to discuss it!). So here’s the original blog post:
If you need to build a radius search for something on your website, then creating a zip code distance lookup table performs …
Jul
20
Posted by mark.
The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is one of my favorite data sources – it’s also one of my favorite names for any government agency. The agency provides a database of world-wide features which I use as a data source for Geojoey.com’s landmark search feature (top right of the screen).
These guys are selling the equivalent data for over $300.
For an up to date ZIP code database, you should contact USPS.gov and order it from them – which may take a while …
Jul
20
Posted by mark.
I had a great chat with Tony Wright yesterday evening over a few drinks. Tony has a degree in psychology and is a fellow entrepreneur and we got chatting about the Milgram Experiment and its applicability to branding. Here’s a video summary:
The experiment found that few people have the resources needed to resist authority, even when the authority figure is telling them to do something in violent opposition to their moral judgment.
Brands carry a level of authority. Take a startup …
Jul
19
Posted by mark.
Andy Sack doing 51 pushups inspired me to haul my MTB out of the closet and start cycling hills. If you’re into hard rock and need something to get your adrenal gland pumping, here’s my list:
Godsmack – Running Blind
The Exies
Army of Anyone – Goodbye
Shinedown – simple man
Trivium – The Rising
Tesla – into the now
Dropping Daylight – tell me
Incubus – Anna Molly
Trivium – This world can’t tear us apart
Papa Roach – Forever
Linkin Park – what I’ve done.
Hinder – Get stoned
Lost prophets …
Jul
19
Posted by mark.
Jobster’s CEO Jason Goldberg sent me this vid this morning of their marketing team brainstorming the launch of their new Facebook application.
I’m curious what your thoughts are on the brainstorming process and the ideas they’re throwing around.
Full disclosure: I worked for Jobster and left about 1 year ago. I also sold a previous business, WorkZoo.com to Jobster.
Jul
19
Posted by mark.
When I arrived in the US of A in 2003 I got into coffee in a big way. It took me a while to get it right. When I moved to Seattle from CA I discovered Peets coffee. They don’t keep any beans in-store for longer than 10 days so it’s incredibly fresh. You’ll notice when you grind Peets beans, none of the ground coffee sticks to the grinder. Try the same with Starbucks beans and it’s a mess. I …
Jul
18
Posted by mark.
Dave Lu, CEO of FanPop.com was part of a panel at the Churchill club recently – a previous entry has the video. I loved an analogy he made: That the leap of faith you take as an entrepreneur is a lot like a scene from Indiana Jones. Here’s the scene:
I love what he does at the end of the clip – I’m sure there’s a metaphor there somewhere.