false precision

AppleTV 18 Month Review

Not sure exactly when I bought the AppleTV, I think it was about 18 months ago. I realized I never wrote a review of how well it worked.

Well, you still aren't going to get it. In the 18 months I have had it installed; I have only used it to watch movie rental 'previews' about 5 times. There's never anything good on it. I did actually rent a movie on it once but it deleted before I ever got a chance to see it. In the same time period I would guess that we have rented 50 to 100 or so movies and TV shows from Amazon Unboxed and watched them on our Tivo's. I think one of the big problems was that we watch the Tivo all the time, so it's right there in front of us. Using the AppleTV requires the "TV input" cycle through which puts a barrier in front of it. Also, we transfer a lot of shows between the Tivo's on all three levels of our house. Only one AppleTV so can't do that (not even sure it can transfer).

AppleTV never found its way into our world..

Another Win for TechStars

Chalk up another success to TechStars in beautiful Boulder Colorado.

Fresh on the heels of the SocialThing acquisition by AOL a month or so ago, now IntenseDebate is the next TechStars company to get snapped up, this time by Automattic. This is a great deal for the founders Jon and Isaac as they are now virtually assured the technology they worked so hard on will now see major mainstream use. Congratulations to Tom Keller for getting the deal put together and getting it across the goal line! Keep up the good work guys – look forward to using ID on many, many more blogs in the coming months!

Slow down or move over?

Every time I travel I take the tollway to Denver International Airport. I always scratch my head when I pass the message board. For several months they have been running the message.

"Slow down or move over, it's Colorado Law."

I "think" they are referring to the relatively new, much needed, and apparently unenforced Colorado law that states you should be in the right lane unless you are passing. The law was designed to address, at least conceptually, the problem of Colorado drivers hanging out in the left lane and clogging up traffic. I can say as a driving "enthusiast" this is a huge problem. In fact, in "Road Show", one of Neil Peart's books about traveling the US on motorcycle he actually calls out Colorado by name as the worst state for this problem.

What I don't get is the message on the board? Don't they mean:

"Speed up or move over, it's Colorado Law."

 

 

Nissan GTR, I’m blushing

I have a passion for cars. Specifically, cars that go fast around a race track. Two years ago I bought a Porsche Cayman and she has been a loyal and refined companion around town and at the track. Perfect balance, no surprises, totally safe – no under steer I wasn't expecting, no over steer I didn't ask for. FAST, but not too fast.

Cayman, ahhh….I could be seen with her at a cocktail party, I could get down with her at the track. A happy existence, indeed.

Today, I drove a friends Nissan GTR. It's been big news that she was coming to the states. Born in Japan as a super car killer, rumors were wild. 500 hp, four wheel drive, crazy flappy paddle shifter and internal display screens built by the guys that programmed the Grand Turismo video game. Oh yeah, she is HOTTTT. A little scary, but HOTTTT. That's not for me.

The test drive started off simple, easy. Out of the parking lot in automatic, pedal down, 90MPH..Woooooow, the thing is in 4^th gear before you even blink, but you never lose your place on the torque curve – ever.

Out on the highway, she was crazy – could I be seen with her? She was exciting – but looked at little, out there. With manual shifting fully engaged, and millisecond shifts under my finders I could overtake cars at 70mph like they were standing still. Always, more torque, always…..more torque. Unlike her wild-ass sister the 350Z she was more refined and WAY faster. 350Z sounded like a bag-o-cats at redline, exciting but also annoying – GTR was quiet and I had the feeling she was just getting started.

Out at the apex of our route, launch control was engaged. Brake down, Gas pedal down, BAM.. Moment of slight unconsciousness.. 0 to 60 in 3 point something… it's unclear to me now. 130MPH and rock solid handling. This car can go faster than…. I can.

Back into the parking lot.

She was great. But what a crazy ride, this car is nuts. My friend told me she is pointed exactly at my demographic. I don't know. I'm a little scared.

Startups and abuse of “Appropriate Response”

I have written a little about startups on the financing side, but have not talked much about the emotions of startups. I'm reserving a lot of thoughts until they "cook a little". One of the topics that has cooked for a while, is the idea of "appropriate response".

When you start a new company, especially one with lofty goals, in an area with few comps, you can expect "few people to get it" right out of the gate. Friends and family will generally support you and give you the response they feel is appropriate – for the relationship. If it's your first time at bat they smile a lot, perhaps trying to lightly talk you out of it. You learn to roll with it, it's all part of the gig.

These are all good people, and they are NOT what I'm talking about.

What I am talking about are 'experts' in your space. Sometimes these are Venture Capital guys, sometimes they are analysts, and sometimes they are other entrepreneurs that have done stuff adjacent to what you are doing.

All these guys will have an opinion, and you as an entrepreneur should absolutely listen to them. Many will give you valuable information, and in your career you will return again and again to them. Some are a little less valuable and you will question their motivations. Ask yourself, are you getting an appropriate response to the stage of your company or idea.

Great advisors, regardless of who they are – are people that recognize that in the first month of your company "you are still figuring everything out". Input is good, suggestions good – telling you you're an idiot is unproductive. In the eighth month of your company, you know more and should have more answers; you should know your market better. At that point the questions and opinions should be stronger and you as an entrepreneur should be able to joust at that level. In the 25^th month of your company – bring it. As an entrepreneur you should be able to take a full frontal assault – you know more. You have to know more. I have been very fortunate that advisors close to me have been very helpful and have exhibited (and taught me) the concept of "appropriate response".

However, like every other entrepreneur that has walked this road, I have had my share of inappropriate response. Inappropriate response is when someone who does not receive the entire story (because of your inability to tell it early on) makes a unilateral decision that your idea is dumb and you are an idiot. In your quest to start you company, you will meet these people – and likely – you will never forget them.

Having walked in the Lijit shoes for over 2 years now, I have a list of a couple of these guys. One, I lovingly refer to as "The Troll". He is a smart guy and most definitely an ego maniac. He absolutely tried to crush our ideas and dreams in the first 10 minutes (publicly) of our company. Recently he published a post that absolutely and perfectly describes why the Lijit concept is super valuable.

Although we quickly recovered he emotionally wasted a month, a critical month, of Lijit's time way back when "believing" was the most important thing..

These guys will try to take you down, they don't know you, and they won't even remember doing it.

Don't let them, they are micro important.

 

Positive Train Control, juuuussst beyond our reach

I have been watching the story around the rail accident in CA last week. Two trains, a commuter and a freight train, collided head on in the San Fernando Valley. Right out of the gate the proponents of "positive train control" used the event to draw attention to the fact they have been calling for it for over 30 years. Response from railroad officials, "the systems are not yet reliable"..

I had to laugh a little. We have systems that land wide body jets at airports around the globe automatically, in six degree's of freedom, long, lat and rotation – in wind and weather with zero visibility. But, apparently – if you believe these guys we "don't yet have the technology to control the throttle of a train in 2 degrees of freedom.

Very early on railroads were one of the first adopters' of GPS technology. At first this seems strange; after all I think we can all agree the train is generally "on the tracks" removing a good deal of ambiguity from the problem. Railroads adopted GPS technology early on to control throttle response. The reason being, trains have huge mass and as result, inertia. In order to save fuel costs the railroad figured out that if they optimize when to add throttle before grades they can save huge amounts of fuel.

Think about it.

 

Goodbye to an old friend

Reading Brad Feld's Google AppEngine post and his experiment with different computer languages reminded me of a post I have been meaning to make. I have delayed writing it on purpose because I was in denial.

I'm not the guy you read about that has been programming computers since he was three. In fact I never touched a computer keyboard until I was about 20. However, from that point on I was completely obsessed with understanding how they worked, programming in nearly every language I considered real, even understanding how the IC's and firmware worked. I viewed the computer as one of the only toys that could make more toys. Computers were my spin-straw-into-gold machine. In college, although I never took a formal computer science class, I would regularly help CS students with their homework. Programming was easy for me, and there wasn't a part of it all that I was not fascinated with.

My first job out of college was at NASA programming and testing digital control systems on X-Planes. NASA afforded me the ability to completely shift my career to computer programming leaving electrical engineering in the dust. I sucked at electrical engineering. It was hard; it took me twice as long to do things as everyone else. By contrast, programming was easy – I could do in an hour what took others a day. I really found what I loved to do.

In the 15 years from age 20 to 35 I programmed all day, programmed more stuff at night, worked on the weekends on other projects. I read book after book and cranked through about dozen computers from Commodores, to PC's, to Mac's, to Sun Workstations (yes I had one at home), back to Mac's, and finally back the PC – oh, and back to Mac's. I wrote code on Sun OS, embedded operating systems, windows, unix, linux, minux, X-Windows, Cocoa and about 10 other environments you likely have never heard of. Programming was an obsession, it was relaxing, and no matter how different one project was from the next it was always in my comfort zone. In fact, it was so in my comfort zone that I never really felt like I needed a vacation. I just accrued vacation and kept working.

Then one day, like when Forest Gump's running, I stopped coding. I just got tired of it. Certainly the effort it took to transition to CEO from being CTO my last company gave me a lot less time to explore. Ultimately, one day I looked up and I was – just done. I haven't written a line of code in about 2 years, I haven't written any code for work in about 5 years, and I don't miss it at all – not even a little.

I'm not an obsessive personality (really), but after 25 years I have no need (at least now) to ever program again. I do miss the relaxing 'feeling' of writing interesting and pretty code. I always believed the best software engineers were a mix of left and right brain. Systematic yet creative. Well written code is like porn, you know it when you see it.

A friend of mine said being a startup entrepreneur means getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. I now feel like if I'm not uncomfortable then the edge isn't being pushed, stuff isn't getting done, opportunity is being lost, and success isn't being seized. Interestingly, vacations have become quite important to me, now. There has to be some kind of relief valve.

Programming was the fun thing that helped me find who I was. But, life goes on and you find new friends.