Three years of pinewood derbies. . .
February 22, 2010
Ethan and I finished his latest pinewood derby car for Cub Scouts this evening. He decided to build a car to commemorate the Olympics, complete with a snow and tress (don’t get me started on the whole ‘drag’ conversation - my son is the one that made his first car with all 50 state flags). Check out his Olympic car:
Last year Ethan decided to commemorate his first belt advancement in Judo by building a Judo car. It, unlike his current mountain was very fast. Check it out:
Ethan’s first car was a patriotic car that included flags from all 50 states. Check it out:
Online Polls and Voting
December 31, 2009
Since launching ShopSavvy back in 2008 we have participated in one or more online polls or votes each quarter. I groan a little each time, but at the end of the day we need the exposure winning might create. For example, last year we were nominated for a Crunchie by internet voters, but ultimately lost out to imeem (ahem). More recently Tim O’Reilly’s team pitted ShopSavvy against our primary competitor in something called the O’Reilly iPhone Smackdown. About the same time we found out we were also nominated for the CES Mobile App Showdown. Both contests relied solely on internet votes.
Of course we have a small advantage in these sort of internet based polls/votes - we have millions of users. Any time we get into one of these online contests we ask our users to vote. For example, we created a bit.ly link for the O’Reilly vote and sent it to a segment of our users via a push message. We kept the message live for three days sending more than 61,000 voters to the O’Reilly website to vote. Click here to check out the stats for yourself. Ironically about 10% of these folks voted for our competitor because they viewed the request as ‘SPAM’ (which it sort of was, but hey the app is free so we should be able to ask a favor every few months). Earlier today we got a note from O’Reilly explaining that they had taken down the poll (we were winning by about 80% or so). Here is the note:
Thanks for your note and apologies for the confusion. We pulled the smackdown because there was lots of bot traffic skewing the results. It seems that our web team implemented the smackdowns with fairly naive, casual poll software. Votes are handled by simple <a> links with only modest cookie-based attempts to prevent multiple votes from the same machine, all of which means that they’re quite susceptible to skewed results via bots. In this case, it looks like a bot or spider stumbled into the page and kept pounding both vote links. I’ve removed this smackdown from the site and will hold off on additional smackdowns until we find out more and/or get a more robust poll solution in place. We’ll give the smackdown another try then. Again, sorry for the trouble.
I suspect they weren’t used to so much traffic. We reached out to them and shared the bit.ly stats so they could determine that the source of the traffic was most likely from actual voters. Of course it is a little frustrating that we used our ‘goodwill’ to generate votes only to have those votes discarded. I doubt we can ask these users to vote for us a second time for the same contest.
The CES Mobile App Showdown is still underway (8 days left). We are currently in first place with 16,457 votes. We have limited the number of users who have received a push request to vote for us so that we don’t swamp the CES servers. I couldn’t help but feel that it was silly that we had to limit the number of requests so that we didn’t skew the votes too much in our favor (as we did in the O’Reilly vote). As long as these sort of votes/polls persist we will happily participate, but I wouldn’t mind some sort of multilateral agreement whereby we would all agree not to have online votes/polls. How about you?
Happy Birthday Marines, Semper Fi!
November 10, 2009
Today marks the 234th birthday of the Marine Corps. Take a minute to thank a Marine for his service and wish him a happy birthday!
My Twitter Dilemma, PLEASE HELP!
October 30, 2009
In early October I noticed that the Twitter API was posting updates to my Twitter account. Someone suggested that I change my password, but on October 12th at 9:15PM my NEW password stopped working. I tried the password recovery system, but I never received an email from Twitter with my new password. My theory is that someone had ‘hacked’ or ‘phished’ my Twitter password and then changed the email associated with my account. When I changed the password they recovered it using the password recovery tool. When I tried to use the recovery tool THEY received the new password - not me. I emailed Twitter Support several times, but I have never heard back. I can still tweet on the account using cotweet because it is still connected using oauth. The bad news is that the ‘hacker’ has been posting updates to my Twitter account and since I can’t login, I can’t delete them. Here is the latest:
I have been a Twitter users since 2007 and have more than 25,000 followers. It was one thing when I couldn’t use my account, but now someone else is pretending to be me. This is unacceptable. I am hoping someone from Twitter can help, someone like Josh Elman, Vitor Lourenco, Mark Trammell, Kevin Thau, Jason Stirman, Dick Costolo, Santosh Jayaram, Peter Fenton, Doug Cook, Abdur Chowdhury, Alexander Macgillivray, Evan Williams, Rael Dornfest, Chris Sacca, Jack Dorsey, Greg Pass, Andrew Lorek, Jeremy LaTrasse, John Adams, Rudy Winnacker, Britt Selvitelle, Alex Payne, Bijan Sabet, Jay Edwards, Steve Jensen, John Kalucki, Blaine Cook, Lee Mighdoll, Biz Steon, or Jack Dorsey - anyone?
Dallas Cowboy Suite Deal
September 10, 2009
I bought a suite at the new Cowboys Stadium more than a year ago. I put together a group of business owners to join us, but the economy has really thrown a wrench into our plans. All our rich friends are now a little poorer. We are at the 11th hour and need a few more people to get the suite filled.
We have the last available field level suite (we put the deposit on it more than a year ago so we got a VERY good location). We made a 20 year committment on the suite, but you can join us for just the season with first right of refusal on next year. The yearly price is $240,000 for 20 seats. We want a maximum of ten ‘owners’ - i.e. each ‘owner gets two seats. This means each ‘owner’ pays $24,000.
The deal on the field suites is very cool. You get full access to the suite throughout the game, but you also get two seats in the founders section (i.e. the padded seats). The suite is just below the seats. So you can watch the game from the suite (or you kids can) or you can sit up in the good seats. The regular suites do not have this feature - unique to the field level suite deal.
These suites are renting for more than $26,000 per game. Plus you get all of the concerns and events at face value - great deal for the right person. Anyway, you need to get in touch with me ASAP. Alexander Muse - 214.550.2003.
![[Cowboys+Stadium+001.jpg]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BwMQiTTD5Ak/Sl-RJg0_wYI/AAAAAAAAAp4/JO549j1y-Uo/s1600/Cowboys%2BStadium%2B001.jpg)
Sprint to launch Android phone in US!
September 3, 2009
I couldn’t help but share my excitement this morning. We just got the formal announcement (i.e. we can finally share the news) that Sprint will be launching their Android phone - the HTC Hero - on October 11th. The Hero is a powerful device that runs a re-skinned version of Android. This version of Android is built for business - complete Outlook integration. This means that ShopSavvy will finally be on a CDMA network:
Personas from MIT Media Lab
August 21, 2009
My Persona:
The evolution of my blogging
January 11, 2009
When I began this blog I wrote about everything - startups, politics, venture capital and personal stuff. Starting now I will be moving the majority of my personal and political thoughts to Twitter and Facebook. I wanted an outlet for my non-entrepreneurial thoughts and my blog never seemed like the perfect place. Twitter and Facebook have turned out to be a good place for my rants, complaints and personal news. When we launch the new SpringStage branded themes I will officially cut out the political posts and get rid of most of the personal stuff (i.e. whatever doesn’t seem to fit).
Our plan for JPG Magazine
January 4, 2009
In a phrase, “Getting back to basics” will be our mantra for JPG Magazine should we be successful in our bid to take over as caretaker of the JPG community. As a subscriber, user and contributor to JPG over the years I was shocked when I heard the managers of JPG decided to shut the magazine down. Surely there was a way to save the magazine and, more importantly, the JPG community. It took me 20 minutes to decide that I would pick up the JPG torch and ensure that JPG would not die, but instead flourish. On Friday I made a written offer to JPG’s shareholders to acquire the magazine and the publishing company.
By Friday afternoon I had found two other groups similarly interested in joining forces to save JPG using our collective experience, time, resources and capital. The key was to close quickly, over the weekend if possible and by Monday at the latest. After talking to Mitchell Fox Friday afternoon it would seem our simple plan to save JPG was going to get more complex. Mitchell suggested he wanted to delay closing to see if he could get a better deal. Instead of thinking about what was best for the community I immediately suggested that our offer was only good until close of business on Monday. I was excited about the prospect of saving JPG and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to someone else. On top of that I will be giving the keynote on Wednesday in Holland at an open source conference on Android - pretty hard to close a deal when you are on stage or on an international flight.
Over the weekend I realized it wasn’t important that whether or not I was the one who would save JPG; it was clear JPG would be saved. Preserving the community, preserving the vision; that was what was important. Don’t get me wrong, I still hope that Mitchell and his team agree that we would make the best caretaker for JPG, but I realize that there might be someone better positioned to save the community.
I received more than 900 (yess nine hundred) emails from JPG readers, contributors and subscribers - almost all appreciative and positive about our plan to save JPG. Some of the messages were two or three pages long - detailing how much JPG means to them. After sifting through the emails I am even more convinced JPG MUST survive. To get an idea of the sort of emails I have received just check out the savejpg.com website.
To conclude, I think there is a place for JPG in the publishing world, but I think JPG needs to be small, nimble and efficient. JPGs unorthodox model, its srcappy bootstrap startup roots - planted originally by Derek and Heather will be our future, not our past. Trying to turn JPG into traditional news-stand magazine isn’t the answer. Step one will be to allow the community to elect a small board of trustees to oversee the direction and management of both the community and the magazine. Their mandate will be to help JPG ‘get back to basics - to what makes JPG special’.
If you are interested in helping please email me at amuse@m-ven.com. If you want to encourage JPG’s shareholders to accept our offer email Ron Palmeri at ron@minorventures.com. At the end of the day, it would seem that regardless of whether or not we are successful, JPG will survive (hopefully they don’t sell it to SmugMug as Mike Arrington suggested).
Last chance to vote for ShopSavvy!
Today is your last chance to help ShopSavvy win a Crunchie for Best Mobile App of 2008. How about it? One more vote? Visit: http://tinyurl.com/savvyvote.
Merry Christmas!
December 24, 2008
Spend time with your families, play with your kids and be thankful. Here are a few Christmas quotes I lifed from About:
W. T. Ellis
It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.
Alexander Smith
Christmas is the day that holds all time together.
Richard Roberts, Contemporary Christ
It is not even the beginning of Christmas unless it is Christmas in the heart.
W. J. Cameron
Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year — and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority.
Ray Stannard Baker
I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays, let them overtake me unexpectedly, waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: ‘Why this is Christmas Day!
Frank McKibben
This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols. But the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift — the Christ.
Charles Dickens
I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should. We all come home, or ought to come home, for a short holiday — the longer, the better — from the great boarding school where we are forever working at our arithmetical slates, to take, and give a rest.
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
Robert Lynd
Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.
Joan Winmill Brown
Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given, when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.
Charles Dickens
Time was with most of us, when Christmas Day, encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and everyone round the Christmas fire, and make the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete.
Carol Nelson
Christmas is a time when you get homesick — even when you’re home.
Augusta E. Rundel
Christmas… that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance — a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.
Help us launch ShopSavvy in the EU!
December 6, 2008
You may have noticed that I haven’t been writing much over the last few months. There have been a million reasons why, but perhaps the most exciting reason is that we have been busy launching ShopSavvy in the US and UK. Things have been going well, so well in fact that we are gearing up for our EU launch (Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic and Holland). I have hired contractors in each market to help with the translation and localization, but I need more help identifying local and online retailers in each country (especially Austria, Poland, Czech Republic and Holland).
We need your help (i.e. if you live in the EU, have a unique understanding of the retail landscape or work for an online or local retailer located in the EU). Helping us out is VERY simple. Just add the retailer to this form:
http://spur.wufoo.com/forms/eu-retailers-to-include-in-shopsavvy/
To the guy who stole my laptop. . .
October 28, 2008
. . . you ruined my day. Someone walked into our coworking space in the INFOMART and walked out with my laptop - right in front of everyone. The good news is that Time Machine saved my data, the bad news is that my robber has it too.
Android and ShopSavvy EVERYWHERE!
October 16, 2008
I woke up this morning around 6AM to find hundreds of stories posted about T-Mobile’s new G1 and our ShopSavvy application for Android. Wow! Coverage around the web and the world including stories in The New York Post, USA Today, eWeek, AdAge, Gadgetell, The Boston Globe, VentureBeat, SlashGear, Dallas Morning News and hundreds of others. Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal simply suggests, “Google Answers the iPhone“. Erick Schonfeld from TechCrunch concludes, “The Android is going to be a runaway success once it goes on sale October 22. (Already, 1.5 million are rumored to be pre-sold).”
We have been really lucky to have participated in the launch of the Android platform as well as being included by T-Mobile in their US and international launches of the G1. More than 273 reporters have written stories about ShopSavvy, Big in Japan and our team. It has been an amazing experience. Later this month we will being our European launch in the UK, concluding in early 2009 with access to T-Mobile’s entire 100 million customers throughout the EU.
Additional Coverage of T-Mobile’s G1:
LA Times: How iView the G1: An iPhone owner’s take on the Google phone
Gizmodo: T-Mobile G1 Google Android Phone Review
GigaOm: The Google Phone Review: What I Love & Hate About T-Mobile G-1
New York Times: A Look at Google’s First Phone
Engadget: T-Mobile G1 review
Whitebox Startup Update: Everything takes longer!
September 25, 2008
With most startups (except for ShopSavvy) everything takes longer than you expect. That is certainly true for our Whitebox (electronic contract and finance system for auto dealers) business. Basically a month after launch and our system accepted its first finance contrac last nightt! We had assumed we would have processed our first contract weeks ago. The rollout is going well, with more than 16 dealers in the system.
