Startups making the world a better place

Don Dodge has posted an interesting interview with Y Combinator's co-founder Paul Graham. I really like the fact that once entrepreneurs have made it a lot of them want the next generation to follow in their footsteps, for the benefit of mankind.

Some useful insights to grab from the interview as well, the models we use down here in New Zealand may not have quite the right slant towards the garage startup as they should. I'm such a fan of 2 or 3 people working out of a bedroom or apartment and building the start of something great over 3 months or even longer.

History in the making

I just stumbled across a post about the oldest domains on the internet, the comments are well worth a read, 22 year ago, wow! Its fascinating how the web evolved into what it is today and I'm sure we'll all have a chuckle in 10 years time as to what we are doing today.

I'm confident there are some garage startups in the making that will come from nowhere and drive the next wave of innovation. The web today is too primitive but there are signs that slowly but surely good things are happening on all the main fronts (networks, hardware and software).

The overall computing experience is still overly complicated. There are plenty of opportunities out there still to think different. Reinvent yourself today!

AT&T launches the iBox

Just been catching up on some overseas news. This one is classic, iPhoner's have been receiving their first bills from AT&T. This poor lady received her invoice in a cardboard box, all 300 pages of it! Apparently you can request to have a shorter bill sent or even just view it online but the longer format is the default. Nice to see she saw the funny side of it and posted a video on You Tube - classic :)

The fact that AT&T has cardboard boxes in supply for packaging their invoices is an amazing logistical feat in itself- you would have thought someone would have clicked on to the ridiculous amounts of paper and cardboard being used at AT&T in the last week.

Update - there is an 5 min interview with the lady on YouTube - she sends 30-35K txt's a months - thats ridiculous - lets say she is awake for 16 hrs a day, so thats like a txt every minute she is a awake for the entire month - she must have her numbers wrong.

Actually she does send 28-3kK texts a month - she is the chick that has her own channel on Justin.tv - iJustine - thought I recognised her.

Check out her blog - www.tastyblogsnack.com

VOIP for iphone

A cool 3rd party app lets you run Skype within Safari on your iPhone. Its not the real Skype but uses the Skype API to give you almost the real thing by the looks of it. Tuned for the multi touch iPhone of course.

www.skypeforiphone.com from your iphone.

But why do I need an iPhone to try it? I don't actually...... It detects the browser so blocks Firefox, but I noticed it doesn't detect your client so I just tried it in Safari and it worked pretty damn well. User interface could do with some polish. Wait till Flash player 9 comes out for iPhone and that will be sorted.

So that must now mean that the iPhone is the swiss army knife for 07.

Apparently Skype are cool with this app as well. Not much they can do about it if you can't install apps on the iPhone officially yet anyway.

Office apps showdown

Some are already calling it "the ultimate leave behind" , the next cab off the rank in the Flex powered world is Slide Rocket, which has been under the radar for quite a while.

SlideRocket is built using Flex and is a designed as a replacement for Power Point with the extra benefits of an always online solution (collaboration, easy archive etc). The user experience looks fantastic.

It puts itself in the same class as Buzzword, which is no easy achievement. Both of these apps will have offline versions when released which will utilise Adobe AIR.

Absolutely awesome guys. Can't wait to get my hands on this one.

Nice article on Wired goes into more detail and suggests Adobe may be soon entering the Microsoft vs Google space of office productivity apps themselves. Interesting times.

Bring on summer

We're well past the shortest day now - its getting heaps lighter in the mornings - so almost time to dust off the windsurf gear for a big season.

I am looking to extend my time on the water and think that the new breed of light to moderate wind slalom boards and rigs might be just the ticket.

The new RS Slalom (MK II) is due out in November so I will probably hang out for that in a 7.2. I am undecided on a light to moderate wind slalom board, probably a 105 litre will be the ticket now I weight a bit more and this would complement the 7.2 really well in 8-18 knots, well maybe 10-18knots as I'm not sure how early they plane. I'll change down straight to my RS 6 6.2 on my 78 litre, by which stage I would be fully powered and in control until its gusting 30 knots. Over 30knots in choppy seas is actually really challenging in Wellington harbour, despite what people say, they actually are probably not going any faster than they do in around 20-24 knots, unless the water is really smooth and steady which we sometimes get at Eastbourne, in which case I'd probably stay on the 6.2 anyway and try and dial up 32-34 knots.

The 5.4 RS4 works really well on the speed strip so I'll be staying with that as well. It will be interesting on that gear this season, being slightly heavier I hopefully will move closer to the golden 40 knots, more realistically probably 37-38.

Anyway - I can't wait!

Working Class Millionaires

Have just read a really interesting article in the NY Times about Working Class Millionaires. Hal Steeger who has worked for more than 10 startups in his time has about $US 3M in the bank but still works long hours. He says he wants his kids to have good work ethics as well so continues to work. There is a 5 minute video in the articles if you don't feel like reading 4 pages.

Its nice to know that for some people that once they make it big they don't lose passion for doing cool new stuff.

The First Real web-based word processor

I've been following the progress of Virtual Ubiquity pretty closely . They have just flicked the switch on Preview 4 of Buzzword. You can now import and export Word 2003 Docs in XML format. I think this is the tipping point in functionality for the wider community to realise these guys are hot property.

So I tried opening a word doc and it just worked, the layout wasn't too challenging but it was perfect on my screen, in my browser with auto version control and the ability to invite anyone to view and make changes.

Virtual Ubiquity have just removed the biggest barrier from stopping us all from using this online word processor. Sure I use Word at work but now I can safely transport documents both ways so now I can use Buzz word all the time and not have to worry about my work mates not been able to read my documents.

A few UI tweaks have been made as well which improve the all round usability of the app.

I'll keep you posted on how I get on using it this week.

Nice one Virtual Ubiquity.

Update - haven't done a lot of word processing this week - but have found that Buzz word really spoils you - I can't wait for an equivalent spreadsheet or presentation maker - viewing powerpoints via Gmail just doesn't cut it. I'd really like to see a hybrid all in one but I guess Virtual Ubiquity are best to just to stick to their core offering for now and really refine what they've got.