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.

Take control of your spending

I was catching up with the posts on Radar the other day and came across an interesting post from one of the guys at Wesabe.

You can now upload your bank statement lines from any bank in the world straight into Wesabe using a nifty new firefox extension.

I thought I'd give this a try on the flat expense account - sure enough 3 minutes later I had Wesabe programmed (via the Firefox extension) to automatically login to my internet banking (BNZ) every 6 hours and fetch any new transaction. I was really impressed as I was typing in Bank of New Zealand it just appeared on the list as I set it up. Logging in to my internet banking site took less that a minute to browse to the right account and select a Quicken file to export to, Wesabe then captured the downloaded file. I tagged a fortnights worth of income from the flatties and me and then tagged our expenses for the month. Wesabe now tells us at an instant what we are spending on Power, Gas, and Telstra (Internet,Phone,Sky). It bloody rocks!

I'll hook up my personal account as well to see where my money goes - things that instantly come to mind are how much do I spend on lunch a month and where? How much do I spend on petrol? How much do I spend at the pub? With Wesabe now keeping an eye on my spending I'll now know without having to keep a (slow) google spreadsheet up to date.

I'd recommend anyone to do this ...it is dead easy to setup. Lets compare our results in a month or so at the pub we spend too much at!

How slow?

Yahoo has just released a cool new add on for Firebug called YSlow. Seems pretty good at ranking your pages and gives you some simple things to do to improve the speed of your sites.

Putting javascript at the bottom of pages, thats an interesting one, am still learning something everyday.

UPDATE - the stats tab in YSlow is very useful.

Flex app gets some press

Frequent reader of my blog know I'm a big fan of Virtual Ubiquity's Buzzword online alternative to a traditional word processor application.

Here's a cool story about the 11 person startup that was in the Boston Herald on Monday.

Seems to be a wise move they are going for the 20-30 year old age bracket initially, and starting with a free version first then paying version later.

They seem pretty confident that they are miles ahead in the online word processor space. I tend to agree. There isn't that many people out there that have built decent Flex apps yet. There is so much potential for Flex apps, and since they can be skinned using Photoshop or Fireworks the sky is really the limit. Version 3 is probably the time for developers to start seriously looking at the Flex platform for application development.

Young Gun potential

14yr old Sebastian Kornum could be the youngest windsurfer to land a forward loop. Nice one Sebastian.

I remember the days when I was a 15yr old sailing a Tiga Swift 325 in 35 knots. I couldn't boast doing a forward loop back then but worked out how to run across the state highway and get out of the shore break before a car would come around a blind corner and take me out!

Really cool to see the young guys pushing the sport at a young age.

Gran Canaria 07

The Gran Slam starts tomorrow!

Can't wait to see some video footage of the RS-Racing sail (RS 7). The cambers rotate like a dream so it will be interesting to see if Team Pryde nails it at the gybe marks.

Dunky has been going pretty well on North lately and its his home turf so Micah will have a lot to contend with.

I wish my parents had owned a windsurf school in Gran Canaria when I was a kid!

Plastic fantastic

After finding out all about the Boeing 777 yesterday I noticed Boeing talking about the 787 in the news today. The Dreamliner is insane, up to 50% of the plane is made out of composite rather than aluminum. This means a massive increase in fuel efficiency (20% at least). Some industry commentators believe Boeing will increase market share to 70%(currently under 50% - Airbus has been killing Boeing lately) . Airbus are years from having anything close.

The time that it takes to build a 787 has decreased as well, its built more like lego parts snapping together. Boeing has worked closely with suppliers (I guess much the same way Dell has done) to streamline the manufacturing process.

Very cool. Check out this video

The race to freedom

So on Thursday (day 6) we learnt that the iPhone could be unlocked really easily so you could use it as an iPod without a phone. And now on Sunday a week on (day 9) we learnt that we can have command line access.

It'll be great to get to use it on the local telco network, add SQLite and google gears and we'll start to see a whole new breed of business applications that are robust for the real world.

Red rings of death

Interesting news from Microsoft on xbox 360 repairs - they've set aside over $US 1B to reimburse anyone that has paid out of their own pocket to get their 360 fixed and also to prepare for the many other machines in the wild that may have this problem. Obviously they've made some manufacturing change so this doesn't happen in the future.

It gets you thinking that with so much pressure on to get to market some things will fall through the cracks. Software can be patched relatively easily in comparison but hardware defects are a real problem.

Who'd want to be in the game of selling leading edge consumer hardware. I'm sure Apple still does, they've been around the block numerous times and factor in defects. Traditionally Apple hasn't been so caring about problems with their ipods - i.e they let the consumer take the hit to their pocket. That may have to change with the iPhone which apparently has huge margins and consumers are becoming more aware of the tech giant. Commentators have already pointed out that someone can't be without their phone for a minute so Apple will need to invest heavily in customer support, a temporary loan and replacement program.

At first glance it seems that Apple may not have learned as their iPhone battery is not able to be replaced without tech support - you can't remove it yourself! Every other phone allows you to do this, unless they've magically invented the i-cell that doesn't need replacing a lot of consumers will sour over time. They've already announced a fee ($US79) to charge consumers that want a battery replaced but it takes 3 days to get your phone back, you can get a loan phone but it will cost you an extra $US30.

So the multi-billion dollar question is how far ahead are Apple with multi touch? Other device manufacturers has licensed Adobe's flashlite so can offer the sort of GUI that people will now expect but their phones don't have multi-touch. I don't think it will take very long for them to catch up at all. Companies like Samsung should be watched. Interesting times ahead indeed.

Tribute to 777

Today, 7th July 2007 is a great day apart from the fact that it is forecast to only reach a high of just 7 degrees in Wellington. I just googled this to see if we had finally escaped the evilness of last year's 666.

According to Wikipedia "As of June 2007, the Boeing 777 is the only major airliner never to have suffered a hull loss accident". A great achievement in safety design, having been in the skies commercially for 13 years.

Looking head I wonder if the 888 will surpass the iPhone as the greatest phone of the moment. Being able to wear your phone sure does sounds appealing, I think Nokia are on to something there. It's logical that Apple must have a more compact version of the iPhone in the works though, I wonder if they can do mulitouch in the size of a Nano?

iPhone been compared to Teddy Ruxpin

Classic.....some irate non AT & T customer has had to wait hours to get their phone activated...

"It's like I got a Teddy Ruxpin and had to wait a day for the battery delivery," harped one user on the www.engadget.com Web site. "It's annoying that everything is crippled until activation is complete."

Sounds like a lot of customers have been up and running in minutes though. Will be interesting to hear feedback as the weeks unfold, and to see the market get flooded with iPhone accessories.

Word on the street

David Pogue of the New York Times has had an iPhone in his pocket for the last two weeks.
His favorable review of this new space age device highlights a few key things. AT & T's network is really slow - they are charging $US20 a month for unlimited internet - probably about as much as they can get away with! Imagine your vodafone 3G card when it reverts to 56kb - thats what viewing webpages is like. Luckily in WIFI hotspots it rocks.

No flash player is installed on the iPhone. My predicition is that this will come really soon. Theres no reason it can't be done after all the phone is running OS X - or is it? Apple has a pretty strong partnership with Adobe so I'm pretty sure they will be damn keen to get flash running on the device. They have You Tube so appear to be converting to the videos to their H .264 fancy format.

The development community is slowly discovering (via Flex) you can code an elegant interface with nice animating panels, fading messages etc in a handful of lines of mxml compared with a lot more in javascript/css . With the caching of the core UI components being built into future flash players I think this will push flash content ahead of AJAX style content and be especially usefully on low speed network powered devices .e.g. the iPhone.

Kudos to Apple for simplifying the signup process for the iPhone through their iTunes software.

This device can only get better and better. It will be really interesting to see if other Tech companies can keep up with the Apple innovation. As phone CPU's become more powerful overtime the elegance of the core OS will give Apple the flexibility to add some really cool things to this phone (I know the OS is becoming irrelevant on the desktop but on the phone it will add some core things that current phones just can't do). Imagine the phone running a webserver - I can think of some great applications straight away.

Will they do a nano version of the phone - I can't see why not unless the footprint is already stretched as it is. A smaller screen would have to be cheaper but I guess with a decent cpu, ram etc you may not save much money.

I can't see it being hard at all to crack the phone so it can run on any other GSM network - without the awesome visual voice mail though.

Thinking different

I was just having a quick look over the posts on Y Combinator when I came across an interesting blog post by Paul Buchheit - he's the smart chap at Google that created Gmail.

He basically says that with any new product ideas you can put them into three categories : obviously good ideas that are hard to implement, obviously good ideas that haven't been done yet and bad ideas.

So we can take from that is it best to stay away from bad ideas....wrong!

"Instead of endlessly debating whether an idea is good or not, we should find faster and cheaper ways of testing them" (Paul Buchheit)

He gives an example at Google where they dismissed an idea as bad (video upload) when in fact it was a really good idea. He thinks, at best smart people only have a 50% chance of getting it right. I tend to agree.

So with most people staying clear of your particularly bad idea why not just build it and show that your idea actually has merit.

As they say a picture is worth a thousand words but a working concept can bring a "bad idea" to life.

I've been mucking around with Fireworks CS3 and Flex Builder 3, getting familiar with the typical workflow of putting together a very rapid prototype. As I'm getting more and more used to how MXML (the Flex markup language) works I am thinking that the cost of producing a beta product has got even cheaper, so not only can you show that your bad idea is actually good, you can have a working prototype linked up with a database and your business logic in next to no time.

So can we do even better? Well I know for fact that Flex Builder 3 is going to make this even easier in the next few months when they introduce the database connection wizard with CRUD tools (thats create, update and delete pages for the non acronym aware folk). So if you are just starting out your career or better still are at school or uni then start learning Flex 3 today.

At the same time as learning Actionscript 3 (which is based on ECMA script , so is Javascript 2) and MXML you can actually have some fun building stuff that works. Having a simple real world problem to solve is great while learning and you may find your "bad idea" pays your uni fees once you go live with it. At worst I predict you will have learnt one of the most sought after technical skills in the 2006-2010 workplace.