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Zoli Erdos
Software Exec / Entrepreneur with Bus.Dev., Sales Focus; Program Chair, SVASE
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http://twitpic.com/bxglid :-)
The Most Reliable of Innovation Sources: The Calendar
Last year I cataloged my major sources of innovation stories. We all have our favorites. Valley watchers focus on local startups. Apple and SAP fanboys hype up every burp in each of their cafeterias. Others like to scan academic papers and work at campus labs. I myself like to see what non-tech ...
You should see the ad served up in your feed:
http://twitpic.com/s7ijq
:-)
Things I See in Chile
I'll be living in Santiago, Chile for a little while. I'm here to learn Spanish, explore a new culture and country (as a resident more than a tourist, a longtime goal), and pursue some professional projects. Why Chile? As Spanish-speaking countries go, if you value security, political stabi...
reminds me of this classic: http://valleywag.gawker.com/219044/mark-suster-of-koral
:-)
Wow, That Really is Arrogant and Obnoxious
There is a coffee shop here in Palo Alto called The Prolific Oven. I’ve been sitting here for a quite awhile catching up on email, building spreadsheets and other things for my company before heading to the airport. So far, I’ve unintentionally managed to overhear not one but 4 pitches to Ven...
I think there is a point when you stop calling it a romantic relationship and it's just love. At that point there is no more greener grass syndrome. And if you don't reach that point, it wasn't the real thing anyway...
Scanning the Horizon for Greener Grass on the Other Side
There's a phenomenon at cocktail parties where the person you're talking to darts his eyes around the room in search of someone more interesting, powerful, or famous. The guy is asking himself the question: Can I do better? This is the same question that lurks in the minds of people in medium to...
Hm... is Marissa Mayer sending a message to the creators of Google Tasks? :-)
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/tasks/
Simple To-Do List Systems
Marissa Mayer, the senior Google executive, in a "How I Work" interview with Fortune, says: To keep track of tasks, I have a little document called a task list. And in the same document there's a list for each person I work with or interact with, of what they're working on or what I expect from ...
You clearly represented a danger to their National Security and having over-stayed in the hotel by 30 minutes you can no prepare for the worst...
:-)
Village Outside Beijing and Spending Two Hours in a Police Station
I took a 2.5 hour bus from Beijing to a village outside the city, aiming for a couple days of relaxation and reading. City life, especially a day as large and hectic as Beijing, can be draining, and a village in the mountains sounded like a nice reprise. I packed a backpack with a few clothes, s...
In the next episode, strictly pay-per-view Ben will detail the additional services received at this place :-)
Chinese Masseuse Plays Shuffleboard on My Ass
The night starts innocently enough. Seven of us, exhausted from a dance club the night before and a long day volunteering at a migrant school outside the city, decide to get a 10 PM massage at an "upscale" place in Beijing ($23 / 60 minutes). When we arrive we are ushered downstairs into the...
I guess that makes it BaaS - Biking as a Service :-)
Garmin Connect
Good friend Sig Rinde shared the results of a recent bike ride in S. France. The amount of detail is so impressive – I swore he had an elaborate set of monitoring gear. Unbelievably, his Garmin Forerunner 305 available at amazon for $ 164.74 does the job just fine – along with a USB connectio...
It's an outrage I still have to touch screens. I want the telepathic model :-)
Smart showers
Companies like Moen and Hansgrohe are now replacing faucet handles in tubs and showers with touch screens and other electronic controls that are smart enough to store all the details of time and temperature of a favorite shower or bath — and produce them at a touch... With the RainBrain shower...
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.
:-)
Beware of Advice from Meta Careerists
The most successful e-marketers sell products about...how to become a successful e-marketer. There's a trend here. Writers who write books and articles about...how to be a published writer. Entrepreneurs whose entrepreneurship is about...entrepreneurship. The networking guru who uses his network...
See Postal Methods on how The New embraces The Old:
http://www.cloudave.com/link/postalmethods-business-process-automation-or-gilded-lily
Innovation at the Post Office
I was at the post office this morning and noticed 3 things next to each other – a smart mat to allow employees to more easily measure boxes even as it moves to simplify pricing around flat-rate boxes, on-line change of address form, and software to allow you to use your own digital photos on s...
Wow, beautiful photo :-)
Santiago, Chile
Chile is the Switzerland of Latin America. Chile is the Japan of the Southern Cone. Santiago is Zurich. Santiago is Tokyo. Valparaiso is St. Gallen. Valparaiso is Kyoto. OK. This might be stretching it. Chile is still a developing country, with all that that entails. But it is striking to arr...
Nice background, but will you actually see your appointments? :-)
I'd like colors - but not as background:
http://www.cloudave.com/link/google-labs-can-i-have-my-event-colors-in-calendar-please
Google Calendar: Now With A Mess Of New Options
I added a background image, Turned on "next event", and displaying several other timezones' current time. Check out Labs for these and other new features. Google Calendar, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.
Zemmy works 70% of the time for me - still review the recommendations and often amend them. Has been a bit slow lately (as in offering older posts)
How Semantic Tools Fail Us
I was reading at the Zemanta blog about new ways to use that company's technologies, and I saw the following story: The story is about Net News Daily's use of Zemanta. Fine. At the bottom the Zemanta guys are using their own technology to search for related stories, which would be fine if they ...
Fresh like this?
http://om.ly/?rYe
:-)
The trap of what people will pay for
People generally do not like public restrooms. According to my best friend, women more so then men. We stand –n- spray, women, well you get the point. Now imagine a company called Fresh as a Daisy. They have a chain of clean restrooms in your town, GPS located, etc. Plus they have franchise/sa...
Ah, there's another meaning to PaaS :-)
The trap of what people will pay for
People generally do not like public restrooms. According to my best friend, women more so then men. We stand –n- spray, women, well you get the point. Now imagine a company called Fresh as a Daisy. They have a chain of clean restrooms in your town, GPS located, etc. Plus they have franchise/sa...
Rick, good luck with your move, but don't you ever stop blogging!
This is one of my favorite blogs, educational and humorous... I need it :-)
Thanks for all the Fish
Last week was the conclusion of my VC adventure. For 8 years I’ve been doing the voodoo that VCs do and it’s been great. I’ve realized, tho, Venture Capital is for the most part a spectator sport. You are a coach in some cases, yes, but in general, you write the check, do some nurturing but w...
Here's another Tropicana redesign, a "cool" but rather sneaky one. I guess they should call it the "easy pour less" pitcher.
And one trick that apparently works: why not sell water @ juice prices, if we are stupid enough to buy?
Lessons from the Tropicana Rebranding Disaster
PepsiCo has been trying to rebrand the Pepsi, Gatorade, Tropicana and Mountain Dew products. How's it going? Try this: "It represents perhaps the largest and most cavalier destruction of brand value we will ever see," says Grant McCracken, in his excellent analysis of what's gone wrong. Peter Ar...
Ben, either you expect relatively few to take the offer, or the conference call won't be particularly *private* :-)
Book Review: I Will Teach You To Be Rich
Ramit Sethi's new book titled I Will Teach You To Be Rich launches today. I highly recommend it to anyone under age 30 as a kick-ass crash course on personal finance, or to parents who want to teach their kids about money. In fact, I like it so much that I'm offering you a deal. If you buy the b...
Of course you can get the identical product at Costco for $8.99 - and given that Kirkland is Costco's house brand, it's an outrage that Amazon would print a "list" price of $24.99.
Three Things I'm Doing to Become Healthier and Smarter
1. I take four Kirkland Natural Fish Oil Omega 3 pills a day. Each pill has 1000 mg of total fish oil with 300 mg of DHA and EPA each. 1200 mg/day seems to be a good target amount. Here's a page comparing fish oil to flaxseed oil. Here are all of Seth Roberts' posts on Omega-3. Here is Tyler Cow...
Somwehat of a sidenote, but I wonder why anyone would by Kirkland brand products on Amazon, instead of Costco at half-price.
Btw, here's a concentrated version:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11248464&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&lang=en-US&s=1
Three Things I'm Doing to Become Healthier and Smarter
1. I take four Kirkland Natural Fish Oil Omega 3 pills a day. Each pill has 1000 mg of total fish oil with 300 mg of DHA and EPA each. 1200 mg/day seems to be a good target amount. Here's a page comparing fish oil to flaxseed oil. Here are all of Seth Roberts' posts on Omega-3. Here is Tyler Cow...
Ben,
I remember you contemplating these ideas before your college decision now that it's a recurring subject again, I guess the writing is so obviously on the wall: you will drop out... and there's nothing wrong with that.
Yes, most people benefit from those 3, but you've lived life in the fast lane: learned and achieved more than most people in 30 years, have more and "better" connections than most in their 40's, and definitely don't need credentials.
You've tried college, because you just had to try (for yourself), now that you've done it, it may feel too ... hm.. constraining?
Move on, won't regret it :-)
Organizing the Rhetoric Around Why to Go to College
It is common wisdom that going to college and obtaining a degree is the smart path for any ambitious person. Since it's common wisdom, most people have never been forced to articulate the specific reasons why one should go to college. "Just get it done and then go on and conquer the world," a de...
Several years my regular weekly "commute" including taking those small turboprops from London, Ontario to Detroit. The flight regularly got canceled at the first sight of a raindrop or snowflake.
Funny think is, we actually liked it, the airline put us in a limo which was far more comfortable and reliable than the planes.
My Day in Airline Hell Last Week
Last week was one of the worst in US air travel history with over 100,000 passengers affected by the cancellation of over 3,000 American Airlines flights, various airline bankruptcies, and tornadoes in the midwest. This post has the story of my own travel hell last week, followed by a handful of...
Ouch, my post 5 minutes ago applies here, too :-(
What Does "Mature" Mean?
When you call someone "mature," what do you mean? Here's my rough pass at defining it. Emotional maturity indicates your ability to: manage your emotional state, adapt your behavior to your environment (know when to be silly and when to be serious), read and respond to social cues, not let one-o...
When they call *you* mature, it's a compliment.
When they call *me* mature, it's a sad reminder of my age.
:-)
What Does "Mature" Mean?
When you call someone "mature," what do you mean? Here's my rough pass at defining it. Emotional maturity indicates your ability to: manage your emotional state, adapt your behavior to your environment (know when to be silly and when to be serious), read and respond to social cues, not let one-o...
More...
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