The world is mine... Innovate it!

Happy New Year! I'm Back

2008-01-01T23:29:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! After a few months away I am back. I never went anywhere... well actually I did I was in Paris & London in November. BTW, I mean London, England - Not London, Ontario for those bizarre Canadians that think Ontario.

My absence was the fault of the great 'free' medical system we have in Canada. It turns out the reason why I was unable to stay up late writing back in October was that I was sick (which surprise, surprise of course I knew). I went to several doctors and no one could figure out what was wrong. I was told it was a cold then the flu again and again. That really bugged me since I avoid Dr's unless I know something is really wrong. I have seen more than my fair share of Dr's.

While I was feeling terrible I was also working overtime on an Intranet project (that seemed to be going no where). So the second the content was handed to the publishing team, I decided I needed a break from it. So I looked for cheap flights and figured I would head to London and at least get to visit my sister. My friend was in Paris so I was also hoping to get a cheap train ride to visit her there for a few days... turned out the train was way too expensive because they were launching a new station for service from London to Paris. Everyone seemed to want a seat on the inaugural ride. I ended up flying which worked out better since I was only going to have about 5 days in Paris.

As I was preparing to leave for my trip I get a call from the Dr's office wanting me to repeat some tests done a few days earlier so on my way to the airport had to stop to get that done. Let's just say it was not a good start to the trip. On the plane I knew something was wrong... normally it is so cold on overseas flight but this time I had 4 blankets and my winter coat on and was still shivering and shaking.

I spent the next 4 days wandering through Paris in a fog... and of course freezing. It was cold, rainy and miserable. Now I understand why everyone wants to goto Paris in the Spring! Aside all of that I still enjoyed my time in Paris, however by the time I left I had no voice and had not even had the chance to enjoy the French cuisine aside from a croissant (Which tasted exactly like the ones I eat here).

Imagine trying to buy metro tickets, train tickets and clearing customs at Heathrow while being unable to speak. At least the customs agent in the UK had a sense of humour and started whispering when I had to do that. The only problem was with his English accent i had no idea what he was saying. ;)

I enjoyed 2 days in London and Oxford while being unable to speak. Then I spent the next 2 days in bed sleeping until my flight. Honestly I had no idea how I could make to the airport by train, tube and foot with no voice, nor energy but somehow I did.

When I arrived home I went to the Dr's again. The 10th one in 2 months. This one finally figured out that I had pneumonia. No wonder I was feeling so so tired for months. Finally I got some antibiotics and it has taken me about 2 months now to get energy back to stay up and not drop into bed right after working.

I am just glad I do not live in the US to get the bill for those 10 Dr's visits. Although, I am beginning to wonder if I was paying for everything, would it have taken 10 visits to get someone to do something?

Insight into the VC World

2007-10-07T05:29:00.000-04:00

I just came across a blog written by Josh Kopelman, Managing Director of First Round Capital which I found to be very interesting.

First Round Capital has quite an interesting portfolio of companies including the winner of Tech Crunch 40 Mint Software that I had previously mentioned. It looks like Mint has done it again with winning the Financial Innovation (FINOVATE) Award.

Of course that got me side-tracked into reading more on these innovative companies that have secured VC funding to see what I can learn.

Chris Fralic is also a partner in First Round Capital and he too has an interesting blog called nothing to say. What got me side-tracked there is an interesting post on LinkedIn vs. Facebook, which leads to David Pogue's take on the subject of LinkedIn. I have a LinkedIn profile but have not really gotten around to doing much with it unlike Facebook where I have invested (or wasted) just a bit more time.

Innovation in Technology Helping to Fund School Projects in the U.S.

2007-10-07T02:54:00.000-04:00

Innovation in technology can be used to make people very rich. On the other hand it can also do some great things as seen on the donerschoose.org site. This site is a great implementation of how technology can be used to raise money for projects in schools.

The teachers submit the projects they would like funding for and people can donate money for these projects. The details posted for project tell you which school (in the United States) the project is for, the classroom details such as the ages of the students and of course the total cost for implementing the project.

The site even has a Blogger Challenge which is ongoing until October 31th to determine who can raise the most money in their project. The following awards are also being given:

Six Apart - Is sponsoring an award for the bloggers who help the greatest number of students during the Blogger Challenge.

Yahoo - The blogger who motivates the most readers to participate in the Blogger Challenge will get lunch with Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang.

Google - Is going to reward the winning bloggers with exactly what they gave to DonorsChoose, students, and teachers: traffic. They will post links to the winners’ blogs here, and a $500 gift certificate for each winner to spend on DonorsChoose.

It's a pity that site is only for U.S. projects and only seems to support donations from the U.S., since I tried to make a donation and create a challenge but the registration form only allows U.S. addresses. I guess that has something to do with the fact that they issue tax deductions. I guess I won't be having lunch with Jerry Yang anytime soon.

Those of you are in the U.S. and want to enter the challenge or support a school should pay the site a visit.

I'm featured on the front page of the mEgo.com web site

2007-10-02T19:33:00.000-04:00

Wow. On September 25th, 2007 I received an email from Ariel McNicol, one of the founders of mEgo to say that thay have featured my blog on their home page. It is kinda cool to see the link to my blog there - especially since I just start blogging again. It is very interesting to see the opportunities that beta testing a software can bring. I never thought it could bring more traffic to my blog and from my statistics the traffic to my blog has definitely increased. I guess that is the magic of the Internet.

How did this happen?
I installed the mEgo application in Facebook and on my blog (see the column on the right) and I am beta testing it.

What is mEgo?
It is an interesting widget that lets you post info about yourself once to each location and then you can update the info centrally (on their web site) and have it propagate to where the widget is installed automatically. No longer do you have to update several profiles about yourself. Do it once and then forget it. It stores info on various topics such as looks, personality, feeds - all the questions you are often asked to complete on every web site you have an account with. It keeps all the datad accesible from the widget which looks like an animated graphice installed in your web page.

Another interesting aspect to this widget is that when you log into your account at mEgo, you can also track the statistics of where your mEgo is being accessed from.

My Goals for the end of 2007

2007-09-24T04:44:00.000-04:00

OK now I am going to share my goals with you which according to Holly at CompanyLoop is an effective way to achieve goals.

My Goals:

Analyze and research business ideas

Select at least one business idea to follow through on

Develop a Business Plan

Develop a Facebook Application

Not much for the last 3 months that remain this year eh? I will update you on the progress as I reach each milestone. Now it is finally time to sleep for a couple of hours.

The Facebook Economy

2007-09-24T03:33:00.000-04:00

Facebook has it's 3rd party developers generating revenues from it's social networking site where MySpace has yet to succeed. Facebook did something MySpace still hasn't done: It opened up its network to developers and made it easy for them to make money from their applications.

What does that mean for an application developer? Since Facebook is sharing with developers a development tool to build a Facebook application this means opportunity.

Development using the Facebook Platform makes it possible to develop your idea and get it marketed to 32 millions users with little effort and startup costs. Success comes quickly for the applications that are easy to use whether or not the are the first ones on facebook.

The place that a Facebook developer should check out is Adonomics.com formerly Appaholic.com. Adonomics breaks down Facebook applications by popularity, growth rate, and even "virality," as measured by growth in a single day.

The key to making your Facebook application a successful revenue generating venture is tying the Facebook application into ad revenue within Facebook and features external to the application where you get to control 100% of the review stream. Another way is developers are letting companies brand their applications. For example an application called FoodFight will soon let you throw name brand chicken, instead of just calling it chicken.

Basically this is what I see as generating multiple streams of income.

The Business 2.0 article gives you details on 4 ways to make money:

Sell Ads

Attract Sponsors

Sell Services

Sell Products

There is even one venture capital firm, Sand Hill Road-based Bay Partners, which has set aside more than $12 million to bootstrap 50 new Facebook applications.

This has inspired me to develop some of the ideas I have had for decades now on the Facebook platform. 10 years ago the Internet was not at the level of intergratation with the general public that is now. In the age of Facebook my time has come to implement these ideas which, if successful, will let me retire before 40.

Wish Me Luck!

The OS I am most like

2007-09-24T02:54:00.000-04:00

Almost 3am and still not sleeping so I am trying the 2nd entertaining quiz Which OS Are You? for tonight.

I cannot say I am happier with the result of this quiz than the preview one on the programming languages. Why do I keep getting associated with Microsoft products? Although, I should be happy with the description of me.

You are Windows XP

OK. Time to sleep now. No more associating with Microsoft for me tonight.

I would much rather be the Mac OS.

The Programming Language I am Most Like

2007-09-24T02:24:00.000-04:00

Ok so its 2am and I cannot sleep...

I start reading some really interesting articles on innovation then PHP Programming... then (if you know the way web works) I get to some completely useless and pointless quiz which I decide to check it out.

The first quiz I try is Which Programming Language Are You? It turns out I am one of my least favourite programming languages. One which I am forced to use for web development at my day job because some person 10 years decided years that it is the perfect langauge for web development for their Intranets.

OK so without further delay the disappointing result is:

I am like Visual Basic.

As for the definition of the language... I would have to totally agree with it. Just please do not use that to define me.

I am thinking to go with the suggestion from the quiz creator who says I can cheat and grab the image from the site and pretend that this is really who I am according to the quiz:

I am like PERL.

Now I feel much better. I might even be able to sleep soon.

* IDEA * Using Social Network Applications for Business Research

2007-09-22T22:20:00.000-04:00

It looks like social networking sites such as Facebook can be used for more than just networking.

I just came across an interesting post by Gerard Ramos who successfully used Facebook to do some business research for Swamble.

I was thinking the same thing a while back when I saw the polling application when I logged into Facebook. I thought it might be a neat way to do some research for new business applications with any overheard costs or having to do much work in setting-up the online survey. This is an innovative way to do some business research wil no cost.

Can social networking sites give you more friends?

2007-09-22T17:16:00.000-04:00

According to to a post by Anthony D. Williams, research indicates that the use of social networking sites will not increase you friendships but your lists of acquaintances.

I agree with that.

It also states that on average you will have about 150 acquaintances and 5 friends. I think the amount of acquaintances is a little low... depending on how you actually define 'an acquaintance'. On some sites like have seen people with thousands and thousands of people in their friends list - which is just crazy. I think that those are people suffering from a lack of self-esteem or just feeding their egos. I mean how could you possibly even keep the names of those thousand friends in your head?

The advantage in using social networking sites is that you can develop and maintain existing relationships with ease. It saves you time and allows you to keep in contact with people at all times.

The downside is that sites like Facebook help to promote laziness. People just need to post info once and everyone of their friends can see it. That way people are not making the effort to interact on an individual basis and therefore I think friendship can suffer.

Technology is only as good as the way you use it.

Tech Crunch 40 Conference in San Francisco

2007-09-22T13:49:00.000-04:00

Ok so hear I am reading some random web blogs then I decide to check out the Business 2.0 website to see what is happening with the demise of the magazine. Then I come across the Business 2.0 blog and a posting by Erick Schonfeld. He has an interesting posting all about the the Tech Crunch 40 Conference that just happened in San Francisco.

Why does all the cool stuff to do with the Web and Technology happen in SF?

A question I keep asking myself. No wonder I am dreaming of moving there for years... aside from the wonderful climate.

Basically the conference is 40 of the hottest new startups from around the world who demo their products then they have the chance to win a$50,000 cash award and lining up other in-kind services and awards from a generous group of corporate sponsors. Really cool.

The winner was Mint an innovative way to mange your money and spending online. Too bad it looks like it is only supporting banks in the US market. :(

I will be sure to check out the rest of the companies participating in the conference as I love to see what startups are doing. Innovation on the web is so great! I think I am obesessed by it... which I think is a good obsession to have :)

Business 2.0 is dead!

2007-09-22T12:24:00.001-04:00

Oh my god! My favourite magazine - Business 2.0 is going to die... I guess it was going to happen since I had noticed the magazine was getting thinner and thinner.

Business 2.0 is one of the few magazines I subscribe to and actually read cover to cover. I have been reading it since the first issue. It is always full of interesting articles, innovate business people and businesses that are not just average. Now I guess I have to find more reading material for those long bus rides into the office... or maybe I just need to start working at home more. ahahaha.

Seriously there is a lack of innovation in magazines these days. I read the nytimes article that states some of the staff will be working on articles on Fortune magazine. I used to read Fortune years ago when I was in university - only beacuse I got a really cheap subscription price. I cancelled the subscription eventually because I found the really interesting articles were few and far between and the articles were kinda dry. Oh well I guess will I try and check it out again to see if the writing I loved so much in Business 2.0 will survive...

Ok... so I procrastinated a bit on the blogging thing

2007-09-19T17:50:00.000-04:00

Yes. I admit it. I procrastinate! I have no idea why it happens... mostly it happens with things I want to do that are good for me. For example like when I want to mail the claim form from the Dentist so I can get may $$$ back some how it ends up in a pile of miscellaneous papers and never gets sent. Or like installing the dishawasher I bought last year.... and passing it every day as it sits outside the kitchen. Ok well I finally got that one done last week. :)

Anyhow, cannot solve the procrastinating thing for everything but hope to do that with this blogging thing. :) I forgot my account username and password which is the main reason why I never continued. Then today I was reading this really cool book called Naked Conversations. (No it is not about naked people talking) It is about blogging and how it is changing the world, especially the business world. An interesting read so far - I am halfway through it.

So now my main issue with this blogging thing is to decide what topic to blog about. They say you are supposed to write about what you know... so looks like according to my varied interests I can write about:
Innovation - I love innovation. I am always finding ways to innovate in everything.
Creativity - I am creative and love doing anything that lets me express my creativity.
Technology and gadgets - Oh how I love gadgets.
Apple & Macs - My passion for Macs.
Books - I love to read any kind of book especially ones on technology and business then also art & photography. Reading keeps you learning.
People - I love to meet new people.
Travel - If I had an unlimited source of $$$ I would be doing this all the time.
Photography - I love to take photos, especially black & white film.
Dating - My adventures in dating... I think once you are over age 30 dating becomes tedious as you get tired of the bad date thing.

Ok I guess I will have to decide one day, but for now my blog will just be filled with the random things that fill my life!

My first blog!

2004-07-23T23:51:00.000-04:00

For years I have been reading blogs but never thought I would have the time to write my own. So here goes, this is place for me to express my views. Watch out because you could be the topic of my next post! Actually I might as well start now...

The world has slowly become completely full of morons... I mean everwhere I turn there they are... Driving on the road - through red lights, at store operating the cash registers, on the phone working at utility companies. I cannot seem to escape them. This will drive me insane and I am not joking. Simple day to day transaction become huge life events. At McDonalds the other day I confused the girl at the counter by giving here some change along with my $10 bill. - She had no clue what change to give me! I had to do the math for her...

I think over the years the average level of intelligence has dropped. I do not know if it is just that I am so intelligent (that is not the case) but some days I feel like a mastermind or creative genius whom no one understands. (Sigh!)

Coming soon are my travels from Montreal, Quebec, Canada to Lake Tahoe, California via Texas and Las Vegas. The three week trip starts on Monday next week! I can't wait.

The world is mine... so watch out. Here I am. :P