I Won a Samsung Galaxy S II – My Review
At the Xconomy Mobile Madness event on Tuesday I won a Samsung Galaxy S II in a raffle. Irony much? The last time I used an Android device “for real” was in early 2009. At the … Read more
Looking for a Software Developer Intern
I am working on a whacky startup idea (unrelated to any of the startups I’m advising or my yet to be announced ‘real’ startup). It’s highly speculative at this point and while I’m willing to put … Read more
Wanna Invest in the Seattle Startup Community?
Do you love the idea of startups? Do you want the Seattle Startup scene to thrive? Do you want to invest in early stage startups but don’t know how to get started? I’m committed to helping … Read more
My Best Hiring Stunt To Date
I’ll be doing some serious recruiting soon. I will only hire the best, and attracting the best requires them noticing jobs are available. This got me thinking about “best-practices” for driving recruiting. Watching others lead, and … Read more
Formally Advising The Buddy Platform
I love startups. I love developers. I love Seattle. Given that my own startup will be based in the Seattle area (news on that coming soon!) it is important to me that the Seattle startup scene … Read more
I sincerely tried, but I still hate Linux
Before you read further, go read this post by David Gewirtz: Why I’ve finally had it with my Linux server and I’m moving back to Windows I guess I’m an idiot too. About 6 months ago … Read more
How Often Do Startups Join Together?
In talking to and mentoring dozens of startups I’ve noticed that many of them are in similar spaces; working on the same general problem, yet not quite competitors. Almost complimentary. This raised a question for me: … Read more
MCE Controller supports the Windows key
MCE Controller, allows you to simulate a press of any button on the Windows Media Center IR remote control by sending a text command to a TCP/IP port on your Media Center computer. For example if … Read more
Filtering My Angel Investments
I love early stage startups. So much so, that I will sometimes invest my own money when the startup is not much more than a few bright people with an idea. This is called angel investing. … Read more
What to do With Your Old Kindle
We now have quite the collection of various generation Amazon Kindle Book Readers in our household. I purchased the original the day Amazon announced it and have purchased at least one of every subsequent model. Today … Read more
Crowd Sourced Design Works
I have updated the look and feel of the Kindel Systems, LLC website and this blog using a crowd source design. And I like how it turned out. Now that I am no longer working for … Read more
Be Either an App or a Platform, Not Both
If you think the thing you are building is both an “app” and a “platform” you will fail. Oh, and if you think it’s going to be a just a platform, you will fail too. (Update: … Read more
After 21 Years: Goodbye Microsoft
Today I announced that after 21 years I am leaving Microsoft to build a new company. I’m not yet ready to disclose details about the new venture but I can say I will be staying in … Read more
90% of the Decisions You Make Don’t Matter
In my post The 5 Ps: Achieving Focus in Any Endeavor, I noted that “90% of the decisions you make don’t matter; real success comes in being able to identify the 10% that do and focus … Read more
June 22, 1991
On this day 20 years ago I married my lovely bride Julie in Golden, CO. It’s been an amazing ride so far and I am excited for what the next 20 years bring. I love you … Read more
Some of my Favorite Quotes
“A long, healthy, and happy life is the result of making contributions, of having meaningful projects that are personally exciting and contribute to and bless the lives of others.” – Hans Selye “Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists … Read more
From the Archives: STOP 0xC2 aka BAD_POOL_CALLER Blue Screen and bad memory
In 2004 one of my computers had a bluescreen with a STOP 0xC2, BAD_POOL_CALLER fault. It turns out it was a bad memory chip. I wrote a blog post about it here: STOP 0xC2 aka BAD_POOL_CALLER … Read more
The 5Ps: Achieving Focus in Any Endeavor
Always have a plan. Always. A great, simple, framework for any plan is the 5Ps: Purpose, Principles, Priorities, People, and Plan. This framework applies to software development projects, job searches, building a garden, or a phase … Read more
Griot’s 3” Orbital Polishers Compared
I recently decided I needed a 3” orbital polisher to compliment my Flex 3401 6” Random Orbital polisher that I’ve used for years when polishing the finish on cars. I couldn’t decide whether to get the … Read more
Charles E “Ted” Kindel 1925-1990
I was communicating with another branch of the “Kindel Family” as a result of the post I made about the Kindel Furniture Factory fire several weeks ago. As a result I looked through some old files … Read more