Don’t Build APIs…

April 18, 2012
Platforms, Technology & Execution
26 Comments

My first job at Microsoft was providing developer support for the early Windows SDKs. To do my job well, I spent hours studying the Windows SDK documentation, the Windows source code, and writing sample applications. I then spent hours poring over customers’ (such as Lotus, WordPerfect, and Computer Associates) code helping them figure out what was not working. This gave me a deep appreciation for API design early in my career. I saw clear examples …Continue reading →

MileLogr is already worth $1674 – Applying Lean Startup

April 17, 2012
Startups
7 Comments

Last Fall while driving to a meeting I was struck with this idea for a service that would help self-employed people and small businesses track automobile mileage in order to get a tax deduction. As I was leaving the Borg I found myself driving all over hell and back meeting with business partners, startups I was advising, and business events such as Lean Startup Seattle meetings. I knew the mileage was deductible but keeping track …Continue reading →

The Five Big Guys

April 15, 2012
Business, Mobile, Platforms
17 Comments

I’m working on writing up my thesis on the future of the consumer technology business and have convinced myself that there are 5 companies that stand to dominate. I call them The Five Big Guys. This post lays the ground work for that thesis by discussing these 5 companies. In 1989 I read the tea-leaves and made the call that Windows was going to dominate and OS/2 was going to fail. I felt I was …Continue reading →

You are Thinking of Your Career Trajectory Wrong

April 8, 2012
Career, Clarity of Thought, Leadership, Organization & People, Startups
15 Comments

Most people think about their career trajectory as being like a bell-curve or that of a cannon ball fired from a cannon. Something like this: For 99% of all successful people, this is completely the wrong way to think about it. For that other 1% (the Bill Gates & Mark Zuckerbergs of the world) it might work. For the rest of us, there’s a mental model that will help keep you sane, help you appreciate …Continue reading →

Experience = Stuff / Time

April 2, 2012
Branding, Customer & Product, Leadership, Mobile, Startups
9 Comments

The real value in creating new businesses is in delivering customer experiences. The ubiquitous nature of the web, devices, and social networks means successful companies in the future will understand this. The question is “what do people mean when they say ‘experience’”? This post provides an answer. Over the years, I’ve developed a mental model that helps me and my teams think about new businesses from a very customer focused perspective. I refer to it …Continue reading →

Brand is a Critical Part of the End-to-End Experience

April 1, 2012
Branding, Business, Customer & Product, Mobile, Startups
4 Comments

A commenter on another of my posts asked me to explain further why I think “brand is as much a part of the end-to-end experience as the user interface, device, OS, apps, and services.” I took it as a challenge to actually get my thoughts on the subject down in writing. So here we go… I use the following mental model when thinking through end-to-end user experiences: Or, since this is not real math, in words: …Continue reading →

MCE Controller 1.5.0 Released–Send Unicode chars

March 27, 2012
Coding, Smart Home, Uncategorized
2 Comments

MCE Controller allows you to remotely control another Windows PC on your network. For example it allows you to simulate a press of any button on the Windows Media Center IR remote control from another computer; if MCE Controller receives the string “mypictures” it will tell Media Center to go to the “My Pictures” page. Today a user asked how to send Unicode characters such £ and € and I added this functionality to the …Continue reading →

Update: Coping with the OSS command line on Windows

March 25, 2012
Coding
4 Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote about Coping with the OSS command line on Windows. In that post, I argued that the Mac is far better for dealing with the current crop of OSS development technologies that rely on the command line, such as Git, Node.js, Ruby/Padrino, and so forth. My argument is based around the fact that most of these technologies are developed by Mac/Linux users and both of those OSs are derived from …Continue reading →

Get Off Your Butt and Start Startuping

March 21, 2012
Startups, Uncategorized
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This message is for those of you who are either “Stuck” in a great paying job at BigCo in the Seattle area (Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon, Starbucks, etc…) Living near Seattle & trying to figure out what to do with your life after “calling in rich”. In either case, I’m guessing, you are: Smart. Love technology. Have an entrepreneurial spirit. Want to get involved in startups, but haven’t figured out how. A group of us in …Continue reading →

Books I read in 2011

February 26, 2012
Books, Uncategorized
8 Comments

Mostly for my own documentary benefit every year I recap the books I read. Below is the 2011 edition. You can find previous editions here: 2009, 2010. If you are like me, I bet you’ll appreciate being exposed to stuff to read. Five stars means YOU MUST READ.  One star means do not waste your time. Other ratings mean you may or may not like it… Title Author My Rating Comments Catching Fire (The Second …Continue reading →

All of these Operating Systems are Fundamentally the Same

February 26, 2012
Mobile
1 Comment

Another video interview I did for GLG Research at CES (another one here). In this one I babble about mobile device OSs and voice a few of my opinions about the current mobile operating system battles. Near the end (3:15) I talk about the point I care about the most: Users will start to care less about device operating systems and more about being able to experience services across all of their devices. I regularly …Continue reading →

Wanting To Be The Other Guy

February 17, 2012
Mobile
4 Comments

Below is a segment from a video interview I did for GLG Research at CES. In it I discuss the friction that exists between OEMs, carriers, and OS providers in the mobile ecosystem, complimenting my previous post “Fragmentation Is Not The End of Android” as well as the one where I explain the challenges Microsoft’s Windows Phone faces. This video is on GLG’s unfortunately named G+ network. I’d love to hear your thoughts & comments …Continue reading →

Learn Angel Investing in Seattle

February 7, 2012
Startups
1 Comment

It wasn’t long ago that I couldn’t even spell “Angel Investing”. I knew I wanted to get involved in startups.  I wanted to put some of my money to work in a way where I could be ‘close to the action’. But I had not idea where to start. And then I was doing angel investing, but I was just doing it stupidly. If you are like I was I highly recommend you make it …Continue reading →

R.I.P. Nancy M. Kindel 1928-2012

February 4, 2012
Kindel
3 Comments

February 3, 2012 – Ft. Collins, CO. Nancy Kindel, born May 22, 1928, died peacefully with her children at her side. Nancy and her late husband, Charles E. “Ted” Kindel were Vail, Colorado and Forest Highlands, Arizona pioneers. Incredibly resilient and positive, Nancy had an ongoing love affair with the outdoors and a powerful athleticism.  A perfect day for Nancy was one spent outside with her friends and family. She was a particularly competitive golfer …Continue reading →

When the Technology We Create Is Meaningful

February 4, 2012
Kindel
5 Comments

My mom passed away yesterday. She was 83 and it was her time. We’ve been expecting this to happen for a while and we are grateful she went calmly and peacefully. We’re writing an obituary and I’ll post it here when it’s ready.  I have 4 wonderful sisters. All of them, except Susie, were able to make to Ft. Collins to be at my mom’s side when she died. However, the snow storm that hit …Continue reading →

Coping with the OSS command line on Windows

February 1, 2012
Coding
20 Comments

Long time (23 years?) Windows user here. I’m not leaving Windows anytime soon, for a variety of reasons. But I do have a Macbook Air. Parallels lets me run the best apps, whether they are Mac apps or Windows apps, on one desktop. For example I’m writing this blog post using Windows Live Writer, the absolutely best blog authoring tool out there. It’s a Windows app but runs flawlessly on the Mac via Parallels.  It …Continue reading →

Seattle Startup Internship Opportunities

February 1, 2012
Leadership, Startups
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When I was in college I did an internship with a big company (IBM; working on submarine sonar systems) and learned amazing things (including that I didn’t want to work for IBM <g>). I also did a short internship for a professor writing Fast Fourier Transforms in FORTRAN. In addition to running my own little software company that I had started in high school, these internships were hugely valuable to me later in my career. …Continue reading →

Prevent another SOPA

January 20, 2012
Uncategorized
2 Comments

Yay. “We” beat SOPA. It snuck up on us but we activated and used our superpowers to defeat it (yes, I contacted my reps & I blacked out cek.log on the 18th). But ask yourself this: How in the frak are these idiots in office at all? The only way to prevent another SOPA is to ensure that we all remember who pushed this thing through, were idiotic about it, and finally caved only under …Continue reading →

Book Review of a Book You Can’t Find

January 18, 2012
Books
2 Comments

My wife was loaned Narrow is the Way – Why I Defected from Russia by Sergei Sazonov via her book club. She said I’d enjoy it. I read it. I loved it. I went online to find it to recommend it to others. And found nothing other than a Library of Congress citation. The book is an autobiographical account of Sergei Sazonov’s experience being forced to join the Russian army in World War II through …Continue reading →

WP Engine: Techmeme’d proof WordPress hosting

January 17, 2012
Uncategorized
3 Comments

I’ve moved this blog from blogging platform to blogging platform over the years. Each time my primary motivation for moving was to learn a new technology. Last year I moved from Community Server, hosted on my own Windows Server box in my home to WordPress running on a Linux VM hosted on Amazon AWS. I made this change to force myself to learn PHP and to get more experience using Linux. I love learning by …Continue reading →