With The Band

In Israel, I often get around by taxi, if a bus isn’t convenient. Many fear the public transportation system, because of past history of bus bombings, and avoid it altogether.

You have two choices when you climb in an Israeli taxi. You can have them use the meter, or you can negotiate a price. Negotiate a price for a cab ride? There is no such thing as a set price in Israel, or the ME in general. I’ve haggled with merchants for everything, including a loaf of bread.

If you do the standard method and use the meter, the time and distance traveled is how they get paid. What’s the incentive to them to get it done as fast as possible? So sometimes (I’ve personally experience this multiple times) where they’ll take longer routes, get stuck in traffic, and generally take a long while, because it’s in their best interest to run up the meter. Sure you could try and give them specific directions, but that requires more involvement on your part.

But if you agree on a price in the beginning, it’s very different. They know what they are being paid, and they want you at your destination as fast as possible, mainly so they can get to the next client and make more money. You get there faster. It’s a win-win situation.

“Work” in general feels the same way for me. Whenever I’ve done development work, I always aim for a flat price. It helps specify, when possible, the exact deliverables, and the client will know that it’ll change if the requirements change. If the client gets what they want, and the developer didn’t grossly underestimate the amount of time required, who cares how long it actually took?

You may be thinking that the taxi driver doesn’t have to worry about quality, other than getting from point A to point B without being killed - which in Israeli traffic is quite a feat itself. That’s true. We, however, do. But quality of work breeds follow-on work (even in a full-time job, if you don’t deliver quality, you’ll be fired…. or should be), so it’s our incentive to deliver quality work no matter what.

A Conversation with Yossi Vardi

Technology is like a piano. You need to have it to create music but you really need the pianist. The entrepreneur is to technology as the pianist is to the piano.

I love interactive sites pertaining to TV shows or movies.

LOST:
http://www.flyoceanicair.com/
http://www.find815.com
ReadWriteWeb talks about it.

When will campaigns like this become part of the experience, and not just a promotion for the show?

The first one I can remember is for Starship Troopers. They had a great game that replicated the style of the movie and built up a great following people who were excited for the movie months in advance. Too bad the movie sucked.

But Pastafarians now have all other religions beat in the edible department. We don’t have any food with googly eyes.

Edible Flying Spaghetti Monster by Evil Mad Scientist. If you aren’t subscribed to Evil Mad Scientist, you’re wrong.

The beginning of a new year, like any other major milestone, is always a time for reflection, evaluation, and prediction. Main stream media, websites, bloggers, all give predictions (I’m guilty as well). This year, it’s one of three things:

• Mobile - We’ve seen this prediction at least half a dozen times. I still see too many barriers, and nothing to break through. Phone companies will still charge an absurd amount for what is nearly a free service. There are hundreds of different phone designs, browsers, and capabilities. Android will try, but it’ll be worthless if it doesn’t get accepted by the majority of carriers. And city-wide wireless? Still hasn’t been successful. More importantly, what can the mobile web really offer us? Other than giving us access to the same resources available on our desktop or laptop, what value does mobile add?
• Video - Sorry Scoble, while your followers might like to watch you talk for hours a day on qik or mogulus, doesn’t make it mainstream. I can’t imagine a time where this particular medium gains widespread adoption. Good video takes money, and can’t be distributed for free, unless there is some serious advertising revenue. Putting a camera on yourself and someone else and chatting for a while isn’t going to make any real money. The writer’s strike has completely cut off the supply of fresh TV entertainment (thank heavens The Wire is OK), but nothing has seemed to be able to fill the space.
• Recession - Crap.

I’m not going to summarize what I hope to see in the coming year in one word, or call it Year of the ____. My predictions/hopes?

• The technology entrepreneurial ecosystem will wake up, and start focusing on startups, ideas, and people that solve real world pains. We can blabber on about online video, social media, mobile web, VOIP, and on and on, but there has to be a focus on how it will actually matter to the world, not just us.
• 2008 will continue the trend of the reversing the Industrial age. Knowledge workers will move away from cubicle farms, code factories, middle management, employee ID numbers, and become a cottage industry of work anywhere freelancers, working under the umbrella virtual companies and relying on technology to reduce overhead and enhance communication.
• skeevisArts and Localnik will catch on fire.
• My life has undergone many changes in the past two years, and 2008 will be no different. I’ll realize and address my “Life Major” and, with the help of my friends, family, and peers I’ve met and will meet in the coming year, celebrate many champagne moments. L’chaim (”to life” in Hebrew).

I grew up on the Blue Angels.

via Danger Room

Why didn’t I join the Navy? More:

I’ve been out of college for a year and a half now (has it been that much/little?). I’ve been paying serious attention to the future, and more importantly, how I should approach my career.

One of Marc Andreessen’s blog posts has been the most influential and eye opening. Instead of the “if you had a million dollars”, “ten year plans” and other assorted theories of how to approach career planning, Mark has a completely different perspective.

I believe a huge part of what people would like to refer to as “career planning” is being continuously alert to opportunities that present themselves to you spontaneously, when you happen to be in the right place at the right time.

• A senior person at your firm is looking for someone young and hungry to do the legwork on an important project, in addition to your day job.
• Your former manager has jumped ship to a hot growth company and calls you three months later and says, come join me.
• Or, a small group of your smartest friends are headed to Denny’s at 11PM to discuss an idea for a startup — would you like to come along?

I am continually amazed at the number of people who are presented with an opportunity like one of the above, and pass.

There’s your basic dividing line between the people who shoot up in their careers like a rocket ship, and those who don’t — right there.

Personally, that opened my eyes. For far too long, I’ve been told to keep my eyes on the long term goals, and gather the tools and techniques that’ll get me to where I want to be. I’ve passed up opportunities because of this. No longer.

Thank you, Marc.

Read Marc’s Guide To Career Planning 1,2,3

Seth Godin Only Two Years Left - Can be applied to anything, but I’m focusing in terms of career.

Web Worker Daily (If you don’t subscribe yet, do so) Searching instead of Planning

After considering it for a while, I decided to give my DC Metro Times checker it’s very own website! Everyone welcome getmetrotimes.com !

GetMetroTimes.com is a FREE service that allows you to quickly and easily check when the next metro train is arriving at your nearest station. You can check it online, or on your cell phone with just a quick text message! We charge you absolutely nothing, however your provider may charge you normal text messaging rates.

Additionally, I made some backend improvements to handle a wider array of queries. For example, to get the station info for College Park, you could type in coll, cOllEGe, collegepark, college park, collegepa, and similar variations. Have fun, and let me know if you break it!

FYI: Metro currently offers an online station monitor, as well as a WAP site, and Justin told us about an iPhone specific site. I created this because no service is currently offered that does this via text message, and it solves a real pain myself and many others have! Enjoy!

I woke up early (5 AM) to work at a soup kitchen on Christmas Day. I love driving around on Christmas day, because the streets are empty. I stopped at a Starbucks (shocked that they were open), and was able to park (an amazing feat itself) and then stroll across one of the busiest streets in DC, without a single car around.

Was way too dark at 5 AM, but here are some pictures from around 9.

16th Street

Connecticut

Adam’s Morgan

The Beltway!

Early stage incubators are hot now.

A couple months ago LaunchBox Digital was announced. Now a new one is launching in the mid-Atlantic area. Hello DreamIt Ventures!

Modeled on organizations such as Y Combinator in Silicon Valley and Boston, and TechStars in Boulder, Colo., it plans to raise a fund of $350,000 to $500,000 to provide eight to 12 teams of entrepreneurs with money and assistance to develop a prototype of a technology product or service over a three-month period.

The formula of providing a little bit of money, a lot of connections, and an incredible amount of mentoring/handholding has proven successful in the recent batch of incubators (initially started by Paul Graham’s YCombinator). Startups in the present time often don’t require that much in terms of capital (thank you open source!), but the latter two is, and always will be, the key to success for turning any idea into a business. As I look at my own track record and current project, I have consistently felt that it’s not necessarily money I am in need of (although it wouldn’t hurt). What I do need is the experience, mentoring, and resources of seasoned professionals, who have walked the path before, and know what I don’t know.