The Internet's Success Expert™
30
2011
Will George Bush beat Richard Nixon?
Not that I would dare to compare my job with President Bush’s set of responsibilities, but even as someone who considers himself somewhat liberal (if you want to find out where you stand politically, check out this small political quiz) I have to admit that the current strategy the White House has been employing – assuming that they’re not just scrambling – is not doing much to drive unsatisfied Americans back into the happy corner. Rather the opposite is the case. How does the saying go? When you’re in a hole, stop digging?! The President’s approval ratings have plummeted even further this week to a new record low of 39 percent (here is aninteresting chart that shows George W. Bush’s approval rating history since he got inaugurated in 2000). (more…)
30
2011
Care to share a kidney?
I’m sure you as well as most of us have heard about the incredibly long National Organ Transplant waiting lists for organ transplant receipients. Most of these organ donations come from recently deceased people who had previously agreed to donate their organs. This list, as helpful and necessary as it is, currently stands for a seemingly endless waiting game that causes an extreme hardship for all patients who’s final hope is to receive a donor organ and who might run out of time before their organ finally arrives. (more…)
30
2011
What does it take?
Scott Maxwell, who’s the Managing Director of expansion stage VC firm Insight Venture Partners in New York recently posted something interesting on his new blog about what it takes to hire the right people. As this goes along the lines of my earlier Temporary Authism post, it made me think about this again from a different point of view. (more…)
30
2011
Germany
I finally followed my family, who went already 2 weeks ago, to my hometown Krefeld, Germany to visit some good old german friends and family. I went with mixed emotions as I left (more…)
30
2011
Making plans…
Over the past few weeks Chris had suggested to me that I formalize my vision for Globat from a 30,000 ft POV and present it to our directors in one of our semi-weekly meetings. I really am a big supporter of planning on the financial end, but I am usually not so hip on the whole business-plan-in-detail idea (even though I agree that almost every business needs one). Plans, especially the ones from a 30,000 ft perspective, have a tendency to become “stale” with time and improperly viewed and executed might lead to a form of tunnel vision, which is something I have always tried to avoid. I want to keep our options as well as flexibility open, especially as far as the future of the company goes. (more…)
30
2011
New ideas – Ajax (no, not the cleaner)…
AJAX is actually a really cool tool that makes browser-based applications behave more like software that runs on your PC. Most web applications require that a new web page is send to a user to accomplish individual steps in a task, which explains why they are more often than not pretty darn slow. AJAX (stands for Asynchronus Javascript And XML) lets new data trickle in, updating the content of pages on the fly without much of a visible refresh or reload of the page. Have you used Amazon.com’s new search engine A9.com, Google’s Gmail and Maps, Netflix movie ratings, or Yahoo’s Flickr service? Than you have definitely used an AJAX application. Jesse James Garrett of SF-based Adaptive Path, who came up with the name AJAX, believes that its real impact will be in the enterprise applications, i.e. by speeding up the work of remote employees. Software giant Microsoft is already on a AJAX developer kit. That is usually a pretty sure sign that it’s ready for the big time.
30
2011
New ideas – watch out for Wi-Max
Have you ever heard of Wi-Max? If not, try to get used to the term as you will most likely be using it shortly. Simply speaking Wi-Max is Wi-Fi on steroids. It has a theoretical range of 30+ miles. If you, like me, have used or are using Wi-Fi you might have noticed that it has range limitations. Wi-Max promises to change that. Intel has taken the lead in developing the Wi-Max standardsand the service is expected to roll out during the next two years. The plan is to launch first in rural markets in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and then in new telco markets elsewhere. To demonstrate Wi-Max to the public, a few months ago Intel streamed a digital movie to a theater at the Sundance Film-Festival over a 50-mile network of Wi-Max transmitters. (more…)
25
2011
Temporary Autism – darn, I knew it all along…
I have always marveled at entrepreneurs, CEOs, and hiring managers who seemingly breeze through the hiring process like they’re channel-surfing; ultimately landing on something they like. Many of the hiring execs I know (including myself sometimes) suffer from “temporary autism” when it comes to hiring for higher level positions. (more…)
25
2011
We are raising $1,000,000 for the victims of Hurricane Katrina…
and we are doing it by selling advertising space for $1 per pixel at MillionDollarHelpPage.com. Crazy? Not quite! 21 year old English student/entrepreneur Alex Tew started the concept in early September of 2005 with his MillionDollarHomePage.com idea and to date sold $155,000 worth of pixels already. Alex is doing it for his own benefit (and rightly so, as he created this idea). Personally I thought that it was an awesome idea and besides sponsoring him Chris and I decided it was time to step up to the plate and use the current momentum to raise money for our fellow men and women out there in Louisiana who are still struggling to make it another day. (more…)
25
2011
Comments on steroids?
Chris and I discussed comments on blogs today, and while www.BenNeumann.com (it also goes under CapitalistBlog.com) gets a fairly decent amount of traffic we noticed that there are hardly any commenters around. So, to prove that the comment functionallity of this website is actually working and if you feel encouraged, please comment away.