January 2012
1 post
3 tags
Technology is for Moms.
Seriously. It is.
Web and consumer technology companies generally track users, customers, and activations as their metrics for success. Typical. I’m not sure users/customers/activations are all that indicative of mainstream success, though. The best current measurement for mainstream success, I think, is the mom factor.
Think about it. The most popular technology is largely used by, and...
November 2011
1 post
4 tags
Currently Reading: The Wealth of Nations by Adam...
In a world where people are quick to insert “in this economy” into any and every conversation, it seems that few people actually know how “the economy” works. Having taken both micro- and macro-economics courses during my time at university, my understanding is probably just 0.75% more comprehensive than the average American with the surface level understanding...
October 2011
2 posts
Anonymous asked: you're an idiot. keep living with your eyes closed
5 tags
Occupy Nothing.
I am calling bull on the Occupy Wall Street “protests”. This supposed progressive movement is at the least a slap in the face to the very real, meaningful, and risky protests taking place in Middle Eastern and African countries. At the most, it is a laughable and disjointed collection of people, each with different a different motive and reason for joining the protest.
From what I...
August 2011
2 posts
3 tags
PopTrends 2011: Whistling
What do the Seven Dwarves have in common with Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, Brittney Spears, and One Republic? They all have an affinity for whistling while they work.
Extremely cheesy lead aside, whistling is in. 3 of this week’s Billboard Hot 100, and perhaps all 4 had I taken the opportunity to write this when I noticed it a few weeks ago, mix the carefully controlled flow of air...
July 2011
4 posts
» Google could be the fastest to 100,000,000 and... →
Bill Gross is super-smart, and super-obvious…
3 tags
Currently Reading: Brewing Up a Business
Written by DogFish Head founder Sam Calagione, this book is best described as an unabriged version of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It! BUAB digs a bit deeper into your motivation as an entrepreneur, knowing yourself and your company (DNA), and drops quite a few tips/tricks/knowledge bombs from his personal experience in building one of the (if not the largest?) craft breweries in the U.S.
I...
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June 2011
3 posts
4 tags
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This Week in: [in]Effective Marketing
This managed its way into my inbox today. Exactly how desperate for subscribers are the magazines these days?
I honestly have no recollection of ever ordering Money magazine in the first place. It has been showing up at my house monthly for almost a year now, but I honestly have no idea when I ordered it. If I did, it was probably some dirt-cheap sub-$5 fee for a year’s...
3 tags
Social Media BS: Brand Engagement
FYI: This is one of those posts that could easily be understood as a snark-fest. I promise, I don’t intend for it to be that way. I just want you to understand that people are much better at judging a company/brand’s intentions than “marketers” give them credit for.
I don’t like social media. I hate the term, I hate how the term is used, and I believe that if you...
May 2011
1 post
4 tags
Why Amazon’s MyHabit will Become a Major Flash... →
The title pretty much says it. Tech pubs tend to love to hate on the established companies, in this case Amazon, when they launch a “copycat” product/service, a la MyHabit. For Amazon, the hate is unwarranted. MyHabit is destined for success and a decent slice of the market.
March 2011
1 post
3 tags
The Future of Business and Tech is Carnage
Publications seem to have some sort of twisted fascination in predicting and depicting company’s, app’s, and platform’s capitulation to irrelevance in extremely final, violent, and murderous terms.
Take, for example, the following magazine cover via Wired.
Join in on the endless discussion of the homicide of the RSS feed.
iPad users should...
February 2011
3 posts
2 tags
No.
I remember my parents telling stories about how my older brother’s first and favorite word was no. Other parents can probably relate. No is a simple word and it is easy to say, but from birth most experience the word no in a primarily negative context. No resulted in hand smacks, butt slaps, and talking-tos. For the duration of childhood and adolescence no is a powerful and dangerous...
4 tags
Britney Spears is for Hipsters
Two things on this one.
1) When it comes to music, I’m not really into Britney.
2) When it comes to Britney, I really am into her writers and producers.
Please disregard the majority of this song and focus on the intro (0:00 - 0:08) and then the breakdown (or whatever it is) at 2:11 - 2:30. Yeah, that’s Britney bumping the bassline dubstepstyle. Well done Ms. Spears...
3 tags
People that Inspire Me.
I don’t like inspirational books. I don’t like inspirational speakers. I don’t like inspirational podcasts, videos, movies, CDs, or cassettes (?). I do like inspirational people. These are the people that inspire me every day.
My dad inspires me to unapologetically be myself, to have fun, to laugh, to be a man, to never stop dreaming, and to be realistic. He inspires me to...
January 2011
3 posts
4 tags
New Project: #2
Let’s review really quick.
My first new project of 2011 is TheJawn. Things are going just fine.
New project #2 is called Best in Beta this Week. Best in Beta is weekly (on the Fridays) email newsletter that blasts out the best 3-5 beta-launched startups and web apps of the week. These sites can be discovered elsewhere, but you have to sift through a pile of trivial “crap...
6 tags
The Web is for Narcissists and Voyeurs.
Here is a picture of me wearing glasses and a scarf on an airplane.
I understand that there is an inherent social value to the web. Many web apps facilitate meaningful communication and personal connection. So, maybe I will have to blame my darkly cynical and skeptical inner-self for what I have written.
Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and countless other socially focused web apps have given...
December 2010
3 posts
3 tags
Teach me how to moonwalk.
thejawn:
Are these jawns moon boots? Nah. Moonwalkers is more like it. These foot jawns from the fine designers at Radii are all your feet ever wanted or needed. FRESH.
I just bought these shoes. They are all that I ever thought they would be and more. With these shoes, moonwalking is a daily occurrence
4 tags
New Project: #1
It isn’t technically 2011 yet, but I am going to pretend it is the new year already and let you nice friends and internauts know about my 1st little project of 2011.
Project #1 is called: The Jawn. The Jawn is simply collection of cool products and things that I find while I travel, shop, browse, etc. Because I am a male, most of the things (jawns) I feature will be generally targeted...
November 2010
3 posts
3 tags
HOW TO: Get a Job Without Social Media
I had a real cool Mashable-style 10-step guide written up. It turned out to be quite wordy, and 1500 words is rarely an effective way to communicate a simple concept. Anyway, here it is and thank you for reading.
Know people. Having a lot of friends (the kind that you see in person on a frequent basis) is a good thing. For the Gen Y-ish crowd, professors and the like are also good people to...
3 tags
September 2010
1 post
3 tags
Conditioning Consumers to Pay
The idea of free has caused a good bit of hysteria to traditional business, and rightfully so. Free has chased many of the major players out of their roles as gatekeepers and thrown them out on the street to contend with the rest of the connected world where everyone has a voice.
Free will become less of a big deal in the near future. Thanks in no small part to app culture consumers are being...
July 2010
3 posts
6 tags
Beyond Advertising
By now the world is well aware that display advertising revenue and spending has dropped in both traditional, print, and online media, with traditional (radio, tv) and print media taking the brunt of the blows.
By now the world is also well aware that this drop in advertising spending and revenue has been primarily facilitated by web applications (and “social media”, if I must use...
3 tags
Hott Ear Fash
I just bought a blue pair of these DEOS silicone earphone CVRZ (covers?). Somehow I felt that felt that my ears could use a little accessorizing because I haven’t gone down the ear piercing route yet. They look hott by themselves, but what do they look like in my ears?
It’s a snug fit for sure, but I like it. They definitely won’t be falling out...
June 2010
7 posts
4 tags
Hollywood Shift?
Something is up in Hollywood. You may have noticed the last time you went out to the movies, and you may not have. The most profitable (Paranormal Activity) and highest earning (Avatar) movies of all time are largely devoid of super-star actors. The same is true for this year’s 2010 summer openers.
Tom Cruise, largely considered to be one of THE faces of Hollywood, recently released a...
4 tags
Fundraising is Fun again with MyDunkTank
Because I go to school in the Philadelphia area I stay as up to date as I can on the Philly business and technology scene. I have yet to attend any events or do any real networking in person - but things seem fairly vibrant and most activity is well chronicled by Philly Startup Leaders, Technically Philly, and StartPhilly.
Being a what some would consider a “local” for 10 months out...
3 tags
tvTrends: Check-ins and Viewer Interaction (+World...
Here are a few of my most recent thoughts as I continue to track the intersection of business, entertainment, and technology.
Over the past couple of years it has been interesting to watch people increasingly experience television while on their smartphones and laptops - and more recently iPads. This “trend”, although I suspect it is a rather permanent one, has opened up a variety of...
3 tags
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Where Business, Entertainment, and Technology...
Pursuant to the last bit of tech-entertainment-biz news swiped from TC’s Disrupt conference the crunchy peeps from TC have released the following video [embedded below].
Carter and Braun are on the right track - and it is almost astounding how behind some of the industry is. You would think that after they got swept off their feet by the move to digital that they would be a little more...
May 2010
7 posts
Where Business, Entertainment, and Technology... →
The byline under mi nombre at the top of the page says that I like business, entertainment, and technology. This article/interview/conversation (via TechCrunch) between Troy Carter and Scooter Braun (managers of Lady Gaga, and the Biebs respectively), is the convergence of these three broad subjects and sheds a pretty bright light on where the pop music industry/biz is at and is going.
Also, in...
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Minneapolis, SIFE, and WiFi
You may have noticed that it has been a few days since I have written anything on here. I was a bit busy representing my school’s SIFE team at the SIFE USA National Expo in Minneapolis. We (PBU-SIFE) managed to finish in the Top 16, which I am definitely happy with. So, here I am hugging on the trophy.
Minneapolis is a decent city. It is clean. The...
2 tags
Badges and Points - Life is a Game.
This stuff called social media is connecting people on levels and in ways previously left to chance encounters. The social platforms are taking a good bit of mystery and coincidence out of life - and turning it into a voyeuristic game.
Rather than run into your friend at the grocery store by chance, you can receive updates when he checks in via Foursquare. Instead of showing up at a...
The Truth about "Embeddable" Tweets
Mashable and TechCrunch (as well as the rest of the techbloggery) picked up via the Twitter Media blog that an embeddable tweet “feature” was on its way. The “feature” was released under the name Blackbird Pie and it works like this:
1) Find a tweet you want to embed.
2) Enter the tweet link into Blackbird Pie and “bake it”.
3) Out of the oven comes an...
1 tag
April 2010
2 posts
2 tags
DIY Luggage Weighing
With airline companies getting more uptight about luggage costs and weight, gadget developers have stepped in and now allow travelers to weigh their luggage at home to ensure that they won’t incur extra charges by going over weight limits.
The Weigh To Go from social product dev. house quirky functions as both a scale and a travel tag and at $33 it is not a bad deal knowing that it can...
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March 2010
2 posts
1 tag
Theory
It is interesting to read commentary from people who believe that a college education is not necessary to be successful. There has been an in-depth debate on both sides of the issue, and there are obvious pros and cons to graduating with a degree, and giving business the old college try without the college education. I want to sort of dance around the issue a bit, and refrain from immersing...
February 2010
1 post
“Be like Curious George, start with a question and look under the yellow hat to...”
– Jim Collins