My dad filmed this in his hotel in Cincinnati, OH, earlier today.

The Firm

I’ve loved this one since I was a kid, and I remember it being the first book that really enthralled me. It’s fun to come back to it as an adult and read it with a fresh perspective, being the age of the main character.

The Lean Startup

I kept hearing about this one and just decided one day it was time to buy. I’m a few chapters in and have already started looking at startups differently, including the one I’m working with.

The Start-up of You

This came recommended by a good friend of mine from high school. It’s about how to treat yourself as a startup–pivoting, learning new skills, branding yourself, etc. Some interesting points written by the guy who started LinkedIn.

And then I thought to myself: I can do that.

No, really. Bill Gates started out as a regular guy stealing computer time at the local college. And Mark Zuckerberg? Well, we all know his story. It hasn’t even been 10 years since Facebook launched and it’s about to go public for an estimated $100 Billion dollars–not too shabby. And Josh James started Omniture while he was a student at BYU.

So where do I fit in? I’m just a regular guy with the potential to do something awesome. There’s absolutely no reason I can’t make the next “Facebook”–something to revolutionize the way we communicate, interact, shop online, do our laundry, fix our cars, get to work, watch TV, rent movies, or do DIY projects. The list of things to do is literally endless and it’s just a matter of finding the right thing and running with it.

But finding that right thing isn’t always easy. In fact, finding the right thing usually involves finding the wrong thing many times. But if you think of every possible idea or thing as a two-sided coin, with either a positive or a negative outcome, all you have to do is keep flipping the coin and you’re bound to get a positive result. The biggest mistake you can make is not flipping the coin at all.

I can do that.

Some friends coerced me into installing Voxer, a walkie-talkie app for iOS and Android. I remember trying out HeyTell once upon a time, but never got hooked. I’m going to give Voxer a real shot, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

The benefits are clear–you can quickly record a short audio message (or a text, picture, or video, I believe) and send it to someone else using Voxer. It’s a lot faster than typing out a message and hitting send because all you have to do is pick the recipient, hold down a button and record your message, and it takes care of the rest.

The few downsides include the fact that you can’t really “draft” a voice message; it is what it is, and you only get one shot before it’s sent off. Also, I imagine I’ll miss the ability to communicate through a browser. The thing I love most about Google Voice is that I can receive and respond to text messages through a website–and the entire history is tracked and searchable. That’s especially nice if you need to reference an address or phone number quickly.

Do you use Voxer or another walkie-talkie app? What features do you enjoy, and what drives you crazy?

When we were in Europe in 2010, I wanted an Android app like GrooVe IP that would allow me to make phone calls with my Google Voice number over WiFi. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a decent solution, so we made due with Skype. But now that GrooVe IP is around (and only $2.10 today in the Android Market), I can ditch Skype and use my Google Voice number for just about everything (for free), even when I don’t have a cell signal.

You might wonder when I would ever have a WiFi connection but no cell reception. Happens all the time on my WiFi-only Samsung Galaxy Tablet. It’s got speakers and a microphone, which means that GrooVe IP can turn my tablet into a phone, and I can use my Google Voice number to do it!

So if you’ve been looking for an app to let you make calls over WiFi, check out GrooVe IP.

Evernote was recently spotlighted in Inc. Magainze, and for good reason–it’s a fantastic app for helping you remember stuff. It goes beyond simple note-taking and makes it easy to take quick notes, record a quick sound clip, or save a picture for later.

The best way I can describe it is a brain dump repository. The pain Evernote solves is the fact that your brain can only handle so much information. Evernote solves that by making it quick and easy to take notes, tag notes, and find them later.

One of the best selling points of Evernote is that you can have it on just about any platform–Mac, PC, Android, and iOS. There’s even an open source version for Linux that is built using the Evernote API. This means that I can take notes on my tablet and have them show up on my phone, my computer, and in any browser.

The Evernote widget for Android is especially great, making it even easier to quickly jot down a note or record a clip on the go.

If you’ve never used Evernote, it’s worth a look. Do you already use Evernote? What’s your favorite way to use it? Let me know in the comments.

DISCLAIMER: It’s a pretty irreverent book, with a fair bit of language and bathroom analogies (obviously). You’ve been warned.

Well, Spotify, it’s been a good run. You got me through the summer, helped me during Fall semester, and now it’s almost time to say goodbye. I hope you understand that I enjoy your service. The problem is simply the fact that you’re not unique enough to make me pay.

Sure, you boast a large library of great tunes. But so do many others, and I don’t think I’m picky enough to care about differences between selections. I know you’ll still give me 10 hours of free music streaming per month, but that’s hardly enough. There’s a chance I’ll max you out every month, right at the beginning, before I move onto another service–but part of me might just cut all ties so I don’t have to worry your limits. I’ll be sure to say hi to iHeartRadio, Grooveshark, Pandora, and Mog for you.

I might be back. I might realize just how great you really are in comparison. But for now, it’s adios. Call me when you make it a free service again.

(Mashable – 5 Alternatives to Consider After Spotify’s Free Music Cutoff)

The news came out yesterday that Google search will soon be including results from its Google Plus network. This is pretty huge if you think about it. It means that when I search for a book, for example, I’ll be presented with something a friend of mine said about that book 3 months ago, or maybe even yesterday. Google has already done a great job making the search results relevant to me, but this is another huge step in the right direction towards really relevant searches.

It got me thinking, though, about how Amazon needs to incorporate a social element to the online shopping experience. Consider Amazon reviews–they’re the best thing in the world, right? More often than not, a decision on whether to buy one product over another comes down to the reviews.

But not all the reviews are accurate. The sheer volume of reviews helps to mitigate this problem, but the problem is still there. Like the guy who gives a product 1 star because he had a bad shipping experience–something that has absolutely nothing to do with the product itself.

Imagine if you could build trust circles, or trust groups within Amazon–a group of people whose opinion you trust around a certain topic. Like a group of people whose opinion you trust about books, or technology, or art. Maybe this list of friends gets pulled from Facebook, or maybe it comes from Google+. Or maybe Amazon builds their own social network, allowing people to connect with other friends on Amazon (and easily share books via the Kindle).

Now imagine you’re looking at a product page, and see that the product has an average rating of 3.5 stars from all users. Not bad. But then you can tweak the 5-star rating to only include those reviews by people in one of your trusted circles or groups. Now the average goes up to 4 stars, and the reviews you are reading are by people you trust. Assuming you’ve chosen your circles or groups wisely, you can be confident that the reviews are more relevant to your tastes, likes and dislikes.

The Amazon rating system could be so much more if they could bring a social element to it. Right now, shopping on Amazon feels like I’m in my own little world, but I think the future of online shopping will be a very social experience.