Tangential Ruminations

Best CrossFit Boxes in Michigan

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 05:01:00 +0000

I've recently been getting into CrossFit and have been on a mission to find some of the best CrossFit gyms in Michigan and in the country. I currently live in Venice, and Paradiso Crossfit is where I go on a regular basis. I've been seeing great results there -- in about 5 months of going on average 3 days a week I've lost about 15 pounds and have gotten substantially more toned. Granted, it has been a combination of CrossFit and loose adherence to the Paleo diet, but it has really worked.

A great Michigan CrossFit gym to check out is Switch CrossFit. Granted, I'm a little biased as it is my brother that is opening the gym and I'm a part owner. That said, the whole reason I have had the performance gains I have is due to my brother's passion for fitness and CrossFit. Switch CrossFit will be opening in Clinton Township on June 1. Stay tuned, particularly if you live in Clinton Township, Mount Clemens, Chesterfield or you work out of Schofield.

Any other CrossFit gyms to recommend? What do you look for in a CrossFit box? Is trainers the most important thing -- or is it price -- or is it facilities? My personal perspective is that it is all about the trainers and about the community. And with a CrossFit community it is important to not only focus on the actual workouts themselves, but also around nutrition, active rest, home mobility and mental wellbeing and community. It is truly about holistic health and community, and not just about lifting weights. That is what's different, and what I know is being emphasized at Switch Crossfit.

Facebook business tips for success

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:16:00 +0000

Today I watched a Hubspot webinar on Facebook Page Marketing. As with most Hubspot webinars, I found it pretty good although pretty high level. You can see the entire webinar (1:15) by clicking the above link, but I thought I'd share my main take-aways from the event that will give you the primary points.

Primary Points from Hubspot Facebook Page Marketing Seminar

- A business should promote via ads to "Like" base, not status updates

Status updates should be reserved for communicating with your fans. You should promote to your fan base via ads and communicate via status updates as they won't all be seen due to the fact that Facebook will only disseminate certain posts to your fan base wall. A better technique is to create an ad that goes to your fan base. That way, all will be seeing it, and it won't interfere promotion with conversation on your page.

Analysis of best Facebook pages

- Best time to post are is the mornings and on the weekends

- Optimal frequency is about every other day

- Most popular topic on Facebook is Facebook itself. Therefore, creating relevant business articles that pertain to Facebook is a good technique such as "Top Facebook pages in this industry" -- likelihood for this to get shared is a lot higher

How important is it to have custom tabs on a Facebook page?

- Tabs can act as a landing page, with the ability to use iFrames

- Encourages people to like the business (rather than driving people directly to your wall, create a landing page that speaks about your business and drives them to "Like" via a strong call to action

- Can also use the custom tab as a sign up for a mailing list -- many top email vendors now integrate with Facebook

- People on Facebook want to stay on Facebook -- when you can keep them in this environment they are much more likely to engage in your content rather than driving them off to your own website

Using popular content (i.e. loosely related content)

- Figure out a way to take hot content and make it relevant to your business

- Have content that works for every stage in the purchase funnel

- In the top part of the funnel this might be content that is not necessarily directly relevant for your business

In general, I found this to be pretty interesting and have some valuable insights that I plan on integrating into my Gold Party business, Karats to Riches.

Site's Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:01:00 +0000

So Wordpress wasn't as easily as I had initially anticipated, but now I feel like I've learned a ton. There's nothing like getting your hands dirty and just getting into a project to figure it out, and in this case I definitely feel like I've gone through it.

Developing a wordpress site does require a bit of technical knowledge. There are cases when I had to FTP pages, edit HTML, and dig throughout the web to figure out how to manage different pieces. What it does provide is a great interface to manage the site and quickly put up pages and make changes. Now that I understand the site I can tweak it in no time, and manage it from anywhere.

My original purpose of switching from google sites was to allow for conversion tracking. Although Google Sites allows for easy implementation of site tracking (I use Google Analytics on the Google Site and also on my wordpress site www.K2RGoldParties.com) conversion tracking is actually a huge pain on Wordpress sites as well! The problem is that you can't edit HTML on an individual page, you can only edit at a site level. Therefore, I had to find a work-around, which was to create an additional template and plug the conversion code into that template. Much more difficult than I had anticipated, but once you figure it out its not too bad.

Wordpress is also great as there are tons and tons of plugins that you can get running up on the site in no time. If you look at www.k2rgoldparties.com some of the plugins I'm using include the sharing elements on the lower right in addition to a ton of back-end stuff.

All in all, although setting up a Wordpress site is templatized, it does still require technical knowledge to tweak and get it just right. I feel like this was a great learning experience for me. Check it out at www.k2rgoldparties.com and if you really like it book a gold party!

Also, follow Karats to Riches Gold Parties at Facebook and Twitter or follow our blog!

Learning to build Gold Party websites

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:31:00 +0000

So my first attempt at building my Gold Party website was a bit lackluster. I leveraged Google Sites, which I found to have a surprising lack of integration with Google Adwords. Specifically, setting up conversion tracking was very difficult if not impossible.

Therefore after speaking to a handful of people I decided to build a new site using Wordpress. Getting the site up was much more difficult, but I used a WooThemes template, which made it somewhat easier. There is a lot to learn though, especially around tweaking the site and polishing it up. It's still not fully completed, but I'd love to get feedback. Access the site by going to www.k2rgoldparties.com.

Let me know what you think or if you have suggestions.

Karats to Riches

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:35:00 +0000

Karats to Riches is a premium Gold Party Service that I recently launched.

What is a gold party service?

Well, lots of people have old and unwanted gold. Most people just keep it in their jewelry box collecting dust. A gold party is a place where you can sell that gold to get cash on the spot. In addition to getting cash for the gold, the host of that party earns a percentage of all the gold sold at the party (and even makes money on parties that are booked from that party). So everyone makes out!

Check out our site at www.karatstoriches.com. Let me know if you'd like to host a party and we'll help you every step of the way. It is always a great time and you can earn quite a bit of money from the process. Go to the site and fill out the contact form to learn more.

Launched a new business -- Karats to Riches

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:31:00 +0000

Over the past week I have been focused on launching a new business. This is my first experience creating a website on my own. I used Google Sites due to the cost and the Google integration. I have found it to be good in some ways and poor in others.

Good points:
- Quick and easy
- Cheap
- Google tools integration (google analytics, webmaster tools, apps)
- Easy to edit and maintain

Bad points:
- Lack of full control
- Certain things that should be easy seem hard (such as adding links to Facebook and Twitter accounts)
- Quirkiness -- fonts sometimes act weird. Some pages look odd in mobile devices, etc.
- Can't figure out how to customize contact form

Anyway, check out this work in progress at www.karatstoriches.com and let me know what you think.

How behavioral targeting can work

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:22:00 +0000

Last week the New York Times reported that British Telecom has decided not to implement behavioral targeting technology by a company called Phorm -- an organization that mines ISP data in order to provide more relevant advertising to web surfers. Upon the announcement, another setback for Phorm, their stock dropped 40%.

Is it really any surprise though that companies are not willing to adapt this technology? What company wants to be the one who is capturing their customers data and using it for marketing without user's explicit consent or knowledge? And what consumer wants to be "behaviorally targeted" without their knowledge? The answer to these questions are "none" and "no one".

But this doesn't mean that web surfers don't like behavioral targeting. Amazon has done it successfully for years, as well as other online retailers. But there is an understanding between retailer and consumer that this knowledge is being captured and used for their benefit, and the information is ONLY being captured when they are on the retailer's site (read: Amazon is not capturing your adult surfing behavior).

So clearly people are interested in relevancy, and are not necessarily opposed to behavioral targeting. Therefore, what is a business model that can work? Here is some food for thought.

A company should develop an opt-in behavioral targeting system. The system will allow a user to easily turn on and off the tracker, via a toolbar, allowing the user to be fully conscious and choose when their behavior is being tracked. The user will also be able to determine who is being sent their info. Is it only the site in which the information is captured, or can the info go to anyone. And they can specify what types of information get sent around (shopping purchases, article content, etc). To encourage more usage consumers could be offered a reward point-type incentive that increases the more often the system is used, and the more widely you allow your data to be distributed. Companies subscribe to this data and integrate it into their existing optimization engines.

A win-win solution? Behavioral targeting will happen, but it must happen in a way that consumers are aware and have control. The Phorm model was bound to fail. Who's next?

A note to aspiring entrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:11:00 +0000

Yesterday my company, Mobile Simplicity, was featured on the young entrepreneur blog FBENow.com. Check it out here.

I find it fascinating that you can move so quickly from the one taking advice to the one giving advice. There is no question that we are still taking in far more advice than we are giving, but I'm happy to be able to help even a little bit.

The iPhone(TM) Now Helps Consumers Keep Their Family Safe from Sex Offenders with the WatchOut! Program

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:38:00 +0000

The WatchOut! iPhone application officially goes live with a quick and easy interface to help consumers search for registered sex offenders in any given area while supporting the fight against domestic violence

NEW YORK, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The WatchOut! iPhone application, which enables consumers to search any given area for registered sex offenders based on location or specific name, officially launches today. Ten percent of profits from the WatchOut! application go to the Domestic Violence Crisis Center (www.dvccct.org).

The WatchOut! application features an easy-to-use interface that enables users to identify dangers around them by searching for registered sex offenders by zip code or by name. The program also allows the user to determine where the highest concentrations of offenders live by plotting the locations on a map. The WatchOut! application is perfect for parents of young children, people who are planning to move to a new area, those who are in the dating scene and anyone else who is interested in knowing who is nearby in order to be safer.

Believing that nothing is more important than safety, WatchOut! Software, LLC in partnership with Mobile Simplicity (www.mSimplicity.com) utilize the power of the iPhone to make consumers better informed about potential dangers. The reality is that nearly everyone lives near a registered sex offender, but few are aware of who these people are and where they live. "We feel that it is important for people who are moving into a new area to be aware of their surroundings and any possible dangers to their family," said Rick Krakowski, President of Mobile Simplicity, the firm that developed the mobile application. "It should be a part of anyone's research when looking into a new area, or even to increase awareness in one's current neighborhood."

The WatchOut! program is available for download through the Apple(R) iTunes(R) store at the following link: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=310086341&mt=8)

About Mobile Simplicity

Mobile Simplicity (www.mSimplicity.com) is a full-service mobile application development firm with iPhone expertise. In addition to producing proprietary programs, including the top-rated applications CraigsMobileList and What's Fresh, they provide a full suite of application development and marketing services.

SOURCE Mobile Simplicity

Our new company logo

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:19:00 +0000

Mobile Simplicity finally has an official company logo! What do you think?

The "m" on the left was designed as a reusable asset.

The logo was designed by the delightful and wonderfully talented Lauren Koueiter. I suggest you go to her for your logo needs so she can get her business kicked off! Email me if you would like me to pass along a request to her.

Announcing the WatchOut! program

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:08:00 +0000

This has been one of the craziest weeks of my life. The release of What's Fresh was well received and my company, Mobile Simplicity, has immediately become a developer that people want to work with. Quite exhilarating!

Today we launched our 5th app, the WatchOut! program.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=310086341&mt=8

Nothing is more important than your safety, and the safety of those you love. One way you can increase your safety is by being aware of the people who live around you. The reality is that nearly all of us live near a registered sex offender, but few are aware of who these people are and where they live.

The WatchOut! program is a tool to help you stay safe by helping you be aware of these individuals in your community. This program is for parents, people who are planning to move to a new area, people who are dating and anyone else who is interested in knowing who is nearby in order to be safer.

The WatchOut! program allows you to:
- Know who is around you by searching for registered sex offenders by zip code
- Be sure an individual is not an offender by searching for their name in the database
- Find out where the highest concentrations of offenders live by plotting them on a map
- Tag selected individuals to access them quickly and easily

A few statistics published by the U.S. Department of Justice:

- An estimated 24% of those serving time for rape and 19% of those serving time for sexual assault had been on probation or parole at the time of the offense for which they were in State prison in 1991.
- Of the 9,691 male sex offenders released from prisons in 15 States in 1994, 5.3% were rearrested for a new sex crime within 3 years of release.
- Approximately 4,300 child molesters were released from prisons in 15 States in 1994. An estimated 3.3% of these 4,300 were rearrested for another sex crime against a child within 3 years of release from prison.

The offender database is updated regularly to capture those who just moved into your neighborhood.

Don’t get caught off guard. WatchOut!

New Mobile Simplicity release, What's Fresh

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:06:00 +0000

Today our third Mobile Simplicity application launched in the store. It's called What's Fresh. Check it out at www.msimplicity.com.

Do you like to eat fresh and healthy food?
Do you make environmentally-friendly decisions?
Do you consider yourself a locavore?
Do you enjoy owning beautiful applications?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, What’s Fresh is for you.

What’s Fresh will help you to eat the freshest foods by allowing you to know anytime, anywhere what fruits and vegetables are currently in season in your area. This knowledge is valuable to make selections that are beneficial for both your health and for the environment, whether you are at home or at the market. The transport of fruits and vegetables not only diminishes the taste and the nutritiousness of food, but the fuel used to transport food causes harm to the environment through the destruction of natural resources as well as through emissions. What’s Fresh assists you in making more sound shopping decisions by logically displaying fresh foods in your area.

For seasons when little is fresh in your area, What’s Fresh allows you to determine where in the country your desired item is in season so that you can be more certain that the produce you buy is fresh and delicious.

Finally, What’s Fresh helps you plan your eating in advance by providing a Freshness Calendar displaying what items are in season throughout the course of the year in your area.

All this is accomplished in a beautifully designed app that is intuitive and pleasurable to use – an app that you’ll want to share with others.

Features:

· Lists in season fruits and vegetables within a user-defined region and displays them in a simple and intuitive dashboard.

· Provides a calendar to show what products are in season throughout the course of the year in your area, and if they are produced fresh or in a greenhouse.

· Allows the user to determine where in the country particular products are in season in a certain month using a beautiful and intuitive map

· Currently over 200 fruits and vegetables with more being added each day

· All 50 states supported (currently no international support)

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=309667015&mt=8

Are you curious?

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:47:00 +0000

Hopefully you've thought some of these posts are funny or interesting, or maybe you are just insanely bored. You may have thought, "What does this Rick Krakowski look like?" I have experienced this curiosity before as well (with others -- I'm not THAT narcissistic). So you go to Google and perform an imagine search. Let me guide you through the results you will see.

Not me. But probably the closest one to the list, and what I may have looked like if my grandparents never moved out of Lithuania and I decided to stick with the BBS.

Also not me. But I was friends with a lot of people from New Jersey.

Still not me. But this hard core Rick Krakowski is a force to be reckoned with.

Could it be?

Thanks for letting me clear things up.

How much is Steve Jobs worth?

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:24:00 +0000

Today the blogosphere (yes, I said it) started buzzing about how Steve Jobs looked thin during the big hoo haa earlier this week to announce the 3G iPhone. Jobs battled pancreatic cancer in 2004 and there are fears that his health could be in jeopardy. So why do I bring this up? Simply to provide an interesting factoid.

These rumors (and there is no substantiation to the rumors whatsoever) of Jobs potential declining health dropped Apple's stock $7.55 today. With 881.6 million shares outstanding this means that the rumor cost Apple $6.65 billion dollars (and me $175). Apple better hope they can make this guy live forever.

The lesson here is if you think Steve Jobs is mortal than short sell Apple.

(Disclaimer: I don't know anything about the stock market. It is likely that the analysts following the stock know more than I do so if you short sell Apple and you lose all your money when it shoots up to $250 don't blame it on me. This was simply for entertainment sake and to distract myself from my Capital Markets homework. Does it make the advice more credible since I am currently working on Capital Markets homework? Maybe. I will make one prediction. When news comes that Jobs is going to retire, Apple stock will fall significantly. It doesn't take Nostradamus to call that one though.)

Lessons from Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:29:00 +0000

I'm back from Vietnam, a very beautiful place. Nice people, relatively inexpensive, easy to get around. I definitely recommend it as a place to go. I'd like to write about a business lesson that I learned, or maybe I already knew but it really came to light when I was there.

Successful businesses are run by owner's who care about the business and oversee quality. Successful businesses are customer-centric and provide a unique experience that makes you want to come back again and again.

Let me present two case studies from my experience.

Case #1 -- Mr. Xe

Mr. Xe was a tailor recommended to us in Hoi An. Hoi An is the place everyone goes to in Vietnam to get clothes made. There is literally a tailor every 10 feet. So how does one differentiate itself.

The most successful tailor is called Yali. Through my observation, it seems that Yali because successful by catering to the western travelers (smart). It is clean and the place looks like a Banana Republic. Everyone seems to think its the best, but I have my doubts. When I looked into the sewing room it looked like a sweatshop in there, and the service was terrible.

Mr. Xe on the other hand had a much smaller and more Vietnamese-looking establishment. He was a tiny, gay, Vietnamese man that when I first saw him seemed to be only in his underwear and t-shirt (I later determined that they were just extremely short shorts). When he spoke in English he sounded like Smiegel from the Lord of the Rings, "Yeeessss, peeerrrrrfect" Needless to say, this guy was a serious character.

Every time we walked in the store, and it was at least 5 times, they provided us seats and free water. Mr. Xe and his employees helped us to pick out the linens for our clothes, but in the fitting room it was all Mr. Xe. If anything wasn't perfect Mr. Xe was not satisfied. He even gave me a shirt for free that he felt wasn't perfect even though I thought it looked fine! In one case I didn't exactly like how my pocket was sitting, so he zoomed me over to his tailor on his motorbike. There, in contrast to the sweatshop Yali had going on, the tailor had his own home extension where he worked that was well-lit, pleasant, and covered with vegetation. Mr. Xe had great pride in his business and in his product, and you could see it in the way that he treated his customers and the way he treated his employees (although he definitely dug into them pretty good when things weren't perfect).

Case #2 -- Mr. Kim

Cafe des Amis, or Mr. Kim's place as I like to call it, was rated highly in the Lonely Planet guide and also by fellow travelers that we had spoken with. The highlight it seemed, was that the owner cooked for you whatever he felt like for the day.

When we arrived we were immediately greeted by Mr. Kim himself before even stepping foot into the restaurant. He then rushed us to our table and pulled out his signature book where he showed us all the people that had come from New York and read the highlights aloud to us. He was particularly proud of Justin Timbalake's high praises.

As Mr. Kim talked our ear off the food started to come out. Mr. Kim explained that he was the #1 taster in the South Vietnam army during the war (I think this is supposed to be a good thing). He seemed very proud of that. Each dish that came out he, or one of the waitstaff, showed us exactly how to prepare it before eating it, which was great because otherwise I probably would have eaten everything completely wrong. At one point Mr. Kim was so excited for me to try something that he literally spoon fed me. I'm pretty sure this was the first time I'd been spoon fed since mommy was flying the plane, a little awkward maybe, but an experience nonetheless. Eventually Mr. Kim met with the other tables and gave us some privacy, but it was clear that Mr. Kim loved his product and loved his customers.

These are two of the best experiences I had in Vietnam due to these characters, and I would recommend both of these places to anyone traveling to Vietnam. Larger businesses in the US, and particularly web-based businesses often do not have the customer face-time and ability to give personalized attention that these owners gave, but I think it is a good lesson that if you can channel this passion and customer-centric approach in whatever business you are running you are sure to have happy customers who become advocates for your business.

Vietnam -- Off the beaten path?

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:36:00 +0000

For those of you who have been hitting that refresh button time after time again in anticipation of my next post that has been long coming, I assure you all is well. Thanks to 3 final exams this weekend I had little time to devote to anything but. I am happy to say now that I have completed them and am currently typing from the friendly confines of the Singapore Airlines airport lounge.

This evening I am flying to Vietnam for two weeks with my girlfriend, frequenting a few cities in the north. I would put myself in the upper middle class of experienced travelers (class referring to the intensity of travel and not the expense of travel). Although I have never traveled for months on end through the rural towns of India on my own, I have been to places and tried things that many have not (goat head soup on the streets of Kashgar in the Xinjiang province of China to name the one I'm probably most fond of).

So I question, is Vietnam still considered off the beaten path? Over the last few weeks when telling people it seems that half don't believe I'm going there, and the other half make it sound like its going to Munich as they talk about their trip to Myanmar. I guess it doesn't really matter, but I'm throwing the question out there anyway. I think it really comes down to perspective.

Stay tuned for interesting thoughts from Vietnam. I promise not to waste any of your time with pointless posts updating you about getting off the airplane. In the meantime, check out the video, although I'm biased I really think this is pretty fantastic and is an interesting perspective on Xinjiang (the Northwest province in China that borders Pakistan, Tajikistan, and a few other central Asian countries). Also, the commentary on You Tube is pretty engaging.

Corporate gift matching for the small business community

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:46:00 +0000

It's not uncommon for an employer to match corporate donations that their employees make. It is uncommon, however, for corporations to match the donations of their customers. This is exactly what Advanta has decided to do.

Through an innovative program called Kiva B4B, the business credit card company Advanta is offering to match up to $200 per month that their customers donate to Kiva.org using their credit card. I wrote about Kiva.org a couple weeks back. It is a fantastic micro finance distribution organization that allows a person to donate specifically to a small business owner in an emerging market. Once the business owner pays back the loan the money is distributed back into your kiva.org account for you to re-donate or withdraw.

The way the Advanta program works is that Advanta matches your donation, up to $200 per month, that you make on the card. When the small business owner pays the loan back, Advanta gets their money back. Since the default rate on kiva.org is only .1%, the costs that Advanta is incurring are the .1% in defaulted loans plus the spread on the loans (the loans are extended over a 1 year period). By capping the loan amount at $200 per month Advanta is able to offer this innovative program at minimal cost.

Advanta has uncovered on a plausible viral marketing play in an industry (small business credit cards) that has yet to see anything truly "viral". The latest trend in the business card space has been development of small business owner online communities. American Express led the way with http://www.openforum.com/. The most recent entrant has been Bank of America with Small Business Online Community (don't you think they could have been more creative with the name?). Other players in the industry have similar community sites. The idea behind these sites is to generate a community support network among small business owners and make the community a central source of resources and information, in an effort to build the company's brand in being knowledgeable and supportive to the community of small business owners. Although once novel in concept, I question the amount of use that these sites are getting, and the true branding benefit of the sites. Quickly going to the discussion boards of any of these sites shows that the content is posted primarily by hired hands and there are relatively few views of any of the articles. From an acquisition sense they even have less effect.

Advanta has taken a different direction with their community play, one that is both novel and works in a branding sense, and, I would argue, has more of a potential to drive acquisition than the sites the competition has offered. By taking the community idea in a new direction -- an international business owner community that is able to provide opportunities to those less fortunate -- Advanta has hit on community and on the growing trend of social entrepreneurship. To support this, Advanta has incorporated an amazing website as well as a full Kiva B4B community with forums. Linking to the site loads a video that illustrates the idea behind Kiva B4B by providing a split business owner screen (the site is also developed this way). The left side of the screen is the business owner that is giving, and on the right is the business owner that is benefiting.

Hats off to Advanta for coming up with something truly new in the small business credit card industry that really does benefit society while driving revenue for the corporation.

Another reason Japan is awesome

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:19:00 +0000

Why is it that Japan always seems so ahead of us in technology? Maybe it is because they are willing to take some serious risks for the sake of innovation.

Researchers at the University of Osaka have taken it to the next level in regard to mind controlled robotics. By splitting open the skull and placing an "electrode sheet" directly on the brain they hope to better capture brain frequencies to control robotic body parts. The eventual goal is to help paraplegics control artificial body parts in real time.

Cool stuff, count me out.

[Pink Tentacle]

A security force in the sky

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:58:00 +0000

I’m not talking about the helicopters that fly all over LA, I’m talking about higher in the sky (no not God, that’s too high). The Independent reported a few days back that Almir Narayamoga, the seemingly charismatic leader of the Surui tribe in the Amazon rain forest of western Brazil has partnered with Google to help combat deforestation through the use of Google Earth.

A tribe that had not even been exposed to civilization just 40 years back is now utilizing solar powered computers and GPS to inform the world about their land, history, and about the deforestation that is occurring all around them. It can’t be too long until they are blogging it up as well. I’m sure they have a heck of a lot more interesting things to say than I do.

The idea is that the this information provided by the villagers will help assist the Brazilian government and non governmental organizations to better police the area. The tribe calls Google ragogmakan, which means “messenger”, because they believe it is a way that they can get their story out to the rest of the world. Although novel in concept, the ability for this to truly be effective will depend on the publicity it generates to stimulate the government and associated NGOs to take action, and for people around the world to contribute to the cause.

I find this story fascinating in a number of ways. First, the fact that the tribal leader was astute enough not only to understand the technology, but also to understand how it applies to his life in the middle of the rain forest. Truly an pure entrepreneur. Second, I find this story interesting because it is a beautiful example of how technology is being used to empower our society. Sometimes it takes something groundbreaking like this to see what is happening around us every day. The internet and the information age has brought empowerment to people in a way that has never existed before. The ability to publish information and communicate literally anywhere in the world will continue to change society in ways that we haven't yet considered.

This will blow your mind

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:56:00 +0000

I am an avid reader of tech blogs, so when I read today that Apple just patented a type of laser viewing system that allows for virtual reality type eyeglasses I thought, "Cool but no big deal."

For some reason genetic engineering blows my mind though, and I have seen nothing as strange (or as awesome depending on your viewpoint) as this. Let me summarize. This is a tree that grows 6 different types of fruit! Nectarines, peaches, plums, and apricots. Holy shit! It doesn't even mention what the other two fruits are. Could it be mango? What about kiwi?

Too bad I live in Brooklyn or I'd have this thing growing tomorrow.

Update: My curiosity on this strange phenomenon encouraged me to investigate this further. This tree exists not due to genetic engineering, it is actually due to a process called grafting, which is where the tissues of one plant are encourage to fuse with those of another. It is actually quite common, but typically for reasons other than a fruit cocktail tree. In this particular case, the grower would need to prune the tree appropriately to ensure that one of the varieties doesn't dominate the others. So at the end of the day not as exciting as I originally thought, but I'm still getting one (once I get the appropriate land) simply to take my smoothie making to the next level.

Penguin forgets that books make people feel intellectual

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Penguin publishing announced that they will now publish new titles, and much of their catalog, as both eBooks and regular books of the paper persuasion simultaneously. The catch -- they'll be the same price.

Is it just me or does it seem like we have a familiar thing going on here with books and music, only that books are about 5 years behind? People like books on their bookshelf. There is added value that having a physical book adds for all but the very smallest percentage of the population. If eBooks are going to take off (and there is no question that they eventually will) not only will readers need to become much more reasonably priced, but the books will have to be sold at a discount. If they aren't then the same thing is going to happen with books as it did with music -- rampant piracy.

It doesn't surprise me that Penguin is missing the idea just like the record companies -- digital distribution is a huge money saver, but a large percentage of the savings needs to be passed onto the consumer. With records there is value in the art that comes with the album, and with books the physical element is a type of art. People will be happy to go without it as it isn't integral to the actual content of the book itself, but they will expect to get a discount.

Good move by Penguin to take more of an effort towards digital publishing. Poor pricing strategy.

[Telegraph]

Take your money out from under the mattress

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:45:00 +0000

Some of the best investments I have made had nothing to do with the stock market. They were to friends/acquaintances who needed extra money in a pinch. In my case it was a friend of a friend who needed extra cash for a down payment, a business owner friend who wanted some more seed money, and a bookie friend who needed to float some dough. Although it took some effort to collect (particularly from the bookie, had to call his mom) I ended up averaging a return that was better than double the market.

Evidently I am not the only one who has found value lending money directly to other people. The rise of social lending is an interesting development that has been greatly facilitated by the web and particularly the rise of social networking as a platform.

Mashable has an excellent overview of 5 of the most popular. If you are interested I highly suggest you link over, but I'll talk about a couple of my favorites.

As I mentioned before, although they ended up being great investments it wasn't always easy collecting when the loan came due. VirginMoneyUS.com is the solution to this issue. By paying a fee to Sir Richard the process becomes much more formal and legal than my pathetic attempt at legalese. Due to the steep fee, this probably doesn't make much sense for a $5k loan, but if you're lending money to someone that physically frightens you it may be a consideration.

Prosper.com allows you to either loan money, or request a loan that will be filled by the social network of lenders. As a requester you state your maximum willingness to pay. People bid on fulfillment of the loan at the rate they are willing to pay, which could mean that the rate you get is driven significantly below your willingness to pay. As a lender you can spread your money over a number of loans to disperse your risk.

My favorite one by far though is kiva.org. This site revolutionizes the act of giving and of micro finance by allowing you to lend money to the specific business owner who needs it anywhere in the world. Kiva.org seems to have put a good system in place to ensure the money is being used for the right reasons and that there is a high probability of payback. As with prosper.com, numerous lendors come together to support a single loan allowing you to diversify who you lend money to. The interest that you get paid on these loans is in smiles.

Online tools for entrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:58:00 +0000

Check out the excellent listing of online tools for entrepreneurs that Ryan at Play the Game of Life posted earlier today. Thorough and up-to-date. Excellent resource for anyone thinking about starting up a business, online or off.

From Play the Game of Life:

oDesk.com - hire, manage and pay remote workers with a transparent, easy to use interface. Workers only get paid when they are logged into the system. And when they are logged in, you get access to actual screenshots at random intervals, along with a measure of keystroke activity throughout this time.

Basecamp HQ - get your team members' activities aligned with this cheap/free project management tool

eLance.com - similar to oDesk but without the tools for monitoring your workers activities in real-time.

Google Apps (gmail for your domain, wiki collaboration/corporate intranets, google docs, google spreadsheets, google calendar)

Google Adsense (earn revenue from your publishing assets)

Google Adwords (drive traffic to your site)

Google Analytics (monitor your web traffic to find the keywords, pages, visitor types that perform best)

Google Website optimizer (enhance your performance through multivariate testing)

Google Webmaster Tools (ensure Google is listing you properly in its index, find out who is linking to you, identify errors with your site)

Google Base - Product Search (get listed in product search results for free)

Google Local Business Center (get listed in local search results)

Blogger (publish a free online blog to promote your business)

Wordpress (a free online blog to promote your business--or even better, create a business out of blogging, generating ad revenue from AdSense)

Amazon Marketplace - list your products in Amazon's catalog. You can sign up for the Gold membership to add new products to the database for $40/month. Just sign up, add all your products at once, and then cancel the membership. You'll only be charged for one month. Once they are in the database, you don't need to be a Gold member to list them for sale!

Amazon S3 - unlimited data storage for very cheap.

Amazon Web Stores - run unlimited e-commerce sites for just $60 / month plus 6% sales commission (the commission is too high, but if you don't have the capability to build out your own secure e-commerce platform, this may be a great option)

eBay Stores - list all your products for just $0.02 each for a $40/month flat charge â€“ note: these will NOT appear in standard ebay searches, so you'll need to run standard ebay listing promotions for 1 product at a time in each category. These will in turn drive traffic to your store's listings.

Magento.com - powerful open source e-commerce platform

Your dump is my beach paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:30:00 +0000

SD Urban writes about the oceanfront transformation of the Mission Beach, San Diego shoreline. Old cottages and beat up homes are being replaced by muti-million dollar architecturally interesting homes. Although this is no surprise, it pains me as Mission Beach was still one of those places where beach-bum types could afford to be near the water. I personally lived there for a year and had one of the best years of my life. I lived a beachfront life that quickly is becoming a reality only for the extremely wealthy.

As beachfront property becomes unaffordable for the middle class will there be a movement towards home purchase near the beaches of Mexico and Central America? For a middle class surfer like myself the international real estate market, particularly Nicaragua and Panama, appear more and more appealing each day.

Want to start a business? Go to school.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Krakowski) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:10:00 +0000

TechCrunch reported today that Stanford University announced a venture fund for early stage capital, SSE Ventures. With this fund Stanford now joins the ranks of Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and a number of other schools that are helping both student and alumni entrepreneurs get their business ideas off the ground.

In addition to financial support, business school websites are a great place to go for information on starting a business. Stanford University has one of the best databases but nearly all major business schools have a wealth of similar information.

The mid 1990s was when Business schools started to recognize Entrepreneurship as a distinct career path, and developed curriculum to support it. There is no question that many of the most significant entrepreneurs in history had no formal business school eduction, and this continues to be the case today, but for the average entrepreneur a quality business school education can be an asset. The business school environment is a place where you can build your business plan in a supportive environment, acquire the necessary resources (such as funding) necessary to get it off the ground, and also to build a network of advisers to help you along the way. Sure, these same things could be accomplished without the educational environment, but for the average entrepreneur interested in starting a business an MBA should be a consideration.

Now schools just need to come up with a fund to pay the tuition for entrepreneurs. It's no easy accomplishment to start a business when you owe $100,000 to your Alma mater.