~Charles Swindoll

~Craig Ballantyne

~Dale Carnegie

~Randy Pausch

I always make sure I have some cash on hand to pay the neighborhood kids to shovel snow after a storm, and Nemo was no exception.

Am I wealthy enough to afford to pay people for all my household chores?

Nope.

Am I so damn lazy that I have to others do it?

Hardly.

One of the many ways that I paid my way through school was shoveling snow. As soon as the snow would stop, I'd be out there with my shovel, knocking on doors and pitching the satisfaction of a clean walkway or driveway for only a few dollars.

But that wasn't all that I did to pay my way through school.

I was also the Easter Bunny, a McDonald's crew member, Santa Claus (until the local Mom's complained that I was too short, then I was demoted to Elf), house framer, landscaping laborer, Kentucky Friend Chicken team member, bartender, waiter and probably a hundred other things.

Most importantly, I've been an entrepreneur who printed and sold novelty t-shirts, organized ski trips and pitched advertising. (At age eight, I started my own Detective Agency. That was short lived.)

Today, I'm still pitching people in my role as an entrepreneur (though there isn't as much physical labor involved) and I know the value of finding someone who wants what I have to offer.

I want to say "Yes" to young people because I know how often people say "No." 

I don't see enough hustle in my day-to-day experiences with young people and when I do, I want to reward it. I want to encourage these young entrepeneurs.

Sure, I ask for a lot when these kids come knocking on my door (I have a long driveway, walkway, etc.) but I also pay well and usually give them food and water while they're busting their asses to clear my property.

If they do a good job, more often than not, I'll ask them to come back after the next storm - though few of them do. Apparently I haven't done enough to instill the value of a repeat customer in these kids.

That'll my next contribution.

Do you reward hustle when you see it?

Almost exactly a year ago, we were without power (And heat. And fresh water.) for almost five days.

My wife and I vowed that we would never go through that again if we could help it, so we planned to buy a generator and transfer switch for this year's storm season so that we could power our home's basic necessities (heat, hot water, sump pump, fridges).

Long story short, we didn't. The money we budgeted for a generator went toward replacing our broken hot water heater, but we vowed to get a generator as soon as it made sense for our budget.

Then we started tracking Hurricane Sandy.

Thursday night, my wife said, "We should get a generator tomorrow." 

Powering our sump pump is critical for us, especially after installing a new hot water and heater and, six months earlier, replacing a broken washing machine - both of which are located in our relatively wet basement.

At 7 AM on Friday I began calling around, looking for generators. Most retailers laughed at my request while others were sympathetic to my search - but they still couldn't help me as there weren't generators in stock, anywhere.

So I started to do some research to find a creative solution. Here's what I came up with.

I learned about modern Power Inverters. These are devices that turn DC power to AC - but only in limited amounts - and can be connected to 12 volt batteries (like marine batteries) and used to power things like sump pumps. If powerful enough, you can even run a refrigerator with it.

More importantly, you can connect it to your car's electrical system and use your vehicle as a generator! (Sort of.)

This is fine for us. We have a wood stove that we can use for heat, so as long as the sump pump works, it'll protect our basement and we'll still be warm.

After a few hours of research on the web, I found a retailer on Dyckman Street in Harlem, NYC that carried the most powerful inverter that we could use - a 2500 wH unit. I paid handsomely for it. Of course, they didn't tell me it was refurbished, nor that it was a model from two years ago, but whatevs. I needed it.

I found an auto electronics installer on the interwebs. He usually "comes to you" but since it was Sunday, he asked me to go to his home. Okaaay.

After a UX and product planning session with one of our advisors, I arrived at "Rich's" house with my costly inverter and my wife's Subaru Tribeca. (I was warned not to try to install this thing in my Mini Cooper as the alternator probably couldn't handle it. Since I don't know any better, I took the advice.)

90 minutes later, the thing was installed in my wife's car and powering my MacBook Air.

This morning (Monday) I put my plan into action:

I parked the Subaru in our backyard and ran a heavy gauge extension cord from the inverter through a ground floor window, connecting it to a power strip in the process.

Next, I connected another heavy gauge extension cord to the sump pump, ran it up into the kitchen and plugged it into an outlet near the above mentioned power strip.

So.

If the power goes out (as it usually does in our neighborhood) I'll go outside and start the Subaru, turn on the inverter, then plug the extension cord for the sump pump into the power strip.

Hopefully, all will work fine.

Long term, I'll probably wire this inverter to a marine battery with a trickle charger and plug the sump pump into it, so that we have automatic power backup for the pump. 

But as soon as I have time to perform the proper research, I'm getting a generator and a transfer switch - budget be damned.

I really want an iPad mini.

The only reason I upgraded from an iPad 2 to the iPad 3 (or whatever it's called now) is because I could get LTE tethering from Verizon, which has been a gift from the universe on the few occassions that I've needed it.

However, ever since I got the first iPad and gave my wife my first generation Kindle, I've missed the smaller form factor of the Kindle eReaders.

The iPad mini looks like the perfect device, especially with Verizon LTE.

With all that said, I need an iPhone 5. (Really.) It's the only iPhone that we're missing for the purposes of software testing.

Plus, with the quick and unexpected release of the iPad 4 (or whatever it's called), the resale value of my iPad 3 isn't looking so good, so I'd take a hit on the upgrade.

The iPad mini is definitely my next iPad, but by the time I'm ready, they'll probably upgrade it to a retina display, anyway.

I love my Apple TV. Not just because of the video it allows me to watch, but the music it lets me play from our iPhones or Macs using Airplay.

I really want whole-house audio (a la Sonos, without the ridiculous cost) and Apple's Airplay can help me do that.

I have a bunch of high-quality stereo speakers from a variety of sources (PC speakers, home stereos, etc.) that I can place all over my house, but the only way that I can get whole-house audio is to purchase and install an Apple TV in every room while outputting audio to each via the TOS (optical) audio connector on the Apple TV.

But I really don't want to spend $99 per room to make this happen - plus an additional $30 for a TOSLink adapter for each set of these analog speakers.

I got to thinking: how small can Airplay device really get? Maybe someone makes one?

So, I started trawling the Interwebs and here's what I found: nothing. (At least as far as Airplay goes.)

What I did find was a product in the form factor that I wanted, but one that uses Bluetooth instead of Airplay.

It's called the WaveJamr from RadTech.

It offers point-to-point connectivity, so it's not ideal for whole-house audio, but it does make for some interesting wireless, A2DP audio solutions using a standard Apple 30-pin dock connector.

After reading all about it, I got even more excited: what if I could use it to get rid of the wires in my 2007 Mini Cooper with the (completely outdated) iPod Connection Kit?

So, I contacted Ryan and Zach at RadTech and asked if they knew if it would work with my car.

Of course, with the bazillions of iPod Connection Kits in the marketplace, there's no way that they could test all of them, so I offered to do it for them. (At least as far as my Mini Cooper was concerned.)

After receiving it yesterday, I wanted to immediately see it in action, so I started with my iHome alarm clock/speaker system.

Pairing with the WaveJamr is ridiculously easy, but the iHome device was a little persnickety. It expects to get feedback from an iPhone or iPod and it wasn't getting it from the WaveJamr. After connecting my iPhone 4S and selecting "iPod" as the input, then connecting the WaveJamr, it worked great.

The sound quality was amazing with none of the noise you expect from other line-in solutions. It worked perfectly, just as described.

Next, I took a walk outside to my 2007 Mini Cooper. (My wife calls it Clark. Like Clark Kent, it's mild-mannered until you activate its Superman powers. ;) )

You can see my current setup here: a ProClip USA iPhone car mount, a USB car charger, a standard Apple 30-pin dock cable and a standard 1/8" audio jack that plugs-in to the auxiliary audio jack of my Mini Cooper.

For a couple of years, I thought that the 1/8" cable had a bad connector on the iPod side but as it turns out, it's a problem with my auxiliary audio connector. Of course, I didn't discover this until the car was out-of-warranty. (Newman!)

So, when I saw the WaveJamr, I thought it would be a great way to get rid of the noise that I frequently get from the Aux connector using RadTech's pure wireless digital audio solution.

If you've never seen the dash of a Mini Cooper, this isn't just a dashboard, but a secret James Bond-like compartment (cue music) and is typically where your Mini dealer will mount your iPod Car Connection Kit.

I immediately connected the WaveJamr to the built-in iPod connector with no results - no sound and no appearance in the Bluetooth setting screen of my iPhone 4S.

To start troubleshooting, I connected the WaveJamr to the 30-pin cable that I usually use to power my iPhone and sure enough, the WaveJamr came up in the Bluetooth settings in my iPhone but of course, there was no sound since there isn't a line-out to my auxiliary audio connector.

I reconnected it the iPod Connection Kit hoping for a result. Nothing.

Just to be sure that the iPod Connection Kit was working properly, I plugged-in my iPhone which resulted in this error.

Obviously, the power requirements of an iPhone 4S are much greater than an iPod or the other iPhones that I've connected to this interface to date.

So, what are my options?

I'm going to buy one of RadTech's prescient ProCable 30-pin Dock-to-USB + 3.5mm Stereo cables. At $24, the cost stings a bit but at least it's available in Black. I'll tuck it away in the compartment near the auxiliary audio jack in my Mini Cooper and forget about the auxiliary connector forever.

As for the rest of the house, I'll buy a WaveJamr + ProCable for my dining room, my porch and my deck and have the ability to deliver wireless digital audio from our iPhone or Macs with the push of a simulated button under glass.

Bottom Line:

If you have Bluetooth A2DP audio on your smartphone (iPhone, Android, whatevs) or laptop and want perfectly clear, crisp wireless digital audio for your 30-pin or other audio device with a 1/8" connector, you can't beat the RadTech WaveJamr.

Just keep in mind that some testing may be required - it might not work with older iPod Connection Kits like those in the 2007-era (R56) Mini Cooper.

Recommendation: BUY, with the above mentioned caveats.

My favorite mail app (for both Mac and iPhone) was just acquired by Google. Or should I say, acq-hired. Based on the email I received from them, it doesn't appear that Google wants the Sparrow apps, but the team behind them:

We will continue to make available our existing products, and we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as we’ll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps.

Looks like we'll never get that Push email we've been waiting for, eh? I guess I'll continue to live with the alternative. Oh - and we'll most likely never see Sparrow for iPad, either! Damn.

Congratulations to the Sparrow team!

[via Amanda Blain on Google+]