Adventures with LittleButty

Milestone for Bodi

2011-08-14T15:52:00.000-06:00

Well its that time for our little guy where he no longer needs a crib. He is still only 2 but will soon be 3 so we have decided to get him into a "big boy bed." We asked him what kind of room he wanted and he decided on Motorcycles.

BEFORE

AFTER

He absolutely loves it and wants to show everyone who comes over to the house. He spent his first night in the bed last night and Chase wanted to have a sleep over in his room.

Thanks to my awesome brothers for their excellent painting work. If you want great painting work done interior or exterior give them a call: 801-860-0036. And my amazing wife for her creativity and decorating skills.

Pitch Detection

2011-07-31T23:18:00.002-06:00

Mindy and her business partners have released a new version of the iPhone App with some big improvements. In particular this version uses the built-in Mic to listen to your voice and show whether you are on pitch or not. So you get instant feedback rather than having to diagnos your own voice.

She flew out to Atlanta and worked with Kelly Rowland who now uses the app!

Pretty impressive stuff:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/voice-tutor/id382081400?mt=8

Are You Ready to Rock?

2011-05-20T13:24:00.001-06:00

Chase will be performing his 2nd annual concert as the drummer in his Rock Band "Salt Water Taffy" this weekend. The more people who can come out the better! Admission is free just tell them you came to see Chase Pack because he gets entered into a drawing for each person he brings.

Details at Mindy's Website: http://singoutloud.com/student-fest/

Chase goes on stage about 4:45 PM on Saturday.

Here is a shot from last year:

Golf Tournament

2011-04-17T20:17:00.000-06:00

Chase played in his first official golf tournament yesterday. I got be his caddie. It was pretty fun to see him out there. He had a great time and I hope he keeps it up.

The Dilution of the Tax Payer

2011-02-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

So this week we experienced a mini-milestone in the economic recovery. The Dow hit 12,000 earlier in the week and it was lauded by all the news organizations. So on the surface it seemed to me that progress was being made. For those keeping score the last time the Dow was above 12,000 was in June 2008 which was right before the huge house crash and essentially my generation's "Black Tuesday." The DOW and the other indexes are often a measure (albeit often a flawed one) of the capital and for lack of a better term the money out in the corporate economy. So by looking at this single metric I thought, wow - the public companies out there are getting back to "normal." But what does not make sence to me is why then is our unemployment rate still hovering at 9.8%? I looked it up and turns out that the last time the Dow was at this level the unemployment rate was at 5.5%; HALF of what it is today. (source) Why if companies have the same amount of equity they did before are we so short on jobs? The IT person in me wants to say that "well .. we are just more efficient than before. Advancements in technology allow us to get the same amount done we did before, but with fewer resources." The problem with that is that the GDP looks to have declined since 2008. In fact it appears to be the first time since the 50's that it has actually gone the wrong direction (source). So that's probably not it. Where is the money?

The only thing I can think of in my tiny little uneducated brain is that while the economy may be kicking the ball down field, the government bailouts and the treasury printing large amounts of money have actually moved the goal posts further away from us. In essence the american people (ie: me and you) all experienced a very significant dilution of our equity. I have worked at a couple startups now and noticed that when we were short on money and possibly on the brink of loosing the company, we simply increased the number of shares available in the company so we could sell more. But for those who owned enough stock to say they had about 10% of the company all of sudden only owned 5%. The amount of stock certificates/options they had did not change, but their value was diluted. This is what the US government did to all the tax payers. Was it necessary? I don't know. I do remember in these companies I often heard "I'd rather have 5% of something than 10% of nothing" as justification for it. The problem is that the worth of the company did not actually change, yet it was now capable of selling more of itself for cash. We had to modify the articles of incorporation in order to do this. I think this is what the US government did when it moved off the Gold Standard some time ago. There is definitely a lot of gold out there and there is still a lot to be discovered and unearthed. But at least there is a finite amount of it out in the world. Now the ceiling has been completely removed. Again they very well may have been the right decision - I'm no economist. But I am still upset over the bailouts. I think a lot of people made a lot of money and broke the rules of risk and return with our money.

I just finished reading "The Big Short" by Micheal Lewis and it left me very ticked off at Wall Street and the US regulatory system(s). It proved to me that left unchecked, Wall Street will most certainly run rampant with our money with no conscience. I have been a proponent of capitalism for a long time, but I now I am convinced that too much 'laissez-faire' is synonymous with fraud in this country. My belief has been that the purpose of a Board of Directors was to keep the executives in check and to ensure that they are doing all they can to realize a return for shareholders. If I as a tax-payer am a shareholder in these bailed out companies, I want to some representing ME, on those boards. Damn-it. (Had to throw that in there for effect - cover your children's ears) In fact I want someone from the US government who is a representative of the constituency that I belong to sitting on the board of AIG and making those executive's lives MISERABLE until they are incentivized enough to buy me out! Or at least let us use the private jets from time to time - whichever is easier.

Ok, well as ticked off as I am at their reckless behavior, I also think a lot of the equity piling up in these public companies is sitting on a lot of company's balance sheets. I think 2011 will be the year of corporate acquisitions. I predict there will be a fire sale of businesses as companies look to move excess accumulations of cash on their books. Unfortunately I think this lends itself to a consolidation of large companies as the small businesses get gobbled up in the coming years, but it also is probably a decent time to think about being an entrepreneur. SBA loans are still going to be hard to get, but at least I think the market for selling a company is only going to get better.

CNN in the Cross-hairs

2011-01-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

Apparently CNN dropped a bomb after coming under fire for targeting words that needed to be axed from the rhetoric that was being shotgunned into the media if those words might bind or shackle a viewer into subconsciously thinking about guns and/or violence. Rather than take aim at CNN, I say we bury the hatchet and sever these torturous feelings and lay to rest any murderous sentiments.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/01/18/cnn_apologizes_for_guest_using_term_crosshairs.html

Black Soul Friday

2010-11-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

I have always been interested in Black Friday, mostly because as business student I knew the importance of the day to the retail sector and just how muh energy and work goes into a weekend that makes or breaks wall street's corporate projections and has such a profound impact on the economic outlook. Yet the sound of staying up all night in the freezing cold weather to save only a few dollars in order to personally participate in the "event" never sounded like a very worth-while endeavor. Yet year after year I hear the stories from family members and read the paper the next morning and I am ceaselessly amazed at what I hear. One year my wife got in a fight at Best Buy and nearly threw punches while I was fast asleep in a nice warm bed. So I decided this year I wanted to experience it!

One of the cardinal rules of Black Friday shopping is knowing exactly what it is you want and where to get it. I however wasn't very interested in saving money. In fact I spent most of 2010 building the website and fulfillment for www.CityDeals.com and I hardly ever used it myself. I was far more interested to see how we as intelligent human beings would literally risk our lives (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2010-07-07-wal-mart-black-friday-death_N.htm) for a good deal. Yet at the same time I did not want to waste my sacrifice for nothing so I decided that I'd stake a spot near the video games section of Walmart out in South Jordan. I got to know the people around me really well. To my left was a guy wearing overalls with no shirt on underneath and to my right was a hot co-ed attending school in Missouri. Two older ladies were in front of me and I heard all about their grandkids for the better part of an hour. By 10:00 pm there were people to my right sitting on the floor playing cards. In another area of the store some people had setup THEIR OWN camping chairs ans TV and were watching a movie. Walmart has provided us with a map of the store and showed us where lines were forming for each of the door-buster sales. I felt bad for the people had to waiting the freezer isle for a crappy laptop. The cashiers were all asked to provide "security" around the crates of items in the middle of the isles all wrapped in plastic with signs that said do not open until midnight or 5:00 AM for electronics. That in and of itself was hilarious. They had no idea how to control crowds. Patrol cars were stationed outside the front entrance, but they were not about to come inside unless necessary. About 11:30 was when things started getting interesting. People literally left their humanity at home for this event. I had one lady come up to me and say, "I am just going to look under the plastic so I know which side I want to be on." She crouched down by my legs and immediately grabbed 5 or 6 games and turned and ran. I yelled "liar!" at her as she hastily moved through the crowd. She yelled back "You should know better." So I suppose their is a chance I was wrong to believe that people are generally honest. It became very apparent that those who were dishonest and cared little for the time and sacrifice made by those around then did fair much better than those who actually had any sense of decency in them. It's an interesting phenomenon that we wait in lines and consider it unfair if someone cuts in line and attach a social stigma to those who who disregard the unwritten rule of first-come-first server. Individuals who can lower themselves below the level of feeling any sense of responsibility to those around them do come away with better deals. So before heading out, you must answer the question of how much your humanity and civility is worth to you. Left to decide on the spur of the moment will certainly result in others seeing the value you instantaneously decided on. Their opinions however are fleeting and you will likely never encounter them again. Leaving those left standing with only a hope of some degree of Karma. Walmart made the sale either way - no need wasting precious resources to avoid some social discomfort when the Income Statement is unaffected. I wonder if the Walton family has discovered the equation for finding the perfect balance between litigation expenses and people tramping one another to make purchases at your place of business?

By 11:30 I was still on the front row with hoards of people around me. It took me back to the days of riding the subway in the former communist republic of Romania. Yet that did not stop some people from pushing to get closer. We heard that one lady walked up a grabbed a trampoline well before the midnight time limit and the masses of people waiting to get them immediately grabbed it back and began to yell at her. She did not give up without a fight however and security was called in that case.

The portly gentleman next to me in the overalls decided he was not about to loose out on his time spent waiting. He crouched into a catcher's stance and placed both hands on as many Wii Games as he could grab. I have no idea if he intended on buying them all - but I was certainly impressed that he was able to remain in that stance for nearly 20 minutes given his stature. There ought to be a study conducted on human resilience in the face of 50% OFF!

I was deep into a game of Angry Birds on my iPhone when some rustling was heard from the crowd next to us who were waiting for some kind of kids toy. This immediately caused heightened emotions in the crowd I was in. With easily 8 minutes before midnight, something sparked and the dash was on. Because video games are small, easy to grab, and hold a large number in a small space, it reminded me of the carp on the docks of Lake Powell. Through some food in the mist and a swarm of them rush to get it first. We are obviously no different. I however leveraged a skill from my negotiations class in graduate school to make a deal with the lady across from me. She was closer to a game I wanted and I was closer to a game she wanted. We agreed that we'd grab the games and make an exchange afterwards. This is the kind of intense activity that take place over cardboard covered in plastic wrap when you have been on your feet for a couple hours past your bedtime.

I have no idea why I took so much pleasure in watching what unfolded in front of me. The masochist in me certain reared it's ugly head this morning as I saw people fight and grab at anything and everything. Most people seemed to respect the fact that once you had it in your hands, the race was over, but a few did not agree with that philosophy. I told my brother I wished he had worn his head-cam to record this from the front lines. I would not have believed it had I not seen it first had.

My immediate family was stationed at different locations throughout the store. My brother saw a lady who otherwise probably had no athletic ability manage to pull a whole row of waffle irons ($9.99 by the way) into a cart, and jump on top of them to protect them. My wife was after a floor vacuum steamer combination, she had a lady who she described as "looking like a relief society president" literally crawl between her legs to pull one from the bottom of the pile before they were all gone. My mother-in-law witnessed people take no regard to the "wrist-band" process that had been put in place for some of the rare items and the yelling arguments that ensued. Here is a picture of my brother-in-law's fingers who were cut when some lady grabbed a box out of hands. He had to leave his items with my sister-in-law while he went to the mens room to stop the bleeding.

The wait to scramble for discounted chinese sweat-shop products was nothing compared to the wait to checkout. Well over two hours later I found myself searching for caffeine at the in store McDonalds as we got closer to the checkout stand. The funniest part however that one lady asked if she could cut ahead of us to get int the 20 items or less line because all she was buying was shampoo and conditioner. Who does their household shopping at 2 AM on Black Friday?

While the women waited in line the men decided to head over to the other retailers in the area and scope out the lines and plan our next move. I am certain that those who use a military style intelligence and communication process with walkie-talkies and the like would benefit greatly on any given Black Friday.

At 2:30 AM we parked the car in Kohls parking lot which was as full as it would be on a saturday afternoon. The temperature gauge read 10 F. Unlike Walmart Kohls was not about to share the warmth of their facility. 10 minutes to 3 AM and the line wrapped across the whole front of the store, past Shoe Carnival and disappeared around the corner. Who knows how much further it went after that. One lady was in line with holding a car seat with what looked like a few week old baby - I was shocked.

Now 5 minutes to 3:00 AM and the line began to compact and suddenly 10's of people got out of their nice warm cars and headed toward the front of the line. Their plan was to rush the front of the line or sneak in as the line began to push it's way into the store. To the credit of the store employees they stood in front of people trying to do that and did all they could to prevent them from moving forward. My guess is they probably had about a 50% success rate. Sprinting toward the item my brother told me he was after (which I cannot disclose in the unlikely case that she or anyone in my family reads this whole post) I was definitely no longer tired. We discovered the same $9 waffle irons that Walmart had and also found a number of other good deals. My brother made the wise choice of getting what he wanted an then running straight for the checkout line rather than moving on to the next door buster.

By 4:30 everyone in my family had made their way through the check outline that was probably a football field or more in length. My brother and I debated on whether or not to head back to Walmart fot the 5:00 AM electronics sale. After seeing the parking lot twice the size it was at midnight we opted out. Mostly because we couldn't do the checkout line again. The women were not as defeatist was we were. They were just getting warmed up. Mindy hit 3 more stores before rolling in at 8:30 AM this morning. She got amazing deals on some good stuff and even asked manager for more of a discount wherever she went.

As I drove home exhausted early this morning to get home in time to get some sleep before the kids woke up, I was still smiling at what I had witnessed. Every year I was fast asleep in my bed having no idea what was going on a few blocks away. I imagined how small of a piece of Black Friday I had just seen and thought about this happening all across the country. I would LOVE to watch a documentary on this event someday!

Paragliding

2010-11-14T12:05:00.001-07:00

My brother, his wife, and my brother-in-law all went paragliding this weekend. It was a blast! Much more serene and chill than I had anticipated. It was defintley cold, but other than that it was a quite an experience. I'd love to do it again.

The rest of the pics.

Chase's 6th Birthday Party

2010-09-20T20:54:00.000-06:00

I have no idea why, but every year after Chase's birthday party someone asks him "What do you want to do for your party next year?" He never hesitates to answer and he never deviates from what he said throughout the entire year. For some odd reason last year he said he wanted a "Halloween Party" for his Birthday. Sure enough all year long he reminded us that was what he wanted. So this week we had 10+ little kids over to the house all dressed in Halloween Costumes for his birthday. They read scary stories, had a fish pond, played various Halloween games, and of course they went Trick-or-Treating. We had to notify all the neighbors in advance that they would be getting some trick-or-treaters very early this year, and of course we have the best neighbors on the planet, so they handed out candy on Friday when the kids came around. Some of them even dressed up themselves to answer the door. :)

Anyway, be sure to check out all of the pics here:

Chase's 6th Birthday Party Pics

Soccer

2010-09-06T10:14:00.000-06:00

Fall soccer has begun and Chase is loving it. The team has scored a few goals in our own net and a few more in the opponents net so far - so I'd call that a winning record :)

The Death of Craftsmen

2010-08-24T21:08:00.000-06:00

So I was at the airport looking for some reading material and found a book that was hiding way in the back some distance from the bestsellers section so my hopes were not high. Maybe that's actually way I enjoyed the book - who knows. But I would recommend it to anyone interested in economics (I know my wife makes fun of me for my choice of leisure reading) I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of research that went into the book and found that it made some very good observations about our insatiable appetite for cheaper and cheaper goods. The basic premise of the book is to bring to light some possible side-effects of our desire to pay less and less for the goods and services we acquire.

Further reinforcing my already long standing distaste for the Walmart Organization, the author argues that large multinationals that are trying to remove all skill from professions and invent new methods of paying the workforce less and less - as a result of our demand for cheap prices and large shareholder returns are in many ways killing craftsman. We don't want to spend a months salary on a well crafted piece of furniture that the kids may one day use. We'd rather spend the cash in our wallet to buy something from IKEA and through it out in a couple years when were ready to upgrade.

Anyway I could go on, but no ones reads long blogs anyway. But I would recommend the book if you are bored with the Eclipse Series ;)

Amazon Link

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Mindy makes VoiceTutor iPhone App

2010-08-02T20:12:00.000-06:00

So I am very proud of my wife. She came up with an idea and over the course of a few months was able to make it a reality. As of this weekend she has an iPhone app that give people a virtual voice lesson right on their smartphone. It's pretty cool. It'll walk you through diagnostics, exercises, and warm-ups. With the help of her friends, it turned out really impressive.

You can find it on the App Store or by going to:

www.VoiceTutorApp.com

The android version is in development and coming soon!

Wow - it's been a long time.

2010-07-24T12:11:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I have taken this long to blog. Not that I have anything all that interesting anyway, but still that's a quite a while. Life has been crazy for us here at the Pack house. Mindy just finished with her Summer Glee Camp performances and they went really well. The kids loved it. I graduated from school and am enjoying reading non-text books for the first time in years. Chase played the drums in his first concert a month or so ago and did great. He is also loving golf and doing really well for a 5 year old. Bodi has been sick and had to have surgery. He had his adenoids removed and also had tubes put in his ears. His curly hair is still growing like crazy and his energy level seems to be growing with it.

Great Values at CityDeals.com

2009-11-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

I have accepted a new job at a great small company that has a lot of potential. I seriously hope I can be a value to their team. CityDeals.com is a local company that provides great deals at local merchants. So if you are looking to buy gift cards or gift certificates this holiday season (and I know most of you will) then don't pay full price or even pay for the gas to go get them. Have them delivered right to your home by going to www.CityDeals.com

Hitting a HomeRun with the right Pitch

2009-11-06T21:48:00.005-07:00

So I realize I am the last person on the planet to be speaking on the subject, but I just need to get on my soap box for a minute and since I have no other forum for doing it ... the blog it is :)

Having only been involved in this for a couple months now my opinion is of little worth, but I want to pass on my perspective on presentation to investors. For reasons I won't get into, I have heard 20+ pitches for funding over the last months and here is what I would recommend to anyone trying to raise money in an investor pitch:

Before you go into an hour speech, find out what the investors criteria are. Most savvy investors have a set of benchmarks or criteria they have for any potential investment. They may be more concerned about profitability than growth, then may want only post-revenue companies with a valuation threshold. At any rate save everyone in the room time by asking right up front and see if you align. If not, address it, if so, focus on it in your pitch.
Find out what the investors GOALS are for the money. Believe me they have exceptions - discover them early!
Be very brief and concise. Greg Butterfield blogged about what your presentation should contain. http://sagecreekpartners.com/advice/what-should-be-in-your-investor-presentation/ It's good - follow it! It's probably even longer than I would recommend for a first presentation. I know you love your product - I get that. But if you talk for an hour and half in the first meeting, I promise it will do more harm than good. You may be the 4th one they've sat through that day.
Don't read from a script. Even if you are on a web-conference, DO NOT read a script. If you can't speak freely and let the conversation go in the direction the investors want, find someone who can.
Address the right stuff. Here are some examples:

You need to speak about the products/services etc. so be sure to do that, but just remember you are not trying to sell them the product as if they were a customer. They need to see the hole you fill, but don't wait to bring up pricing at the end or only if they ask like you might in a sales call. They are less concerned about how cool the product is than they are about whether or not people pay money for it.
Don't mention how much Google or Walmart have made on similar products - I hate to break it to you ... you're not Google.
What are you going to do with the investment? Buy a super-bowl commercial?
Who are the other investors in the sandbox we have to play with?
What does your cap table look like? Is that fully burdened or not? Are you willing to offer prefered shares or only common? What round are you currently in? Are there more to come? When? etc. etc. (This is usually more interesting than your product for investors to talk about.)
Talk about your team and your strengths. Just don't over do it. Superman can't work at every company on the planet. What are your strengths and your core competencies and how do those play into the business strategy. Who is on your board? How involved are they? Who are your advisors and networks?
What is your Go To Market strategy. This tends to go long, so remember brevity and conciseness are the keys. In this part you MUST clearly state your value proposition and your competitive advantage. Why are you hard to imitate or substitute?
What is the exit strategy for the company. You just spoke about the means, now whats the end?
What does this investment do for the company and what will the investor get in return for helping you get there?

BE HONEST! Nothing is a bigger turn off than trying to be misleading. Even if it is the truth, don't try to deceive. Don't pick your competitors most expensive product and compare it to your least expensive. Be fair.

Ask what the process is for making a decision. In our case the final decision makers are NOT in the room. We are acting as analysts and narrowing down the possibilities to then later present internally.
Lastly and most importantly - HAVE DATA TO PROVE YOUR NUMBERS!!!! Every "conservative" estimate thinks their company is worth 10 M. That seems to be the magical number. If you have $500 K in annual revenue - your are NOT worth $10 Million. A 20x multiple is ridiculous. Valuations can be done using a process similar to Real Estate (Comparative Market Analysis) and adoption rates can be projected scientifically using data models and comparisons. You can't expect someone to buy in at a 7x multiplier and expect to pay it back with a 2x multiplier 5 years later. I could be wrong but my guess is most VCs at this point would rather see realism than optimism from a CEO - especially considering the economy right now. Reflect that in your proforma.

There - thats my two cents. I'll be surprised if anyone out there actually cares about this post, but I had to rant somewhere.

"Open" for Business

2009-10-21T21:36:00.001-06:00

I have a slight personality disorder when it comes to technology. I love and advocate open-source tools and have donated money and code back to a number of projects, but at the same time I use a lot of Microsoft products and actually evangelize Microsoft much more frequently than any other open-source advocates I know of. I guess I am a personal believer in the right tool for the right job rather than a one-size-fits all approach to IT (although easier stated than implemented) But I have decided that the case for open-source software is better suited in our current economic climate. So below is my list of tools that I or people I have worked with have used that are free or almost free alternatives to common business applications:

Server Operating System Winner: Debian Linux (http://www.debian.org/) : Although I currently operate a Windows network I prefer my production systems to run on Linux. My flavor of the day is Ubuntu Enterprise Edition or Debian. Windows has made great strides with security over the last few years, but Windows requires too much over-head, rebooting, patch management, virus protection, etc that increase indirect IT costs.
Desktop Operating System Winner: Ubuntu Linux (http://www.ubuntu.com/) : This is very popular right now and has great support for drivers, WiFi, Bluetooth, DVD burning, etc. It can also be customized to feel very Windows-like for converting end-users.
Anti-Virus Winner : AVG (http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage) : Although Linux and apple do not really require AV software, if you choose to use windows anyway, this is great free anti-virus application.
Anti-Spyware Winner : Spyware Doctor (http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/) : Again this is for those of you on windows machines. It is a little resource intensive at times, but still better than SpyBot and Ad-Aware if you ask me.
Photo Management Winner : Picasa (http://picasa.google.com/) : This is another Google application which you'll see a lot of on my list, but it truly does do a good job of picture management, red-eye reduction, etc.
Identity Management Winner: OpenLDAP (http://www.openldap.org/) : Although I've used ActiveDirectory heavily as of late and eDirectory before that, most open-source tools will have a LDAP compliant connector that will allow you to have a single-sign-on process within your organization. Although not extremely easy to configure in a secure manner, OpenLDAP is very easy to get installed and running.
Collaboration Suite Winner : Zimbra (http://www.zimbra.com/) : I happen to believe that Exchange server is still the best and most widely adopted email and collaboration suite on the market, Zimbra is about as close as anyone else I have seen to an Exchange-Killer. It has all of the basic features 90% of all companies out there will need and has a fairly impressive web-interface for end-users.
Collaboration Suite Runner-up : Google Apps (http://www.google.com/apps/) : If you are not too paranoid about having your data housed a large conglomerate company, the Google Apps (Email, Calendaring, Contacts, Documents) is probably what I would recommend to companies with no IT staff. Although you can purchase hosted solutions of Zimbra, Google is FAR easier to setup, maintain, and use for that matter. The professional edition of Google Apps does cost money, but by purchasing it you can use LDAP authentication and maintain your single-sing-on initiative.
CRM Winner : SugarCRM (http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/) : Salesforce.com is the 800 pound gorilla in this market and they have a great solution, but it is very expensive in my view. SugarCRM has a large sub-set of the features and was even modeled after Salesfore. But having the source code allows for even more configuration and customization to meet your specific needs. I love this tool - it's well built and architected with some great web-based customization requiring no code changes at all.
Office Productivity Winner : OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/) : I think that MS Office is stable in the business world, so I am surprised by the lack of competition in the office productivity arena, but OpenOffice does everything Office can but does not require cutting a large licensing check to Microsoft every year. Again Google Docs is probably what I would recommend, but there are still too many end-users out there that are not going to be able to use a web-site to create a complex Spreadsheet.
Phone System Winner : Asterisk (http://www.asterisk.org/) : Although I have not as of yet implemented this myself, I have seen tons of demonstration with it being used and I have had large telcom companies tell me this is what they do and they recommend. Some hardware is obviously required, but I could make a decent case for dropping the expense of desktop phones and using SIP compliant SoftPhones with Bluetooth headsets and be just as or even more effective.
Conference Bridge Winner : FreeConferenceCall.com (http://freeconferencecall.com/) : They do not issue you a toll-free number like many bridges do, but this is great service for just holding standard calls with a lot of people present.
Web Conference Solution Winner : Yumga Skype Edition (https://www.yugma.com/) : I love GoToMeeting and other tools like that to do product demos and sales presentations, but this one is decent considering the free price tag. It also alows Mac and Linux users that not all of the big boys support yet. So it's a great tool and couple with Skype for the voice component, your phone calls are also free (so long as they install skype as well - calling land lines does cost money)
Project Management Winner : NOBODY : Needless to say I am throughly dissatisfied with this market. I have used DotProject, Basecamp, @Task, MS Project, ZoHo, Trac, etc. and I don't really love any of them. Plus there are no good opensource ones that I have found. If anyone knows of one - let me know!
Programming Language Winner : PHP (http://php.net/) : This is the programming language that I would recommend to small companies on a budget. There is a lot of documentation on the language, it's free to use, it's well-supported, well developed, and there are plenty of resources to hire from. C# is a great language and has a very "enterprise" brand around it, but it's expensive to use and limits your infrastructure to a great degree. Java is also very popular and can keep costs low, but I have found it is a "heavy" language that reduces a company's ability to be as nimble as some other "lighter" languages. . Ruby is also very popular and has it's place, but be careful about a long-term strategy with Ruby on Rails.
Programming Language Runner-up : Python (http://www.python.org/) : Python is actually a great language and seems to be the preferred language of a lot of programmers who have used multiple different languages (including Google). It's efficient and fast but has a much smaller pool of resources to hire from.
Web Server Winner : Apache 2 (http://httpd.apache.org/) : Having used IIS 5 & 6 for a number of internal projects and Tomcat on some production systems this one was an easy sell for me. PHP can run great on windows with fast-cgi, but apache just seems to be the default answer on this one. I typically will also use lighttpd as either a sorry server while apache is down for deployments or for serving up simple images and various media for more complex systems.
Database Winner : PostgreSQL (http://www.postgresql.org/) : This one is one where I get rather passionate about. I will advocate this database until the day I die. It is amazing and a MUST for any company who is frustrated by MySQL (and I know you're out there - whether you want to admit it or not) If you can't afford Oracle but want the stability and support for triggers, stored procedures, domains, etc. this IS your answer. We had MySQL crash a few times a month in a distributed SaaS application and after switching to PostgreSQL we went to a zero crash rate. Our primary instance was alive for well over 18 months before we had to reboot the server for OS maintenance.
Integrated Development Environment Winner : Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/) : Of all the IDE's on the market, this one is by far gain the most ground from my prospective. Companies like Spring and Zend have dropped their own IDEs in favor of just skinning Eclipse. I use it for both Java and PHP and love it.
Text Editor Winner : TextPad (http://www.textpad.com/) : When modifying Unix, ASCII, and SQL type files don't mess around with the default WordPad or NotePad. TextPad is very configurable and has TONS of loadable dictionaries for great code highlighting in just about any language you want.
Version Control Winner : Subversion (http://subversion.tigris.org/) : When it comes to version control, SVN has serious problem with merging and can be a serious risk to a project. I here GIT is pretty good but never used it myself. All I know is SVN works great for most implementation and the use of third party tools can overcome a lot of the gaps left in subversion. But with SVN at the party, no one should be using CVS anymore if you ask me. If you are on windows, then TortoiseSVN is the best client I have been able to find so far.
Bug Tracking Winner : Mantis (http://www.mantisbt.org/) : This is the best free one that I have used. I hated Bugzilla with a passion - I seriously could not stand that thing. But I actually love Jira and the other Atlassian products, but they are not free as of yet. Although they recent announced a $10 price tag for a limited license of Jira!
Continuous Integration Winner : CruiseControl (http://cruisecontrol.sourceforge.net/) : It is fairly simplistic in nature and not extremely feature rich, but does a great job and has plug-ins for a number of other open-source tools. I used it with both Java and PHP and thought it was great. We used Hudson as well and I have no complaints with that tool, but again Atlassian (makers of Jira) have one that I think I'd like, but have not had an opportunity to use it yet.
Web-based Regression Testing Winner : iMacros Firefox Addon (http://www.iopus.com/iMacros/firefox/) : I think for larger scale implementations something like Selenium is probably much more fitting, but it can be time consuming to setup and script. So for easy simple testing of very basic web applications where teams of QA people are not involved, I found a number of issues with deployments using this simple tool. Obviously I could not use it with IE as an add-on however.
Test Case Management Winner : TestLink (http://blog.testlink.org/) : In my search to find a solution I tried a number of different options and of the free ones, this is the one I liked the best. Unimpressed with the user-interface however. It's a little hard to navigate and not laid out well at all. You can tell it was designed by the engineers ;)
Web Browser Winner : Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome) : I am a fan of this browser. Late to the game, but superior in my humble opinion. Firefox is a memory hog and when it crashes it tanks everything. Chrome runs independent processes for each tab. It's laid out well and beyond anything else, the merging of the address bar and the Google search bar into the same field is by far my favorite feature.
E-Commerce Shopping Cart Winner : Magento (http://www.magentocommerce.com/) : This is another one that I was so impressed with that I will evangelize it for some time. It's built on a solid MVC framework, it's easy to install and deploy, and has a TON of features. This is beyond better than OS Commerce, ZenCart, and others.
Content Management / Blog Winner : WordPress (http://wordpress.org/) : Although I've been nervous about installing this due to security issues in the past, this is the easiest way to get a simply website up that will allow non-technical people control over the web content. It has SEO plugins and WYSIWYG editors that make it so simple that even your marketing staff can use it ;) I was not all that impressed with Joomla to be honest.
Document Management Portal Winner : Alfresco (http://www.alfresco.com/) : MS SharePoint is pretty common place in alot of organizations and happens to be a useful application but it is not necessarily cheap nor easy to implement. Alfresco has half the amount of features and is just as cumberson to use at times, but does provide an open-source alternative to get similar results without the costs. Be forewarned however, downloading and installing this will put you on their hit list for marketing phone calls and spam.

Hope it helps someone save some money. Remember to support you open-source community!

Investing in the Obama Brand with Gold Coins

2009-10-11T11:15:00.009-06:00

Coming from a technical background I tend to be more skeptical of the marketing side of consumer decisions. Yet Obama has proven to me time and time again that marketing works. It's evident to me that he has built and carefully crafted a "Brand" that people can buy into. This week's announcement that Obama will be inducted into one of our planets most elite groups of some of the greatest contributors to humanity our existence has ever known, is proof that the international community is investing in this brand. The Wall Street Journal poignantly stated that this is the first time the Nobel peace prize has purchased futures in an candidate. Its apparent (even to himself) that little or no measurable peace-specific results have come from Obama as of yet. My take is that this chess move was done primarily due to two motives:

The committee wanted to arm Obama with a tool to legitimize his future efforts in peace and show the world just how necessary they feel an individual like Obama is needed right now.
I think it is a clear message that the international community is rewarding Americans for the replacement of George W. Bush. To nominate a war time president 12 days into his administration shows this was not a lifetime achievement award.

Unfortunately this will also have the inevitable result of cheapening of a great honor. Of course I felt similarly when Jimmy Carter received the award during the Bush Administration, but definitely not the same degree. I personally believe this prize should be reserved for those whose personal commitment to peace has proven results and a historical impact, rather than simple aspirations. Talk about the Audacity of Hope ;)

Cover Your App!

2009-09-28T17:12:00.003-06:00

For those of you who were or are on Windows Mobile or Blackberry, you know that applications ('apps') are not a new concept. So why do iPhone apps seem to be getting all of the press? It's the App Store! As a former Blackjack owner, there were MILLIONS of apps to choose from that could do anything under the sun http://www.handango.com, but they never had the viral characteristics of the iPhone apps. Why? the App Store! Microsoft missed the boat by not creating ONE, CENTRAL, EMBEDDED distribution channel for the developers of these applications.

What I find interesting, is now that very concept (i.e. provide your complementary commuinity with a channel) is catching on and is trend you are going to seem more and more. For example Intuit has announced their App Store (http://workplace.intuit.com/AppCenter/) for applications that are complementary to QuickBooks and Quicken. Value added to a product by closing the gaps.

My bet is you are going to see a lot more of this in the business world for the next little while.

Transformer Birthday Party

2009-09-20T15:36:00.005-06:00

Optimus Prime and BumbleBee visit Chase on his Birthday!

Chase had his 5th birthday party yesterday and Mindy went all out. The kids received a transmission from space to seek out and find the ALSPARK on earth for the Transformers.

Luckily they were able to retrieve it before Megatron could get his hands on it. So they used their lights to hail Optimus Prime to let him know they had found it. Grateful for their work, Optimus Prime and BumbleBee (new Camaros are very hard to find so we improvised) came to thank the little transformers and answer questions.

It was a blast. One for the ages!

Here is a link to the pictures:

Link to the Photo Album

Here is the video:

Special thanks to:

Jeff England at Pride Transport
Mindy's Aunt and Uncle Pat & Adel
My Totally Awesome Bro - Derin
My Dad and my Father-in-law

And of course to MINDY!

New Neice

2009-09-15T14:19:00.006-06:00

So My brother and his wife welcomed a new baby girl into the world last week. She is adorable and healthy. Her name is Addison.

Redneck Lesson #1

2009-09-15T13:43:00.007-06:00

So I figure have to train Chase how to be a good nedneck from a young age, so he had one of his first lessons last month while up at the Cabin. He throughly enjoyed watching Derin and I as we demonstrated the art of blowing things up.

Heart Broken

2009-08-04T12:00:00.003-06:00

My heart goes out to a family member who is currently in one of the worse positions I could possibly imaginge. Mindy's cousin has a daughter who is in a fight for her life. They have been in the hospital for weeks now awaiting a heart transplant. They have seen amazing things happen, but I cannot even fathom how hard it has been on them. If you are reading this and want tofollow her story, you can read their blog here:

http://vittoriascorner.blogspot.com/

Preschool Program

2009-06-14T17:19:00.005-06:00

Chase has his year-end preschool program this week. It was pretty darn cute.

Interested in Music?

2009-05-17T16:23:00.004-06:00

For anyone interested in music, singing, or performing, we have a great opportunity for you. My wife is bring an industry professional into town to give few workshops and to do a concert. He is a singer, songwriter, producer, vocal coach, dancer, etc. He has worked with artists like Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Maroon 5, Black Eyed Pees, etc. In fact you can see him dancing with Justin in many of his music videos and concerts. His name is RAab (pronounced "Rob") Stevenson:

http://www.singoutloud.com/production

Check out ProfBay

2009-05-01T00:09:00.002-06:00

A friend of mine started up a cool new site that let's anyone who uses eBay track their financial situation much better. It's a free service so check it out:

http://www.profbay.com