In 2008 I shed many close friendships. After leaving Apple in 2009 I maintained even fewer of them. Things are barebones.

Jean Desir

Third Year of our friendship. We didn�t spend much time together, but he remained interested in what I�ve been up to. He had plans to leave for New York this year, which did not happen. He was also a potential roommate.  

Tashia Ameneiro

Tashia was a potential roommate. She was also a potential business partner. In November she helped me search for a new roommate when things went bad with Thomas and Julian. Outside of that, she has been a very empathetic person, particularly in the last few months.

Teekay

Tanya

o  

Mr. Rob

Erdell & LaVondria

o  

And not least�

Deedee Cohen, Sally, Will Smith, Jayne Rosenblum, Gerry Miller, Tony P, Scott Wisenthal, Wilbert, Remon�, Alan Macken, Eric Wisengard, Felice Smith, Jean Guallamette, Hermine Wilson, Andrea Nitzberg, Katia Moritz, Jason Speilman, Jonathan Hoffman, Allison Cohen, Rene Rosenberg, Rachel Moore, Linda Pierre, and Orville.

 

 

 

I found myself stretched so thin in 2009 that I have let a lot of people down in a way that I may not have experienced in any year prior. I enjoy helping people, and I enjoy going the extra mile for them. And I often over promise on my ability to truly be there for people. I over promise because I do truly care, and I do not want people to feel that I am off limits. However,  with my schedule being nonstop in the way it currently is, I found myself less able to fufill favors. I experienced a severe learning curve in 2009 as I adjusted to my workload reality. I was forced to repeatedly learn the limits of how far I could be stretched. I had trained myself to always say yes, because previously I had always been able to handle it. The bistanders and victims of my harsh relearning include Marlon, Ms. Queen, and Tony Fryer. All now see my as an unreliable rouge who they believed they knew.

 

 

People I�ve let down:

�             Dragan � as partner and friend

�             tony fryer � as partner and mentee

�             Alexandra � as site creator

�             Rahawa � as reliable concerned friend

�             Nirva � not being the guy she wanted

�             Marlon � as a mentee and friend

�             Ms. Queen � as a reliable person and mentee

 

People who let me down:

�             Michael Jones - as a partner

�             Alexis - as a reliable contact

�             Jeff - as a worker, as a friend, repaying money

�             Tekel - as a partner, repaying me

�             Berto - as a worker, as a reliable friend

�             Andy Janvier - as a worker

�             Jaimie � romantic letdown and friendship

�             Lynda � romantic letdown

�             Jessica � romantic letdown and friendship

�             Karen � romantic letdown and friendship

�             Jillian � romantic letdown

�             Sarah - as a worker, romantic & friend

�             Ashley � romantic letdown

�             Thomas - roommate

�             Sally � customer let down

�             kirk - as a partner, repaying money

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relationships

I have not had a single successful relationship in 2009. What I have had is a long series of life experiences, most of which were heart-wrenching and left me questioning my own self worth. It was a year of missed opportunities, being stood up, and being passed over. This year I wont list details or provide pictures for the girls. Here is a list of all the girls I have failed to hit it off with. In order from shortest to tallest. Get your battle gear ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaimie

Nirva

Alexis

Karen

Jessica

Ashley

Jillian

Angie

Lynda

Sarah

 

Lisa ?

Lauren

 

Tanya ?

 

 

Business Ideas of 2009

�             Business Ideas through BGY

o   WEB APPLICATIONS

�  Paymail

�  Shop System Payback

�  Internet raffles

�  israel/carribean directory

�  mypage (phpcow, cherryblocks)

�  bgyclub (discount community)

o   DESKTOP SOFTWARE

�  web browser

o   Websites & Basic Web Services

�  1000 page ad system (iweb)

�  godaddy paid parking

�  steadyniche

�  black and gray hat domain name traffic

�  affiliate sales (amazon, ebay)

�  selling domain names

�  Water4gas Affiliate

�  dropshipping

o   Other

�  bgy tech center (Academy)

�             Business Ideas through Touch to Play

o   peanut butter jelly SMS

o   dollarbill app

o   Minute Meals

o   Turnberry App - Aventura Map

o   iTunes Stat

o   web based iphone web app site editor wisiwig

o   motionTap (series of wii like games)

o   Leveler App - create levels by drawing

o   RaceScape

o   myButton

o   parkinglott

o   geowars

o   mybackground

o   blackberry messenger

o   Slangsanary

o   ringaling

o   PhotoFX

o   VideoZoom

o   BatteryTap

�             Other Business Ideas

o   Desktop Programs

�  Delicious Library for filing cabinets

�  mouse mover tutorial app

�  iTunes Statistics (music sale powered)

o   Websites and Web Services Business Ideas

�  iWork Template website

�  Appointment System

�  Stockfootage site

�  ZombieBitch.com

�  Dinner Destination 2.0

�  Webhost review powered by affiliate linking

 

 

Websites worked on this year

�             Creative Mac Training � Incomplete

�             Lulu Flynn - Complete

�             Alexandra Zamora � Incomplete

�             Sole Bicycles � incomplete

�             1 on 1 Basketball - Incomplete

�             Continuous Times � Incomplete

�             Appointment App � Incomplete

�             Keystone Trading Group � Incomplete

�             Vistas Inc (Felice) - Incomplete

 

 

Debt at beginning of year:  ~$19,000

Debt at end of year: $14,882.85       ($11,278.73+ 3,604.12)

 

Account Totals: $14,423.86

Pocket:$7

University: $5,552.46 ($903.02 + $4,649.44)

BOA Personal: $1,086.24

CMT: $3,145.49

Etrade: $4,632.67

 

 

Car

Miles: 56,824 (total)

Accidents: 1

Dollars on Gas: $1017.67

Dollars on Insurance: ~$2,600.68

 

Phone

(MetroPCS statistics only. July � December)

Incoming Calls: 968 86:39:13

Outgoing Calls: 2757 Calls, 149:25:51

All Calls: 3725 Calls, 236:05:04

 

 

Apple

Months worked: 6 (January � June)

Earnings: $14,200 (estimate)

 

 

Creative Mac Training

Months worked: 6 ( June - December)

Revenue: $19,500.82

Earnings:

Number of Clients: 16

Average Classes Per person: 12 (weighted) 54 (unweighted)

Number of paid classes: 232

Number of unpaid classes: 111

Total number of classes: 343

Most classes received: 110

Most Profitable month: November ($4,415.00)

Least Profitable month: June ($1,620.00)

Average: $2,785.83

 

 

Other Revenue: ~$8,000 (Grenada)

 

 

Memorable Clients:

Hermine

Jean

Alexandra

remone rae & wilbert. from the moment I left.

deedee - from the day after I left

will smith - 2 days after I left

alan

gene

Sarah Oxidine -

tommy & touch to play

Vala

Hermine

Tony P -

Gerry-

1on1 basketball

alexandra

scott

 

Web Business Trends on the Web

Services for Scalability

�             Mechanical Turk & crowd flower (Labor as a Service)

�             Amazon S3 (Bandwidth as Service)

�             Amazon EC2, Google App Engine, Heroku (Hosting as Service)

�             GetSatisfaction, Zendesk (customer service feedback)

Premium Services

�             Offering both free & premium

o   It happened with iPhone Apps, and it happened with web services.

 

Web Trends of 2009

         1.      Structured Data

         2.      The Real-Time Web

         3.      Personalization

         4.      Mobile Web & Augmented Reality

         5.      Internet of Things

 

 

 

Partners and Semi Partners of 2009

Vala

Tommy

riguad

berto

sarah O

Teekay

Chris Howie

Ali

Jean Disir

Greg Gopman

Jeffery

Tekel

Tanya

kirk

emannuel

vala

tommy

niel cohen

angel

aurelie

mike

thomas

gregor

The Present Future

I need to get my act together. I'm running into myself, and that is a problem. The issues are not new ones. But they need to be addressed. The problem is not the way I look, or what I know, or what my job is. The problem is my confidence. The problem is my attitude.

 

I know I can do better. I will build a new daily, weekly, monthly routine.

 

The Attitude Changing Concept:

immerse yourself in confident social culture.

 

The Attitude changers:

music. Listen to your hip hop rap stations.

It's an attitude adjustment therapy.

 

dancing. Commit to learn to dance.

Dancing for beginners. Learn from the start, and stick to it.

 

exercise. Stick to a very tough routine.

It will continue to change your attitude and self valuation.

 

audiobooks. Frank Herbert material. I need more Dune, but also more perspective from books outside of the series. I need also to give more time to Adams.

 

writing. Documenting what I do, and developing my ideas on paper and digitally can be game changers. It helps me push my advantages, and my confidence.

 

 

Leaving Apple Behind

The sequence of events that took place after I left apple were almost  fanciful. Getting Kitty�s bracelet as a foreshadow. Then the last apple customer I ever had became my first promised client as an consultant. I met Wilbert that morning, and within 30 minutes of getting fired, I had spoken to Remone. The next day I was running with Gene Watson, then the day after I was working with Will, and then with Dedee the following day. 

 

Eric

He has represented stability for me. Life at home was not predictable, work outside was hetic, and many other aspects of life were shrowded in anxiety and unknowns. But Eric is the essence of dependability, and I appreciated having him there. Even though the hours were always long, at least I knew what to expect. And I knew it would always be a challenge, something I could raise myself to.

 

Proud of my own success

Outside of my first month at Apple, or all my time being in the working world, 2009 was the first year where I felt truly proud of what I had accomplished.

 

What I learned about people

I took my personal qualities for granted and I paid for it in 2009. I assumed that common sense and good judgement were universal things. I assumed that for a person to have survived to a certain age, and to experience the world, that they automatically develop those qualities. They don�t. They also do not develop morality, not automatically at least. Business partners, employers, relationships, friends, and roommates all proved that for me.

 

What I�ve learned about Me

I�ve learned that I can be a bit tough and cold to the people I work with. I give off the demeanor of the stern, unapproachable, know-it-all boss. I want people to get to the point. I want them to be quick, but I want them to hear every long-winded speech I feel inclined to give. That�s not balanced! And it certainly is not encouraging for the folks I work with. I�ve been called stubborn. And I feel that it is egotistical. Is that really me? What about the understanding, patient, and passive me? I better not prove myself to be another steve jobs. As my projects increase in size and in success, I want to do more than put on an act for my paying public. I need to continue to be good and wholesome to people on the outside and also to maintain the same good qualities to employees.

 

Why Am I so busy?

I�ve been unemployed for half a year now and I cannot seem to find a spare minute in the day. It�s almost hilarious how tight my schedule has been. I should be worried about my wellbeing, and I would be if it were not for the curious fact that I am earning a respectable amount of money with my crazy little business. I don�t think that I can maintain this type of load. And if I can, I don�t believe that it�s healthy to do so.

 

Playcounts

iTunes has always given me an anchor for my media consumption. It gives me a thing which can be seen, and which can be measured. It allows me to classify and monitor each play. By simply keeping count, it makes real something which would otherwise be abstract. It then becomes the scorekeeper. It is the official. And because I seek after structure, I found myself no longer wanting to play unless the scorekeeper was present.

 

I'm taking a break from Battle Star Galatica.

It has gotten far too human for me.

It reminded of all the human traits and makes me wonder if we are worth saving.

 

It shows how intencely caniving, ruthless we are. Shows our selfishnessness, powermongering, nearsightedness, suspicion... Our poor decisions, our savageness, paranoia, physical & mental frailty.... Our disorganization, xenophobia, the shortcomings of government, politics, military... dissapointment of daily life... and our lack of perspective.

 

The unfairness of life

But there is the good...

 

Shows the brilliance of a few,  the sacrifice and dedication of people (the daily and the extraordinary)

us at our most motivated

selflessness

and tremendous acts of love in the name of leadership, preservation of the species, parenthood, friendship

 

 

 

Veruca Salt

Veruca Salt was a staple. Perhaps others can benefit from having a staple with corresponding qualities.

 

Big collection of tracks. Colorful, personal band history... success story... lots of imperfrection. unique sound. meaningful lyrics.... active message boards...

 

Connect fanboism to game experience.... gotta catch them all... gotta piece the band history puzzle together.... find the secret meanings in the music... find the rarities... level up (understanding & knowledge)... social aspect through concerts & messageboards... currency through trade

 

 

 

Letter to Roommates

if we are going to live together then I need your help with some basic corporation. I need help keeping this place clean. I need you to stop encouraging roaches. You can have your burger king, but don't leave it open on the table over night. Don't leave trash open and filled in the can. And if the can is filled, don't over-stack it. Even if we don't have big white bags, which we do, at least use a shopping bag.

 

Every single day I find roaches. I kill at least two a day. This morning I found three. One on the table with your open food. One in the sink with the dishes, and one in the open trash.

 

It would be great if you can continue to buy family meals. You don't have to, but it would be great. The $17 it costs for burger king could get a lot of  good food somewhere else.

 

 

Cleaning:

I work all day long 7 days a week, because if I don't then I don't have any income, and the house has no safety net. That being the case, It's difficult to find time to keep the floors, and trash, and bathroom, clean. But more often than not I seem to be the only one doing it. Any ongoing help is welcomed. Wiping down the table, putting in new trash bags, sweeping the living room... whatever requires the work.

 

Finances:

We need to always have an idea of each others finances. It is important for me to know, Julian, if you are living pay check to pay check. Why? Because if your brother isn't able to pay rent I need to know in advance when I need to save my money and when you have the money to keep things going in an emergency. Not knowing that information caused me to go $800 in debt last month, when I had to spend $1374 on rent and I only planned for $450. I'll talk to Thomas and ask him to keep me apprised on the same.

 

 

 

My Daily Life

In 2009 my days and nights were very predictable.

I would eat at Boston Market twice a week. The rest of the time I would get by on free meals from clients, friends, or family. Whenver I can, I try and go running once I wake up. Afterwards, I take my shower, with laptop near playing music. I get dressed & scramble out the house and usually stop at the post office to check the po box before I scrable to make it to the first class.

 

Andy�s News

The surprise revelation of the decade. Andy sat with me at Ale House and told me, and showed me, how successful he had become with his forex trading. It stunned me. Stunned me back into perspective. I had been on a righteous high horse until Andy came and knocked me down. I was fueled with the idea that I was doing better than any of my contemporaries. I have always suffered from a lack of competition, and this was another symptom. I had no barometer to measure my level of progress in what I was doing, because everyone around me is doing worse. So Andy�s news came as a complete shock. And what�s more, he did not mention it in a gloat, or brag. He did it with kindness, and he invited me to join him in his success. He offered to teach me. And what did I tell him? I said no thank you. I stuck to my righteousness, thinking that it has done me well so far. But since that day in October I�ve asked myself, what exactly is my objection? I don�t know if I rejected for anything more significant than jealousy and pride. We will see unfolds in 2010, once I have the space to assess myself and my reaction.

 

Letting go of the digital attachments

I began to let go of the digital anxiety in 2009. I erased my safari history, which until then had held the record of every website I had visited for the last two years. I switched to Chrome, and let go of the Safari bookmark excuse. I had given that as the reason for me not being able to use another browser. I created a new user. I let go of the clutter that had accumulated in the main account. I had previously explained to others that I �need� each of the open programs to be running for various reasons of convenience. Now, I�ve done without them in this new account. I learned to let go of my iPod classic, which was the digital packrat, holding my entire audio library with me at all times, giving me an unnecessary paralysis of choice. And now I�m letting go of my iTunes library, giving it up to the cloud, thanks to lastfm and to the lack of connectivity in my car. Perhaps soon  the audio transition will be complete thanks to lala.

 

 

Important Personal Shifts

In 2009 I become significantly more involved in interfaces. In understanding them, and in making them. I worked on the Continious Times sites, and the Appointment System. Both required me to learn a new tech vocabulary, and to create a new understanding.

 

 

What I�ve learned from Eric

Working with Eric has been a tremendous gift. He forces me to be tough. Forces me to do everything necessary to get a task completed. Many times a week Eric pushes me past the threshold which I would normally consider my limit. He forces me to do the most tedious of things. And he does it by first reminding me that these things are necessary to achieve the required results. And he does it also by example. He pushes through all of the hurdles he faces. And he rarely ever complains. He has sat in the office for 8 hours renaming files, because it was necessary. Days later, he would do it again. Every day, we need to review every page of the website, and write commentary. Sometimes, that amounts to typing over 2,000 words a day.

He also makes me think very hard on solutions for all manner of technical things. Things like getting the server to work, getting an animation made, automating a naming system, scripting a backup routine, optimizing video compression for size & quality, measuring distances in the website layout, communicating with tech support, graphic design, note taking, editing video, and all sorts of other things.

If I were on my own, I might not have pushed myself nearly as hard. If I were working for anybody else, I would not have allowed them to push me that hard. If I were working on my own project, I would not have believed in myself enough to think that I could do many of the things I have done for eric. I can truly say I have never been as challenged when working with computers as I have been while working with him. And through his persistence he has forced me to attain a level of dedication I had never reached. Day in and day out, he requires me to perform on a super level. And now, I realize that I am capable of more than I thought. He had cleared me past a personal barrier, and thanks to him I know that I can conquer tremendous challenges. Eric has made my confidence more than just theoretical. Thank you.

 

The Importance of Techcrunch

Most significant website is Techcrunch. It played a large role in making me an industry thinker. It is a farm more valuable resource than Arstechnica and TUAW have become. Those sites report the news. And Techcrunch reports the significant workings behinds the scenes of the event. They are my insider source on why and how things happen in the tech field. It is my pulse on new startups. With their help I�ve begun to see ahead more clearly. By developing a richer grasp of the present happenings, I�m learning to read between the headlines all over the web and predict where things are going. In the same vein as Techcrunch is gigaom, and readwriteweb. A new and promising mutation of the Techcrunch spirit is mixergy. It looks to replace freelanceswitch as my insider talk show for startups. If freelance switch is the resource for starting a one man business, mixergy is the resource for starting an enterprise.

 

 

 

Success of my mobile office

Verizon + laptop + car charger means I can work anywhere, anytime.

 

Computer Damage

�             Broken Backlit Keyboard

�             6  major falls (First one with Hermine at resturant)

�             broken dvd drive

�             Broken Ethernet port

�             Missing E key

�             Missing Command key

�             20 Minute Battery life

 

Next year I need to take precautions against damaging my machine. This one barely survived my ownership, literally. I wish there were other hardware manufacturers to choose from, because Apple will never offer a ToughBook.

 

 

 

 

Best Man Speech

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has made it here today, especially the parents of the bride and groom. I am truly glad to be here on this occasion to celebrate this wonderful day with E and L.

L, I can give testimony to the character of my cousin. He is a person who has been there for me through very difficult times. The size of his heart and the virtue with which he lives his life put him among the greatest people I have ever known. Every time I look to him it is with admiration. You have an extraordinary husband, and I bestow on you the challenge to enrich those qualities even further, and to reciprocate it wherever possible.

E, I can give testimony to the tenaciousness of your wife. Meeting her the first time, it took all of 10 minutes for her to place her nose into all my ventures, giving a background check, psychoanalysis, and review to me and to every girlfriend I've ever had. The lesson is that she is not content to be ignored. She wishes to be a meaningful part of everything she experiences. And this event today is a beautiful showing of that.

I wish the two of you a life time of happiness and fulfillment. Once I get married, in 55 years I hope for you both to be right there with me.

Here is a toast to love, prosperity, and to your marriage.

I am not married yet.... But Erdell, I do know that the most effective way to remember your anniversary is to forget it just one time.

 

 

 

 

Statistics

statistics are important for PR. Easy to access statiscs make a good resource for reporters. When reporters quote statistics, audiences are exposed to the data source. Popularity.

Youtube number of views

iTunes / Amazon are widely quoted as sales charts by reporters and blogs

 

 

 

The year by car became unnew

 

favorite night of the year October 14, 2009

I Had my best quick shave ever while listening to buckcherry

I got to alexandra�s at 10am. I worked with her until 6pm (8 hours. My longest non-Eric appointment). Then I went immediately to Tanya. I met her boyfriend. Then I went to jean gualamette�s house. I saved his hard drive, which had crashed. He and I went to the ball room to setup for the gala. On the drive, I had a heart to heart with Jean and discovered that he thinks a lot like I do. He�s driven by an intelligence and passion very similar. I got a text from Nirva, Out of the blue, I believe. Later, I instructed  Jean on how to do the transfer. I slept on his couch. I made no money that day.

 

 

I still think about Jon

Still with me. The only person I cannot outrun. I said some eloquent things about him this year. I hypothesized to Hermine that I am working for two. I deduced that he was the business partner that I wanted, and that I am constantly searching to replace him. He still appears in my dreams very frequently, and when he does, we interact casually, as if he suppose to be there. But this is also the year I stopped crying about it. Not on his birthday, or on my mom�s.

 

 

Mom�s Best Friend

In Greneda, Solo was good enough to take me to my mom�s best friend. She has a very beautiful daughter who I would love to connect with. But my interest in her daughter was completely overshadowed by the play of emotions than the mother and I experienced. From the moment I walked in the door she began to cry. I asked her to tell me about my mother, and she did. And she showed me her pictures. All my emotion flooded out, and I spent then next half an hour crying with her. The whole family was there in the room, but just the mother and I were going through this. The rest of them felt very uncomfortable. They did not know what they could do to comfort us.

 

 

 

twitter & facebook are two new ways of thinking about a homepage.

First understand a blog & what it did for communication on the web. Took down publishing barrier. Everyone gained access to the same tools available to professional newspapers and journals. If you have something to say, you were given a way to say it, and present it as professionally as a million dollar company could. All for free.

Twitter is different kind of tool.

For Facebook, think first of what email did for communication. A way to instantly send messages to people online all across the world. If they are online they can see it immidiately. If they are not, it shows up in their mailbox where they can sort through it, archive it, and share it to other people who might be interested in the content.

Facebook gives a more robust set of tools to the email concept. The concept is the same as email, which is to stay in touch with people. Facebook just gives you more to use. You can share videos & pictures more easily. FB makes it easier to let you communicate what you're doing (and gives more things to do, for those who may benefit from the added structure. eg, Play games, set status, poke, wall, message, group.)

facebook & twitter are organized communication tools. They are communities of people who are there to communicate with other people.

 

On Continuing my Education

One of the things I fear? Going back to school right now when I can't afford it, perhaps even going to Grad School, forced to incur a tremendous load of student loan debt, facing decades to pay it off, and meeting wife, marrying her, inheriting her debt, each step moving me further and further away from being a success. I have to take risks now.

One of the other things I fear? Being stuck in a low-level pay-check to pay-check lifestyle, having to hustle for every dollar, every day.

he didn't have to take as serious a risk as I do

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/09/13/bill-gates-risk-taker/

 

Game Design as building blocks for application design

It�s about stimulating the correct parts of the brain

traditional apps are "flat", uninspired, and abstract

make interface customizable (WoW beginner screen vs l. 70 warlock

make interface contextual. A menu is not always the best answer. Mario allows the user to do the follow without a single menu:

Entice users to explore.

(give them a goal)

Idea

"How many iTunes Features have you used? You have used 72% of iTunes features at least once!"

Make it Competitive.

Usage Statistics:

You've spent 2 days, 10 hours listening to ABBA

Beck has twice the number of songs as Foo Fighters and half the playcount!

The average Pop collection in Australia is 300 songs. Your collection has 302!

Make it Social.

Invite others to discover your music!

Log in to facebook to share more statistics!

Failed attempt:

Tip of the Day:

______________________

In Game Growth:

Leveling up, Inventory, new skills, increasing difficulty,

possitive reinforcement, Structured Objectives,

Introduced to tools & introduced to environemnt. Allowed to explore. Encouraged to  develop Skills. Given goal. Don't tell him how to reach it. Let them apply creativity. Grant them their ah ha moment. Their sense of achievement. That is what's fun. Note, fun also comes from competing, cooperating, and from stimulating action.

Implicit in the idea of interactivity is the fact that it changes the participants. The journey, and the feedback, exploration, and the achievement deeply impacts the phycology of the user, and directly changes their mind. When you are done playing a game of Tetris, you are better at playing Tetris. When you are done playing Big Brain Academy, you are better at solving math problems. You are not the same person that you were at the beginning. Long after the game is over, the skills remain.

Traditional applications have a drastically different philosophical approach. It's believed that users are static. The user's perspective is considered to always be the same. The application looks the same from beginning to end. The same for a novice as for a professional. Same static tools for everyone, and everyone will be fine. The same level of complexity is involved in performing a novice task as in executing something advanced.

 

[Games build on skills and complexity gradually. Learn to jump, then learn to double jump, then learn to wall jump. Once you do that, you perfect the methods and prove your skills by wall jumping to defeat a level boss]

 

 

games do not use menus. To perform an action, users press keys in sequence. Users are given tools situationally (contextually). You will not have the option of wall jumping unless there is a wall in front of you. You can only wave dash if you're on the ground. Photoshop has every menu option available in every situation. Selecting the brush tool *could* change the entire interface so that you see only brush specific commands. The menus could change to show you only what the brush can do. Make it simpler. Make it contextual.

Applications should adapt to the user's journey. The mentality of the user is not the same when they are experienced as when they begin.  Failure to accommodate the specrum of user experiences leads to frustration, boredom, and burnout.

 

One Problem: Apps measure task completition by determining if a user pressed a series of buttons in the correct order. If so, the task is completed 100% of the time. Issue is that is memorization. Does not allow for exploratory learning. You need to be encouraged to explore the possibilities of a program. Different ways to acomplish things.

 

 

With Games, users get enjoyment from the journey towards completing the assigned goal. The adventure happens while going from A to B.

 

What is the journey in a game? Traveling to towns, interacting with other characters, leveling up,

 

 

differnt color for all advanced only features

 

program interface can change color as higher percentage of features are used

 

statistics have long been used to excellerate the impact of trends in sales. top music count downs, MTV, iTunes Top Downloads, Amazon product lists. Seeing a popular trend encourages others to explore and participate.

 

Leverage that for features:

Your Top Used Features:

Other Users who use this also use these tools:

Top Unused features:

 

 

Instructional Method:

"Here's how" feature:

Stop with the pages of text and screenshots. User should watch as the computer moves the mouse, clicks on the right items and gets the result. Then prompt them to give it a try.

 

Relevant menu options can be hilighted to stand out from less relevant choices. The options that a user selects very often can glow in the menu. Suggested modifiers can be pulsing a seperate color.

 

 

User Task Pallet

to solisit help, users should have a pallet where they select their goal. "Remote Wrinkles from Photo", "write resume". Selecting that guides the computer's suggestions of tools and combinations that can help. (again "other users who have done this task find it helpful to use method a,b, and sometimes c).

 

 

Menu options should be contextual to the Tool. Selecting the magic wand should change every menu to give only the options that can be used with the wand.

 

Menu options should be contextual to the object. Selecting a picture should give menu options such as "Interact "(showing commands related to the picture interacting with neighboring objects), "Edit" , "Share" etc.

 

Imagine putting photoshop into discovery mode:

it starts off with only the most basic features. On the right is a pallet called Achivements. It lists all the workflows that the basic interface enables. "Retouch Photos, Create Graphics, Title Effects, Web Sharing". What each represents is a defined set of tools used in one of several possible sequences that Photoshop has matched with an end result. EG: The program knows the common sequence of tools necessary to retouch a photo. If one of those common sequences is initiated, then an achivement is unlocked.

Once an achievement is fully unlocked, the program provides feedback, acknowleding the acivement, and rewards the user with tools to allow more capability for the task. Or, more appropiate, the program rewards with more workflows, even with the existing tools.

Build a user forum or chat into the application

 

Mario Kart Ghost Racing

race against a ghost image of your previous best time.

Auto record user actions. Begin 'quest' to edit a photo. Mouse movments and actions are recorded. Let user reuse those same steps on a different image (productive). Let users beat their previous best time (reenforcing).

 

 

 

ideas should not be copywrited

�             Charge nothing for the main products. Make things free for the user.

�             Open source. Free software to use & build upon.

�             Flickr, free photo storage.

There are two kinds of free: fake free. Marketing. Buy one get one free.... WIth concept, there is no such thing as free lunch. It is not a change in the business model. Only an invocation of the word free to grab consumer attention. does not change the economics.

What changed the economics is the last 10 years in computing. With it, the underlying costs get cheaper.

Moores law. Number of transitisors on computers doubles every 18 months. The economic recroprical of that is that the cost of a net uinit of computing power falls by 50% every 18 months.  Computation, storage, bandwidth gets cheaper over time. Imagine a factory in the 19th century where the labor got cheaper, the coal got cheaper, the realestate got cheaper.... THat's why there is such an imparative to make things digital because you go from an eocmomy where things get more expensive (economy of atoms) to one where things get cheaper (of bits). It is a move from inflationary economics to deflationary ecomomics.

We live in a physical world with digtal add ons.... that is a metaphysical question. Listeners, participatnts will be consuming in virtual world. A product does not need to exist in physical world. It can be software ecomomics.

The product that can be free will become free.

There are lots of ways to compete with free, and there are lots of way to make money from free.

But people are suspeicious of free.

Things claim to be free, but you pay down the line. Or you pay with your time, or with your reputation.... People are right to think that somewhere someone has to pay. But digital changes this.

Everything Google does is free, and it is an extremely profitable company. You have open source. Wikipedia, the blogosphwere, craigslist. All are strange, free phonomona, on a global scale with contry-sized economics. And yet they are all free to the consumers. Soemone is paying. But it's not you.

New form of Cross subsidy is that few who feel greatest value from product can subsidize the use for everyone else, because the underlying costs of working digital is so low.

In the US this has been around for a long time in the US, with broadcast radio. The 3rd party pays model.

Wikipedia... donations run it, because costs are so low.

Google gives away services 411 service for free because you are training their algorithm. by using the service you give them raw data to improve their abilities. THey do the same with image labeler. Make it a game, and crowd source.

Microsoft has been competing with free longer than anyone else.

Microsoft started the industry by competing with free. Software was free because you had to write it yourself. Money was made on hardware. THey made it into a boxable, patantable product. Son of a lawyer.He invented the software license agreement. THeir financial success is due to taking a product whose underlying economics is zero. Marginal cost of repruoducing is zero, and charging $300 for it.The marketplace broke their monopoly. Open source broke it more effectively than FTC. Collobration made possible by the internet.

Origins of open source is contributions by the hobbiest. That is the same origin as traditional software. Reality of open source is no longer that. Most significant contributiors are now paid. Why is because what they're doing is adding value to something to which price is attached.

oppertunities are opening for more competition, more business models. Where product ends up in more hands, because of free. It is proving itself as a business.

Open Source paradigm makes room for pay-for margins.

Is it a new market it producing viable business, or is it enthusiam for

Idea is not selling software, but selling things around software. MS made their business from selling software. That part of the industry is becoming demonotized. As it becomes free, services & other products take its place.

iTunes is example.

Redefine the buiness you are in. Let something be free to sell another thing.

Going online lowers your costs.

Software makes easy what can be very difficult for face to face or phone business.

What can be done with the traffic, and the credibility build up by distributing free.

Cross Subsidities:

somebody else is paying. Open source is same.

IBM pays for an engineer to work on an open source product to make it free to the user. You don't pay in the end. there is no trick. No scam, No gimmic.

Who are the people who really get it right now?

They are the kids. The Google generation. Those who grow up on the web intutively understand that everything online is eventually going to be free. And you also intuitively understand that, for the most part, things offline are not going to be free.

Freemium

Give away 1% as sample to sell the other 99%. Perfume sprays, free samples. That is in physical market, where the items cost money. Marginal cost of muffin is not zero.

In digital world, marginal cost is zero. You can give away 99% to sell 1%.

Flickr basic is free, Pro is not. It takes only a small percent to subsadise mass useage online. Red Hat sells support and backup services for coporate users.

As video games move online

 

 

 

 

2009 Culture Snapshot

 

 

 

fuck my life � stupid pop culture trend. I didn�t participate in it, but I couldn�t escape it. If it takes the form of a one or two sentence story, and if it�s embarrassing, then it had a FML tag. It�s not as slick as �that�s what she said� but it seemed to be significantly more popular. FML has become a business. It�s a network of sites, and it�s a successful printed book. Props to them. Not so much to that sock guy�s mom.

 

lolcats � I suppose 2008 may have been a more significant year for lolcats. There was plenty of lolcatting in 09, but not with the same level of vigor.

 

FAIL blog � then again, FAIL blog is an icanhazcheezeburger production, operated by the same company as lolcats. Maybe it was their year afterall.

Fail Blog -

 

iTunes Statistics

2009 Edition with Decade Recap Highlights

 

 

 

Most Memorable new Artist:

Hayes Carl

Country singer I discovered by accident on Erdell�s iPod in Tallahassee. The song was She Left me for Jesus. He had no idea it was there! It was a free download from iTunes. What a witty guy Hayes is! I love his style. My appreciation of him is largely responsible for the resurgence of country in my audio diet.

He started the year with 0 plays and ended it with plays.

Favorite song: Girl Downtown

 

 

Best New Artist:

Regina Spektor

I was introduced to her by Karen. I had a very memorable evening with her. It was my deepest moment of fellowship for the entire year, and the anchor of it was Karen sharing her favorite songs from Regina. That became the emotional impetus which drove me to experience Regina Spektor as intensely in 2009. Sailor Song will always have a special place in my memory.

She started the year with plays and ended it with 421 plays.

Favorite song: Ne me Quitte Pas, Hotel Song, Consequence of Sound

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biggest Winner of the Decade:

ABBA

There are few people and groups who achieve dominance in their fields. But it is an exceedingly rare phenomenon to witness that dominance become absolute totalitarian rule. That is where ABBA resides. They are the unquestionable monarchs of my music library. I�ve listened to ABBA longer than I have been using computers. They were the first band I knew by name. Their cassette was the first I recall hearing, and the first I owned. Their CD was the first I stole owned. I listened to them on the computer before mp3s existed. Since the conception of iTunes, they have completely overpowered all other artists. They are the only artist banned from my top 30 playlist.

They ended the year with 1,111 plays.

They ended the decade with 6,000 plays.

Favorite song: Super Trooper

 

 

Songs of the year

Stronger                       Bolo Ram                She Left Me for Jesus           Ne Me Quitte Pas            Super Trooper

 

 

 

 

Kanye West            Wah!                   Hayes Carll                   Regina Spektor          ABBA

 

Notable New Comers: Regina Spektor, Hayes Carl, Wah!

 

 

Top Music Video: Love Story � Taylor Swift

 

iTunes Version Numbers:

8.02  - 9.0.2        

 

Total Playcounts:

 60991 <--> 60991 (+15%, +8011 plays)

 

Total Playcounts of top 15 songs:

3825 <--> 3825  (6.33% <--> 6.27%, +471 plays)

 

Number of Files:

6799 <--> 6799  (+27%, +1435 files)

 

files played per day: 3.8 <---> 4.3

Average Song length: 8:53 <--> 8:56

 

 

Playcount Increases

ABBA: 4856 <--> 4856  (7.84% <--> 7.96%, +701 plays)

 

ABBA Gold:  3557 <--> 3557  (5.67% <--> 5.83%, +554 plays)

 

Frank Herbert:  1794 <--> 1794  ( 2.01% <--> 2.94%, +688 plays)

 

 

 

 

Song Statistics

Time to say goodbye: 85

Supertrooper        77

black or white 73

name of the game 65

dancing queen      61

chiquita       57

mamma mia         55

lay all your love    54

knowing me 53

one of us     53

i have a dream     52

bolo ram     52

take a chance on me      51

sos 46

winner taks it all 46

hotel song   43

gimmie gimme      42

ne me quitte         42

waterloo      41

does your mother know  39

fernando     39

money money       39

us      39

consequences       38

thank you for        33

heal your heart     33

that time     33

voule 32

down the road tonight     29

a milli 29

 

top 30 songs not from abba: 10

 

I�ve had 9665 plays since Dec 25, 2005.

From the entire library history, 8% of plays came from the top 10 songs.

16% came from my top 25 songs.

and 24% came from my top 50 songs.

 

My top 18 songs make up about 50% of the 2301 times I�ve listened to my top 50 songs. Those top 50 songs account for 24% of all 9665 songs I�ve listen to.

 

2009 Artist Playcount Chart

Artist Statistics

3:00:39:56 abba

1:01:13:35 regina

20:09:55 herbert

11:41:52 douglas adams

 

In terms of artists, 40% of playcounts came from the top 10 artists, 58% came from the top 25 artists, and 70% came from the top 50 artists. Approximately 30% of plays came from outside of the top 50 artists.

 

My top 9 artists (ABBA, Enya, Frank Herbert, ) make up about 50% of the 6758 plays received by the top 50 artists. And the top 50 artists account for 70% of all 9665 songs I've listen to.

 

 

Album Statistics

 

 

 

album count:

935 from abba gold

170 from Begin to Hope

149 from feed the animals

143 from a day withou t rain

139 from S&M

122 from Amarantine

115 from Best of Wah!

109 from divine discontent

106 from soviet kitsch

89 from Songs

 

My top 10 albums make up about 50% of the 4583 times I've listened to my top 50 albums. Those top 50 albums account for 47% of all 9665 songs I�ve listen to.

 

In terms of albums, 25% of the music I�ve listened to came from my top 10 albums, 37% came from my top 25 albums, and 47% came from my top 50 albums.

 

10,000 Play Prediction

With the current play average of 7 songs a day, the 10,000^th play will happen February 10, 2010

 

 

 

iTunes Library Nationalities

 

 Gender for top 30 artists:

female

abba 1079, regina 395, enya 368, veruca 301, sixpence 134, wah!, 115, sarah 108, lauren 92, sade 87, garbage 66, asha 59, alanis 50, natalie 48

 

male

beatles 190, nin 166, metallica 161, jackko 114, herbert 105, marley 104, pumpkins 93, jack j 91, brett 70, cope 68, hayess 64, gregor 63, marley 59, disturbed 53, matchbox 48

 

both girltalk 244, andrea 85

 

 

 

dollars spent on ipods (09 vs 08): $280 vs $250

 

Favorite Games:

Rock Band  - I still don�t own it, and I didn�t play it often I enjoyed it thoroughly when I did.

Starcraft � The only time I played it was 9pm on December 31, but I have been thinking about it all year long.

 

 

                                     Favorite TV Shows

 

Battlestar Galatica

 

�So say we all!�

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dead

Like Me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Comics:

Naruto Manga

 

Favorite Movies:

Terminiator Salvation

Carribean Dreams

 

Favorite Movies that I didn�t See

Avatar

We Live in Public

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Websites

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Visited Website: Facebook

Estimated yearly daily average: 30 min

7300 minutes yearly

 

121.667 hours yearly

4.867 consecutive days

 

 

best site redesign                    facebook.com

From

 

To

Worse redesign                     iTunes store

 

best software update           snow leopard

 

best new app: chrome, the hitlist

best app revival:          iCal

 

favorite thread/post:

Apple, please mature more quickly... I fear for your future if you persist in your your ridiculous isolationists thinking! The market is not often kind to repeat offenders, like you.

 

Important websites:

Smashingmagazine

Techcrunch

Gigaom

mixergy

favorite revival:

 

 

product of the year :

 

 

 

 

Computer App Stats

Most used new programs:

Google Chrome/Chromium - browsers of choice. Faster that Safari, with enough features from Firefox to make it a full time replacement.

The Hitlist -

 

Most used revivals:

iCal � My first appointment system

Mail - I don't love it, but it use it more than nearly any other application.

Numbers - It Killed Excel for the title of best spreadhset. Much more usable.

TextEdit - Still not the best, but it's speed and auto save continue to form an effective realworld combination.

 

short lived computer trends:

Test user account � The purpose was to combat the data overload. I created a second account where I would be able to work without the distractions and without the memory stealing apps. It allowed me to witness the creation of my data problem all over again.

 

projects of the month

goodbye aventura

business name spreadsheet

cmt directory

cmt logo

innocent victim?

vibrateC

appointment system.....?

300 workout

GoD analysis? Was that this year?

 

Headlines & Events:

Facebook past myspace in the US

yahoo continues to slip in everything

MS tries to buy Yahoo

Yahoo & MS make search agreement

iPhone 3GS

Android awakens!

purchased Google shares

Apple shares reach 200 again

 

 

Big Moments

Andy Newton�s big update

Erdell's wedding!

�             Trip to Tallahassee, personally escorting his parents up, being best man

Leaving Apple

�             And meeting Wilbert.

Starting Creative Mac Training

Michael Jackson�s Death

Getting my Apartment

Inventing new password scheme

�             nAgricha84

Running routine with my iPod

Getting an Assistant

My first time hiring someone. I�ve worked with partners before, but this was a different type of responsibility. A person who had financial dependency on me.

My Crash

�             Spinning off i-75 Entrance ramp coming from NBI�s office, heading to Eric. I called AAA for support & Eric showed his concern by comming to my rescue.

Internext Convention

�              

My New York Trip

�             ...

My Grenada Trip

�             ...

 

Jeff taking my money

 

 

Brinner with Karen

 

Soffer Day

�             with Tommy and Remy in Aventura Mall...

 

Leaving in tears at Caribbean Dreams

�             overcome with emotion. Huge sense of lost culture and anxiety over business and my future. My soul felt that it was a mistake being brought up in America and that the life I was meant to live was in the Caribbean.

�             And it was so strong, that if I had tried to talk, I would of broke down into tears.

 

Yoke Now meeting & party

Spending huge amounts of money, and being so completely ripped off.

Small Moments

Bumping into Caliendo in the elevator

Elias and his talk with Eric

Sharing my awards with Ms. Leaderman

Taking off in Alan�s Bently

Iron Man

�             Aris gave me a 5 foot tall Iron Man cutout as a gift.

birthday facebook

thanksgiving plates

chrikstmas eve giving

 

Innocent Victim Adventure

�             Editing with Jean for an entire year, sleeping over, the dying hard drives, and the eventual premiere at the Gala event in Broward.

 

 

Nancy left NBI!

�             And I was able to make it to her going away party. It was very touching, and I almost cried. She did. It was the end of an enjoyable era, and served as a broader metephor for moving on. For her it was the beginning of her future career as a lawyer.

 

Sunpass

�             I purchased a sunpass for the business, and it has been an incredible convenience. It has eliminated the need for me to spend quarters in my daily commute, and it allows me to save minutes from my drive to clients

 

Dead Like Me

�             Cleaning up my room, turning on my TV for the first time, and watching Dead Like Me. It was a gift from Sally. The last thing she gave me before she dissapered. I promised her that I would watch it right away... 6 months ago.

 

Kitty Wish Bracelet

�             In those blurry weeks before I left Apple, Kitty told me to close my eyes and to make a wish. As I did so, she tied this bracelette around my wrist. She explained that when the bracelette falls off, my wish will come true. The wish I made was to have to run my own successful business.

 

Nike + Kit

 

A moment of weakness

�             I sent Cynthia an IM. It was exactly three words long. No. It wasn�t those three words. No, it wasn�t those three either. I said �Trying to study?� And I don�t regret it. I�m glad I made the connection with her. Time will tell if I come to regret that afterall.

 

Eating Taco Bell then sharing Old Crow Medicine Show and Hayes Carll with Jean.

 

iPod nano

�             It was a great mental shift. What of my library do I really want to carry with me? Carrying the entire thing is a crutch. It�s like a having a favorite blanket. Total insecurity deal. The nano forced me to ration my space, and to set limits and reassess my consumptions.

 

Costco Card

 

Dead Fantasy 4 & 5

 

Getting looked out

�             Again and again. By Julian, when he goes out to work. It wasn�t fun having to go to the rental office the first time. They tried to turn me away. I had to prove I was who I said I was. And my wallet, ID, car keys, and all else were locked in the apartment. I�ve been locked out three times. Luckily, I�ve always been able to get in.

 

Disney buys Marvel

 

 

Florin got married!

 

Mental Shifts

�             Deminishment of Safari bookmarks

�             Deminishing role of iPod classic

�             Desire for cloud media

�             Browser shift

 

Usan Bolt�s record

 

Connecting with Devin, September 15^th

 

Macheist �amazing competition. Truly eventful. Community. Applications. Presentation.

Macheist - what they've done for mac culture. What did they sell, what do I use, how much did they make? How they've beaten the compeititon. What they've done right. Where will they go in the future?

 

Understanding the roads

�             mental map of florida fleshed out by tip to tahalassee and move to new apartment

�             836 exists... i75 to everglades, to 595, turnpikes purpose. toll system.

Predictions and Goals for 2010

 

 

 

Because of business, and the do-or-die situation that I�ve fallen into, 2010 will be a hugely significant year. Below is a list of some of the many important predictions and goals which will be met.

 

 

 

Mend my Heart

I will break my horrible romantic loosing streak and finally find a promising, healthy relationship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Launch a Web Application or Service

I will launch a web service. This is likely to be the Appointment System. Regardless of the project, simply undertaking it will bring me to a brand new level. Going through the steps of a project of this type changes my thinking. It forces me to broaden myself and increase my understanding and capabilities in high-level modern business formation. I am forced to gain familiarity with a new set of programs, and learn about new technologies and processes. I get in touch with investors, or at least learn how to find them and how to communicate with them. And it gives me access to developers. Even if my 2010 web service project is not a financial success, it will still be my gateway to the next level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get a Mac

In early February I�ll replace my MacBook Pro with a 13� MacBook Pro once new machines are launched. My current MacBook Pro will still be functioning. It may be shipped off to Tahalassee for Erdell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Venture capitalism

I�ll find a VC for my project. It will be a spectacular experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Partnerships  & Resources

Richard Huston

Andy Newton

Angel Martinez & Chris Howie

Erdell Maurice

Tommy

Esdras

 

Tony P                                                                  

Mr. Robinson

Jack Duncan

Rachel Moore

 

Sarah Oxidine

Tanya

 

 

 

Predictions

My media library will hit the cloud. With or without Apple.

 

Country will be my main appetite

 

My Commitments for 2010

 

Keep exercising. And do more. commit daily to weights and pushups. Weekly to running.

 

maintain the progress I started in 2009 regarding business, responsibility, fitness.

 

 

 

Thank you 2009. It�s been fun.