James VanDyke

I just got a new video camera and who better to test it out on than the dog. So, here is TigerMan showing off the vast majority of his known tricks.

Walking our dog twice a day gives us plenty of time to look around our local streets. Lately we’ve started collecting what we call speed bumps. They are the little plastic pieces glued to the concrete that seperate lanes. We later learned through the marvels of the Internet that these bumps are officially called “Bott’s Dots” after their California inventor. Now before you accuse us of causing wrecks we have developed strict rules regarding our collection practices. First, we only pick up bumps that have already been knocked out of position and are now just littering the road. However a good kick maybe nessecary to ensure that a bump is still stuck to the road. Second, you can only pick up one bump per walk. It is allowable to swap a better bump for an less favorable. It becomes important to remember where you dropped the swapped dot though in order to pick it up on the next walk.

My first task for my “Starting a Business” class was to think of a business I wanted to work on for the entire semester. I brainstormed for about a week and half about potential ideas. I found the most useful formula for plausible ideas came from combining three things:

• Something I’m interested in
• Something I know how to do (or at least have a clue about)
• Something that people will pay for

In the end I settled on an e-commerce website that sells consumer electronics. I’ve always been interested in gadgets and gizmos so consumer electronics matched that interest. A large part of my current job can be categorised as “web stuff”. While my skills are much more refined on the marketing and content side, I understand the programming side enough to be dangerous. So, creating an e-commerce website isn’t too much of a stretch for the something I know how to do category. In order to figure out something people would pay for I needed to find a good angle about purchasing consumer electronics. We’ll explore that in the next post.

I’m getting an MBA at night and this past semester I took a class called Starting a Business. The bulk of our work focused on writing a business plan for a theoretical business that we might start. Since I put a good deal of work into the class I thought I would share over the next few posts some of the ideas and thoughts behind this idea.

Posterous Logo

Posterous is a service that should appeal to people who want to post things online but don’t want to deal with the technical details. It works by simply emailing what you want to post to post@posterous.com. You don’t even need to create an account to get started, just email them. The contents of your email whether text, pictures,  or a video are automatically uploaded to a page that is created for you. After your first email, you have the option to visit the site and customizing address and settings for your content. If your looking for an incredibly simple way to post content or blog on the web try Posterous.

My Posterous page: jamesvandyke.posterous.com

The Posterous Website

Linux Penguin

I want to love Linux but it doesn’t share my feelings. To be honest, I think it’s hurt that I’m only looking for a fling; a trophy of geekdom to casually flaunt at parties. “Yeah, I”ve got a Linux box at home.” We both know that when I’m done experimenting I’ll head back to the Mac.

I think that’s the problem with Linux, even all dressed up in Ubuntu’s latest, it wants a serious commitment. Linux is a idealist and I’m looking for practicality. The little penguin even lectures me when I try to have a little fun with Flash.

“You know that’s not open source. We can do it if you want but I’m not going to enjoy it.”

“Lighten up a little. I’m just looking for some fun,” I reply.

We’re ships passing in the night, exchanging glances, thinking what could be but ultimately knowing nothing will come of it. I can tell this spunky OS has features and the ideals it pushes are mesmerizing. Sadly, those ideals aren’t as easy to live with as they are to listen to. Sure, I want information to be free but the cool stuff, it’s not free, and Linux can’t compete.

So every once in a while I’ll keep looking back over my shoulder at the little preachy penguin, wishing that it could live up to it’s own dreams; but sadly, I’ll walk away with Mac because I can live with Mac.

Even in Texas it’s getting to be Christmas time so I thought I’d pass along some holiday greetings in the form of the Christmas card we sent out this year. Merry Christmas to you.

James, Erin and Tigerman pose for the camera

Tigerman with a Santa hat on

What to do when you need to know which font was used for a graphic? Well, if you’re short a typographist or font-spotter graphic designer you might try What the Font. It’s a free web service from myfonts.com who I’m guessing hopes you discover that the font you need is sold right on theirwebsite. So, if you ready for the certain to come pitch to buy something then give it a spin. At the least they have a few examples you can test it out on.

Visit What the Font.

David Pogue, technology columnist for the New York Times, has released a entertaining way to narrow down your choices before a tech purchase. This new tool called the “Pogue-O-Matic” basically just narrows your choices as you select the options you want. The treat comes as Mr. Pogue’s video commentary helps you choose which option is right for you. It’s not perfect and it only covers cameras, TVs and cell phones but it will help you understand the basics of which technologies are right for you.

Try the Pogue-O-Matic.

I’ve finished, and passed, all of my classes for the semester and I’m getting in the blogging mood again. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t last more than a couple of weeks.