Blog Posts About: review

Updated: So I meant to post this on leelefever.com, but it ended up here by mistake. I think I am going to post it there too...

I've been waiting for this day for, like weeks, ever since my last digital camera broke. I shopped around and decided to wait for a camera that I really wanted to come out. Amazon said it wasn't coming out until the 30th, but I called around today and found one.

I was looking for a tiny camera that would be good for traveling and looked at a bunch, but the clincher about the one I got is that it's waterproof. That, and it's only .9 inches wide, with 5 megapixels and a 3X zoom.

I've only had it for about 2 hours, but I'm pretty geeked out about the whole thing. It's about the size of a cell phone, maybe a little smaller. Keep an eye on the little picks on the left there will likely be a lot more soon...

Here's more info on the camera if you're interested.

Instand

Originally uploaded by Lee LeFever.

People seem to be interested in my laptop stand, so I'm providing some info.
It's made by InsTand and it rocks in my opinion. I use it at home all the time and and it disassembles into a very compact form.
I do indeed recommend it.

I while back, I posted an entry about an excerpt I read from Guy Kawasaki’s new book: Art of the Start. I just finished the book this week and thought I’d give you some of my thoughts.

I liked Guy’s irreverent style and simple delivery. In looking at the market for my services, the book made me ask myself these questions:

• What is the pain that my market is experiencing? How can I help them alleviate that pain?
• Who in my market has money in their pockets and how can I get that money into my pocket?
• What is the meaning I want to make in the world?

The chapter that I took the most from was about The Art of Pitching. Guy is the Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, so I know he’s seen plenty of pitches.

Here were some of my takeaways:

When pitching, imagine a little man on your shoulder that says “So what?�? after every point you make. This helps you be sure to follow your points with a real world example- a “for instance…�?

Follow these simple rules if you’re using Power Point slides:

• 10 slides
• 20 minutes
• 30 pt. font text

Others notes:

Take the Red Pill and get a Morpheus. This is a reference to The Matrix, where Morpheus speaks the truth to Neo shows him “how deep the rabbit hole goes�?. The point is that every start-up needs a Morpheus- someone to expose the harsh realities of the world. Otherwise you could continue to live a fantasy world.

It was nice to see the Guy is an advocate of humanness and community. In the Art of Branding he outlines these ways to achieve humanness:

• Target the Young- it helps you build a warm brand
• Make Fun of Yourself- To err is human
• Feature Your Customers- Saturn cars is an example- use “My Storyâ€?? ideas.
• Help the Undeserved and Underprivileged- Having a cause is a win-win

The cover of the book says “The Time-Test, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything�?. I’d say that the lessons are mostly universal, but the slant of the book leans heavily toward high-tech, venture-seeking start-up companies.

I’ve never used video conferencing other than a messing around with a camera on my PC. This being said, I think multiparty video conferencing has a bright future.

An example of “multiparty�? video conferencing is a group meeting online and everyone’s live-action face appears on the screen. Robin Good, someone I consider to be very informed in such things, put together a great review of the video conferencing market right now. Robin's reviews are focused on classroom applications and were posted in response to a discussion on Nancy's White's Online Facilitation list.

I just read (and recommend) this .pdf from Guy Kawasaki's book, Art of the Start. For folks thinking about starting a company, I think it's good and somewhat non-conventional advice.

I thought this was an interesting this "key principle":

POLARIZE PEOPLE. When you create a product or service that some people love, don't be surprised when others hate you. Your goal is to catalyze passion�??pro or anti. Don't be offended if people take issue with what you've done; the only result that should offend (and scare) you is lack of interest. Car design is a good example of the love-versus-hate reaction; consider the bifurcation of people's reactions to cars such as the Mini Cooper, In�?niti Fx 45, and Toyota Scion xB. People are either devoted fans or relentless critics, and that's good.

This reminds me of one of Leo Buscaglia's quote that I like a lot:

I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate -- it's apathy. It's not giving a damn.

Via: Nancy White via Change This

The idea from this paper by Ronald Burt is that people who participate in a number of groups or networks are exposed to a wide variety of perspectives and ways of thinking.

By virtue of this exposure, these same people are able see holes across groups and find new ways (new ideas) to bridge the holes. This often results in innovation.

I've only read about 1/2 the 58 page .pdf, but I highly recommend it.

Clay at Many-to-Many has a little more on it:Many-to-Many: Social Origin of Good Ideas