Daily Thoughts 04/05/2012

The Letter, Julian Weir, 1919

Daily Thoughts 04/05/2012


I watched some more of Time Management Fundamentals on Lynda.com this morning.  I also read some of The 250 Job Interview Questions.   The book goes through hundreds of different common job questions with standard answers that people might give.  It is very straightforward.  It helps you think about what people might ask.  I finished reading it on my Kindle Touch.  It gave me enough of a basis to understand the most likely questions I would get.

I also took a tour of General Assemb.ly http://www.generalassemb.ly today.  It is an educational startup.  It is also a kind of meta startup or a startup which helps startups.  They rent out their space to select startups, offer discounts to classes and provide support to their member startups.  So far they have only been open for a single year.  Once the size of a startup reaches about fourteen people, it leaves the General Assembly space.  I found this to be a bit different.

There are also people who rent use of the communal space where people can work.  They also host Meetups.    I took the class on Publishing, Art, and Technology earlier..   I also took their Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship online at http://www.startmaking.com   A lot of their classes are focused on entrepreneurial skills;  ruby on rails, css, html, angel investing, web design,  and similar matters.

I had a chance to ask about different things they do there.  A lot of it is about helping people make connections and grow a business.  Some of the skills are very entrepreneurial, not the kind of thing which is taught in a university setting.

It feels similar in a way to Skillshare http://www.skillshare.com which is another edicational startup that teaches a variety of skills.  I took the Introduction I to Business Development at Skillshare.   Skillshare is running a conference on April 20, 2012  which it is calling Penny University http://www.skillshare.com/penny

On the way home, I read some more of Sacre Bleu by Michael Moore.  I am finding it relaxing and a bit odd.

Web Bits


The Rise of E-reading
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2236/ebook-reading-print-books-tablets-ereaders

 How Publishing Execs Should Use Social Media to Help Their Companies and not Get Fired
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/how-publishing-execs-should-use-social-media-to-hel-their-companies-and-not-get-fired/?et_mid=548033&rid=233624721

Daily Thoughts 04/04/2012

Louis Wain at his drawing table around 1890. From the book "Louis Wain - The man who drew cats". ISBN 1-85479-098-6  Published with the authorisation of the books author Rodney Dale http://www.fernhouse.com. See discussion.


Daily Thoughts 04/04/2012

This morning, I spent some time cleaning the house and organizing things.  I also watched a bit of the Lynda.com Time Management class.  It gave some suggestions for improving how I organize things.


I am taking a Skillshare class tonight Intro I To Business Development and Partnerships for Startups.  It is being held at Dogpatch Labs which is an incubator.  I have been a bit curious about Dogpatch for a while.


The Introduction to Business Development session was interesting.  It gave me an idea of what all the different business development people do at meetups.  They are there to find partners, create relationships for potential future sales, and develop contacts between different businesses.  They have to collect quite a few business cards in a carefully prepared manner.  It was informative.
This is the Powerpoint of the Presentation on Business Development.
https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AdZFOaKK2nLIZGNrYjUyZm1fMTMzZ3RjcXpxcDQ&pli=1

I also learned about some resources that I did not know about before, there is TWIT This Week In Tech which is a weekly podcast on happenings in the technology world http://twit.tv/twit

Web Bits

Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/google-begins-testing-its-augmented-reality-glasses/

Is Making Books Social A Good or Bad Thing
http://gigaom.com/2012/04/02/is-making-books-social-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing/


LG Bending the Limits of Ebook Design With Flexible Displays
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57408310-1/lg-bending-limits-of-e-book-design-with-flexible-displays/

Daily Thoughts 04/03/2012

Knott Wright. "Stop reading that paper!" Four-frame comic strip. Knott and Mrs. Wright sit at a table eating breakfast. When Mrs. Wright asks if Knott can get his mind off baseball for a minute, he replies that her wheat-cakes remind him of baseball because "The batter sometimes misses." She replies "Oh, not always!" as she throws a wheat-cake into his face. Date Created/Published: [between ca. 1900 and ca. 1920]  Part of: Caroline and Erwin Swann collection of caricature & cartoon (Library of Congress)


Daily Thoughts 04/03/2012

I stopped by the WixLounge yesterday which is on 10 West 18th Street, it is a free work space which also has coffee for creatives.  I sat down for a bit, had a cup of coffee and read from my Kindle touch for a few minutes.

I was at Skillshare last night learning how to tell my story.  I now have a much better pitch about what I want.  Skillshare was quite interesting.  They were in the same space as a company called Supply.

I even had a chance to look through their books which were a classic mix of techie oriented reading::  The Startup Owners Manual by Steve Blan, Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, What's Mine Is Yours  The Rise of Collaborative Consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers,  The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuck, The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton Chrstensen, and The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, there were also some books on CSS3, HTML5, and Mobile Applications.  They even had the game, Settlers of Catan which is a classic.

I have been reading more of Sacre Bleu.  There is a lot of mature content in this book  The painters like Renoir, Toulouse Lautrec, Goya, and others rather like their models.  The design of the book is very engaging, the type is set in dark blue which makes the reading experience different.  There are also numerous color pcitures throughout the book.  Some of the pictures are In Rat Mort-- Henri Toulouse Lautrec 1899,  The Swing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1899, The Nude Maja-- Francisco Goya 1797,  Hommage a Delacroix, Henri Fantin-Latour 1864, and many others.  This adds a bit of spice and beauty to the book.

I bought a copy of Stripping Covers Off the Hunger Games How 7 Billionaires Are Deciding the Future of Book Publishing by Thad McIlroy.  The book is $2.99 as a Kindle ebook  It is about Barnes and Noble and Amazon and the decisions being made that will change the future of the book industry.  It is an uneasy book.  Part of the unease comes from the new tablet technology which is coming out of both Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.  E-books could very well redefine what a library is in the next decade.  Libraries are traditionally about books. 

I also joined http://www.publishingpoint.ning.com  which is a community of people in the publishing business.

I also saw an incredibly cheap e-book maker, Book Brewer,  http://www.bookbrewer.com 
It does not look to have much quality, but it is cheap.

Web Bits

http://www.nytm.org/made Tech Companies in New York, many hiring, unfortunately no e-book or digital publishers

Public Libraries Expect Change Focus on E-books
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/04/future-of-libraries/public-libraries-expect-change-focus-on-ebooks/

How We Will Read by Clive Thompson From the Findings Blog
http://blog.findings.com/post/20117251507/how-we-will-read-clive-thompson

Daily Thoughts 04/02/2012

Studiosul ("The Scholar") or Studiu cu barbat la masa de lucru ("Study Portrait of a Man at His Writing Desk"), ink drawing, 11,6 x 10,3 cm.

Daily Thoughts 04/02/2012

This morning, I watched a little bit more of Richard Koci Hernandez, Multimedia Journalist on Lynda.com.  I like how he describes that it is possible for almost anyone to be a storyteller because of the cost of the equipment. It is easy to get a laptop and a camera.

I am going to be speaking to someone this afternoon about digital publishing.

I also am going to The Art of the Night Hustle which is a Skillshare class at 7:00 p.m.

I have been following a number of newsletters lately, Bernardo's List, Gary's Guide, and This is Going to be Big, along with Y Combinator News.  These are all technical or networking oriented lists.

Daily Thoughts 04/01/2012

Khushal Khan Khatak, a well known Pashtun poet and warrior from the 17th century

Daily Thoughts 04/01/2012

I spent some time looking at Maz Digital this morning.  I have seen their business development person around a couple of times in various venues  http://www.mazdigital.com

This afternoon, I started reading Sacre Bleu by Chsitopher Moore.  It begins with the murder of Vincent Van Gogh creating a mystery.

I also watched some more of Richard Koci Hernandez, Multimedia Journalist on Lynda.com.  He is describing his early coverage of Yahoo and Google when they first formed.


Web Bits

The Book of the Future
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03/30/books/review/snider01.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20120330

E-books are the Fastest Growing Area of Sales Especially for Youngsters
http://venturebeat.com/2012/03/29/ebook-sales-growth/