Android, Augmented Reality & A Book

This is a short post with a few things I need to follow up on over the coming weeks and months. HTC Desire and Ice Cream Sandwich This is a brief update for 15 July 2012. There is some hope for my HTC Desire (Bravo) regarding Jellybean. ICS is now mostly stable with most features, ... Read more

Halfway through 2012

It's nearly halfway through 2012, the half-time show is just getting warmed up. So, now that we stretch our legs, let's reflect on what was accomplished and what was left undone. What we should and should not do at this point in the year. Goals, Objectives, Tasks It turns out that not having goals or ... Read more

New Blogging Directions

Change, yet again, dear friends. First Four Months of 2012 We are one third plus six days into 2012. At the beginning I targeted eight different priority areas to change/improve. I've given myself scores on each of these areas as does not meet expectations, meets expectations, and exceeds expectations (0,1,2). Adding up the numbers reached ... Read more

Likability

Encouraging others to like you (not the Facebook kind) is about social signals and communication. Interesting how books that provide instruction on how to be liked, or how to win friends and influence people, are so culturally constrained. Behavior advocated in those books simply would not work in Thailand. Not only are the social signals ... Read more

Brand Artifacts

This is a list of possible artifacts representing or showing evidence of brand (brand tactics, etc.). These kinds of things help people think through what a brand stands for and how customers should be able to interact with it, as well as competitive comparisons. Brand Artifacts Comic strip Coloring book Colors Fonts, typography Images, figures, ... Read more

The Many Kinds of Tourism

There are many different kinds of travel and tourism. Below is a list not exhaustive but extensive. To be honest, tourism as an industry is not necessarily a great thing. That said, there are opportunities inside of the experiences... The Many Different Kinds of Tourism There are many types of tourism, below is meant to ... Read more

Why Use CyanogenMod ROM (or custom ROMs)

A friend asked why use CyanogenMod ROM (or really, any custom ROM) instead of stock Android. Besides feeding the inner geek, there are several reason... Root Needed Sometimes it is only Root that is needed to add functionality, or in some cases, remove it. Though more and more apps and functionality is available for non-rooted ... Read more

Linux and Unix-like Operating Systems

Linux and unix-like operating systems have basically won the battle, albeit on the server and mobile front rather than at the desktop. And while there will be Windows and it will continue to live on, its days are essentially numbered. How did this happen? At what point did the phone become a computer? How did ... Read more

100-mile diet, spin farming and pocket markets

Living in Thailand, these concepts simply are the way that things are done. Having lived in Canada, I saw how it is possible for it to take place in North America. Having lived in Hawaii, I saw what it was like to have almost none of the food raised or sold within 100 miles. The ... Read more

Getting to Plan B by Randy Komisar

Randy Komisar's book Getting to Plan B is an excellent read and he has some very useful guidelines and advice to the entrepreneur. Plan A is Necessary but not Sufficient > Plan A is useful for a number of reasons... The process of creating Plan A is useful in and of itself. It forces you ... Read more

Innovation and the Lead User

Innovation is the specific tool of the entrepreneur according to Peter Drucker. How this tool actually works is of deep interest. One recent book on innovation has claimed that it is not possible to innovate systematically (because failure rate is more than 50%). However, we believe this is not true. Therefore, we need to look ... Read more

Don't Travel

I don't mean to be a hater. But there is another side of the story. The so-called lifestyle gurus and permanent travelers seem convinced that their lifestyle is superior. The you too can do it is the biggest hint that their path is preferred. Certainly they don't literally believe it, but rather it is an ... Read more

The Refuge

To be a refuge for others. Key Buddhist concept. Buddhists are defined in Buddhism as anyone who seeks refuge in the triple gem of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.

Customer Service Policy & Practice

Don't be a legalistic idiot. Business is not about getting money from people who don't want to give it to you or want it back, for good or services that were never provided. Who would come up with this as a definition for business, much less good business? This sounds more like a government taxation ... Read more

Network Effects, Multiplatforms and the Cloud

Apple sees most clearly how integration between devices and the cloud, with the cloud as the memory system between devices, is a competitive advantage. Network effects are not only in terms of more users of a system or platform, but more uses across systems for a single user. This means that the Mac OSX notebook ... Read more

Android Multilingual and Swiping Keyboards

There is a plethora of keyboards available in Android (as opposed to the iPhone), and some have the innovative swiping feature of dragging fingers across the keys instead of individual typing of each key. That is great, and the original Swype is available for free in Beta. However, if there is a need for multilingual ... Read more

Two Hours Per Day to Jackpot in 7 Years

There is an interesting news item on how a Stanford Statistics PhD may have beaten the odds through a systematic approach. Total winnings from four scratcher jackpots beginning in 1993 adds up to $21 million. The Clever Part The clever part was figuring out the seasonality and geographic locations of the winning scratcher cards. Not ... Read more

Agree to Disagree: A thought-terminating cliché

One annoying phrase which tends to be more useless than anything is: > We can agree to disagree Thanks to Wikipedia we know that this phrase may be close to 250 years old. We also know that it implies a kind of tolerance but lack of acceptance of another persons' position. However, there are several ... Read more

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

As has been said many times over the past 2,000 years or more, The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions. How do we deal with good intentions in the presence of bad outcomes? Specifically, if an employee, partner, customer, etc. is well-meaning but with poor results, how do we respond? As we get ... Read more

The Epiphenomena of Academia

Much of academia and academic research in America is epiphenomenal. This is best illustrated by the common comparison of college with the real world. That is, college, the ivory tower, etc., is its' own world that has different rules, and whose learning doesn't always or even usually apply to the other world, outside of academia. ... Read more

Advantages of the Solo Entrepreneur

The Solo Entrepreneur is considered to be an inferior species, generally shunned by investors, and for whom traction comes many years later, when compared with two or more founding partners. However, there are many advantages to solo entrepreneurship, and while the odds of success are likely less, the odds of success of any entrepreneurial activity ... Read more

Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Drucker

Peter Drucker - The Man who Invented Management Peter Drucker died in 2005, eight days shy of his 96th birthday. The man literally invented the discipline of management and the management consultant. His 39 books have been translated into over 30 languages. The book of Drucker's I have read the most is The Effective Executive. ... Read more

Vitamin or Painkiller? – Marketing

Don Dodge wrote a great blog post titled Is your product a vitamin or a painkiller? This is actually quite an old post, but old as in golden. When a Vitamin becomes a Painkiller What catalyst or event causes your prospects to actively seek your product or solution? When you look at all the sales ... Read more

Change the World… To What?

The inane, though of course superficially appealing, desire to change the world. The question in response is to what? After all, some changes are either inconsequential, or worse, complete disasters, through unintended consequences. It is no comfort that the particular change might be unavoidable or done by someone else in any case. For the one ... Read more

How to Size Up Your Partner

John Paul DeJoria gave a Keynote at Stanford Entreprenuership recently. He has many skills and strong instincts. Now he is a multi-billionaire, but he slept in his car the first few weeks of founding John Paul Mitchell Systems. People Person Skills His people-person skills are phenomenal. In the Q&A he was asked how to size ... Read more

Doi Suthep Bicycle Ride

Bicycle Ride up Doi Suthep Doi Suthep (ดอยสุเทพ) is a mountain directly to the west of Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. Doi Suthep is named after a legendary hermit (Suveda). The mountain is granite with diciduous forest below 1,000m and evergreen above. The top of Doi Suthep is at 1,676 meters. There is around 1,200 meter ... Read more

Motorcycle vs. Bicycle

I've got a new bicycle, after nearly three years without. How did I survive that long? I really don't know. It's nice to be back in the saddle. That said, I've really enjoyed and continue to enjoy the awesome Honda Wave 125i that I acquired a little over two years ago. (Yes, there was nearly ... Read more

Angkor Car

Brilliant! Cambodian builds three cars of increasing complexity with no automotive training. Self-taught automotive engineer and designer. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIU3ywpC5M

New Year, New Decade

2000 will soon be ten years old. Welcome to the new decade! (Yes folks, there is no year zero, therefore the calendar decade of the Gregorian calendar begins at year 1 and ends at year 10.) Ok, where have we been and where are what's next? Retrospective and Foresight Looking back cannot really show the ... Read more

No accountability at Identi.ca

Apparently I am "probably" a spammer. But it doesn't matter in any case... Ah, this is how an open system works, I see. Well, for one I haven't subscribed to anyone in a long time. Secondly I do not spam. Identica Cannot be Trusted This is about trust. How can I trust a service with ... Read more

Everyone is smarter than me

I love Spolsky's blog. He has also written articles for Inc, such as the one on competition and strategy called Fire and Motion. In the article there is a great quote about how management for his company is not about employees quickly obeying directives. The biggest problem is getting people to tell me when I'm ... Read more

Sakichi Toyoda and the Five Whys Root Cause Analysis

Sakichi Toyoda and the Five Whys Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Motor Company, is considered one of the greatest if not the greatest inventor of Japan and the father of Japanese Industrialization. His impact on the world should not be underestimated. As with most historical figures, our tasks are different because we live in ... Read more

The Five Questions – Drucker

Peter Drucker is by far the most important management thinker of the 20th century. Even in 2010, his thinking and guidance is highly effective and has lost little of its lustre and value. The Five Most Important Questions Drucker formulated five "Most Important" questions to ask an organization. Each of them have subquestions which result. ... Read more

Strange Days – Magic, Superstition

Magic or Superstition Living in Thailand means being surrounded by ghosts, magic incantations, and spiritual seers. The longer one lives here the more the beliefs and their apparent reality prey upon the mind. Good Luck, Bad Luck Good luck is not just about avoiding the bad, but mitigating the bad. Only extreme religions think in ... Read more

Time Horizon

First, read the blog entry Nine Time Horizons - Connecting the Past to the Future from 2009-04-30 Definition of Time Horizon A time horizon is understood here as a cognitive structure in which planning and thinking about the future (and the past) can be effectively accomplished. The idea is that there is no intuition regarding ... Read more

The Next 40 Years

This is the sort of post that generally makes me laugh out loud. No one can predict anything like 40 years out. I myself routinely mock anyone who tries to do such a thing. However... However, it is possible to draw out trend lines, even though we can be certain they will shift. And in ... Read more

A Moderately Difficult Week

Moderately Not severely. In comparison to much more difficult weeks this one is mild. Yet, it was not easy, hence moderate in scope. Difficult The difficult part started right there in the beginning, and after a bit of seeming progress (though perhaps mild) it progressed into difficulty surprisingly quickly. Week It took up the entire ... Read more

Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain - and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I have stood still and ... Read more

A Refuge for Others

Cultural Differences As an expatriate American there are many cultural differences I have come across where I now live in Chiang Mai, Thailand. One is the buddhist concept of being a refuge for others. The ability to provide for other people, to feed and shelter them and to take care of their needs is important ... Read more

2009 Year and Decade in Review

2009 In Review This past year has been very interesting. A major reason was the relocation out of the US to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. Living abroad as an expatriate has a sense of permanent discovery to it, especially the first year. I transitioned out (aka dropped out) of my PhD program at the University ... Read more

Commercial Viability and Approaches to the Flying Car

This is about the commercial viability, supporting documents available, NASA support and competitions, projected use and demand, and green focus of the flying car. NASA predicts that two-car families will have one road car and one flying car in their garages in the next 30 or so years. -Mail and Guardian Turns out, there are ... Read more

Three Thailand Job Sites in English

For those who are seeking for employment or looking for new employees there are three job boards which are in English (though for the JobsDB site many of the jobs are for Thais or in Thai). * Craigslist Bangkok - covers the entire country of Thailand, not only Bangkok * The cesspool aka Thaivisa.com - ... Read more

On Reaching Middle Age – วัยกลางคน

I was reading an obituary on on Jim Carroll (Basketball Diaries) and it seemed a lot more personal and less like I was reading history. I think I've reached "middle age" (วัยกลาง). Was compelled to write this in my notebook: Somehow I've muddled into middle age. Evidence: I read obituaries, become bored with anyone under ... Read more