McElroy

2011 in Review

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:16:46 -0500

I really wanted to write a blog post reflecting on 2011.

Things that happened and things that I learned.

But I just don’t have time.

So this has become the blog post.

And the lesson is I need to create more time for reflection, it’s an invaluable tool for growth.

The review post of 2012 will be nice, well thought out, well formatted.

For now, 2011 in a scentence. Sold Compass Engine, joined Initio Group, joined Wyley, started Tablet Games, started the taggs app with Travis, left Bootup Entrepreneurial Society, celebrated Georgia’s second birthday at an awesome purple and green party, and attended Speedy and Robin’s wedding.

Interesting side note, I always have trouble remembering the first four months of the year. It seems like nothing interesting happens in the first four months, though of course that’s riddiculous. Maybe it has to do with the darkness of winter. I don’t know.

"Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively..."

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:23:46 -0500

“Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it.”

- Stephen Vizinczey (via livejamie)

Best music of 2011

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:22:06 -0500

Best Show- Mount Kimbie at the Biltmore

Best Album- Kid Koala, Space Cadet Soundtrack

thedailywhat: Interstate Subway System of the Day: Every wonder...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:37:23 -0500

thedailywhat:

Interstate Subway System of the Day: Every wonder what it would look like if instead of using highways, the United States relied on a massive subway system to connect its cities?

Well, so did Australian designer Cameron Booth, and he even took it a step farther by redesigning the map of U.S. highways (U.S. Routes, to be exact) in the style of H.C. Beck’s London Underground Diagram.

Booth’s subway-style reimagining of the Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways can be seen here.

[cambooth / laughingsquid.]

Vita Launch

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:01:42 -0500

Assume this thing is screwed.

Despite the fact Playstation has a couple HUGE licenses, and SONY has serious (Japanese) fans and that it is very powerful with great controls and impressive graphics and a substantial backwards compatible digital library.

Not enough people care, given the convenience and power of phones, to make a big enough market to make large development budgets worth the investment.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/246489/playstation_vita_launches_in_japan.html

Atheists Should… [Expanded] - Imgur

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:39:01 -0500

Atheists Should… [Expanded] - Imgur

Amazing biology scale interactive infographic

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:53:42 -0500

Amazing biology scale interactive infographic

"Ecosystems outlast organisms."

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:48:22 -0400

“Ecosystems outlast organisms.”

- - Seth Godin, Cities don’t die (but corporations do)

Cities do die, actually, but very slowly. Usually cities decline when there is a cultural collapse, or when the cost of rebuilding aged infrastructure is more expensive than migrating.

However, Seth’s real point is that cities are more resilient than companies. And this is true because companies select people that fit in and reject those that don’t. Cities work the opposite way: people elect to live in specific cities, and they do so for their own reasons. They make the city fit their needs, and they become part of a myriad of semi-independent social scenes.

Cities are connectives, with people headed in many directions, loosely cooperating — obeying the traffic rules, and paying taxes — while companies are collectives, where people must subordinate themselves to a strategy and the strong ties of an organization. Cities are more resilient, flexible, and cheaper to operate than companies. Cities are superlinear and companies are sublinear.

And, as a result, the larger cities get, the more productive they become, the more responsive and adaptable they become: which is the opposite of companies, which become slower, less adaptable, and less productive (per capita) as they become larger.

(via stoweboyd)

It’s locked.

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:44:03 -0400

It’s locked.

Somali Pirates

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:58:44 -0400

From November 2008:

The Sirius Star, which was launched in March at a cost of £65million, is the biggest ship ever hijacked.

Its captain, Marek Nishky, said yesterday the crew had each been able to speak to their families and were being well treated.

No hostages have ever been harmed by the Somali pirates.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1089321/Somali-pirates-treating-says-British-hostage-hijacked-supertanker.html#ixzz1aReHg0A3

And then this from 2011:

The yachting enthusiasts from California and Washington killed off the coast of East Africa on Tuesday were the first Americans slain by Somali pirates since a wave of attacks began six years ago.

One of the American couples had been sailing around the world since 2004 handing out Bibles. The deaths of the four travelers, all in their late 50s or 60s, appeared to underscore an increasingly brutal and aggressive shift by pirates in their treatment of hostages.

Killing hostages “has now become part of our rules,” said a pirate who identified himself as Muse Abdi. He referred as a turning point to last week’s sentencing of a pirate to 33 years in prison for the 2009 attack on the U.S. cargo vessel the Maersk Alabama — just two days before the hijacking.

“From now on, anyone who tries to rescue the hostages in our hands will only collect dead bodies,” Abdi said. “It will never, ever happen that hostages are rescued and we are hauled to prison.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12975087

So it would appear the pirates operated for 6+ years without killing or hurting anybody and have changed their tactics since captured pirates have had to face the full force of the law.

The problem with all the business/culture books is that they are...

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:28:58 -0400

The problem with all the business/culture books is that they are time sensitive.

Long tail was a good book but if you read it five years after it was written (like I did) then most of the ideas are common knowledge.

Yes, the long tail is changing the face of commerce. I get it. It’s neat but at this point, not revolutionary.

And the book was too long. Probably could have been about half as long and contained everything you need to know.

puffy never sounded so good. get it...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:25:39 -0400

puffy never sounded so good.

get it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?rw0ltfmmj0m

Why go native versus html5 for mobile

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:41:21 -0400

Mobile specific feature that HTML5 developer will not be able to use are - Interprocess communication between Apps - Background, scheduled and concurrent apps - Rich multimedia - Full local Database - Camera and microphone access
Ernest is a bright dude!

Good stuff on Social Games

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:28:58 -0400

Who is spending money in freemium games?http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2011/09/08/older-players-generate-four-fifths-of-freemium-gaming-revenue-flurry-finds/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InsideSocialGames+%28Inside+Social+Games%29
This type of metagame engagement is awesome.http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2011/09/12/bringit-updates-skill-based-facebook-mini-games-service-to-include-new-viral-feature/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InsideSocialGames+%28Inside+Social+Games%29
Sounds like Chinese developers need help with publishing on Facebook. http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2011/09/16/chinas-tribeplay-goes-west-for-opportunity-growth/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InsideSocialGames+%28Inside+Social+Games%29
What is Tencent exactly and how do they work with developers?http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2011/09/09/tencent-looks-to-the-west-for-third-party-game-developers/

Found by @beemee at the @ayogo offices. makes me smile large.

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:52:33 -0400

Found by @beemee at the @ayogo offices. makes me smile large.

”Obviously an interesting read.A great retelling of...

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 13:02:51 -0400

”Obviously an interesting read.

A great retelling of common mythology, which is a literary concept I always find engaging.

As usual, I didn’t really “get it” in the way you would talk about at a book club. In theory it was about evil, evil intentions versus evil consequences, but I didn’t really understand any of that.

To me it was just a really cool way to look at Oz.

The Nazi parallels were really well done actually. Distressing and thought provoking.”

theanimalblog: (by Ibai Acevedo)

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:58:24 -0400

theanimalblog:

(by Ibai Acevedo)

Hilarious because by all accounts it’s true. Krys Wallbank...

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:25:48 -0400

Hilarious because by all accounts it’s true. Krys Wallbank brought this to my attention.

Failure is a Mother Fucker

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:08:00 -0400

Babies are dying in Somalia.

I gave some money.

My wife asked me to give more.

I said forget giving another hundred dollar’s let raise 10k.

“How are you going to do that?”

I’ve got an idea.

I’ll connect the tech companies in Gastown with the restaurants. I’ll create a program called the Grace of Gastown and sell tickets for $100 each. Sell 100 tickets and raise $10 000. All I have to do is get 10 restaurants to donate one meal a week (for three months) and then the prize for the Grace of Gastown will be the ability to eat free in the neighbourhood for three months.

This is great because:

Restaurants have to give up very little.
Tech companies give up cash but get tax benefits and the ability to eat for free as well as the status of being the Grace of Gastown.
I’ve been exploring trying to sell status.
We are weaving a tighter web of community in Gastown. Bringing people together is good.
We’re literally stopping BABIES from fucking dying. X number of mothers will not have to bury their children.

But I failed and mothers will lose their children because of it.

I can’t get the restaurants on board. Of those who will return my emails/calls the answer is universally no. Very few even got back to me. I went in to their spots in person and got nowhere.

The only exception was the Bean Around The World at Cambie and Hastings. They were in immediately. Support those guys.

I keep claiming that I could raise the 10k anyways but I don’t know if I could and at this point I don’t even want to find out.

Fuck it.

Like everybody else, I have my own problems to deal with.

There are a huge number of lessons to be taken from this but I’m not willing to explore those out loud yet.

It’ll be quite a while before I expose myself like this again. Failure is a mother fucker.

If you want to donate through the red cross the Canadian government will match your donations. Click here.

theanimalblog: Love Birds (by Chad Horwedel)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:03:04 -0400

theanimalblog:

Love Birds (by Chad Horwedel)