Category Archives: Technology

When Does Something Stop Being A Start-up

Posted by Andy Boyer in Entrepreneurism, Seattle, Technology

TechFlash details the latest version of Marcelo Calbucci’s Seattle Startup Index.  The index tracks the Web traffic of Seattle based startups.  TechFlash trumpets that once again, Zillow.com is at the top of the ist.

Now, I’m not trying to be ornery, but there’s something about being at the top of a list of “Start-ups” for multiple years, that feels akin to winning Rookie of the Year 3 times.  I see a lot of names on the Start-up list besides Zillow that have been around for quite awhile.  Names like Payscale, WetPaint, Jobster and Widgetbucks (formerly mpire.com).  

You might ask, “Who cares?”

Well if you are a start-up that launched in 2008, you certainly care that your traffic numbers are being compared to those of a companies that are reaching their 4th birthday.  Especially if some of them have geenrated serious rounds of funding already.  One would assume that a senior in his 4th year playing basketball would have more cumulative points than a freshman, no matter how exciting that freshman is.  

It all just makes me wonder how a “Start-up” is defined these days.

Don’t Drink and Email

Posted by Andy Boyer in Human Behavior, Media, Personal, Technology

Finally, a tech product that is useful.

“Mail Goggles” is dubbed as a breathalyzer for your email.  This Gmail add-on makes it harder to send email when you are, um, not thinking clearly, by asking a series of math problems during the times you specify.  If you get any of the questions wrong, Mail Goggles will say, “Water and bed for you. Or try again.” 

You can enable this tool for your Gmail for free from Google Labs.

2 Handy Text Message Tools

Posted by Andy Boyer in Technology

I was down at CTIA in San Francisco last week expecting to be wowed by tons in mobile innovations.  I really thought  I’d be furiously taking notes and have plenty to write about for weeks.  Sadly, I was forced not to publish the trip report I did write and had sent internally to the folks at Spring Creek Group, due to my overall  philosophy of only writing about innovations I like, not complaining about things I don’t get or won’t use.  I figure Techcrunch does enough criticizing for the entire blogosphere, so no reason to be one of the naysayers

So instead of a trip report from the Bay, here are 2 clever text messaging apps that I read about at PCWorld.com and now use fairly regularly

1) Google Calendar SMS Commands  – I use Google Calendar, as part of my slavery to Gootle Mail, Docs, Chat, Analytics and Ad Words.  Instead of having to sync my Blackberry every day, i can simply send a text to GVENT (48368) with the word “day” and I get a full schedule.  If I want tomorrow’s shcedule, I type “nday.”  I immediately receive a text back with my schedule.

2) Diet Watcher – If you’re watching calories, Diet.com can help you keep count. Text any major restaurant chain’s name and menu item to DIET1 (dial 34381) and they’ll send you back the nutrition stats: calories, fat, carbs, and protein.  In case you are curious, a McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger has 440 Calories (23g fat), while a Starbucks Grande Latte has 

Neither of these services are awe-inspiring, but if you want information quickly, they are pretty useful.  And really at the end of the day, “Useful, Easy and Free” beat slick marketing and $60 Million in Series C funding any day of the week.

Geeking Out With Some Google Chrome Commands

Posted by Andy Boyer in Marketing, Technology

I found a pretty fun little list over at Lifehacker today, in one of the comment threads.  If you are testing out Google Chrome (and you really should be so you can see how Browser War II is going to play out) then these toolbar commands will give you some things to play with.

  • about:memory
  • about:stats
  • about:network
  • about:internets
  • about:histograms
  • about:dns
  • about:cache
  • about:plugins
  • about:version 

Note:  This is as “techy-nerdy” as this blog will ever get.  But some of the commands are pretty cool. Let me know if you find others. 

ADDITION:  Yardloo.com also has a handy list of normal commands that you can use with Windows: 

  • F5 – Refreshes the page
  • Ctrl + F5 – Super-Refresh where the cache is ignored and a total refresh of the page is done
  • Ctrl + D – Bookmarks the currently open page
  • Ctrl + “+” – Increases the text size in the page
  • Ctrl + “-” – Decreases the text size in the page
  • Ctrl + F – Opens a box with the option of find-in-page where one  search for  keyword in the page.
  • Ctrl + U – Opens the source of the page
  • Ctrl + Shift + N – Opens a new window in incognito mode.
  • Ctrl + Shift + Esc – Opens the task manager for the browser
  • Ctrl + Shift + T – Re-open the last closed tab Maximum of last 10 tabs.
  • Ctrl + N – Opens a new windows for your browser
  • Ctrl + T – Opens a new tab in the same window
  • Ctrl + W – Closes the presently open tab
  • Ctrl + F4 – Closes the presently open tab
  • Alt + F4 – Closes the window
  • Alt + home – Opens the default homepage in Google Chrome
  • Ctrl +1 to Ctrl + 8 – The number you press along with the Ctrl key, move to you that number of Tab.
  • Ctrl +9 – Takes you to the last tab in the multiple number of tabs
  • Ctrl + Tab – Switch to the next tab
  • Ctrl + Shift + Tab – Switch to the previous tab
  • Ctrl + B – Option for toggling the bookmarks bar on/off
  • Ctrl + H – Opens the history page
  • Ctrl + J – Opens the downloads window
  • Ctrl + P – Prints the current page open in the browser