Contest, Palm Pre and startup excitement...

I haven't been writing here for almost a year now, and I had many reasons, albeit not many of which I could be proud of, but still many "legitimate" reasons why this was so.

And while I'm pretty sure not even a dead soul will be reading this anytime soon -- not that it ever did but here it goes...

The other day I realized the true reason for not writing, or at least the major one. Excitement, or rather a lack of it. I believe I hadn't written anything because, well, there wasn't much that happened in my life that excited me to even think of sharing it with the world, or you, probably my sole reader.

That has all changed now. It started with my participation in a contest of writing business plans at my college. That had me excited for quite some time. I realized it's been a long time that I have been so much excited about something for so long. Well, not counting the amazing Palm Pre-mania lately.

This all excitement got me to plan two business projects, and think about a dozen of them. While some of the initial ones are pretty much dead now, I'm not sorry - because I'm still pursuing one, one about which I will be sharing more later. Basically, it should make me rich... hehe... ;)

So let's take things in order...

The Business Plan Contest

This is probably the culprit for all the excitement. And I have my friend Dominik to thank for talking me into applying for the contest. And it was literally 5 minutes to midnight on the deadline day that I have applied.

At first I was reluctant to apply because I didn't have any idea that was obsessing me at that time from which I could be making a business plan for the contest.

Even though I usually have many ideas in my head, what general ideas (think innovation), what business ideas which I store in my Ideas Journal, at that point I was just not in the right state of mind, obviously.

Next thing I know, after applying for the contest, without a clue as to what I'll be writing about, the ideas just came pouring in.

The excitement started.

First thing I had to was open my Ideas Journal to store some of the ideas because I couldn't do them all at once and I had to choose one to go with. I didn't know with which plan I will be contending until the very last moment when I just didn't have any more time to think.

Now, as it turns out, after the final versions of business plans were in, I actually wasn't even in the contest. Yeah, it's embarrassing to admit but I was too late to bring my plan in due to my mistake. Had to make it perfect or not do it at all. The clock was ticking and I was running late so I couldn't pull it off in time.

Embarrassing as that was, it didn't - it couldn't - put me off the tracks. Of course the prize would be nice but in the end, the execution of the plan is what I'm after, not the contest prize.

Palm Pre

Even though I said the excitement was initiated by applying for the Business Plan Contest, the Pre has got me a bit excited all the way back from the start of the year (Yes! That long!).

That sheer excitement about a consumer device that came almost to the point of obsession (never have I been even remotely excited about a consumer device before, except when I'd wait something I bought ;)) certainly has a part in the reason I'm mentioning it. Ever since the CES in January, I've been reading, watching, commenting and thinking about this device. Crazy, crazy world!

However, part of the reason I mention Palm Pre here has to do with my current business plan that I intend to carry out in the very near future. (And given that I'm nearly obsessed with the freaking thing, I plan to write much more specifically about it... but now's not the time...)

Palm Pre has not only brought some major advancements in the mobile world, especially the smartphone world, after the IMHO not-so-much-a-smartphone, Apple's iPhone, who nevertheless brought big advancements in the mobile industry and become a worldwide hit. But as a long time Palm (of both devices and the Palm OS) user and fan, it got me excited because this is very likely going to be the next phone I'll get (I use a Palm Treo 680 at the moment). But it got me excited even more because I should be able to develop applications for it.

It's really exciting because I've never even thought of writing apps for the PalmOS but now that Palm has made it easier for even web developers to develop applications for their system by using HTML/CSS/JavaScript, I'll just have to give it a try. I just have to brush up my JavaScript skills until they publicly release the SDK.

Startup

If you didn't get a clue, writing Palm Pre applications will be the basis of my business plan.

So the plan is simple: ;)

What else do I need? There's even a how-to article for that last goal. :D

I can't say this wasn't heavily influenced by the iPhone App Store gold rush. Sure it was. And while I don't think I have an idea for an application that could make me "rich" quickly, having a company that produces software has long been one of my dreams. I decided that I just can't miss an opportunity like that, to learn how to develop and pull this whole thing off, since it was never easier for a guy like me (with only a poor background in web technologies) to develop for something that I truly believe will become the biggest mobile platform in years to come.

P.S. I will be writing more about my excitement about the Palm Pre, my plans for the startup, how I cope with development of apps and also how I'm learning to develop in this altogether... so stick around, subscribe to the feed or bookmark the site...

Posted on June 03, 2009 ~ Write a comment


People form habits and habits form futures

“People form habits and habits form futures.”

~ Mike Litman

It's one of the most important things I was fortunate to learn early on from a fellow named Mike Litman.

He also said:

“Successful people make a habit of doing things they don't like to do.”

I must admit there are habits I continue to struggle with but I see it as a never ending process and not as a journey with an end.

Posted on July 17, 2008 ~ Write a comment


Firefox 3 addons: Tabbrowser Preferences

As with every new version of Firefox you can expect there will be addons that won't be compatible with the new version immediately after the Firefox release.

It's all good until it happens to you, right? ;)

It's all good until this happens with your must-have-or-die Firefox extension, right?

Well, something like that happened to me. More specifically, not only is the addon incompatible with Firefox 3, but the project seems to be d.e.a.d. - and that stinks... :(

So, without further ado, for all the users of Tabbrowser Preferences, this isn't Tabbrowser Preferences for Firefox 3, but it's a way to get to almost all of it's features even without it.

All you need to do is open this txt file, modify the values inside to your liking and then save it into your Firefox profile (How to find your profile?) and voila!
All of the settings are now saved in Firefox 3, even without Tabbrowser preferences! (OK, truth is I got a little carried away, since some of the settings were tied to Tabbrowser preferences and you'll see which ones I'm talking about because they are commented in the above txt file)

It's easy to modify the values. Just change the true/false or the integral value where it shows up.

You can help others and share this resource to the world using the self explaining button below.


UPDATE, June 20th:
If you came here without seeing what Lawrence Webb, a.k.a larryvgs on addons.mozilla.org suggested "For those who MUST HAVE their tabs on the bottom", here's a solution for you:

Put the following in your userChrome.css file (it doesn't exist by default but it should be located in the sub-folder called chrome in your profile folder) or just open this userChrome.css and save it in your chrome folder.

/* Display the Tabbar at the bottom */
#content > tabbox {-moz-box-direction: reverse;}

The orginal instructions are supposedly at support.mozilla.com.


UPDATE, July 2nd:
There's now a new and still experimental addon Tab Focus for all of you who can't live without Tabbrowser Preferences' "Select tabs when the mouse is moved onto them" feature. Thanks TDM for letting us know!

Posted on June 19, 2008 ~ 25 comments


Google In Command Line!

Goosh.org is a new web "google-interface" that behaves similar to a Unix shell.

It's great, you type a command and the results come up. You can even use cursor up and down for command history - I actually used to fool myself at times expecting normal Google search could do this, just like I expect almost any application now to have what Firefox refers to as "Search for text when I start typing" - even if I already know the application doesn't have this feature.

For anybody who's used to Unix style command line like I am, this is really fun to use.

Contrary to what you may think of command line if you're not used to it and never really tried it (and I can't speak for any other than Unix type) it actually beats using mouse on a graphical interface to accomplish some things. And I'm not even some command line "power user", just reap the benefits of it whenever I can. ;)

I'll give you an example for Goosh: in Google, when I search for something I scroll down through the results and if I wish to see another page, I have to point with my pointer on the page number or "Next", which, once you've tried it in command line (Goosh) becomes simply too slow. In command line you just type "m" and then Enter and voila! You're there already, on the next page.
(disclaimer: I use ThinkPad and a TrackPoint so my fingers are always on the keyboard and I feel the benefits of using keyboard shortcuts for those who know what I mean)

And I have to hand it to the man behind the Goosh, Stephen Grothkopp - Goosh is blazingly fast! I don't know how he accomplished that but it's like I'm executing commands on my own system! I know Google is fast as well but this really seems faster when searching, part of which I'm sure is due to showing only 4 results at time, but still gives a great impression.

Posted on June 06, 2008 ~ Write a comment


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