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: ;)

• 1. develop free applications in demand (paid apps not out of the option)
• 2. let third parties advertise their products/services through banners/text ads
• 3. develop more applications in demand and bring in more advertisers
• 4. eventually make an advertising agency which will match those advertisers with other application developers
• 5. get (the business) bought by Google.

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...

~ 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.

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!

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.

~ Lloyd Jones

Words of reassurance to those of us who keep trying but at times don't feel like we're succeeding - we definitely are.

Which reminds me of the words of Thomas Edison when he was "advised" to stop trying to make a light bulb since he kept "failing":

“I didn’t fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn’t work.”

A very eye-opening article about the one thing that separates the men from the boys when it comes to entrepreneurship.
The one thing that all successful entrepreneurs possess and the others don't. And as you can tell from the title, it's not something you can touch.

Since I couldn't say it better than Mr. Ken McCarthy himself, you'll just have to take my word on it and go and read it.

If you want to accomplish anything more in your life, nothing is more important than this article. (DISCLAIMER: For all I know, you may already be aware of this)

Here's the article:
The Successful Entrepreneur's Magic Word

Here is my choice of the greatest advices, but make sure to watch the whole video, you may find some other useful advices:

1. "odds are not created equal": odds of you making the next Google vs. odds of you making a small profitable business are not in favor of you making the next Google... Realize that and move on!
   
   
2. really, you don't need to become the next Facebook or Google, you just have to solve some problem people have a little bit better than the other guys. Don't you have a deal of troubles in your own life to begin with?
   
   
3. "good innovation comes from just solving simple problems that you're intimately involved with" - you're not unique, after you solve the problem, you'd probably find another 1000 people having the same problem...
   
   
4. having a limited amount of time to work on something, really focuses your energy - "when you have 10 hours per week, those really matter - you can't screw around with 10 hours, then nothing gets done: having less time is a huge benefit to most people"
   
   
5. you don't need to build your company overnight - "don't be in such a frickin' hurry!"
   
   

BTW, I love this player, except for the comments being abused and thus loosing the great opportunity - maybe they should allow only registered users to post comments?

P.S. If you found some other advices you think are worth sharing, don't be shy and give me a comment about it!

Ever since I watched A Beautiful Mind , I've been "planning" to learn this game, called simply Go , that Nash and his buddies played in the movie (which I also recommend; it's a great movie about a great man!).

I'll never forget this scene, when he's challenged to play the game and he says this unforgettable line: "I'm terrified, mortified, petrified, stupefied... by you."

So I've had to write a few lines on the game theory tonight, which of course got me to think about that movie and in no time I wandered off to YouTube to watch some scenes.
The end results was me learning how to play Go game from this Go game interactive tutorial .
Now I have to write a few lines about game theory tomorrow morning...
But a day wasn't lost! As I learned, I played a bit of Go and I exercised my brain, which you can do too!

There's a list of software to play Go (for all kinds of platforms). Enjoy!

~ George Eliot

So let's stop reading these little nuggets of wisdom and do at least one more of these small things today!

I searched for the idiom 'get a grip' as I was corresponding with someone by e-mail and wanted to make sure I'm using it correctly...

Anyway, after I entered 'get a grip' in Firefox Search box and pressed Enter, I quickly went back to my e-mail to finish it.

I later got back to Firefox and had something to see:

I'm not implying anything, but what did you think that baby was holding at first?

P.S. This is my very first impulsive posting here! Hurraay!!

So you probably wonder why somebody would write something so controversial it was later pulled off Amazon (after becoming a bestseller) because, supposedly, the information former US army intelligence agent put in it was so powerful , it could easily be used to manipulate innocent people.

There were rumors about unfinished chapter and these were apparently true!

WARNING:
I've been told not to watch the above 2 minute video if I'm
overly-sensitive or if I have a cardio-vascular condition.

I'll tell you why it's being released again: because people need to be informed about these ideas so they may protect themselves.

Isn't it a shame when you've got a great content on one side, and a "blog design" on the other side so terrible people have to look away.
I don't care what somebody says, but blue font on black background is not cool, it's just C-R-U-E-L to my eyes, nothing more.

This post has been written mainly out of frustration but I'll make it worthwhile to those who desperately need some guidance.

And if you know about a website, a page or even a small book (it would have to be free) that will benefit these unfortunate newborn bloggers to stop terrorizing people, please post a comment and I'll gladly update this post.

I, for one, often return to one source for usability guidelines over and over again: http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/ .
Definitely bookmark this one. Better yet, read it :)

P.S. This doesn't apply only to bloggers, sadly...

~ Yoda in episode V of the Star Wars series

No I'm not a huge fan of the Star Wars. I liked what I've watched of the series, but I'm not that huge of a fan - okay, I'm more of a Star Trek fan if really you need to know.

But I digress once again. I just found this quote and thought how good it is and how I should memorize it.

Actually, I'm gonna try to explain it a bit further: Michael Licenblat mentioned it in his article where he talks about the assumptions we make of ourselves and how these same assumptions influence "what we try, achieve and believe" about ourselves.

And talking about our assumption of our own ability, he goes to explain that ability itself is irrelevant and only our assumptions about our ability will decide the degree of ability we exert.

In a sense, if we believe we can do it, we're more likely to do it than if we didn't believe it. That's so true . And now we're back to what Henry Ford once said, and what I mentioned last time :

“Whether you believe you can do it or not, you are right.”

There's so much to this principle but I'll cover it in more detail at another occasion. For now I'll let you read Michael Licenblat's article .

I often catch myself doing that mistake, only trying something until the resistance gets too big.

I'll try (pun intended) to do more than just try from now on.

~ Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States.

I always like to tell other people there's no point in thinking negative and always try to think positive myself.

Never really could explain to them * why * there's any point in thinking positive (this sentence sounds a bit negative, don't you think so?).

I don't know. I guess it always was a no-brainer to me and I would like to but I tend to not understand why certain people think negative most of the time.

Is it fear? Are they so called "experienced optimists"? Even so, I think sometimes you have to make a willing effort for thinking positively about something. I do this sometimes too.

I'm not talking being unrealistic, but believing in yourself and instead of giving up, questioning your abilities and asking yourself what else you CAN do -- to get to the positive outcome.

I think Henry Ford best summed it up when he said:

“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.”

Best Selling Author

While I have no desire to become a best-selling author, at least not yet, you may want to take this opportunity. Head over to his website to get more information. He's got this blueprint for becoming a best-selling Amazon author that made him do it 4 times so far.

But if you're like me and have no interest in writing a book soon and becoming a best-selling author, then by all means hurry up to at least snatch this free eBook he's giving away as part of the promotion (I'm not sure but he may pull it off once the new course is released today, on 26th of February PM Eastern time).

I apologize for such a short notice but I wanted to at least read the eBook to see of what value it is, and as you probably know how it goes: so many things to do, yet so little time to do it...

In this book, The Rise of The Author , he not only talks about the author but he talks about the these Technology Binds and gives (at least he gave me) another interesting view on for example Microsoft's success, and it's probable doom by Google, all explained through these Technology Binds .

Some truly revealing information in there...

Since I don't have time to write more about it at the moment I recommend you read that eBook yourself ASAP, even if you don't come from a publishing world.