A Good but Slow way to get a logo designed for your company...

Recently, a friend asked me to pick my favorites out of a sample set of logos made for his company. It turns out he was using crowdSPRING.com, an online marketplace for creative services. How it works is you post your need for a creative project and a community of creative professionals will see your post and the ones that are interested will submit their work/samples. I have heard of crowdSPRING (cS) before but never had a chance to really take a look closely but this time around, I had a reason to actually use it.



My first reaction was that the site was slow and unresponsive. The usability wasn't top notch either. However, at the end of the day, it still got the job done. I think the people at cS have come up with a great idea but their engineering / IT team has a ways to go to to make this a product that I will actually enjoy using.

There's one other thing that I am a bit puzzled about and it could be because I haven't had the time to dig deeper. That is what if I don't find something that I like out of all the submits for my posted project? Am I still required to pick one and pay? What governs the quality assurance aspect of this marketplace?

BBC News: Windows Worm Numbers "Skyrocket"

Over the weekend, I received an abnormal amount of calls from friends about not being able to boot their computers. Turns out that most of them have caught malicious worms that have recently been flying around via e-mails and live messenger. Some of them might also derive from users that seem to use a lot of BT. Here's the pattern that identifies the similarities between all the victims I have spoken to over the weekend: All of them didn't have proper anti-virus protection installed on their computers and that most of them at the same time also use their computers for important business functions along side personal usage. Mean while, this article popped up on BBC:



With the rising number of malicious viruses and worms out there, here's my 2 cents:

Go get a copy of AVG. It takes care of both viruses and spyware while being low on resource consumption. Keep that up-to-date religiously, and also keep your windows updates coming. This is a simple solution that has worked very well for most of my clients and friends that take my advice. *knock on wood* ;) That said, nothing is full proof but security practices are all about reducing risk rather than attempting the impossible; complete elimination. Even so, you will loose quite a few less gray hairs as long as you do your due diligence on reducing risk.

Soonr: Powerful cloud services platform

It has been a while now and I have heard numerous times, "You never update your blog anymore!" So I am going to try to pop my head back up out of the water. Since I last updated, I decided to give in and purchased an iPhone because my Samsung Blackjack II was starting to act up after being dropped in the washer... I know... don't ask... =P I must say though, I am pretty impressed with the iPhone and am generally very happy with it. I also got used to the soft keyboard pretty quickly just like everyone told me I would. However, there are still 3 grips that I have about the iPhone which has probably been written all over the web already:

1. No MMS support...
2. Lack of bluetooth capabilities
3. No video recorder unless you hack the hell out of your iPhone (subjective)

In any case, back to the main topic. I recently ran across Soonr, a "desktop to cloud to iPhone" technology/service via Venture Beat.



I finally gave it a try today and thought that it works amazingly well. This is definitely something that can prove to be useful in a collaborative environment especially since a lot of my co-workers and friends all have iPhones as well. I also have a few documents that I constantly update like my billable hours that I some times would like a quick glimpse of w/o having to open up my laptop while I am on the road which I can now do with Soonr. Best of all, the service is free! Now I just hope that they come out w/ some simple document editing features so I can also do last minute edits and such on the fly. Give it a try and let me know what you all think! =)

GetHundos Launched!

It's been a crazy month and things will continue to be crazy until mid August when I wrap up some of my heavy engagements which means I will continue to be bad at updating this blog. I apologize in advance for that. On that note, here's something that I felt was important enough to squeeze in amidst my crazy schedule:



After months of hard work by my good friends Leo, Adam, and their team plus a round of diligent alpha testing by their close friends and investors, gethundos.com beta has finally launched! =) I am very excited for them and the site has already gained quite a bit of traction with their first target audiences at the University of Washington. For now, only users with a u.washington.edu e-mail address can register through their site or any other .edu address if you are invited by a Washington friend. However, if any of you who don't have a .edu address and would still like to give this site a run for its money, just give me a shout and I'll hook you up with an account! ;)

So what's this site all about? Well, looks like someone has already beat me to announcing their launch and did a very good job of describing the site so here it is:

GetHundos Targets UW Students With Themed Contests

Congrats to the GetHundos team! Keep up the good work! =)

Update [10-12-2009]: GetHundos has evolved into Cheddr Media about half a year or so ago. You can also find them on Twitter: @cheddrmedia =)

Why I won't buy an iPhone 3G anymore...

A lot of publications have been covering the iPhone 3G's new terms with AT&T so I won't keep you long on what's already covered. Here are the bullet points on why I won't get an iPhone 3G anymore:

1. increase in data plan price by $10/mo and technically $20/mo for corporate use
2. No text messaging included with the data plan
3. I am currently an AT&T customer that's not yet eligible for an upgrade so it won't be just $199 for me.
4. No usb cable to charge while syncing

Here's a more in depth article about the iPhone 3G and its terms with AT&T from Venture Beat.

A Seattle Stealth Mode Startup Closing on Launch

According to insider information ;) , the alpha release of Leo Chen & Adam Schoenfeld's web application will launch within 2 weeks. Without violating my NDA with them, all I can reveal is that it will be a fun & competitive venue for consumers and an excellent marketing platform for businesses. By "excellent marketing platform," I mean it will have a truly viable marketing mechanism. (ie. not your avg target advertising BS =P) They are currently busy putting in finishing touches in preparation to give it a run for its money. I have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of what the site looks like and I must say that I am excited to see it work its magic when it comes time. It definitely has a lot of potential.

I have known Leo personally since the early 90's and he has always been impressively intelligent. I don't remember one thing that he failed in given his whole hearted attempt. This will be yet another challenge that I am sure I will witness him conquer.

With that said, good luck to the whole team on the upcoming launch!

Firefox 3 Release Fumble

What an infrastructure bust! This is a prime example of why an awesome piece of software with great developers alone can't bring success to a product. Without proper attention to IT and operations, you loose market share and sometimes, customer confidence (not so much in this case for the latter).

For those who aren't aware of what I am talking about, here's a post by VentureBeat.com that describes today's mishap for Mozilla.

I am not saying it's easy to manage an infrastructure that is capable of facilitating a world wide simultaneous download nor do I necessarily think that a world wide simultaneous download is a good idea but if a company decides to hype up the world about it, it better follow through with diligent planning and implementation that will yield better results than what was seen by us today. I am personally a huge fan of Mozilla but this event was definitely a disappointment. If I was the director in-charge of delivering this release, I would think long and hard about how I ensure this never happens again.

On another note, Firefox 3.0 is great! I am seeing a lot of improvements and have been a happy FF3 user all morning. =) Good job on that Mozilla and volunteers! Keep up the good work! I am as always extremely appreciative of all your hard work! =)