I didn’t chime in during the conversation, because as I said that topic alone could have filled that hour, and I love DOCC for it’s variety. That doesn’t mean i can’t expand here tho :)

And despite the title, I’m anti business plan. Tom and I started 360|Conferences without one. We’re not rocking millions worth of sales and such, but we’re doing ok.

My strongest (and it came up at DOCC) argument against a business plan is that it forces you into the conventional wisdom of the sector you’re looking to get into. Had we known about conferences we either wouldn’t have started the company, or would have started YAOC (Yet Another Overpriced Conference). But not knowing anything about events helped us to avoid that path. And frankly if you look at the market, we led the space on conferences that don’t cost an arm and a leg to attend. Had we looked at everyone else we’d offer lots of meals, have a seperate expo space, charge too much, etc. etc.

I’ve no doubt many of our stumbles would have been avoided as well, but those helped us hone our business more.

I watched Tom try to do a business plan for another company (he fired me from it) and it went nowhere. He spent weeks, maybe months fussing about the business plan, making it just right etc. And since he wasn’t shopping the idea for funding the plan really just sat there.

Like I said I’m not 100% Plans are bad, it might make sense for you. But the argument that you can’t start without one is bunk. It was funny, we talked about white boarding and the pro plan folks threw out “That’s a business plan too” which i don’t know that I agree with.

So yeah, play it by ear on your needs, but if someone tells you that you won’t succeed without a business plan, they’re trying to sell you their services in writing business plans. Or they’re not running a business and are trying to scare you out of doing it too.

Ok that’s done. So… Bike To Work Day. Nicole and I have participated in Bike to Work day for I think 3 years now. It’s an awesome event, and a fun morning. Even though I worked from home and now work from Uncubed, the coworking space I run, I still go out and “bike to work” because it’s awesome. Denver is a bike city. And it’s great to see so many other cool folks on the road doing what (usually) they do anyways, but with a celebratory edge.

The day starts with riding around downtown Denver stopping at various stations for breakfast and energy (courtesy of great companies!) and ends with an awesome party at Cactus.

I threw a banner up on the side bar, click that and check the site out, it’s a great reason to go outside!

See ya around town!

Ok that said, I’m not an American car guy. in fact I’ve never

owned, been inclined to own, or liked anything made in America. Sure there’s some nice whips coming out of Detroit, but none made me want to walk away from my beloved Austrian Engineering.

While I’m not about to sell my paid off A4 to get a Volt, if my situation was different, the Volt would be a contender.

But the Volt is a nice looking ride. Externally it’s a sporty little hatchback, with clean lines and some definite aggressiveness. The headlights (usually my first impression is based on them) are nice and angular. They were your basic Halogen, which felt cheap to me.

Before I go inside, my only complaints on the exterior are: the mirrors are a bit big and stick out like Alfalfa’s ears, and at least on the model I drove, weren’t automatic when parking, etc. And the front end sticks a bit out from the wheels. Even with just me in the car, pulling out of the alley I park in caused some scraping. My A4 with sport suspension has no issues. Big nose.

Ok interior stuff.

The inside is pretty nice. A good amount of brushed alum, which always adds class :)

The console is all touch button goodness,  with very few actual moving buttons. I found the interior quite nice, which is usually what I hate the most about american cars. Chrome does not make something that sucks, better on it’s own.

My unit came with Navigation, it was ass.  One of the worst UX’s I’ve ever seen. The screen was way too busy, the touch screen (oh yeah, the center screen is a touch screen!) buttons were confusing, and overall it wasn’t fun to use. Worse yet, if you were moving you couldn’t use it. On the move and need to change your destination? Too bad. Find yourself lost, too bad. I understand it’s a safety feature, my car displays a disclaimer that the passenger should be the one to use the nav while in motion. The Volt straight up locks the user out of the Nav until you come to a stop.

This is one of the less busy nav screens.

As you can see, the buttons are quite nice, pretty responsive.

The only downside of this dashboard…. It’s packed with buttons. A few times I found myself driving and staring at the dash trying to find the button to change the temperature or radio station.

Much like a prius the Volt has a gas motor as well. Unlike the Prius the motor is just to generate electricity, not provide drive power. Accelerating simply takes more juice, but you never get a bump from an engine.

The battery is only good for about 30 miles or so, then you switch to the gas motor. It’s very flawless, I didn’t even feel it. If your daily drive was under 40 miles you’d almost never use gas as long as you got to charge the car at night. If you could plug in during the day you’d be golden.

Also like the the Prius, the Volt has a mesmerizing display showing energy usage and flow as well as a fun little ball that bobs up and down to show you how your driving is impacting energy usage. The data and graph types will love the display. It’s chock full of neat tidbits about your driving and energy usage.

I can see why Prius people love to draft, you quickly get to a place where you want that ball to be neutral at least. Once you’ve used up your battery, I’m pretty sure you’re done. I did notice once or twice “Motor and Battery” as the driving force, but once I was on gas, it never that I saw went to “battery power” only. I wish when idling or coasting, the motor would charge the battery. Maybe it does, since on 110 it takes 8 hours to charge it, the motor just may not make a dent.

Speaking of charging, the Volt does not like sharing outlets. Twice i popped my GFI outlet while having the Volt.

I was definitely bummed when they said they needed it back, it was a fun car to drive. I was very impressed. I got tons of questions and everyone i saw asked about it, which was cool. I definitely hope to see more vehicles like the volt in the marketplace. I really… REALLY hope Audi rolls something like it out. While I do love my Turbo charger, I might sway to the Hybrid side.

Oh and the storage space.. While no where near a sport back like the A4, it did hold two full sized suitcases, and then some, so that’s not bad.

Lately they’ve added to the Board of Directors which is what caused the twitter discussion. I should be clear I have no problems with anyone on the list, and actually really respect Joel Spolsky. However no one on that list represents the “app maker” community. Sure many of them employ and manage app developers. Some of them make money from developers leveraging their platform, some of them love talking about apps. But for something called the “App Developers Alliance” I’d expect people actively developing apps to be on the BOD. And that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I mean as a comparison, Appsterdam is run by people making apps. Not people managing people who make apps, or people who invest in apps, or who want to sell ad networks to app makers. It’s run by coders.

It seems the whole point of the alliance is to bring together those who have platforms they want developers to use (buy), and then, well I don’t know what after that. Looking at the service discounts, it’s a mix of companies that represent the BOD’s employers or investments, which seems a little shady to me.

They’re also not open to criticism it seems because After Tim and I made our points the conversation went dead. I personally avoid companies who can’t operate transparently, ESPECIALLY when it comes to criticisms. It’s also worrisome that when confronted on the lack of app developers on the BOD, the conversation ends.

I’m not (yet) condemning the concept of the App Developers Alliance, but I am seriously questioning it’s motives, and will be watching with great interest. I think things like 360|iDev and 360|Flex would be a perfect fit. Not from a sponsor standpoint (they do mention loving to sponsor events, but I suspect that’s just for marketing purposes). I think events that are really and truly focused on the developer community make a ton of sense for an organization that also claims to be focused on the developer community. If our focuses align, it seems like a great fit. The “if” is the big question right now, and I’m waiting to see if there’s an answer.

Their reasons for not being fans of kickstarter are their own, and while I agree Kickstarter needs some overhauling, I’m not opposed to it in general, in fact I’ve backed 3 things.

I do think they should take a little oversight, and implement some rules. I don’t normally like rules for the sake of rules, but a good case in point is a project I backed called “The Present”. I backed it in late 2011. It funded the next month. The planned ship date was “beginning of 2012″ well even loosely, that would be what? First quarter? I backed it because the intro movie was incredibly inspirational to me. I backed it because at the time, time was on my mind.

16 updates since funding, no new ship date is known, and the creator (I’m sure a great guy) seems to be traveling the globe, making (admittedly) very cool videos to share with backers on his thoughts on all manner of things. He also mixes in moaning about not finding the right mediums for the product, not being able to have it made in the US. He’s basically started from scratch after funding. It might have been mentioned, but I don’t recall US manufacturing being a factor in the initial “please back me” phase. If it was, perhaps he should have worked out arrangements ahead of time to ensure it was possible. I’ve no idea what it will be made of, the initial information was metal and glass. Two things I like a lot. Then he was talking about wood, no glass, and now I don’t recall what he’s thinking of using. Definitely not the experience Kickstarter wants. At least I assume they don’t want this type of experience.

Obviously things happen, but I think it’s fair if Kickstarter had some rules in place  to make sure the people getting backed had the ability to deliver. Whether that’s more escrowing of money or something else I don’t know. But had I know the thing I bought (I actually bought two. one was to be a gift) wasn’t gonna make it’s ship date, and then wouldn’t have a ship date, I wouldn’t have backed it. He’s got my money, in fact he’s had it for 5 months now. The thing I eventually get, may not even look anything like the thing I backed. That’s pretty crappy.

Of course other projects rock, they fund, they create, the ship. More importantly when they update the backers, they actually give new information. I love my Lunatik iWatch, and I’m anxious to get my LunaTik stylus thing next month.

So yeah I’m being way more careful now in backing Kickstarter projects. I love the idea of crowd funding, but worry now we’ll see projects fund that sound great, and never deliver.

Figured I’d throw this out really quick.

I like iOS 5. It’s better than Ice Cream Sandwich.

the iPad(3) means my Xoom is being sold to offset the cost of an iPad.

So yeah not at all disappointed.

Two people over twitter asked about coworking. Our awesome friends of Uncubed all chimed in without our asking and recommended Uncubed. That’s awesome in and of itself. We love that the community feels strongly enough about us that they’ll recommend us.

Both guys seemed interested and we made sure they knew we’d love to have them come check the space out. Both seemed like they intended to do just that.

Then yesterday (the initial twitter exchange was about 2 weeks ago or so) one tweets that Uncubed and another space nearby are out. Too shady of neighborhoods and too far from downtown. Say what? He spent one day at another coworking space, and formed that strong of an opinion?

The other guy, replies and says he too ruled us out for similar reasons. (He never tried either space as far as I know) We tried talking to both who clearly don’t know the neighborhood or downtown for that matter. One even went so far as to say Taxi was in a better spot. I love Taxi but that place is just past East Bum Fuck at the corner of “nowhere” and “Hard to get to”

Oh, Unucbed, is the “A” and Taxi is the arrow. If “better area” means nothing around and only one road in or out, then yeah I guess Taxi is better.

One questioned whether his car would be safe when he worked at night… Jake pointed out that the hundreds of people who come thru Uncubed for meetups each month, plus members who work late have never once, had an issue. As a resident I can say, the only cars I’ve seen broken into (and yes it does happen, just like it does anywhere in downtown) are the cars that look like they’ve got good stuff and are left for a while and clearly not being paid attention too.

It was clear in their tweets with us and others who chimed in to defend the neighborhood, that neither knows the area. Hell neither even ever came to Uncubed to try it out. But while part of me wanted to convince them they were wrong and win their business, another part (which won out) pointed out that it was a losing battle. Some one who’d made a decision with little or no facts or research, isn’t likely to change their mind in the face of contrary evidence. The fact that our “shady neighborhood” is also where my house is, home to several great bars, many awesome indie coffee shops, tons of small businesses etc. clearly wasn’t a factor. Maybe it’s because there’s less sidewalks?

It was clear, neither would be members. The community that is Uncubed wasn’t important, something else was, and we didn’t have it. It still stung to be ruled out without even having a chance tho.

At any rate, since I can’t rail against those two guys directly because that’s bad business and plain silly, I’ll blog about them so I can have the last word in an argument they didn’t know they were having. After all isn’t that largely what blogging is about? :)

I’ve railed about this before, but wanted to bring it back to the top. It’s simple, I have money, and I want to spend it. BUT I want to spend it on what I want, not a bundle of shit with a few nuggets of goodness in it. That means I don’t want ESPN, I don’t want MTV or Nicktoons and I certainly don’t want Lifetime, but I do want HBO, USA, the main networks, FX, etc. I’d pay per network or per show. But I’m not against paying people who make content for that content. I’m also not against suffering through ads in exchange for it (within reason)

I’ve been paying for Hulu+ since it went live. Many networks were onboard and I want to pay them for their content….  Except… The only way Hulu is usable is if you use the desktop app, because of licensing bullshit, the mobile apps can’t show certain shows, some are web only, etc. The desktop client skirted that shit and we could watch whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, on our TV via a Macbook running the desktop app.

Too bad Hulu’s desktop app is a red-headed step child and hasn’t been updated in years. Not only is it not updated, but now it’s so old that if you update your Flash player, the app breaks. So you have to choose, new flash or hulu.

Ok fine, the PS3 has a hulu client and is HD with surround vs. our Macbook that is simply stereo. Except… The PS3 client is hamstrung with all those stupid licensing rules. Some ABC shows are ‘web only’ All USA and Sci Fi shows are too. So now I’m paying for shows I basically can’t watch. Why can I watch Castle on the  PS3, but not (it’s for my wife) The Bachelor?

So what’s the solution? Torrents. I was already torrenting CBS programming because they won’t be a part of Hulu and have even said they believe “cord cutting” is a fad that will pass and are willing to wait it out rather than offer streaming options.

The downside of torrenting TV programming is that the network doesn’t know I’m watching. The advertising don’t get my attention, and the net effect can be canceled shows, etc. It’s a trade off, be treated like shit, or risk not being counted as a viewer. I choose to not be treated like I don’t matter.

All that said, Dear CBS, ABC, Fox, HBO and the rest. Figure it out, it’s 2012. We don’t fax things anymore, we don’t gather round to watch TV when it airs, and we don’t want to pay for things we don’t want. Adjusting is up to you, not us the consumers. We’ve moved into the 21st century, and we’re waiting for you to join us.

My friend Dave (@courier_new) asked some questions clarifying my position, so I thought I’d write my thoughts up (not new here, check the eBooks category) in a bit more than 140 chars.

Publishers are fighting companies like Amazon on eBook pricing. Many have won with agency pricing. Agency pricing lets the publisher set the price and more often than not you see this.

The publisher has set the digital price to be the same as the Mass Market Paperback.

Here’s why that sucks and is the wrong path. BTW Dave’s argument which was “aren’t you paying for the content, not the medium?” is very valid, and I’ll explain below why it’s flawed (at least right now).

I very much would pay the same price for dead tree or digital if the same rights existed on both. But that’s not the case because while the publishers want to rape us on eBook prices, they don’t trust us to actually own the content.

if I bought the paperback, I could sell it. I could lend it out as many times as I wanted. I could trade it for another book at a used book store. I could do whatever the hell I wanted with it, since I paid for it.

If i bought the ebook, I could do none of those things. Well I might be able to lend it to someone… once, for 14 days, if the publisher decided to allow that feature (most don’t). Hell I can’t even have my kindle read my book to me, because publishers think it takes away audio book sales.  So by purchasing an ebook, well purchase is wrong, I’m actually renting since I don’t own the content, I’m paying the same price, but getting far less.

Some examples that help clarify my thoughts. Would you lease a car for the same monthly payment as owning it? Would you rent a house, for the same monthly payment as owning it? Would you rent a movie for the same price as owning it? Most likely the answers to those are all ‘no’

So yeah if I could do the same thing with a digital book as I could with a paper one, paying the same price would make complete sense. I’ve already written about why I don’t think eBooks should cost as much since there’s far less involved in their creation, but that aside, I agree with Dave, it’s the content I want to pay for, but it’s the rights around that content that (at least right now) are out of whack with the prices.

He’s been around the block; helped found companies, worked for Apple, and most recently starting an international movement called Appsterdam. He’s spoken at more events than I can count, thankfully that includes my events. Of all the speakers I’ve worked with, Mike raises the bar. He preps like no one’s business, and puts his heart and soul into the presentation. And he doesn’t repeat and recycle his talks. Each is a unique work that he puts a lot of energy into.

But this isn’t about Mike as a presenter. It’s about Mike as a super smart guy. A while back Mike did a thing where he announced he was charging $1,000/hour for consulting. That’s a steep price tag, but when you consider that it’s not just an hour of slinging code, though it could be if you wanted. It’s an hour of Mike’s time. Having been the recipient of an hour or two of Mike’s time I can tell you, it’s worth $1,000 easy. Thankfully he hasn’t sent me the bill yet :)

Mike doesn’t hold back or sugar coat things, or tell you what you want to hear. He tells you the truth, but it’s couched in an honest desire to help you. I’m making changes to the way I do conferences because of Mike’s input. Spoken honestly and intended to make my events better. It’s eye opening when you hear stuff that makes you realize you’re doing it wrong or going down a bad path.

On the smart people thing, Tom has started something new. Tom and Mike are really similar in that they want to help others. It’s not ego, it’s giving back, and helping people. Tom and I have talked a lot about this and I’m, glad he’s giving this a try. One of our shelved business ideas was antiMBA. A business consulting service aimed at offering real world practical advice.. you know counter to what most MBAs dish out. We’d seen businesses we worked for and businesses we liked do truly stupid things, that had they asked someone who had some common sense and real world experience they wouldn’t have done.

Tom excels at solving problems. We’ve written code together and he’s a great coder, but his strength is solving problems. Lots of people can code, few can solve problems. Tom decided that maybe his business should be just that, solving problems. I think it’s a good move.

Whether you’re starting a business, or just trying to solve a problem in your existing business, Mike and Tom are two people you should talk to. The money you spend getting their feedback will be money well spent, and likely to save you far more money in the short and long term. During 360|MacDev I got to watch Mike be Mike and it reminded me (I didn’t need to be reminded, but still) how awesome he is. The night before the conference a bunch of folks gathered in the hotel bar. I had only met one or two of them at 360|iDev or MacDev in the past, most were new to the conference. Mike came and hung out and while having my own conversations I watched Mike. He engaged folks, met new people and really made them feel a part of the community and the conference. He wasn’t holed up in his room or out with the A-List crowd or anything like that. He was talking to attendees and sharing a good time. Tom is much the same. When we started 360|Conferences and started holding evening receptions, he made it his job to work the room, find the person in the corner and go talk to them. He’d learn about that person, and then walk them over to a group he knew they’d click with based on that short conversation. Then he’d bow out and do it again, and again. Introducing people to each other, ensuring that no attendee ever felt that like they were alone at the conferences. I try to follow his example still, and it’s not always easy, but the feeling you get is incredible.

Mike and Tom are two people I count on tremendously. I’m not normally a decision by committee person, but when I don’t feel able to make a decision myself I’m glad I have awesome, crazy smart and insightful people to ask. Oh and Mike and Tom aren’t the only smart people in my arsenal of brains, but they’re the two who have things that you can pay them for.

Oh and some companies that I think might benefit from spending some money on Mike and Tom;

• O’Reilly (love ‘em but they’re way too into themselves to see what they’re doing wrong)
• DC Comics (see above)
• Marvel Comics (see DC)
• CBS (the CEO is on record as saying ‘cutting the cable’ is a fad, and people will come back. We’re actually tormenting your content you dork)
• Hulu (i pay $8 and see just as many ads, BUT have access to the Buffy and Angel back Catalog, AND shows still expire like 30 rock. WTF)
• Netflix (Quickster….)
• HBO (I’d pay good money for Game of Thrones, but HBO Go is tied to a cable subscription…. To The Torrents!)

Those are just the ones I can think of right now that Have either seriously blundered lately or have fallen to new lows of lameness because they no longer see past their previous success/fame and need new perspectives. They’re also all companies that I as a consumer, would gladly give money if they weren’t being lame about it.