Deep Green Crystals

November 17, 2008

The web is a crazy place

So in searching for valid interesting free offers, I came across one where a person offered 5 minutes of compliments.  Now that is interesting. How would that work?  Well I had to reply.  The person friended me on Facebook, then sent me this note:

Thats an awesome chair !

Nice hair cut!

Great painting in background!

Love the style that you choose on what your wearing

You seem like an awesome person!

You live in WA! and thats awesome!

You are republican! + :)

You own an awesome website!

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.deepgreencrystals.com%2F

You are a CEO and Chairman of something! That always says something!

And you have a sweet name!

 

Hey, it was free and put a smile on my face.  Now that is cool.

Posted by Martin at 8:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

Bike Sharing comes to DC

 

I have been riding my bike for two years.  This is a good trend.

Posted by Martin at 8:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

November 16, 2008

Where to have coffee?

Well I have my favorites. And I have alot of meetings in Coffee shops. It is a Seattle thing.  I can tell allot about someone by the coffee shop they suggest to meet at.  Greg over at Xconomy actually has started a list of the intersection between coffee shops and the Seattle start-up tech community.  Interesting list.  Check out who drinks where.  My favorite is of course Cafe Fiore (and yes I can be seen on my Segway there).

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November 14, 2008

Chris Pirillo on barter.

 

the geek layman’s explanation of barter ala SwapTree.

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What is the stuff in my garage worth?

Kijiji recently commissioned a study to figure out if American’s had stuff lying around the house they didn’t use (duh) and what it might be worth (that was more interesting). 

 

Now I have a second observation.  What level of cash is your cut-off for “not worth my timeâ€?  For me it is < $100.  Anything for which I will receive less than $100 it is not worth my time to deal with posting, offers, shipping, etc.  Just not worth it.  The fourth column that would be interesting there is the tax receipt value.  I would bet you that the tax benefit of donating say a Video Game console is greater than $4.

Posted by Martin at 8:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

November 13, 2008

Boeing plowing ahead with biojet

They will test fly an Air New Zealand plan on UOP derived Jatropha biojet.  Very cool to see this keep building in the light of the overall downturn in the biodiesel market.  Remember, Imperium made the first biojet for Boeing under my direction….

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November 12, 2008

Barstool economics

This has been going around the web.  It is attributed to an economics professor.  I like how it explains taxes, motivation and the current economic environment and potential reactions to different actions.

 

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten
comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would
go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with
the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to
reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.' Drinks for the ten now
cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes
so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for
free.

But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could
they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair
share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they
subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the
sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the
bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill
by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the
amounts each should pay.

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100%
savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four
continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the
men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He
pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a
dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I got'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10
back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't
get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks so the nine
sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay
the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have
enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors,
is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes
get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much,
attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up
anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the
atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

Posted by Martin at 3:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

November 11, 2008

trying out iList

here is their widget

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November 10, 2008

Maui Biodiesel continues to unwind

I said the MECO/BlueEarth was a a project that would never happen beginning. Now the lawyers are going to settle it.  What a mess.  Bummer for the health of the maui residents. They need to keep sucking in diesel fumes for a couple more years.

Posted by Martin at 12:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

ROI calculation on “Free” Mike and Ike contest

Mike & Ike Candy
click stock up, spin the wheel until you win
500 given each month
http://www.mikeandike.com/main.html

Ok, I went over there and the spinny wheel is kinda cute.  It is like a vegas slot machine.  But I pressed "spin" 100 times and never won.  Lets do the math.  500 winners per month.  That would be on average 6 winners per day (assuming a 30 day month), with 24 hrs is about one winner per 4 hours.  You can click the button about once a second if you are diligent.  That means that there are 60 sec x 60 min x 4 hours =14,400 clicks in the four hour period and they award one of them the prize. 

Now this is simple math assuming there is only one person clicking solid for 4 hours. And that the machine awards one every four hours.  It also doesn't account for other people clicking.  They may not, they may award one every XX clicks. It is impossible to know their algorythm. All these factors just make the odds go up against the player.   If the site is playing by the conservative rules, you should be able to sit there and click for four hours and be gauranteed to win a box of candy. 

Now what is your time worth?  Lets say $20/hr.  That means about $.33/minute.  $1 of your time is about 3 minutes. 

Summary:

Prize: $1 box of candy

Cost: Up to 4 hours of time and 14,400 clicks of the mouse.

BreakEven Calculation:  Click for 3 minutes, if you haven't won, move on, you are loosing money.

Posted by Martin at 7:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

November 8, 2008

A Barack O Bottom?

It is no secret that I think the Election of Barack O Socialist is going to create a very dark time in American history.  I also am smart/honest enough to point out any positive things that I see happening along the way.  There were a couple this week.

 

First, about 70% of the economic crisis is a crisis of “confidenceâ€.  When banks don’t know who to trust of  how to value the credit of a co-party they simply don’t loan money.  Confidence and “Hope†are close cousins.  So when the candidate of “Hope†wins, does “confidence†get a lift?  I have to report yes in my little corner of the world.   I have three pieces of real estate that are on the market.  For the last 3 months I have gotten basically zero interest as everyone hunkered down waiting for the election.  The day after the election I received five new inquiries on those properties.  Something changed. Something got those people out of their chairs and back into the market looking to put new money to work.  Maybe it was “Hopeâ€.  I sure “hope†so.  Maybe simply electing a new face can create a Barack O Bottom.  Lets hope so…

Posted by Martin at 7:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) |

November 3, 2008

Spoke at Social Entrepreneurship event tonight

over at U of W.  This is Susan Schreter’s class.  nice bunch eh?  Talked at some length about software and Energy and how all that led to Kashless.  During the Q&A one of the students asked “so what makes you a social entrepreneur?† I don’t think I did a good job answering it there and I don’t think they liked my answer. My answer at the time was “I don’t think of myself as a social entrepreneur, only an entrepreneur.†  “You have to focus on money first, anything else is gravy.†

But on the drive back, I started thinking deeper.  What is a “social entrepreneurâ€?  Well, someone who works for things in addition to money.  I have retired twice. I have a nice house in Hawaii.  Why I am I still working?  Which is more important, make money or do good?  I think the students were looking for a bright line.  I am not sure there is one, but I have come up with mine. 

A social entrepreneur is an entrepreneur first (makes money) and does good second. 

If you get the social part right and get the entrepreneur part wrong, you run out of money and have nothing.  If you get the entrepreneur part right and the social part wrong, you can always work on it later because you are making money and are sustainable.  Non-profit = non-sustainable. Then the question becomes “how much money?† If you wan to be an entrepreneur to make as much money as possible you are probably not a social entrepreneur.  If you have already made some money or have come to the point in your life where you realize there is more to life than money and you still want to be an entrepreneur, you may be getting closer to a social entrepreneur.  But make no mistake about it, the “social†part without the “entrepreneur†part is just a Socialist. 

Posted by Martin at 9:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

EnerG2 gets funding

$8.5M for carbon materials for ultra capacitors.  this is a deal that went through NWEA and got some funding and I have been tracking for some time.  Congrats Rick!  And congrats OVP.

Posted by Martin at 9:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

October 29, 2008

Searching for project management tool

Every startup has too much work and not enough resources. Most startups fail due to poor execution versus market. I have used alot of different tools over the years and have never found one that I totally love. Starting a new company gives me an excuse to check out the latest offerings. Here are a couple early impressions of a few.

What I am looking for
- a tool for me (CEO) to manage company goals and tasks at a high level across departments
- something light weight but still useful
- Hopefully some kind of mobile strategy since 1/2 my time thinking about to-do/goals I only have my mobile device.
- Integration with email /calendar (outlook) that works.

Initial thoughts: Liquid Planner

met the CEO at barbecue this weekend. Billed as "where basecamp leaves off and replacement for MS Project". I was intrigued as I found basecamp way too lightweight and toyish and MS project WAY too gandt chart old schoolish. The key to this online system is their intelligent scheduling engine. You can tell right away that is designed to manage big projects with lots of resources and lots of management time to manage schedules. It is really a software or web site development project management tool. I tried setting up general business goals but a couple of things were lacking.
1. no goal/task relationship. just tasks and how those tasks relate to a project folder.
2. No good import feature (my current task list in MS Tasks).
3. my (one employee) is not very technical and the interface was too developerish, she couldn't easilly figure it out.
4. The tool wants you to associate lots of docs and links in their tool with a task. I tend to want separate the company document store from the task manager. Going back to find stuff later is easier that way.

Initial reaction: Too development focused, not general business management tool. Pass.

PlanHQ.com. billed as a start-up goal/task manager it delivers just that. No fancy doc storage or sophisticated scheduling, but some neat board report stuff and basic goal/task management. What i like
1. goal/task relationship
2. good email integration and calendar (although iCal not outlook)
3. simple set up.
4. cross department task managment.

What it still needs
1. ability to make more departments (they only offer three)
2. full screen goal list (only support drop down, no clear priority)
3. better outlook integration
4. more printing or output options for goals/tasks by person, etc.
5. more area for notes.

Initial impression: This is a good basic C level goal/task manager. Works fine for now. I have set up all our company goals and tasks in it. Will try it for a month and report back.

Posted by Martin at 3:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) |

A nice couch is a good thing

Over at a friend's house. One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is read the paper and maybe nap on the couch. This is one of the most comfortable I have found. Dania. Reminds me of when I used to run the Seattle Couch Museum, but that is another story entirely.

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October 24, 2008

Fred Thompson makes it clear what is at stake

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October 23, 2008

Some formative experiences that lead to Kashless.org

Early in 2008 I was cleaning out my garage and had a bunch of stuff that hadn't been used in forever.  A seven year old mountain bike, a twice ridden wake board, a lightly used work out bench, a blow up pool, two snow sleds, a beginner kids bike, some garage shelves, a garden hose, an old pair of skis, a too small snowboard, you know the kinda stuff I'm talking about.  Since the stuff had originally cost me quite a bit and it wasn't really trash yet, I thought to sell it.  Two weeks and tens of hours spent posting stuff on multiple sites, emailing and calling tons of people, waiting around the house, dealing with no-shows, flakes, bounced checks and some downright scary people I had only sold one thing - the mountain bike - for half the asking price. 

 

So I decided to give it away, but I wanted it to go to someone who actually needed the stuff and would use it.  I tried the free sharing/giving networks my friends recommended.  More posting to multiple sites, three weeks and even MORE waiting, no shows, flakes, (no bounced checks Yea!) and no information about the people who were asking for my cherished stuff.  In the end I got rid of everything but it was WAY TOO HARD and took way too much time/energy/effort.  Heck, I was trying to give something away for free! 

 

During this time I was also looking for a white board for my home office.  I know there are lots of white boards lying around after office moves, in my friend's basements, etc.  After visiting multiple sites, doing multiple searches (no saved searches - ARGH!), and blogging the need of a white board, none came into my life.  So I went out and bought a new one.  Two days later a friend who follows my Twitter feed said "hey I wish I knew you were looking for a white board, I have an extra one under my desk!"  Oops, more consumption where it was not necessary. 

These are some the formative experiences that have led to the idea of Kashless.org.

The Workout Bench:

The blow Up Pool

 

An extra harley Davidson Fatboy Seat

7 year old Canyondale Jekyll (originally $3,700)

The too small wakeboard

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Well broken in fixie in SFO two weeks ago

gotta love the seat (brooks@!) and the basket!

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Cool fixie seen in Value Village last week

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Look ma, me and Sarah and John

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Oddly agreeing with Friedman

He has been wrong on alot of economic and tax policy, but he is right on renewables and clean tech. Today in the Treason Times, he rightly points out that the economic crisis is going to be the beginning or the end of green. Either we will continue our revised habits from $4.50/gal gas and demands for the end of oil addiction or we will lapse into complacency (again) like the last time. Americans need to understand that this is not the last time. Oil prices are going back to $150/barrel very soon. I predict within two years. The fundamentals of supply/demand have not changed. The only thing that changed is a strengthening US dollar and an unwinding of extreeme financial leverage causing a rush out of commodities into cash. We still can't afford the SUVs.

Posted by Martin at 9:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

October 20, 2008

TED spread shrinking, money moving again

Thank Ben. Down 5.136% today. 2.83. Money moving again, especially america to europe. Still historically high, but better. This had better keep going down. If it goes back into the 1.5 range we are starting to see light.

Posted by Martin at 8:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

October 19, 2008

Second Chrome bug

I have been watching alot of stuff on Hulu. It uses Adobe Flash player. Hulu plays fine on Firefox under vista. It finds the right speakers and plays videos. In Chrome, the video plays and the audio is silent. There is no place I can find to reset where the audio is going to. In Chrome, the regular windows sounds work, as does Pandora. Maybe it has something to do with the interaction between Hulu and Chrome which I haven't figured out yet. Back to Firefox.

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