The project I have been working on since I started at Crowd Fusion finally launched today: Obsessable.com. I want to say thanks to everyone on the Crowd Fusion team; great job! I am especially proud of the product comparator which I worked really hard on. The first comparator available, Big and Beautiful HDTVs, let’s you interactively compare products in a clean and functional interface. Check it out and if you like what you see, stay tuned, because more comparators will be arriving shortly and version 2.0 will blow your socks off! Also, check out our mention on Silicon Valley Insider: Crowd Fusion’s Gadget Site Obsessable.com Launches To Take On Engadget, Gizmodo.
Blogsco.com
A blog about the cool stuff that happens to Rosco with a light dusting of technogeekery.
The Commerce Bank Bike Philly 2008 happened on Sunday and we had the opportunity to volunteer as course marshals. We were positioned at 5th and Race next to the Mint. Our job was to guide riders through the intersection onto Race St. Fortunately we were assigned a position at the beginning of the ride allowing us to hop on our bikes and do the 35 mile loop with the rest of the participants. How often do you get to ride around a large, historic city on your bicycle on a beautiful day when all the streets are closed? It was amazing! Check out the Bike Philly flickr group
for some more pics of the event and don’t forget to participate next year!
I recently started working from home full-time and I am facing a few new challenges. One of the biggest challenges is communicating well with my team members. Since I just started last week, I am still getting used to everyone; their styles, personalities, and sense of humor in the chat room. We use Campfire for work-related discussion; I am expected to be in the “Development” chat room when I am working. We also use Skype for casual talking and group conference calls. Occasionally we use iChat for screen sharing and audio chat. In order to communicate effectively with these technologies you need to have a good headset with a microphone. We all use MacBook’s and they have wonderful built-in audio hardware (and a video camera), but the microphone on the MacBook Pro’s is placed too close to the speaker. This causes annoying feedback when using audio conferencing through the computer.
I fortunately bought a Logitech ClearChat Pro USB not too long ago. This headset is amazing (for the price: $50). It uses a single USB connection, which powers the headset, and provides a dedicated audio interface. It doesn’t require any drivers (on the Mac). It has an extra long cord. It’s very comfortable and has convenient mute and volume buttons on the earpiece. The sound performance for listening to music is also great. This gadget (or something similar) is mandatory when using online audio conferencing applications on a daily basis. I strongly recommend that everyone on my team get one of these!
If you don’t want to buy a headset, you can try these other tricks to reduce feedback:
- Turn down the volume.
- Plug in external speakers and point them in the opposite direction of the microphone.
- Plug in normal audio (iPod) headphones and use the built-in microphone of your laptop.
- Get a directional microphone and position it away from the speakers.
One other cool thing to mention about the Logitech headphones: when you plug them in, Skype automatically switches the default audio device to the headphones-no need to drill into preferences!
I hope you found this post useful. If you have additional suggestions for eliminating audio feedback or want to share your audio conferencing setup, please leave a comment!
Well yesterday was another big day… I turned in my 2006 Infiniti G35 coupe to the dealership. It was a sad day, but I no longer need an expensive sports car especially when I don’t have to drive to work anymore. This has been the second sports car I had to give up. My first was a 1994 Mazda RX-7 Twin-Turbo (that was an even sadder day).
During the drive from my house to the dealer, I tested: the brakes, the gas pedal, the speedometer, the cornering, and the low fuel gauge. I did not get a ticket and everything went very smoothly.
So here’s to an empty driveway, more money in my bank account, and fond memories!
Today marks a significant event in my life: a job transition. I’m saying goodbye to my old company, whom I’ve been with for the last 7 years and I’m saying hello to my new company, Crowd Fusion. I am also saying goodbye to my old, stagnant blog and hello to this new, fresh, to-be-more-frequently-updated blog! I decided to take a different direction with my blog this time around: create a vision and stick to it!
A vision, whether it’s a blog vision or a company vision is something that the people associated with that entity strive to acheive. The definition of vision according to the official Apple Dictionary is:
the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom
So the vision that I came up with for this blog is simply stated in the site header above. I plan to write about the cool things that happen to me and the cool things I do along with my opinions and findings on various technology subjects. The vision could change and probably will over time, but I will always have a vision for this blog and it will force me to stay focused with my content. (BTW: If you like the content subscribe to my feed.)
Now, you might be wondering where I am going with all this. One of the reasons I couldn’t stay at my previous employer any longer is because they didn’t have a vision. On the other hand, Crowd Fusion has a very exciting and ambitious vision. Here are the two visions for comparison:
Previous employer’s vision is to have 100 people working for the company by 2009 and to meet a revenue target so everyone will receive the team bonus.
Crowd Fusion’s vision is to solve the pain points of large-scale internet publishers by building the absolute best web publishing platform.
See the difference? Which vision would inspire you to do great work? Which vision would motivate you to achieve greatness and is something you are proud to be a part of? Defining a vision for a company (or your blog) is one of the most vital things that can be done. Everything flows from the vision; the attitude, the culture, the focus, the goals, the energy, the end product - everything!
So, in conclusion, I am excited to be part of an organization with a great vision and I am excited to be part of a blog with a vision. Please share your employer’s vision and what it means to you in the comments!