What startups are like

One of my coworkers, Sam, just tweeted about this essay on what working for startups is really like. I think it really nails what it’s like and highlights the benefits of working for one.

Some choice quotes:

Unconsciously, everyone expects a startup to be like a job, and that explains most of the surprises.

It’s surprising how much you become consumed by your startup, in that you think about it day and night, but never once does it feel like “work.”

I’m surprised by how much better it feels to be working on something that is challenging and creative, something I believe in, as opposed to the hired-gun stuff I was doing before. I knew it would feel better; what’s surprising is how much better.

Everyone said how determined and resilient you must be, but going through it made me realize that the determination required was still understated.

Read more at What Startups Are Really Like.

Halloween party and uninvited guests

Kerry and Dave

Last night, we ventured out to the East Bay for a friend’s annual Halloween Party. Hilarious and creative costumes were the norm of course and good times were had by all!

Mostly.

Last night, towards the end of the party, I posted a message to Twitter, which received a number of responses this morning:

dog_tweet.png

One of the guests last night brought their chihuahua to the party unannounced. It was dressed up in pirate gear and actually made one of the cutest little pirates around.

Tiny, the Pirate

The hosts of the party have a larger dog who isn’t too keen on strange animals invading its home and the hosts weren’t aware that someone had brought another animal over. The chihuahua was kept in a small bucket, and set on a chair to keep it off the floor and away from the other dog.

Unfortunately, all it takes is one mistake for someone to move the dog from the bucket, not realizing the potential consequences of what could happen.

Anyway, a number of us were chatting in the kitchen later in the evening when we suddenly heard some pretty ferocious snarling at our feet and a blur of twisting and shaking fur.

It was over before any of us could comprehend what happened. The little
chihuahua was laying on its side on the kitchen floor, twitching while blood spread from a wound on its head. No one moved at first because we were all shocked and trying to understand what just happened.

The owner of the chihuahua is a vet, so she immediately began trying to stop the bleeding and was soon conducting CPR. The whole situation was dire, and we were all huddled around her on the kitchen floor, watching as she frantically tried to save her dog.

After a few minutes, she picked up her dog and left with a small group of friends to try and find an emergency veterinarian clinic.

We got word this morning that the chihuahua didn’t make it.

The 7 Degrees of Retweeting

Earlier this evening, Sony announced (via Twitter) that they would be at the gdgt event this week and show off a demo of a new game.

4454697978.gif

Sweet! From there, it kept being retweeted by members of team gdgt, just to see how far we could push it.

Two degrees:

4459197706.gif

Three degrees:

4462151458.gif

Four degrees:

4462839906.gif

Five degrees:

4463128017.gif

Six degrees (what?!):

4463206897.gif

Seven degrees (now we’re just getting ridiculous!):

aaron_7_degrees.png

It’s like a good old fashioned game of telephone.

New York City bound!

From the top of Rockefellar Center

Off to New York City this week to help out with gdgt’s east coast launch party on Thursday. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to NYC (last visit was in 2007) and I’m looking forward to it. Unfortunately, there will be little time to play this time.

Weather is supposed to be good though!

nyc_weather.png

And apparently, I do need to make time to check out Shake Shack. Their burgers are supposed to be pretty good.

Tanker 910

Tanker 910

Earlier this week, my parents took some photos of Tanker 910 flying over their house while fighting a fire near their home. Tanker 910 is a converted DC-10 that is specifically equipped to drop fire retardant.

Here is video of Tanker 910 making drops near another fire near my parents’ house earlier this month:

And here is another great video of Tanker 910 making a drop in 2007:

Here are a few more photos of this beautiful aircraft flying by my parents’ house this week:

Tanker 910


Tanker 910


Tanker 910

The Longest Way

The Longest Way 1.0 – one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

I posted this on Laughing Squid last month but apparently forgot to post it here.

In November 2007, Christoph Rehage set foot from Beijing, China with a goal of walking to Berlin, Germany, a distance of over 4,500 miles. He created a short video called “The Longest Way 1.0“, documenting his journey over the course of a year and featuring self portrait photographs he took each day on his trip that shows his hair and beard getting longer.

Rolling my own URL shortener

Thanks to the popularity of micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, URL shorteners are popping up everywhere. Bit.ly, one of the most popular shortening services, has raised over $2 million dollars in funding!

Despite their popularity, URL shortening sites are by no means a permanent fixture on the internet. A perfect example of this was tr.im, which announced last month that it was shutting down (and taking down all the links users had generated with it). Fortunately, tr.im decided to reverse its decision soon after. However, this shows how potentially vulnerable these services are.

For fun (and peace of mind) – I decided to experiment with creating my own URL shortener for personal purposes! This would allow me to periodically backup my database of links and also serve as a way to bookmark and share content that I find interesting. Plus, I was able to acquire a fun URL as well.

Say hello to dave.ly!

If you see links from it, you know it’s from me and is something I thought was interesting enough to share! Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think. I’d like to do some more things in the future as well (i.e., show a list of the most popular links).