Welcome to Something for Nothing

This is absolutely incredible. The things you are going to see on this post are amazing by themselves. However, when I tell you that someone made these works of art with MS paint, then you should be first amazed. Then, astounded. Then, shocked that someone would have that much time on their hands. My hats off to the Top 5 MS Paint Masterpieces.

Since I just posted about Italy I’ll give you just one example:

Today I was in a chat room with some friends from Cambrian House and one of the people is from Cyprus. I of course decided to make a fool of myself rather than doing a Google search to find out the information. So, I asked him whether Cyprus was the name of the island, the country and what the name of the city was that he lived in. I wanted to know this so I could try out my new Google Mashup that I’m creating for the free wish well called Robin Hood Fund. More on that later.

Well, turns out he lives in a city called Limassol, but that’s all the info I got. Well, except for a link to the CIA World Factbook. I guess there is tons of information in the fact book about every country. Someone in the chat commented that it was “The best thing that’s come from the CIA!”

So, here’s a link to information about Cyprus. One day I’ll get the guts to actually ask him why he chose to move to Cyprus.

Tagging is all the rave these days. All sorts of cool web 2.0 sites are using tagging to classify information. I can’t say that tagging isn’t a great idea. I actually really like a lot of the concepts of tagging.

The thing I don’t understand is what’s the difference between technorati tags on my blog and just categories which for all intensive purposes are tags. There’s even a Wordpress Category Technorati Tag Plugin. That’s a mouthful that doesn’t make much since. If I put a long list of tags at the bottom of my post am I really going to get any more traffic from technorati? My guess is no.

Now if you really want to see a great implementation of tagging using categories you should look at Wordpress.com’s tagging system. Take a look at the tag for my favorite (at least one of my favorite) TV shows So You Think You Can Dance. That tag has driven thousands of people to my blog. Now that’s the real power of tagging.

Everyone knows that I’m addicted to reality tv. It’s pretty much evidenced by this blog with all its reality tv and my other fully dedicated reality tv blog.

Of course being a techie, I’m even more interested in a reality TV show that is being shown completely online. It’s called RockStartup and basically follows Ted Murphy as he starts a new company. Oh yeah, it hits entrepreneurship which is another one of my interests (see my high school sports fundraiser idea).

Well, take a look at the third episode of the only reality tv show online (at least the only one I know of):

I like this episode quite a lot. It gives a nice insight into starting up a company. They already have rockstartup episode 4 out and I’m not as impressed with that episode. I’d like to see more start up and less drag, but that might just be me. I can’t wait to see more of this show as it progresses.

This post sponsored by:

I ran across one of the neatest ideas I’ve seen in a while. It’s called Line Rider and could be a tremendous waste of time to those artists out there. I think engineers would love line rider too. It took me a minute to figure out exactly how it worked, but it’s pretty neat. The basic ideas is that you draw lines and then a little animal on a sled goes riding down the lines you’ve drawn. Pretty neat. I would love to see some people’s drawings or should I say luge tracks that they’ve created. I know you can save them, but I’m not sure if you can share them.

This last week the good people over at Cambrian House held a contest to see who could send the most prezzles in a 24 hour period. The top 3 senders got $1000. Well, I guess there is one time that it pays off to have a large family and a lot of email addresses.

Although, I must admit that sending a Prezzle was actually great for my wife and I. It gave us the ability to send a little Christmas letter to our family and friends and say how much we loved them and miss them. It didn’t cost us a thing and a prezzle is a pretty neat little online gift giving package.

I’m excited to see what’s done with Prezzle. I think there are a ton of cool things that can be done to develop the idea and make it an incredible product offering. More importantly, I think sending a Prezzle to someone is the perfect gift for the late shopper who needs to get a present to someone on the other side of the country.

If you post a comment I’ll send you a Prezzle and you can see what it’s like to get an online gift as a Prezzle.

I think there is something really interesting and unique happening online. People that could never have produced a TV show are now able to product a TV show and put it online at relatively low costs. I think that’s pretty neat.

Ted Murphy of MindComet and now PayPerPost fame is one of those that is testing this new media by creating an online reality TV show about him starting up a new company. I must admit that I’m completely interested in this type of web reality show. I love most of reality TV and since I have the heart of an entrepreneur I find it fascinating watching Ted go through starting his company. I have to admit that he seems to perform for the camera a little too much. At some points you can really see what Ted is really like and at others you can see Ted playing up for the camera.

What I like most is seeing some of the methods he uses to promote his business. It’s awesome to see a marketing person start a company. When I was doing my undergraduate degree at BYU I quickly learned that marketing was the key to any successful business. There are two people that are worth every penny you pay them if they are good. The first is a graphic designer. Creating a good looking site that funnels customers to the right places is worth it’s weight in gold. The second is the marketer. I don’t care what product you have, there is no such thing as a product selling itself. It’s a myth. There are products that are easier to sell than others, but they all require effort to be a success. This is a long story of why I think Ted is so interesting. He knows marketing well and while not all of his marketing efforts are a success, he’s always thinking about the next way to market an idea.

Here’s the latest two episodes of Rock Startup. I enjoyed them. I think you will too:
Episode 1 - The Setup (8:34min)
Learn about the background of the show and what it’s all about. Take a trip with Ted and Britt to New York to setup for a tradeshow.

Episode 2 - The Trade Show Boogie (8:25min)
Ted and Britt tackle The Today Show and Ad:Tech in New York City. Tag along to see Ted get a little nervous.

I can’t tell you how exciting it is to see one of my ideas be realized in an actual website. I sat down and came up with an idea that I would personally find useful and it has actually been created. It’s called Spoil My Spouse and it is a great way for a husband to do something nice for their wife and a wife to do something nice for their husband. I’m sure I’ll be blogging more about how you can participate in Spoil My Spouse in the future, but I wanted to show everyone a banner that I made tonight.

What do you think of the banner? I’d love to have feedback. I really have no skills in banners, but I just chopped up the images from the Spoil My Spouse website.

I think I’ll be placing it around in a number of websites that I have and that have people interested in spoiling their spouse. I really think that if more spouses were spoiled then there would be much happier marriages. That’s my real goal for this website.

Today is Thanksgiving and so I think it’s more than appropriate to talk about a website that’s goal is to do good for other people. It’s called the Robin Hood Fund. The Robin Hood Fund lets people make a wish for something and then each week wishes are granted from all sorts of categories.

Since today’s Thanksgiving I have to point out my favorite category which is Help Me Help Others. This is a great category because you can request money so that you can do some good for someone else. I’ve even submitted my wish for my wife to get a new digital camera. I’m hoping the cute picture of my son will get some votes since my wife would really love the new camera and with the new baby coming money’s tight.

I’ll copy below how the Robin Hood Fund works from their website. Pretty neat concept I think. I like it so much I’m actually helping to develop some of it.

Step 1 Make a Wish

Tell us a story about what money is needed either for you or someone you feel is deserving. For the price of a latte, the Robinhood Fund community might make your wish come true. There are five catagories to choose for your story. The type of request will help you decide which catagory to put your wish under. Your wish will be voted on against other wishes in the same catagory. Every week the Robinhood Fund community votes for the wishes they feel should be granted.

Step 2 The Community Votes

No elite board of directors - you decide whose wishes to grant. Community members can vote in each of the five categories:

* Health and wellness - Need $ for exercise equipment, a spa to reduce mental stress, $ for a health membership? All are valid reasons that fall under this catagory.
* Help me help others - This catagory is for the true “giver” in you. Tell your story for a wish for someone else to benefit. A family in need, an organization you are passionate about, someone you know needs help but can’t or won’t ask for themselves…
* Me, myself and I - Tell us why you deserve your wish. If liked by the “merry men” of sherwood forest, your tale may well turn a wish into “granted”.
* Twist of fate - Sometimes there are events that hit us sideways, out of nowhere, a blue streak of bad luck. A tale of this type might turn luck toward you after all and make “lemonaide” out of lemons.
* Weekly Wish - Each week a wish is sponsored. 20% of the Robinhood Fund for that week goes toward the weekly topic. This week it is tech gadgets. Need a gadget to make life easier, tell us a tale about what you need and why. Maybe Robinhood and his merry men community will agree and give you your fee.

Step 3 Wishes are Granted

Each week, the coffers are emptied and the funds are distributed among the categories. The funds for the weekly amount are divided to each of the five catagories equally funding as many wishes as the fund will allow. If donations are made to the fund in general, those too will be distributed equally.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy getting your wishes granted.

Many of you probably know that I made it to the finals of the first ever Cambrian House Idea Warz. Well, I came up a couple votes short of winning, but Cambrian House liked my idea so much that they have actually decided to do a market test of my idea Spoil My Spouse. The official market test website isn’t up yet, but I’ve been told it should be ready by the end of the week. I’ve seen it in beta format and it’s starting to look quite good. I really see the potential for this idea if we can just market it properly. So, any of you that want to possibly spoil your husband or spoil your wife then go and sign up for Spoil My Spouse.

The basic idea for spoiling your husband or wife is that you can purchase a package of gifts which will be sent out at random throughout the year. Essentially it takes care of the thinking and gift selection process for you. I think most men don’t really care for the gift selection process and really just want to find something that their wife will enjoy. If it is true that it is the thought that counts then it won’t really matter what you get them. With spoil my spouse it will just be a great reminder for those of us like myself that forget to do these nice little things for their wives.

In other news, I’ve had a second idea called It’s Just Lunch for Networking which has been competing in the second Cambrian House Idea Warz. Today they announced the semi finalists and by some miracle my idea made it into the semi finals.

Any of you that want to help It’s Just Lunch for Networking become a reality can go and vote for it. I appreciate all your help and hopefully we can make it to the finals again. We’ll see what happens.

May It’s Just Lunch for Networking Win!

Not to mention…

May People Sign up with Spoil My Spouse and spend tons of money on their husband or wife.