technology. science. marketing.
I’ve played with numerous typing programs in the past, but none like TypeRacer. I have never in my life have been so addicted to a game, especially a typing one. Not only do you brush up on your typing skills (you have to be accurate in spelling, capitalization and punctuation), it’s a lot of fun because you can play against friends.
This was my shining moment: 1st place and 100 wpm!
How exciting – Natuba and TechCrunch finally crossed paths! It really is a great photo sharing site, although I have to admit my Natuba experience could probably be a lot cooler if I had an iPhone. It does some fun stuff that my Treo is unable to do. I have two options – 1) be content or 2) give in to the iPhone. I think most people would encourage the latter. =p
Bubblevine is a project I have been working on for a while now and it’s very exciting to have it go live!
The idea for Bubblevine came about at the end of my junior year in college when I noticed how much stuff (perfectly good stuff) was being thrown away all because students didn’t know what to do with it since they couldn’t take it home with them. Walking down the halls of various dorm buildiings, it was fairly common to see piles of bookshelves, lamps, TVs, bean bags, toasters, futons and other items by the dumpster. I remember thinking to myself that there must be hundreds of kids on campus that need stuff like this to furnish their apartment and dorm room. This is the magical moment where I decided to start my own little project to create a website that fosters a campus community where college students can buy stuff and sell stuff with one another.
There is also one other reason I felt inclined to pursue Bubblevine, and that’s safety. Before there was any other alternative, most students resorted to Craigslist. Although the site works, the downfall to it is that you have no idea who’s house you’ll be going to pick up the bargain deal, what their neighborhood is like, how far the place is in relation to you (until you Google it) and the flip-side, you have no knowledge about the person who will be coming to your doorstep to pick something up. During my college years, my experience with Craigslist has been less than awesome – and I’ve had several. There are two specific instances I vividly remember. The first one was when I thought I found a great deal on a TV. It wasn’t too far from me, so I said, “why not?” Not being a San Antonio native, I naively drove into a pretty sketchy part of town. I came out OK, but sometimes I question if it was really worth it. Another not so great experience was when I drove out to the other side of the city for a dinky desk. = All of this could have been avoided had something like Bubblevine existed. I would’ve appreciated a tool like it while I was in school, because there was probably someone a few streets down or even next door who would have been more than willing to sell me their stuff.
On a different note, the site is currently open to a few schools, but once it gains a little more popularity we’ll expand the list.
Here are a couple of videos to watch:
If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to promote, feel free to contact me. =)
It was my first time at South by Southwest – Interactive this year and did it live up to all the hype? Yeah, I’d say so. =D
Since I had never been before, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Plan A – I tried scheduling my days according to what panels I wanted to attend (to get the most out of my experience), but it didn’t take too long until I dropped that. There were just too many panels I wanted to see, many of which were scheduled at the same time. I ditched this idea and moved onto Plan B – to just wing it. How did that go? Surprisingly well.
I had a great time over the entire 5 days in Austin, all because of the three P’s – panels, people and parties.
Panels: Pretty good, although some were better than others. I went into most of them thinking that I would come out entirely enlightened and wowed, but it didn’t happen every time. I guess I set the bar pretty high from the buzz about all the internet famous people that were going to be presenting. I should have known better! Of the panels I attended, keynotes like Mark Zuckerberg and Frank Warren were the ones that stuck with me. The first one because it was comical and the second because it was thought-provoking.
People: Prior to SXSW, I couldn’t understand why people would travel all over the country to attend a conference. Now I do. Not only was it a great learning opportunity and entertaining, you get to meet a lot of cool people. Every person that I met had something interesting to share. Whether it was a project that they were currently working on or something as simple as what they’re occupation was – each person had their unique story.
Parties: Wow. One of the last things I expected was to be overwhelmed with all the parties at the end of each day. My favorite moment was when a few of us got a little text messaging happy and took over the text board at the Digg Party – fun times. There was a little bit of buzz about whether SXSW was a ROI or a Nerd Spring Break. I think both. -ha- It was time-off from the daily routine, but still educationally valuable.
(Aaron Belafonte, me, Mark Schmulen)
Will I be going to SXSW 2009? Definitely.
…and in the spirit of it, I thought I’d post something mildly mushy and cute. I came across this video a while back and even still, I think it has a catchy tune. I <3 YouTube.