Turns out, I didn’t win (surprise, surprise) so I figured I’d post my little poem here now that the contest is over! Had a good bit of fun putting it together and name-dropped some of my favorite apps/services!

Connected, not rejected,
Bits flow over the wire
—wait, what wire?
Hey, this truly inspires!

But, this begs the question…
Who let Pandora out of her box?
Unrestrained waves,
of the 4th generation!
So wield this third pipe with care,
It allows for creation!

I put on my Goggles,
Take a look through the Sky,
Because layer by Layar,
It’s a feast for the eye!

I tweet to the beat,
Of the city streets,
And with a little bit of Yelp,
Find sweet treats to eat!

Then I update my status,
So you all know the latest:
“Blazing fast speeds,
For me? Yes, please!
Now lolcats can haz 4G!”

But, what’s the current Buzz,
What did you miss?
“Flash mob @ the mall!”
—people have to see this,
Stream it, Qik!

The world is now social,
In the palm of my hand,
While I upload my photos,
And tag all my friends!

Let me know what ya think. Is it decent, or am I just a dork?

I also got Mindnasium upgraded and I intend to start working on it again soon. Sad that I only made three posts and let it die, but, like a phoenix, it shall rise again from the ashes! (Maybe…)

And I converted SynerGen’s site over as well. I had previously been running the SynerGen site on a custom backend of my own. Which was sufficient when only a handful of people needed access to post basic text only posts.

It is a good bit over exposed. I never can seem to get a handle on proper exposure on overcast days… Might have something to do with my distaste for the drab light that overcast days create.

The music is one of my own tracks, Theta State. If you enjoy it, you may want to listen to more of my music production work.

Build Lebanon Trails Hike Time Lapse – 2009-02-14 from Randall A. Gordon on Vimeo.

And here’s the first one I made while riding through town on Thursday night. Simply a little “proof of concept”. It was just nifty getting to see it work. This one was underexposed, I should have been using my Rebel XT instead of my Pro1 to help in low light.

Night Drive from Randall A. Gordon on Vimeo.

So now I’ve shot one underexposed and one overexposed time lapse. Go me! Third time’s a charm, right?

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Business name: Freelance web design as Randall A. Gordon, sub-contracting web development to Vitaliy Mikitchenko; Soon to be partners of Mind Kitchen Media LLC

When was the business started: I’ve actively prospected clients since November of 2007; I’ve taken on various projects since the age of 16.

Names of owners: Mind Kitchen Media LLC will be owned by Randall A. Gordon, Vitaliy Mikitchenko and Marta McCasland

1. Describe the business

Although I work as a freelancer currently, I am in the process of setting up an LLC with a partner who, to date, I have simply subcontracted work to. Also in the mix is my fiance who is actively and passionately learning the ropes of the business both from and with me. As such I’ll mainly be speaking from the viewpoint of a soon-to-be LLC owner with insights from my work as a freelancer.

I seek out clients in the local area who I can assist by bringing their communications abilities with their customers and within their business up to date with what is possible using today’s technologies. This means I am far more than just a web designer. I have to be a multimedia maven who can take on many hats.

I have to understand how a business operates so that I am able to identify deficiencies and lay out plans to correct them. Sales and marketing are important to master, not only to get my own company’s name out there, but because the larger part of my work involves marketing and connecting a client with their customer base. Not to mention the very wide variety of talents that development for the web requires in today’s technology landscape.

2. Reason(s) for starting the business. Why?

Ultimately, the freedom to create the way I wish to create. I have grown up living side by side with the internet, using it as a tool every day for more than a decade. It is now time for me to add my creative touch to the internet community. I have a vision for what the future of the world can be and wish to do what I can to forward that vision. I want to leave my imprint on the landscape of computing and user interface and interaction design on the internet.

3. Type of business organization (sole proprietor, partnership, corporation)

I currently freelance as a sole proprietor. However the near term goal is to set up shop as Mind Kitchen Media LLC. At the moment I am learning the last few things I wish to add to my repertoire before I officially “open the doors” for Mind Kitchen Media.

4. Why did you choose this particular organization for your business?

I’m comfortable freelancing as a sole proprietor only because I’m selling an intangible product and the projects I’ve taken on to date have presented few opportunities for mistakes and oversights that could result in lawsuits. However, the plan is to set up Mind Kitchen Media as an LLC which has many advantages.

First and foremost is the protection it affords. Even on the internet there are potential dangers that we must avoid in the form of stepping on someone’s copyright, mistakes in our code causing customer data to be corrupted, security problems allowing customer data to be compromised and the list goes on… It is the new Wild West in many ways. An LLC ensures that when a mistake is made, our personal assets—homes, cars, savings—are not at risk. This one is a biggie. There are far too many stories of good people who lose their homes over small mistakes. Since no one is perfect lawsuits are only a matter of when, not if.

Beyond that, an LLC affords us tax benefits, we get to deduct expenses from profits just like the big boys. That lets us grow our business faster—taxes do a good job of sucking away hard earned money. Corporations are great vehicles for keeping that money growing for you.

Also an LLC will allow us to more easily bring new talent aboard as we need to grow. Freelancers on the internet do an amazing job of networking to get impressively large projects completed, but bringing the myriad necessary talents required in today’s world under the one “roof” of an LLC can assist in fostering more productive relationships. It does this by centralizing a lot of the paper and legal work that every freelancer on the team would otherwise be required to do on their own.

5. What were some of the issues during the start-up process? Why?

For me I have to say organization, setting schedules and education. As I am working a full time job on top of freelancing as a footstep to building my design firm, keeping my “free” time well scheduled has been a particularly difficult task for me. But, I always try to learn from past mistakes and this aspect of my personality is improving. I’ve simply had to learn to rely on a great tool—pen and paper! For the time being, technology still has a hard time beating keeping a Moleskine notebook and a pen nearby to take quick notes. And there’s a great lesson, never forsake good solutions simply to put technology to use!

On the education end, I’ve been teaching myself the ins and outs of designing media for the web for years. There are a massive number of disciplines and technologies which must be mastered in order to excel in this field. It is also difficult to find other people who have dedicated themselves to a never ending education, but thus far I have been blessed with an expert programmer in Vitaliy and Marta is a huge help when it comes to keeping us on task.

6. What are the positive aspects of owning this business?

For this one I’ll switch voices and speak from the perspective of why my partners in this wish to see our business become successful. From the standpoint of in house projects, we have the freedom to go after any idea we believe will produce something fruitful. Absolute freedom…to a point. Ultimately we have to produce products which result in covering the bills, but we get to choose which projects we take on.

There is also the inherent joy that comes from the act of creating something which did not exist before. We get to join together to make something which is “ours”.

Personally, I like helping other people succeed, learn and grow. Being the owner of what will become a large firm with many employees and clients gives me plenty of opportunity to do just that.

7. What are the negative aspects of owning this business?

So far, the only thing that I would call negative is the time commitment, and I only say that because I’m split between two jobs. Beyond that, I am lucky to work in an industry that I love all aspects of. But to pick a particular downside, you will inevitably run into situations where you have to deal with dissatisfied customers. However, I tend to look at such situations as an opportunity to gain a client for life. Nothing changes minds like a sour situation being remedied beyond expectation. Always exceed customer expectations.

8. What is your time commitment each week? Has this changed over the years? Why or why not?

Realistically, an entrepreneur should come to the table expecting to devote a large portion of his or her time to forwarding the mission and reaching the goals of the business they are growing. This is not an easy job. A lot of people like to think that being your own boss is the ultimate freedom, and it can be. But you have to accept the reality of what it takes to succeed.

Expect to put in 80 plus hour weeks when there is no one else around to get the job done. You’ll be giving up your weekends to do research to stay competitive in the marketplace. You won’t be able to watch the game, instead you’ll have to be learning new skills to remain relevant in your field. It is no picnic, but when you do succeed and reach your goals, there is no greater feeling in the world.

For me, my time commitment won’t change over the years. I am living my dream and my work is my life. I don’t fear burnout because I’ve positioned myself to do a myriad of things each day. Nothing leaves me more content than learning something new and what better place to learn something new each day than in media production?

9. How do you deal with employees and the issues they bring to the table?

Everyone’s ideas are important. We will embrace new communications tools as they become available. While other businesses are struggling to get ideas moved between their people, we’ll be using twitter and facebook to connect. I regularly get real work done by text and instant messages with my partners. This communication is the groundwork for being able to effectively deal with problems in the business and more importantly bring stellar ideas to fruition. Just remember what I said before, be careful not to use technology for technology’s sake, there are often better solutions that already exist!

Never undervalue anyone’s contribution to the team. If someone has something to say, be it a problem or a solution, ensure that they have a voice. When you take someone’s voice away from them, you take away their freedom. That is not exactly good for morale.

10. What are the major fixed and variable expenses related to your business?

To date my expenses have been extremely low. I’ve been able to do everything I have needed with the computers and software I already own and relatively low monthly payments for internet access and web hosting. That’s the beauty of delivering a virtual product. The lion’s share of our expenses will simply be the payroll for “mind share”—the time it takes our creatives to generate the final product.

But down the line, there will be many more operating costs. Better hosting services will be required that could rapidly scale into the thousands of dollars if we have a “hit web product” from one of our inside projects. New equipment will be in order. Every employee will require a desktop and a laptop to be productive, likely a smartphone as well. Cameras for both photos and video, audio equipment, printing equipment. If we’re going to embrace the future that is a truly multimedia world—where it is so ingrained that using the “multi” becomes irrelevant—then I intend to provide my creatives with a world class production environment to get the job done.

11. Do you provide health insurance for yourself and/or your employees? Why or why not?

This is on the plate once the LLC is set up. Unfortunately I am not well read on this area and must concede that any answer I could give wouldn’t be worth the words to say it. I can say, this is an important topic, and the Objectivist in me says that I’d rather seek methods to educate and assist employees in finding their own plans, leave the choices with them. I also believe in paying people what they are truly worth and only the best talent will survive in our company, so the salaries we pay will cover the expense of healthcare adequately. And I define adequately as health care I am personally willing to use.

12. How do you deal with the paperwork and tax issues? Are there any tax advantages in owning a small business? If so, what are they?

H&R Block. At this point, that’s all I need, but again that changes when the LLC comes in to play. The plan is to have a lawyer and account on retainer. Expensive, but a cost that inherently must be part of any business that is planning to succeed.

13. If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?

I would have believed in my abilities from the beginning. I have been involved in self-organized groups since the age of 15 when I first connected to the internet. I’ve been training and educating myself for this position all my life…but there is always something new to learn. I tend to let that manifest as self doubt. The best thing I have learned in the last two years is that I don’t have to know it all myself. I only need to make sure I surround myself with people who can fill in the blanks as expertly as I know my own skill set.

14. What is the most important advice you would offer a young entrepreneur?

Understand what money really is. It represents your hard work. It is the representation of time well spent, time spent intelligently, time not squandered. But remember that it is only a representation. The true value is in what you create. Money just allows me to civilly trade the motive power of my will and ability for the motive power of your will and ability.

In our (mostly) free market remember that you do not determine the value of your product—your customer does. Always sell it for more than it costs but not more than it is worth. This is a basic concept that is often overlooked. Determine how much it costs to produce your product—all costs, so that means shipping, inventory and storage, manufacturing, logistics, human resources and the list goes on. Then set the price so you’re not losing money on your product. If that price is above what the product is truly worth, then you need to go back to the drawing board to cut costs and increase value.

Go big or go home. Never accept mediocrity when you know you are capable of producing better work.

15. Have you set-up a retirement savings plan? If not, do you plan on starting one at some juncture? Do small businesses receive incentives or tax breaks?

I have a high-yield personal savings account (still 5%!) and intend to start putting money away into index funds in the near future. I choose index funds for their ability to closely follow the market as a whole. While the economy is in a downturn, I am willing to hedge my bets on the lot of us being able to continue to create and innovate for a long time to come. The market averages an 11% increase year to year and has remained reliable since the beginning. What goes down, must come up eventually in this case.

Once the LLC is running, I feel that a similar approach as I would take with health care is appropriate. Passing along education as to how to use money is more valuable than putting it in a sub-par investment vehicle for an employee.

First, we have more and more processors popping up with multiple cores. It started in 2005 with the first dual-core chips from Intel. Then AMD got in the game so Intel fired back with a quad-core. Now…all hell is ready to break loose. Intel’s new processor, once known only by the codename “Nahelem”,  the Core i7 comes out of the gate with four cores. Add to that Intel’s HyperThreading and you’ve got eight “logical” cores. Then, just to add the cherry on top, expect an 8-physical core, 16-logical core, version of the chip to drop on the market sometime later in the year.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Intel is working on multi-core chips that go far beyond just four or eight cores. Instead, try eighty of them. You read correctly, that would be an eight followed by a zero. Eighty cores to crank away at whatever computing whim you might have. These chips push out computing power in excess of one teraflop—more than one trillion “floating point operations” per second. And they do it using less than 100 watts of power.

Now, some people are naysayers and argue that graphics cards have been up in the teraflop range for a couple years now, however these cards use GPUs, Graphics Processing Units. While not inherently different from any other processor, it is only a recent development that this computational horsepower can be used for anything—not just graphics. But really, who cares where the computing power is coming from as long as we have it? The point is, the common consumer now has access to computing power that is mind-boggling even to seasoned geeks.

Second on my list is the wonderful interface that is a multitouch monitor. No longer are we tethered to our keyboard and mouse. Instead we will be able to directly interact with the objects we see on the screen before us. The iPhone has already proven that such interactions are both more natural and allow for a higher level of productivity—and that’s only one device with the innovations from one company. Once multitouch monitors begin reaching ubiquity the geeks of our world will be able to show us what this new paradigm of input devices is truly capable of. Just take a look at Jeff Han demoing his take on multitouch at the 2006 TED conference.

The following year innovator Anand Agarawala also made an appearance at TED to demonstrate the BumpTop desktop environment. BumpTop is a physics based desktop environment that words simply can not encapuslate, so please pause for a moment to watch the following video.

Now, simply take a moment to imagine BumpTop on a multitouch monitor…

Organize your desktop by “flinging” your files around. On large screens, gather your family around to view photos “together”, everyone can touch and move photographs, it isn’t one person controlling one mouse. Place your palms on the screen and watch a virtual keyboard appear before your eyes to allow you to type…

Multitouch interactions will unlock a vast array of methods for controlling the computers we use in our everyday lives. The multicore chips of tomorrow will allow these multitouch interactions to be as lively and enveloping as the objects we interact with in the physical world everyday.

Even the issue of screen size becomes diminished by multitouch. You will be able to seamlessly utilize workspaces that are much larger than your screen by using two-finger zoom gestures to adjust your view. Whether your screen is three inches or thirty, you’ll be able to interact with the same workspace with the same interactions, the only difference is how much of the workspace can be visible at a given time.

Third and last, we are soon to have access to truly broadband wireless Internet connections anywhere we stand. There are plenty of new technologies competing to bring such a connection into existance. But whether it is WiMAX or LTE or any other standard is of little consequence so long as the connection is there. Likely we’ll see a combination of these technlogies that will automatically switch to the strongest available signal.

However, the full ramifications of such an Internet connection are beyond the scope of what I wish to talk about in this article. But, I promise I have much more to add to the topic in the future, so stay tuned.

The combination of these technologies can push us towards an existence that promises to forever alter the way we interact with computers—and each other. We’ll soon have the computing horsepower to simulate a virtual environment on a screen that is intuitive and lively to interact with. And thanks to that always on, always available Internet connection—we’re all there.

It also bears mentioning that my use of the terms “socialize” and “socialization” would perhaps be more clear using a different word. What I mean to imply is that the information and knowledge is moving in the direction of becoming part of our intellectual commons.

Without further delay…

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Throughout history we have seen technology do amazing things. When Gutenberg gave the world the printing press in the mid 15th century, time-persistent communication went from requiring a person learned in print or calligraphy to requiring someone able to swap metal die plates in and out of the press. The time required to distribute information was reduced, and information become more social. Nearly four hundred years later, early in the 19th century, Joseph Henry and Samuel Morse moved the telegraph into use around the globe. The time required to distribute information was reduced, and information became more social.

Before the end of the 19th century, the brightest minds of the world had produced methods of recording and disseminating all types of information. Joseph Niepce took the first photograph. Thomas Edison made the first record player. Eadweard Muybridge became the father of motion picture and Coleman Sellers showed the world the Kinematoscope, the first motion picture projector. Potentially of most importance, Maxwell predicted radio waves, Hertz proved they existed and Marconi and Loomis demonstrated how to apply them to transmit information without wires. The time required to distribute information was reduced, and information became more social.

This was all before the 20th century even rolled around on the world’s calendar. The 20th century gave us fixed-wing flight, rocket engines, vacuum tubes and transistors, and in 1969 we have ARPANET. The beginnings of the Internet, it only involved a connection between four universities but grew quickly to more than two hundred connections in 1981, causing compatibility issues as each connected computer often required custom software to communicate. And then in the year of my birth, 1982, a standard protocol called TCP/IP emerged. The basis for what we know as the Internet had arrived. The time required to distribute information was reduced to mere seconds and information became a truly social resource.

Building on academic ideals held for centuries, today the Internet gives us something we’ve never had before–the ability to socialize any product. The best and perhaps most well known example is Linux, an operating system giving incumbent software producers like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems a reason to be scared for their ability to maintain profits. Linux relies on thousands of software programmers and hardware systems integrators around the globe to work together while not being anywhere near each other physically. Their work is given to the world under the GNU Public License, the GPL. Anyone with the knowledge to do so may edit the source code which defines how the operating system works. The only stipulation is that if they wish to disseminate their derivative work, they must also provide the source under the GPL. Open source versions of nearly all types of software are now available free of charge. Quite often open software bests commercially available software.

With the right group of people, anything can be socialized. OpenCola, a company in Canada, makes their Coca-Cola clone’s recipe available to all under the very same license as Linux, the GPL. Hardware projects such as Neuros, a networked media center, and Daisy, a portable MP3 player, are showing that the same types of engineers involved with Linux, are willing to put the time and effort in to produce physical products as well. A Taiwanese company, FIC, has been facilitating the work on the first open cell phone software, OpenMoko to be run on their Neo1973 cellular phone. Rumor has it that Google is looking to promote OpenMoko and Ubuntu Linux Mobile as a standardized mobile platform. There is even a group working on the first open car, appropriately named OScar.

So what does this mean for the economy? Depending on who you ask, very bad, or as I see it, very good things. The phrase “a rising tide lifts all boats” summarises it best. Manufacturers the world over are already embracing Linux to bring development costs down. Besides desktop and laptop computers, Linux now runs cell phones, cars, musical instruments, home theater equipment, robotics, you name it, there is probably a version of the product that runs Linux. And if the product doesn’t run Linux, you can almost be garunteed that Linux was used in the development process at some point. Because Linux is free for anyone to use, the bottom line R&D cost of products which use it is reduced.

The trick is finding ways to give away one product while using alternative channels for profit. While the people with the expertise can still utilize the product for free, others who do not possess the knowledge to utilize it, must still rely on you and your product support. As anyone loves product which is given to them, the companies who are willing to give garner public relations boosts like few other tactics can. In the United States, the cellular market uses this tactic extensively, although in somewhat more dubious and often insincere ways. By “simply” signing a two-year contract, customers can get basic handsets free of charge, as the cellular provider aims to make the money back off monthly service fees. While the profit margins play out to insane percentages that make customers hesitant and flat out unwilling to trust cellular providers, this does provide a good example of the basic concept.

In the late ’80s IBM and Microsoft were battling over a joint project which would later split in 1990 to give us Microsoft’s Windows NT and IBM’s OS/2. Thanks to Microsoft’s existing market dominance, OS/2 faltered and faded. IBM needed a solution. Later in the ’90s IBM looked to Linux as their answer. By providing the time and effort of their own programmers, IBM began assisting the Linux community, adding code while becoming intimately familiar with the then fairly young operating system. The expertise gained, combined with the trust of the community, allowed IBM to start heading back towards dominance in the server market. Because IBM knew how to provide Linux support, they were able to give the market a viable, less expensive, easier to maintain alternative to Microsoft’s NT line of server software. IBM was able to harness the power of giving away both time and product to give themselves the ability to sell more server software and support solutions.

We are now in a time when the cost of software and information product is negligible. Technologies on the horizon promise to drive costs of production for physical product close to zero within the next fifty to seventy-five years. Molecular nanotechnology, genetics and robotics will allow for anyone to create anything they wish using atoms of carbon pulled from the air and ingots of various, more rare molecules. Take a look through arXiv.org, or for news in lay mans terms, physorg.com, to get an idea of what is coming to a home near you in the years to come.

The socialization of everything is on the horizon. Corporations working from Industrial Age thinking are beginning to find that they have no way to compete against their Information Age competitors. The new companies are willing to give their products away while finding other channels to provide profit. It has come to a point where “evolve or die” is the new mantra of technology driven industry. Linux is giving Windows a hard time now, OScar and future projects are set to give GM, Honda, Ford and others a hard time in the future. In a world filled with people who simply want to help, and are willing to donate time for their own benefit as well as the benefit of others, all products will eventually be socialized. It is simply a matter of if you do it, or if someone else does it. Fighting the inevitable will only get you so far.

One project I personally participated in was the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, also known as GIMPS, searched for a specific type of prime number called a Mersenne prime (if you hadn’t already figured it out from the name of the project). There are several projects which attempt to solve the puzzles of protein folding. One of them is Rosetta@home. But what do you get when you take the Rosetta engine and apply game theory to it? That would be a new type of distributed computing project called Fold It.

As their tag line says, “Solve Puzzles for Science”, the game is a series of protein folding puzzles. The first puzzle can be seen at the right. The gist of the game involves reorganizing the amino acids and backbones of the proteins. You move them into configurations which are compact while requiring as little energy as possible to maintain such a configuration. As the game progresses the puzzles become more difficult as the proteins which are presented become more complex.

If there are people out there who simply can “see” how proteins work in their mind’s eye—protein savants—then this game could catapult protein research forward. The Fold It site mentions that there will be a feature added over the summer that will allow for players to “design” proteins. Models which work in the Rosetta simulator can then be synthesized in the lab. This aspect of the project is most intriguing to me. It opens the door for anyone to have the chance at creating a protein which could be the key to curing AIDS, solving the world’s energy crisis or any number of issues. If you would like the chance at helping with cracking one of the most important scientific problems biologists are currently tackling, have a look at Fold It. So far, I’m having a blast folding!

It is obvious that someone who only knows English can not verbally communicate with someone who only knows Spanish. But it is less obvious when two English speakers come to the table to talk investments and one speaker does not know the language of finance. Unfortunately the conclusion often is that the speaker who lacks financial literacy is simply stupid. This type of attitude holds many people back from fixing his or her problem of ignorance so that he or she remains in the dark forever.

The line between being ignorant and lacking intelligence is a line which is rarely drawn. Ignorance can be fixed. Ignorance is simply a state of not being informed about a subject. This a problem which has a solution through education.

When it comes to literacy about subjects like physics, chemistry and biology the American culture has groomed its citizens to acquire the language of each subject through the university system. But this is not true of subjects like personal finance and investing for retirement. From talking with friends and family, it seems most people receive minimal education on such topics while in high school. Generally I hear they had to take a single class or there was a week or two of personal finance tucked away inside another class. My hope is that this changes promptly. [If anyone has examples of schools which are taking the time to teach students about finance, please let me know in a comment!]

Over the past few years I have slowly but surely been teaching myself exactly what money is and represents, becoming financially literate. While I recognize that there are already a slew of writers tossing their opinion in the ring, I intend to do what I can to help, if only within my small sphere of influence. The first step to fixing a problem is recognizing what the problem is, which from my experiences has generally been simple ignorance of financial language.

If you want to learn more, especially if you feel out of control of your finances, start by reading sites like Motley Fool and subscribe to Get Rich Slowly. Read the writings of authors like Warren Buffet and Robert Kiyosaki. The first step towards literacy is education and the Internet does an amazing job of bringing education into our homes at little to no cost.