The Beyondo Blog

Casual game of the month

2007-11-02T16:49:00.001-07:00

http://www.kongregate.com/games/DrNeroCF/the-fancy-pants-adventures

Bullet-less

2007-10-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

I went back to powerpoint land this week after a short excursion into programming and 3D-modeling (god help us)

We've just finished putting together a slideshow which we're using with customers about our first application and I'm very happy to have done so without using a single slide with bulleted lists.

It's hard to resist the temptation to put those bullets in there, but resistance has its rewards-- the presentation flows much better and is more interesting and fun to look at

Not nearly as good as Dick Hardt, but getting better

Mobility Rants

2007-10-22T23:52:00.000-07:00

A few complaints into the universe (or to that random high powered executive that accidentally reads this blog) about annoying experiences with wireless access.

California, 2007.

1. Why the hell does my mobile carrier round call times into minutes?
Is their billing system really incapable of summing up call times as they are made? Or do they just want to steal a bit from their loyal customers who do not have the time to read through the contract to uncover this nasty habit (or much to do about it if they do)?

2. Can someone please invent a decent WiFi access-point for convention centers?
So many years after it's ubiquitous and it is still frustratingly difficult to have a WiFi connection stable during a conference... what am I supposed to do during breaks? Network??

3. And can Starbucks *please* stop charging for WiFi access.
I am not a fan of tasteless, overheated coffee served by underpaid teenagers anyway.So I try to avoid them as best I can. That is very hard to do when traveling through suburbia so I occasionally find myself in one. Not only do they charge for a service that is free everywhere else, I have to go through a registration process with T-Mobile every time. At least put the DayPass option someplace that's easy to find!

The Last Lecture Video

2007-10-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this video of Rany Pausch's "Last Lecture" at CMU.

Randy is an accomplish professor at Carnegie Mellon University's CS department who was recently diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.

His speech is tremendously enjoyable and provides a lot of inspiration. It's impossible to imagine how one would behave when faced with such difficult news and I can only hope to handle any misfortune I face in life half as gracefully as Randy.

The video is highly recommended.

The inevitables of the inevitable march of recorded music

2007-10-09T16:35:00.001-07:00

Michael Arrington posted an interesting piece on TechChrunch titled "The Inevitable March of Recorded Music Towards Free". Essentially he is arguing that basic economics dictate that the price of music will drop to zero, as is the case with every merchandise with zero re-production cost (in our case it costs nothing to create another digital copy of music) and competitors (in our case individuals that make copies).

There has been quite a bit of discussion on this in the blogsphere. I agree with the thinking, but not with the final conclusion.

To me the best parallel to make is to the software industry and what it went through in the late eighties. Copy protection software, hardware and litigation made way to different methods of packaging, distributing and monetization software. It resulted in cheaper software, shareware, freeware, open-source and ultimately models like software as a service and ad-based software. It was a dramatic transformation, which changed the foundations of the industry. But it didn't result in software prices dropping uniformly to zero. It depends who is writing it, for what purpose and in what context.

Most any argument you make on one industry is applicable to the other. Software just happened to go through this first because it's digital by nature.

So there is a lot to learn from what happened there and Music will go through the same process.
In fact it appears it already is:

Radiohead going shareware
Trent Renzor and Nine inch nails adopting freeware
etc.

(disclosure: I'm a fan of both Radiohead and NiN :-)

This has a profound and much discussed affect on the studios But I think the affect on musicians and consumers is even larger-- it'll inevitable change how musicians create their music and market themselves and how fans interact with musicians and the music they create.

There is going to be a whole lot more music out there (much of it with poor production quality)...be less budgets for musician to publicize their work, even for the top performers (less financial muscle, courtesy of the labels)... Many more places to find music, but much less social-guidance (i.e. "who says what's cool?")... etc. etc. etc.

So fans will need to figure out how to learn about, and fall in love with, new music and musicians will need to figure out how to engage and interact with their fan base much more than before. If you're struggling with staying up to date with the latest and greatest tracks, musicians, bands and stars... it ain't going to get any easier.

It's going to be interesting...

BTW: Why the sudden spur of interest on this topic from TechCrunch? A stealth music-distribution-startup founded or funded by Mr. Arrington perhaps?

Casual game of the month

2007-10-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what makes a good casual game... but I know one when I see it.

Every month I'll post some of my favorites.

Geosense: get points for pinpointing the location of cities on a world map. Horrible site design but very fun. Includes a player-vs-player mode that I've never been able to make work.

Startup vacations

2007-10-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Just returned from vacation.

I've read dozens of articles about the many differences in working for an established company and in a startup (particularly one that you are a founder of). None seem to deal with the difficulty in getting back from vacation in the later.

Sure there is all the passion, persistency, dedication and all but it's still really hard for me to shake off the vacation atmosphere and get back to work.

I think the reason is that right now, at the stage Beyondo is at, there is no organization to suck me back in. Instead of being hit with a tsunami of overdue emails, discussions to catch up on and urgent decisions to make I need to rekindle stalled threads, start new discussions and gradually refine strategies.

You need to be 'in the flow' for that and it's hard to do when your brain keeps rehashing that nice snooze in the sun from last week.

I can't wait to be sucked-in when I return from my next vacation...

Industry?

2007-09-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

Too many comments and blog posts by people in our small virtual-worlds industry complaining why others don't get it.

Traditional media doesn't understand the breadth of the services and platforms out there (Idiots at NY Times write about virtual goods and miss the entire industry)

The gaming industry doesn't understand why all this web-stuff is popping up in their tradeshows and products (AGDC07: overall takes)

Time to move on.

It's an industry. People don't always get it. People approach things differently.

I think there are going to be a lot of exciting new products in this space in the next year.
Interesting fusions between gaming and web technologies, game-play and social-networking, communities and platforms.

More people will understand when these things get to the market.

Back from Burning man

2007-09-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

It has been a week since my return. Some random thoughts:

- Amazing experience. People associate BM with a hippie culture. It's definetly there but there is a place for anyone with an open mind. Highly recommended for the scenery, art, nature & people.

- I am very sorry I was unable to take pictures, but very glad I didn't take a camera. It would have never come back in one piece. Some photos from the adorable Roro (aka Rotem) below.

- The only criticisms on the festival (which I am not sure who, if anyone, is its appropriate recipient) is the racial diversity of the participants. It's almost exclusively white. From something happening so close to the Bay Area and so open spirited, I'd expect much more Hispanics, blacks and Asians. Not sure why this is the case. Maybe the hippie culture thing...

Until next year:

Off to Burning Man

2007-08-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

On my way to Burning Man (a few days late but what can you do)

Leaving my laptop, cell-phone and VCs, angels, contracts, term sheets, presentations, demos, blogs, RSS feeds, Flash, Flex, Java, 3D, Games, Virtual Worlds, Social Networks, The Web, Windows, Linux, Mac, etc. etc. all behind.

Will be back in a few days. Hopefully with some pictures.

Duels

2007-08-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

Duels is cool.

You build a character, equip it and go about fighting other players, D&D turn-base style. You do not have to be online to participate in battles and that's really nice because your guy can make progress while you are busy doing other (more important?) things. Also, your control over the outcome of any particular duel is really limited. Just pick the right battles and hope for the best.

All this makes it easy to get into and levels the playing field-- you never feel your up against the 40h-a-week-experts that will never give you a chance...

* Duels cracked the 2-minute problem - how to get people up, running and enjoying themselves in 2 minutes or less)
* They also managed the 2-hour problem - how to keep people engaged after 2 hours
* Unless they have significant enhancements underway, I suspect Duels will not solve the 2-month problem but it's so approachable that they'd just get by with a revolving door of users.

Because of the recent Techcrunch coverage they've been struggling to support the growing community. Fun problem to have!

It's fun, check it out. Challenge me if you dare, I'm KiKi7 (Level 6 and growing)

spam. spam. spam

2007-08-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

The reliability of email is deteriorating at an alarming rate. In the last two weeks I've had three important messages filtered as 'spam' by junk-mail filter at either the recipient's or my email service.

3 times in 2 weeks!

This never seemed to happen before and I wonder if it's because of:
a) a lot of spam-filter software being written --> some of lesser quality and making more mistakes
b) more sophistication on behalf of spammers --> more false positives
c) something personal against me --> junk mail filters united to add annoyance to my day to day :-)

In any case, this is becoming a real business issue. I have grown to expect email to be so reliable that I never assume lack of delivery as the reason why an email doesn't get read or responded to. I now check my junk mail regularly and need to always question who reads what I write.

Good luck to whomever comes up with a clever idea to solve this particular issue.

I'm adding "The affects of accidental false-positive spam filters on business conduct" to my list of research papers I'll never get to write in social&technology studies. It joins:
- "The affect of mobile-email on divorce rates in tech-savvy demographics" and
- "VoIP -- how the most promising application for IP is now the main cause of poor quality of phone calls worldwide"

Guaranteed middle seat

2007-08-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

Off to Israel to meet new & old friends, brainstorm and explore opportunities in the holy land.

Trip organized in the last minute, so didn't get a chance to tell many people about my arrival. Hopefully some good surprises coming...

Was issued a paper-ticket ( who knew they still existed ? ) with 3 airlines and a guaranteed middle seat throughout.

Entropia Universe's new engine

2007-07-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

Entropia Universe will be releasing a new graphics engine, according to Metaversed.

Seem's like they are following SL's footsteps (as in this and this) in focusing on adding more elements to make their virtual environment more visually rich and realistic.

That has the affect of narrowing down the potential user-base because of the high demand on the client PC and the level of detail that appeal primarily to hard-core users.
It would probably increase the loyalty of those users thought (and I assume MindArk and Linden Lab are investing in these things after listening closely to what their users are asking?).

For the larger community, it's less about the graphical detail but how approachable and fun a service actually is.

Craigslist and market strategies

2007-07-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

We're slowly growing the Beyondo team so we created a job posting on craigslist.org . I was skeptical, assuming we'd get flooded with spam and irrelevant queries (past experiences on both ends of job listings).

I was very surprised. Sure, we got a bunch of head-hunters, irrelevants or people that were not the right fit for us. But we also got contacted by very relevant and strong individuals. Some didn't work out, some did and some hopefully still will.

It made me think how incredible craigslist is and just how broad a service it provides . There are a lot classified-ads sites that are focused on specific products or communities (jobs, furniture, tickets) and many are quite successful, but I always go back to craigslist... I've bought, sold, looked for and looked at many different things there and it always just seems to work.

And that made me think about the much talked about "vertical" vs. "horizontal" strategy for a technology company.

* Vertical is great: It adds a lot of focus and forces you to know your customers really well. product priorities are easier to make, marketing efforts are simpler to target, business models are sometimes more clear. The challenge is picking the right vertical because its almost impossible to switch after you get going.

* Horizontal is great: Build the right infrastructure and you can capture a truly broad customer base with a lot of leverage. It's easier to expand if certain markets do not materialize or otherwise react to market realities. It is a almost always more ambitious due to challenges in building the right technology and eco-system without losing focus.

Both strategies have challenges.

With a vertical strategy you need to make sure you can in fact identify a sufficiently large , untapped market segment that you can build a profitable business on top. You also need to ensure the technology you're basing the business on is mature and well understood because you want all your resources focused on the special needs of your segment.
With a horizontal strategy you need to have a very good understanding on what's missing in the state-of-the-art in your industry to take it to the next level. You also need to ensure you cultivate user participation as you will never be able to cater to the exact needs of all your users.

Ultimately, the best strategy depends on the state of the market you're targeting. That's why a new social-networking platform to compete with MySpace or Facebook is probably not a great idea right now (but a focused social-network might be) and why Cooking-P2P-Internet-TV initiative is likely not going to fly right-now (as the Babelgum, Veoh, Joost shootout continues)

We seem to be in the midst of a vertical virtual worlds gold rush: worlds for kids, tweens, Barbie-doll collectors, or laguna-beach fans. And the recent indications of early success feel to me to be a of limited scope (and probably a bit distorted in terms of a sustainable user base). I also think that given the state of tools today, many of the new vertical worlds that will surely pop up will be uninspiring and fail to draw a following.

Beyondo is a horizontal play. The timing is right and we want to think big.

SecondLife Videos: The Good, The Bad & The Funny

2007-07-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

Pointers to a few very nicely done SecondLife themed videos.

When viewing these, one needs to remember that it's not really a second life and there is such a thing like over-immersion. Many people will appreciate the art and humor in these videos but I suspect most will also feel it goes a bit too far for their own personal taste and desired level of participation.

The Good
An incredible machinema video demonstrating the level of art and beauty a highly skilled SecondLife artist can create.

The Bad
Well written script about someone mysteriously disappearing from our world and reappearing in SecondLife. Yikes, hopefully this is all make-believe...

The Funny
And here is what happens when the second life creeps into the first.

On gmail and old business cards

2007-07-11T00:13:00.001-07:00

Can it be? Gmail is down? It's been more than 30min and I can't even get a login-screen... And all this in the midst of writing an important email to a potential investor.

Oh well, I'll let the guys at Google work on that and pass the time writing about my latest silly breakthrough:

UPDATE: Gmail is back.

When I first started working on Beyondo I rushed ahead and made myself new business cards. I figured the sooner I have them the better (why?)

Since then:
- We managed to buy http://www.beyondo.com/, so the placeholder email & web site I used is no longer applicable
- We have a much nicer logo than the one my wife & I made at the time
- My phone number (courtesy of AT&T) has changed

So except my name, everything on those cards is no longer relevant.

And I'm stuck with 200 of them... but I think I found a good use.

Last week I started using them as daily to-do notes. I pick one up every morning and write down what I need to accomplish.

The modest space forces me to prioritize.

They fit in my wallet (which despite all the PDAs, laptops and web-apps is still the only thing I have access to 100% of the day) so my list is always with me. I can also keep a bunch of old ones in my wallet and reflect on my weekly accomplishments.

It's a perfect system and I have more than 6month of cards to go...

All I need is to figure out how to make sure I always have a pen :-)

Human Brain Cloud

2007-07-04T00:51:00.000-07:00

Fun and interesting "massive multiplayer word association game". You get a random word and type the first thing that comes to mind. The system aggregates words and connections as they're entered into a nice looking "cloud".

It all started with one word: "volcano" and has 9,500 by now.

Strangely fun and interesting to play around with.

http://www.humanbraincloud.com/

no more corporate policies - getting my own stuff

2007-07-02T23:27:00.000-07:00

Working at a company the size of Beyondo is very different from the large corporation i had as a previous employer.

One big difference is the need to arrange for equipment and software all by myself. There are no policies to make choosing easier and simultaneously annoy you. And frugality becomes much more personal when you're using your own startup's budget.

Here are some of my choices so far:

1/ Laptop: 12" Toshiba Satellite. Was my second choice after ordering from Dell and having them screw-up my order. It runs pretty well, easy to carry around and has the looks. Only complaint so far is that the keyboard layout is really awkward and i keep hitting delete by accident.

2/ Cell phone: Helio Ocean. Yes, i did hear about the iPhone and i know everyone seems to think it'll change the world and i'll be stuck with an old and irrelevant cell-phone. i guess we'll all wait and see but at least i don't have to deal with AT&T... I really like the Ocean. It's fun to use and with the flat-fee data service i don't feel like a fool if i check emails and there isn't anything new & important :-)

3/ IT (email and stuff): Google apps for your domain. Was super easy to setup and works flawlessly... and you can't beat the price.

4/ Office suite: OpenOffice.org . I'm still divided on this one. It's a bit rough around the edges and has some annoying compatibility problems, but Microsoft Office is just so unaffordable in comparison. We'll make it work somehow.

5/ International calls: jajah. Has been incredibly reliable and is cheaper than most alternatives. I also enjoy answering the phone even when you're the one dialing (i don't know why i like that)

So i guess my priorities are (1) cheap, (2) cool, (3) practical...

First post

2007-07-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

We had an incredibly original idea to blog about life in the early days of a startup.

We'll post touching comments about how much fun it is to start a new venture and witty remarks about working without an office, trying to recruit early employees, dealing with investors, building a demo, a prototype, the alpha version, a private beta, preparing for launch... all without actually saying what we're doing!

OK, so it's not very original... but it'll be fun for us and helpful for people who want to keep track.

Read on.