Kellbot!

Keeping Your Startup Organized

February 1, 2010December 15, 2013 Kelly

In the few days since my post on finding a co-founder I have, to my surprise, found a co-founder! It’s funny how things work out like that. My co-founder, Katherine, has actually been a friend of mine for a while. So unfortunately I don’t have any sage advice for those still on the hunt for a partner in crime business. Or maybe I do: talk to buy cialis viagra everyone you know about your business idea. If it’s any good, someone is bound to get excited by it.

The next step is figuring out how we stay organized. We have a lot to do: apply to various startup incubators, put together something resembling a business plan (or at least an outline of what we’re doing), sit down with a lawyer and become a real business, etc. Oh, and build the prototype. Actually the prototype is built, but it’s kind of hideous, so it needs work.

What do other startups use to stay organized? At Etsy we used Trac, which is decent software but has a somewhat miserable UI. It’s powerful, but the amount of work I’d have to put in to get it to do what I want is more than I can handle right now. We’re already using Google Docs and Google Calendar, but I can’t find anything that ties those together with a nice project management interface. We need to keep track of who is working on what incubator app, what still needs to be done for the incorporation, etc etc. I feel like just about everyone has this problem these days, so I’m interested in hearing everyone else’s solutions.

Uncategorized

The Death Cry of an iPod

January 31, 2010December 15, 2013

Since I viagra online in spain moved to New Jersey and stopped biking to, or even going to, an office, I haven’t used my iPod much. For the last year it has languished in a drawer as newer and fancier generations of iPod are released.

My iPod’s reluctance to awake from its slumber is by no means surprising. And this iPod has not led a particularly cushy life. On an alarmingly regular basis my iPod would fall out of my pocket during my bike ride to work. When it did it would either hang precariously from the headphone jack or, more likely, tumble down the street.

While the industrial strength case I got (shown left) is the sole reason the thing functions at all, my iPod cries of protest want me to know it’s time for a new one. The battery lasts about a third of what it used to and every now and then the whole thing just freezes with a big black bar across the bottom. Not even a sad mac face, just an angry black bar. This is undoubtedly related to the repeated head trauma the little device has faced. The classic iPods have hard drives in them (as opposed to flash) and really don’t appreciate being shaken or dropped.

So now my quandry is whether to stick it out until the thing finally dies, and get the latest and greatest now, or to give into my technophile tendencies and put it out of its misery. While the lack of battery life would be enough for many to give up on a device, I’m frankly not away from a power source for very long stretches of time. Even at the gym there are iPod chargers on every cardio machine.

The sudden freezing can be distressing, although it fixes itself when I re-sync with iTunes. I’ve been listening to a lot of books on tape lately, and having the iPod cut out at a climactic point in the story leaves me furiously stabbing at its little buttons in an attempt to revive the thing and find out what happens.

Looking at a timeline of Apple media devices on wikipedia, the current generation (6) has been around for about as long as mine (5th gen) was allowed to live, which means it’s due for an update. I have an amazing knack for buying Apple devices right before they up the specs. So I suppose the prudent thing would be to wait until the next one comes along and my iPod is really and truly dead, not just begging to be put out to pasture.

While I’m mostly considering another iPod classic, the Nano does have the advantage of being smaller and supports the Nike+ features at my gym. If you have a snazzy enough iPod it will log your workout onto it and then upload it to a tracking website when you do your next iTunes sync. Or so I’ve been told. My iPod is not nearly snazzy enough. But even the 16GB Nano is smaller than my music collection, not to mention video, so it’s less than ideal. And I’m not interested in the iPod Touch, I already have one infuriating touchscreen device rattling around in my purse: the G1.

I keep reminding myself that today’s shiny new iPod will be next year’s whiny old curmudgeon, and as such I think I’ll wait it out a bit longer.

bento

Bento #8: Chicken Wings Don't Fit in Small Boxes

January 29, 2010September 11, 2014

Today I learned that chicken wings are hard to put in a small space. They're awkwardly shaped, unforgiving, and frankly provide a very low ratio of edible food to volume ratio. I really ought to have used a big square tupperware for today's lunch, but only realized that after I'd packed in everything else. But buy viagra online in canada man are chicken wings a pain.

Today we have:

Leftover Atomic Wings
Rice
Some bizarre pseudo-maki I made in an attempt to use some leftover veggies. Two are rice and zucchini rolled in nori. One is avacado and zucchini rolled in nori, without rice. I admit this may not be the most appetizing thing I've ever created. I was tired and in a hurry.
Sliced bananas
Sliced carrots
The omnipresent baby spinach

As you can see, I really need to go to the grocery store. My bento vegetable collection is dwindling, and we've been out of dessert foods for a while. On the flip side I'm proud of myself for putting together a balanced if not interesting lunch in ~10 minutes given the limited foods in our fridge.

Startup Life

Finding a cofounder

January 26, 2010December 15, 2013 Kelly

When you’re looking to start a company, how do you find a cofounder?

I have an idea I’m trying to build into a company, but need a partner on it to stay focused and keep at it. It’s just too big to do by myself. I’ve been trying to think of aquaintences on either the product management side or the dev side of things who might be interested. A lot of people I know who start companies do so with former coworkers, so I started there.

Luckily, I have one former coworker who would be just fantastic to start a company with. She’s smart, motivated, and knows the market we’re going after. She was laid off from our former employer about a year ago. Of course, being as awesome as she is, she’s started her own company in the year since then (which is quite successful!) and quite understandably wants to stay with it.

Other friends, such as those at NYC Resistor, are either happy in their current jobs or already started their own companies. I’m feeling a little late to the startup party.

At the crux of my issue is the fact that I’m inherently bad at networking. This is an awful quality for an entrepreneur, I know. I also know some people who are equally bad or worse who managed to find people to start a company. So what I want to know is how viagra with no prescription in britain they did it.

bento

Bento #7: Quick Lunch

January 26, 2010December 15, 2013

Mostly levftovers today, except for my attempt at some veggie stir fry with zucchini and mushrooms.

Leftover pasta and meatballs in marinara sauce
Carrots
Spinach
Half an orange
Mushroom and Zucchini Stir Fry

A bunch of people have said to me, "I could never find the time to pack a lunch every day, much less make it look nice." But I promise you, you can. This lunch took me less than 10 minutes, and that includes the time to stir fry the veggies. Making it look nice isn't really much harder than throwing it all together haphazardly.

Granted, the cute rice shapes (and really fresh rice in general) take a while, but most of the time I just throw leftovers in a box, decorate with some spinach for color, and throw in whatever fruits/veggies are handy. Since I do viagra buy now it every day, I can cut extra on days when I have time and save them for the next day.

Really the best thing about this is how many veggies we're using. I think this is the first time in a while we'll get to the end of the bag of carrots, rather than having to throw them out because they're old and gross. Veggies are way less intimidating when you can just tuck them into the corners of your lunch. Somehow figuring out how to use 1/2 a carrot is way easier than figuring out what to do with a bag of them.

We have a lot of leftovers, so I'm trying to think of things besides carrots to dress them up with. Hmm…

bento

Bento #6 My First Maki

January 25, 2010January 28, 2010

Today was my first attempt at making maki. I thought about documenting the process itself, but decided there are enough online instructions that no one needed to see me flail about trying to make maki.

I think they came out pretty well. It took about an hour to put both our lunches together, most of which was the time it took to cook the rice. I am saving up my pennies for a rice cooker, let me tell you.

After some internet research, it turns out what I thought was a cucumber was zucchini. I of course found this out after packing the lunches and sending Chris off with his. Oops. I'm still learning this whole vegetable thing.

In this lunch:

Slightly messed up California rolls (rice, nori, avacado, imitation crab, zucchini)
Banana
Carrot slices
Edamame

Both of us got the same lunch today, Chris's is just a little bigger. The blue container with a dog on it contains soy sauce, which I left out of mine. I didn't have any pickled ginger or wasabi, oh well.

As you can see we now have offical bento boxes. The tupperware still works best for certain foods / shapes, but the two-tier bento makes separating foods much easier and travels a little better. Chris's even came with an insulated bag with a handle to carry it in.

Hacking

Parts Vending Machine

January 22, 2010September 11, 2014

I've been slowly (very slowly) setting up a small store at Resistor to carry electronics parts and prototyping tools, since there aren't any retail stores in town pfizer viagra cheepest prices where you can pick up an Arduino RIGHT NOW. While ordering parts and figuring out where it will all go, I had a vision:

Vending machine full of components!

I've been surfing Craigslist and eBay, and while I'm not allowed to bring any new equipment into the space until we're all settled in post-move, it looks like a used vending machine can be found for $300 – $700 depending on what you're looking for.

One of the old school snack machines sounds just about perfect, but the one we found can only handle prices up to $3.95. Most vending machine hacks I was able to find were about getting free stuff out of them, not modding them to sell out of. Another fun hack which probably wouldn't be terribly difficult would be hooking it up to the net and letting people pay with PayPal or credit card.

I'll continue to hunt for the perfect machine, but in the mean time I'd love to hear about any vending machine hacks folks have seen or done. Because clearly what we need a robot who sells robot parts!

bento

End of Bento Week 2

January 22, 2010December 16, 2013 Kelly

I haven’t posted many bento photos this week because I only packed lunches two days, and canada viagra for sale didn’t have time to photograph today’s.

I picked up a Benriner Japanese Mandolin Slicer at a Japanese market near here. It’s great for slicing veggies, but the blades are wicked sharp and the hand guard is kind of a joke. I’m a little scared to use it. I’ll probably pick up a cut resistant glove to wear when trying to slice harder veggies on the thing. It does however make nice even thickness slices of whatever you want.

I also picked up a few stacking bento boxes, a green one for me and a black one for Chris. I thought about getting him a Hello Kitty lunch box but decided against it.

This whole bento experiment has been really good for my fresh fruit and veggie consumption. Because they add color and can be chopped into whatever size I need they’re great for filling holes between bigger items. It’s also a good way to use up leftover veggies, since you’re packing in small portions of a variety of things. Overall I’m really happy with the lunches, and it’s totally worth waking up earlier to prepare.

The Japanese supermarket also had a HUGE array of rice cookers. Huge. I’ve decided that I’m allowed to have a rice cooker once I find a good home for the bread machine I have but don’t use much. Rice cookers range from cheap to insanely priced robotic controlled monstrosities. I’m looking at a mid-range one with a timer so I can leave the rice soaking overnight and have it ready when I come down in the morning.

I’m sure Chris will be STOKED to have one more gadget in the kitchen. Yeah, right.

bento

Goomba and Fire Flower Rice Molds

January 19, 2010December 16, 2013

I took Friday off, and was sick Monday, but I think you'll agree the latest bentos were well viagra tablet weight worth the wait:

Yes, it's rice balls in the shape of a goomba and a fire flower.

Chris's lunch contains:

Fire flower rice
Baby spinach
Orange half
Leftover chicken and udon
Red pepper slices

Mine contains:

Goomba rice
Red pepper slices
Orange half
PBJ in a tortilla. This didn't turn out as festive as I'd hoped.
Baby spinach

On Chris's I used some plastic grass from when we ordered sushi as a divider. On mine I separated things with a slice from the tortilla (which I cut into a square).

All out of cookies. Sad times!

I made the molds myself using the laser cutter at NYC Resistor.

I started with flat sheet and cut the mold layer by layer. Everything was laminated together using acrylic cement.

Version 1, shown above, had the backing (which holds the features like eyes and mouth) permanently attached. This was a mistake. The rice had absolutely no incentive to move. I had to dig it out with a knife. It was a total pain.

Version 2 features a removable back piece, which works quite well:

The registration marks (blue rectangles) are important, because the acrylic slides around once it's full of sticky rice.

While they're much too time consuming and expensive (not to mention the intellectual property issues) to make for sale, I've posted the plans for the Mario rice molds at Thingiverse so anyone can have their own molds cut.