Andrew J Cronk

Dub Baby 1

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:38:13 -0500

Quick mix I put together Friday night.

Of course, I use bln.kr to share music on Twitter and Facebook.

"The Two Dart System. When something bad happens, it as if we are hit by two darts. The bad thing,..."

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:26:03 -0500

“The Two Dart System. When something bad happens, it as if we are hit by two darts. The bad thing, the pain, is often very real… we can call it the first dart. For example, if we stumble and hit our head, it probably hurts. This is the first dart. If we then think about how unlucky we are, and why couldn’t we have known better, and keep replaying the incident in our head, this is the second dart. The second dart is insidious because we don’t realize that we have control over it”

- The Neuroscience of Buddhism — Zachary Burt’s Blog (via Instapaper) (via superamit)

catbird: I scored pretty badly on this Times “Just How Badly...

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:35:21 -0500

catbird:

I scored pretty badly on this Times “Just How Badly Has The Internet Fucked Up Your Brain?” test. Sigh.

I just got 100% perfect on both. ”That’s telekinesis, Kyle!”

mischadehart: Daily Green Juice A detoxifying elixir packed...

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:38:13 -0500

mischadehart:

Daily Green Juice

A detoxifying elixir packed with vitamins. It loads me up with energy to start my day!

Ingredients: (serves 2)

2 bunches of Kale

1 cucumber

4 stalks of celery

juice from 1 lemon

Juice all the ingredients in a juicer. Stir in the lemon juice and enjoy!

Eminem: 'Not Afraid' To Make Amends

Thu, 27 May 2010 10:37:22 -0500

Eminem: 'Not Afraid' To Make Amends:

hitchcock:

I must be getting pretty lame these days — I’m learning about new Eminem singles from NPR. On Eminem’s new single Not Afraid, he drops the following verse:

“Let’s be honest / That last Relapse CD was ‘ehh’ / Perhaps I ran those accents into the ground.”

Yes, yes you did run those accents into the ground. It wasn’t cool. I’m glad you realized this.

I don’t think you’ve gotten lame, Chris. I think NPR has gotten seriously cool.

"When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred..."

Mon, 03 May 2010 11:24:11 -0500

“When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

- Jacob Riis (via ummhello)

Create vs Consume

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:41:07 -0500

Lately I’ve been thinking about how much I create vs consume things in my spare time. What is the ratio? How often do I write a poem vs watch Hulu? How would my life be different if I tried to consume less, and make more stuff?

So last week I tried an experiment. I wanted to write one blog post per day. I was inspired by this quote by Fred Wilson:

“I write every day because it makes me think every day”

And I almost made it! I wrote Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but didn’t write Friday because I was DJing my birthday party (I guess that still counts as creating something).

I noticed two things:

Writing blog posts takes more time than you might imagine.
Thinking, forming opinions and taking stands is more valuable than the final output (the blog post).

Looking back, most of my posts are a bit incoherent and don’t fully communicate the ideas in my head. But the point, for me, is that I now have new ideas in my head!

Like this semi-tangent….

I’m really into the idea that people should be defined by what they make, not what they like. What does it really say about me if I decide that I enjoy Burberry, MGMT and drinking PBR. It doesn’t take effort to like a brand, and it doesn’t reflect who a person really is, just how they want to be perceived. If I ever have to apply for a job again, I don’t plan to write a resume; I’ll just show a list of things I have made.

You will probably not learn anything meaningful from reading lists It seems that list articles are...

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:34:18 -0500

You will
probably not
learn anything meaningful
from
reading lists

It seems that list articles are very popular online. ”Top 8 games for iPad”. ”10 signs you’re on a bad date”. ”Top 50 list of Top 10 lists”.

The format lends itself to the information hungry, shallow, skimaholic readers. I hate skimming, it is a false promise. You don’t think deeply while skimming, you are just looking for the next heading which you mold to fit your pre-existing thesis. In the end you have not really learned anything, you haven’t considered any new viewpoints, just reinforced old ones.

Consider this article by John Gruber on the iPad. It’s thorough. Hell, by internet standards it’s War and Peace. But if you allot the time to focus and contemplate the contents of the article it will send your mind into a tizzy chewing on new ideas. You think first about the iPad, then the mobile market, and then software development on whole. It feels like connecting synapses in your brain.

Top Ways to Learn Something Online

Forget lists.

Digging for Substance

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:00:00 -0500

Last night my friend Tim K and I went digging for vinyl records at Dusty Groove. I’ve collected vinyl for a while, and Tim is just getting started.

I don’t want to debate the sonic properties of vinyl vs digital, but rather examine the listening experience. I feel like I listen to vinyl records, where mp3s play in the background. Note the active vs passive nature for the listener. You listen to 3 or 4 songs on vinyl, then you flip or change the record to hear more. iTunes tells me that my mp3 collection could play for 12 days straight.

So what is the allure of vinyl records for me? They feel like a much more thoughtful product. The large cover art is often well designed, and could be used as an art piece. Many records have a lengthy story written on the back about the creation and influences of the music. I feel connected to the artist. It feels like I’m shaking Miles Davis’ hand every time I flip a record.

I’ve been noticing a trend of people striving for a deeper connection to their material possessions. Seth Godin seems to think this is a new expression of wealth. I think there is more to it than that. If I choose to buy a locally grown, organic head of lettuce, I am buying it for myself as a reflection of my principles, not to demonstrate to others that I have the ability/wealth to do so. Similarly, I would help an elderly woman cross the street because I think it is the right thing to do. I would not do it to impress the girl standing on the corner.

There are many examples of people buying products they feel connected to, products with a soul. At Local Motors, you pay a premium for a car that you still have to build yourself! But that is the point. As Local Motors CEO, Jay Rogers, like to quip, “if my son and I build this car together, I don’t care if it becomes a rusty bucket of bolts in the back yard, you’ll have to pry it out of my dead hands”.

It’s hard to imagine that deep of a connection with your minivan.

Digital Dependencies

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:52:00 -0500

I’ve noticed two instances of digital dependencies recently that made me cringe.

The first one was in Austin, TX at SXSW. I was pumped to see a band called Sleigh Bells. I’d heard a few of their songs, and liked their blend of deep beats, heavy guitar and female vocals.

As the band was setting up, I spotted a guitarist tuning up and a female mic checking. My eyes darted around for the remaining members of the band, but there was no one else in sight. Turns out, the “band” was a Macbook. The drums, synth and bass parts were handled by hitting a Play button.

I was a bit disillusioned by the faux band, but tried to postpone judgement until their set was complete. Early in their set however, the Macbook malfunctioned and the beating heart of the group was silenced. No worry, they just plugged in an iPod. It felt more like karaoke than a live music experience.

The second reminder of digital dependence happened to me this afternoon in the office. For whatever reason, the clock on my laptop froze at 5:05pm. Everything else on my computer continued to work perfectly, but the time display malfunctioned. It wasn’t until I looked at my phone (another digital device), that I noticed something strange was afoot. At this point I didn’t trust my computer or phone, so I had to ask someone with a mechanical watch to be sure. I ended up missing my train and subsequent dinner.

Events like these make me reconsider my digital dependencies. I forget that technology is created by people, and thus will always be flawed.

Why are there no new languages?

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:25:50 -0500

Being a nerdy type, I usually learn a new programming language or two every year. Many programming languages are meant to be improvements of previous languages. Others are created to tackle specific types of problems. There are new programming languages being created fairly regularly.

Compare this list of programming languages to human spoken languages. Both lists contain some “dead languages”, but to me, the difference is the list of programming languages is growing, where human languages are shrinking.

Is human language a solved problem? Is there no place for an evolved language to be created? What if we took the number system from Chinese, the verb conjugation from English, and the pronunciation rules from Spanish to create an evolved language? Wouldn’t that be useful?

Kind of like Newspeak, but less totalitarian and more altruistic.

jakelodwick: Today I have the honor of introducing a project...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:22:14 -0600

jakelodwick:

Today I have the honor of introducing a project that’s been in development for almost two years.

In early 2008 I talked to my friend Michael about making an album for my then-new music company, Normative. He had an exciting concept: build a musical contraption, a one-man-band “rig” that looked like a big metal box, but unfolded to reveal a platform, stool, drum kit, keyboard stand, looping pedals, and a guitar. He would build the box, then make an album that could be performed live, by himself, in one sitting. I said, Sounds incredible, here’s some money, I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

He spend 4 solitary months building the sexiest, manliest instrument I’d ever seen, a few days writing the music, and another few months recording it. The album wasn’t just ‘a bunch of songs’ but a continuous story about a boy who was born laughing and whose legs kicked relentlessly, whose movement was impossible to control, who could not sleep, whose parents “took shifts, a steady rotation of looking after him, while the other one would sleep out in the car,” drumming on every conceivable surface, pounding the parents’ belongings to smithereens, immune to adult anti-psychotic medication … an individual incapable, by his nature, of being restrained; his bombastic inner fire and innocence; his relentless and violent quest for peace, and his eventual triumph.

After wrapping the record, I asked my favorite illustrator Ira if he wanted to do something kind of… weird. Let’s not make a music video and let’s not make ‘album art’. Ira, can you make a loooonnnng illustration that scrolls across the viewer’s screen for the entire 45 minute album? He said, Sounds good, pay up and I’ll get back to you in a few months.

The months dragged on (but who cares when ART MUST EXIST WITHOUT COMPROMISE?) … And he returned with 50 feet of painstakingly, achingly detailed and imaginative, hand-drawn art. Totally original stuff — the sort of magic you only get when one brilliant person tunnels into an impossibly ambitious project for a really long time.

We stitched it together in After Effects, synched it with the music, and uploaded it to Vimeo. And now, well, here it is, you can watch this “illustrative score”, this new and beautiful thing, two single-minded visions gracefully interwoven like … like snakes having sex!

But don’t watch it now, here in the Tumblr dashboard, with the lights on, your hand on your mouse, looking for the next nano-meme to microstimulate you. When you click the link below, be prepared to invest 45 minutes with your headphones on, the lights off, seated comfortably, and with fullscreen on. This is the real deal, people, and I promise it is worth watching.

Click here to watch “MARCH 3” on Vimeo.

Nothing inspires me more than iron-clad dedication and steadfast resolve. Holy crap.

I wrote this 3 years ago about startups

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:15:51 -0600

This was never published. Really weird to look back at your old writing.

Keeping the momentum alive in your startup

Time to drop a little Physics 101 on you:

p = mv

Does that mean anything to you? The astute student will know that this is the equation for momentum:

Momentum (p) = Mass (m) x Velocity (v)

Why the letter ‘p’ was chosen to represent momentum, I don’t know, but I bet it has something to do with Greek (rho perhaps?). Anyhow, maintaining momentum is a critical part of any early phase startup. Many a good business idea has been abandoned due to lack of momentum. Why did it stop? Where did it go? I think analyzing this equation a little further can help you keep the momentum towards making your startup dreams a reality.

First let’s dissect at the Velocity part of the equation. Velocity can be further broken down to a function of acceleration and time:

Velocity = Acceleration x Time

So, by substitution we can see that the momentum in your startup can be influenced by these three factors:

Momentum = Mass x Acceleration x Time

Still with me here? If not, go hit the Algebra book and come back when you are done.

Alright, I believe the goal here is NOT necessarily to maximize momentum, but rather keep it at a healthy level. You don’t want it to slip too low, causing you venture to come to a grinding halt. But you also don’t want it to spin out of control, causing unmanageable growth and popularity (see Friendster, and hopefully not Twitter). You want to balance the three factors, (mass, acceleration, time) in order to keep the right momentum alive. So how exactly do these influences relate to startups, and how can we keep them in check?

Mass

The mass element can be thought of as the size of your startup team. Are 8 developers really needed for an initial release of most web applications? Probably not, and having too many developers hands on an early version of an app can ruin things, similar to how too many chefs can spoil the soup.

On the other hand, being the sole developer on a project can greatly reduce your projects momentum. Obviously, one developer can do an entire app (ie. Flickr), but in most cases 2-3 developers is the ideal size for an early stage venture. Besides sharing the code load, it is very beneficial to have other people on the dev team for motivational reasons. There will be times where you will want to slack, not code, or even quit. This is when the other members of the team will step in and motivate you to keep things moving. Having a sense of accountability towards each other is key.

In addition to the motivational benefits, a small dev team is beneficial when unforeseen personal events occur. Is the project development going to come to a halt when your cat dies and you are grieving for three weeks? That is when the other guys/gals can step up to keep the momentum going.

Acceleration

We have to stretch the metaphor a little to accommodate the acceleration element. Acceleration can be thought of as the energy and enthusiasm put into your startup. Obviously, you want to truly believe in the potential for success of your project, but you have to be careful not to drink your own Kool-Aide, Heavens Gate style. Along every step of the way, you must analyze the viability of your startup. Unless you plan on doing the ‘I hope we get acquired by Yahoo!’ rain dance, your startup should have some method of sustaining itself. So, as your are furvently developing it is often good to step back and review your business plan. Is it still relevant? Does anything need to be updated? Don’t be like the underwear gnomes on South Park, whose business plan went something like:

1. Steal underwear

2. ????

3. Profit!

In addition to reviewing the viability of your startup, it is also necessary to step back and look at things from an outsider’s perspective. With all that enthusiasm and energy you are pouring into the project, it is too easy to get completely wrapped up in your idea. You feel soo comfortable with it, that you assume that everyone will easily grasp the concept and understand it as well as you. It is of utmost importance to think like an actual user of your application. I think the best practice is to assume as little as possible about your users; maybe think of it as designing for the least common denominator. Just because something seems intuitive to you, does not mean that a first time user of your application will feel the same way.

Time

This one should be pretty obvious, I don’t think too much needs to be said. The speed that you release to the public is paramount if you are going to throw your hat in the internet rodeo.

However, one area that gets overlooked when trying to quickly come to market is TESTING. For some reason in internet culture it is acceptable to replace system and unit level testing with a shiny ‘Beta’ tag. I guess that we have Google to thank for the proliferation of this phenomenon, since every product they release seems to remain in Beta for an indefinite amount of time, but I really think it is a cop out for good testing (Coding horror link). There are even podcasts that claim to be in ‘Beta’……

Lately I’ve been fascinated with the concept of having different periods in your life. ...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:56:39 -0600

Lately I’ve been fascinated with the concept of having different periods in your life. Picasso famously had Blue and Rose periods, which strongly dictated his artistic output.

I’m interested for two reasons: I’m curious as to what causes transitions between different periods. Is it a single event? A series of events? How long does the transition take?

The second reason is that I feel like I am in a characterizable period in my own life.

Can you classify a life period whilst you are in it, or only retroactively? I hope the former, because I’m thoroughly enjoying the current period.

(via hitchcock) I love how he just goes off around 3:00 after...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:38:38 -0600

(via hitchcock)

I love how he just goes off around 3:00 after previous crooning.

Dogs reacting to the Law & Order theme song.

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:59:00 -0600

Dogs reacting to the Law & Order theme song.:

(via catbird)

“This post did not just strike a chord with me, but a whole symphony.”

So I'm making this thing...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:11:12 -0600

So I'm making this thing...:

kylewritescode:

If you are a developer or designer, this is for you. Reblog this and I’ll get you an invite.

Developer.

mischadehart: Loaded Antioxidant Berry Smoothie I absolutely...

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:47:15 -0600

mischadehart:

Loaded Antioxidant Berry Smoothie

I absolutely love this smoothie. It has no added sugar and all the antioxidants. Blackberries rank extremely high on the ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) scale, so don’t skip out on them! You can make this smoothie with any fruit you like. You can also substitute the rice milk for almond or coconut milk, but I wouldn’t recommend it! (in terms of flavor)

This recipe makes 1 serving.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of blackberries

1/2 cup of blueberries

2-4 ice cubes depending on size

1 1/2 cups of rice milk

Method:

Blend together and enjoy!

This sounds awesome. I’m going to Harvest Time tonight!

brycedotvc: This man makes his living providing charges for...

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:05:39 -0600

brycedotvc:

This man makes his living providing charges for cell phones (pay by the hour). A reminder that entrepreneurship comes in many shapes and sizes.

Business idea #2: Real-time photostream for events

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:47:00 -0600

When we were planning our New Years Party last year, I thought it would be cool if people at the party could share the pictures they were taking in real-time. I imagined it would work like this:

Take picture with camera phone.
Email, MMS, picture text it to some address.
Use projector to show slideshow of pictures received.

I hacked this together one afternoon. The result:

http://bln.kr/static/nye.html

Not bad. It actually worked pretty well at the party. For this hack implementation I used:

Tumblr as datastore. Tumblr accepts pictures sent to an email address, so I just made a slide with instructions and the input email address display every 10 slides. You can see the slideshow as a blog here: http://nyepic.tumblr.com/
The awesome jQuery cycle plugin

The whole thing is just one static HTML page, and you can view source of the page to see my entire hack javascript.

The business idea here is to create a real service out of it. This prototype was very well received and people seemed to love interacting and being on the big screen. I’ve thought of at least ten ways you could charge for this service. Charge per event (4 hour period), charge for a certain amount of photos, charge to import directly to Facebook, etc. I suppose this could work with Eye-Fi too…

Thoughts on technical implementation: I think Lamson would fit well here for receiving the emails/mms/picture texts. I downloaded it and poked around the code. Pretty exciting project.