Tag Archive for 'Technology'

Get an online personal assistant, it will make your life easier

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/7/3
in GTD and Productivity
. 3 Comments

The shorter version:
Checkout Online Personal Assistant. I recommend it, it’s saved me time and made my life easier. Best part is you can use it from wherever…
Try it, tell Ed you got there from here, and he’ll treat you nice ;-)

The longer version:
OK, so I’m the first to admit that I often find myself with too many balls to juggle. I find that having more to do actually makes me more productive and when I get in the zone, things happen and it feels good.

However, when you’re starting a business, or working on something important to you, and you decide that it is the highest priority in your life, then other things slip down the priority order, and they simply don’t get done.

Cases in point:

  1. I’ve needed to get a UK drivers license for at least 3 years now
  2. I’ve needed to renew my South African passport for over a year now
  3. I’ve been serious about taking up Kendo, or a Japanese Sword Art, for at least 18 months
  4. I’ve needed to sort out health insurance for a long long long time
  5. I wanted to organise a birthday bash for myself this year, for precisely the reason why it didn’t happen last year

I think you get the picture…. Basically you keep your life together somehow until something threatens to break, then you mend it so it doesn’t break in the short term, then you go back to being focussed. I know not everyone is like that, but I am, hence this post! ;-)

Anyways, I’m not really into recommending or plugging services that I don’t have a lot of exposure to, mainly ‘cos I get too many emails so it’s hard to decide whom to spend an hour for getting to know a service, and also ‘cos people don’t really read my blog for that reason ;-) I’m not Scoble or Arrington or Kirkpatrick, and neither do I want to be.

Back to the point - a while ago my friend Ed setup a service called Online Personal Assistant, and after a bit of nudging I decided to give it a try. My @Inbox was overflowing, and I really just needed to clear some stuff that was important, but not that important it could go above Kindo.

So I sent a list of stuff to my personal assistant Kevin:

  1. Book Geek BBQ venue for summer in London
  2. Book karting venue for my birthday delebration
  3. Book bowling venue for my birthday celebration
  4. Find me health insurance
  5. Find me Tai Chi schools close to where I live
  6. Find me Kendo schools close to where I live

As you can see, they’re all time intensive tasks that would mean me spending a few hours online for each one, at some point, getting to a place where I can make a decision and then do some actions… Getting my passport and drivers license require me to be somewhere in person, so I needed to do that.

Where we are now is that Ed’s team (thanks Kevin!) has spent about 9 hours doing all that stuff for me, for which I’ll pay an hourly rate. Everything is documented and tracked in an online workspace (not Basecamp), and I’m happy with the results. I have a few things to tie down now, but basically all the research is done, and all it requires is another booking, or an action on my part.

Bottom line - I’ve saved 9 hours of my time (which I value more than what I’ll pay for it), thereby enabling me to focus on things more important to me now, so as far as I’m concerned I’m a happy biologist.

I happily recommend the service, and am going to continue to use it.

Carsonified:- Matt Week - Day three and where we’re at

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/7/2
in General
. 0 Comments

I’m a bit skeptical about this, but anyways I think the results will be interesting… ;-)
_ Carsonified » Blog Archive » Matt Week - Day three and where we’re at

Day three is upon us. We have had a few challenges along the way but all of the team are making progress.

There is a bit of an air of pandemonium, but all the team are weighing in with a tremendous effort. We are getting an enormously valuable insight into what web development companies have to go through day in day out.

From an email:

As you may already know the Carsonified team have set ourselves a challenge this week - to build a web app in four days (32 hours) and we’re launching tomorrow at 5:30pm GMT.

The app is called Matt and it helps people post to multiple Twitter accounts (Multiple Account Twitter Tweeting). We know the idea for the app isn’t going to rock the world, but we’re going to share everything we’re learning in the process - so hopefully that’ll be valuable for other people.

What do you think?

Tips for landing a php job in London

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/6/30
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

OK, so I’ve not got long so will be brief and to the point with this one, in the hope that it will help some of the people that read this blog, and maybe even some of the folks that are looking for devs to join their teams.

I’ve had to run through a lot of agencies and candidates in the last month or so, recruiting for Kindo, and these are some thoughts in no particular order:

As a candidate

DO:

  • accept there is lots of good competition; you have to stand out to be noticed
  • research on the company you’re interviewing at - it’s polite and will help you with 3, 4 and 5
  • send a cv that is relevant to the job spec - java experience won’t interest someone looking for a php person
  • learn how to sell yourself and articulate your experience - enough said
  • accept you’re going to have to send code to show what you can do - send your best relevant code
  • describe what your code is supposed to be doing to there is context - don’t just send a bunch of methods
  • comment more than you think you should - esp if you’re going to work in a team or be contracting
  • write documentation in the code for something like phpDocumentor - that makes people happy

As a general rule (unless you’re a superstar), your work environment, the people you work with, and the work you’ll be doing, should all supersede remuneration unless you have a specific reason (like a mortgage for example).

As someone recruiting

DO:
Read this first:
http://www.nickhalstead.com/2008/07/01/10-reasons-why-i-hate-recruitment-agents/

  • accept that it is going to take up a lot of your time
  • have a clear job spec and role description in place to send around
  • use your personal network first
  • get your agencies to send some cv’s to assess the kind of candidates they have
  • ask for source code if you like the cv - you’ll do less unnecessary face to face’s
  • expect them to do some filtering and work for you; if not, bin them
  • turn your phone off if you want quiet time to work
  • agree on terms first, or re-confirm them if circumstances change on your end

Hope that helps!! ;-)

Intruders.tv interview on Kindo (about scale/product/marketing/revenue)

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/6/30
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Was at Open Coffee last week (looking for developers), and did this interview with Vincent and Eugene from Intruders.tv on Kindo. Talked about how we’ve tackled some of the usual web app issues like scaling our userbase, internationalisation, product dev, marketing tricks, revenue generation….
_ Intruders.tv interview on Kindo.com

Kindo.com is a “new take on the traditional family tree”. In this interview, we sit down with Gareth Knight to talk about Kindo and their user acquisition strategy. Gareth shares with us his experience of attracting users to the site and the effectiveness of strategies such as blogging, Google AdWords and PR.

If you’re building a webapp, could be useful ;-)

Kindo in the guardian.co.uk

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/6/23
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Brief summary of what Kindo is about in the Guardian:
_ Elevator Pitch: Kindo makes a play for the family network niche | PDA: The Digital Content Blog | guardian.co.uk
;-)

Thoughts from recruiting for php developers in London

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/6/4
in Uncategorized
. 6 Comments

I’ve spent the last week or so busy with recruiting, and I’ve learnt some interesting things. So thought I’d post something small just before I take the tube home…. I’ll try not to be too sarcastic.

  1. Most recruitment agents seem to be early 20 something bottom feeders who don’t or can’t read, and have no industry experience
  2. Most of the agents don’t really know the difference between the various technologies or just do a search on language (instead of focus), so therefore send you crud which you still have to filter out - I received a Linux systems engineer CV for a php role
  3. Warning signals include:
    • “I called you earlier”
    • “so you’re hiring a developer, what’s he going to be doing day to day?”
    • “I’m sure he’s great for your social application, he’s got loads of enterprise Java experience”
    • and my personal favourite of today “an excellent web2 ASP Javasphere candidate” (*note, not knocking Java)
  4. There are some gems who know their stuff, who listen, and who actually have good candidates = these are gold
  5. Most developers don’t seem to know how to communicate why you should hire them, so learn to ask good questions that lead to what you want to find out
  6. Your ear is going to get warm, so get comfy
  7. Take water to phone call
  8. Update:Agents seem to get surprised when you contact previous employers to get feedback on candidates (surely this is something they should do??)

That’s it - hope that helps, and I’m wondering whether you’ve had any experiences with agents and recruiting? ;-)

Test your Web design in different browsers with Browsershots

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/6/4
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Pretty cool utility ;-)
_ Test your Web design in different browsers - Browsershots

Browsershots makes screenshots of your Web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your Web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your Web site in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.

Hat tip to Steve, who finally has a blog, dammit!

Lions at the gate: Microsoft vs Yahoo

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/5/23
in Uncategorized
. 4 Comments

If you’re interested in the inner workings of internet capitalism, then this should give you some good insight into how the system works…

_ Microsoft-Yahoo, Version 2.0

Every day it looks more likely that Yahoo! (YHOO) co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo will lose control of the company they built into the Net’s first iconic brand. Days after they appeared to have dodged an unsolicited $47.5 billion acquisition bid from Microsoft, raider Carl Icahn began buying millions of Yahoo shares, building up a 4.3% stake.

On May 15 he announced plans to replace Yahoo’s board in hopes of getting the company back to the negotiating table with Microsoft. Apparently with some success: On May 18, Microsoft signaled renewed interest in Yahoo by jumping back in with a fresh proposal that involves, as one option, taking over Yahoo’s search-advertising business

My take, it’s gonna happen - there’s too much to be gained from it, for it not to happen. Guess the question is in what form and when.

Welcome to the Kindo Family, Denmark!

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/5/20
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Kindo is now in 15 languages… ;-)
_ Gratis stamtræ på Kindo – Welcome to the Family, Denmark!

Kindo just launched in Danish! Our last name research pages for Denmark have been live for quite some time now, and finally we have launched Kindo in Danish! It should soon be available via http://kindo.dk as well.

Danish home pageThe new language was made possible by Aske and Brian who have translated the whole website voluntarily. Thanks a lot for your help guys! Especially Aske has worked incredibly hard on this; and amazingly fast as well.

The new Danish version takes our language toll to 15! The Kindo family is spreading the globe ;-)

Here comes Neotel - Competition to Telkom

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/5/6
in Uncategorized
. 3 Comments

Some good news for the SA tech people out there ;-)

_ Financial Mail - Here comes Neotel

SA’s second fixed-line network operator was meant to begin operating in May 2002, when Telkom lost its statutory monopoly over fixed-line telecommunications. Six years later, the company - known now as Neotel - will finally launch its services to consumers.

All signs are that Neotel is finally gaining traction - and that it’s prepared to take the fight to Telkom. Despite warning initially that it wouldn’t start a price war with Telkom, indications are that it will compete aggressively on price. The company is still reluctant to talk prices, but some details are emerging.

Hat tip to Tim, who still does not have a blog yet.. ;-(

Kindo one of top 3 in “UK’s Most Promising Internet Company 2008″

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/5/2
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

So on Wednesday, Nils and I went to Internet World at Earls Court, to do a final pitch to the judges for the “UK’s Most Promising Internet Company 2008″… and we didn’t win, which is a bummer, but we did make it to the final 3 out of 150 companies, which is pretty cool in itself.

_ Kindo one of “UK’s Most Promising Internet Company 2008″ - Kindo Family Blog

Kindo was one of three companies, who made it to the Finals at the Internetworld 2008 fair, that is going on at Earl’s Court at the moment.

Well done to the Zoopla! guys, I reckon they’re onto a winner ;-)

During “The Award Final” at the Keynote Theatre yesterday the three selected start-ups were pitching in front of the jury and – this time – to the “internetworld” as well. Though finally the property site Zoopla took home the prize, it was a great opportunity to present Kindo to a internet-savvy crowd, and all that only about 10 Minutes from our Kindo headquarters in Putney Bridge.

2 comments about internet world:
1. more people than last time overall…
2. … and, way more honeys than the last time I was there ;-)

Checkout the new coda.coza: Presenting v6

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/4/30
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Respek for Damien, he’s produced something fresh and easy on the eyes ;-)
_ Presenting v6 - blog - coda.coza

My previous design lasted for almost half of that time. Despite its shortcomings (lack of a feature-rich CMS) and obvious design flaws, and given the amount of recognition that it received, I became hesitant to change it much. Until the waves of spam attacks began.

Since my blog was running on a bespoke system, it became increasingly difficult and time-consuming to manage, which partly explains why I haven’t been posting as regularly.

So after a tricky data migration and clean-up (the volume of crap I’ve written in the past 6 years is embarrassing), a tiresome metadata capturing process (adding titles and tags to 770 posts), and a couple of design revisions later, this blog has undergone a complete overhaul and is now powered by WordPress 2.5.1 with a super collection of plugins.

Building a Startup You Love is Hard (BaSYLiH) - Final Draft

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/4/28
in GTD and Productivity
. 3 Comments

OK, so this has become somewhat of a labour of love the last month or so, where I’ve snuck bits of time here and there to get this to a point where I’m happy it makes sense, and there’s not much more I can add to it now…

Please check it out, let me know what you think, comment on this post for feedback (or email me), and send me typos!

Once I’ve done one more pass of it and I’m happy it’s ready for consumption, I’m gonna create a page for it to live at (while other plans get rolling - thanks Ed!).

Here it is: Building a Startup You Love is Hard (BaSYLiH) - Final Draft.

Edit: If you’d rather read on Scribd, here it is - thanks to David for putting it there.

Enjoy ;-)

Carsonified, which runs Silicon Valley-style UK events, attacks a UK startup trip to… Silicon Valley

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/4/23
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

A nice little debate raging about the web mission to the Valley…
_ TechCrunch UK » Blog Archive » Carsonified, which runs Silicon Valley-style UK events, attacks a UK startup trip to… Silicon Valley

It’s just morning here in SF so I have just seen this post. The below is my initial response, but I have to go offline imminently (I am in San Francisco on the trip in question) so I’m just rattling this off now….

I think it’s rather strange of Carsonified’s Ryan Carson to go “attack dog” now when he could have called any one of the WebMission partners weeks ago when this trip was announced and put together. But hey, he has a right to criticise, it’s a democracy after all

_ This is Ryan’s post

This is being backed by some pretty smart people, including UK Trade & Investment, Oracle, Mike Butcher, Paul Walsh, Oli Barrett, Huddle, Doug Richard (ex Dragon’s Den), Atlas Ventures, Michael Birch (founder of Bebo), HSBC, Sun Microsystems and James Murray Wells (GlassesDirect.com) … so why is it such a bad idea?

;-)