Just wow.................I once had a blog, lost it and thought it was gone forever, somehow in cleaning up old emails, I ran across a post and I was able to access it again. Pondering a restart
Kevin Carroll
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Friday, April 04, 2008
Home Life
Living with a 5 year old
I have more stories about my 5 year old ! But much like the doting father who has way too many pictures in his wallet - I shall try to refrain - but from time to time some of it may bleed into my blog. And this is one of those times !!
My 5 year old (Lauren) came home from school last week, buzzing all about Leprechauns. What they do, what color they are, the sounds them make etc. Lauren cautioned me to be careful about finding gold coins in the street and picking them up – she told me very seriously, ‘you need to be very careful cause the gold coins could be a trap’ at 1,000 an ounce I told her I would take my chances. She admonished me on this laisser-faire attitude towards the Leprechauns. My wife came home and she got the same lecture on what I have now termed the ‘Leprechaun Menace’ – to my 5 years olds consternation – my wife told her that Leprechauns were not real, Lauren turned to me and said, ‘Daddy tell Mommy they are real’. I went into the kitchen, got a box of Lucky Charms and boldly said with my 5 year old at my side, “If Leprechauns are not real, who the heck is this” as I pointed to the box. My wife looked at both us – and presented with this seemingly unimpeachable evidence looked at me and said, “you’re getting up tonight when she wakes up at 2:00am screaming about Leprechauns in her bedroom” For the record, she did not get up until 3:00am.
I have more stories about my 5 year old ! But much like the doting father who has way too many pictures in his wallet - I shall try to refrain - but from time to time some of it may bleed into my blog. And this is one of those times !!
My 5 year old (Lauren) came home from school last week, buzzing all about Leprechauns. What they do, what color they are, the sounds them make etc. Lauren cautioned me to be careful about finding gold coins in the street and picking them up – she told me very seriously, ‘you need to be very careful cause the gold coins could be a trap’ at 1,000 an ounce I told her I would take my chances. She admonished me on this laisser-faire attitude towards the Leprechauns. My wife came home and she got the same lecture on what I have now termed the ‘Leprechaun Menace’ – to my 5 years olds consternation – my wife told her that Leprechauns were not real, Lauren turned to me and said, ‘Daddy tell Mommy they are real’. I went into the kitchen, got a box of Lucky Charms and boldly said with my 5 year old at my side, “If Leprechauns are not real, who the heck is this” as I pointed to the box. My wife looked at both us – and presented with this seemingly unimpeachable evidence looked at me and said, “you’re getting up tonight when she wakes up at 2:00am screaming about Leprechauns in her bedroom” For the record, she did not get up until 3:00am.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Blog Restart
Blog Restart - Nothing to see here move along !!!
March 20, 2008
So I dropped in on Bob Guise, CEO of VersaCall, we had an interesting conversation on everything from the economy to what Bob called ‘Dancing’ with Elephants. Dan’s company has been doing some business with some very large companies and Dan was briefing me on the difference the size of a company made. This is an issue many tech companies go through, the long sales cycle, the seeming indifference to drive a decision, endless meetings all contribute to making ‘dancing with elephants’ more art than science. Bob has been around town a long time and I think of him as one of the ‘smart’ guys who has managed to get through the tough times of the early 00’s and has built a great company that helps manufacturing companies with productivity. Versacall has wireless factory floor software and hardware that keeps manufacturing companies on the path of higher productivity.
I also met with a very cool company in Carlsbad called Xenonics. This is definitely one of the visits I enjoyed, I was there to brief the CEO Chuck Hunter on AeA and I got a little too caught up in having him demonstrate his technology. Xenonics' develops and produces advanced, lightweight and compact ultra-high intensity illumination and low-light vision products. They make an incredibly easy to use night scope, Chuck handed me a filter that simulated nighttime and had me slide it over the lens and look outside, everything was in perfect view and focus. Most of us are used to seeing that military green video that shows nighttime views – this was nothing like that and you could see…pardon the pun – clear as day. Xenonics is public company really starting to take off and futher puts Carlsbad on the map as a critical cluster of our regions tech economy .
March 20, 2008
So I dropped in on Bob Guise, CEO of VersaCall, we had an interesting conversation on everything from the economy to what Bob called ‘Dancing’ with Elephants. Dan’s company has been doing some business with some very large companies and Dan was briefing me on the difference the size of a company made. This is an issue many tech companies go through, the long sales cycle, the seeming indifference to drive a decision, endless meetings all contribute to making ‘dancing with elephants’ more art than science. Bob has been around town a long time and I think of him as one of the ‘smart’ guys who has managed to get through the tough times of the early 00’s and has built a great company that helps manufacturing companies with productivity. Versacall has wireless factory floor software and hardware that keeps manufacturing companies on the path of higher productivity.
I also met with a very cool company in Carlsbad called Xenonics. This is definitely one of the visits I enjoyed, I was there to brief the CEO Chuck Hunter on AeA and I got a little too caught up in having him demonstrate his technology. Xenonics' develops and produces advanced, lightweight and compact ultra-high intensity illumination and low-light vision products. They make an incredibly easy to use night scope, Chuck handed me a filter that simulated nighttime and had me slide it over the lens and look outside, everything was in perfect view and focus. Most of us are used to seeing that military green video that shows nighttime views – this was nothing like that and you could see…pardon the pun – clear as day. Xenonics is public company really starting to take off and futher puts Carlsbad on the map as a critical cluster of our regions tech economy .
Friday, November 03, 2006
Parents Just Don't Understand
My parents are in town and as usual I have to deal with technology issues. I just set up a new WiFi network in my house and brought a new laptop, BTW great laptop for just over 400 bucks, the link has it listed at $499 but I paid $450??. My excuse for getting the laptop was for my 4 year old Lauren. Funny, how she has barely touched it. It is great sitting in my lounger, surfing the web while everyone else is watching TV.
My parents did not understand how it was hooked up the internet. My mom, who always knows EVERYTHING - told my Dad that the internet 'waves' went through the air and the laptop 'captured' them. In front of my dad, who thinks he is the techno geek between him and grandma, (which in actuality simply means that he can find where he saved photos on the computer) I say in a mocking voice ( I am good at that)"So let me get this right, internet 'waves' (insert wild hand gestures) just flow through the air and the computer picks it up?" Of course my dad joined in my derision of this obviously flawed concept. After a few minutes of this....I had to break it to Grandpa that Grandma was right and this was as close to an explanation as I would be able to explain. Grandpa said it was Bull$#%$#. I took him upstairs showed him my wireless router and tried to explain it to him. After a while I reverted to the previous explanation Grandma had told.....Dad...there are these 'waves' of internet and the laptop is capturing them.
Most of my technology issues surrounding my parents are getting them to a web site. I have given up on trying to get them to type in the URL and now simply have them type a website in google. Dad, type HTTP// Ah....F*&^ it just to google and type Woot.com. this seems to work better than typing in the URL.
I have another older person I help out with computers. I think the mistake I make is trying to give them simple 'steps' to take to help them out. I am going to start explaining more holistically what they are doing so they may be able to figure it out. It is like the old joke, 'hit any key' where someone can't get past this command because they are looking for a key that says 'ANY'. I don't know how many times I have got a telephone call that started with 'I pushed the key you told me too' Uhhh you have to have the window OPEN FIRST. As the world changes, we are going to have to take account of these changes, we can't afford to have these folks left behind. The digital divide is not simply one of economics but of culture.
My parents did not understand how it was hooked up the internet. My mom, who always knows EVERYTHING - told my Dad that the internet 'waves' went through the air and the laptop 'captured' them. In front of my dad, who thinks he is the techno geek between him and grandma, (which in actuality simply means that he can find where he saved photos on the computer) I say in a mocking voice ( I am good at that)"So let me get this right, internet 'waves' (insert wild hand gestures) just flow through the air and the computer picks it up?" Of course my dad joined in my derision of this obviously flawed concept. After a few minutes of this....I had to break it to Grandpa that Grandma was right and this was as close to an explanation as I would be able to explain. Grandpa said it was Bull$#%$#. I took him upstairs showed him my wireless router and tried to explain it to him. After a while I reverted to the previous explanation Grandma had told.....Dad...there are these 'waves' of internet and the laptop is capturing them.
Most of my technology issues surrounding my parents are getting them to a web site. I have given up on trying to get them to type in the URL and now simply have them type a website in google. Dad, type HTTP// Ah....F*&^ it just to google and type Woot.com. this seems to work better than typing in the URL.
I have another older person I help out with computers. I think the mistake I make is trying to give them simple 'steps' to take to help them out. I am going to start explaining more holistically what they are doing so they may be able to figure it out. It is like the old joke, 'hit any key' where someone can't get past this command because they are looking for a key that says 'ANY'. I don't know how many times I have got a telephone call that started with 'I pushed the key you told me too' Uhhh you have to have the window OPEN FIRST. As the world changes, we are going to have to take account of these changes, we can't afford to have these folks left behind. The digital divide is not simply one of economics but of culture.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Bunch of San Diego Tech Companies - AeA Awards
Been noticing a lot of traffic on my blog and I have not kept on posting, will try and keep it up do date. I have a lot of new content from the AeA High Tech Awards. I had a chance to visit with most of the CEO's since I see them when they do the video taping. We had some interesting winners this year!! Judges are last years winners and we often get a couple of surprises.
I am going to risk leaving some companies out, but would like to cover what I thought were some of the more compelling companies that were finalists this year.
ESET - I thought I knew all the San Diego Companies in the Web security space, but had not heard about ESET until a few months ago. They have some good traffic going through thier website (as well as revenue!!) I have met Rick Moy, VP of Marketing a few times. Any company that is succesful against the big guys in this space has my respect. With increasing revenue, they are moving out of thier Coronodo digs. I would keep an eye on this company, good international team and some good revenue growth. In a nod to uber geekiness they even have a page on their web where one of their programmers is caught composing songs about malware and viruses.....Uh...Nigel keep your day job.
Impact Engine. One of the common themes in this years AeA awards was the niche markets San Diego software companies were filling. Impact Engine is a good example of this. I often wondered about banner ads and the economics behind them. Impact Engine is going to put a whole bunch of spoiled HTML/XML programmers out of work. They create banner ad templates - hundreds of them and also some customization software to go along with it. I have known Neil Greer , the founder and CEO from a few other AeA members. He is a smart capable guy who should be able to take this company to the next level. He is just starting to build his team over there.
Entriq. I have been familiar with these folks for some time now, with all the $$$ going into video sites, someone HAS to be able to monetize it. That is where Entriq comes in - they have a very easy to use system to.....not sure how else to say it...get cash for your video. This may become a very crowded space, however Entriq has been around and has the experience and credibility to be a leader in this space. Entriq has also been branching out from its historical strong markets of sports to capture some of the other video opportunities out there.
More later.....just some of the finalists companies that did not win that were worth mentioning
Kevin Carroll
I am going to risk leaving some companies out, but would like to cover what I thought were some of the more compelling companies that were finalists this year.
ESET - I thought I knew all the San Diego Companies in the Web security space, but had not heard about ESET until a few months ago. They have some good traffic going through thier website (as well as revenue!!) I have met Rick Moy, VP of Marketing a few times. Any company that is succesful against the big guys in this space has my respect. With increasing revenue, they are moving out of thier Coronodo digs. I would keep an eye on this company, good international team and some good revenue growth. In a nod to uber geekiness they even have a page on their web where one of their programmers is caught composing songs about malware and viruses.....Uh...Nigel keep your day job.
Impact Engine. One of the common themes in this years AeA awards was the niche markets San Diego software companies were filling. Impact Engine is a good example of this. I often wondered about banner ads and the economics behind them. Impact Engine is going to put a whole bunch of spoiled HTML/XML programmers out of work. They create banner ad templates - hundreds of them and also some customization software to go along with it. I have known Neil Greer , the founder and CEO from a few other AeA members. He is a smart capable guy who should be able to take this company to the next level. He is just starting to build his team over there.
Entriq. I have been familiar with these folks for some time now, with all the $$$ going into video sites, someone HAS to be able to monetize it. That is where Entriq comes in - they have a very easy to use system to.....not sure how else to say it...get cash for your video. This may become a very crowded space, however Entriq has been around and has the experience and credibility to be a leader in this space. Entriq has also been branching out from its historical strong markets of sports to capture some of the other video opportunities out there.
More later.....just some of the finalists companies that did not win that were worth mentioning
Kevin Carroll
Saturday, August 26, 2006
See I told you so.........
Watches as timepieces
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=13298065&src=rss/technologyNews
Watches as timepieces
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=13298065&src=rss/technologyNews
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Tech Company Visits
Had a chance to visit some tech companies so thought I would do some name dropping. After a long time assisting to develop standards Staccato Communications is really starting to get some traction, they have a new CEO, Marty Colombatto, I have spoke to him a few times via e-mail and it looks like everything is in place over there. They have been under the radar for awhile, I really get a sense you are going to be hearing a lot more from them. AeA is going to assist them in an open house they are going to have in the near future - they recently moved into a new building in Sorrento Valley.
AeA hosted a 'North County Technology Mixer' and I had a chance to catch up with some AeA Members. Cymer hosted the event, they have a nice amphitheater that provided a cool backdrop for our event. We had about a hundred folks show up, the format is really simple we pick a geogrphic cluster of tech companies, in this case Rancho Bernardo, we recruit a few CEO's to tell us what is going on with their company. Bob Akins, CEO Cymer kicked it off by telling the Cymer story. I had a chance to meet the new Cymer COO Ed Brown, nice guy - some of my members knew him from previous stints at other companies. Next we had Tom Carter, CEO Trellisware brief us on his company, they are a ViaSat Spinoff and have some very intriguing technology. Everyone who knows Tom Carter, says he is the smartest guy in the room!! Next Robert Harling, Operations Director of AP Labs brought us up to speed on what is happening at AP Labs. They are moving very quickly and are adding folks almost as fast as they can find them, they have established a reputation for some very cutting edge quality technology work, especially in 'rugged design'.
San Diego is a very exciting place to be right now, lots of new companies coming out of the block, very diverse which bodes well for the region.
AeA hosted a 'North County Technology Mixer' and I had a chance to catch up with some AeA Members. Cymer hosted the event, they have a nice amphitheater that provided a cool backdrop for our event. We had about a hundred folks show up, the format is really simple we pick a geogrphic cluster of tech companies, in this case Rancho Bernardo, we recruit a few CEO's to tell us what is going on with their company. Bob Akins, CEO Cymer kicked it off by telling the Cymer story. I had a chance to meet the new Cymer COO Ed Brown, nice guy - some of my members knew him from previous stints at other companies. Next we had Tom Carter, CEO Trellisware brief us on his company, they are a ViaSat Spinoff and have some very intriguing technology. Everyone who knows Tom Carter, says he is the smartest guy in the room!! Next Robert Harling, Operations Director of AP Labs brought us up to speed on what is happening at AP Labs. They are moving very quickly and are adding folks almost as fast as they can find them, they have established a reputation for some very cutting edge quality technology work, especially in 'rugged design'.
San Diego is a very exciting place to be right now, lots of new companies coming out of the block, very diverse which bodes well for the region.
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