Joss Whedon Strikes Again

Sending this out to all friends and family who've been fans of Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) or of Doogie Hauser (Neil Patrick Harris) or even just fans of wacky stuff. Check out "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog". Doogie, I mean Harris, plays Dr. Horrible, a young, evil mad scientist in love. Nathan Fillion (Mal, from Firefly) plays his arch-nemesis, Captain Hammer.

They're using the Hulu technology, which, if you've been reading my newsletter, you'll know that it's pretty high quality video for the Web.

Here's the thing, though: It's only available for a limited time. The first act went up yesterday (July 15th). The second goes up tomorrow (the 17th) and the final one goes up on the 19th. All three episodes will only be available until midnight Sunday (7/15/2008) when they will disappear. Supposedly they will be available for download at a nominal charge and eventually available on DVD. Right now, though, they are absolutely free.

Don't be surprised if you have problems accessing it. Apparently the first day of Act 1 brought the server to its knees because of all the people trying to view the Whedony goodness.

Hope you all enjoy!

So, what's the best fun video you've seen on the 'Net recently?

Catching Up With Koios

While I am woefully behind on my blogging (as with many other areas of my life, it seems), I thought I would at least try to catch up on reporting about the new members of the Chamber whom I've been welcoming.

Back in April (April??? Was it that long ago?), I met with Mark Robinson of Koios Consulting Group, LLC. Mark has an office in downtown Ann Arbor. It's a neat old building on Washington Street and he's up on the fifth floor with a window looking out on the city.

Mark doesn't get a chance to look out that window very much because Mark is busy. He works developing economic evaluations of a company's intellectual property. Sometimes this is for lawsuits (perhaps where one company is infringing on the IP of another) and other times it is to help with the valuation of a company. Either way, as you can imagine, there is a tremendous amount of paperwork associated with these efforts. While the desks and tables in his office were organized, they were groaning under the load of work he had. Obviously he's providing great service and is much in demand.

It's always good to see someone thriving in these "challenging economic times".

Anyway, if you see him walking around downtown, be sure to say hello and ask him how business is doing.

BTW, watch this space for a completely underwhelming announcement next week!

So, how are you thriving in these "challenging economic times"?

First Class

I just got back from a trip down to Orlando, Florida for the Extreme Business Makeover 2008 conference. I'll talk more about that later, but for now I want to focus on something else:

On the trip back home, I decided to fly First Class.

Now, please understand, my spending tendencies formed when I was in college and perpetually broke. I never spent money on myself that I didn't absolutely have to and even then only grudgingly. First Class? Why would I do that? It's only a 2 1/2 hour plane flight. I can just tough it out for that long. Someday, when I'm rich, maybe I'll fly First Class.

One of the speakers at the conference said something, though, that made me rethink my position. He said that we filter what we think we deserve in life based on how we see ourselves. Something in me clicked when I heard that. I decided right there that if I had a chance to upgrade on my return trip, that I would. After all, I deserved a little bit of comfort.

So the day to return came and when I went to check in, the kiosk gave me the option to bump myself to the front of the plane. I inserted my credit card and punched the "Yes" button. The extra cost certainly wouldn't break me (though that college student who was still inside me winced at the thought of the number of Ramen Noodle packages I could have bought).

Soon I found myself in a comfortable seat in row 5. I had room to stretch out my legs and people walking up and down the aisle weren't continually bumping my shoulder. My goodness that was nice!

Then, I noticed something about how I felt. Suddenly I wasn't just some poor schlub crammed into a too small seat just waiting to get to my destination. I was a business owner on my way home from a fruitful conference at which I had picked up some good techniques and ideas to improve my business. I had enough room to pull out my notebook (and could have brought out my laptop if I had needed it). I worked pretty much the entire way, stopping only to eat my lunch (served on a real plate!). If I used my normal hourly rate for comparison, just the fact that I was able to work for those two hours more than paid for the upgrade.

I also arrived in Detroit feeling much fresher than I would normally after even such a short trip. That meant that, where I would normally have needed to rest when I got home, I instead spent a good portion of the afternoon getting work done.

Let's see here. Coach class -- monetarily less expensive, but cramped, uncomfortable, no food, no work done, my goal is just to survive it. First Class -- monetarily more expensive, but roomy, comfortable, tasty hot lunch, hours of productive work, left me feeling better about myself and life in general.

I think I'll be clicking on the "upgrade" button again in the future.

So, have you ever flown First Class? Was it worth it?

We've Got It All

OK, if you thought that your idea for a wacky website was just a little too wacky, you can rest assured in the knowledge that you are probably well within the bounds of acceptable practice on the Web.

I am now thoroughly convinced that there is a website for everything. Today I discovered a site called "Stuff on my Cat". It is, as the name suggests, a site where people upload pictures of their feline companions with stuff piled on them. It's too hard to describe, just go check it out.

If this sort of thing tickles you, you might also try "I Can Has Cheezburger?" Of course, those around you might wonder why you are giggling like a nut.

So, what's the wackiest site you've seen on the Web?

Life is Good

Those who actually check on my blog on a periodic basis have undoubtedly noticed a long dry spell here. Part of that, of course, is due to the darling angel who has decided to come live with us -- our delightful daughter, Kaylie. While she does take up some time, though, our life with her is becoming a bit more under control (as much as it can be, at any rate).

What's really taking up my time now is my business, Cyber Data Solutions.

Despite these "challenging economic times", my business is really taking off. I've picked up several new clients over the past few months and a number of former clients have been contacting me for new projects.

My cup runneth over.

Just a rundown on what's happening with CDS:

• Common Grove. I helped my buddy Blaine Roderique over at Q Ltd set up a carbon footprint calculator tied into a credit card processing system for people to purchase carbon offsets. That site should be going live any day now.
• IDSC Biotech Network. I met Mark Creswell, IDSC's glorious leader, through my sales training at Marr Sales. He called me in to help him update the content on their site and to do a little tweaking with the layout.
• Concordia University, Ann Arbor. Through a string of networking contacts which eventually led to being selected as a preferred vendor for Uproar Communications here in Ann Arbor, I got to work with the friendly folks at Concordia University -- I know, kind of ironic, right?). They were running into some technical problems and needed me to help them set up a stop-gap system which would give them time to consider their next big overhaul of their online presence -- guess who might be called in to help with that?
• Community Housing Network, Inc. Long-time clients, CHN, called me in to work on adding to and updating their existing CMS-based site. There were one or two small housekeeping projects that needed my attention as well.
• Clear!Blue. I started working on this project late last year with my friends Craig and Matt over at Defrost Design. We've now successfully launched this system. My part in it was to set up an administrative interface which allowed the C!B folks to maintain their own content on the site. Technically, this is a content management system (CMS), but unlike the work I do for CHN above (a general-purpose CMS called Drupal), this is a customized special-fit system designed to fit the customers specific needs.

There were a few other small items that I helped with during this time, but what I've listed were and are the larger jobs. Looking down the road, I've already got two or three more projects in the pipeline. At this rate, I'll have the best year ever with my business.

Now I just need to find a little extra time for some sleep!

So, what are the exciting things going on with your business or company?