30 minutes until 30!

So 30 minutes until 30!

A list of things that I am appreciative of:

1. Surviving surgery, when the odds where against me
2. 11.21s for 100m
3. Seeing the sun never set in Iceland
4. My Friends
5. Buying and renovating a house
6. Winning a gold medal in an international Jiu-Jitsu competition
7. The Power House
8. My 1st class degree in physics
9. Setting up a business
10. Seeing and experiencing the awesome things in the world, for 10 months

MoneyDashboard Feedback

Below some feedback I recently sent to moneydashboard.com,  a mint.com alternative for the UK.

It would be good if:

1. You could filter by custom date range for the tracking tab rather than just the pre-set months (also why call it tracking, doesn’t report make more sense?).

2. You were able to filter by transaction type under transaction (rather than just sort).

3. If the system remember the transaction type so that in future I dont have to re-set it.

4. If you have full control over the tags (i.e. Income…)

5. I am not sure I agree with the way the tracking (report) page or dashboard page works and the information it display. Maybe have a look at what info mint and/or lovemoney display and how it is displayed.

Finally, I am still not sure why you chose to build the app in silverlight; I have read the article “Why Silverlight” and although I understand and accept some of the points I still think it puts the app at a huge disadvantage to html. At least fix the following silverlight issues: I can’t scroll using my mouse, crt+a highlights everything, tab doesn’t highlight the new section, you can’t press back or refresh the browser page, can’t copy and paste, textbox doesn’t have scroll bar.. etc

Anyway good first attempt, I hope you choose to iterate quickly, try not to copy the way Microsoft desktop applications look, keep it fast, carefully think about UI and listen to feedback. Cheers, Leonard PS. you really need mouse scroll and copy and paste.

How to Show File Extension in Windows 7

Was simple in Windows XP but took a little bit of effort for find how to show file extensions in Windows 7. Anyway just in case you need to know, do the following:

1. Open Windows Explorer, you can do this by opening up any folder.
2. Click “Organize”, scroll down and click on the “Folder and search options”.
3. Click the “View” tab.
4. Scroll down until you see “Hide extensions for known file types”, un-check this.
5. If you are doing web development you might also want to tick “Don’t show hidden files, folders and drives”.
6. Click “OK” and now your file extensions will now longer be hidden.

My Perfect Future

I’m currently reading 59 seconds by richard wiseman and the first task is to write about my perfect future as apparently this will help improve my happiness. Also I think it will be useful in the future to look back and see what my hopes and dreams were.

Written on the 13/10/2010
Starting with my business life as that seems to occupy most or my time at present. The agency will be running by itself with great staff, loads of big clients and bringing in plenty or money (not that, that will matter, as I will be rich from selling a large number of shares of the review business). The web app business will also be booming with over 1 million paid users between them, this was only possible due to the first web app being used as a template once it was built and stable with a decent and growing user base.

In the earlier years for the most part I can be found Travelling to new places, learning new skills, taking on adventures and/or exploring new business opportunities. Some of the work will involve charity, however not in the traditional sense, all charity work will be built around stastainability so that in the long run my ideas and work will continue even without me.

Later I will have two kids with a wonderful, caring wife both of which I will spoil and always have time for, no matter what I’m doing or where in the world I may be. More than likely we will live in a small town or village, with good links to a major city, we will have a large garden with a pond, sometimes ducks, a massive tree with a tree house, chickens and a pet dog and cat. We will attempt to grow fruit and veg and although they will be edible they will never be as good as the ones we normally buy from the local market.

In the garage I will keep my vintage AC Cobra, other sports cars (eg Porshe, Fararri, Veyron, Aston and 205 Gti etc) along with my day to day fuel cell car (built by the company of which I will own a decent share). I will also have a small work shop that will be full of parts from my Katrom 7 and Classic Ducati, it may also be used to help mend the broken fence or add a swing rope to the tree house.

After some time I will attempt to further my education of physics, possibly doing a PHD at the local university. I will be famous but only in the small village where everyone knows everyone and where the new years party is always held in the local pub, which brings together friends and family I never seem to see anymore.

Most importantly, it will be a happy life, not because of the achievements or money but because of the feeling of never wasting second of life and of the knowing that there are always family and friends that care.

I thinks that’s all I want.

PS. I will also have found a way to live youthfully longer, about 100 times longer.

How to Take your Start-Up to the Next Level

I’m always on the look out for new great “how to” videos or books for setting up and marketing web apps. I’ve always liked the presentations and talks from Aaron Patzer from Mint.com, which he started and sold for $170 Million within 3 years. He’s talks are very open and frank and I think they make a lot sense.

Just found this great talk from FOWA Miami 2010. Some of the key points Aaron makes are:

• Solve a real problem (in a large market)
• Will the problem exist in 5 years time
• Have a real revenue potential (get an idea of revenue per user)
• Sustainable advantage (best user interface, quickest, best features etc)
• Share your idea
• Validate the idea (ask people in the street)
• Buy a great domain name
• Get alpha users
• Interview using Top Grading approach (ask why a lot when interviewing new staff based on the book Top Grading)
• Hire an aggressive PR company, when you are ready!