Erich Stauffer

  • On Facebook Acquisitions, Predicting the Future, and Messaging

    In the book, How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery, I learned that people aren’t very good at predicting the future, but they are okay at predicting the next thing. Our brains just aren’t wired to take 2 steps at once, but we can make 1 step + 1…

  • How Will Tablets Affect My Kids?

    How Will Tablets Affect My Kids?

    I wondered if I was making the right decision. I didn’t know. Amazon was having a Prime Day. There were going to be sales. My wife said she wanted tablets for the kids. I bought 3. What effect would it have on the family? Would they ever talk to me again? How would we keep…

  • How to Send and Receive Other Email in Gmail

    The easiest way to use Gmail with your organization is to buy Google Apps, but sometimes that’s not possible. However, there is still a way to use Gmail with your company email address. How do I get my email in my Gmail account? There are a couple of ways to do this. Your web host…

  • Information Systems

    A lot of organizations don’t realize how critical how information is stored, retrieved, and utilized. Information systems (IS) is the study of complementary networks of hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data. The study, like Erich Stauffer, bridges business and computer science using the theoretical foundations…

  • How Distributed Power Production and Storage Is Changing

    We are witnessing a new paradigm in energy production and usage akin to the transition from gas lamps and candles to electric lightbulbs and public utilities. In the late 1800’s building owners installed coal-powered dynamos in basements to provide electricity to the tenants above. Tomorrow, solar power panels on rooftops will provide power for the…

  • A Day in the Life without a Cell Phone

    I forgot my cell phone today. I left it at home by accident. This is a story about what happened next. When I was 16 I thought nothing of driving hours from home without a cell phone. This did not worry me. I don’t listen to the radio. Every morning I start out by listening…

  • The Interactive Fiction SMS Text Based App I Never Built

    I wondered if I could build a SMS/text-based interactive fiction (IF) app. This is a story of how I researched the problem, but ultimately failed to actually execute on making one. I didn’t know what I was looking for or even if it existed, but I had the desire to play a game via SMS (simple…

  • Building the LongView

    In the spring of 2005 I ran an Indianapolis Game Development meetup called Indy Game Dev. It had one other member. We decided we’d make our own computer game. We met at his parent’s house in Fishers where he lived. His family computer was in his parent’s bedroom. I was still working at Old National,…

  • Explaining the 2015 Internet to 1995 Me

    Dear Erich from 1995, I can listen to whatever I want whenever I want. When you’re 20 you’ll get excited about being able to share MP3 files with complete strangers on the Internet, but in 2015 music is streamed over the Internet whenever I want. Go find some music to play. I’ll wait. Get the…