Erich Stauffer

Blog

  • Stereotypes

    Stereotypes of young professionals I learned last night from interaction with some college kids last night at a meetup:

    They think being an entrepreneur means coding an app. They don’t know how to make paper airplanes. They use their Mac laptops as word processors. They use Twitter to communicate (via app on their phones, not SMS). They think assembly lines are inneficient based on a paper they wrote in high school. They don’t like Mountain Dew because it decays stuff fast. They prefer cities that offer mass transit because they are hard wired to preserve carbon and cash.

    Here’s what hasn’t changed:

    They love pizza. They have passion. They have new ideas. They’re willing to drive to another city to learn more (road trip!). They think they know everything, but are still willing to learn. We need them.

  • Pain

    In business, I’ve been able to maintain my bills so far, but this week has been the closest ever. It gets scary sometimes, but I do enjoy the freedom.

    Seth Godin wrote recently that we’ll always have pain, so we should stop thinking that the next gig will be pain-free. It helped me realize I have that mindset of thinking that “if I just get a better client, I won’t have the pain, or if I just get a better job, I won’t have the pain.” The pain comes from living in a fallen world I think and it’s going to be with us till we get to heaven.

    Personally, I’m struggling to get my weight down. All that eating to stay awake with the paper route hasn’t gone away. Part of the reason I left First Merchants was to eat better, eat less, and exercise more. I’ve done those things, but I’m still the same weight. I think the only thing left is to do some lifting or muscle building.

  • Friendly Professionals

    I want to focus on what we actually do and what we are good at. We aren’t really a web design shop, we are a WordPress design shop so that is what I want to focus on. We aren’t selling WordPress designs though, we are selling web site interactivity – the ability for a user to login and change content – essentially BlueBoards and BlueMessenger is now the core product, but we are just being more transparent in saying that we are selling WordPress installations which will allow for that functionality. We won’t have to hide that we are using WordPress, we can promote it because its well supported and adopted.

    Second, since we are selling the ability to edit their own website, we will also be selling the ability to manage their own email using Google Apps. This is secondary, but it falls into the primary selling point – control. We give the customers control of their website and their email, something they may have felt powerless to control in the past.

    We are also FRIENDLY PROFESSIONALS. That is who we are as people and in every business capacity we serve in from Telablue to Neighborhood Geeks. That is what sets us apart from the competition in this world.

    Telablue is a WordPress implementation shop serving the greater Indianapolis area. We specialize in developing web sites for WordPress using professional web design techniques. WordPress is an open source, fully supported content management system (CMS) that was originally developed for blogs, but can be used for almost anything. We chose WordPress because it allows our clients to manage their own content if they so choose, not to mention all the built-in functionality like search and RSS.

    Another one of WordPress’ greatest features is the ability to add software called plug-ins that add functionality for SEO, web forms, or social media, just to name a few examples. And for those who stay up at night worrying, WordPress has backup tools and we at Telablue use international web port monitoring to make sure your web site is up at all times.

    If you are unsatisfied with your current web designer, want more functionality and visitors, or are looking to get started online for the first time, let us show you how friendly, personable, and professional we can be. We can setup a tour of WordPress and go over your needs. The first consultation is free. New web sites start at $1200 for base design and implementation. Existing web sites can be ported to WordPress for as little as $600. Hosting starts at $125 a year and marketing packages start at $150 a month.

    NOTE: Telablue Web Design and SEO was an Indianapolis-area based, WordPress shop, specializing in developing user-editable WordPress themes and templates or transferring current web sites to WordPress installations. It was converted to Watershawl in 2010 and now operates as “Erich Stauffer”.

  • Job Interview – A Review

    It started out with a verbal technical questionnaire about how I’d merge two data sets. They were mostly Access questions and I didn’t do too hot on these. They use Access to update customer lists using the ‘join’ functions (apparently).

    Next, I was sat in front of a computer with sample data and asked to do something with it. This was similar to Jason’s rapid fire exercises except that he was sitting there watching everything I did and I had no example functions to copy.

    Finally, there was the general discussion and question time. I discussed how I’d given presentations of data to mid-level executives and that I used Tufte’s principals. It turns out that he had gone to the very same presentation in Indianapolis that Jason had and had recently just published his first supergraphic. They also had been using Tufte’s sparklines program until they upgraded to 2010, which is what I was using. Yes, it’s different than 2007. That was fun, too.

    I had no reactions greatly in either way from the guy. I’m not even sure if he’s the one making the decision. If I had to guess I’d say he’s leaning to the no side, but that’s on the transparent metrics like memorization of functions and experience presenting in front of a board of directors. If he measures my other qualities like equal height, same hair color, similar demeanor, and ability to show up on time I think I’m golden.

  • Gateway Board Games

    A non-exhaustive list of board games for new board gamers.

    Gateway Games (1 to 1 1/2 hours playtime / Simple Rulesets)

    Medium Weight Games (1 1/2 – 2 hours playtime / Intermediate Rulesets)

    Heavy Games (2 – 3 hours playtime / Time to teach/learn 30 minutes)

    Large Format Games (3+ hours / Extremely complex Rulesets)

    Disclaimer: DO NOT START WITH THESE GAMES

    My Top 5 Favorites

  • Good Guy Greg

    “It is entirely inconceivable to the world that Steve Jobs would have been given a resurrection body that is imperishable only for the purpose of being able to endure God’s wrath into eternity future. We Christians do a great unloving disservice to the world when we don’t affirm the theology of hell – the gospel without an unmerited escape from God’s wrath doesn’t make sense.”

    I read today that the gates of hell were locked from the inside. That didn’t make sense to me. Death is scary. Hell is scary. Both are pretty much unknowns as no one seems to come back (accept the one who did, but he left to sit and intercede and stuff).

    What does the world need? More hell? Earth’s pretty bad sometimes. I just wish people would realize they are being given every breath they take from God. I have to admit this conversation is somewhat biased by one of the top 10 albums of all time, just Don’t Let it Break Your Heart.

    People don’t care what you know. They just want to know you care. WE CARE A LOT. Be a good guy, Greg.

  • Why Warby Parker Will Be the Next Apple

    Warby Parker, the fashion company specializing in discount, specialty eyeglasses, is in the perfect position to take over the next wave in personal, wearable computing via Google Glass.

    After recently raising almost $37 million in venture capital the eyeglasses company, Warby Parker, seems poised to do more than just make ultra-hip eyewear with a side of delicious customer service. Investors are known for looking ahead to future trends and it’s now become obvious that augmented-reality glasses are the new future of mobile devices. The popularity of Warby Parker and Google’s need for an existing market base makes them good partners as product designer, McKay Thomas, pointed out on September 11, 2012, stating, “Like any new piece of hardware looking for its first customer base, Google Glass, Google’s heads-up display device, needs a distribution platform. A platform for Google’s eyeglasses attachment could offer a sales channel, as well as type of social proof that it is acceptable to use the new wearable computer.” Filmmaker, Albert Art, agrees, stating, “IF Google decides to team up with an eyewear company, might I suggest Warby Parker.”

    As LeVar Burton once said, “But don’t take my word for it.” Warby Parker is hiring a “Principal Software Engineer, Computer Vision” who can “develop computer / machine vision applications that make our company succeed.”

    Why Compare Warby Parker to Apple?

    As Marc Andreessen said on August 20, 2011, “Software is eating the world,” and as David Kirkpatrick argued in Forbes, “Every company is a software company.” Warby Parker is no exception. At their very core they are a e-commerce store, which is it’s very nature, software running on a web server, but it’s more than that. They have “virtual try-on” functions on their website that allow you to upload a picture and see what you look like without every touching a frame. They have developed a pattern for making money and an e-commerce blueprint for how to be successful in 2013 and beyond. This includes doing things like hiring directors of Data Science, Software Engineering, and Computer Vision. Nokia was the number one smartphone manufacture for 15 years and until Apple started making the iPhone they were pretty hard to unseat. Warby Parker has already begun to unseat Luxottica in a $16 Billion dollar industry. If they can develop a platform for Google Glass or other wearable, augmented reality applications from Microsoft like Apple did with iTunes, they can create the one-two punch of selling the hardware and the applications developed for them. It’s safe to assume Google will want to do the same with Google Play, but unless they go the route they did of developing their own Nexus smartphones and purchasing Motorola they are unlikely to control the eyeglass market and will need someone like Warby Parker to deliver their products.

  • The Glee Freaks and Geeks Mean Girl Graduate

    Recently I finished watching the first three seasons of Glee, followed by Mean Girls and The Graduate, and topped off with a little Freaks and Geeks. I couldn’t help but create connections where no connections actually existed and I have diagrammed them here in this venn:

    Venn Movies TV Show

    Apparently I wasn’t the first person to notice that both Glee and Freaks and Geeks used McKinley High for their school name, but I didn’t realize that it was also the name used in The Wonder Years. I thought I could find a better connection between Mean Girls and Freaks and Geeks, but all I could come up with was Lizzy Caplan. I am pretty proud of the “quickly broken marriages” connection between Glee and The Graduate though since Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) dumps both her first fiance and her first husband for Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), which is similar to Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) stealing away Elaine Robinson (Katharine Ross) from her wedding. My favorite though was the “Plastics” connection between the now famous line* in The Graduate and the name of the most popular group in Mean Girls.

    *”One Word: Plastics”: The theme of an innocent and confused youth who is exploited, mis-directed, seduced (literally and figuratively) and betrayed by a corrupt, decadent, and discredited older generation (that finds its stability in “plastics”) was well understood by film audiences and captured the spirit of the times. In Mean Girls, the “Plastics” are “an exclusive group of girls led by queen bee Regina George”, who are depicted as shallow, arrogant, and thoughtless.

    NOTE: One thing I forgot to include in the venn diagram is that Mean Girls and The Graduate are both movies and Glee and Freaks and Geeks are both television shows. I’m not sure that matters, but the difference in medium does affect how the story plays out. There is much less time for a story to develop in a movie, but on the other hand, sometimes simple story arcs can take seemingly way to long to reveal themselves in a television story. Freaks and Geeks didn’t even get a chance to complete their story as eighteen episodes were completed, but the series was canceled after only twelve had aired until the complete series was later released on DVD. I watched it on Netflix. And now I have to get back to work.

    PS. If you liked this post, you might also like the jukebox musical I wrote or Zac’s reviews of LOST.

    PPS: The last four blog posts were written during the Blizzard of 2012. #snowpocalypse #2012blizzard #indasnow

  • Mira Award Nominees for 2012

    Here is a list of the Indiana Mira Award Nominees for 2012. I started to hyperlink and list each town as part of a project I was working on for TEDxLafayette, but I never finished so I’m posting what I got done so far. (more…)