Joel Kehle's Blog

When Is The Release?: “

A company I have a small investment in has been struggling to get the most recent version of their software shipped. A few weeks ago I ran into the CEO who grabbed me and said ‘we are almost ready to go live.’ I looked at him and said ‘when is the release.’ His answer was ‘Friday.’

I gave him a Bronx cheer and said ‘when on Friday?’ He looked at me like I was an alien. I clarified – do you mean ‘12:01am on Friday, 4:59pm on Friday, or 11:59pm on Friday.’ I then clarified some more: ‘and I mean in Mountain time.’ We agreed that 11:59pm on Friday was a good time (which they missed, but they got it out a few days later.)

At my first company (Feld Technologies), our client base got to the point where we were often doing multiple releases of different software on a weekly basis (we were a custom software company but used a very traditional software engineering approach to our projects.) For a long time, we used dates to mark releases (e.g. ‘Friday.’) After way too many 11:59pm releases (where our clients definitely were not sticking around the office to wait for us) and missed Fedex deadlines (this was back when you had to Fedex the disks to the clients in another state because modems were too slow to transmit the files), we learned that a release has both a date and a time. We also learned that the external release is – at the minimum – date + 1 of the ‘internal release’ especially on systems with live data. We also learned that the only appropriate days of the week for a release are Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. I’ll let you guess as to why this is.

As I work with new startups and first time entrepreneurs, I see people learning this lesson over and over again. I think it’s just going to be part of the endless education of new software entrepreneurs that you never really learn until you are in the real world.

“

(Via Feld Thoughts.)

I am please to announce that my partner Anthony Carro’s store Candle Delirium has been named “LA’s Best Candle Store for 2007″ by Los Angeles Magazine.

If you like candle’s or want to buy a gift for a candle lover, check out Candle Delirium’s website or visit the store in West Hollywood California on 7980 Santa Monica Boulevard.

Congratulations Anthony!

My mom has started a new blog titled ‘Writings from the “Holler” with no name’. Though I am biased, she is surely one of the best bloggers alive today. Seriously, I enjoyed her latest entry ‘mixed blood identity and agency’. The piece explores reasons for testing one’s limits and mankind’s reaction’s to those who push the limits. If you want a bit of inspiration for your day, go read the article.

Mom – Welcome to the blogroll!

With all of this fuss about the future, what am I really interested in getting out of it and when do I think I will get it?

What: Generic Propecia
Why: Save Money!
When: June 2006

What: Universal Bluetooth Headphones
Why: Looking for one headset to mediate my audio input and interface with all of my devices
When: ??

What: Melanotan
Why: Causes body to tan without the sun. Protects against skin cancer. Looks great!
When: ?? The Australian company that is bringing this to market is taking forever.

What: Fat Insulin Receptor Gene Blocker
Why: Eat as much as you want without gaining weight. Live 20-25% longer
When: ?? Anyone want to ask Ray Kurzweil

What: Retinal Display
Why: Supports augemented reality. Would improve telepresence and enable memory assistants
When: ??

We are half way through the first decade of the new millenium. Its time for me make a real website.

Today I was reading

Crade to Cradle by architect William Mcdonough and I had an idea.

In the cradle to cradle model, a product is specifically designed so that it can be completely recycled at the end of its life cycle.

This closed loop system gave me an idea: Why not create a packaging company that sells containers designed to be shipped back to the company? The packages could be shaped to be shipping friendly and could have postage and shipping information printed right on the package.

In this scenario, Package Co. sell a container *service* to its customers – not the actual container. A consumer buys the packaged product in a store and uses the product. Then the consumer give the package to the mail carrier. The Package Co. is then able to recycle the package material into other packages.

With the help of my fellow bloggers I would like to think through the pluses and minuses of this type of system.

I like that it closes the loop on recycling. Think about the tons of packaging going into landfills that would now go back to its manufacturer!

I also like the idea of using the postal system to close the loop.

The postal system ships packages all day long. If some of those packages are empty bottles – so what. There is no concept of trash in this system.

I look forward to any comments people have about this idea. Thanks!

Today, I experiemented with technorati.

Technorati lets you track conversations taking place in the blogosphere about content served up at a URL.

The links listed below are part of my experiment:

Blogs

Two good friends of mine, Steve Damron and Brad Rubenstein, are bloggers.

Their blogs are Blogalicious and Odd Quanta respectively.

eCommerce

My favoritate candle store is Candle Delirium (disclaimer – I am part owner of this store.

Sites I work On

Need a personal trainer? Go to iAmplify

Want Powerwalking from Mari Winsor? Go to Winsor Pilates

Looking for Marianne Williamson’s community? Go to Marianne Williamson’s Miracle Matrix

Working in New York for iAmplify.

Just made an offer on a condo today.

Offered to help a friend with blogs.

Figured I would try out what I was telling her.

Learning how to upload pictures.

Blogger’s recommened way to do it seems extremely clugely.

Why does Blogger make me download a program that downloads a program that requires a new account in a different name space than blogger? There are easier ways to do this.

Does anyone in the Blogosphere have comments or suggestions regarding photo uploads?

I had an idea for a website about Cyborgs. So much of our art has negative images of how technology is used in our body. The most modern incarnation of this cyborg monster is StarTrek’s Borg; a little farther back you find Michael Crichton’s The Terminal Man; much farther back is Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. This annoys me. Hi-Tech devices that modify how our bodies’ functions improve millions of peoples lives every day. This includes devices like pacemakers that prevent heart failure, insulin pumps which help with diabetes, and brain implants that decrease tremors associated with Parkison’s Disease. All of these devices are nothing less than miraculous.
I would like to create a site to celebrate cyborgs. The site would allow people who are cyborgs to tell their story. Authors would post an image of themselves and a short blog describing what makes them a cyborg and how it allows them to live a healthy happy life. Perhaps the site would be called something as simple as “I am a Cyborg”. I envision people from all walks of life, all nations, all ages adding their pictures to the site. I think it would be a very cool art project and would go a long way to fighting the nasty vision of monstrous cyborgs that seems to ignore the human side of what implantable medical devices allow – happy fulfilled lives.