Organic Ideas

Paul Graham (Y Combinator) wrote a helpful post on organic ideas for startups.  He says, “There are two types of startup ideas: those that grow organically out of your own life, and those that you decide, from afar, are going to be necessary to some class of users other than you.”  And, “So if you want to start a startup and don’t know yet what you’re going to do, I’d encourage you to focus initially on organic ideas. What’s missing or broken in your daily life? Sometimes if you just ask that question you’ll get immediate answers.”

Updated: comments on Hacker News about this article

Mac vs iPad/iPhone

Yesterday, Apple updated the Macbook Pro line of notebooks (with some pretty cool upgrades) but the frontpage of apple.com continued to show an iPad as it’s main feature.  Marco Arment has an interesting take on what’s going on and why he’s happy about it.

Internet Trends Report

I’ve been reading Fred Wilson’s blog, and found some interesting reads.

1. Good read on Successful Web Apps.
2. I disagree with his take on the iPad. I think he’s missing the point of the iPad (which isn’t mainly about the hardware). The killer function of the iPad, imho, is the touch full-screen apps… which are just starting to hit the AppStore. Developers see the opportunity, and you’ll start seeing iPad apps that will be jaw-dropping. Desktop/laptop apps won’t be able to compare because the potential of Touch OS by Apple is superior to Mac OS or Windows. Apps will make the iPad what it will be, and it’s just the beginning.
3. On his latest post, he links to a great report by Morgan Stanley on mobile internet trends. Really makes you think.

4. Startup advice…

Fred Wilson talks trends, advice for startups

Pivoting

Interesting post by Steve Blank (author of Four Steps to the Epiphany) on “pivoting”:
http://steveblank.com/2010/04/12/why-startups-are-agile-and-opportunistic-–-p…

He notes: “As a founder, you need to prepare yourself to think creatively and independently because more often than not, conditions on the ground will change so rapidly that your original well-thought-out business model will quickly become irrelevant.” And, “most startup business models are initially wrong.”

Some more interesting reading:
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/06/pivot-dont-jump-to-new-vision.html
http://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-principles/
http://steveblank.com/2009/04/10/good-enough-decision-making/

WordPress App on the iPad

I am trying out the WordPress app on the iPad. It’s pretty cool. So far, I have successfully edited an already published post (something I could not do online using my iPad), viewed comments, and generally had a better feeling of connection to our blogsite through it. And now, I am publishing my first post on it. Cheers!

How to Post a PDF as an Image onto Your Blog from an iPad

So after much experimentation, here’s the best solution that I’ve come up with so far. If there’s a better way, please share the wealth.If the image is in the facing the correct direction, meaning it is not I landscape but in portrait, you’re in luck!
1. Save your image to your iPad’s photo library by taking a screenshot. (hit home and on buttons at the same time)
2. Copy the image from your photo library.
3. Post it to your blog by pasting.

If your image is not facing correctly, like it’s in landscape, beware, your image will post sideways to your blog post or your Facebook wall or wherever. Here’s what you can do:
1. Save your image to your photo library.
2. Copy/paste your image to your Pages app.
3. Two-finger adjust your image until it is facing up/down in portrait mode.
4. Take a screenshot in portrait mode. ( I know, painful.)
5. Copy/ paste that onto your blog.

Touch on iPad Safari

It seems that some of the websites aren’t touch ready. The scrolling doesn’t work for some or sometimes clicking to edit an entry. That is an addition to sites that won’t work because they are flash supported.

Microsoft

Didn’t know Microsoft grew so much in the past 10 years.  They were probably more focused on enterprise products and weren’t noticed as much as Apple and Google.