I wrote a simple script last week that sends email alerts when you have new twitter mentions. The script simply searches your @username every five minutes, or whatever interval you choose, and sends an email if a new mention is found.
If you want to try it, click here to download the zip file.
Instructions: This script requires PHP 5 and the ability to setup cron jobs.
Set the values in the config section of the twitter.php file. Upload the file somewhere where your server can execute PHP. Set a cron job to run this script however often you would like to check for new mentions. Ask your host for help setting up a cron job.
Last week, Daniel Bruvosky was an intern at one of the most influential tech blogs in the industry. Yesterday, he was fired from TechCrunch.
The reason? Daniel Brusilovsky asked a startup to give him a MacBook Air in exchange for writing a post about their company. This, was bribery. (More info here and here.)
Like all teen entrepreneurs, including myself, he made a mistake and has a lot to learn. TechCrunch gave Daniel a front and center position for which his mistakes could be amplified, as is occurring now. TechCrunch has allowed Daniel to repeatedly and severely damage his own reputation, even before this incident.
To be clear, I think Daniel Brusilovsky fully deserves the consequences of this offense, whatever they may be. However, anyone with the ability to give an intern a high profile position should do so with the utmost discretion. I see no evidence of discretion by TechCrunch in this situation. Most people who have read Daniel Brusilovsky’s posts, specifically the ones that profile acquisitions by “startups” who have teen “CEOs” with deal values of under $15,000 would acknowledge that Daniel, or at least his posts, were a mistake.
To be honest,
I think it’s a good thing that Daniel was fired from TechCrunch. He probably learned a lot by doing it, but his inexperience showed through in many of his posts. Once he grows out of his teens, he will not be able to pull the teenager card in order to impress people. And neither will I. It’s a good thing to not be accustomed to attention when it is not deserved.
You should follow me on Twitter here.
The predominance of humans as a species is driven by our extraordinary capacity to learn. Through advances in science and technology, our understanding of the biological elements that facilitate human education has rapidly expanded. From birth to death, our brain is constantly changing itself, responding to new experiences and stimuli from the outside world. The human brain allows us to learn from, adapt to, and interact with the very environment that supports our existence.
Scientific research that supports our understanding of the brain stems from three primary sources. The first source of research comes from studying the anomalous brains of patients who have sustained a brain injury, stroke, or a debilitating condition that has affected specific regions of the brain. Documented changes in behavior, correlated to damage to certain regions of the brain, can facilitate novel insights into its functioning. Secondly, the advent of technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows us to noninvasively scan and study the brains of healthy individuals. Thirdly, many functions and mechanisms of the brain are best understood under the vantage point of evolution.
Over the past several weeks I have formulated some predictions for 2010. Overall, I am excited for the new year. If you would like to argue for or against any of these predictions, definitely leave a comment. I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and happy holidays.
Search & Advertising
- Wolfram|Alpha will be acquired by Google or Microsoft. If Microsoft acquires Wolfram, it will be in an effort to differentiate Bing, which it must to do in 2010 to gain any additional market share. On the other hand, Google would love to take Wolfram Alpha’s API out of Bing’s reach.
- Real-time search will become more ubiquitous. The value of real-time will become largely evident, and will be more heavily incorporated in search engines.
- Mobile advertising will remain a challenge in 2010, but progress will be made. 2011 will be the year for mobile advertising.
- Local advertising will heat up.
- More major brands will participate in social media. Social media will become a standard and will be part of nearly all marketing efforts by the end of 2010.
Read more to see all predictions.
If you haven’t yet heard of Blippy.com, it’s a startup that lets you share your credit card purchases with your friends. It launched yesterday in private beta, and has caused many people to question the fate of privacy.
Judging by the comments on a TechCrunch article (and this one) about the launch, there are a lot of people who don’t like Blippy. Afterall, the concept of sharing credit card purchases can be intimidating. As someone pointed out in a comment at TechCrunch, you wouldn’t want a message like “Mary just spent $500 at XYZ Abortion Clinic” showing up on your Blippy feed.
Then again, the negative response might be a good sign. Take a look at the early reaction to Twitter. People didn’t understand why anyone would want to publish private “SMS messages to a public webpage.” No one saw utility in messages limited to 140 characters. The most remarkable companies were sometimes doubted at inception.
In the most general sense, the degree of “work” an individual puts forth is equivalent to the “reward” they receive; as I work harder, the reward I receive increases. A simple example would be studying for a test. The more I study, the higher my grade.
But what causes me to study in the first place? It may be for the satisfaction associated with receiving a good grade, or possibly to avoid the dissatisfaction of receiving a bad grade. Nevertheless, there is a positive correlation between the work I apply and the reward I receive.
In short, two factors motivate people to do work:
- Possibility for future satisfaction
- The avoidance of future dissatisfaction
The happiest workers, of course, are the ones who work for the satisfaction of the reward. Nevertheless, working to avoid dissatisfaction can be equally motivating. After all, we spend time and money having our cars inspected in order to avoid having an inspection violation in the future.
Amazing ideas can fail with weak execution. A significant factor that determines a company’s potential for execution, and therefore success, are the values a company lives by.
Facebook’s co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz, is working on a new startup called Asana, which has raised $10.2 million to date. At the bottom of Asana’s landing page is a list of 15 core values that the company holds. Moskovitz’s values, or some variation thereof, are ideals that every startup should live by, and not merely aspire to.
Asana is currently hiring designers, developers, and business people in the Bay Area. However, you need not apply if you do not concur with Asana’s values.
Asana’s Core Values
- Reason
- Action in the face of fear
- Honesty & transparency (internally and externally)
- Leverage
- Pragmatism
- Craftsmanship
- Chill-ness
- Being a mensch
- Company as collective of peers (vs. command-and-control hierarchy)
- Investing in people
- Perseverance
- Admitting when you’re wrong
- Diving in and fixing problems, even if they’re not yours
- Intellectualism
- Trust in wisdom over rules and incentives (explanation)
You should follow me on Twitter here.
Depictions of the end of the world frequently portray a one-world government that takes control of the world. Control is often obtained through empty promises made to “world citizens” during times of distress. In this article, I will attempt to outline a way in which a world government may come to be and how it might eventually control the human race.
For the purpose of this article, I define a successfully “controlled” human race to have the following characteristics:
- -A single entity defining social norms
- -Limited free will with no sense of self-conscious
- -Perfect order and harmony in societal relations
- -Little instances of rebellion from orthodoxy
Disclaimer: The ideas presented below, if enacted, are radical and dangerous. They do not reflect my personal beliefs and I do not endorse these ideas by any means. This article was written to demonstrate the susceptibility of the human race, and how we may be exploited in the future. I give credit to the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley for many of these ideas.
Hi. My name is Brandon Paton and I am 17 years old. I am the CEO and President of stealth mode startup College Credential, Inc. I have founded four successful internet startups (one of which was acquired), and currently serve on the board of advisors of a rapidly growing startup. And don’t forget I’m only 17. Sound impressive? Too bad, because most of what I just told you is not true.
In reality, I am not a CEO and have never been one. College Credential is not incorporated, and it is barely in stealth mode. I’ve really only founded one other website that was mildly successful (sold for $10k), and even that struggles to be called a startup. My other three “startups” never made me money (but definitely taught me a lot).
It’s funny how the truth can be manipulated. It happens pretty often when it comes to teenage entrepreneurs. They call themselves CEOs of their unincorporated companies. They announce a strategic partnership with a “company” their friend owns. They say their company was acquired, when it was really only purchased from someone on SitePoint for a few thousand dollars.
