A Personal Blog
Archive for December, 2006
Buying an HDTV
Dec 12th
Okay, so I know this post will make it obvious that I’ve crossed some kind of threshold into “luxury living land”, but bear with me!
Over the last year or so I’ve been eyeing HDTV’s. I mean they’re big, they’re cool, they’re gorgeous. And with the Xbox 360, they take the experience to the next level.
We have a bit of extra money kicking around (not a lot, but a bit). We were planning on going away for Christmas, but that’s not happening anymore. So we have some money to splurge.
Over the last week, the HDTV eyeing has gone from “one day that might be nice” to “if we wanted, one day could be this month”. And as that transition’s happened I’ve been on a bit of a vision quest. I’ve almost figured out the difference between Plasma’s and LCD’s (ie: really not much when it comes down to it). I’ve looked at the various brands and their overall satisfaction (LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony good… “Prima” and Hitachi not so much). I’ve figured out the size range that’ll likely work (38-44″).
And, as of last night, I picked out the TV I wanted. It’s an LG 42″ LCD. It’s a bit pricey, but the lower end models didn’t have 1080 resolution. And to me it just seems silly to go HD and not be able to have reasonable resolution choice.
I went to bed last night fairly happy that we’d chosen the TV.
I woke up this morning wondering what the hell was wrong with me that I’d want to spend 2500$ on a freaking television!
I mean sure, better TV. Less power (slightly). Easier on the eyes. Way, way, way better gaming. Those are all good, but are they really worth a couple of grand? I mean, we don’t have a house (and don’t plan on buying one soon) so don’t really have a lot to put the money into (and we’re getting rid of our car, so that’s a no-go too).
I don’t mind splurging a couple of grand, but on a TV? How does any sane person really justify spending that much on a television set? And the evilness of it is that once you spend 2500$ on a TV, it’s pretty silly to have a 100$ sound system, so you go and upgrade that. Then you upgrade your cable, and all of a sudden you’ve gone from “oh, I want a new TV” to spending 5000$ just to sit there and gain weight.
I mean, seriously, what the hell was I thinking?!
(note to self: yes, this means that if you ever talk yourself into buying an HDTV all your friends will just laugh at you and call you a loser)
I’m not sure yet what we’ll do with the money. And, yes, I’m still feeling pulled towards buying an HDTV. Conflicted? Yeah. But even if I buy one, I’ll still think it’s crazy.
I mean, imagine the drum gear I could buy with 5000$ ;-)
How Do You Get Unblocked on Netscape.com?
Dec 8th
One of our sites has somehow been classified as spam. See the post by the blogger here. She’s tried contacting them. I’ve tried contacting them. We keep getting shut out, and for no good reason. Here’s an excerpt from the post:
Then the kicker came when I contacted tech support for help. I was talking to an online tech support person when I got disconnected. They kept trying to find out how I logged on to Netscape. So I got back on and was hooked up with another CS Rep. He asked me if I paid for the IS part of Netscape or used it for email and I said no. I don’t have netscape for my email nor do I pay for finding information and submitting stories. The guy actually told me that he could only help me if I was a paying customer and then disconnected.
Maybe Jason Calacanis still knows folk over there who can help out? Maybe you do. Personally I don’t know anyone at AOL, but real bloggers shouldn’t be blocked from Netscape.com.
New Cell Number
Dec 7th
Just a note that we’ve finally changed our cell numbers. My new number is 416 726 3602 :)
Moved In
Dec 4th
Just a personal note that we’re now about 80% moved into the new place. Main floor needs some more storage space, but is basically good. Upstairs needs a few things (all bedrooms and a bath). Basement probably needs the most love. The office needs things put together and such. And the “rec room” needs a lot of help.
Well, actually, it’s just my drums that need some help. I can’t believe I have space at home for my drums! It gets even better though ;-) Our next door neighbors on both sides? A doctor’s office and a design studio. So I can play at night without bothering ANYONE!
So yeah, went out and bought a bunch of new cymbals and hardware for the rack and a kick pedal. I’ve got the core of the kit setup, but still need to setup another half dozen cymbals, the second hi-hats and the second snare.
But, we are basically moved in. Which is great. A thousand things to do (we’re changing our phone numbers tonight), but we’re starting to settle in. Sorry for not posting the “all clear” sooner ;-)
The Pain of Raising Venture Capital
Dec 4th
Mark Suster had a post today on how hard it is to raise Venture Capital.
Great post. And Tony Conrad from True Ventures left a fantastic comment on the post:
Sadly all too true. When you complete the process, you feel like you’re entitled to a “survivor of the VC process” club pass.
Amen. I wants me my badge!
There’s a misconception that “any old idea can get money” and that VC’s are running around just trying to give bags of money to code monkeys in cubicles (thanks Dilbert). That may be true. I’ve never seen it though. In my (very limited experience), raising money is hard. I mean like really hard. Like 6 months of 100 hour weeks kind of hard. And that’s after you get the “yes” from the VC’s you eventually work with!
I liken it (because I’ve done all of these, at least by proxy) getting married, writing a book and having a baby all at the same time.
It really is a strange and awful and wonderful and exciting and heartbreaking thing to raise capital. And in spite of the misconception above, the truth is that very few companies raise money. And even fewer companies that actually need it raise money. Back-of-the-napkin math shows that less than 0.01% of companies that need to raise VC actually do.
Anyways, once I have a few minutes I’ll try and share some of my thoughts as far as raising funding. I’ll probably also share some of the docs we used (sanitized of real data, obviously) for entrepreneurs looking to raise funding in teh future.
