i'm just sayin'...

Apple really needs to do something about this.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:09:00 -0800

Foxconn Chair Calls Employees Animals

Multiple suicides and a threat of mass suicide due to working conditions?

I wonder what the true cost difference would be to make Apple products in the United States or Mexico.

UPDATE: After posting this, I had a long Facebook conversation about this issue with a friend and I am going to turn it into a post in the next couple of days.

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End Piracy, Not Liberty

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:03:00 -0800

An excellent summary from Google about S.O.P.A. and P.I.P.A.

Please read it and sign the petition.

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.

Update: Reddit has a very in depth but easy to understand resource about PIPA and SOPA

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Nice summary of the big media companies outdated veiw of their customers

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:26:00 -0800

In a short post titled The media industry would rather litigate than innovate, Scott McLeod pulled a great quote from an article you need to read about the industry’s wrongheaded march to S.O.P.A.

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MSNBC's Breaking News Facebook page really needs a copy editor.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:14:00 -0800

The following screen grabs are from MSNBC's Breaking News Facebook page. Below are two consecutive updates, roughly an hour apart.

In the update above, Pfc should be P.F.C. or PFC. It stands for Private First Class, and it is an official rank. They also repeated the word "should."

In this one - "A judge in Alabama judge"

I know that in this age of texting and twitter we have relaxed many of the formalities of the English labguage, but come on people.

MSNBC's Breaking News Facebook page really needs a copy editor. post.ly/4onOI
— Gary Carpenter (@garycarpenter) January 12, 2012

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Should Facebook Rethink Timeline?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:33:00 -0800

A nice summary about why maybe the wall is better than timeline. by @corywatilo

Should Facebook Rethink Timeline? garycarpenter.me/should-faceboo…via @corywatilo
— Gary Carpenter (@garycarpenter) January 12, 2012

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@ChicagoCabbie

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:43:00 -0800

Old services meet new media: a tweeting cabbie's growing business

I love seeing people find ways to bring new technology and techniques into old industries. In the end though, it all comes down to serving your customers in the best way you can find.

This guy is working it.

I love stories about people like @ChicagoCabbie using new tech to change old businesses.post.ly/4nAxA
— Gary Carpenter (@garycarpenter) January 11, 2012

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How much is enough?

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:07:00 -0800

I've been thinking about minimalism a lot lately. Not in the sense of getting rid of all of my stuff, but more in the sense of "how much is enough?

Leo Babauta is a true minimalist, in life philosophy and when it comes to physical possessions.

Dave is a radical minimalist, limiting himself to 100 personal possessions.

I read and enjoy both of them, but I'm thinking more in terms of simplification.

Do I really need over 300 cd's sitting around? They are all on my computer. I never pull them out and read the inserts.

What about the over 100 dvds in our house, taking up space in their large cases? Could we put them in binders, Or maybe even rip them to a large hard drive?

I rarely buy paper books anymore, but I still have many books on shelves. Why?

Just some things I've been thinking about.

How much is enough? post.ly/4mba2
— Gary Carpenter (@garycarpenter) January 10, 2012

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Suffer from information overload? Get some better filters.

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:52:36 -0800

Clay Shirky gave this great talk at Web 2.0 Expo NY in 2008. It is still very relevant today.

It's Not Information Overload. It's Filter Failure.

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Why I didnt follow you on twitter

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 08:55:00 -0800

I published a post yesterday explaining how I decide to accept a friend requests on Facebook. Today let's talk about twitter.

I follow a lot of people, and I don't intend to changing that, but I am cutting those who fill my stream with useless noise. The following are the basic principles I will use to decide weather I follow someone back after being followed.

1) Do I know you. If yes I will probably follow you back unless you violate enough of the following points.

2) Do you tweet? Something is fishy if you have a thousand followers, follow two thousand, and only have three tweets. Not following.

3) Do you follow three thousand and have two thousand nine hundred followers? That screams list builder. I know this because I tried it for a while. Not following.

4) Do you have some type of avatar and is your profile filled out? If it feels like you are trying to hide who you are, I won't likely follow.

5) @reply me with an affiliate link, or a porn link, or to any page that tries to sell me something. If I am following you I will quickly unfollow, then I will block and report you as spam.

6) If all of your tweets are retweets, not following.

7) Are all of your tweets broadcasting? Tweets that sound like "new post, blah, blah, blah," or "new podcast up, yada yada yada," or even,"the latest sermon is posted." These are fine, and even expected, I do them too, but if there is no conversation happening, not following.

8) If every post is a scripture verse, a quote, or even a prayer request, not following.

9) I follow a lot people who talk politics, both liberal and conservative, and I love the discussion and debate, but I unfollow people who only post angry criticism of those with the opposite view.

10) I follow a lot of religious leaders, pastors, authors and thought leaders from evangelical circles, but I hold you to the same standard as those mentioned in number nine.

11) Unless we know each other, or have interacted online before,@replying me asking for a follow back is not likely to work.

Note to Minors: I volunteer at my church's youth group. I never intentionally follow teenage girls, weather I know them or not. If I am followed by a young lady that I know, I will usually will follow back, but I make sure to follow on twitter or friend on Facebook at least one of their parents, and let them know about the twitter follow from their daughter.

Why I didnt follow you on twitter post.ly/4nd3u
— Gary Carpenter (@garycarpenter) January 11, 2012

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Facebook: To friend or not to friend

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:41:00 -0800

When I first joined Facebook, I accepted friend requests from just about anyone. I also liked many many fan pages, both of celebrities and companies. My news feed is now insanely hard to follow.

Over the holidays, I will be "unfriending" many people and authors, and "unliking" almost all businesses, nonprofits and celebrity fan pages.

From now on, Facebook is only for people I have met personally, built up relationships with elsewhere online, and a select few people and organizations I haven't personally met, but wich I have some compelling reason to associate with on Facebook.

My apologies if you or your profile or page doesn't fit that criteria. I have enabled subscribers, so if you really want to, you can subscribe to my public posts.

Note to Minors: I volunteer at my church's youth group. I never intentionally send friend requests to teenage girls, weather I know them or not. If I receive a friend request from a young lady that I know, I will usually will accept, but I make sure to friend at least one of their parents, and let them know about the friend request from their daughter.

My next step is to really organize my friends into a couple of lists, and start using them.

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Podcast Studio Set Up Complete

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:16:00 -0700

Over the past year or so, I've been slowly putting together a setup to record podcasts. It is complete! Well, it's not complete but it now has everything I need to record quality audio, and have a cohost.Why has it taken so long you ask. Well, It wasn't really money, though that was part of it. It was largely my procrastination, due to a little bit of fear and lack of self confidence. Also, I come from a live sound engineering background, and I didn't want to put out anything that sounded bad.

This all changed recently when I participated In a free webinar called Learn How to Podcast by Cliff Ravenscraft at podcastanswerman.com. I've been listening to several of Cliff's shows for about a year and a half and he really explains things in a way that makes things simple and understandable.

The two hours or so I spent watching Cliff walk us through every detail involved, from concept to publishing, and getting listed in iTunes, was priceless, and it took away every excuse I had for not moving foward on a podcast.

So, what does this set up consist of? Not a lot really.

How much did it cost? Well, that is hard to nail down because most of the gear is stuff I have collected over the years from my live sound work, and some of it I got used. The digital recorder and the microphone stands are the only things I have purchased brand new in the last year with an eye towards podcasting. I will run down the list below and tell you what I paid, and what you could use in it's stead.

1) Zoom H4n Digital recorder. $300.00

This thing is amazing! I bought it for recording live performances, both from the board and with the onboard mics. I could record a podcast with just this peice of equipment. I have recorded trial episodes with this on a mic stand, and it is very good. Because the mics are so good and sensitive, this is not something I want to do as a regular thing, but I will record feild interviews with it.

If money is a problem, and if you are going to record with a mic through a mixer (recomended), Zoom, Tascam, Olympus and many others make digital recorders that will do the job just fine for around $100.00.

2) Behringer UB802 Mixer. $49.99

This mixer has been discontinued and is now called the XENYX 802 Mixer. I've had this thing for several years and I don't remember what I paid for it, but it currently sells for 49.00.

This mixer is acceptable, but a little noisy, and will be the first peice of gear I replace. I will get the Mackie 802-VLZ3 Compact Mixer ($199.99) as soon as I can afford it.

A lower cost alternative would be the Behringer Xenyx 502 Mixer for $39.99. It has the same sound quality as tthe 802, but is limited to one microphone input. If you only plan on working solo this would be fine, but it isn't a sacrifice I would make for $20.00.

Audix OM2 Microphones. $99.99ea

I have two of these. I have used them for years for live sound and I love them. They are equivelant to the Sure SM58 and cost the same, but they have a slightly differant tonal character. This is purely personal choice. I bought them used for $60.00 each, and SM58s can be found used for $50 - $60 all the time. I wouldn't recomend anything lower in quality. Remember, your podcast will never sound better than your mics are capable of.

Sony MDR-7506 Headphones. $99.00

Another item I have from live sound and recording projects. These sound very natural and are comfortable. You could get by with just cheap earbuds if need be, you really only need them for monitoring recording levals and EQ, and hearing your music and sound clips. If you plan on a lot of recording however, get some decent quality headphones.

I am going to buy a second set soon for a possible podcast that will have a cohost, and I will probably buy Sony MDR-7502 Headphones. They go for $49.00.

Microphone boom stands. $29.99ea

Not essential, as a small desk top stand ($10.00) will work, but they are very convenient. I have two.

Various Cables. $50.00

One 6' mic cable, one 10' mic cable and two 1/8" TRS - dual 1/4" Mono cables.

Netbook. $300.00

I bought this used two years ago for $150.00. It isn't fast or powerful, but I will only be using it to play sound clips and intro/exit music, and it handles the light audio editing duties fine.

My wife and I are soon replacing our office computer, and my studio will get a permanent place in our home office also, then this computer will get relegated to skype duties only.

USB Sound Card. $20.00 - $50.00

You most likely will need this. Computer sound (or headphones) outputs are usually very noisy. Mine creates a constant hissing sound when conected to my mixer. Getting the digital to analog conversion process outside of the machine goes a long way towards high quality sound.

Cost of my rig if purchased new - 799.00 (computer not included)

Cost of alternative but equivelent rig with one mic, as described above - $380.00 (no computer)

Podcasting can be done for much less than this, but for the sound quality I want, the fact that I want to be able to have a cohost, and given the recording process I want to use, I think this is a good starting point.

Stay tuned for news about my podcast coming soon, and another one in the works in a couple of months.

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Thank you Steve. You will be missed.

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:51:00 -0700

I don't own any Apple products, and never have, but it is hard to deny the effect that Steve Jobs has had on things I take for granted.

My android phone is better because of Steve Jobs. No, he didn't invent the smartphone, but he made it better, simpler, and made it part of the mainstream.

My music is purchases legally and inexpensively via download because of Steve Jobs. I, like many music fans, was an avid user of Napster. Steve Jobs dragged the music industry, kicking and screaming, into the twenty-first century.

The mp3 player that I used before I got my current phone was as good as it was, because of Steve Jobs. I love my Zune HD. Again, the iPod was not the first mp3 player, and iTunes was not the the first media player and online music store, but they made things simpler, easier and they "just worked."

The Podcasts that I listen to daily owe their popularity and ease of access to the creations of Steve Jobs. Yes, online media existed before iTunes, but there was no easy way to find it, aggregate it, and have it automatically delivered to subscribers.

He has left an undeniable mark on the world of technology, and provided inspiration to thousands innovators, and I have no doubt that we will feel the effect that he has had for many years to come.

Today is a sad day.

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What happens to T-Mobile if the AT&T Merger gets blocked?

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:36:00 -0700

It seems that just about everyone is happy about the D.O.J. moving to block the proposed AT&T buy out of T-Mobile. Has anyone given any consideration to what happens if the merger doesn't go through?

T-Mobile has been a struggling fourth place company for quite a while.

It's corporate parent, Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany, said it's not interested in investing more in its U.S. subsidiary.

Even before AT&T's $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile was announced in March, T-Mobile's corporate parent, Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany, said it's not interested in investing more in its U.S. subsidiary. It gave CEO Humm a mission to stop customer flight and start growing revenue, but he'll have to do it with the U.S. subsidiary's own resources.

Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner traces T-Mobile's current troubles in part to Deutsche

Telekom's unwillingness to invest in T-Mobile's spectrum and network in the last few years. It waited until 2009 to start building out a wireless broadband network, several years behind Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel Corp.

So, with this in mind, if the merger fails, we are left a struggling company owned by an oversees conglomorate that has no interest in further investment in it's infrastructure or frequency spectrum, that is steadily bleeding customers.

It seems to me that while it may take a few years longer, we still end up with only three major players in the U.S. market, and the only real difference is a long slow decline of T-Mobile, and a bunch of customers with two year contracts getting progressively worse service.

aybe Hewlett Packard has the right idea, that it isn't a good idea to be in a low margin industry at the lowest price point.

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Podcasts I Listen To: Part One

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:55:00 -0700

A few days ago I wrote that I've given Up Radio for Podcasts. I explained why and said that I would list some of the podcasts that enjoy.

There are curently fifty-nine subscriptions in Pocket Casts on my phone, and another twelve or so in my iTunes. Most of these are updated weekly, a few are updated daily, and some are on hiatus or only update every few weeks. Very few of these podcasts are regular media (TV or radio shows) sindicated via download, or church services offered via download. Almost all are original content created specifically for the purpose of distribution via streaming and download.

I don't always listen to all every single episode of all of these podcasts. For some of them I scan the titles and description and either listen to them, but I often delete them.

So here's the list.

I make a point to listen to every episode of the following:

Daily Shows

Tech news Today - Daily tech news roundup.
The Narrow Path Half Hour Radio Show - An open discussion Christian radio program that airs live every Weekday at 9:30 AM Pacific Time. Steve Gregg, a Bible teacher and lecture that enjoys a good discussion. Steve leaves the program open to those who wish to disagree with him and enjoys a good discussion about any topic that relates to Christianity, the Bible, or Christian living.
The Narrow Path Full Hour Radio Show - A one hour show, like the one above, aired in the afternoon. I have listened to Steve for over ten years and I never fail to listen to these two shows.
The Briefing – The Albert Mohler Podcast - A daily ten to fifteen minute news and comentary on current events from a Christian point of veiw by Albert Mohler.
NPR's 7a.m. News Summary - A daily download of NPR's morning news update.
NPR's Fresh Air -
Piers Morgan Tonight - Piers may be the best interviewer on TV right now, with the exception of Charlie Rose. This is the audio download of his CNN nightly show. I only listen to it if I missed the broadcast the night before, and I am interested in the topic or person being interviewed.
NOTE: The Narrow Path shows, The two NPR Shows, Piers Morgan, and Steve Brown Etc (I will talk about that in the next post) are the only traditional broadcast shows that I listen to in a podcast format.

Weekly Shows by GSPN

The Podcast Answerman - Cliff Ravenscraft is an excellent podcaster who has a passion for podcasting and is an excellent instructor in all things podcasting.
Business Tech Weekly - Business Tech Weekly is a podcast devoted to helping small to medium size businesses stay on top of the latest in the world of technology. Cliff Ravenscraft and Andy Traub share applications and online tools that are available and how they use them to be more productive and efficient in the way that they run their businesses. they also share their personal goals and random success stories.
Social Media Serinity - A show devoted to social networking in general, they spend a majority of time talking about the big networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Cliff and Erik Fisher discuss how they use these services to build authentic relationships and build brand awareness in the online community without wasting away countless hours of our lives.
Balanced Living Weekly Podcast - Cliff and Father Roderick Vonhogen talk about losing weight, exercise, eating healthy, and even about recent episodes of the Biggest Loser when the show is on. However, there is so much more that is covered.
Hunger Games Fan Podcast - A twice weekly podcast Clif and his wife Stephanie do devoted to the book trilogy The Hunger games.

Weekly Shows From The TWIT Network and Leo LaPort.

This Week In Tech - A roundtable discussion of the latest trends in high tech.
This Week In Google - Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani, Jeff Jarvis and their guests talk about the latest Google and cloud computing news.
All About Android - By Android enthusiasts Jason Howell, Eileen Rivera, Ron Richards, and a host of special guests.
This Week in Photo - Professional photographer Catherine Hall and photo amateur Leo Laporte interveiw some of the best photographers from around the world.
Triangulation - Tom and Leo talk to the smartest people in the world about the most important topics and events in the history of technology.

I will complete this list in the next post.

Do you listen to any podcast or streamed internet shows regularly? If so, what are some of your favorite podcasts?

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I've given Up Radio for Podcasts

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:22:00 -0700

I haven't listened to the radio or watched cable news in months. The only exception being yesterday and today, I have been following the earthquake and tsunami coverage. I have recently been listening to hours and hours of podcasts each day. I enjoy the variety and the “on demand” nature of them. I load my mp3 player with podcasts of all types, and I have content of all types of topics available any time I want.

I grew up listening to the radio, and for most of my life, it has been my favorite form of media consumption. We did not have a TV in the house while I was growing up. I listened to a lot of music, news and sports on the radio. I can remember many late nights listening to the Portland Trailblazer games on headphones. I still enjoy listening to their games on the radio.

For most of my adult life, I have worked in the construction trades, and even the jobs I’ve had outside of construction did not allow me to have access to a computer in a stationary spot. In my early twenties I discovered “talk radio,” (GASP!) and since I tend to lean to the right politically, this was great! While most radio hosts tend to be far right, I shared enough of their views to enjoy most of their shows.

I have really come to enjoy the intimacy that radio provides. If you listen to a host for very long, you really feel like you get to know them.

A couple of years ago, I discovered Hugh Hewitt. Hugh is probably the smartest talking head on the radio. He is a Christian, a constitutional law professor, a practicing environmental lawyer, and the best interviewer I have ever heard. He will spend a week on one topic if that’s what it takes to find out all of the ins and outs of an issue. Hugh doesn’t just pontificate for three hours a day, he finds out who the experts are on a given topic and will have them on for an hour at a time and really educate you.

The station that carried The Hugh Hewitt Show went off the air about a year ago, and I had to resort to downloading them after the broadcast and listen to them the next day. This is called podcasting.

Recently, I have been talking to some friends of mine about creating a podcast for a ministry that we are all involved with. So I started doing some research about how to create a podcast, which lead me to discover many awesome people creating some of the most entertaining and informative content I have heard in a long time. This, combined with a severe burnout on politics after the recent elections, has made me almost completely abandon the radio.

If you are tired of the same ole same ole in your media consumption, why not go to the podcast section of the iTunes store (or the Zune marketplace) and start sampling some of the thousands offerings available. Once you find some you like, load up your iPod or phone and enjoy!

Don’t worry if you only find a coup[le of podcasts that interest you, podcasters usually talk about other podcasters occasionally, you will find more.

Oh, one other thing, try to avoid the celebrity radio shows allowing downloads, search for the people who are truly creating their own independent content.

Next time, I will share the list of podcasts that I like.

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Forgiveness: What It Is and How To Do It

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 15:27:00 -0700

Scott Magdalein posted an excellent but short post about forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a very misunderstood concept these days. We are often more concerned with the persuit of justice (something Jesus and Paul clearly told us not to do) when wronged, that we forget the obligation to forgive.

Please read Scott's post Forgiveness.

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Post Page Views Higher With Shorter Main Page Excerpts?

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:40:00 -0800

It may not be the case, but it seems that page views on individual blog posts are higher when I make a shorter excerpt before the "read more" break.

At first, I thought "that makes sense, a short excerpt would mean that the reader needs to click through to the full post to read it."

Then I realized that this can't be the reason why, because the only promotion I ever do is autopost to twitter and facebook, and those links are always to the post page, not the main blog page. Is Posterous' S.E.O. that good?

I guess I need to get Google analytics.

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You May Not Want to Auto Post to Another Blog With Posterous

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:55:00 -0800

A note about the dangers of auto posting to other blogs with Posterous.

The folks at Posterous have enticed many people to start using their service by claiming that it is super simple to post your content to your blog and post to any or all of the following:

Facebook (Profiles and Pages), Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, FriendFeed, Jaiku, Plurk, Identica, Blogger, Tumblr, Livejournal, Shopify, Typepad, Xanga, WordPress (XML-RPC must be enabled), MoveableType, Drupal, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Blip.tv, Scribd, and Delicious. (taken directly from Posterous’ web site)

It is true that you can do all of this, but what they are not saying is that if you use Posterous to post to another blog, and you want the other blog to be the official source of of the information in Google search results, you will run into problems. Google has made changes to their search indexing algorithm, called “the Panda Update.” They are penalizing sites that post information that is duplicated elsewhere, and are favoring (rightfully so) the original content.

A made up but realistic use case.

To get an idea about how this could effect a Posterous user, let’s create an imaginary use case. Joe Blogger has a Blogger blog with a custom url pointing to his blogspot blog. He uses Posterous to email his post to Posterous, and auto posts to his main blog, facebook page and send a tweet about it. Very cool. Or is it?

There are two problems with this.

First - Google will naturally see that Posterous, not joeblogger.com is the originating website for the content, thereby indexing the main sight lower, if at all.

The second problem is this - the facebook post and the tweet are going to point the reader back to Posterous, not Joe Blogger’s intended sight, and this hurts Joe’s main sight rankings even more. Search engines are now taking social networks and the amount of sharing into account when they rank content.

So, what to do moving forward.

Rich Pearson (@richiepear on twitter) the VP of marketing at Posterous has stated in a forum post titled Why I Am Dropping Posterous This Weekend that they have always intended that users use Posterous as their primary blogging platform.

Bonnie - thanks for your feedback and we're aware of the 'Panda' update. We're definitely focused on the scenario of using Posterous as your main website and continue to add new features to support this.

We enabled autoposting to other blog platforms like WordPress and Blogger for one main purpose - to get folks to switch to Posterous . . . or at least build their next site on Posterous. Our belief is that once bloggers experience our ease of posting and what it's like to be on a platform that continues to innovate, they will move over.

Fortunately, this has worked out pretty well for us, but we still have lots to do as you point out - javascript and widget support is on our short list and should be out within the next few months.

So, he’s saying that the last couple of years of claims that Posterous is the super simple way to post everywhere may be true, but it isn’t really the best way, AND it was never really the intention of the company for it’s users to operate this way.

I have pretty much done what he suggests, that is make Posterous my main and pretty much only platform. If I had a lot of link love built up on another platform however, I’d be hard pressed to make the switch, the platform is just to limiting for many people.

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A Great Infographic About How we Use Our Cell Phones

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 08:51:00 -0800

This was posted at Online IT Degree, I found it via Chris Brogan.

It's a large graphic - view it after the break.

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The Criticisms of Small Minds

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:43:00 -0800

Have you ever had a dream that you knew was possible, but you couldn't find a way to explain it to the people around you? You knew the what and the why, but you were still trying to figure out the how.

I have a dream that is turning into some goals. It is big. At least to me it is. I know the what and why, and I'm slowly starting to understand the how, but I also know that these things will change some as I progress.

The problem I'm having is expressing this dream to the people around me that need to know what it is, and could help me with it. A year or two ago, a Guy Named Dave started a blog series called The 100 Things Challenge. His goal was to reduce his personal belongings down to one hundred things. I found it fascinating. Simplicity is something I have been seeking in my life, and this resonated with me.

I’ve followed the challenge for about a year now, though I’m not doing it. I’m inspired by the concepts Dave brings to light. 100 things is extreme, probably too extreme for most, myself included, but the fact that it can be done inspires me to always be reducing what I see as needs.

Dave posted recently about the common criticisms he receives. While reading it occurred to me that none of these criticisms were of Dave or The 100 Thing Challenge generally, they were about the tiny little details, the minutia. These people were criticizing, the concept and ideas that Dave is trying to demonstrate because of tiny details. They are small minded and can't see more than the little obstacle in their path.

I find most criticism comes from people who don’t understand the concept behind the idea they are rejecting, and they use tiny little details that don’t matter to reject something they can’t grasp.

As I develop this dream into a plan with definable goals and processes, there may be some details here and there that won't work. So what? There will be big and small failures, or as Thomas Edison said - lessons on how not to do it. I'm looking forward to those learning experiences.

What is this dream of mine? Well, I am still trying to flesh it out in writing, so that I can completely understand it. There will be more posts about this in the coming days and weeks.

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