August Boulder New Tech Meetup
By Julie | August 6, 2008
Hats off to the TechStars presenters who brought the (full) house down tonight with six great demos. Really, if there were ever a night to be proud to be part of the Boulder tech community, this was it. Since I’ve already blogged about the companies presenting (with the alteration of company name Fluxcapacity to Occipital), I thought I would leave this post mostly to pictures.
First, there were many announcements, including for the first time, a company needing legal work (exciting for me and no one else). But also a quick demo of hum.itfor.us - a sweet little iPhone app that identifies songs based on humming the rhythm. Worked for Freebird (see Micah’s sense of humor).
Brad Bernthal encouraged start-ups in need of legal help but without the means to apply to the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, which will get going again at the end of August.
Eventvue showed us how much they’ve grown (and put the pressure on other TechStars companies to find funding).
Ignighter raked Jason Mendelson over the coals, and kept us all in stitches in the process. Funniest presentation, ever.
Next, the guys from Occipital blew us away with their photo technology. Say goodbye to scrap booking (or tagging, collecting, labeling, etc.).
People’s Software Company wants to help me enjoy the web without having to fill out another profile (hallelujah!)
Foodzie made us all crave chocolate (and envy those cool green t-shirts).
Finally, Gyminee showed us some sweet fitness tracking tools.
To top it off, cupcakes were served to celebrate two years of Boulder tech meetupness (thanks Robert!) What more could you ask for?
Topics: business, entrepreneurship, law, technology, web |
What I Miss On TV [sigh]
By Julie | August 4, 2008
Not Much. I gave up paying for cable at the beginning of the year. It was more of an “I don’t want to pay for this crap” than a “this is rotting my brain” kind of decision. While it seems pretty true from my perspective that only pretentious white people brag about not having TV, it was certainly not the motivating factor for me.
For the most part, I’m too busy to notice. I’m not beholden to next week’s episode (although I confess looking forward to the next episode of Grey’s Anatomy online; no worries, the series seems to be going downhill.) I have movies and a few TV series on DVD if I really need them, COMMERCIAL FREE. (I really HATE commercials.
There have a few instances, though, where I really missed TV, mostly sports, and the weather channel. (It has become easier to resist the weather channel, however, after my discovery of the goings on behind the scenes or the seemingly benevolent meteorologists.)
Back to sports. I miss not having March Madness at my disposal, or an occasional Rockies games, and I am really dissatisfied with missing more than I have to of this summer’s coverage of the Olympics. There are only so many hours I can justify sitting in a sports bar, tragically.
Finally, I would be upset as to not watch the election returns in November, but I remember all too well the disappointment of four years ago, and I fear there is not enough beer in the world to drown my sorrows if I’m disappointed again.
Topics: rants, technology |
Gimme a Wii
By Julie | August 1, 2008
Fling It Girl is running a contest to promote the site, which was recently launched at BlogHer. The prize, a Nintendo Wii. Check the contest out here. So tweet it, blog it, or better yet FLING IT. Props to Kary for a great site.
Topics: entrepreneurship, web |
TechStars at Boulder New Tech Meetup
By Julie | August 1, 2008
Half of this year’s crop of TechStars companies are ready for show and tell at this month’s New Tech Meetup. This August marks two years of New Tech magic in the Boulder community. Even in the dead of summer, it’s standing room only. Come early if you want a good seat. We’ll have Twitter search going again, with bigger text. If you’re not on Twitter, well, I can’t help you. You can join the community online via LinkedIn and Facebook.
Presenters for this month are:
EventVue (TechStars 2007)
Presented by Rob Johnson
They will demonstrate a new feature that lets you discover who in your LinkedIn network is attending an upcoming conference
Ignighter
Presented by Dan Osit, Adam Sachs, Kevin Owocki
They will demonstrate online dating with a twist. You and your friends put up a profile together and look for another group to hangout with
Fluxcapacity
Presented by Jeffrey Powers, Vikas Reddy
They will demonstrate a new way to navigate a digital photo stream
People’s Software Company
Presented by Susan Mernit & Lisa Williams
They will demonstrate WhozAround? a new application that offers a better way to plan and schedule
Foodzie
Presented by Emily Olson, Nik Bauman, Rob LaFave
They will demonstrate an online marketplace for consumers to discover and buy food directly from small, artisan producers
Gyminee
Presented by Andy Smith, Stephen Blankenship
They will demonstrate a web-based health and fitness tracking application and social network
Topics: technology, web |
La Plata - My 2nd (Colorado) 14er
By Julie | August 1, 2008
Following on the heels of my first 14er here in Colorado (which got me hooked), I spent the morning hours of last Saturday climbing another peak, this time in the Sawatch Range. La Plata is just past Twin Lakes on 82 to Aspen, and just South of Mt. Elbert. I climbed with new friends and my roommate’s dog, Laney. We hit the trailhead around 5am, still dark, but the pre-dawn light quickly made our headlamps obsolete. The hike is 9.5 miles round trip and 4,500′ of vertical according to guides. It is a beautiful hike, starting out climbing beside a creek until it reaches a beautiful open meadow. Past that are a slew of switchbacks to the top of treeline, a traverse, and more switchbacks to the ridgeline. The toughest part was the bouldering in the last 1-1.5 miles. We made it to the summit around 9:30 and stayed up for almost an hour. It was chilly, I was glad to have a jacket. About 50 people on the trail total. The descent took another 3 hours or so, but we stopped to take photos. Highly recommended, but start early. More photos on flickr.
Topics: mountaineering, travel |
My Musical Throwback
By Julie | August 1, 2008
Normally, I like to write about (and listen to) new music. The more unknown the artist, the better. Here I make an exception. I was recently trolling the used CD section at my favorite local music store when I came across the self-titled album by Fountains of Wayne from 1999. This is way before the days of “Stacy’s Mom“, and honestly, it’s a great album from a band before they were part of pop culture. I highly recommend checking it out.
Topics: music |
My first (Colorado) 14er
By Julie | July 30, 2008
There came a point this fall when I realized how ridiculous it was to travel all over the world to climb mountains instead of climbing them in my backyard. A few weeks ago, I set off for my first 14er, and decided to climb Torrey, one of the closest 14ers to Boulder. I couldn’t believe the number of people, or the view from the top. It was really a perfect day. I stayed on the summit for about an hour, and even made a new friend or two. There were no clouds in sight, thankfully, since I was there late in the day. Some choice shots:
Topics: mountaineering, travel |
Rocky Votolato and free music from Apple
By Julie | July 30, 2008
This blog post is a little overdue. The fact that I bought a ticket (actually I bought 4 tickets) to the show is truly a testament to the marketing music in the digital age. Two years ago, I joined the Apple student group on facebook so I could get free music. I got about 100 songs out of it over the course of a month, one of which was “White Daisy Passing” by Rocky Votolato from his album Makers. I loved it. Two years later, Rocky comes to Denver. Between the 4 tickets and the 2 CDs I bought, (and I’m just one person), it seems like it was a good idea. So, the lesson here is, quit bitching about downloading because it can make an otherwise unknown artist. Artists can still make money from concert and CD sales (I like to buy CDs direct from the artists- at shows). The key is distribution. Get someone like Apple to blast out a song. Oh, and don’t forget that talent part either.
Rocky, rockin’ out:
On Track.
By Julie | July 21, 2008
Last week Jason Mendelson of Foundry fame wrote a great post on entrepreneurship going on at Colorado University. As an MBA/JD student, I consider myself fortune to be part of such a thriving and engaged entrepreneurial community. I’m even more excited when someone in the community like Dan Caruso writes a post reply like this. Dan was great at Entrepreneurs Unplugged and his involvement is a real benefit to students. Here’s hoping more local businesses will do the same.
I also have some additions to the post I think are worth mentioning. First is the New Tech Meetup, which is hosted at the law school (yes, the law school) and sponsored by Silicon Flatirons. Second is the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, which provides free legal services to local small businesses and gives third year law students opportunities to work with real companies. Outside the law school, the computer science department has a few classes that have lead to some promising results. Finally, the engineering department in general is launching a new program this fall called e-ship as a certificate program designed to catalyze entrepreneurship. In short, there is hope that the university can be a foundation for building new companies.
Topics: business, entrepreneurship, law, technology |
Andrew Bird - One Sweet Whistler
By Julie | July 21, 2008
I saw Andrew Bird play at the Bellyup in Aspen on Friday night. It’s a small venue, very intimate. Andrew was much more than I bargained for with regards to musical talent. First, he plays a mean violin. No joke. He’s been playing it forever, and it shows. He also plays guitar, bells, and does a bit of light percussion. Oh yeah, and he is hands down the best whistler I have ever seen. We’re talking infallible, perfect-pitch whistling with vibrato! It was astounding. He was also live recording and sampling his own rhythms so that it sounded like two or three stringed instruments were playing. Seriously, if you ever have the chance to catch one of his shows, I highly recommend it. Not only does he play his violin like a guitar (very cool) and whistle WHILE he is playing violin under his chin (very impressive), but he also slings his guitar around to his back just long enough to pick up the violin and play a few lines and then puts the violin down and whips the guitar back around; without missing a beat.
Finally, he played about half from his his albums Armchair Apocrypha, Weather Systems, and other albums and half from his album that he recently recorded is now mixing and not yet released. If the concert was any indication of the quality of the upcoming album, then my prediction is that it will be another victory for Andrew Bird.
