THE DREAM IN ACTION

As some of you may know, ActionsTalk has been evolving.  Two months ago, we set out to create a conference in the Milwaukee area that brought together three key pieces of successful tech companies:  1. Tech savvy developers/engineers,  2. business minded entrepreneurs, and 3. venture capital.  We saw the potential for the idea when we realized that such a conference didn’t exist in Milwaukee, even with the obvious potential of the community.  So what did we do?  We outlined a plan (loosely) and took action.  We called our first ActionsTalk meeting at Alterra and it felt like the idea really had legs.  Since then we’ve spoken before three local organizations (thank you!), picking up supports as we moved forward.  As we began to speak to people, to hear what they wanted, it became obvious that this would be no small under-taking.

After some serious deliberation, we finally came to the conclusion that the time might not be right for us to organize such a conference.  We revisited our goals.  We want to seek out, promote, and educate local start-ups and future entrepreneurs.  We want to meet the best and brightest this city (and the Midwest) has to offer. We’ve come up with a new plan…

We believe we can make a more immediate impact, and reach our collective goals by making ActionsTalk a site dedicated to highlighting the successes and struggles of the local entrepreneur.  We’re both obviously very interested in technology, but we aren’t limiting our scope there.  No start-up is off limits.  By meeting the people and telling these stories, we will bring the community together.  We see this as a venue for you to check out what’s new, who’s making moves, and to learn the tricks of the trade.

A Call to Action!

* If you’re involved with a startup in Milwaukee (or know someone who is), send us your story.  If we think it makes sense, we’ll interview you, do a write-up, and bring new attention to your business.
* If you can write decently, and you’ve got a passion for this, like we do, let us know.  We’re looking for a few more contributors to energize this movement.  As a contributor, you can cover the local businesses or write relevant education pieces for our readers.

We’re excited for the new direction, and we’ll be publishing our first batch of content soon…  stay tuned.

Posterous.com just released the simplest blogging platform out. Many people were using Tumblr to fufill there need for quick and easy ways to post to the web but Posterous just made it simpler. As the directions on their site explain, all you have to do is email post@posterous.com and your content will be posted. Anything from text, to pictures, or even music (mp3’s).

I have a lot of respect for Paul Graham and thus I have a lot of respect for ‘most’ YCombinator start-ups. As many people at my office know I became somewhat of a Xobni evangelist when they first came out and I was pitching the product to everyone from the guy in the neighboring cube to the CIO of GE! So far I’ve been very very impressed with YC companies and the trend continues.

Give Posterous a try for your simple blogging needs.

Today I decided to experiment a little bit…and it worked. Listen to some of the replies…

:Surf:SD:  is a site that is based on the PopURLs model. It is designed aggregate photos and news from San Diego (my beloved  home town). It is catered to me by pulling the things I’m interested in – local SD news, Padres news, and surfing news…and photos. This is a little side project that I will share with my friends and anyone else who thinks they would use the site and I may add topics/sections as is appropriate.

If you have any questions or suggestions for :Surf:SD: please email me, or use comments on this post.

Instinctiv.com want to make your iPod or iPhone smart! They describe the features of their application this way:

“The random shuffle was a cool feature when it first launched. But, let’s be honest, it left out the most important element: you. After all, your taste in music isn’t random-it’s instinctive.

That’s why Instinctive Shuffle was created. This smart new app goes far beyond the random shuffle and actually makes song recommendations to match whatever mood you’re in. So you can explore and experience your music in a whole new way.”

By skipping the songs that you don’t want to hear Instinctiv captures these decisions and learns from your preferences/choices. It sounds very similar to Pandora.com’s free music streaming feature but takes it directly to you and your iPod. I’m a fan of any tool that helps my music experience become a better one.

Instinctiv Shuffle™ is the first product by Instinctiv (formerly Predict Systems), a company dedicated to changing the way that consumers experience their entertainment.

With the new Mac I’ve started to do video editing and some more detailed photo editing. I recently got Photoshop and I’ve used this tutorial and learned quite a bit. I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me.

Look, I’m as big of a Firefox fan as the next guy but I’ve seen this 3 times since my FF3 download to help set the record last week.

Is anyone else having this problem?

I recently started using PictoBrowser as my choice Flickr slide show application for Ryan A Graves.com. With the white, simple background it looks and feels very clean.  It shows thumbnails below and lets the viewer navigate using arrow keys. All that is required is a Flickr user name and then choose a set to display. Check out PictoBrowser here. PictoBrowser was created by interactive designer Diego Bauducco. You can find his other projects and studies at dB798.com. There are many other slideshow apps out there (i.e. Slide, RockYou, PictureTrail) but I find this one to be simple and clean and easy to integrate Flickr photos. What do you use for slide shows?

Here is just another great use of Twitter. I’ve used it here to review and remember what I was thinking at certain moments on my trip. Also, I used my Twitter stream to look back over my photos and recap certain captions. As soon as I get a good grasp of my pics I’ll post them too.  Thanks Twitter (by the way Twitter has been fairly reliable for me recently, weird!).

Most recent on top (in typical Twitter format):

finally home in milwaukee, long day of travel. but I met some great people and read a lot! finished @sethgodin ’s “purple cow”, awesome read about 5 minutes ago from web

less than 20 seconds ago from BeTwittered
On the plane first class out of kc reading @garyvee ’s book and finally on the way to mke… long day of travel. about 4 hours ago from txt

Missed my flight out of kc by seconds due to the delay out of laguardia, felt like home alone running through the airport. haha. Now i wait! about 4 hours ago from txt

i wish i was in chi hangin with @mollstar not on this sardine can of an airplane. about 8 hours ago from web

That was a great trip with great friends! Check out breif summary http://ryanagraves.com/blog/ much more pics coming soon! about 9 hours ago from web

@digidave thanks for the support bud delays blow but missed flight are worse hope for neither about 9 hours ago from web in reply to Digidave

Just found out that we are on the tarmac and indefinitely delayed… about 9 hours ago from txt

On the plane, delayed. Ugh. about 9 hours ago from txt

Cant get onto twitter via my non-smart phone samsung. Really bothersome! about 11 hours ago from txt

Reading purple cow by seth godin at lga, waiting for my 2pm flight. about 11 hours ago from txt

Heading for LGA…great time in nyc. about 13 hours ago from txt

Cigars with Tommy and Chen at Columbia…mmmmm 12:09 AM June 22, 2008 from txt

Peking duck house in chinatown, nyc for dinner. 08:11 PM June 21, 2008 from txt

Telling friends about @garyvee and winelibrarytv… 07:18 PM June 21, 2008 from txt

Waking up late in back bay, boston reading the wsj… 09:29 AM June 21, 2008 from txt

From my blog: This weekends trip.: Hello all, As you are reading this I’m on vacati.. http://tinyurl.com/6mklx7 03:32 AM June 21, 2008 from twitterfeed

From my blog: Reblog this nerds!: This video is a hilarious spoof on Tumblr (micro-bloggi.. http://tinyurl.com/64ythj 03:31 AM June 21, 2008 from twitterfeed

Tiger woods golf…in boston at handcocks…back bay! 02:45 AM June 21, 2008 from txt

Rockin solas in boston. 11:56 PM June 20, 2008 from txt

Right field at the red sox game, livin the dream! 09:11 PM June 20, 2008 from txt

New haven, conn looking for food. Let me know where I should eat. 12:05 PM June 20, 2008 from txt
In westport conn loking for a mcd’s   11:06 AM June 20, 2008  from txt

We just had to pull over for tommy to yak…good trip to boston! 11:03 AM June 20, 2008 from txt

Heading out in east village NYC for the night with the fellas…reducing the amt of twitter for fear of my behavior…should be fun 09:21 PM June 19, 2008 from txt

Johnny Damon just talked shit to us when the ball when ground rule double to the fans, he is awesome. 04:08 PM June 19, 2008 from txt

3rd baseline at Yankee stadium is awesome 02:46 PM June 19, 2008 from txt

@sprenkler…no man i’m in nyc this weekend. B Samic might, sorry. 01:02 PM June 19, 2008 from txt

No comp for 4 days…ill be heavy on the twitter streams, then a blog post of all my tweets of the weekend on http://ryanagraves.com/blo … … 04:25 PM June 18, 2008 from txt

Flight out of mke delayed. leaving at 5:45. 04:15 PM June 18, 2008 from txt

heading to the airport and off to NYC!!! 03:08 PM June 18, 2008 from BeTwittered

Hello all, As you are reading this I’m on vacation. You can check Dopplr for my complete itinerary but here’s the plan by pictures. I hope all is well with you. Twitter me (@ryangraves) if you are in NYC and want to hang out this weekend.

Thursday

Friday Morning

Friday Night

This video is a hilarious spoof on Tumblr (micro-blogging).

tumblr. – The Documentary from DaveAOK on Vimeo.