1and1

Quick soap-box, because I've seen these guys come up a few times lately as being an alternative to the appalling practice of domain stealing of GoDaddy and Network Solutions. I had a bad experience with 1and1. It was a couple of years ago and we signed up for a month to month super cheap package for some minor domain. The problem came when we tried to close the account. There is no link to "close account" on their website. After a lucky google search we located a US phone number, which was answered by someone who was apparently learning English using a phrase book as the conversation went along. After a few minutes of trying to decipher what they were saying it turns out that to quit their service you have to go to *another website*, not linked to from the 1and1 website at all. THEN, you have to fax them a signed document, requesting them to pretty please turn off your service. THEN they still charge you for the remainder of the month you're on and another month on top of it. Since they are based in the UK I didn't have anyone to vent to... until now. Never use these guys for anything, they use underhanded techniques to make it impossible to quit, then shaft you for a month's hosting if you do.

We use EDT hosting for little stuff, and I've liked the guys at Rackspace too. I'm planning to sign up for Joyent later this week for my new Ruby/Rails app.

On hinky funding numbers

You see numbers all the time about how many startups pitch to VCs vs. how many actually get funded. The number is usually around 100, meaning 1% of startups wind up with a check in their hands. On the other hand a browse around most of the startups out there will reveal a lot of lackadaisical implementations of deeply flawed ideas with nonexistent business potential. I'm sorry guys, I know I'm being a hater, but it's a truism that the best way to affirm your confidence in your marginally-dingbat startup idea is to go browse around at all the other worse startup ideas people are attempting. I am reminded of the movie "Knocked Up", where a house full of four loser stoners want to make a website cataloging movie nudity. I get the sense that guys like that make up a good portion of the 99% number that gets thrown around.

So I guess what I'd like to see is the percentage of startups that get funded where there is, say, an actual working product, operate in a space where there isn't a billion dollar company with roughly the same technology, maybe get written about in a major publication like Techcrunch/meme/mashable/ReadWriteWeb, have full time founders with someone who can sling code, etc.

I could be totally wrong, but I wouldn't personally write a check to bet on more than about 10% of the startups I see, and the ones I see are the ones that have already been published.

Entrepreneurs Undaunted

I looked it up just to make sure... Conde Nast and Newsweek are not owned by the same company. Still, an article in major media about bullish prospects for startups is always an ill portent. I don't practice Santeria, I ain't got no crystal ball, and if I had a million dollars I'd hire a PR firm and lease office space in Pioneer Square.

I've started using RescueTime which tells me I spend too much time reading news and blogs, and only 72% of my computer (waking, basically) hours are spent writing ruby on rails code. In an effort to become more efficient (80% would be nice, leaving time to insta-netflix a Law and Order) I caught up with 2002 and set up Google reader. It is awesome, and by awesome I mean totally sweet if you are like me and you have 10+ sites that you read every day. You never miss a headline, and you can skim through them, open the ones you're interested in, and wipe the slate clean. Best part- it runs in iGoogle, so I pretty much never have to leave my home page for anything. If RescueTime can't make me superhumanly productive there's always this girl to watch me like a hawk. (Via @Veronica)

Only one thing can get frigging Rick Astley out of my head... new Obama Girl!

(Via fakesteve)

Funny

I am TOTALLY willing to water down my new blog with stupid links that make me laugh:

LOLiticians

Switching gears, Build your own Ruby on Rails Web Applications is an excellent primer. I like to learn new languages starting with "Hello, world!" and iterating from there, picking up syntax as I go. Like Einstein said, never memorize what you can look up on the internet, right? Anyway, I immensely enjoyed the poingant guide, but Lenz's book is superior when you get serious. Ignore the serial-killer-cam picture of him on the site, he seems very nice in the book. Use the oldschool 1.3 instantrails, then just port it over to 2.02 when you're done.

BYOBW

This link makes me really jealous and contributes to my secret wish that I lived in the Bay area. I have been talking about adult big wheel racing fo-evah, and now they go and do it and look like they are having SO much fun. If anyone in Seattle ever wants to be big copycats I am totally in. Seneca street from 5th Avenue down to Western would be awesome. Of course it would have to be 2 a.m. but whatever.

PS - yes, I stalk a San Fransisco culture site on Twitter. Come on, even Scoble says it's ok.

Hey

Welcome to my new "for real" blog. I'm Adam, a wannabe entrepreneur in Seattle. Saying so is what makes this a for real blog as opposed to a "character" blog like Fake Steve Jobs or a "theme" blog like Stuff White People Like. Mostly it'll just be links to interesting or funny stuff I find on the internets, and maybe some commentary.

To start off with the bar really low, here's a link to Vallywag about this blog's name. They have institutionalized being haters so ignore the pejorative vibe, it's just their way. To give credit where it's due I actually first came across the term on Andrew Hyde's very funny T-shirt site.