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uncommonbiz)
http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com/201
http://www.parallelkingdom.com/
Four years after its launch, the mobile gaming app Parallel Kingdom (PK) is now one million players strong and brings in just over $200,000 per month in in-app purchases. Maintaining and growing the title has taught our team a lot about about creating deep mobile games, allowing us to launch another location-based game, Parallel Mafia, which has already seen traction. But it all began in a 700-square-foot apartment.
Our dream for the product started simply. My PerBlue co-founder, Andrew Hanson, and I were bored with homework one night around 4 a.m., so we decided to take a break and start a totally new project. We wanted to make a game with four goals in mind: it had to be played on phones, it had to be fun, it had to make money and — just for kicks — it would use the phone’s GPS. The iPhone had been released a few months earlier and the Android was just announced, so we wanted to take advantage of this new technology and gaming platform.
PerBlue was founded in the summer of 2008, while Andrew and I were both interning in Seattle. We both had really attractive job offers from Google and Microsoft, but we ultimately turned them down to pursue our own dream with PerBlue. The first year and half was spent bootstrapping, working for no pay and carrying few operating costs — with the exception of an occasional pizza or domain name.
Our team was built from our college friends from the University of Wisconsin, but the excitement of creating a location-based game for mobile phones was what really attracted them. PerBlue’s team was based out of my apartment in downtown Madison, and we occupied just about all 700 square feet of it. Since the entire original PerBlue team was attending college when PK was first being designed, we would go to class and part-time jobs during the day, and work on the game late into the night (sometimes until 5 or 6 a.m.).
Working in close quarters and for no pay required a lot of passion for the project, trust, and strong friendship. These things were the glue that held us together.
As the launch approached, we were working insane hours — sometimes 80 to 100 hours a week. At one point, one of our developers hadn’t gone to any of his classes for almost two weeks. Everyone was on their last nerve, but it was either now or never — we decided to strip 95 percent of the game’s features and push it live, bugs and all. Within the first day we had over 6,000 downloads, and four years later, some of those early players are still active in the game community.
The third iteration of PK, which launched in November of 2009, first introduced our virtual goods revenue model to the game. At the time, earning revenue from virtual goods was still a relatively unproven business model. The night before we shipped this update, I remember telling myself, “If we don’t make any money tomorrow, we’ll shut the whole thing down and I will be very happy. This has been fun, and it was a great adventure.” We woke up the next morning to find that we had made over $5,000. That day marked an important turning point, and the rest is history.
Parallel Kingdom’s in-app purchases and subscription services have allowed PerBlue to monetize the game and grow as a company. Our game has some of the highest revenue per player in the industry, and growth at PerBlue has been largely fueled by the success of Parallel Kingdom. We’ve grown rapidly with three hiring bursts, from a team of five to over 35 employees today. Given the fast-paced nature of the mobile games industry, our team and products are quickly growing and changing — and we can’t wait to share what’s next.
[Via - Forbes.Com]
Odd Jobs: How to Have Fun and Make Money in a Bad Economy
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Bitrix24.Com - Worlds First Social Intranet That's Free For Small Businesses.
bbc_doctor_who)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/art
It’s the early hours of May 26, 2012 and when the sun rises across Cardiff Bay there’s already a huge crowd gathered to greet the morning and Matt Smith.
spincat_rss)
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SpinTheCa
Amazing amounts of harassment detailed at the link.In the last radio interview Andrew Breitbart ever gave, on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Breitbart talked about a new ruthless tactic used by thugs against political opponents:[O]ne of the things they’ve done to people who have worked with me in the past, including an L.A. prosecutor, is to “SWAT.” That means that they’re spoofing phones, pretending to be somebody else’s phone, calling 911, and saying “I killed somebody” and then the person’s home is met with the guns drawn, the SWAT and the helicopters, in a horrifying act. It’s happened twice: once in New Jersey, once in Los Angeles, with an L.A. County . . . prosecutor who [is] associated with me.”I am that L.A. County prosecutor. And in this post, you’ll hear the hoax call that sent police to my house, pointing loaded guns at me.THE NIGHT I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED BECAUSE OF MY BLOGGINGAt 12:35 a.m. on July 1, 2011, sheriff’s deputies pounded on my front door and rang my doorbell. They shouted for me to open the door and come out with my hands up.When I opened the door, deputies pointed guns at me and ordered me to put my hands in the air. I had a cell phone in my hand. Fortunately, they did not mistake it for a gun.They ordered me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. They handcuffed me. They shouted questions at me: IS THERE ANYONE ELSE IN THE HOUSE? and WHERE ARE THEY? and ARE THEY ALIVE?I told them: Yes, my wife and my children are in the house. They’re upstairs in their bedrooms, sleeping. Of course they’re alive.Deputies led me down the street to a patrol car parked about 2-3 houses away. At least one neighbor was watching out of her window as I was placed, handcuffed, in the back of the patrol car. I saw numerous patrol cars on my quiet street. There was a police helicopter flying overhead, shining a spotlight down on us as I walked towards the patrol car. Several neighbors later told us the helicopter woke them up. I saw a fire engine and an ambulance. A neighbor later told me they had a HazMat vehicle out on the street as well.Meanwhile, police rushed into my home. They woke up my wife, led her downstairs and to the front porch, frisked her, and asked her where the children were. Then police ordered her to stand on the front porch with her hands against the wall while they entered my children’s bedrooms to make sure they were alive.The call that sent deputies to my home was a hoax. Someone had pretended to be me. They called the police to say I had shot my wife. The sheriff’s deputies who arrived at my front door believed they were about to confront an armed man who had just shot his wife. I don’t blame the police for any of their actions. But I blame the person who made the call.Because I could have been killed.The weirdest part of the whole thing was that I halfway expected this might happen. Because I was not the first one it had happened to.
bbc_doctor_who)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/art
Matt Smith is carrying the Olympic Flame this weekend and you can also see him in action as the Doctor on BBC Three.
unclutterer)
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/unclutter
http://unclutterer.com/?p=14096
This week’s Workspace of the Week is Geekah’s marvelous music bureau:
I know very little about the world of being a DJ or a recording engineer or pretty much anything to do with digitally altering sounds, but Geekah does and she has an office full of equipment to make it all happen. I really like how her speaker stands match the top of the desk and appear to be part of the structural piece. The iPad stand is streamlined stunning and the earphones even have a place to live when not in use. Even the wall art reflects what happens in this space. I love the cable management, the primarily black and white color palette, and the ability to have a lot of equipment in a small space without looking cluttered or clausterphobic. Thank you, Geekah, for sharing your workspace with us. It’s an inspiring room.
Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kitchen; if you’re a carpenter, it’s your workbench.
Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland's Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.
kkcooltools)
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CoolTools/
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/006
I have used several borrowed models of both electric and gas powered trimmers. The electric plug-in Stihl FSE 60 is my favorite by far. It is quiet and strong. The only concern is that when used continuously for half an hour or more, it gets very hot. I find that it is better to use it in shorter intervals.
It works better than other models and is easier to clean. While I have to wear earplugs when using it, it is far from the teeth-shaking monstrosities that disturb the neighborhood. I couldn't see going to a gas powered trimmer unless I were very far away from an electric outlet. It is a bit more expensive than big box electric trimmers, but way better. The only reason to buy something like a Black & Decker or McCullough electric model is if you were only going to do a few light jobs one season and never use the thing again.
I was surprised that this dealer distributed model was so much better than the big-box online-marketed alternatives. In value, it's one of my best tool purchases ever.
-- Bill Owens
I initially bought my Stihl FSE-60 reading a review at Consumer Search. The Stihl FSE-60 is not available at big boxes. They are only available at stores who function as local Stihl dealers. Presumably, this makes customer service a more personal experience and does a positive service to those smaller hardware stores trying to survive the big box onslaught. In any case, I bought mine a year ago in Kearny, NJ.
The balance is a bit weird. In your hands it has a bias to the rear, which is helpful, but necessary because it is powerful. VERY powerful. It uses a two-string configuration, and it's a bump-feed. I found it to be efficient and effective. I may have only bumped it twice during a day's use, whereas the Black and Decker it replaced was more bump than trim. It's heavy, but not so heavy as to make it a terrible chore. It's solid and quiet for a trimmer. Cleaning is easy after use as well. I suppose in comparison to the old B&D I had it's superior, but I don't do enough yard work to say definitively that it's the best. I like it a lot, and I'm glad I bought it from a local dealer.
-- Christopher Wanko
Stihl FSE 60 Electric Trimmer
$130
Available from and manufactured by Stihl
bbc_doctor_who)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/art
We can confirm that Matt Smith will be part of the relay team carrying the iconic Olympic Torch during its journey from the Temple of Hera to London’s Olympic Stadium.
nichegeek)
uncommonbiz)
http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com/201
Holy cow alert - From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping
We've covered all kinds fo business ideas - from strange (like making money by suggesting domains for other people) to outright bizzare (Shoot Your Loved One). Lately, we've been covering a lot of 'regular' startups - from very promising looking JetRadar.com, to the rising star of corporate social intranets Bitrix24.com
But since reading, writing and sharing about highly unusual business ideas is a never-dying passion for us, we are more than happy to pass the news about Odd Jobs: How to Have Fun and Make Money in a Bad Economy , a really cool book written by Abigail R. Gehring that got thumbs up from Seth Godin himself.
Abigail is isn't your regular business book author. Rather she is the editor of Back to Basics (an Amazon.Com best seller), Homesteading, and Self-Sufficiency, and author of Odd Jobs and Dangerous Jobs. She’s practiced living self-sufficiently since her childhood in Vermont, being home-schooled, home-canning jams and jellies, and enjoying natural crafts.
So this book isn't about getting rich, but rather about how to make decent income and have fun during this challenging economic environment (which frequently involves having muliple side gigs). I don't think the book is available in libraries yet, so grab your Kindle and get reading!
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How’s That For A Crazy Business Idea (Salvador Dali Watch)?
Bootstrapping 101: Tips to Build Your business with Limited Cash and Free Outside Help
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Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You
lj stuff
about me
But first ...
Food for the Poor
Jack the Bike Man - Bikes for Kids!
Boca Helping Hands
Danny's Angels - a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Light-The-Night Team - My donation page
Campaign for Burma
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Facebook
I'm not a geek, but I play one on TV. Actually I am a nerd and a geek-groupie. I don't always get things done but I do solve problems. I'm good in a crisis. Day-to-day stuff wears me the hell out. I do a little bit of almost everything.
My mission in life is to help people feel things clearly, to learn and grow, to experience as much as possible, and to take my experiences with me to the next adventure.
So ... tell me about the God of your understanding.
Spring Dew
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http://www.nichegeek.com/how_one_man_lau
Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off Youread more