Al Bsharah Business Minded, Technically Inclined

Nothing to See Here… #4

N
Nothing To See Here
Nothing To See Here!

For the second time in a row, a “Nothing to See Here” episode is being written during what many in San Diego would consider a tropical storm.  Really, it’s just a good rain and some wind.  We silly San Diegans…

  1. A very cool mockup-tool has been released that allows you to quickly create drawings of websites or applications without using pen and paper.  Have a look at Balsamiq’s Mockup, it runs on Adobe Air so it’s plaform independant.
  2. Check out the new Palm Pre smartphone.  Will it finally be the one that makes people think twice about the iPhone?  It sure looks slick in the video, but that’s likely a rendering and not the real application.  Time will tell…
  3. Sirius and XM Radio, who you may remember merged to form a monopoly (odd, ‘eh?) last year, are possibly filing for bankruptcy this week.  Too bad, I know a lot of satellite radio people who couldn’t live without it.  I’m not a subscriber myself, but can appreciate the benefits!
  4. Have you seen Bill Gates’ speech at the TED Conference?  I think this man is going to change the world, yet again, in another completely different arena.  Amazing.
  5. I’ve blogged a couple times about the upcoming potential U.S. CTO Position.  CIO Magazine has an update on some of the changes that might be happening to the organizational chart.
  6. Sierra Nevada Brewing Company to make FUEL?  What?  I love this.  The brewery is taking it’s leftover beer yeast waste and turning it into Bio-Fuel.  Beautiful Beer.
  7. A cool new browser-based app, ScreenToaster, allows you to record your screen and distribute the video via the web.
  8. If you’re like me, having your browser Favorites synchronized across all of your computers (home, work, laptops, etc) is a must.  There are plenty of on-line bookmarking sites, but I tend to prefer to have them locally on my machine.  Foxmarks now allows this synchronization across Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.  Your links are also available via the web.  Make a change to one computer, it updates the others.  I’m a happy guy!

Image Courtesy: SouthPark

About the author

Al Bsharah

Al is the Managing Partner at Interlock Capital, a community-driven startup fund that allows seasoned or aspiring angel investors to get into amazing companies within their own budget. Al’s been involved in multiple San Diego startups since 1999 after leaving the Detroit auto industry as an electrical engineer. He's started two of his own companies where he's raised capital from both VCs and angels, and sold one of them to both Seismic and Return Path. He's graduated both Techstars and Founder Institute accelerator programs where he now mentors. In his free time he manages to play a little beach volleyball, invest in startups, trade stocks, and camp with his wife, son, dog, and friends.

By Al Bsharah
Al Bsharah Business Minded, Technically Inclined