Jordan Has a Blog

What is Google Wave?

Jordan — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:21:44 +0000

I can’t tell you how many people have asked me this over the last couple of months. So for many people I simply say that I’ll give them an invite and they can figure it out themselves. Unfortunately I still end up getting this question:

I don’t actually think Google Wave is worthless, it’s just the fact that no one has found any practical use that allows everyone to see the value in it.

This guy’s life sucks…

Jordan — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:54:08 +0000

Seriously though, he does Lotus Notes support for my current employer. Lotus Notes is the worst piece of shiz I’ve ever used in my life. The application has it’s own executable which is unofficially recommended by all IBMers that I have talked to which kills all processes that have loaded the notes DLLs. There have been coworkers that have attempted to pay the Help Desk to give them Outlook back and they had to assure the Help Desk that they weren’t joking. I cannot wait for the day that I never have to use this joke of a product again.

Anyone else who absolutely hates Lotus Notes, please check out I Hate Lotus Notes where you can vent your frustrations and even buy a T-Shirt to show your anti-support.

Youth Entrepreneurs of Syracuse Conference

Jordan — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:50:54 +0000

I startled myself this afternoon. I realized as I was pulling into my parent’s driveway that I hadn’t listened to the radio on the entire ride home from the YES Conference. The whole drive I simply thought about what I had just experienced.

I went on the YES Conference Facebook group page last night to see what type of activity and discussion there was about the event. To my surprise there was only 23 people in the group, and a mere 4 comments on the wall. I then started doing Twitter searches with every combination of search words imaginable to see if people were having any discussion about the event on Twitter. Of course I found nothing again.

So I arrive at the conference today with no idea what to expect. Walking in I realize there were only around 100 people there, 98% of which are high school students. This event was “advertised” for 12-25 year old aspiring entrepreneurs, and only 2% were 19 or older. On top of that, there were only 2 students from Syracuse University actually attending the event, and Syracuse University was the one putting on the conference in the first place. That’s not to say there weren’t Students from the Whitman School of Management helping, but I found it very odd that during the keynote speaker these students who are getting “Entrepreneurship” degrees (whatever the hell that even means) weren’t even interested to hear the story of a successful entrepreneur and simply hung out in the common area.

They kicked off the conference by showing Shark Tank (if you like Shark Tank, and I really hope you don’t, please watch This Week in Startups instead because Shark Tank is reality TV and isn’t how things work) and during intermissions they had a fantastic DJ blasting beats forcing you to scream during every conversation which made networking extra easy.

Very disappointing conference, with little to show of what comes out of the EEE program at Syracuse University. As I’ve heard many people mention, there are only 2 companies in the last 9 years that are even doing anything right now who came out of the Universities Entrepreneur program. Not the best track record considering how many come out of the program in the first place. However, there was some good that came out of the day. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the smartest young guys who are very motivated and I have no doubt are going to kill it one day. I wish I knew as much as these guys do now back when I was in high school. It’s just very unfortunate that they will most likely be successful anywhere but Syracuse. It’s just lost opportunities like these that make Syracuse the dying city it is.

What I do at work all day

Jordan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:45:24 +0000

A lot of people ask me what I do at work all day. I usually explain to them that I’m a programmer so I do a lot of computer stuff, really high tech things they just wouldn’t understand. They usually start praising me about how smart I am and how they wish they were me and this and that, you know the deal. But I decided to finally post something that I can refer people to every time I get the question. So here it is, what I do all day at work…

Illegal Streaming

Jordan — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:46:05 +0000

I was faced with a problem this Sunday, like many football fans usually are, of not being able to watch the game that I really care about. Rather, I have to watch what the CBS and Fox stations in my area decide are the games that appeal to the general mass of viewers. The thing I find crazy is the fact that the NFL fails to please their entire viewership by not leveraging the Internet when it comes to sports. But when it comes to television shows, the broadcasting companies are finally understanding how to please people. Look at the success there has been with streaming shows directly from the broadcaster’s websites, streaming the shows right from Hulu, and all the other means of show streaming that are legal now. Why haven’t more content providers done this for sports? I know ESPN has ESPN360, but this doesn’t provide every game that ESPN plays on television, and it is also only available for people using an ISP that has signed up for it. So ESPN is ALMOST there but not quite. As I sit here watching one football game that is being streamed illegally on Justin.tv, and watching another one simultaneously on television, I realized I’m exposed to twice as many advertisements. The illegal stream is doing more good for the broadcasting company than bad. I find it crazy that the NFL wouldn’t cut a deal with Fox and CBS to allow the games to be streamed legally. I’m not the most business savvy person by any means, but I feel like less than 1% of NFL fans will buy an NFL package from their cable provider that allows them to watch any game they want, while over 30% (if not more) would watch a game streaming legally on cbs.com. Since it’s all about money (although it should be about caring about the fans that really make the NFL the sport it is) you tell me which deal would make the NFL more money? I know there are many aspects of the business I’m completely ignorant to, and there are probably plenty of reasons why this isn’t possible, but considering it’s 2009 and they are losing money from illegal streaming, they might as well make everyone happy and make some money at the same time. I’m going to get back to watching my illegal stream, where everyone is benefiting BUT the NFL.

My Final Undergrad Presentation

Jordan — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:35:10 +0000

Computer Science Professional Ethics and Communications, the one class that stood between me and my undergraduate degree in Computer Science. We were given quite possibly the hardest task we had ever seen in our 4 years as Computer Science majors. The assignment was to make a presentation that would entertain our classmates which consisted of the nerdiest 30 people you will ever meet in your life (myself included). It’s basically a room full of guys that resemble College Humor’s impression of a Best Buy manager. But our professor wasn’t going to throw us in the lion’s den with no weapons. He gave us some fine pointers on how such a daunting task could be completed successfully. He showed us how Van Halen rocked it in their video for ‘Dreams’. WOW, how could we not make a great presentation after seeing that? But it didn’t stop there, we were shown Steve Ballmer’s enthusiasm at a Microsoft keynote. He even went as far as to show us how to entertain a crowd with a funny bit like the ‘Who’s on First’ skit. At this point, how could we make a presentation anything less than genius? So my good friend Conrad Weykamp and myself set out to make the best video anyone has ever seen…and we failed miserably. Luckily there was enough footage to throw a video together and show we at least tried! So here it is for the first time on the blog. Just a side note, my face looks gross in the first scene, which is definitely not due to the lack of sun from sitting in my man cave and programming all winter. Nor would my double chin brought on by Landshark and Bud Light Lime beer drinking have anything to due with it either. I blame that on our terrible director and producer Chris Pusateri who was barely up to the task of filming the video in a day and then putting it all together in 2 days with an 8 minute time restriction (What a bitch right? And for those that can’t pick up on the sarcasm, Chris was an absolute champion and was the only reason we finished this video on time, or had any chance in hell of making it happen in the first palce). So for your viewing pleasure, Conrad and Jordan’s Excellent Adventure. OH! One last thing, the presentation had to be about our proposal for a contest to the FAA for a more efficient and environmental friendly method of removing snow and ice off airport runways (which we won).

We should get a picture of the dude and his father…

Jordan — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:57:49 +0000

So without understanding the full story, these images are just incredibly creepy…OK they are a little creepy even with the story, but I have come to accept that. The story goes something like this. My roommates in college had been huge Binghamton Bearcats basketball fans since freshman year. I don’t think they missed a single home games our entire 4 years at school. I however, being a Syracuse native, thought the Bearcats were a joke. A team who has never been national champions, let alone gone dancing during March Madness is the last team I wanted to root for. That all changed my senior year when I was finally convinced to go to one game. The experience was amazing. I remember saying, “Wait, that’s the one the player that got arrested for stealing condoms at Walmart? AND they were Magnums?! Wow this feels just like a Syracuse game.” I instantly got Bearcat fever. So flash forward a couple months to the America East tournament being held in Albany. We of course had to attend this to show our support for our Bearcats. We had been considering many ways to get in the heads of the opposing players, and I had come up with a genius idea. I explained that we should scour the internets for a picture of one of the opposing teams star players posing with his father, blow this picture up to a life size poster, cut a hole out where the fathers head is, and put our faces into the poster. Now if anyone can explain to me how this isn’t the greatest idea ever, please leave a comment. Well the roommates didn’t think this was a good idea at all. They actually thought it was one of the dumbest things they had ever heard, and I heard it plenty. For the rest of the year whenever anyone had an idea, someone would pipe in, “and then we should get a picture of the dude and his father….” Well for the remainder of the semester, when the opportunity was there I ventured into my roommates room to find pictures of them and their fathers/grandfathers. So guys, I hope when you’re taking your big important lawyery tests at law school, or making the next great Pixar movie, you have this image stuck in your head and you realize what it could of done to our opponents during the America East Tournament.

–UPDATE–
Here is a video from when we first arrived at the tournament that I took on my iPhone where we actually discuss the idea (fast forward to the point where there is 2:35 left in the video to skip the meaningless convo in the beginning):

Chris Before:

Chris After:

Randy Before:

Randy After:

Dan Before:

Dan After:

I love you guys, don’t be too mad

X-Men Origins A Success Despite Piracy

Jordan — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:44:53 +0000

The X-Men Origins movie destroyed the box office making $87 million this past weekend. I feel like this has a lot to say about how people feel about the movies experience. Despite the fact that this got leaked and plenty of people saw the movie prior to release, and the fact that it’s received terrible reviews, people will still dish out the money to see it. We’re in an economy crisis and many are still willing to drive to the movie theaters and spend $15 per ticket to see something they can get for free. I personally would rather go see 17 Again or Hannah Montana The Movie but if those were sold out, as they should be, I suppose I would go check out X-Men Origins on the big screen.

It goes to show that there’s something to be said about the experience of going to the movies, even when the movie to be seen gets terrible reviews and could be seen for free, it’s the experience people pay for. Watching live music is an unique experience, which is why people will pay upwards of $150 for a ticket. Same with going to the movies. However, listening to music or just watching a movie on a TV is something we get for free all the time, which is why many are very hesitant to pay money to do either.

No one wants to pay anything for a song that they just heard 5 times within the last hour on the radio for free. The record industry and movie industry need to realize the game is changing, and in order to keep up they are going to have to change their ways of doing things. It’s a sad fact but any movie out on DVD I can get for free in 5 minutes. Despite this, I wouldn’t ever pay $10 for the actual DVD, even if I couldn’t get it for free. I don’t feel I get enough for that $10.

Instead of fighting against the people who do get it for free, why not offer more to the package to give the customer a different experience than they are generally used to. Give more than just the movie and some extra bonus clips that no one even cares to see. When I see a DVD with an alternate ending I don’t look at this as added value, I look at it as the ending that wasn’t good enough for theaters, so why would I want to see it.

Nine Inch Nails has experimented with a similar idea where they gave more content for those who paid more, and the results were quite positive. It’s sad that more people in the industries haven’t adapted a similar model. Maybe the results of X-Men Origins will show them that they need to stop wasting their time fighting piracy and put more time into making me want to spend my money on something with real value.

Make It Viral

Jordan — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:21:35 +0000

Wow, this is some awesome viral marketing. A video response to the “Jizz In My Pants” song by The Lonely Island called “Puke In My Mouth.” This is advertising a fake engagement ring that ladies can wear in order to keep creepers away. This is going after an incredibly small market so making a video like this is almost necessary to make some noise and get the word out about a product. I think traditional advertising is worthless when there is such a small market for your product. I guarantee this video will have over one million views by the end of May. These people probably got a better response than paying for ad space somewhere, and it cost them nothing. Well done.

A Great Money Saving Tip

Jordan — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:11:42 +0000

Here is a great money saving tip by yours truly. Watch and learn!