Dear Friends-

I feel both excited and regretful to announce that this website will go down and stay offline as of the end of March, 2010.

Blake and I founded this website to try a few different things, but with two main goals:

First, we wanted to see if we could build a community around helping new entrepreneurs make a go of it, and helping experienced entrepreneurs refine their skills. Second, we wanted to see if we could fund this venture through AdSense earnings.

We knew from the start that most websites and blogs do not see meteoric growth, and never become BoingBoing, or Gizmodo, or Make Magazine. We also knew that other projects would compete for our time and attention.

This experiment didn't quite go where we hoped, but I know that Blake and I learned many valuable things from this project, and we will carry those skills on to new projects. I hope that our friends who have contributed along with us here, Bryant, Eric, and Jeff, feel the same way.

Thank you all for your help on this one. Now this effort must rest so that new ones can spring up in its place. There are already other ventures being pursued, and there will be more down the road.

Sincerely,
Jake Wilcox.

PS - If you have written posts here, they are your property, and I encourage you to find them and make a copy of them for later use.

BlobLive is an interesting idea, where prospective founders talk about and refine ideas.

EMB folks will see shadows of NightCap in this. I dunno, maybe it's time for NightCap to get bigger? With Sponsorships? Hmmmmm...

(Via SpringWise)

Following fairly closely on the heels of this, we have a tesla coil performing the theme song from Dr. Who. I never watched Dr. Who myself, but I enjoyed the song, and the guy dancing in the arcs sure does look like he's having fun doesn't he?

EDIT: looks like both these performances were done by OpenLabs. Their sign is in the background of both vids.

Via: MAKE:

I watch this video, and I can't help but think how effective his business card is. Certainly he'll stand out in a crowd, and if you get his card, you'll definitely remember him. Maybe it's not the card I don't like, maybe this guy just seems way too full of himself.

(via: Woot.com)

Usually my Google Alert for my own name doesn't yield much, other than an up-and-coming high school lacrosse player somewhere in the Eastern states.

Tonight though, Google brought me paydirt. I am now the unwitting star of a trashy novel! Oh, and I'm hunky:

When Amanda Prescott hired sexy ex-Marine Jake Wilcox to head her company's security, the lonely widow began to yearn for the hunky thirty-something to keep her safe and sound--and satisfied in bed. Jake knows the curvy boss lady wants everything he's got--and needs everything he's hot to deliver.

Cue the bow chicka music.

More details on the $2.00, 30 page ebook here (WARNING, NSFW!).

When I was in junior high, I was a Zelda freak. I wasn't a very social kid, so I played Zelda an awful lot.

I used to think it was unrelated, but I also had to do do a science project in the seventh grade. My dad helped me build a table-top-sized Tesla coil as my project.

I remember powering that thing up--the spark gap on it sounded like a small firecracker, and it generated ozone you could smell anywhere in the immediate vicinity. The sides of our giant aluminum foil and glass capacitor crinkled. And then the ominous hum and crackle of the electrode on top of the thing let you know; don't get too close. My dad did the math and estimated the thing's output at ~200KV.

Every now and then I get to hear something that approximates the hum-crackle of my childhood Tesla coil. 16KV power lines that run through the middle of nowhere to the substations to feed small and medium-sized cities hum like that. The first half-second Van Halen's "Jump" has a sound that isn't dissimilar.

That sound makes my heart quicken.

Now, some damned fool has made a tuneable Tesla coil, set it to play the Zelda theme, and thrown in a third, newer love of mine: Mashup. It's Zelda. Mashed with Sexyback. On a frikkin' Tesla coil. I sat on my office chair and cried a little for joy.

Dear Damned Fool- Thank you.

(The embedded video below is great, but do yourself a favor; Click through to the Vimeo website to watch this in high-def, and full screen it. Impressive.)

SexyBack vs. Legend of Zelda Theme on Two Tesla Coils from Trammell on Vimeo.

After thinking about it long and hard, I've decided to share a little treat here.

I learned a lot from that partnership, and that's why today I'm so grateful to work with people like Jeff, Mark, Blake, Bryant, and Eric. Cheers, guys, and enjoy.

Mike-

At long last I'm taking the hint. It's been an uphill battle attempting to do business with you for the last several months.

When I do get in contact with you, and ask you about phone messages that aren't returned, and emails that aren't replied to, and appointments that you make with me and then fail to carry through with, you've apologized, and told me that you're just busy, and you'll do better.

I no longer believe your apologies. If you cared at all, you would keep commitments and maintain contact.

What's frustrating about the situation is that if you were honest with me, we could both move on. If you'd told me that something about the partnership wasn't working for you and you wanted to stop the relationship, I could have saved a lot of time and effort that was wasted on you instead. And, of course, you'd get to keep your integrity.

What has been amazing to me throughout this time is your constant suspicion of me. Your calls (back when you did call) asking if I'd been steering customers away from you, or if I was telling people that I wasn't associated with you were mystifying to me.

I'm saddened by this, Mike, because I really believe that we could have done great things for one another. Your skill in delivering internet service, and my skill in hardware are complementary. A partnership that properly leverages these two strengths could dominate an entire region in technical services. Perhaps it's my fault that as hard as I've tried, I never did get you to catch this vision.

***Bonus for Crystal Alternate Letter to Mike:

Mike. It's over. I just can't stand the thought of pretending that you're not an asshole anymore. Sorry.

Basic math skills are important. If you hire someone to handle your billing, make sure they understand their basic math.

in other words...

DON'T BE VERIZON!

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/19/verizon-doesnt-under.html

This is exactly why I believe that a passing grade in at least 1 year of a personal finance class should be required for graduation from high school.

Oh, and if there's anyone here who doesn't understand the difference between $.002 and ¢.002, I'd like to make an offer on your car.

If you want to call attention to your cause (the good kind!), do this. What an amazing presentation. And it probably cost less than $25.

The Nano Song from nanomonster on Vimeo.

Co-founder of this website and dear friend Blake has two new little girls.

And you can visit Missy's new blog to read all about it! (Uh-oh Missy, now you have an audience! Time to get cracking.)

Girls are wonderful, and they couldn't have picked a better set of parents. Cheers to you.