I received my wedding band, studded with diamonds throughout the center (bling-bling), from my fiancee this Christmas. Our wedding is not until late June, but I’m wearing it already.

Other mentionables included some Home Depot gift certificates, a Craftsman Compound Miter Saw w/ laser, a stud finder and laser leveler and some various clothing and fruit basket items. It was a great Christmas and I finally recharged my batteries after a long/grueling couple months of hard work on a new product launch.

Happy holidays!

Provisional application for patent. A low-cost option to allow you to later make a claim to a specific invention or technology before incurring the thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars in non-provisional patent filing.

During my research, I stumbled across this option for businesses to protect their intellectual property while they explore the commercial viability of their invention. I have been polling other software companies about software licensing and protecting software. During our discussions, several asked me about patents and had thought about patenting some of their technologies. I know Tim O’ Reilly doesn’t endorse it, but sometimes you have to protect yourself and your inventions even if only to make sure you can secure the resources to actually provide a service or utility that can benefit others. As such, here is the information I dug up and my experience with provisional application for patents.

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“Success comes from you, not to you.”

I really liked this phrase and it pretty much sums what what a lot of people advise students, young entrepreneurs and all sorts of folks. Earlier this year I was asked to speak to a group of top students from schools around the state at Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Seminars (HOBY). The topic was success and I sat on a panel with some impressive businesspeople. We all shared our stories and some tidbits of advice with the students.

In hindsight, I could’ve likely recited this phrase that I saw recently while driving down Reserve Street in Missoula, Montana. Many businesses, chiropractors and churches put catchy little slogans on their boards to promote thought - it must’ve worked. Enjoy!

Having worked in the wireless industry for some time, it’s always amazed me by how painful and expensive a process it is to change plans and features for your mobile phone service. There is a lot of missed revenue on the table and some that just doesn’t see a profit because of the way it was turned on. Here’s an example, you have a new customer activation that does not include SMS (text messaging). This customer later has a friend trying to text them, but can’t get through. They then decide they want this service. Now, this service may bring in anywhere from $36/year to $1200 a year, but more likely it’s going to be on the lower end until the customer gets into it. So, why use an expensive call center transaction or even more expensive an in-store transaction when the phones themselves have the capability to perform these transactions. Why doesn’t the customer just receive that text message, but for them to read it, require them to sign up for a SMS plan. They could do this all from responding to text messages on their mobile phone, or accessing a secure web site. Want to upgrade your minute plan? Simple, just send a text to “upgrade” and follow the prompts.

Paris and Nikki couldn’t wait to open their stockings so we let them have one toy each. They fought over the Monkey for a while so we hooked them up with a sheep as well - after all this is Montana!

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Jamie’s dad, Joe, helped prep the bathroom and ripped up the carpet while I wrapped up the kitchen.

Okay I lied, it will take me two more days to finish and not one. I installed a new floor and baseboard and patched wallboard just to make everything in tip-top shape. As such, I need to return for one more half-day and touch up paint, plus install a new wax seal in the tank portion of the toilet.

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Jamie, my bride-to-be, and her new sister-in-law while we were in Cozumel, Mexico this June. I figured most my posts lately were textual so I should publish some more pictures. Given the hurricanes this year, the resort we stayed at is now partially “wiped out”. So consider this post my homage to Iberostar, Cozumel.

This is a hilarious version of the poem, jingle, whatever you want to call it. I didn’t see any copyright and it’s been passed around emails worldwide so I thought I’d publish.

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As my Missoula home project in ongoing, I have made more headway with my house in Stevensville. I bought the home for a friend who was moving back from California, with the option to buy. He and his wife’s business interests moved towards Missoula so they bought in Lolo, MT. As such, I’m wrapping up my remodel of that place and will be selling it.

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It’s rather coincidental that I just received an email thread from some friends of mine, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. They were riled up over a commencement speech by Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, to the gradudating class at Stanford University. The whole premise of his speech is do what you love. About ten (10) years ago, I had a similar epiphany and since then, I have trusted my “gut” with every decision. I often reflect on some of my decisions and it’s further evidence to just keep trusting.

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I thought I would share a photo of Missoula. The snow blankets the valley and I just thought it looked amazing and hey, why not share with others. Enjoy!

Need I say more - my kittens have it good, and they also keep me sane. Awwww!

Well fellas, the ladies have spoken and it looks like for a company primary logo, the orange is preferred (even by me) given it stands out and is more exciting. Other products/services can leverage the various colors, and I’ve already received requests from some girls for Goomzee merchandise, in purple.

So, given these responses, I’m publishing the above graphic “Goomzee powered” which I will likely have made into some t-shirts, etc. I welcome any/all feedback and this week, I will transfer my files to a professional designer to “vectorize” the logo and also play around with a few more color options. On that note, if you’re looking for a great graphic, flash and logo resource, look no further than my buddy Travis Booher - Moto1Design.com.

Enjoy!

http://www.montanalife.com/darin/my_insight/archives/000035.html

My buddy Darin posted an article with his thoughts about the intentions of Google’s Wi-Fi. I have a theory, and it doesn’t have anything to do with leveraging their site as a launch page for Internet users, or to gain more intelligence about their search algorithm, it is to lay the infrastructure for a software revolution and beat companies like Microsoft at their own game.

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Like any of these? Goomzee is going to re-brand, re-invent and re-volutionize (ha ha) here after the first of the year. Our new logo will likely look like the following, supporting various colors for different products - which color should be our main logo?

Enjoy and feel free to send in your comments. For the people, by the people and of the people - that’s the way the Internet is going and Goomzee as well.

I just wanted to take a moment to wish you all happy holidays this season.

You know when you consider buying a certain model of car, you begin to see that model everywhere? I recently experienced that same phenomenon, yet with a recent Internet buzz word, Ajax. A business associate of mine asked me to speak to emerging trends, specifically Ajax, and it had me stumped at first. Ajax stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.

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No Travis, the lights aren’t burned out - you just keep missing our “show.” But, just to be nice I thought I would share with the world a couple photos of the snowfall this evening, and our festive Christmas display. If you know me at all, you’ll know that this is huge - I’d normally hang an ornament on a coathanger and calll it good - j/k. - Enjoy.

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