Monthly Archives: July 2008

I Am a Techstars Non-Selectee – What I learned

Posted by on July 22, 2008 No comments

So I was writing my story about my Techstars attempt and I realized that nobody really cared about all the details so I deleted it. If you are interested in my story (which is cool to me but probably few others) buy me a beer and I’ll tell you.

I was non-selected in the first round of non-selections so I don’t want to say that I am awesome in any way other than the ways that I actually am awesome (such as playing kickball and drinking beer). Anyway, here is what I learned from my experience:

  • Once you have your idea, start working on it!
    For some reason when I first learned of Techstars I thought it was some sort of competition to start from scratch to create a company in 3 months. Turns out I was wrong and I should have had about 9 months of work under my belt before I applied. This caused Chris and I (my co-founder) to work non-stop for 3 weeks trying to create a prototype. That didn’t work. We were able to get some cool stuff done but even what we had didn’t show how we were going to solve a problem which leads to my next point.
  • Create something that shows your understanding of the problem and how to solve it
    Instead of trying to create something that is the latest and greatest, create something that will solve the problem. Yes, new technology is cool but it isn’t always the best way to tackle a problem. Try to create a balance between what is cool and what works. Some of my favorite sites aren’t that flashy or cool but do exactly what I want them to do (ex. http://www.tadalist.com/)
  • Be proactive
    I knew they would open up the application process until around the end of January so I checked the site daily so I could get the application and make it awesome. When applications were opened up I downloaded it but then took 3 weeks to fill it out and I only turned it in then because there was a deadline for Techstars For A Day. I should have focused on it for the first couple of days then sent it off and got back to work on my prototype. You can always update your application so get it in and get back to work.
  • Committment
    Going into this I thought I would be able to keep my day job and attend sessions when I could. After following many of the current Techstars on Twitter I realized that it simply wouldn’t work. There are so many valuable sessions going on that I would have needed to skip a ton of work to get the most out of the program.  Obviously I am not in the program but my lack of committment before it even started may have killed my chances before I started.

 Again, I am in no way affiliated with Techstars or even close with anyone who is but this is my outsider perspective.

Change owner of stored procedure SQL Server

Posted by on July 15, 2008 3 comments

Now I am not a DBA by any means but I like to think that I am a pretty damn good Googler but it took me going to the second page of results to find out how to change the owner of a stored procedure.

A lot of posts pointed to this Microsoft article on changing the owner of MANY objects but I only wanted to change ONE.

This post is mostly for me but here is the solution:

sp_changeobjectowner ‘objectName’, ‘newObjectOwner’

It’s that simple. Now kick yourself in the ass for wasting so much time.

Smart People Stammer

Posted by on July 1, 2008 No comments

I got a crappy sweet joke-of-the-day calendar for Christmas from CB last year and occasionally there is a real gem in there.

“Stammering is different than stuttering. Stutterers have trouble with the letters, while stammerers trip over entire parts of a sentence. We stammerers generally think of ourselves as very bright. My own private theory is that stammerers have so many ideas swirling around their brains at once that they can’t get them all out, though I haven’t found any scientific evidence to back that up.”
- Bob Newhart

Yeah, I know, he is a comedian trying to be funny but that is exactly how I feel most of the time. My sentences come out all jumbled up because my brain is moving faster than my fat tongue can go.

Give stammerers a break, they are smarter than you are.