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entries for 2002/10/15
best compliment ever :)
By the way, I signed up with Cornerhost, which has the advantage of being run by a real person.
-- Adina Levin
cutting ties
About a year ago, Blogger's bandwidth costs were through the roof,
and I offered to host their static files for a few months. I've been
doing it ever since. As much as I like that link to cornerhost on
blogger.com, I think there are cheaper and more effective ways to
get the word out about my business. :) I figure I've spent about $6000 on bandwidth over the past year just for those files.
Besides, I've felt kind of weird about this since I started
working on rantelope. Rantelope probably won't compete head to head with blogger,
but they are both blogging tools. If I'm going to
turn the raw technology into a real application, then I think
the honest thing to do is cut any ties my business has to
blogger.
So. I just emailed Ev and gave him two weeks notice. Anyone
with a server want to pick up the torch?
the year ahead
Every now and then, you've got to do something that scares you. That
is why, somewhere between July 7th and 11th of this year, I will be
delivering a paper on artificial intelligence at Python 11. Never mind that they haven't accepted my paper, that they haven't asked for papers, and that I haven't even written a paper. I've set my mind on it, and it's going to happen.
The technology discussed will be a prototype of the technology
behind my stock trading bot and the virtual reality simulation
I want to build someday. But, since I'm just getting started and I
only have a few months, I will not focus on the stock market
this time around. Instead, I'll focus on a simpler environment for
my artificial creatures: the game of go. Or rather a go tournament.
Actually, go is an incredibly complex game, and a tougher challenge than most traditional AI techniques can handle.
It requires a brain, not a computer. So that'll be fun.
But more on that later. Here are some other goals for the coming year:
- Get my CVS hosting business working and finish rantelope
- Advertise those services around the web and on the soon-to-be revamped linkwatcher.com...
- So I can increase my company's income to $12k/month...
- and retain a law firm.
- I will also establish credit for my business...
- so that with the increased sales, I can buy a small
office building
- and hire another developer (or perhaps a small team of interns)
- not to mention give myself a low-interest loan to consolidate my credit card debt and improve my personal cashflow!
In all that madness, I want to maintain the high quality
of service from my business, while spending less and less time
having to answer email. Overall, my free time should go up, so that:
- I can work on my AI program for a little while each week
- I can finally get the Atlanta socrates cafe group going
- I can spend more time volunteering
- I have time to spend with a girlfriend!
All of this requires me to be a lot more outgoing than
I have been in quite some time. Which will require energy. Which
is another reason to stick to my workout schedule and improve
my fitness. Plus I gotta get slim if I want to fit in the
kayak I'm going to buy. :)
So that's where I'm going. Everything fits together nicely. The
stuff that didn't fit in (like learning languages) got dropped
out the window. Now that I know where I want to be in life, I
need to write out some plans for each project or aspect of my
life, so I know what I'll have to do to make this happen. :)