It’s common wisdom that missing a workout session makes it harder to get back to it the next day, but the New York Times points out that it’s not as cut-and-dry as simple motivation. A number of other factors show how important consistency is when sticking to a workout. More »
It seems like common sense that if you want to lose weight and be healthy, running is a quicker way to get there than walking. However, as the New York Timespoints out, in some cases, walkingprovides a lot of the same benefits without the difficulty. More »
David Pogue is a technology writer at the New York Times. He has also written several of the ‘Dummies guide to’ books about technology. So, it can be reasonably said that he knows a thing or two about technology. In this TED presentation, he starts out by making a very good point. The only way More Info »
Google’s ambitious Glass display is still a ways off from its public release, but it looks like those newly-minted Glass Explorers now have something else to do besides taking first-person photos. The New York Times just pulled back the curtain on its own Glass-friendly app today, which makes it the first installable third-party app available for the ambitious headset (Path was technically the first third-party app, but it’s preloaded on early versions of the device).
It’s no surprise to see the GreyLady embrace Glass so enthusiastically — Google developer advocate Timothy Jordan first showed off an earlyversion of the New York Times Glass app at SXSW 2013 in Austin (you can see his full talk here), which pipes new news and headlines to the head-mounted display at regular intervals. Navigating through that stream of news seemed easy enough: a quick tilt of the head would allow the user to sift through photos and full articles as well. Setting up the app seems easy enough (clicking on the link above asks for access to your Google account), and after firing up the app Glass will occasionally chime in to read headlines into your ear.
This is a developing story, please refresh for updates…
When journalist Clive Thompson tweeted that he was “kind of slow” in terms of productivity, I had serious doubts. For a writer with so much on his plate (including gigs at Wired and The New York Times Magazine, as well as a book coming out this fall), he must have a few tricks up his sleeve, right? More »
Y Combinator grad ReelSurfer is an instant video editor, born out of its founders frustration of trying to find clips, quotes and scenes from their favorite movies on YouTube and other video sites. The process is probably familiar to you: Search for clip, don’t find it; if you do find it, it’s part of a larger clip, so you have to download, convert and clip the video yourself.
So, ReelSurfer developed the tools to let you clip any video from any website and share it with your “homies” and “homedawgs” over the Facebooks, Twitters and more. Or at least that’s the eventual goal. In truth, ReelSurfer’s design has been less-than-perfect and it hasn’t really allowed you to clip any video. Yes, YouTube has a lot of videos. Like a lot. But that’s not the only media player out there.
Today, ReelSurfer has officially unveiled a redesigned interface, which looks a whole helluva lot better and makes it easier to navigate and makes its URL search box even more prominent — as it should be.
The new interface still enables users to make video mashups or reels of multiple videos and link back to the source so that viewers can check out the full clip if they so choose. However, the new interface does allow for improved search and video discovery, so that users have a better chance to see if the clip they want to make has already been clippity-clipped by someone else. Time saving, my friends, time saving.
Yet, the biggest addition would have to be that ReelSurfer the now allows users to use its bookmarklet to clip videos from both Brightcove and Ooyala, in addition to YouTube and Vimeo. Who cares? Well, that means you can now clip and share videos from ESPN (which uses Ooyala to power its billion-plus video streams) and The New York Times, which uses BrightCove. [You can see the full list of supported sites/mediaplayers here.]
Since it’s been a little while since we’ve heard anything from ReelSurfer, the startup also pulled back the curtain a little bit to give some examples of who is using its service and how. TedXTeen, PopSugar are using it to create and share viral, social media-friendly clips, along with The Counting Crows(!) and Reuters. More on the latter here.
Good contracts make for good relationships. It doesn’t matter if you and your new business associate are the closest of friends, mere acquaintances or siblings. Yes, even siblings would be wise to ensure they’re covered, should anything go awry.
I urge every person considering entrepreneurship to resist putting personal relationships or financial well-being in jeopardy by failing to clearly delineate the terms of agreement in a professionally prepared, legally binding document. It is not a savvy choice to rely upon what has been said, what was written in an email, or even what was casually drawn up between the two of you. These measures to protect yourself may not hold up in court. They sure didn’t for me.
In 2004, I entered into business relationship that I thought was a partnership. My new “partner” and I were going to take the blogosphere by storm with a daily videoblog about Internet culture. (Note: these were the pre-YouTube days, so putting video on the Web was fresh and exciting.)
For nearly two years I acted as a company partner because, well, I thought I was one! Since I was told verbally that I was in a partnership, I acted as a partner in meetings with potential investors, set up the company’s bank account and filed our trademark paperwork. In fact, in order to set up a bank account, we needed a signed contract between company founders specifying the terms of the partnership. I wrote up a quick one-pager, and we both signed it.
The work committment was as expected for the co-founder of a startup. Basically, I had no social life — everything was about making the show and business a success. Newly 23 years old, right out of college and living in New York’s East Village, I declined too many invites to count to events, parties and dance clubs. Some friendships faded over time because I was completely preoccupied with writing show scripts and responding to business emails until the wee hours of the morning. As is typical of the entrepreneurial mindset, I put everything on hold for the good of the company.
At first, the show was an incredible success. In fact, we were so popular we could barely keep up with the media inquiries and find the time to shoot our daily videos. Profiled in The New York Times and on CBS Evening News, among many other outlets, and emailed daily by interested investors and potential collaborators, it seemed clear we were on a rocket ship destined for greatness.
Unfortunately, the skyrocketing success of the business was met with the equally speedy downhill slide of our relationship. The partnership became increasingly rocky as we planned to move the show to California. The move was delayed for months, to the point where I found myself subletting a series of New York apartments as I waited for my partner to feel comfortable.
In the end, he never did.
Finally I was given an ultimatum — stay in NYC or you’re off the show. To my amazement, I realized I was being treated as an employee rather than a partner. Since we had only my quick one-page document for an operating agreement, there was nothing I could legally do.
Moral of the story: no matter how nice the guy or gal you’re going into business with seems, you always need a lawyer. I was naive to believe that talk and a self-created contract would hold up in court. That’s because I never imagined I’d need to go to court — why should I? My partner was a nice guy.
My first entrepreneurial pursuit was chock full of some of the highest highs and lowest lows I’ve ever experienced. Yet even with all the heartbreak of this first endeavor, I’m still at it, reaching for more highs with one significant difference: in the two companies I’ve co-founded since co-creating that first one, I have protected myself by hiring a good attorney. Yes, lawyers can be pricey, but it is money well spent. When everyone knows there is a legally binding document signed before the venture starts, expectations are plain and clear to all parties from the get-go. If not, there might be some funny business or eventual rewriting of history.
Have your legal counsel make certain everyone is on the same page, because believe you me, that’s the only place you want to be.
Amanda Congdon is a California based on-camera personality, new media pioneer and healthy food entrepreneur. She has produced and hosted many web and mobile TV projects; her show, AC on ABC, made Amanda the first video blogger for a major network, ABCNews. She is currently Co-founder and Director of Operations at Vegan Mario’s™ Organic Kitchen.
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.
It’s normal to get burnt out on a job over time. If you haven’t changed positions in any way, you’re bound to get bored and feel like it’s time for a change. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you want to stay at your company, an article by the New York Timessuggests expanding your job description on your own. More »
Most of the documents we send these days are digital, but when it comes to attaching the physical ones together, there’s nothingquite as helpful — and satisfyingly clicky — as a good old-fashioned stapler. The New York Times has whipped up a little ode to the device, in appreciation. And the key to staplers’ survival might lay in eye-catching design. More »
This is a guest post by Dale Stephens, founder of the “UnCollege” movement
At the 2007 EG Conference for youth and young adults, Kevin Kelly told the audience that 10 years ago no-one would have believed the Internet was coming, least of all him.
If someone told us that we would all be connected and have access to literally all of the world’s information, we would have said that it was impossible. What I’m here to say today is that education is being transformed by technology. The future is here, but educators and deans, the ones who hold the gauntlet, are choosing not to believe it.
I run UnCollege, an organization that believes that college isn’t the only path to success. The idea was forged during my time at the Thiel Fellowship program (fellows are given $ 100,000 to forgo college and “make something amazing.”) Of course, many people would disagree with the sentiment that I’ve created something worthwhile. In fact, critics say I’ve created something destructive. Naturally, I disagree.
Why do I believe that college is not the only path to success? It’s the technologies that we’ve grown accustomed to. But the problem is that not everyone is seeing the ramifications of what this access means.
We now live in a “connection economy.” You can access someone just by emailing someone. You can connect to people through social media, and I’ve corresponded with, and have met thought leaders through the Internet. What you’re looking at is, as Seth Godin puts it, “the connection machine.”
I’d argue that the access you get from being connected levels the playing field. Now, you can complete an internship with a Silicon Valley startup, even if you live in the middle of Idaho. Being connected means you get access to people who normally you couldn’t even shake hands with. Now, all you have to do is reach out and you’re in. I’ve gotten backed by the first investor of Facebook, launched a social organization that’s barged its way into the pages of The New York Times and CNN, and have connected with thought leaders I would have never dreamed of speaking with. Why? It’s because the internet connected me to them. 20 years ago, who knows — if I dropped out of college, I may have just ended up smoking pot in my parent’s basement.
Without a college degree, I was able to marshall online resources to avoid that frightening fate. I’d argue that technology has intensified the resources we’ve grown accustomed too so much, that it’d be a huge mistake on your part not to take advantage.
Unlike college, the beautiful thing about these resources is that they’re practically free. Online courses, internships, apprenticeships, apps, videos, and essays now hold not only the latest, but the best education you can get.
If you’d like to completely recreate the college experience for the cost of free, you can just use Massive Online Open Courses (often referred to as “MOOC’s”) to replace lectures. These include Udacity, Khan Academy, and M.I.T Open Course Software. (Here’s a list of the best resources we’ve found. Not only are they free, but you can learn at your own pace. You can’t pause real professors.)
Now, we have connection. Now, we have the resources. What do colleges have? They have an arbitrary credibility marker, and besides that, they very well could be broke. But they aren’t — and it’s because we’re still buying into the big myth. Technology has, and will, change education. When you see people looking up philosophical texts on their iPhones, how can you still say that education is limited to the walls of a college?
Ten years from now, speakers will remark on how far we’ve come, and how surprising this would have seemed a few short years ago. Technology will make education even more accessible and more reliable than it has today. The real question is, when will the educators in charge finally start to believe that?
Dale Stephens is the founder of UnCollege.org, author of Hacking Your Education to be published on March 5th from Penguin, and a 2011ThielFellow.
