Category: Apprentice VC

Tools

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Will leave this right here:

I posted this page yesterday which I will keep updating as I go. Nothing groundbreaking but figured this was easier than banging out an email each time someone asked about Singapore. 

http://www.nokpis.com/singapore-101/

Carrying on. 

What a glorious time to be in the tech biz when it comes to all the tools being made for tech. I will leave on the table for a future post another subject to cover which is all the tools made for non tech and the investment opportunities that will provide.

I tend to break things down into speciality tools (like sketch for example), white collar tools (slack, office) and blue collar tools (stacck).

The white collar tool space is on fire and it is amazing to see old stalwarts like Microsoft make a comeback. Personally have always loved office and the iOS office stack is pretty killer. Makes Google docs look like toys for the most part. One of the crummy aspects of going iPad Pro only as been how lame Google docs is on iOS. Now with Microsoft shipping teams, I am curious to play with it and see how it goes.

Link on FB about all the troubles people are having trying to used teams :: https://www.facebook.com/dsobeski/posts/10157747558430008

As to Slack. I am a fan and have been using it for the past three companies, but honestly it is feeling stale since not much has changed with it over the last year or so. I think they should have moved faster to deal with docs better since no matter how deep I am into slack I still have to find another tool for documents. And for me that default is office. I think Microsoft knows the score here. Slack should have used their cash to buy their way out of this problem. Or innovated. Now I am tempted to check out teams since I already use office.

Google. Well. Not a fan anyway but docs works and is great for collaboration but again it is so stale. Not much innovation and the mobile side of it generally sucks. I would dump it in a heartbeat.

There are other tools I have tried but I just don’t stick with them. Asana is one of those. I give it a whirl each time but it’s just overkill and I usually drop it.

Trello seems to be a winner and I should probably get better at using it. 

Facebook for work I have not tried and I probably won’t. I get it and I can see they have put some work into it but Facebook doesn’t care about the enterprise. Which means this is not a focus for them and I doubt it ever will be.

Personally I have used for a long time and will keep using Evernote but I don’t do the group stuff with it. It’s just my personal brain and I like it that way.

I am sure I have missed some other stuff. However I generally find that email is still a killer app and under utilitized. I think AI is going to make email even more powerful and people will realize that everything as chat is not the answer.

Use the comments to obviously prove me wrong. 😉

Still on the fence…

~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments

Another :: http://www.asymco.com/2016/11/02/wherefore-art-thou-macintosh/

More :: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/11/01/bjarnason-macbook-pros 

Have to admit – this is a good read :: https://chuqui.com/2016/10/how-apple-could-have-avoided-much-of-the-controversy/

Day to day I use an iPad Pro with the apple keyboard. When I was in the market for a new machine about 6 months ago, I figured the best hardware out there was the iPad Pro. I love the battery life, the true tone display and the always on Internet. Notice I picked the best hardware since I feel that is what you buy – the latest hardware. I figured I could get by with iOS for most of my day to day work.

There are times when this is painful. Crappy websites that don’t handle mobile browsers well, some aspects of file management and Google docs. Google docs tends to just suck on iOS apps and I bounce between iOS and the web version from time to time to accomplish certain tasks. 

However I generally like the ease of carrying around something so small that is always connected. I use it for note taking, reading and just getting shit done. It could be better but I get by.

I was assuming that as soon as apple announced their latest macbook that I would grab it. Now I am not so sure, but there in lies the issue. Apple is introducing doubt among their most ardent fans. I am waiting for the real life reviews to come and to go play with one before I decide. I would like to have a machine at work with a monitor and keyboard and the macbook pro will probably be great for that. 

I would have loved for apple to delighted me so much that I was ready to buy the moment I could. That didn’t happen and apple should see this as a canary in the coal mine.

I also may look for a killer chromebook and force myself to try that world as well since I think it is a glimpse into what the future may look like. For sure I won’t entertain anything from Microsoft cause honestly I think windows still sucks. I spent about an hour the other day making a printer work on windows that just magically works on iOS and MacOS. Microsoft is making some killer hardware and they are getting better at their craft but let’s face it, Windows still sucks hard. No thanks.

I think this post captures my feelings pretty well :: http://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/10/27/new-macbook-pros-and-the-state-of-the-mac/

Adding this link for another opinion on the matter :: http://macdaddy.io/apples-new-macbook-pros/

Nice article about Taembe from Vietnam

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I mostly go on and on about Singapore but Don from Taembe sent me this today. I thought I would share.

http://vietcetera.com/babies-everywhere-how-taembe-plans-to-expand-as-vietnam-grows-up/

When I first started working for Yahoo, I would spend a lot of time in Vietnam. Yahoo used to be the King of online in Vietnam. Everyone was on messenger, everyone used Yahoo mail and Yahoo 360 was the social network for Vietnam. It was fun doing business in Vietnam carrying a Yahoo biz card. 

Even saved my ass once at immigration.

I was going to HCM to speak at a government conference and I changed my flight to one day earlier than I had first booked. When I arrived I realized my visa date was for entry the next day. The immigration folks were basically saying I could fly back or hang in the airport till the next morning. Neither sounded like a great option. As we kept chatting they asked what was I doing in Vietnam and I showed them my Yahoo biz card. Boom. In like flynn.

Those were good years.

The world has changed and Yahoo is meaningless now.

Interesting to see the new breed of internet companies and I am watching to see if the started in Vietnam companies can start to take on the region and greater Asia. Time will tell.

Enjoy the weekend.

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

The Thiel stuff just rubs me the wrong way. I won’t lie.

http://www.nokpis.com/2016/10/18/y-combinator-and-peter-thiel/

I will leave the thread at that with my last addition from Dan Primack.

I will then remind folks of this post, since the world just need more “E” :: http://www.nokpis.com/2016/10/17/empathy/

A friend shared this link about Sesame Street and Empathy. It’s awesome :: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/10/17/497827991/a-sesame-study-in-kindness

Makes me freak out a bit about raising kids. It is not about just having polite kids but having kids who generally care and who want to help others. I see as my kids grow they easily can remain polite but yet not helpful or caring. 

Empathy. Spread it around. It’s good for everyone.