Developer Options

As a developer myself I’ve always had the feeling that I code create anything.  Some time ago I stopped asking if I could do something and started thinking about what would I like to do.  I’ve always enjoyed playing games and thought that would be a really fun.  With all its popularity I’ve thought seriously about iphone game development. Even though they only sell for a couple of bucks people really enjoy them and download them like crazy.  The problem with me is that I’m not the greatest artist in the world.

I’ve now got years of experience in financial services and had considered working at a company like Bourse Data who makes great financial applications.  As a society we will continue to create more wealth that needs to managed and properly invested.  People that can write software to help manage the trillions of assets that people own will do well.

This is especially true in regards to regulations.  After the recent scandals regulators too will be turning to financial software to help them uncover odd trends and other irregularities.

Despite all the outsourcing to India there is still plenty of room for creative programmers to invent new and exciting software.

Flippa.com

This is a new site from the folks at sitepoint.com.  They have revamped their marketplace section as a new specific site called flippa.com.  The site is completely designed for buying and selling websites.  It has an awesome web 2.0 look and feel.  The navigation is extremely easy to use and user friendly.

They have listings for upcoming auctions, ending soon and completed transactions.

I like this breakdown because sometimes you just need to get a new site quickly and you don’t want to wait around.  By going to ending soon you can get something without waiting a month.

Completed auctions are extremely helpful especially for newer web investors.  They can give you a glimpse of what you could expect to pay for a given website.  Typically people pay between 12 to 36 times current earnings.  The stronger the business model the higher the multiple.

If managed well websites can be an extremely effective investment.  Many sites sell for less than $5,000 and you can keep adding new ones or growing your existing web assets.  If you compare this to starting a franchise there is much less risk and you don’t have to quit your job to get started.  Also you take a lot of the guesswork out of the picture.  Someone has already done all the testing to prove that the method works.  Many times starting a new site you have no idea if anything will work out.

If you decide you don’t like managing the site it is also easy to sell.  I recently bought a site for 3k.  I sold 2.5k in advertising and then turned around and sold it again for $750.  Probably not worth the effort, but once I got into it I decided I didn’t like managing the site.  Easy in and easy out.  A site like flippa.com will make this even easier.

internetevolution.com

If you love tracking what is going on with the Internet then this is the place to go.  They have all kinds of interesting polls and commentary about the future direction of the Internet.  This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart.  I actually remember a time when you could visit all of the websites on the Internet.  Hard to imagine now, but it was a possibility at one point.

One of the current polls running on the site is regarding which company is most poised for an anti-trust suit to be slung their way.  Currently it is a tie between Google and Microsoft.  Microsoft has taken a lot of heat in recent years, but I think the era of the PC is winding down.  In the next 20 years it will be all about the cloud.  You can already start to see this trend with NetBook sales.  People simply don’t need massive computers that can do everything.

We have our game systems to play games and our computers are largely for using websites.

At the bottom they have all the sites that are part of the TechWeb.  It is an awesome listing if you are into technology and all the changes happenning on the web.

adidas.com

I used the random site tool and it took me 25 sites before I found something intereting.  Well I am a big fan of Adidas.  I don’t know why but it just seems cool.  Ever since I played soccer as a kid I was totally hooked on Adidas.  It started with the cletes. If you played soccer you had to have the copa mundial.  It was the de facto standard in what a soccer player should have.

The skin was made of kangaroo leather.  I had no idea what that meant, but it sounded awesome and I thought it would make me play soccer better so I had to have it.

I also convinced my parents that I needed screw in cletes for when it was ranining heavily.  I had two different pairs of cletes can you believe that.

Then Adidas came out with the Predator.  I never had a pair, but it seemed like an awesome idea.  Somewhere along the line I did switch to start wearing Lanzera.  Why?  Because no one else had them.  It was a unique shoe and being cool meant having something different.  Seriously, have you ever even heard of Lanzera.  Of course you haven’t.

Interestingly soccer.com purchased Lanzera.com and redirects you to soccer.com if you try to type in Lanzera.com.  Small world.

MySpace.com/MyName

I just don’t get MySpace.com.  Maybe it is because I am old or out of touch, but it just seems like a bunch of crap that you can’t sort through.  Kind of like this blog.

Facebook is much better. It is interactive and has all kinds of tools and games to help you connect.  It seems like myspace is all about your page you you you.  Whereas Facebook is more about connecting with others.

Freewayblogger.com

Awesome site that has all kinds of cool random pictures of cool stuff. This person has documented all kinds of cool signs on the highway and turned them into awesome posters.

I think you will start seeing more sites like this.  Every day on my commute I see strange and bizare once in a lifetime things.

Now that I have something like a mino flip I can quickly and easily capture it.  Yet I still haven’t done it.

I have seen some unbelieveable accidents.  If I only had my camera I could have captured it.

Anyway, this site is amusing and I would give it a good 45 seconds.

Randomwebsite.com

This is the site that started all of this garbage.  I love going here and just clicking the button to see where it will take me.  This is the tool I use to come up with blog postings for this site.  There are probably over 500,000 websites that are actually worth visiting.  I mean Alexa only tracks the top 100,000 and I constantly find awesome sites that are in the top 1,000,000 Alexa websites.  If you come across an awesome random site let me know and I’ll review it.