Rig Intelligence

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A software engineer's experience coding in the oil field. *Tips, tricks and other things that seem interesting {to me}.

Product Review: Rocketfish Component Cable System

With my new setup at the office and while I’m developing iPhone and iPad applications, I’ve been trying out the Rocketfish Component Cable System (pictured).  It’s been a great solution for me since I have an odd setup with a MacBook Pro, secondary monitor, iPhone 4, iPad 2 and Panasonic (non VGA) monitor.  The Rocketfish system doesn’t do everything I’d like for it to do, however it does allow for:

  • Showing Netflix on the monitor via A/V component cables
  • Connecting to the Macbook via USB for Xcode project testing
  • Playing Youtube videos with controls on the iPad
  • Playing Vevo videos with controls on the iPad

Here are a few of the drawbacks I’ve found:

  • I have to disconnect the iPad if it goes to sleep while I have a Netflix video on pause
  • I have to disconnect the iPad if I want to listen to Pandora or iTunes
  • Surprisingly Hulu is blocking this capability, so it won’t work on playing Hulu Plus videos from the iPad
  • The iPad won’t charge through the USB connection, so battery life does become an issue and I have to stop using the device and plug it in separately throughout the day

Overall I think it’s a great tool, and hopefully future versions will fix some of the bugs.

Meet Martin, the I.T. guy who’s helped everyone from drug dealers needing to dodge wiretaps, to restaurants looking to inflate their Foursquare numbers: If you’ve seen that episode of The Wire, you know principle behind Martin’s system: ‘Burners,’ prepaid cell phones drug dealers use for a short time then abandon to thwart wiretaps. Prepaid phones have become so associated with drug trafficking and crime that New York Sen. Chuck Schumer wants to require an I.D. to buy one. (Martin said if I.D.s were required he could still run his business ‘but I would probably charge triple because I’d have to make fake I.D.s’) But burners can be a pain. For maximum security, phones need to be switched as often as possible—a top Cali cartel manager was once reported to use 35 cell phones a day. Martin’s system makes it easy for a crew to switch all their phones rapidly. “The Mercenary Techie Who Troubleshoots for Drug Dealers and Jealous Lovers.” — Adrian Chen, Gawker See also: “The Hacker is Watching.” — David Kushner, GQ

Meet Martin, the I.T. guy who’s helped everyone from drug dealers needing to dodge wiretaps, to restaurants looking to inflate their Foursquare numbers:

If you’ve seen that episode of The Wire, you know principle behind Martin’s system: ‘Burners,’ prepaid cell phones drug dealers use for a short time then abandon to thwart wiretaps. Prepaid phones have become so associated with drug trafficking and crime that New York Sen. Chuck Schumer wants to require an I.D. to buy one. (Martin said if I.D.s were required he could still run his business ‘but I would probably charge triple because I’d have to make fake I.D.s’)

But burners can be a pain. For maximum security, phones need to be switched as often as possible—a top Cali cartel manager was once reported to use 35 cell phones a day. Martin’s system makes it easy for a crew to switch all their phones rapidly.

“The Mercenary Techie Who Troubleshoots for Drug Dealers and Jealous Lovers.” — Adrian Chen, Gawker

See also: “The Hacker is Watching.” — David Kushner, GQ

(via longreads)

Why Most Startups Fail

Going through my 2000th tech news article of the day (barely exaggerating), it seems like I can’t go more than a few minutes before I hear about another startup hitting the deadpool (going out of business).  And when you see this happen as much as I have, there always seems to be one common similarity: these broken startups weren’t started by technical founders.

Most startups seem to be started by non-technical kids who have a business plan that is nothing more than a slight twist on an already established business, with the full expectation that users will flock to their company without a true competitive advantage.  The shocking thing to me is how many of these companies get funded!

Simply having an idea is pointless (I should probably repeat that), simply having an idea is pointless.  If you don’t have a way to execute the plan by yourself, you shouldn’t be starting a company.  E.g. if you can’t program your company’s website, please don’t embarrass yourself by trying to launch a tech startup.

And please don’t take my tone as being antagonistic, I’m not saying that if you don’t have a technical background that there is no hope for you, there are a number of great resources available to anyone, many times for free.  One of my favorites is the SEE program offered by Stanford (for free), where you can go an view the lectures for a number of the university’s programming classes.

In my mind, with the resources now available, there is no excuse for entrepreneurs to not have a working knowledge of programming before they try to launch a tech startup.

Instructions: 1. Stare at the red dot on the girl’s nose for 30 seconds. 2. Turn your eyes to a plain surface (your ceiling or blank wall). 3. Blink repeatedly and quickly. 4. Be amazed High-res

Instructions: 1. Stare at the red dot on the girl’s nose for 30 seconds. 2. Turn your eyes to a plain surface (your ceiling or blank wall). 3. Blink repeatedly and quickly. 4. Be amazed

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