Master of 500 Hats

Miniature City

(hat tip yongfook)

Do Re Mi (Antwerp)

If you ever lose faith in the human race, it only takes something like this to change your mind:

levitation

levitation
Originally uploaded by davemc500hats

shot this last weekend... got lucky.

gong hei fat choi!

Hawaii Here We Come.

Now this is what i call work.

Me & Saya & the kids are headed to Hawaii in the morning. We're arriving at Kona on the Big Island, spending a few days at the Fairmont Orchid to relax & schmooze w/ hoi-polloi @ The Lobby. 

Saya's parents & grandma are also flying in from Tokyo to meet us there & see the grandkids.  should be lots O' fun :)

RIP Good Times my ass... let's get this party started.

Got SchadenFreude? Profit from Other's Despair -- Enter the SlideShare "Credit Crisis in 30 Slides Contest" (Judges: Cuban, Varian, Kedrosky, Wilson)

Can you explain why High Finance is/isn't Going to Hell in a Handbasket in 30 slides or less?  Terrific. 

Enter the SlideShare Credit Crisis Contest (C^3) and you might win an iTouch, Nano, or Shuffle.  (yeah we know the prizes are cheap, but listen up mofo we're trying to preserve cash)

The Credit Crisis in 30 slides contest

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Credit Crisis Contest judges include:

• Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks owner / Entrepreneur)
• Hal Varian (Google Chief Economist)
• Paul Kedrosky (Finance Guru & Blogger)
• Fred Wilson (Venture Capitalist Pauper)

Mark Cuban	Hal Varian	Paul Kedrosky	Fred Wilson

just remember folks: the Startup you Save might be your Own.

and Now for Something Completely Different... (LoveFoXXX Monkey Dance, Cansei de Ser Sexy)

ok, just got back from SeedCamp 2008 in London, & a brief layover in NYC to hookup with some friends for dinner. here's a quick CSS diversion b4 i go gonzo next 2 weeks on Startup2Startup, Startup Metrics, & STARTonomics... enjoy :)

TonchiDot Sekai Camera (aka World Camera): "Look Up, Not Down! We Have Patent! Imagine... Join Us!"

TonchiDot Sekai Camera was without a doubt the most amazing & hysterical presentation at TechCrunch50 this year... never seen anything like that demo, or the Q&A that came after. 

The entire room was spellbound, then laughing uncontrollably at the Q&A responses ("Look Up, Not Down!  We Have Patent!  Imagine!  Join Us!").  Almost never see Jason Calacanis & Michael Arrington speechless, but it happened.  Several audience members gave the presenters a standing O.

Facebook Inbox 666: Number of The Zuck

Facebook Inbox 666: Number of The Zuck
Originally uploaded by davemc500hats

uh-oh... either Damien or Mark Zuckerberg has Possessed my Inbox.

pretty sure Merlin Mann has something to say about this.

Why I'm Big in Japan / How I Got Married

I've previously fallen in love with I Can Haz Cheezburger, also FAIL Blog... my latest infatuation is now EngrishFunny.com (warning: very un-PC, esp. if your wife is japanese).

and yes, i resemble that remark.

Q: What Does Your *PLAY* Button Do? (increasing User Activation thru "Site Animation")

I was in a meeting with a startup today, and a concept i call "Site Animation" came up that i've been thinking about a few times over the past year.  it's related to the Activation stage of the 5-step AARRR! Startup Metrics for Pirates model i've spoken about previously.

the basic idea is this...

startups spend a lot of time (or should) trying to figure out how to get users to take the FIRST step along the path to becoming a regular user.  HOWEVER, frequently it's a challenge to communicate the basic concepts of the site, and get people to understand what you want them to do (or conversely, it's hard for startups to figure out what users are LIKELY to do, and how that connects with their primary features).

Q: what if you created a PLAY button that automated the action you want the user to take, and just act like the user hit PLAY after 3-5 seconds if they don't do anything?

I'm not sure i have the user experience figured out here just yet... it's sort of halfway between 1) playing a short screencast, and 2) animating the mouse cursor on behalf of the user to just click on something.  i'm sure many folks might find this pretty annoying... but on the other hand, if 1/3 - 2/3 of your traffic is "bouncing" when it gets to your site, why not try something outlandish to see if you can engage with them before they leave?

a very simple example of this is when i visit YouTube, and they just start playing the video automatically for me.  on the other hand, a NEGATIVE example of this is when i hear background music on a website kick in automatically... occasionally i like it, but most times i hate it and/or it's too loud.  then again, maybe that's ok if i'm not target audience.  from a purely goal-focused perspective, there's not much harm in asking girls out on a date who were going to shoot you down anyway, right?  (ok sorry, that example might not "PLAY" well with some readers, but you get the picture.. ;)

interested to hear people's reactions to this... also what ideas you have for cool PLAY button scenarios.

a few questions:

Q1: is a PLAY button better/worse than having a 30-second screencast about your site?  (see Jing + Screencast.com)

Q2: would creating a PLAY button get in the way of learning about how to improve your default CTA?  might it even DECREASE user activation in some scenarios?

Q3: aren't there better things for me to be doing at 3:40am, like sleeping?

(note: in any case, re: Q2 above, creating a PLAY button should NOT take the place of testing landing pages  / modifying Calls To Action (CTAs) so that you can improve upon current user activation... still i wonder if you might convert an extra 2-10% of audience by taking the next step on their behalf.)

so let's hear it... What Would Your PLAY Button Do?