I came across Wordle this morning as I stare out into the beautiful Maine greenery (I’m in Maine for a conference my wife is attending/holiday/getting my own work done (results pending)). Then Wordle.net popped into my crosshairs. In a word,, it’s useless, and needless, but it sure is fun and pretty and, if you’re a HEAVY Del.icio.us user like myself (feel free to jump in and take a look at my DS4tool links, they’re all about product development, startup, and other tips and tricks for small business, I save them, so you can use them).

Hopefully some big rollouts coming here soon, but till then here’s my Wordle cloud.

My apologies, I didn’t remark as to who brought wordle into my crosshairs this morning.

David Seah (Dave to humans who have met him for more than 3 seconds) is the mastermind behind The Printable CEO and other amazing time management/productivity/organization sheets and forms. I even got him to autograph(see the pic above) his own form (that reminds me, I should get Tristan to sign an Ionic Breeze!)

I make a point to communicate with people online who I find fascinating, and that generate truly amazing content, Dave’s work is quite singular in this regard. He, surprisingly to me, began to ask many questions of me and my process, as I was curious about him and how he went about things. He has run the gamut from web design to game design, currently experience design. He’s well rounded, well spoken, and will likely shove a camera lens in your face that is about twice as big as you expect. Wait till he posts about the cool little hack on said camera!

Dave and I are both in the position of trying to develop products, sell them, and actually make things that people want (and are useful). We discussed a lot about fulfillment (personal, and places to ship your products from). We discussed virtual products and how to interact with the aspects of rights management therein (a scary proposition) (more on this and the rest of these conversations in later posts, fear not).

Of course we began with the hysterical introduction of getting out our various writing tools and pads, anyone watching would have likely been rolling their eyes. Out came two Moleskines, mine book style, his reporter style, we of course compared our built in hacks, his copiously readable and designed notes, and a filled pocket with tricks galore, mine with volume label, pen holder (on spine) and again the pocket filled

(personal moleskine pocket stash: stamps, $20 bill, post it tabs (mini), prepaid postcard, and a spare biz card).

Having someone to converse with on your projects, especially as removed as someone who has shared interests and goals, yet there is no overlap (his sales will never impact my sales) is such a great type of person to find. I cannot recommend this sort of discussion enough. Each of us is working towards developing products, and generating income while doing what we love. It was great as we both have been researching many of the same things, and it was interesting to see where our knowledge overlapped, and where one of us had found much more information on a particular topic.

We also discussed Linkedin, as we have both been searching for a number of particular answers (that neither one of use knew exactly where to go with) and we noted that it seemed by far to be one of the best places for genuine business knowledge transfer. We also noted that for “old school business info” SCORE (the SBA’s retired executive coaching wing) is a really useful place for knowledge on simple things like getting a business license, which ones we needed, and the like.

Do go and read Dave’s articles please, you’ll be better for it!

He even did a post about our meeting,, cool!

It’s so funny, Dave is so introspective, while I sat there and we talked his pen flowed across the page. I always enjoy watching people who take copious and excellent notes, as it is a wholly different experience from my hideous chickenscratch.

Apparently I should go do things now, but there’s much more to write of Dave’s and my meeting in the near term (as well as enumerating my ongoing projects and how Dave’s advice has helped me.)

Have a great day! Go make an online friend a real friend!

Click here to get your I’m not Steve shirt!!

You think you’re all that,, but are you Steve enough to get a Steve shirt?

There are two main models, the first, it just says “Steve”. Expected sales, 1 unit (yeah Mr. You Know Who)

For the Rest of us, there’s the “I’m not Steve” Shirt.

Simple, yes,, but let’s face it folks. Sometimes, you’ve gotta know where you stand. Sometimes it’s just on a floor in Cupertino, or it’s just somewhere else.

Click Here to get the shirt!!

Social Bookmarking

So apparently to make WordPress really work for you (read, unlock and host with more data) one must buy some credits (no biggie,, but I didn’t know). No wonder WordPress seems to do fairly well and seems rather professional (cause it really is!)

That would explain the limitations I’ve been fighting with loading simple things like feeds and ads into my site,, I wasn’t allowed (told you I’m not really a web guy!)

So yes, I’m a product designer (what, I didn’t mention that?)

So now I know, once I get some “credits” at wordpress I can pretty much do what I want (then I’ll need to buy more space at wordpress, or I need to host my wordpress site at my Go-Daddy hosting site). Whew!! There’s a lot to this stuff.

Then (after blogging and keeping everything updated, I’ll need to build a store to actually sell the things I’ve been making (we’re still on stealth mode there, but things are coming soon!)

Baby Steps people,, Baby steps,,,

He has been working to develop a product, from his brain, to other people’s hands for quite a while now.

Well, it’s almost time and he actually has a product, well, it’s being printed now anyway. He makes amazing planning sheets. He has been developing this, and many other charts for some time, this is the first of likely many to be coming from him.

It’s called his Emergent Task Planner. It’s like those little “to-do lists” you make all the time,, except,, it’s awesome! So neat, so clean, so organized. More than that, it really makes it fun to tick off tasks as you go. It’s funny, I’ve been using Dave’s forms for quite some time, along with a bunch of other time management sorts of things, and his just plain old work.

He’ll probably have an official purchase link up before too long, or you can just email him now (go to his site for the proper instructions here).

Way to go Dave!!!!

(oh yeah, if you wonder about the drinks photo on the site,, Dave’s not much of a drinker, but one hell of a photographer!)