infurious – ɔimoɈɒ

The CTO CoFo and other quasi-mythical beasts

Jase Bell is mostly, pardon the pun, on the money: Put bluntly it’s a big stand off. The startup founder (“Hey, I’m the ideas guy/gal!”) goes tail wagging desperately looking for a tech co founder, someone who can look at the holistic view of the startup, the long term, code the iOS app, the Android … Continue reading “The CTO CoFo and other quasi-mythical beasts”

Jase Bell is mostly, pardon the pun, on the money:

Put bluntly it’s a big stand off. The startup founder (“Hey, I’m the ideas guy/gal!”) goes tail wagging desperately looking for a tech co founder, someone who can look at the holistic view of the startup, the long term, code the iOS app, the Android app and the back end, the reporting…. those unicorns don’t come cheap, circa £75,000 p/a if you want a quality tech co-founder, someone who will be “all in”. Your short runaway will become a lot shorter, that £300k seed you need to get going is basically mandatory.

Of course there is another side to this. A finder needs to identify a good CTO.. It’s not like there is a large supply.

I’ve been on the fringes of the local software industry for the last 20 years I can count on my fingers the people I’d approach for such a vital role.

Part of this is their ability: they have to command respect, have a good reputation, be pro-active and have a can-do attitude and probably have done more than just worked for a wage in a local company.

The other part is my ability. Will I have to manage them? Am I a good judge of ability or character? Can I raise the cash to get them paid? And if I can, have I judged correctly; is this just another job or are they part of the team?

Over the years I have, with friends, built a heap of stuff you’ve never heard of. The 23rd Letter, SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis, ZOMBI, Syncbridge, Rickshaw, Infurious Comics, Eagle Lake; stuff that was always ahead of the market and if I had been smarter, better connected, more business-savvy, more predatory then I might be talking to you from a private island.

My opinion is this.

CTOs are incredibly rare in Northern Ireland. And when you find them, chances are they will be working for a high five-figure salary with benefits within a secure FDI company doing work well beneath their ability. Their lifestyle will have grown to demand that salary and only inspiring friendship or a mid-life crisis will urge them to move. That will be a lot of risk for the aspiring CEO – because you’re banking someone’s life on the strength of your idea and using your relationship as collateral. And the money had better follow.

As you get older it will be more about the money and less about the relationship: so start young.

13 Coins Out Now.

13 Coins was released yesterday. I’ve been following the development of this for several reasons, not least because I consider Martin and Greg to be friends, but also because Phil, Paul and I did something similar a few years ago (which Phil has made into a lovely little app dev company. A static picture can’t … Continue reading “13 Coins Out Now.”

A static picture can’t do justice to the 13 Coins comic. What we did in Infurious was revolutionary then and was, by far, the best comic platform at the time. What Corinthian Publishing have done with 13 Coins is absolutely re-define the comic buying experience and the scale and scope of what can be done. It goes much further than just putting a comic onto the iPad, it’s about giving a real comics fan the sort of digital experience they’ve been wanting.

Hyperbole? Maybe a little – but I’ve got experience of this. And this is good stuff. I wonder if they’re interested in publishing Murderdrome?

…that was when I carried you…

I have always been a team player. I don’t know where it came from (though possibly reading “The Adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” far too many times) but I’ve always enjoyed working in a group. My role in the group doesn’t tend to be ‘follower’ and there is always … Continue reading “…that was when I carried you…”

I have always been a team player.

I don’t know where it came from (though possibly reading “The Adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” far too many times) but I’ve always enjoyed working in a group. My role in the group doesn’t tend to be ‘follower’ and there is always the tension when more than one ‘non-follower’ is in a group. But this tension is what creates great work. You need to have multiple people with vision explaining their points of view. And I, for my part, have boundless enthusiasm for good ideas.

Back, a hundred years ago, there were multiple visionaries in our little creative group. The thing that set me apart from the rest was in what happened with the ideas. The ones I created (The 23rd Letter, SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO, Zombi) made it to publication (with the exception of a few which, to this day, I just can’t finish). But no other ideas made it to the stage where they could be sold.

And it wasn’t that I forced others to only work on my ideas. In fact, I expended a huge amount of effort on others ideas but, in virtually every case, I never felt like the effort was appreciated. The feedback was never entirely clear but it seemed like I was stepping on toes by being enthusiastic. And when your contributions are unrewarded or worse, rejected, you stop doing it.

Good teams need to have that mix. In fact, the point of a team is to have members able to lift and carry for others when things get maudlin. I reckon this is the primary reason for pair-bonding in humans. We need to rely on someone to keep good results consistent. And it’s just as important to take it in turns to inspire each other.

I miss working with others on new products. It’s probably the thing I miss the most in the whole world. Working alone is like being in an echo chamber. Working with others is exciting, challenging – even if it’s not always productive. It’s not always fun either – but sometimes it’s the best.

Sensors

Last night I was lucky enough to be out at the Science Park with a group of smart folk from several companies and education institutions – examining a process to engage Northern Ireland’s growing technological and design assets to attract mobile operators from Europe to consider our region as a centre of competence. Frankly, the amount of information shared was amazing and as Eoin Lambkin put it “In no other region in Europe, and perhaps the world, could you get such a cross sectoral group together in so little time.”

This morning, this conversation was continued with Eoin’s presentation on the European Connected Health Campus, based in Northern Ireland and dedicated to a platform-agnostic resolution on best practises in Connected Health (also called Telemedicine, Telecare).

Then, I read this

“Imagine – AppleStores with shelves of niche, stylish sensor products for sale in a yearâ€™s time – pollution sensors, particulates analysis, spectroscopy, soil analysis, cholesterol? All for the price of a Nike+ or so?”

This comes on the back of a demo of a Diabetes sensor talking to an iPhone and reporting information to the owner, as well as possibly sending reports to clinicians and care workers. This was on-stage at the recent preview of iPhone OS 3.0 – Connected Health is obviously a major talking point for Apple.

That blog post also points to Tellarts open source NADAmobile project which allows you to easily prototype physical/digital/sensor apps on the iPhone through a cable that cleverly connects to the audio jack.

People don’t realise that they may already have two medical sensors – the Nike+ and the WiiFit – already in their house – never mind others. These devices have snuck in the back door and there’s a realisation that health technology is probably going to be even more profitable selling to the healthy than it ever was selling to the sick.

I’m excited to see the possibilities coming out of this – where will the technology lead us – I want ‘sensor shoes’ for my iPhone and remote sensors to pick up information. Why? Because I can? What sort of geek wouldn’t want this info?

Infurious at SXSW

Infurious is the only Northern Ireland company attending SXSWi and we’re doing it out of our pocket and without any support from our local economic development agencies. Phil has been partying with the other revelers and marvelling at some of the technologies he’s seeing – real cutting edge stuff …you should see the great stuff … Continue reading “Infurious at SXSW”

…you should see the great stuff being done in HTML 5.0 and CSS. The amount of people doing web apps are unreal, even Photoshop style applications in HTML and only HTML.
…
All so nice and fluid, and best about it, there all using Macs.

On top of that, he was interviewed by the BBC and has a feature on their web site

Infurious developed a Comic Reader application that uses the iPhone’s familiar touch interface to navigate between different panes of a comic.
The Comics Engine can also layer audio on to comic pages, embed movies and links to YouTube.
The reader also features multi-layered content pages so readers can find bonus artwork, footnotes and explainers.

As we speak, a dozen or more bands and musicians are heading out to SXSW for the week of music supported by Belfast City Council, the Creative Industries Innovation Fund and Invest Northern Ireland.

GamesIndustry.biz poll

GamesIndustry.biz have the results of a poll on the 2009 tech people can not wait for. Over 300 industry professionals in the GamesIndustry.biz Network were polled to gauge interest on new technology, with the Wii MotionPlus, iPhone, Nintendo’s DSi and the continued evolution of the New Xbox Experience also piquing interest. 3D TV/Gaming Wii MotionPlus … Continue reading “GamesIndustry.biz poll”

GamesIndustry.biz have the results of a poll on the 2009 tech people can not wait for. Over 300 industry professionals in the GamesIndustry.biz Network were polled to gauge interest on new technology, with the Wii MotionPlus, iPhone, Nintendo’s DSi and the continued evolution of the New Xbox Experience also piquing interest.

3D TV/Gaming
Wii MotionPlus
iPhone
DSi
New Xbox Experience
PlayStation 3
New Wii peripheral
Android
DX11
- 10 New PlayStation 3 controller
- Digital distribution
- id’s Tech 5

Who would have thought that an Apple device would be in the top 10 of any games industry list never mind ahead of luminaries such as the PS3, the DSi and anything from id Software.

If that’s not reason to consider the iPhone a major platform for the next 18 months, then you’re got some pretty major biases there (hey, yes, I have biases, and reasons for them).

XCake iPhone meetups in Belfast and Dublin [updated]

Mentioned earlier but now gathering a little steam. These meetups are mostly informal and designed to help build a little community around what we have here on the island. XCAKE BELFAST: Thursday 19th Feb, 6 pm. Roast, Lisburn Road, Belfast. I’ve confirmed they have WiFi and will be happy to have a cluster of seats … Continue reading “XCake iPhone meetups in Belfast and Dublin [updated]”

Mentioned earlier but now gathering a little steam. These meetups are mostly informal and designed to help build a little community around what we have here on the island.

XCAKE BELFAST: Thursday 19th Feb, 6 pm. Roast, Lisburn Road, Belfast.
I’ve confirmed they have WiFi and will be happy to have a cluster of seats taken up by coffee-swilling nerds. I’ve been told of ten people who have expressed interest in going to this – let’s make it busy and kick-ass.

XCAKE DUBLIN: Tuesday 24th February, 7 pm. Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, Dublin.
This is only an hour after the BizSpark Innovation Accelerator being held by the DigitalMediaForum and in the same hotel so people interested in both might be interested in attending both. There’s folk coming all the way from Belfast and Kerry coming to this so you should consider it too.

Infurious at SXSWi 2009

Chinwag have announced the list of companies they are taking on the Digital Mission to SXSWi in March (I say “taking” but you have to realise that the Digital Mission costs Â£500 in addition to your flights and accommodation so it’s not a funded trip by any means.). As far as I can tell, only … Continue reading “Infurious at SXSWi 2009”

They write:

Congratulations to the companies selected by the advisory board to attend the Digital Mission to SXSWi and listed amongst the 35 hottest digital SMEs in the UK.

It’s a shame that other companies were not included in the trade mission as we have some extremely compelling companies starting out here in the province.

EyeCandy “Masked Marshall” on the App Store.

So, guys, it’s out. You can buy EyeCandy #1, The Masked Marshall in “Mah Pony Must be Punished” straight from the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch. We’ve also bagged one video review from Sakura as well as a detailed review from her Dad. So what’s in the package. It’s an 8 page comic … Continue reading “EyeCandy “Masked Marshall” on the App Store.”

So, guys, it’s out. You can buy EyeCandy #1, The Masked Marshall in “Mah Pony Must be Punished” straight from the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch.

We’ve also bagged one video review from Sakura as well as a detailed review from her Dad.

So what’s in the package. It’s an 8 page comic with a bit of humour and great style. It’s also eight pages of colouring-in book with an etch-a-sketch style erase. You can take screenshots of the Comic and print them out for later colouring with pens/crayons. You can peel away the colours and inks with a simple swipe-down so that anyone interested in learning to draw can quickly copy the pencils there and get a neat tutorial in how to draw. Plus there’s a “toy” in the Extras section which shows the pony with googly eyes and makes up to 4 different neighing sounds when shaken. You can see all of this demo’ed on the Infurious web site and you can take it from me, it involves kids like no other game. It’s educational and, best of all, fun!

All this for 59p (or $0.99). We’d really like to hear what people think, what they’d prefer and whether they’d like to see something specific on the store.

And there’s more. It’s going to be monthly at first and we’ve got some top notch artists and writers who are producing content for the platform already so keep your eyes peeled!

EyeCandy reactions from the general public

(These people are queuing for the Apple Store in Belfast which opened 20th September) Related posts: Translink Annual Report – #freepublictransport Talking about public transport on the Twitters…. Public Education was a challenge in the 19th Century. Public Transport is our challenge. EyeCandy “Masked Marshall” on the App Store.

(These people are queuing for the Apple Store in Belfast which opened 20th September)