150 Friends

I’ve spoken recently about declaring Facebook Bankruptcy but today I wanted to give everyone an update on how this has worked out for me as well as proposing a new self-imposed 150 friend limit for others.

After the past several weeks of having a greatly decreased number of friends on Facebook I’ve found that I am even more social than before on the site.

Instead of having to sift through upwards of a thousand news post each day in the feed I find that ten minutes of time will allow me to see everything that everyone has posted since the previous day and I can stay better connected to the people I truly care about on Facebook.

I’ve also imposed upon myself a 150 friend limit. I’m currently sitting at 150 friends with a few requests still pending.

If I want to approve some of the new requests then some of the old friends have to go.

I remove friends every once in a while with whom I truly am not communicating with. The people who don’t communicate with me or those that have been away for some time. I find that by removing them and then replacing them with someone new I get some fresh new perspectives as well as new content to look at.

I’m suggesting to anyone with a large number of friends that you simply begin cutting down your list with me.

Tell me below of your commitment to par down your friends list and maintain that limit. You will find your social experience on Facebook to have greatly improved.

Why I Use OpenDNS

I want to start this off with a disclaimer that I’m not being paid to post this and I haven’t been asked to post this by OpenDNS or any other organization. I’m saying cool things about OpenDNS because I like what they do.

The Only Sticker That Has EARNED A Spot on my Netbook

OpenDNS makes the Internet faster and safer.

I’ve been an OpenDNS user for quite some time and whenever I am talking to other startups, friends or family and they mention issues with the Internet I’ll steer them in the direction of OpenDNS. I’ve been word of mouth marketing these guys and gals for a while because what they offer is such a great service but I’ve finally decided to take a few minutes to share on my blog what exactly they do and why.

The thing that finally prompted me to write this blog was a call last night from a friend a few nights ago who has been fighting with Verizon about various problems with his Internet. He has been unable to reach a few websites the past few days by typing the domain but determined he could use the IP address to get to the site. It was a huge pain in the ass and I asked him open the DNS settings he has been using. He was using the default DNS servers that the Verizon guys installed for him. Ten minutes later we had him on OpenDNS and he was able to surf the sites he was attempting earlier perfectly. That prompted this blog entry.

For someone like myself who is often buying domains and then putting up sites OpenDNS has been a god send. Instead of updating the DNS on my domain, then waiting a good twelve hours before I can start actually developing on the site and seeing how it will turn out I update the DNS on my domain and use the OpenDNS cache system to instantly update my DNS and see the domain as it will appear to others who aren’t using OpenDNS in a few hours.

It makes me feel like I have a slight jump on everyone who is still using other DNS systems.

OpenDNS is great because I also use it at home to protect my computers. The phishing filters keep the bad guys out and I’ve noticed a nice uptick in speed since I switched our router over to OpenDNS at home.

While I’ve never had a problem with phishing because I always check URLs, and look for the warning signs the speed increase alone has been great. Telling my less savy friends to use OpenDNS and even setting it up for them has been great as well because it protects them and keeps them from calling me when something has gone horribly wrong due to a bad site.

Sure, I could run my own DNS server at home. I’ve done it before. I’ll even admit it wasn’t that much of a hassle but I’ve found I can just change a quick IP address on my router and get the same service from a group of people who are coming up with new and innovative ideas, and I’ve had zero downtime since I’ve made the switch so why bother.

I’m sick of ISPs with mismanaged and poorly run DNS servers. That is why I use OpenDNS and why the people around me use it as well.

In My Spare Time

In my spare time I’ve been working on something entirely different.

Here is a small sneak peek…

Click To Enlarge

Share: Invest BEFORE Product/Market Fit, Double-Down AFTER.

Dave McClure makes a lot of interesting points in his piece MoneyBall for Startups: Invest BEFORE Product/Market Fit, Double-Down AFTER.

PRODUCT now typically means a website or service, run on low-/no-cost open source software, hosted in the cloud on low-cost servers, developed in a few months (or a WEEKEND!) by a small team of 1-5 developers, who continuously test & iterate in real-time with online customers.

MARKETing now typically means using a variety of online distribution channels via paid & organic search (SEM/SEO) on Google, viral/social amplification on new media platforms & social networks like Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube, and the quickly-growing mobile platforms of Apple iPhone & Google Android. With the exception of search, most of these distribution channels didn’t exist 5 years ago, yet they now easily reach over 100M-500M+ users, with very low cost and measurable marketing campaigns such that even a small team can reach billions of people globally.

REVENUE can now be collected easily via a variety of online payment, transactional e-commerce, digital goods, subscription billing, lead generation, CPM/CPC/CPA advertising. Many people buy things online now, and many companies are even bought for usage & users ahead of revenue. In other words: Brothers Are Gettin’ Paid, Yo. Cash Money, G. It’s aaaaalll goooooood, mah nizzle.

- Dave McClure

New Dorks