Behind the scenes at The Next Internet Millionaire!

It seems like aeons ago that Joel Comm invited me up to Loveland, Colorado, to be the guest lecturer in episode ten of his successful Next Internet Millionaire Internet-based reality series, but I've had to wait until now to share my experiences with you, dear reader.

Filming was darn interesting, albeit tedious with hours and hours of waiting for our on-camera time, but it was exactly like all the other film work I've done: brief moments of cool surrounded by long stretches of tedium. :-)

Your first step should unquestionably be to watch the episode itself, which you can easily do by clicking on this:

click me!

Watched it? Great fun, and wonderfully edited to boot. Makes me look good! :-)

Why are movies more violent now than in the past?

A student from Bowling Green State University sent me a most interesting query:

"I am researching for a paper about movie genre's. I stumbled across a blog of yours about TCM vs. AMC. That was similar to one of the topics I want to bring up in my paper. I am writing about the differences between modern day war movies such as "Band of Brothers" and "Apocalypse Now". Mainly the way they are presents to the viewers. For example the way gore and blood are presented. In the older movies when someone was shot they basically fell to the ground dead. Now it seems we are shown all the blood and gore that really goes along with being shot. I was wondering if you had an opinion on why this change has taken place and if you could offer me any insight into it."

Is it time for an email purge?

I have a bit of an email dilemma as my life marches on, goose-stepping faster than I can actually process the messages coming in. it's not my inbox, though: I have things neatly organized in my mail folders so my inbox only has about 50 messages at this point, and when I can sit and really work through it I can easily chop that down to 25 or so messages that require more attention.

The problem is the email folder on the other side of the Ask Dave Taylor Query Form. That folder? Well, let's just say that at this moment in time it shows 4594 unread messages (let alone the 50 or so that I've peeked at)...

When did consumer electronics become so shoddy?

I'm totally aghast at my experience in the last 45 days with new consumer electronics items. Setting up a new house, I've been buying what I thought was top-of-the-line gear from well-known vendors like Sony, Philips and TEAC, but all that I seem to be experiencing is product failures left and right. Even the $#@$#@ furniture I'm buying proves to be particle board [which I hate!] that falls apart as you struggle to put it all together as per the commonly flawed included instructions.

The latest wrinkle: I bought a very nice sounding TEAC MC-DX32i micro hi-fi system that features an Mp3-playing CD drive and a built-in iPod dock. It also theoretically includes an AM/FM radio but even with the junky antennae hooked up, the device receives zero channels on either band.

So I called TEAC this morning...

Join me on Nov 13 at the Angel Capital Summit in Denver

Ever since launching two Silicon Valley startups during the heady days of the "dotcom boom", I've had an abiding interest in new companies and how smart entrepreneurs can take good ideas and morph them into sustainable businesses.

I figure that between a stint as entrepreneur in residence for a small incubator, doing due-diligence research for VC firms in the Valley, and my own consulting efforts, I've worked with over a hundred startups, and I can tell you that most people don't get it, and don't have much clue at all about how to take a good idea and create a revenue stream that can fund both the current business and its future growth.

That's why it's important for most companies to get the turbo boost of raising capital, so they can build faster, with a better team that includes non-founders. And that's why I'm really looking forward to going to the Angel Capital Summit in Denver, Colorado on November 13th.

What's Your View: The Ethics of Sponsored Blogging?

I'm going to be the guest contributor next week to the International Association of Online Communicators Web site, and my topic is Is It Okay to Get Paid to Blog?

It might surprise you but my general answer to this question is yes, it is okay to receive payment, either money or in-kind services, for blogging.

There are, however, a few caveats...

Website Critiques for the Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America Journal

A few days ago I received an interesting request to review a couple of jeweler Web sites from Gerry Davies, the managing editor of MJSA Journal, the official publication of the Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America. What do I know about jewelry? Not much. But I do know what makes a Web site work or not work from a usability perspective, and that was the gist of their query.

The two sites are shown in thumbnail below:

TimelessDesigns.com	MaryaDabrowski.com

Before you read what I wrote about the two sites, have a quick look for yourself and draw some of your own conclusions about whether they're effectively designed, engaging, attractive and suitable to sell multi-thousand-dollar items of jewelry.

Late 2007 and cell service still sucks. Unbelievable!

I was sitting at the North Boulder Recreation Center this morning, watching my daughter in her dance class and fiddling with my iPhone, just to be struck by how poor our cellular service really is, and how much we just accept it. Let me be straight: it stinks.

About twenty minutes into the class I got a call from someone in the Boulder city government, but the reception was so poor that I couldn't really even understand what he was saying. I suggested he call back in thirty and he says "you're breaking up something terrible. Should I call you back in five?"

He never called back.

Then I decided to poke around on the net a little bit, since I had the latest issue of MacLife on my lap and wanted to check out some of the sites they were writing about. The facility has an open wireless network, but...