Name: John
Email:
Bio: Co-founder and President of Joroto, Inc.
Posts by Mr. President:
Joroto is seeking $2,000,000 investment for web
March 5th, 2010Joroto is seeking $2,000,000 investment for a unique web project. This web domain is perfectly timed with the current economic crisis and stands to gain large revenues and constant use.
If you represent investors, and have great vision and the ability to understand the widespread effect of a business from a generalized overview, please contact us at blog@joroto.com.
John C. Boukis
The dangers of working at a dot com
February 26th, 2010Working for a dot com can be much less glamorous than advertised. It can even be downright inhumane. The vast wealth gained by programming iPod applications, or reaching any mass audience when one is not prepared, can lead to a tortured life.
Always keep this in mind: If you are buying Joroto’s products, you will be contributing to this morbid lifestyle. You are helping to provide too much money to too few people, and usually they are programmers. Those are the last ones who will know what to do with their success. Here is an expose displaying the effects of success on Joroto:
JB
Pasting text sends e-mail in Outlook
February 2nd, 2010This happened to me using TPX remoting into an IBM 3390 mainframe and MS Outlook 2000. I was usng <ctrl-c> in the green screen session and pasting into an e-mail in Outlook 2000. The process must have capture additional keystrokes from the TPX session. When I selected <ctrl-p> to paste in an e-mail, the e-mail was sent. So, how to handle this?
1) Do not put in an e-mail address until you are ready to send.
2) Copy text from the problem application(s) and try pasting in notepad first, then copying and pasting again into Outlook.
3) Try using any available built-in copy function in the problem application, in my case it was TPX. TPX has a “COPY” function that captures pure text, versus <CTRL><C> which does more of a screen capture from TPX.
Our business has since migrated to a different e-mail client. I am not sure but it does not seem to be sensitive to this problem.
Astro_TJ Comes through with a flash!
January 30th, 2010Check out our correspondence with astronaut T. J. Creamer via Twitter:
@Astro_TJ Are you experiencing flashes due to cosmic rays? Tell us another unique space experience that we may never have heard of. 35 mins ago
“Astro_TJ @joroto Yes,I do see flashes occasionally,when I close
my eyes.Another unique story?The noctilucent clouds are both mesmerizing & beautiful.”
Wow, this IS neat: Noctilucent Clouds in Wikipedia
Is doing business in China so bad?
January 24th, 2010The following is an interesting article that talks about average Chinese citizens working around China’s Internet filters.
Chinese Web Users Plan Tech Workarounds
A funny thing about network security Read the rest of this entry “
the server did not provide a certificate during the session e-mail error
January 21st, 2010This is written for a user of The Bat! Adjust accordingly if your e-mail client is stating that your provider is not providing a certificate.
1) Go to the SSL link at your Internet Provider. If you are using secure e-mail, this is the POP3/SMTP link in your e-mail configuration.
example: http://host271.hostmonster.com/
2) Click on the “lock” icon in the web browser, or choose SAFETY/SECURITY REPORT, or figure it out for your browser. Read the rest of this entry “
Who here hates getting telephone calls?
January 17th, 2010Call Me! But Not on Skype or Any Other Videophone
In the above article Joel Stein nails how many of us have come to hate the telephone. I bring this up because Tom was just telling me how ubiquitous teleconferencing will replace travel for corporations in the future. While that may be so, most telephones are owned by individuals, and I might suggest that telephone communication among individuals could completely evaporate. Read the article and tell me what you think.
Tesla: Cool. Very Cool.
January 17th, 2010Long-Dead Inventor Nikola Tesla Is Electrifying Hip Techies
Funny I should come across the above article as Tom was just telling me about a book he just read on Tesla, about Tesla’s amazing inventions and his great understanding of how electricity works. From our discussion it sounds like Tesla had some understandings and accomplishments that have been completely lost in history.
Here is my letter to the Wall Street Journal writer of the above article. I could not let this one slip:
Daniel,
One small correction with major Read the rest of this entry “
Are tax incentives for technology companies good?
January 16th, 2010Here is a great article on recent developments regarding a state trying to spur technology business growth:
Pennsylvania Tax Incentives Questioned
I am not sure if there was a time when I was a true proponent of tax incentives for business growth. There are too many problems with such policies and as the article states, the results can be minimal, even negligible. Number one, if tax incentives become a competition among different states, where does the race end? One state offers a two year tax abatement, so the next state offers five, then next twenty years, and so on. In the end the citizens get hosed Read the rest of this entry “
Rhapsody stops playing in XP
December 25th, 2009[This article refers to Rhapsody software for Windows version 4.0 Build 5.209]
I have the latest Rhapsody software and Windows XP. Periodically Rhapsody stops playing music. I click on the song, and no indicator appears to indicate it is attempting to play. I think this is triggered by Windows XP going into standby mode, but I am not positive.
I wrote Real support and the brainless wonder response I got was to shut off all XP power saving features. I lambasted them but have not heard back, and do not think I will hear back in this lifetime.
I found a temporary fix:
1) CTRL-ALT-DEL
2) Shut down the process RHAPHPLR.EXE
3) Restart Rhapsody
At least it brings back the music pretty easily.
Software Patent Malaise
December 12th, 2009We should all be paying attention to events involving software patent processes in countries around the world. The processes of issuing patents and hopefully, forthcoming corrections, highly influence technology development and implementation.
February 13, 2010 update
Here is an interesting blog entry, the title speaks for itself:
Debunking the ‘Patent Troll’ Myth
Sunday night Shark Tank Victims should be worried about the next attack.
August 30th, 2009The Television Show “Shark Tank” has a team of millionaires offering venture capital to inventors and entrepreneurs alike. The millionaires include Barbara Corcoran, Kevin Harrington, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary. The contestants are inventors, some who have very cool products, but who are mostly ignorant about venture capital.
The name “Shark Tank” is apropos in that the cast offers “puny” amounts of money to the entrepreneurs in exchange for a large percentage of the entrepreneur’s business. The idea that the millionaires convey is that the entrepreneurs will become millionaires themselves if they take one of the highly aggressive deals offered to them. Of course the investors are bound to make a great deal of money also, or they would otherwise not offer funding.
The entrepreneurs asking for money need to seriously consider the next funding step in their businesses. Take for example Marian Cruz, inventor of the Turbo Baster. Read the rest of this entry “
Add a custom symbol to a field in Excel
August 26th, 2009I came across this method when attempting to add a percent (%) sign to my data without Excel multiplying all of the numbers by one hundred, as it does when formatting as a percent. I could find no way to just append a symbol to my data, except, for some reason only Bill Gates knows, there is a feature to add a custom currency sign to Excel. So these instructions add a custom dollar sign to the sheet, as though you are entering currency numbers from a country that does not use the dollar sign. However, the symbol can be any symbol you choose. Again, I will add a percent sign, because that was my mission for my customer.
I am working in Excel 2000. Hey, why upgrade? Any feedback on the options in later versions of Excel is certainly welcome.
INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Right click the field(s)
2) Select FORMAT CELLS
3) Select CUSTOM.
4) In the TYPE field, type this: ##.#[$%]
* Use your symbol of choice in place of the percent sign.
The pound signs represent the numbers in your data, so adjust the number of them before or after the decimal as necessary. The period is a decimal, of course. The bracketed expression is telling Excel that “In this country, we use a percent sign rather than a dollar sign.”
TechCrunch site down
August 1st, 2009Note: Joroto had absolutely nothing, NOTHING to do with TechCrunch’s outage yesterday.
Ah, I feel better now.
See you at the LinkedIn Patio Party!
July 18th, 2009If you have not decided yet, I encourage you to go ahead and make the big effort. Come introduce yourself to me, as I will be at the Shaker Heights Country Club LinkedIn event Tuesday night! Good luck finding me of course as there are well over six hundred people registered. WOW (™Microsoft). I am waiting for a cancellation or a notice of overcrowding to dash my hopes. The guest list has continued to increase, although I thought it would tail off at about five hundred. (That is why I never win the lottery nor predict recessions accurately.)
This will be fun.
Today Tom continually iterated how much he hates people and there is no way he is going. Therefore, if you are interested in talking high-level tech talk with our lead developer, I must apologize. That is okay by me though. At least Tom will not embarrass us by showing up at this posh event wearing the same green polo he has worn to work for the past three months. Instead, we should send him to CES the next round. That is, if he can bear to sit next to a human being on the plane ride.
July 22, 2009 Update
The event was very cool. Seven hundred-something did I hear? More accomplished people in one area than I have ever seen. Real tough to do this sort of thing at the end of the workday, but well worth it.
How to backup your Wordpress Blog
July 11th, 2009I post this, not because there are not a million other web sites that tell how to do this, but because they all tell me to go to “manage” and I do not see a “manage” function in Wordpress. Here is how to backup your Wordpress content:
1) Go to the ADMIN Panel – http://www.YOURBLOG.com/wp-admin Read the rest of this entry “
Cannot login to LinkedIn after changing password
July 5th, 2009At LinkedIn’s login page I requested a password reset. I immediately received a secure URL to a password change page where I created a new password. Subsequently I could not sign in using this new password. After trying every e-mail address I have thinking I had screwed up, no dice. I actually found my original password. With theory in mind, I requested a password reset. I then Read the rest of this entry “
Monster.com going bye-bye?
June 28th, 2009BusinessWeek wrote about Monster.com’s competition and loss of business:
Recruiting: Enough to Make a Monster Tremble
A clear sign that a formerly super-successful dot com with a spectacular profit margin has turned into a typical Fortune 500 Company run by a myopic big city businessman: The CEO eliminated paper cups in the break rooms.
Newsflash: Just like Monster.com replaced the newspaper, Monster better think completely out of the box in order to gain some new, currently unknown, advantage over its online competitors.
As I have worked for major corporations that have gone the same route, here is some advice Mr. Iannuzzi: Put the paper cups back. Not only is your business revenue hurting badly, but you just made all of your employees resentful. These are the people whom you will rely on for innovation and superior service.
Mr. Iannuzzi, I have an idea for you to steal a very cool niche in recruiting. Contact us if you are interested.
JB
Where is our CTO? And who really cares?
June 28th, 2009Yesterday I received an e-mail from a partner asking where our third partner and lead developer is. Like the rush of Niagara Falls, thoughts of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford taking off for Argentina and telling no one went though my head. Then there was Steve Jobs: He nearly died, and no one holding Apple stock, most of the value of which is Steve himself, knew anything about his condition.
Rest assured, Tom is not duplicating the efforts of either of the above shady characters. He is taking a rare break from developing device drivers all day, and developing web apps all night, to spend some time with his family.
I do not miss the twenty-something e-mails a day that each details some new, advanced system or method that gets Tom all excited, but which I could care less about. For one week I have been able to spend most of my time communicating with magazine editors, developers, and users in the tech blogs, continually trying to figure out what we can do for them. People are awesome. Life was never better.
Alas I fear the honeymoon is over, and I will be chastised for my marketing prowess and lack of high level tech insight any minute now…
JB
aGauge now available for iPhone & iPod
June 20th, 2009aGauge is now available for the iPod and iPhone! Test your accelerometer with this utility. Super Cool!
Or visit the Joroto iTunes Store:
Internet Pricing Exposed – Time for a personal domain?
June 19th, 2009Yet another sour deal: In 2007 I was offered high speed DSL from AT&T Yahoo! for $24.99. At the time I said, “That is too low, they are going to raise the price in a year.” I was a little bit off. Almost two years later, and sure enough they raised the price five dollars. Of course I am not sure about the price because the phone company consolidates all costs (hides them) in one grand total on the bill. They must have gotten that idea from congress.
Just after seeing the price increase I was notified that AT&T will be dropping Usenet. Tom said this is a decision made solely to gain bandwidth. He is right (only because he is always right…just ask him.)
I feel like I am back in 1999 with Internet companies raising prices and dropping services. (At least the constant, unexplained communication outages are not still a problem for me.) Anticipating AT&T pulling another stunt in two or four days, I must look at my options. The only big problem with switching providers is changing my e-mail address. Whoop! Time to register a personal domain, select a permanent e-mail address, and update all of my contacts for the final time. I wonder if “tomslesserbusinesspartner” is taken? In any case, a personal domain can stay with a person forever. This is something I should have done ten years ago.
Registering a domain name is in the ten dollar range. Additionally, if one is already hosting a web site (joroto.com for example), they may be able to use the same hosting service for the new domain (tomslesserbusinesspartner.com). That means the additonal domain’s yearly cost is limisted to the registration fee, which is quite a bargain.
If you are not tech savvy, you should be warned that there is more effort associated with managing your own domain. This is only moderately difficult, but if I can do it, you can do it faster and better.
Now I am seriously considering the personal domain option. Once I have an e-mail address established on my own registered domain, I can switch to any Internet provider, at any time, without having to worry about updating all of my contacts (hi mom!)
Just a thought for the day for the millions of you who just got jacked by AT&T.
Time to surf for a good responsive newsgroup server before AT&T cuts off Usenet on July 15th. Ideas?
JB
How to Edit Your Wordpress Blog with Adobe Contribute
June 13th, 2009As usual, this should be a process that a newbie could execute. In other words, open Contribute, point to your web site, type your login, and go. Of course, Contribute returns generic errors stating that it cannot connect, and so you (I) try every password in your password file. Well, here is the skinny on setting this up, and let me know if I missed anything.
This setup assumes you are hosting your own Wordpress blog, which does support xml-rpc. Edit the url or settings appropriately if you are using Wordpress.com or another protocol.
1) Turn on XML-RPC in Wordpress Read the rest of this entry “
The miserable life of a programmer
June 11th, 2009Why not begin the new blog with some fun! (I anticipate Tom quickly taking over and never allowing me here again, unless I can make up some highly technical explanation for something-something. Well, it was nice meeting you anyway.)
Here was our promotional video for our game Trisaic for the iPod.
We were hoping for responses such as “Awe, that’s funny.” Along with some positive comments like that, we immediately began receiving comments like this:
“LOL, I thought it was funny. Sad thing is, there is probably some truth to it. My nephew had a friend who was a XXXX developer for XXXXX and told me stories of some of the things they would do to meet dead lines.”
Okay, so we are now as worried about you all as we are about our developers.
What comes to your mind as you view this?
JB
Joroto promotes both electricity use and more sustainable production methods
March 27th, 2009In response to the naturally-inclined actions of many organizations reducing their electricity us in celebration of Earth Day, Joroto is taking a different approach: Rewarding employees for using the most energy possible over the course of April 22nd, Earth Day 2009. Joroto, in fact, will be holding a contest, and will reward the developer who uses the most electricity on Earth Day.
President John Boukis states: “In the world of software and web development, electricity is productivity. On Earth Day, we will be monitoring the electricity use of our employees. We have outlined a set of rules that define cheating. Employees will be forbidden from executing such tactics as adding accessories such as portable air conditioners to their personal network stations, or playing 3D games (restricted only on this particular work day.). We have basic monitoring capabilities which will help us determine which individual used the most electricity on Earth Day. The winner of this internal contest will receive an additional $5 million dollars in Joroto stock options.”
Asked about observers’ gut reactions that these actions are generally irresponsible Boukis cautions all to carefully consider their reasoning: “The problem the world faces is not overuse of electricity. The macro problem is that our lifestyle depends on electricity more than ever, and we need to produce a great deal more electricity in order to continue growing our new computer-based economy. ”
“We absolutely believe that energy should be produced using the latest, most efficient, and most sustainable technology. Every new house should be built with solar panels, and local governments should bury their bureaucracies, and allow the building of private wind turbines in all but the most dense areas, in order to generate significantly more electricity while producing (including manufacturing processes that produce solar and wind power materials) greatly reduced pollution levels. With this in mind, consider that this contest is a celebration of the computer, and what it has meant to our employees and this company: Creativity and most importantly, freedom. Electricity is productivity. The more electricity we as an IT company use, the more applications we crank out. The more applications, the more revenue, the more we grow, the more people we hire, right on down the line. This is Productive Energy Tap, and we will continue to vehemently promote all of its tenets.”
Joroto, Inc Releases Trisaic for the iPod and iPhone
March 13th, 2009Today Joroto announced the release Trisaic, a puzzle game for Apple’s portable devices, the iPod and iPhone. The game board for Trisaic is full of pairs of adjacent triangles that the player must match. The player selects the objects and cycles through their various designs in order to match the design of an adjacent object. The game quickly becomes difficult, and a great memory teaser, as the number of possible designs for each triangle increase with each new level. A handful of objects will have no match, making the game even more challenging.
Find all Joroto products at the following web page:
Welcome
March 11th, 2009Welcome to Joroto’s blog. I will tend to opine periodically about the lighter side of life. Our CTO Tom will tend to dish out tech advice, whether we want it or not. Be prepared as anything goes within the walls of Joroto, and the blog reflects our openness.
Thank you for coming!
John Boukis
President
Joroto Inc. Seeks Two Million Dollar Investment for Web Project
January 1st, 2009If you represent a VC firm that funds tech companies, Joroto is looking for you. Joroto seeks funding for a commercial web domain. Please contact us at:
Send us information on your capital investment company. Once we research your company, we will provide a generalized design and monetization project plan for your review. If you are able to visualize our concept, work from a generalized overview, and you show an interest in our project, we will provide a detailed CV for each Joroto employee.
John
Co-Founder & President, Joroto, Inc.
Themocracy