this ain't the official official poast. i'll do that when we push the button (any day now) and the app hits the market. but i can finally fill you guys in on what it is and what it do and how you can help, if so inclined.

*deep breath*.

thanks for your prayers, well wishes and support. last that i poasted about this we were in need of $35k to complete development. well, we did that, and then some. development is now (mostly) done but testing was a btch.

i'm still gonna be kinda secret squirrely about the project, so i'll type the url like this sy llabeye.com (remove the space and paste into your browser) because i don't want to throw off the search engines.

i'm still updating the site. mikal did the basic page layout. i'm editing and making some additions. i ain't done web development in years. manually updating pages and whatnot, but its coo.

i'll explain in the next reply what the app does, answer questions, etc.

we have a youtube video coming out (tonight? any day now?) that shows off the app as well as demonstrates how to use it. i'm hoping to be in the android store tonight or tomorrow. iOS got some last minute issues so that will prolly be next week for the apple crowd.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

this looks like something i could have used.

be used for regular day to day ish (that is coming. we have a name for it and everything). got to get this initial paper, tho.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

that shit is pretty major. I could really see this taking off. And if they wanted to use their powers for evil... beacoup $$$

good guys. i'm not at liberty to share mikal's background, but we'll say that they are more modest than cam's, and cam stay on some oodle of noodle ish. part of his impetus for having the idea was guilt at having done poorly in fall semester last year, his first year of working and being off campus while doing school full time. plus he struggles with organization as do most of us, i'd wager, in this hectic world.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

* make the images smaller but do a lightbox to blow them up, also crop a percentage of deadspace. generally the left right image to text layout isn't quite working yet on the desktop, probably not so bad on the mobile though.
* don't use the company name in the descriptions.
* font needs to be darker.

Congrats though.

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

not in a position to fool w/ the layout, yet. once we're on the market, it is mainly going to be for reference.

>* make the images smaller but do a lightbox to blow them up,
>also crop a percentage of deadspace. generally the left right
>image to text layout isn't quite working yet on the desktop,
>probably not so bad on the mobile though.
>* don't use the company name in the descriptions.
>* font needs to be darker.

will look into these.

thanks. i appreciate all feedback.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

his content is impressive.

but the write-ups are terrible.

im still a fan.

student juggling this with working and a senior comp sci workload.

so i'm getting my edit on while trying not to squelch their zeal if you feel me.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

my son, cameron (cj2 to those who been following from waaay back), is a sophomore at ECU (East Carolina University). at the beginning of last semester, he and a friend, mikal, were talking about school, and its difficulties, and what could make it easier. as it turns out, both of them had had an idea about taking a picture of a whiteboard or syllabus with the course deadlines and assignments and due dates laid out on it, and having an app automatically extract that info and pull it into a calendar, allow them to set reminders, etc.

cam is urban planning, mike is comp sci (senior).

they thought on it, built on it, sketched it out and discussed with a few other kids and determined that this would be a great thing if it existed.

they searched and could find nothing of the sort on the market (android, apple, etc).

they figured out that it was because it was a very daunting technical challenge. syllabi come in many many varied formats and fonts. and devices have many different hardware specs and resolutions. this was beyond novice or hobbyist developers' ability to pull off.

that's about where i'd have said, 'oh well', but cameron started calling around to find about third party developers and got one in eastern europe who has done really great work for many fortune 500 companies. he had them sign a non disclosure agreement, they concluded that the idea was worthwhile, had technical merit, and was doable.

somehow the act of pricing it out involved them signing a $30,000 development contract with this company.

still smh at that. since then (around last march/april), they have been running around trying to get funding through traditional means, untraditional, etc., and trying to advance the project.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

>that's about where i'd have said, 'oh well', but cameron
>started calling around to find about third party developers
>and got one in eastern europe who has done really great work
>for many fortune 500 companies. he had them sign a non
>disclosure agreement, they concluded that the idea was
>worthwhile, had technical merit, and was doable.
>
>somehow the act of pricing it out involved them signing a
>$30,000 development contract with this company.
>
>still smh at that.

Man I wish I had known. I'm glad it's working out though.

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

***
I'm tryna be better off, not better than...

Love it!

---------------------------------------
it's true what they say...people are strange, when you're strangers.

not compassionate....only polite.

I am not like you at all and i cannot pretend.

craziest thing is in that movie, i never really thought of barry white as banking like that.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

congrats!

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

...

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

.
.
.
"America, stop turning our Court Houses of Justice into Dens for Justified Murderers."

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

You got third world labor turning these images into calender items?


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

http://blackpeopleonlocalnews.tumblr.com/

when we had some MAJOR technical challenges a couple weeks ago.

wasn't working, so i'm like, i don't know ish about android or iOS development, but i've been on super complex, billion dollar s/w projects with teams of hundreds of developers and been able to jump in the mix and tell them how to fix things and what approaches don't work.

i had to spend a couple of nights on eastern europe time on skype but we hashed it out.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I'm doing some part time study next year, might give this a go to see how it works.

there is a LOT that it will do. but for now, it is very basic. the 'mvp' (minimum viable product) we are launching with does the following:

- take picture of a syllabus via cellphone or tablet camera
- run OCR against it and some algorithms to parse out relevant text indicative of assignments, tests, etc
- present them to the user and launch the native device calendar allowing you to then add them as entries or tasks and set reminders

it does this as a free download for one scan, and with a 99 cents per semester license. so, less than the cost of a soda, you can really set yourself up for college (and later, the work world, etc).

that's the basis. ultimately, if we are able to get enough downloads quickly enough, we already have our developer sizing the additional featues, including social functions (creating dynamic study group matchmaking -- i have a name for it but not using it in public yet), conflict analysis between tasks (say you have two HEAVY classes with exams in the same week - that should be treated differently than if you had a bowling quiz, so alerts will be sent and options will be presented).

we'll be able to forward information and inspiration in the way of tips and such to keep students on track.

the potential is unreal.

and there are a NUMBER of ancillary businesses surrounding this, as well. biggest of which is the marketing, if we can seize several million loyal and engaged members of the college and post-college demo.

but we have to hit quick and grow fast before competition can swoop in. establish a brand and quickly implement new features while perfecting the old ones.

tough challenge, launching mid year like we are.

we're putting syl labeye on sale so $0.99 will buy an entire year's license if purchased in the next couple of weeks, to try to pull some of the revenue to the left in order to do a strong, nationwide launch timed up with the January spring semester start.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

your continued prayers and well wishes are highly appreciated.

what would also be a good look is the following, when it drops and we're ready for the big push:


1. download the app when it comes out. its a free download and doesn't take up much space or do anything shady (one of the things we'll be really clear on is being respectful of privacy, etc).

2. sice it up to any friends and fam or other e-folk who might get use from it. our demographic triangle as i call it, of people who should be excited about this consists of students, educators, parents. anybody in your circle in college, with college (or even high school, depending) aged kids, or a prof or grad student, if you shoot them a link when it goes live, i would deeply appreciate it.

3. retweet / social media it up

4. anyone you know who may really have an interest (a prof, school administrator, etc), you can pass along my info




peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

you might have posted and i missed it

also waiting for the youtube video to hit.

when we do the official thing, i'ma see if i can get the alaska treatment for the poast.

this post is more like, on your marks, get set...



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

.

My wife is a professor and kids always have excuses for not referencing the syllabus

but congrats to your son & team!

$5 is a fair number to me. and its easy to say in marketing materials. "For five bucks" "Only 5 bucks" "For only five bucks - like one latte- you can actually know what you need to be working on when you get to the cafe"

something to that effect.

Congrats on this. Very cool. You should have no problem securing VC if thats the route you choose to go. Your social media and brand awareness need to be top notch.

You already know all that though.

Much success to you all. This is brilliant and logical. Every student could and should need this.

if someone drops 99 cent and we're constantly pushing out updates to get it to our desired level of functionality, that's in our favor. we're buying patience.

there are 21 million full time college students in the US (int'l is gonna be huge too, no doubt), at least 17.9m w/ smartphones. if we get even around 50% of that, a loyal, engaged 10m students (at 14m / yr revenue) is going to be far, far, far more valuable than just the app subscription. but i'm getting close to talking too much.

co-marketing opptys will be crazy if this scales. we have a number of other apps on deck, as well as services, apparel. (my daughter and another recent nc state design graduate are handling the design work for the project, and they got some stuff wit them).




peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

.

ECU has pledged that they will throw some official weight behind it, which is dope, and also fitting. this fits into a narrative they are trying to build as well as their long term branding to get the rest of the state see them as more than just a party and medical school.

but the folks in their student services and related departments have been super helpful. i won't say who cam met with but they were pretty high up.

one of the things with schools (or individual professors) is to get them to help via:

1 - promoting it to their students

2 - standardizing their syllabus formats among their profs

why would they do 1? because it costs a huge amount to recruit a student. when kids fail out, that recruitment money is wasted instead of being amortized across their time at the school. so there is big money already in retention programs, as it impacts the universities' bottom line as well as their public perception. cameron found some great studies showing this financial link and has used them in speaking with officials about the app.

why would they do 2? if they recognize the financial benefit of a free (for them) means of boosting student academic performance, and all it took was to tell everyone in xyz department to use bullets instead of tables, wouldn't that be a no-brainer?

if i'm a prof, and i can guarantee that every student i teach, say, 100, is going to have reminders in the devices that they have with them every day telling them when there is an upcoming exam or paper (and later, giving guidance on how far in advance to study for them), i'm gonna take 10 minutes to cut and paste my syllabus from whatever format i normally use into one of the few that are assured to work with the syll abeye app.

cam got commitments from ecu, and 5 other major schools in NC to say they will be part of the pilot. (smoove, too. told school b, ecu is doing this. hten went to school c and said, ecu and school b are doing this, and just parlayed it until he had those 5 extra schools saying how can we be down?)

what we're trying to do at ECU (and any other college) is to get a department to do a metrics based study of several factors of academic achievement (missed assignments, zeroes, grades, etc) before and after sylla bye.

if we can show definitive studies linking the app to academic improvement, its a wrap, because all schools will jump on and we'll be moving more through institutional licensing channels.

cam is also creating an internship program for kids at his school to gain real world marketing and business and entrepreneurial experience while helping promote the app. the school is hype about that too.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

you had the syllabus and you had syllabye.

there is no reason for you to be asking for an extension on a paper or to miss an exam short of legitimate emergency.

i always liked professors who came at me like that. set clear expectations and fair consequences for failure to meet those expectations.

saying he'd make it mandatory for his students. i guess they get tired of hearing those excuses.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

The product will sell itself.

.99 cents?! For a semester or an academic year?

I mean think of all the colleges...all the HS kids?

Its a fucking gold mine. Please carve out time to make a blog abt the ride up, this could really be amazing.

Good stuff. Congrats to you and your team a gang of people wait a lifetime for one good idea your boy got his before he turned 21

>Its a fucking gold mine. Please carve out time to make a blog
>abt the ride up, this could really be amazing.
>
>Good stuff. Congrats to you and your team a gang of people
>wait a lifetime for one good idea your boy got his before he
>turned 21

actually, i been poasting about him for a minute. this the one that i used to play runescape with when he was in like 8th grade. and he learned a lot about business and economics buy merching stuff in the game, and even started his own company within the game called rune depot, where he would do tasks that high level players (rich) didn't have time for. then he would 'hire' n00bs to do that grunt shit and he'd broker the deals with the rich players. it was crazy.

he'd see a new quest being released, check out the raw materials needed for it and predict the market, and already have folks collecting them and then sell when the price went up.

at the same time, i told him about all the big ideas i had but never capitalized on, like inventing smartcash wireless ATM while at my job in a class, but the other dudes in the group flaked on me and i never patented it. and now you got google wallet and apple pay and all that other shit. granted, *redacted* would have gotten the money, and we talking like '97 or '98 when i did that (still got the presentation files), but still.

also had other ideas that were almost worth me leaving my company over, but w/ 6 kids i needed stability and a reliable source of income.

but he listened to all that.

when the check came and we paid the arrears to the dev company and we restarted development he told me that he remembered all of that, including thetime i came to his 7th grade class (before he was homeschooled) and talked to them about how my cell phone at the time was more powerful than the computers that launched the space shuttle, and about how you could work using your ideas...

and then brought it full circle by telling me that even though he didn't go into programming, he always listened, including when i told him when he went to school to keep an eye out for problems that could be solved with an app. and voila.

i was almost in tears, mayne.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Or maybe even a podcast. A lot of folks would love to hear this story.

gonna do it, now that i think of it.




peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

school i attend has an entrepreneurship foundation that helps students promote/get funding for their ideas.

to the local Small Biz Development Center. which is cool, because he learned a lot from messing w/ them.

he's made a couple of contacts which may pay off. but some decent networking and some guidance on early on decisions.

he's really looking to be able to provide that guidance for other kids coming after him, which is admirable.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

The app itself has tremendous potential for adding premium features in down the road.

In fact, I dare say you could turn this into a plugin machine, offering low-cost add ons/upgrades/insert marketing jargain here to the .99 version with the option of purchasing a premium ‘everything bundle’ out the gate at a higher price point, say $4.99.

Further, the technology itself could become something of a Shazam level application and I hope you guys are thinking along those lines. The licensing potential for smart phones, for example, is mind boggling. It looks like a home-run as is, but there’s so much room to grow it’s absurd.

Well done.

other endeavor.

>The app itself has tremendous potential for adding premium
>features in down the road.
>
>In fact, I dare say you could turn this into a plugin machine,
>offering low-cost add ons/upgrades/insert marketing jargain
>here to the .99 version with the option of purchasing a
>premium ‘everything bundle’ out the gate at a higher price
>point, say $4.99.

right. one of the first things i did when i got involved was do a competitive analysis.

nobody really in this space. out of any potential competitors, one of the short list of names that kept coming up in 'top apps for students' was evernote.

but their premium version is like $5 per MONTH. and this is likely a subset of a market they already have. wouldn't make sense for them to play around with us in our price range.

we are looking, once we're out and proven and have all of the technical issues taken care of, at creating a lifetime membership that would allow us to get a multiple of the license fee up front. that'd be useful if we saw something we needed to build that was really expensive, or to box out future competitors by getting the cash up front.

i need to chill w/ putting too much strategy out there, but hopefully we can cop and consolidate marketshare very quickly.

>Further, the technology itself could become something of a
>Shazam level application and I hope you guys are thinking
>along those lines. The licensing potential for smart phones,
>for example, is mind boggling. It looks like a home-run as is,
>but there’s so much room to grow it’s absurd.
>
most definitely. and wearables. there's no killer app for smartwatches yet. if we'd have launched earlier in the year this could have been a boon for smart watches as christmas presents. we definitely gonna talk to the major players there. only thing they all hate each other.


>Well done.
>
>
thanks.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

with more and more schools making their syllabi available via website and whatnot, the onus is still on the students to take that info and internalize and prioritize it.

Another great feature would be if the app (or desktop app via drag and drop for example) could upload the electronic syllabi and regurgitate the itemized list and calander/task/reminder directly to the smartphone.

This is a no-brainer for paper syllabi, but kids are browsing their class websites via blackboard and other websites all the time, often from their phone. if they can save a pdf, or drag and drop, or copy paste the info and upload it direct to Syllabeye, wow. the possibilities.

you need a light investment for a light piece of equity haha?

>This is a no-brainer for paper syllabi, but kids are browsing
>their class websites via blackboard and other websites all the
>time, often from their phone. if they can save a pdf, or drag
>and drop, or copy paste the info and upload it direct to
>Syllabeye, wow. the possibilities.

nights ago i sent off a spreadsheet of our future features to the remote dev team for sizing .

listed out the ideas by category, revenue impact, usability impact, marketing impact, etc., and then with scoring for what *i* thought was more or less difficult and expensive.

they'll shoot it back to me w/ $$$ and times on it, and then we'll rank it based upon scoring, time to implement, and cost, to come up with a strawman prioritized upgrade schedule. and then once we're live i'll track the customer feedback along with our existing list and move stuff up or back, accordingly.

and depending upon early revenues and what bang we get for the buck, we can come up with a release schedule.

but you are exactly right in that the stuff is out there electronically a lot, or folks getting pdfs already. we're solving the first and most basic problem first. you can take a pic of your screen although that's not ideal, if its in the right format.

but eventually we'll have a full electronic interface and a way for schools that are down at the institutional level to send us the stuff and we'll put all the info on our server and kids can download it.

of course you got black board adn mo odle and other services trying to do the same. but that's different. and schools have not universally adopted that. we have a far lighter footprint.

Lord willing we won't need another financing round, but anyone interested inbox me, or let me know your skillset, because if this grows like i *think* and *pray* it will, we will be getting very big, very quickly.

also, i'm serious about the micro vc thing, too. if we end up w/ a lot of cash and a need to keep it all from being taxable, a 10 or 20k flyer on someone else's brainstorm with a 100x potential would not be a bad thing.

i know there are similar things but i've had some very particular thoughts in this area, having watched my son (and helped him) through the process.

local banks in g'ville, nc told him that pretty much the only business loans they did were for clubs and restaurants.

they were... structurally unprepared... for two young black men, in college, with a technical business idea.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

ridiculously high failure rates. Opening a restaurant is close to setting your money on fire for most people.

People in finance and low to mid management have so little vision it's pathetic.

Xerox made the first PC and their mid level managers wouldn't greenlight the project because they made business computers and thought no one could possibly want or need their own. The two most profitable businesses in world history came from it! Think about that shit for a minute. Never dismiss any idea that's centered around making people's lives easier.

that's like the WORST businesses to roll the dice on. but ish was very 'traditional' out there. they saw it had potential, but couldn't find a way to make it happen.

>ridiculously high failure rates. Opening a restaurant is
>close to setting your money on fire for most people.
>
>People in finance and low to mid management have so little
>vision it's pathetic.

really.

>
>Xerox made the first PC and their mid level managers wouldn't
>greenlight the project because they made business computers
>and thought no one could possibly want or need their own. The
>two most profitable businesses in world history came from it!
>Think about that shit for a minute. Never dismiss any idea
>that's centered around making people's lives easier.

exactly! a group of german ibmers in the 70's had an idea for a new way for business software to be written and delivered. ibm was like, nah, we good. a gang of them quit, did they thing, and they are now known as SAP, a multi billion dollar company that spawned a whole industry (ERP) and guess who their numba one customer (c) ahnold is?

i've had ideas good enough to bounce and came > < close before but, like i said, i had to do what i had to do. interesting that the thing that might get me up outta here is an idea that my son had.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I might be able to wrangle five, after the first of the year.

Will definitely promote this amongst my classmates and other students I know. Great concept. :)

street team approach to marketing, but i've had to back burner that. (but where folks could get a cut if they blew it up at their school. i need to think more on how we'd measure and compensate that, though).


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Finally putting the PDF Reader to a good, cheap, ultra valuable use.

The possibilities are endless if you say in that education lane too.

BIg stuff bro, big stuff.

Please let me know if I can be of help with the DB or QA'ing anything

>Finally putting the PDF Reader to a good, cheap, ultra
>valuable use.

we actually using OCR via the devices' native cameras. not there yet on getting it straight from pdf, but that's a thought.

>The possibilities are endless if you say in that education
>lane too.

yeah. in doing the competitive analysis i was like, really? there's lots of gaps, lots of needs, and lots of people with incentives. good combination.

i really haven't seen a fubu for students kinda deal (the ethos of for students by students). i think, as consumers, they will respond positively to something being brought to them by their peers. and i also think that having ears close to the ground will be a competitive advantage over larger companies. or that's the hope.


>BIg stuff bro, big stuff.
>
>Please let me know if I can be of help with the DB or QA'ing
>anything

thanks much.

phase 2 will be heavy on backend analytics and such, and we'll definitely need a strong dba / data architect. when we get to that point is contingent upon how quickly we grow revenue. could be early as january, if ppl really cop this, en mass.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

you must be so proud 😊

its a wonderful feeling. and a tremendous blessing.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I don't adjunct at the moment, but I just forwarded this to my friends who do.

The response is overwhelmingly positive. Also, gotta get the iPhone app out, ASAPtually.

the 3am conf calls (to avoid missing a day working with international developers), its not looking like we gonna have time for them to find it, fix it, and return the code by our time friday, so hopefully early next week.

and thanks very much.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I told them it should be ready by next semester and they're excited.


Also. Inbox.

I'm going to put him on to this. Hopefully he can get you guys some traction at his school.


http://www.twitter.com/steelysteel

fam?


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Everyone is healthy and alla dat, you know! (c) O.C.


http://www.twitter.com/steelysteel

Building an app is an impressive accomplishment.

I have an idea that I think would be great, but no coding skills whatsoever.

So exciting!

God is so good.

and thanks for everything.

i'ma get these templates out today

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

i pushed the button earlier and confirmed that it shows up now. i updated the website to now point to the google play store link.

iOS version should be in the iTunes Store early next week, hopefully.

i got to work on communications ish now (update press releases for online and traditional media, templates for social media and email blasts, etc).

please download the free version if you can. trying to get numbers and make things trend.

if you have any adverse feedback (and i expect some because it is very basic -- its what we could afford to go live with), please shoot me an email or inbox and i'll see if it is something we're already aware of.

i'm going to push some templates out to the website for syllabus formats that we know will scan correctly. eventually we're gonna have it so retail workers, etc., can take a picture of their work schedule and pull it in to their calendar.

gonna be a long night, but its a good thing.

thanks for all of the love and encouragement.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Can't wait to try it out.

some tips...

you need pretty good lighting. the aspect ratio is kinda narrow, but that supposedly varies from device to device. just seemed a lil skinny on my Note 4.

it doesn't do well with tables. that's something we're still working on behind the scenes.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.syllabeye

of what it can actually do

we had some changes to screens during test.

also, good looking out on the purchase. much appreciated. and hopefully, within that year we'll have added some functions that are useful to you.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Even though I have no use for this app. Support.

nm

and friends who work at universities:-)

Looking for a syllabus to try it out on.

also, got the inbox. i'll hit you back on that.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

If I was still teaching this would be mandatory. I'm really serious.

much appreciated.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

working for myself for a change, tho.

thanks again to all of y'all. this has been a great day.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

straight up. i wish i had the (electronic) tools that are available to kids these days. no excuses. man that's dope.


holla at me. you can count on me for support.

it's a tossup for me between wishing i had the tools of today versus the temptations and distractions of today. we tryna tip the scales somewhat with this in making cellys and tablets something that actually HELP with education as opposed to hinder.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

If that works like it says it does, you've (well, your son) has done a GREAT job. Well done and good luck... deserves to take off.

shit is spreading there

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

For a lot of universities that are on the quarter system, classes may be just beginning. However, it allows you to get your number of downloads up before the traditional semester system starts for the spring.

and pushed and pushed. so now instead of late for fall we early for spring, and december becomes, effectively, a soft launch.

hopefully we can build enough momentum to come out very strong in the spring and then just kill the game by the time fall 2015 rolls around.

thanks for the insights. much appreciated.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

does it link to readings that may be listed in the syllabus?

i.e. week 2 under readings the prof lists a reference to an article. does the app link to google scholar or something like that?

additionally, a keyword (tag?) function would be the shit. Like a way of summarizing key terms that may be good to know for a particular course.

Just wondering.


BTW, I just found out I'll be teaching a course next semester. I'm recommending the app to my students.

feature (ie, having some kinda isbn lookup and ability to buy or rent by calling another service like amazon or chegg)

>does it link to readings that may be listed in the syllabus?
>
>
>i.e. week 2 under readings the prof lists a reference to an
>article. does the app link to google scholar or something like
>that?
>
>additionally, a keyword (tag?) function would be the shit.
>Like a way of summarizing key terms that may be good to know
>for a particular course.
>
>Just wondering.

other stuff like being able to scan and manage the meta data for the class is in the works
>
>
>BTW, I just found out I'll be teaching a course next semester.
>I'm recommending the app to my students.

wonderful (on you teaching the course), and thanks very much on recommending to students. i'll have to paste a link or send you the templates to the formats that work best at present.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

good looks.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

..you're welcome.

and thank your son for the time, effort, and ambition.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

gone by.

but i can't never say anything straight forward, so its perfect for me.

and thanks for the kind words, also.

i'm trying to get enough $$ to cop an okayplayer premium hoodie and an ikire jones (custom made 2xl) blazer to rock over it.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

definitely shall spread the word

good going!!


"i wanna hug all u idiotic bastards & then set you all on fire" -Bin

www.twitter.com/bedstuybetty
http://bedstuybetty.tumblr.com/
DROkayplayer: Giving you good puff since May '05

Forwarded this over to my cousin who teaches over at IU

I plan college and career readiness programs for a national nonprofit at the affiliate level(Communities In Schools). We serve 1.3 million students in 375 school districts across the country. Sharing with my national network colleagues on yammer. I will also forward to our alumni that are in college.

living everyday grateful for his grace!

communities in schools (we were just talking about that. that was back when cam was still in public school). my middle son, who was the first one we homeschooled is a freshman at ecu and as part of one of his classes, is tutoring elementary school students. great full circle.

>I plan college and career readiness programs for a national
>nonprofit at the affiliate level(Communities In Schools). We
>serve 1.3 million students in 375 school districts across the
>country. Sharing with my national network colleagues on
>yammer. I will also forward to our alumni that are in college.
>
this is incredible. thank you so much. i'm working on getting a press kit out for educators. (we already have one for publications). should have been done, but w/ difficulties, i ended up having to focus on testing, application design and problem solving. putting sales, marketing and publicity hat back on now.


>living everyday grateful for his grace!

^^^ word. every day.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Congrats to you and yours

A+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYlEmW8reUY

my middle son looking at cam like O_o for the music choice (i love jazz, but i would have went w/ something a bit more elevatory for this).

but they had to find something royalty free right quick, and all the other stakeholders are in class.

looks good, though.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

the piano for hours and deconstructs everything).

ironic, b/c he was supposed to be doing voiceovers b/c he has a radio voice and does all kinds of characters, etc., but he was busy in spanish class.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

so real


i like this video
i have to find a way to share

semester but starts back up next semester.

in the meantime, the whole rest of the crew is hard at work. so he's taken on a lot of the footwork. but his gf did a great job directing and producing the video.

and they got other folks lined up doing various things. i mentioned my oldest daughter who just graduated from state in may from design school. she and another dude are holding it down in the design area and we haven't even unleashed them yet. (she's mad busy w/ her job, but we making it work).

and mike on them computer science student hrs. so i don't know if he just naturally up to talk to ppl in eastern europe at 3am, or what. but he's done a tremendous job. great thing is i'm kinda able to mentor him when i'm dealing w/ their project mgrs, cto, dev leads, etc., around scope and design issues. this is some great real world experience for all of them.




peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

.
.
.
"America, stop turning our Court Houses of Justice into Dens for Justified Murderers."

right?

yeah, man, tho. we got to get this next generation straight to carry torches and batons and burdens and all types of stuff that the world gonna need 'em to do.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

And our Kids are going to be Legends in this world.

I'm really happy for you bro. m



.
.
.
"America, stop turning our Court Houses of Justice into Dens for Justified Murderers."

years on you. them couple years ain't mean nothing to me when it was the diff btw 35 and 37 or so.

but seeing 50 coming up over that hill? pssh.

where janey at?

i cannot be the standard bearer for the curmudgeon crew.

and on the other piece, yup. praying that great things happen for your son, also. i know that's your heart and you're pouring into him the best you know how. if all dads (and moms) had that mindset, that'd be a revolution unto itself.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

>years on you. them couple years ain't mean nothing to me when
>it was the diff btw 35 and 37 or so.
>
>but seeing 50 coming up over that hill? pssh.
>
>where janey at?
>
>i cannot be the standard bearer for the curmudgeon crew.
>
>and on the other piece, yup. praying that great things happen
>for your son, also. i know that's your heart and you're
>pouring into him the best you know how. if all dads (and moms)
>had that mindset, that'd be a revolution unto itself.
>
>
>peace & blessings,


Thanks man. I'm trying. Life hasn't been kind to me, but I'm trying to give my son 100 x's more in the way of support than I ever had.


.
.
.
"America, stop turning our Court Houses of Justice into Dens for Justified Murderers."

and im still a fan.

i'm trying to figure out how to best tweet it out.


http://tinyurl.com/syllabeye

or:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/syllabeye


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I'm actually going to spend some time tonight playing with the app to plan my launch. Also, I have some marketing ideas for the app that will play right into it's functionality.

i got some more ideas.

it might be a couple days before i hit you back on that b/c i want to reread in depth (plus i got 2 basketball games tomorrow w/ my youngest daughters that are damn near 3 hrs away, and i'm coaching one).


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

do some quid pro quo type marketing. for example, a dude who throws parties at local colleges has a decent insta and twitter following. so he's like, if you can throw us some shouts out now, we'll remember you when we blow up and got some absurd percentage of the college and post-collegiate demographic on lock.

we're trying to cobble together a bunch of very small entities into a massive, nationwide (eventually global) network.

so that promoter may put us on to 1000 ppl. and then in a month or two, we'll be able to put him on to 10000 in the same area, or next town over. that type deal.

we're very much trying to work the whole small business incubator / almost co-op type model.




peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

might have a worthwhile connection for ya.

.

thinking about the idea.

this is his re-up sophomore year, he supposed to be a junior. he came out really strong his freshman year and then last year, moving off campus (i shoulda nixed that) + working (too many hrs, too mch responsibility) didn't end up so well. then he seized upon this idea early in last spring semester and put in more work on this than on his studies.

so we let him take off this semester to work on getting the business off the ground with the understanding that his ass would be back on track in the spring.

hence my increased involvement from about mid year til now. big picture, if this do what we think it can do, we ain't gonna be mad about a lost year in school. plus, the level of organization that this app (plus all of the other features we'll be adding) will actually be shoring up a weak spot of his.

i see this as something that is going to help kids who are struggling to gain a foothold and hang on, and its gonna help kids who are doing ok to bust it out. and its going to help kids that are already on top of things to really take it to a new level.

i'm praying that things improve for your daughter. it takes a LOT to help these kids through the rough spots. when to be tough. when to understand and back off when they are beating themselves up. when to step in with solutions. when to fall back and let them work through stuff. but we don't have no choice but to keep at it.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

like this one. And the experience is something that's gonna stay with him too. Plus the app is useful so it's gonna catch on I'm sure which should translate into a nice payout. All worth it.

My daughter actually turned it around, but this is something that will help keep her ass on track and honest. One of her weak points was missing assignment, not failing grades after turning shit in. Which obviously pissed us off more, because that's just lazy.

But yeah, it's something she can really use and hella affordable too.

Congrats to you and you son. Great job.

I hope y'all will be on the come up for real with that app. Black folks succeeding in the tech world? I love it. I'm glad to hear that it's already catching on with the professors in your son's school. I can definitely see the need for that particular app.

I know you have to be proud of your young'n doing his thing. Your son is doing what I hope to do in the near future. I just went back to school for Computer Science and I've been hoping that sometime in the near future, I will get hit with inspiration due to some kind of need that I witness and will come up with an app that resolves it. Hopefully I can do this with a partner. Keep doing your thing, man. I wish all who are in this venture the best. God bless.




Since 1976

the inboxes slowly.

i was out of pocket for several hours today.

thanks again for all the love and support.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

link, and we have a remixed video. (music still bad. this music is placeholder. but its different bad).

i need to find some royalty free downtempo background music type track.

effing w/ this html getting on my nerves.

updated the main page at syllabeye.com and added a templates page (for professors / instructors). that's kind of a tutorial, too.

i still need to go through and clean some more, but getting there, at least.

hardest part is not breaking something that's already there.

now that i got a semblance of the web ish done, and we got links to video and tutorial screenshots, i'm gonna turn my attention back to the press releases and templates for friends and fam contacts, including outreach to academics.

also got to get cam to schedule a mtg w/ athletic dept at his school so we can pitch to them and then parlay to unc who could prolly really use an electronic babysitter / homework reminder right about now.

yes its 4am and i'm bout to go to sleep so i can do my regular job around 9:30.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.syllabeye

http://syll abeye.com



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I'm not the biggest fan of Google Calendar.

google calendar or digi cal. and i never set the default.

i need to install a couple more 3rd party calendars just to be fully sure, though, so thanks for the question.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

... and I wish you guys the best on this endeavor. Looks real resourceful! I hope to see you guys on shark tank soon!

>... and I wish you guys the best on this endeavor. Looks real
>resourceful! I hope to see you guys on shark tank soon!

they were actually asked to audition (ST came to greenville, nc in the summer) and they turned it down. they needed too small of an amount of money, and disclosing the idea to a broad audience before having development done would have been a HUGE business risk. also, shark tank takes 5% off the top just for appearing on the show. for it to work, they'd have had to go on shark tank. get money. complete development and testing. and be ret to go before the show aired.

now, IF it came out like that, that would have been fantastic with that tv audience. BUT, too many problems in that. also, the sharks would have wanted some stupid amount of equity. it was now ciper for those reasons.




peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

for all the insights and support.

hopefully i'll have 'em all answered / actioned tonight.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

i've emailed all the contacts you've sent me. many thanks for that.

we're at 50+ downloads now. still struggling to get traction, but grinding.

i'm sending out press releases now to targeted media.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I was telling some of my classmates about it today, and it would've been nice to actually show it in action. I've been looking for it in the App Store but can't find it so far...

i updated the screenshots and text. but can't upload the .ipa or the video b/c i don't have a mac.

so we literally sending a note right now to the developers to upload it. then it has to go through their approval process.

btw, the youtube video was done using a iPhone 5s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHNWb3pO5zM

that's the reupped video (w/ the different music).


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

machine (i hate m$ while we at it. i hate a lot of companies, now that i think about it).

and could not upload the video.

send a note at 2am last night to the dev. they hit us back w/ a big bill to do all the upload and management of markets. i login this morning like ho ho hold up... skype w/ our account mgr. we don't need y'all to do anything for android, just apple. and even on that, not all that extra ish. we did the meta data (descriptions, etc). just need the icons, code and screenshots.

so that cut the amended bill to less than half. but still, yo.

apple fancy ass needs the icon to be 1024 x 1024 so the one we used for google which was 512 x 512 won't fly. so we need designer time (i can't make the icon more hd from a lower quality one).

also, i only uploaded screenshots for the ipod touch (bootleg, i know). there are 3 other screen sizes, plus the ipad. so i need the dev team to at least grab one ss for each form factor and upload.

the video for precious apple can't be less than 15s or MORE than 30s. so now the youtube vid got to be edited down from 46 secs. damn if i pay the developer to do that. so i'll do that tonight and email back to them, b/c i can't upload it from windoze.

and since this is a first submission, it may take up to 5 days for apple to review and approve.

shitshitshitshitshit.

dev team will be working the weekend to have uploaded on monday morning. and we'll have to pray that it gets in and approved. b/c apple is shutting down shop on around 12/22 for the holidays.

meanwhile, we got apple heads waiting to download the app.

*sigh*.

we gon get there, tho.




peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

will email to both my chil'rens to test out...i'm trying to keep track of their crap and nah..

got MY calendar looking like this for no reason

http://i.gyazo.com/fd23e1d65d242852836e141a13aec277.gif

...lol.

are there incentives for kids to share and spread the word?

>will email to both my chil'rens to test out...i'm trying to
>keep track of their crap and nah..

that will be dope.

>
>got MY calendar looking like this for no reason
>
>http://i.gyazo.com/fd23e1d65d242852836e141a13aec277.gif
>
>...lol.
>
>are there incentives for kids to share and spread the word?

yes. we in the process of cooking that up. we were talking about it in the other poast.

and i JUST got off of txting my son about that. he's going to sleep. i'm bout to do some work for my real job now.

but yeah. some minor incentives to start. and some larger ones once the semester starts.

i'll up the other post.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad