Can’t help but post about this again. GPS tracking for sailing is pretty awesome! Today I sailed 25 total miles and had a max speed of almost 10 mph. Thats pretty quick for a sailboat. Also, I did a bunch of practice landings while under sail. You can see on the map below how I kept circling around and landing at the pier and a pin in the mooring field. At the end of the season I think I’ll do a big summary that gives all kinds of interesting statistics about my sailing this summer.

View Sailing Summer 2010 in a larger map

I ran into this video today and just had to pass it along. Sweet video time lapse of the volcano in Iceland. Make me want to go to Iceland so bad, and also to buy a super nice video camera.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Used the GPS to track my sailing today for the first time.  Of course I only remembered to turn it on for the trip back.  But its a start!

View Sailing Summer 2010 in a larger map

Some of you adventurous types may have clicked the little “about” link at the very top of the page. If you did, you quickly realized there wasn’t much there. But… change is here!  Now when you click that link you will be redirected to Steve’s new personal landing page: http://flavors.me/southpolesteve

I made it using this awesome site called Flavors.Me.  It is a dead simple way to create an “About Me” page.  It also automatically integrates  accounts from a ton of social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc).  Highly recommended.

Happy Mother’s Day!

I am a sucker for well done infographics. I found this one particularly interesting. Click the picture for a larger version

Source: Cool Infographics

I’m in the process of creating the “Ultimate Sailing Cooler”. The motivation for this is just to have the most technologically advanced cooler that ever existed. It will be used mostly for sailing small dingy boats.  It will be completely ridiculous and over the top.

Phase 1: Install Stereo Equipment and Electronics Compartment (In Progress) I completed this over the weekend. Bought some cheap marine speakers and an amplifier online. Hooked up to a 12v battery. The electronics are partitioned off from the rest of the cooler by a modified cutting board. Everything is sealed with silicone. All connections are just soldered and heat shrinked for the moment. Later, as it gets more finalized I will probably add connectors. Sounds great to far, but nothing to too technologically advanced. Input is from a small MP3 player.
Phase 2: Heads Up Display, GPS, Temp Monitor (Parts Ordered)
An Arduino will run the whole thing. I have never done Arduino work before, so I am excited to get my hands dirty. Inputs will be a couple temp sensors and a GPS module. Outputs are to a 20x4 character LCD that will be mounted on top of the cooler. GPS data will also be logged to an SD card so I can overlay all my sailing this summer onto google earth. LCD display will be heading, speed (knots), outside temp, cooler temp, battery life, and….. anything else I can think of. Maybe roll angle if I was adventurous and installed an accelerometer.

Phase 3: Solar Charging (Planned) Adding a 10 W solar panel to the top. There isn’t really a need for this, so of course it is a requirement for this cooler. It will also up the visible ‘cool’ factor
Phase 4: Connectivity (Out there) I will probably add bluetooth, wifi, or cellular connectivity. Maybe I will set up a tether to my phone so the cooler becomes a wifi hotspot. I need to come up with some more ideas here.
Phase 5: Mobility (WAY out there) If there is anyway I could make this move on its own, I might try. It will float, so I could add a propeller and a rudder system. Maybe some wheels and steering.

As some of you might know, I am probably going to move to Iceland next February.  I’ll be studying geothermal energy at the Renewable Energy School which is a private school that works in combination with the University of Iceland and the University of Akureyri.  More details will come as Febrauary gets closer.

Right now, I just want to assure everyone (mostly my mom) that I won’t end up in the path of the recent volcanic eruptions.  Akureyri is almost 150 miles from the eruption site and on the other side of the island.  See the map:

View Iceland Volcano in a larger map

Today’s post inspired by: http://blog.asmartbear.com/not- disruptive.html

I normally like the Smart Bear blog. His advice is very sound and seems more in touch with the common folk than some other blogs written from the clouds above Silicon Valley.  But I didn’t quite agree with Smart Bear’s words of wisdom today.  I’ll agree that the “disruptive” label is overused, but I actually think that some of the examples he gave are quite disruptive. Changing the landscape of an entire industry, or drastically altering the lives of XXX million users are not required criteria for being disruptive. Anytime you can make a successful company from just an idea, that is being disruptive.

Building a network of contacts is one of the most important things you can do. My friend Jusitn Beck did a great post about this here.  I agree with pretty much everything he said.  As for me, almost every job I have worked was a directly result of networking.  The only job that I got without “knowing someone” was my first job - cashier at Best Buy.

This post was inspired by what happened to me yesterday.  I went to a clean tech presentation given by the former CEO of Virent and the Current CEO of ZBB batteries, Eric Apfelbach. After the talk, I met an angel investor from Milwaukee and we talked about business, entrepreneurship, and GeoHuddle for almost 3 hours.  I don’t know if he will invest in GeoHuddle anytime soon, but he is a great contact to have and I am sure well be talking again soon.  It would have been so easy to leave when the presentation was over, or not to go at all. Bottom line: Talk to EVERYONE.  You never know who might be standing right next to you.

A really interesting talk on how too many choices is a bad thing.