Monday, March 23, 2009

Pastor takes child killer into his home - what would you do?

Found this article on the Salvation Army 'Rubicon' Blog and thought I'd repost it here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509585,00.html
CHICHESTER, N.H. — A pastor in this quiet, picturesque New England town opened his doors to a convicted child killer who had served his time but had nowhere to go.
What would you do? Read the entire article - click here

Monday, March 16, 2009

The sayings of Sylas v20 - Lightbulb

Tonight we were talking about what the kids would be when they grew up.

Sylas:
When I grow up I want to be a lightbulb!!
Daddy: What do you mean Sylas?
Sylas: Well, when I close my eyes the lights go out and when I open them the lights come back on!

Monday, March 02, 2009

"To the dreamers" - The origins of Twitter

This post may just end up turning into a new 'feature' on the old rusty athensBLOG. I'm not promising anything but every once in a while I find myself stumbling upon a story that inspires the dreamer in me. A story of desperation and sheer will power in the face of insurmountable odds. A story of someone who pulled through when all they had was a dream.

Recently I was reading about Twitter and found an interesting trail of info leading back to it's origins. Twitter was started by the same folks who started Blogger. Now Blogger, which I'm typing this post from, you may remember made it big when it was bought by Google in 2003.

But before then it was just a small start-up company called "Pyra Labs". Pyra Labs entry on Wikipedia states:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyra_Labs
The co-founders were Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, and the company's first product, also named 'Pyra'...the rudiments of Pyra were repurposed into an in-house tool which became Blogger.

Blogger was completely free and there was no revenue model. When the company's seed money dried up, the employees continued without pay for weeks or, in some cases, months; but this could not last, and eventually Williams faced a mass walk-out by everyone including co-founder Hourihan. Williams ran the company virtually alone until he was able to secure an investment by Trellix after its founder Dan Bricklin became aware of Pyra's situation. Eventually advertising-supported blogspot and Blogger Pro emerged.

As I read that I wondered what went through Williams mind when he was all alone, working on his dream. Today we have Blogger and Twitter but at that bitter moment all Williams had was a dream.

Here's to the dreamers!