Well apparently this test didn't work….

Notepad++, my favorite text editor, released a new version, which now includes column mode editing.  See what else is new at Notepad++ News.

Last week while on vacation we stopped in a local Borders in Louisville Kentucky to help kill some time.  I wandered over to the business section and spotted Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur: Why I Can't Stop Starting Over by Stuart Skorman. 

Book Description
Entrepreneur Stuart Skorman—the founder of Elephant Pharmacy, Hungryminds.com, Reel.com, and Empire Video—grew up in a retailing family in Ohio. He worked every kind of job, from cab driver to professional poker player to CEO. In this entertaining, personal account of his coming-of- age in the business world, Skorman gives an insider’s view of what it takes to start a business from the ground up.

Stuart Skorman offers his hard-won lessons in business for any entrepreneur or small businessperson who wants to create a company that has a heart and soul. He reveals what he learned about marketing while working a stint as a rock band manager and bares his soul about his failure during the dot-com bubble. He describes in vivid terms the roller coaster ride of the entrepreneur in good times and bad and explains how to survive in today’s uncertain business environment.

I thought this book would be inspiring and entertaining and a good read.  Boy, was I right!  I ended up knocking the book off in days.  Stuart's life is quite inspiring and while somewhat being an autobiography of his business career, he provides business advice and lessons-learned that any entrepreneur can apply.  I highly recommend this book.

Welcome to my new blog.   This is the second blog I am running.  My first,  Mike's Civil War Musings,was started over 18 months ago.  At that time I wanted to learn more about blogging and web development so I combined it with one of my hobbies, which is the Civil War. 

I decided to start up this blog to focus on my other passion, which is software development.  I have been in the computer and software industry for way, way too long (20+ years).  I have been programming even longer.  I actually have the original Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 at home with it's 16K ROM and 32K RAM (yes that is K as in 32,000 bytes!).  My 2nd real computer was an NEC machine running CP/M (I like putting that on resumes) with 8" floppy drives.  So you can say I've been around the block a bit.   I have continued my passion since then.  Perhaps there is a series of posts there for all the Internet and Web 2.0 "kids" out there.

So with this blog I plan to focus on software development, web programming, agile development, WordPress, Firefox and other things I find interesting.  Like any new blog starting out I'm sure I will alter my focus along the way and either be more broad and find a niche.  You got to start somewhere though.   So away we go….