Founder's Message

I wrote a founder's message and placed a link to it at the top of the "About" page in ProximityCast. You can also read it here.

My head seems to be clearing some. Maybe it is the new med the doc has me on. Maybe the Lord will decide to heal me. I know He is able, but I choose to be content in whatever circumstances He desires for me to experience. Even with a clear head I have much to do. I liken it to a turtle needing to circumnavigate the globe.

When my head is clear mostly all I want to do is work on ProximityCast. I am driven and I have a passion.

Things I need to do:
1). I will eventually need to improve my category system. If anyone knows of a good article on categories, please post a link in a comment.
2). I need to make submitting pictures easier.
a. Ideally I need to partner with a smart phone that can geotag photos and submit them directly to ProximityCast.com
3). I need to start making short educational videos for youtube that easily shows people all the intricacies of the site in such a way that they can appreciate it and start to use it more so that ProximityCast can gain traction.

That's the short of it. There is plenty of more I need to do also. Time will tell if I can move the ball down field.

Lord willing and the creek don't rise (or my head stays clear) I'll be able to continue to make progress.

Till later...

Ciao,

Founder out

Up and Running Once Again!

Wow! What a great day. I suffer from some cognitive disorder where I often can not have the focus necessary to code as I like. My head was clear today and my focus remarkable good. I repaired the geocoding problem encountered when Google changed their geocoding routine so that ProximityCast can once again utilize Street Addresses. I tried to fix this several times in the past and just couldn't get it together. It was a wonderful gift I received today 25 December 2010. Thank You Jesus!

For some reason I feel like I have been undergoing a Nebuchadnezzar experience. I've lost my ability to fly and my ability to code was also taken away.

"Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws." Daniel 4:33

Lord willing my lost abilities won't persist. If they do and this is only a brief awakening, I'll continue to do my best to be content with my situation and always knowing I'm better than I deserve even on my worst days; helps.

Due to my situation, ProximityCast.com is only a hobby for the time being, but I still have a vision in spite of Google's amazing capabilities. Time will tell what may come.

It was fun today. Like flying a challenging mission. Even if this awakening was only for the moment, it is a gift I will always cherish.

Kind Regards,

David B. Robert
Founder of ProximityCast.com

Left in the Dust

Pretty Cool Stuff! I wish they'd adopt the ProximityCast quality image of locations with Latitude and Longitude on the image as a certification that the location is correct.

Know when to hole em, fold em, walk away, and run

Silicon Valley’s Dark Secret: It’s All About Age

"If you’re going to stay in programming, realize that the deck is stacked against you. Even though you may be highly experienced and wise, employers aren’t willing or able to pay an experienced worker twice or thrice what an entry-level worker earns. Save as much as you can when you’re in your 30s and 40s and be prepared to earn less as you gain experience."





I still have a dream. Gotta kick back and regroup on my terms.

Move to Silicon Valley to become a successful startup

Jake’s posterous: Just Do It: Move to Silicon Valley

I'm 99.9% sure I'm not moving. The above link is an interesting post though.

Probably the biggest thing I miss by staying were I'm at is finding people that you can really discuss entrepreneurial issues with. I've only found one regarding ProximityCast. He knows who he is and I appreciate him. Thank you!

I can relate to this excerpt from the linked post:

Take, for instance, the challenge of finding a co-founder. While it is possible to meet a co-founder in Toronto, it's certainly not probable. For over three years, I would question almost everyone I came across who sounded like they were into tech: "Oh, so you code! Are you into startups?" and the answer was often be "Yes". But after some follow-up questions, I'd soon find out they don't even read TechCrunch (let alone Hacker News), they work for the government or one of the big banks (they might consider leaving, but not for a year or two), and when you ask about starting a company, and they'd say they would love to start a company, but "probably in a couple of years, when I'm ready" (yeah, like two kids and mortgage, ready?).

Even moving to Silicon Valley doesn't guarantee success, it just increases its probability.

I'm facing other obstacles now that even a move to Silicon Valley probably wouldn't help me clear. If I was younger and my situation was different, I'd probably go for it and make the move, so I guess I'm on both sides of the above excerpt; ouch.

Such is Life

Ciao

Facing some hard facts

1). I had big dreams for ProximityCast being a very useful Location Based Tool. I did get to build what I think was a nice prototype, but it didn't gain the traction I had hoped for with my bootstrapping attempt to move forward.

2). My current physical health does not allow me to put the time and effort in that ProximityCast deserves.

3). I'd consider selling it to someone that has the ability to cause it to meet its full potential, but I'm a lousy salesman and the thing from my reading that most purchasers of websites are looking for is "how much traction does the site have?" While I believe ProximityCast is a real diamond in the rough with a lot of potential, it really has no traction.

4). Working by myself things have moved too slow. There is a lot of competition with Location Based Sites. I would love to be a player and compete, but I have to face my health issues, my lack of resources, and my inability to generate traction.

So what am I going to do?

Originally ProximityCast was designed for using Latitude and Longitude only. I added GeoCoding as a courtesy to those not yet totally comfortable and familiar with latitude and Longitude. For this service I relied on Google's GeoCoding API Service. When Google upgraded their GeoCoding Service, it crashed ProximityCast. I could do the coding necessary to update to Google's new guidelines, then ProximityCast would work until Google changed their code again. Also if ProximityCast by some freak miracle did gain traction, Google only allows so many geocoding requests a day which would shut ProximityCast down once the limit was reached. So, I'm going to return ProximityCast back to where ONLY latitude and longitude can be used as a Cast Initiation Point. And I think I will provide a link to someone else's geocoding site like GPS Visualizer: Quick Geocoder so that those who want or need to use a street address can use the linked site to produce Latitude and Longitude for a street address and then copy and paste the produced coordinates into ProximityCast's "Cast Initiation Point".

That's the current game plan. Hopefully I can have ProximityCast back up and functional soon.

Good thing it is only a hobby and I took my wife's advice not to mortgage the house to have it built.

Ciao

Disabled Site's ProximityCasting Ability

I disabled the ProximityCast search function until I am able to correct the GeoCoding problem.
You can still search through the Gallery and browse other stuff.
I'll make a post when I have my GeoCoding issue corrected.
If you are not already subscribed to email notifications on this blog, you may do so if you wish for convenient notification of when i have the GeoCoding issue corrected.

Until then, I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may present.

Regards,

Founder out!