So apparently there’s this new game among bloggers where someone “tags” another blogger. If you’re tagged, you have to post 5 facts about yourself that most people don’t know, and then tag 5 other bloggers. I just got tagged by spmwinkel at solsie.com who had been tagged by Patrick from JustAnotherMobileMonday.
OK, this is going to be pretty easy, and fun. First, the interesting people I tag are:
Dan Hanttula a hugely interesting person who has more credentials than I’ll even try to list.
Hal Goldstein, editor-in-chief of Pocket PC and Smartphone Magazine.
Jen Edwards, the Pocket Goddess, which title I wish I could have.
My good buddy and sometime competitor Alex Kac (I hope this counts; he calls it a blog though it’s a blog in a forum format).
Howard Tomlinson, founder and CEO of Astraware.
And 5 things about me, in no particular order, are:
One, I’m in the small group of people who are huge fans of musicals. Oddly enough, both Dan and Hal, above, are also in that group, so when I write them that I’m going on vacation to watch people kill people while singing, they know just what I’m talking about.
Two, I am one of the original founders of Ilium Software, which, to a large extent, I started because I didn’t want to work for anyone any more. It’s managed to keep me out of a “real” job for over 9 years, which I’m pretty happy about.
Three, I got interested in mobile computing when I worked at what’s now AT+T, and they handed me a Newton and sent me to the first (and, I think, only) Newton Developers’ Conference. I think I still have the t-shirt, though the Newton was stolen in a break-in at our “headquarters” at the time. (Working at AT+T was a big factor in convincing me that I never wanted to work for anyone again.)
Four, I am also involved with Bits du Jour, a one-deal-a-day site for Windows and PDA software.
And five, I consider the name “Ilium Software” as my biggest business mistake. Here’s what I learned: never, never, never start a company or a website with the letters i L i. Or even i L, or L i unless it’s a really well-known word. Nobody can distinguish ili from illi from lli from lil in those little tiny fonts without serifs. Ilium is Greek for Troy – I was working in Troy, Michigan at the time, and liked the sound of the name Ilium, but never thought about the readability issue until it was way, way too late. It’s not my biggest life mistake, but definitely a candidate for the bad company name awards.
[…] Mr. Pocket PC Magazine Blogger, Dan Hanttula has hit me up in the blog tag thingy. This is the 2nd time now, Mauricia Fretias got me last time. Keeping with the game, I will play again. Hell, I will even give you 5 New Facts in addition to the other 5. To read my other post, click here. It’s been more than 2 decades since I’ve played a game of tag, but someone has brought back my childhood with a version of the game for the 21st century. Ellen of Ilium Software’s and my chum in all things musical (musicals are one of my guilty pleasures, but we’ll get into that in a moment), has decided to “tag” me on her blog after being tagged by another blogger. The rules of this game are that I must now tag five more people and post five facts about myself. […]