Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Possibly a journal entry beginning with "stardate..." 

Another grueling week inside the Fab.  I think the Motorola of yesteryear was much more employee and contractor friendly but it's up to us grunts to design, convert, and manufacture sand into smart glass that powers the IoT so we do it.  Can't let all that sand go to waste, right?  I suffer from the same mentality that affect geeks worldwide- always pushing the BOA (no, not THAT BOA) boundaries of acronyms so I can impress myself.  It makes me appear smarter.  Not that I care about appearing smarter.  Since my phone inserts random text characters and words at will I'm screwed in the appearing smarter category anyhow.

Thank God, I fight to stay tethered to the real world.  When a cohort mentions the "cloud", I naturally look skyward to see what the heck they're talking about.

This week we've been re-examining the failures of related projects, why and when they went south.  Although past research uncovered an inconvenient truth, rampant consumer fraud, this week it hit home.  How are we to get the STATUUS platform including the Hashtagger devices to market when niche wearable wannabe's have begun to sour the market?

Transparency.  That's how.

The Indiegogo campaign is being fine-tuned to create a forum that for all intents and purposes is completely transparent.  Udy is heading up a focus group in a few weeks to further determine how as a startup we can create grassroots legitimacy.  And in doing so, we hope to steer STATUUS as an enabler of technology rather than simply a purveyor of it. Certainly, knowledge is power.  And a knowledgeable consumer that believes in our platform, its simplicity and usefulness will certainly be our most outspoken ally.

The Austin area has long been investing in infrastructure to compete globally in tech development although I-35 South and Mopac still sucks ta tas.  It's time to drive that passion down to ordinary sheeple so that they can free from themselves from corporate governance in their daily lives.  Sorry guys, but I was never a big fan of Apple though I personally admired Steve and Woz for their intuition, guts, drive, and ability to steal concepts blindly from other corporations.  Icons and mouses???  Zerox was a wuss.  But hey, at least the phoenix here ultimately spawned the beloved App Store.  And who says says Grand Theft is relegated to autos?  Hmmph.

To wit though, it's been FB that has earned my wrath most definitively.  How dare Zuck record MY private conversations through MY wife's phone (no FB app fan either, sorry.  Not!) even when her FB app isn't opened.  Now we're just learning about the emotional research thing and how their TOS and privacy policy was bereft of mentioning those kinds of activities until almost a trimester later!?!

I smell a drone.  Huh, ok- I'll see your drone and raise you an Oculus or Slingshot-thingy-app.  Take THAT!!!

Insofar as privacy issues are concerned, Mark and Co. I'm terrified of.  The NSA and our government- not so much.  C'mon, don't we all expect that kind of clandestine activity from governments.  But from a social app, really???  Mark, if you want to know what brand of toilet paper I use just so you can sell that info to advertisers and increase your earnings, then just ask.  As a matter of fact, I'll VOLUNTEER it, Charmin, single ply tissue.  See Zuck- that wasn't so hard, was it?

My point here is that our independence as a nation and as humanity depends on actions that aren't blindly dictated by greedy corporations.  Everybody wants to be rich (or richer) but the sad truth is that everyone cannot be.  Even the uber rich see the burgeoning upper class as a not viable and a long term threat to true wealth.   And that truism exists in New York as it does in Riyadh or Bejing.

Ergo, my hope is that consumers will begin to pay more attention to the worldwide policies and politics of corporations they buy from as much as from the few cents consumers may be saving from non-discretion.  STATUUS may remain a tiny company or may grow into a major player, but one thing is certain.

STATUUS will be responsible and accountable to its backers, members, investors, and its markets.

Thanks for reading my rant de jour.  I'm exhausted from a dearth of sleep these last three years but have an equivalent of several liters of caffeine pulsing through my veins.  Did I ever mention the one time I actually drank 5-Hour Energy.  I felt like I was a crack addict having withdrawal symptoms...

Not fun.

Not fun at all.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Another day of frenetic coding and platform developing, group forming, habit forming... ;)

Hi world!

Okie, that STILL sounds better than "It was a cold and rainy night..."

Agreed?  Good.

This is our inaugural STATUUS post, one of many more to come.  I'm the founder, and along with a growing list of industry professionals, supporters, organizers, and fellow coders, are readying a platform and product crowd-funding launch simultaneously.  Sounds like fun, huh?  Trust me, the journey's been real or should I say really mindboggling- with over three years of steady product R&D.  After much gnashing of teeth and tons of feedback and market research, we have recently made the requisite patent filings and are moving forward with our first product(s), the Hashtagger Watch and Hashtagger Mini in conjunction with our underlying open-source platform.

What the heck are those things?  What do they do?  And where's the public bathroom?

Ok, I'll answer the first two questions with our initial press release below.  The third question being  of an existential nature many orders of magnitude higher may be answered thusly, "Dunno.  Try next door." 

So, without further adieu, read'em and weep (for joy of course).  The STATUUS Hashtagger has arrived!

-M. Anthony Harper

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, June 14, 2014 6:30:38 PM



The Hashtagger Makes Smartphone Use Smarter

AUSTIN, TX - Today's smartphone user checks his or her cell phone once every six minutes on average according to a recent study commissioned by Nokia.

As a result, smartphone users seem to suffer a loss of time, productivity, and focus. Similar studies point out that relaxation and sleep may also be negatively affected by constantly checking texts, missed calls, emails, posts, tweets, or any other social media barrage. A survey conducted by Pews indicates at least 26% of drivers routinely check their smartphone- exponentially increasing the risk of accident and injury.

Consensus: People aren't being very smart about using their smartphones.

STATUUS.com founder M. Anthony Harper believes that bad habits of smartphone users will persist until there are viable alternatives. Under development is the company's flagship smartphone companion, the Hashtagger Watch. This smartwatch provides audible, visual, and vibration alerts while your phone stays in your pocket, purse, even inside your home or car up to a distance of 100 feet.

The watch also allows the wearer to rate a person, place, or thing within seconds using a patent-pending color-schemed interface on its bezel. Says Harper about the Hashtagger Watch, "It's like Yelp-on-a-wrist, but infinitely more honest because it offers fingerprint validation and is used in the moment."

The Hashtagger Mini, a compact version of the Hashtagger Watch, is a smart ring that displays color-coded alerts and push notification-source icons, vibrates, and/or beeps. Filters display the source of the push notification, such as an incoming call, calendar reminder or alarm, tweet, email, or text message- just like its larger cousin, the Hashtagger Watch.

Another feature users of either wearable may appreciate is the registration of personal hashtags via the STATUUS.com app, hence the catchy brand name. Registering hashtag keywords allows the urgency of an alert to be displayed with a specific color on the device's bezel, heard with a specific beeping pattern or felt with a unique vibration pattern. The STATUUS app will even parse user-defined, private hashtag keywords from most messaging apps and display the appropriate color alert on the wearable. No need to guess whether your incoming text message is urgent, routine, or from whom it was sent.

Both wearables are unisex in design to appeal to a broader market, use Bluetooth LE (Low Energy), syncs to your smartphone, and connects to the respective Android or iOS app to function. Audible signals alert the wearer when they move too far away from their companion device and tracking functionality helps prevent the smartphone or wearable from being lost, stolen, or left behind.

The company plans to begin taking pre-orders in July in conjunction with its initial crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo.com with the Mini priced at $125 for early adopters.

STATUUS.com, is a FAAS (feedback-as-a-service) startup based in Austin, Texas and a developer of front and back facing consumer, retail, and organizational alert systems, ratings and reviews, and payment solutions based on proprietary patent-pending technologies such as Spectrum I/O, BluePrint, and SmartAlert.

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