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Tales of a Wanna-Be Software Entrepreneur

Changes: Fading Out of the Software Business

By on October 7, 2007

I’ve been an idiot. I’ve moved this blog to a new domain, blog.JTimothyKing.com. (That’s not how I’ve been an idiot.) And I’m changing the focus, because the focus of my life has been changing. The fact that it has been changing for the past 2 years but I haven’t acted on it– That’s how I’ve […]

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Sued for Reading an RSS Feed?

By on August 1, 2007

The blogosphere is coming of age. And the story of my recent experience with a well-known blog network illustrates a contentious issue in the blogosphere, contentious because blogging technology is just progressing too fast, even for bloggers. And because the law is moving even more slowly than the bloggers themselves. Before the dust settles, no […]

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I’ve Been So Busy…

By on July 26, 2007

… I have over 30,000 unread posts in my feed reader. … I haven’t read Dilbert for over a month. … I have to schedule appointments with my wife. … Some people have e-mailed me three times, and I still haven’t gotten back to them. … I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to read a […]

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Ten Things That Are Different Now That I’m Self-Employed

By on December 5, 2006

My first day as an entrepreneur, I got sick. Seriously. It was Thanksgiving. And I got a virus, which grew steadily worse through that day and the next. Immediately, I got to experience two differences about working for yourself: No paid holidays, and no paid sick leave. By Friday evening, I was completely incapacitated and […]

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The Mantra That Will Get Me Through My Last 4 Days

By on November 17, 2006

Today I discovered a mantra that I hope will get me through my last four days in this place. And I wrote it on my dry-erase board. If you recall, I quit my job and struck out on my own. But I still have a few more days before my last. Four days, to be […]

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Yes, I’ve Left Normal

By on November 10, 2006

I gave my notice this week, and I’m now officially self-employed (almost). My first reaction was, “How cool is this? I’m rockin’ now!” My second reaction was, “Oh s***! What have I just done?!”

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I Just Realized How Miserable I Am

By on September 29, 2006

Recently, Alexander Kjerulf, the Chief Happiness Officer, asked, “What makes you happy or unhappy at work?” I pulled part of my answer from an old post from my LiveJournal, “Things to Make My Life Perfect.” This list of things I actually wrote in response to a writing prompt for the (now defunct) Alchera Project. At […]

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Wage Slave or Crazy Entrepreneur?

By on August 4, 2006

Eric Allam of 52 Reviews posted an interesting comment on my post “Top Ten Reasons to Remain a Wage Slave,” which is a spoof off of a couple of Steve Pavlina’s “list of 10” posts. Eric linked to a post on his blog, “BusinessPundit lays out 10 misconceptions of entrepreneurship, reveals his hypocrisy,” in which […]

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Why Geeks Should Care About Fashion

By on August 1, 2006

As a thirty-something male software engineer, one of the best things about looking for a new job is that I get to go shopping for interview clothes. And that’s what I did this weekend. If you’ve not appreciated the joy of shopping for interview clothes, you’re missing out. And if you think that this joy […]

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Refactoring the Monster

By on July 1, 2006

This is a story about my first software management success. It’s also a story about my first software management failure. It was a success, because the work got completed, and without any nasty surprises. It was a failure, because I could have made the team more efficient, and I didn’t. Both of these are good […]

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