Tobias T– | Notes expressing the moment

Notes expressing the moment

Comment I’ve never talked…
Tobias Tom 20th April 2018 at 23:59

I’ve never talked with people about the ESC as much as the times I’ve been living in the awesome country that will be hosting it this year.

Locations have been locked out of public access, tourists will flood this little city and overall everybody will try to earn as much as they can with all stranger flying in. That’s just how it goes.

Before all of this I through it‘s just an television event. Today I know it’s much more to every country that hosts it. I‘m not convinced that it’s a good thing, but after all that’s how things are. I decided to support this country I choose to spend time in. Not everything is great here, but in summary living here makes me more happpy then every place before. That’s worth supporting.

Support the things you like. It will be fine. 🇵🇹⛱🏄‍♂️
Comment Have fun! How did…
Tobias Tom 13th April 2018 at 15:19

Have fun! How did your talk go?

In reply to jeena.net/notes/920.
Comment Writing seems to be…
Tobias Tom 9th April 2018 at 0:12

Writing seems to be more about dropping my words then publishing them these days.
Comment Andy Butt in The…
Tobias Tom 28th February 2018 at 8:12

Andy Butt in The benefits and challenges of running a slow-growing business:

I’d prefer to see 100 successful start-ups making 10 million in revenue each, than one billion dollar unicorn and 99 failed ventures.

I can very much relate to that. Not only because we want to grow Colloq slow as well, but also because it makes more people happy because they can make a living out of what they want do. Out of passion, not out of the agenda their investors see for themselves.
Comment Weekend plans done.…
Tobias Tom 7th February 2018 at 21:32

Weekend plans done. We are finally going back to Nazaré:

The Big Wave Tour (BWT) is placing the Nazaré Challenge on Green Alert, and is set to run Saturday, February 10, 2018. Praia do Norte (North Beach), a break notorious for its powerful waves and dangerous whitewater speeds, has seen monstrous waves this season and now event organizers are tracking conditions favorable enough to run the highly-anticipated competition.

Rental book, room booked, now I just have to wait until the weekend. Obviously I won’t surf there, but that doesn’t make it any less amazing.

🏄
Comment On Instagram you can…
Tobias Tom 2nd February 2018 at 15:56

On Instagram you can express yourself in your unique way, they said.

Oliver makes the most out of it: Instravel - A Photogenic Mass Tourism Experience
Comment Paul Campbell‏ hit…
Tobias Tom 2nd February 2018 at 11:32

Paul Campbell‏ hit a nerve today on Twitter:

Running a business is basically multiple gut-punches per day, mostly self-inflicted, with the occasional dopamine hit that makes you forget all the pain.

I've been self employed for more then 10 years now, and I'm running another great company since two month, but the feeling is always the same. You have good days, and you have bad days (strangely true about the self-inflicted pain), but overall for me it's important to know what I do is worth doing for me.
Comment The amount of things…
Tobias Tom 1st February 2018 at 13:29

The amount of things I have to take care about builds the direct opposite of the amount of things I post here. I don't like that.
Comment Some „random“…
Tobias Tom 24th January 2018 at 0:55

Some „random“ quote by Hugo Vau:

live and learn, all the time.

For me this puts things nicely into perspective – again. What’s the worst that could happen to me. Hugo has so much more to loose in those big waves, I have to control source code.

The more I learn about all kind of surfing, I’m no longer sure about my focus in life. I love my job, but there is so much more to do out there…

No one has control about it. That’s the weather.

Still not sure about the moral of the story – especially for me, purely myself. Waves and surfing has a strange fascinating feel to me and I’ve not felt related to anything like that for quite some time. Maybe forever. I’m growing the feeling that I might want more for myself, and myself don’t think it can be satisfied only by my day job.

That said, writing software will most likely be always be with me. I really enjoy it. Creating something from nothing seems to be as awesome as dealing with the things nobody can control.

Fear doesn’t kill you, panic does.

I think I have to calm down my panic to misss something and combine my passions in life wherever possible. Everything could be over way too soon, making the best of it might just the key to my personal success.

All that words, just because really want to go surf again. I really want to be selfish again!
Comment Lisbon ✈️…
Tobias Tom 23rd December 2017 at 14:11

Lisbon ✈️ Cologne.
Comment And it continues……
Tobias Tom 21st December 2017 at 18:04

And it continues… one feature at a time for Colloq:

This week we focused on making the connection between potential speakers and organisers a little bit easier. Organisers can now open their events on Colloq to receive talk proposals and our users can submit their ideas easily.

I really like that we have a good streak at releasing initial small features and being able iterating on them constantly after that.
Comment The smell of fresh…
Tobias Tom 9th December 2017 at 13:19

The smell of fresh coconut base surf wax in the living room. Not as nice as one might imagine.
Comment Surfing in the…
Tobias Tom 25th November 2017 at 15:05

Surfing in the rain…
Comment 10 years ago……
Tobias Tom 24th November 2017 at 1:14

10 years ago…

I just read a tweet by @mademyday about things that did not exist 10 years ago.

Ten years ago we did not have a project called Colloq that we, as a team, want to be the next thing we will be able to live from.

Ten years ago I didn’t now that surfing is a thing, let alone that I would like to spend every free moment I can spend on the water. Always trying to catch the next wave. Failing, falling and trying again. Whenever I can.

Ten years ago I didn’t know the one person I want to spend every possible minute of my life with. Having fun, enjoying all the happy moments together and also going through the tough times a life can challenge you with.

Ten years ago I did not have my own place to write notes like this. Creating such a place was one of the many projects I wanted to do at some point in my life and overall I did not put much priority on it. Over time this hack developed itself into a thing I can use whenever I want to. I don’t need to use it, but when I do, It’s there for me.

The thing about „it’s just there“ is that we do not appreciate stuff as much as we should. There are so many „things“ we take for granted these days. When I reflect on the items I use every day, most of them didn’t exist ten years ago. No matter if software & hardware, ordinary things, flats! or people around me. Most of the time I do not think about a moment in my live when they haven’t been around. That’s why I wrote this note. It’s not about mentioning every single thing, and especially person, that I would miss if it would be ten years ago, it’s about silently appreciating the things that make a difference in your live and try to support them every single day as best as you can.

Thank you. Every single one of you.
Comment Launching a product…
Tobias Tom 14th November 2017 at 21:48

Launching a product has always been, and most likely will be, a struggle for me. Thinking it’s not good enough, it might be broken or others might not like it as much as I do are constant thoughts that I have when I think about pressing the publish button. Today I have overcome my fear (with the help of my awesome partners in this journey) and released our first version of Colloq.

What initially started as an idea at a conference ended up being a real product that is available to everyone today. The main vision for Colloq is to be a platform that connects event organisers, speakers and attendees. We want to expand the audience for the great content that is available at conferences and help people to learn new things through it. Today is just the start for us and we will continue to develop it further in every spare minute we have, hopefully to make it our day job one day. There are many great things in our roadmap, but at this very moment I am proud to have overcome my "release fear".

I would like to thank everyone who has been part in this. Every single one who has provided feedback, everyone who encouraged us that we are doing the right thing, and last but not least everyone who has supported me – especially during my free time, which was quite limited recently.

Even if I have to go back to do client work tomorrow, putting something out there today felt special. I cannot wait to spend more of my free time on this awesome project.

—

One more thing: I also want to thank Anselm and Holger for being awesome partners in crime. Getting things done in this small distributed team throughout the world, learning from each other and making hard decisions while still having fun together has been an unforgettable experience. Let’s continue to do what we do until we can do this for a living!
Comment I’m officially an…
Tobias Tom 1st October 2017 at 0:34

I’m officially an uncle since today. Where are my presents?!?!?
Comment The early bird…
Tobias Tom 26th August 2017 at 9:00

The early bird catches the… flat water. No surf for me today. Two hours bus trip for nothing… 🙃
Comment Marcus Fehn in…
Tobias Tom 10th August 2017 at 18:53

Marcus Fehn in Ulysses Switches to Subscription:

As of today, we’re changing Ulysses’ payment model. It’s still the same Ulysses, same features, same distribution, we’re just switching to subscription. For $4.99 per month or just $39.99 per year, you can now use Ulysses on all your Macs, iPads and iPhones, including sync. You no longer need to buy two separate versions for either platform – from now on, it’s just Ulysses, and you can use it wherever you want.

Things are not black and white. I don't like subscriptions, but when I use something on a daily basis, asking for 30€ a year is the least I can give.

I can understand that people don't want to have 10 subscriptions. I don't want them either. It's about picking your priorities and choose which ones you really need. Nobody cares about the number of Apps you have installed, it's what you use them for.

If you need more reasonable arguments about why software companies need a regular income, I recommend you to read Why we’re switching Ulysses to Subscription.
Comment I cannot say if it's…
Tobias Tom 26th June 2017 at 15:42

I cannot say if it's fake or not. Apple had similar demos and mentioned that object sizes would match the real world in this WWDC session.

In reply to jeena.net/notes/870.
Comment I always liked the…
Tobias Tom 26th June 2017 at 13:12

I always liked the idea of augmented reality, but never really found an example that I would be using constantly.

AR Measure App changed that:

AR Measure™ turns your phone into a ruler you can use anytime, anywhere. Just point your phone and click a point to measure almost anything. The app uses the power of Augmented Reality to measure the distance between points in 3D space.

Really nice idea and a practical use-case.

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