Charles Williams

Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve had this innate, indescribable love for photography. There was something about capturing a single moment in time I found intriguing. A moment that was and will never be again.

For quite some time now I’ve wanted a nice dSLR, but never put feet to buying one because of the hefty price tag that came along with it. I spent countless hours behind the soft, warm glow of my Macbook Pro comparing resolutions and features, imagining the kinds of things I could do if I had one. And to throw a tiny wrench into the mix, there were people on both sides of the fence (Canon / Nikon) trying to convince me their brand was far superior than the other, but I only had one in mind. The Nikon D90.

I LOVE it.

The harmonious combination of the D90 and the 18-105mm 3.5 lens makes everything I shoot look absolutely stunning. And let me tell you, I’m a noob when it comes to photography. I have no formal training whatsoever, so the camera does most of the work for me. And, by golly, he’s doing a great job.

Right off the bat I did like most people do. I shot in Automatic mode. That was until I sat down with my buddy, Shelby Cook, after a few days of geeking around with it. He walked me through how to properly shoot in manual mode, and convinced me to completely ditch the automatic mode. As he revealed to me the amount of control I had over a single RAW image, my eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning. Haven’t looked back since.

There are number of unbelievably talented people whose work played a significant role in my decision to finally dive in. Some of those include: Andrew Sheperd, Lauren Larsen, Shelby Cook, Kyle Steed, Jeremy Cowart, and Dave Hill.

Thank you all for the amazingly inspirational work you’ve done and continue to do.

Well, with all that being said, here’s a little sample of the things I’ve captured over the last few weeks:

Pretty cool site I stumbled upon that allows you to enter a some info, and in turn, magically generates a sweet little animated .gif like the one above.

Check the site out here!

End Of The Line from Charles Williams on Vimeo.

So here are the last few anticlimactic seconds of a drawn out car chase that took place here in Dallas just a few minutes ago. Still boggled by the idiocy of the driver even attempting it. Do these people honestly believe they can somehow miraculously outmaneuver the fuzz?

And, if you’re gonna go that kind of distance, you should probably being driving some sort of a hybrid. Not a truck. Just saying.

The Drive Home from Charles Williams on Vimeo.

Footage of a beautiful drive home with my buddy, David, on a dreary, rainy night in Dallas.

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR
Edited: iMovie
Music: Chopin – Nocturne No. 2, Op. 9 in E-Flat Major

There’s nothing like a little old-school, 8-bit tunage to spice up your phone. This magical zip of nostalgic deliciousness contains 99 ringtones from following 6 NES games:

• Duck Hunt
• Excitebike
• The Legend of Zelda
• Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. 3

Installation is a breeze. Simply unzip the file and drag the folder into iTunes. Yep, that’s it.

Enjoy!

      

Phew.

Well, I’ve injected about 13 hours or so into the redesign, and I must say, I’m pretty excited about the new look. I went with a really reserved / minimalistic palette allowing the photography, typography (Knockout), and random splashes of color to really drive the environment. I’ve always been a big fan of high contrast sites, and thought I’d take a stab at it myself. I’m really looking forward to filling this space.

Also, none of this would’ve been possible without unbelievable combination of Firebug / Transmit / Dreamweaver / Wordpress. I’m not much of a developer, but these tools transformed me into one. If you’re looking to do some web development of your own, and you’re not sure where to start, I highly suggest these.

¡Bienvenidos a Carlos! from Charles Williams on Vimeo.

My first official vlog live from @kylesteed’s pad.

1. My very existence.

2. A good yawn.

3. Eating peanut butter and bananas while sipping on a tall, cold glass of milk.

4. Weekends when I have absolutely nothing to do.

5. Putting on pants right after taking them out of the drier when it’s cold out.

6. A nice, long, relaxing, steamy, hot shower.

7. Sleeping in (only until noon though. Anything later than that and I’m not a happy camper)

8. Watching people’s faces light up after giving them a gift.

9. Laughing so hard my cheeks and abs hurt.

10. Genuine smiles from genuine people.

11. Making people smile.

12. Visiting memories of my childhood.

13. Planning out the days ahead.

14. Checking things off of a to-do list.

15. Sitting in the dark listening to melodic, melancholy music.

16. Making people laugh.

17. Spending time with my family and enjoying every second of it.

18. The deep rumble of a beefy exhaust.

19. Hanging out with friends and feeling comfortable not saying a word.

20. Watching movies I’ve already seen with other people just to see how they react.

21. Pretty much anything filmed in slow-motion with an epic score tossed into the mix.

22. Having so much caffeine my hands start to shake and I can’t think straight (This one happens pretty frequently. Thank you, Starbucks)

23. Having deep, enlightening, long-winded conversations with people about God and life.

24. My delicious iPhone + MacBook. Yeah, I’m a nerd and Apple fanboy.

25. A clean apartment (Not so much the cleaning part but the “clean” part)

26. Crawling into bed before 11 o’clock (Rarely does this happen, but when it does I’m happy as a clam. Boy, I’m getting old)

27. Trying to figure out how I’m going to raise my kids. Think I’ve got a lot of it figured out already.

28. Impromptu road trips with friends.

29. Having friends that are down with impromptu road trips.

30. Ramen noodles. Cheap and delicious.

31. My mom’s pumpkin pie with a dollop of Cool Whip on top.

32. Discovering new things about myself.

33. Feeling God.

34. Trying to guess how much the total is going to be as the store clerk scans my groceries.

35. Waking up without an alarm and feeling totally refreshed.

36. Pranking people. I totally love freaking people out.

37. Old-school 8-bit NES music. Mmm, nostalgia.

38. Getting out of bed, grabbing my guitar and worshipping God when I can’t sleep.

39. The feeling you get right after running or working out.

40. Cracking open my wallet and finding random cash inside.

41. A good font.

42. Getting caught up in something and completely losing track of the time.

43. Driving excessively fast. (147 is the current record)

44. Things just working the way they should.

45. The snooze button. Thanks for the extra 10 minutes, bud.

46. Being able to give people solid advice when they ask for it.

47. The cool side of a pillow.

48. Falling asleep to the melodic lullaby of a good storm.

49. Really, really, really loud music.

50. The smooth, refreshing feeling of a good, close shave.

51. Snapping photos of random people sleeping in public places.

52. The scent of a good cologne.

53. Paying my bills. Oddly gratifying.

54. LAN parties. Yup, nerd alert.

55. The thought of writing a journal. (I really need to get my hands on a Moleskine)

56. Shooting guns at random stuff.

57. Egg Nog. So good.

58. The aroma of freshly ground coffee beans.

59. The sound of babies laughing. I can’t help but laugh myself.

60. Driving exceptionally long distances. There’s just something about it.

61. Fixing things.

62. Goosebumps (Not the R.L Stine kind)

63. Clean sheets.

64. Having a numb mouth after sucking on Sucrets.

65. Being able to whole-heartedly confide in someone.

66. A huge honkin’ glass of Ovaltine and 2% organic milk.

67. Knowing the end is just the beginning.

68. A healthy family.

69. Being blessed with my health.

70. Laughing after hearing other people laugh

71. Big, fluffy down comforters.

72. Sneaking around all ninja-like.

73. Half price sushi nights.

74. Almost anything for $Free.99. There are many exceptions though. I’m not a pack rat.

75. Jamming out to Styx / Kansas / Foreigner with my dad.

76. Making my parents proud.

77. Old people.

78. Being organized.

79. Being completely transparent with other people.

80. Complete strangers that exude an overwhelming amount of genuine kindness.

81. Not feeling an ounce of worry, doubt or stress.

82. Being an inspiration to other people

83. Helping people when no one’s watching.

84. The feeling you get in your gut when you know things other people don’t.

85. Not having to live check to check.

86. The countless talents and abilities God has given me.

87. Every breath I take.

88. Well-designed album art, movie posters and package design.

89. People who are content with being themselves.

90. A good, dark beer.

91. Music that makes me dance. (Note: I can’t dance)

92. Naps on the beach. Well, naps in general.

93. Inside jokes.

94. Cold food.

95. Cooking enough food it lasts me a few days.

96. Quoting songs or movies and having other people pick up on it.

97. Listening to songs attempting to dissect every instrument, note, and nuance.

98. Not spilling tea on my computer

99. Playing computer / console games with friends.

100. Every day.

Here’s an interesting article written by Paul Graham debunking the idea that now is a terrible time to develop a startup. Very good stuff.

The economic situation is apparently so grim that some experts fear we may be in for a stretch as bad as the mid seventies.

When Microsoft and Apple were founded.

As those examples suggest, a recession may not be such a bad time to start a startup. I’m not claiming it’s a particularly good time either. The truth is more boring: the state of the economy doesn’t matter much either way.

If we’ve learned one thing from funding so many startups, it’s that they succeed or fail based on the qualities of the founders. The economy has some effect, certainly, but as a predictor of success it’s rounding error compared to the founders.

Which means that what matters is who you are, not when you do it. If you’re the right sort of person, you’ll win even in a bad economy. And if you’re not, a good economy won’t save you. Someone who thinks “I better not start a startup now, because the economy is so bad” is making the same mistake as the people who thought during the Bubble “all I have to do is start a startup, and I’ll be rich.”

So if you want to improve your chances, you should think far more about who you can recruit as a cofounder than the state of the economy. And if you’re worried about threats to the survival of your company, don’t look for them in the news. Look in the mirror.

But for any given team of founders, would it not pay to wait till the economy is better before taking the leap? If you’re starting a restaurant, maybe, but not if you’re working on technology. Technology progresses more or less independently of the stock market. So for any given idea, the payoff for acting fast in a bad economy will be higher than for waiting. Microsoft’s first product was a Basic interpreter for the Altair. That was exactly what the world needed in 1975, but if Gates and Allen had decided to wait a few years, it would have been too late.

Of course, the idea you have now won’t be the last you have. There are always new ideas. But if you have a specific idea you want to act on, act now.

That doesn’t mean you can ignore the economy. Both customers and investors will be feeling pinched. It’s not necessarily a problem if customers feel pinched: you may even be able to benefit from it, by making things that save money. Startups often make things cheaper, so in that respect they’re better positioned to prosper in a recession than big companies.

Investors are more of a problem. Startups generally need to raise some amount of external funding, and investors tend to be less willing to invest in bad times. They shouldn’t be. Everyone knows you’re supposed to buy when times are bad and sell when times are good. But of course what makes investing so counterintuitive is that in equity markets, good times are defined as everyone thinking it’s time to buy. You have to be a contrarian to be correct, and by definition only a minority of investors can be.

So just as investors in 1999 were tripping over one another trying to buy into lousy startups, investors in 2009 will presumably be reluctant to invest even in good ones.

You’ll have to adapt to this. But that’s nothing new: startups always have to adapt to the whims of investors. Ask any founder in any economy if they’d describe investors as fickle, and watch the face they make. Last year you had to be prepared to explain how your startup was viral. Next year you’ll have to explain how it’s recession-proof.

(Those are both good things to be. The mistake investors make is not the criteria they use but that they always tend to focus on one to the exclusion of the rest.)

Fortunately the way to make a startup recession-proof is to do exactly what you should do anyway: run it as cheaply as possible. For years I’ve been telling founders that the surest route to success is to be the cockroaches of the corporate world. The immediate cause of death in a startup is always running out of money. The cheaper your company is to operate, the harder it is to kill. Fortunately it has gotten very cheap to run a startup, and a recession will if anything make it cheaper still.

If nuclear winter really is here, it may be safer to be a cockroach even than to keep your job. Customers may drop off individually if they can no longer afford you, but you’re not going to lose them all at once; markets don’t “reduce headcount.”

What if you quit your job to start a startup that fails, and you can’t find another? That could be a problem if you work in sales or marketing. In those fields it can take months to find a new job in a bad economy. But hackers seem to be more liquid. Good hackers can always get some kind of job. It might not be your dream job, but you’re not going to starve.

Another advantage of bad times is that there’s less competition. Technology trains leave the station at regular intervals. If everyone else is cowering in a corner, you may have a whole car to yourself.

You’re an investor too. As a founder, you’re buying stock with work: the reason Larry and Sergey are so rich is not so much that they’ve done work worth tens of billions of dollars, but that they were the first investors in Google. And like any investor you should buy when times are bad.

Were you nodding in agreement, thinking “stupid investors” a few paragraphs ago when I was talking about how investors are reluctant to put money into startups in bad markets, even though that’s the time they should rationally be most willing to buy? Well, founders aren’t much better. When times get bad, hackers go to grad school. And no doubt that will happen this time too. In fact, what makes the preceding paragraph true is that most readers won’t believe it—at least to the extent of acting on it.

So maybe a recession is a good time to start a startup. It’s hard to say whether advantages like lack of competition outweigh disadvantages like reluctant investors. But it doesn’t matter much either way. It’s the people that matter. And for a given set of people working on a given technology, the time to act is always now.

For all you blog ninjas out there commenting like caffeine-crazed banshees, here’s a site that you might find handy. It’s called Backtype. It makes finding, following and sharing comments across the web easy. Take a gander for yourself!