I’ve got some interesting data following the ShoeMoney System launch that I want to share.

This time around I used genetify to do multi-variate testing with an optimizng algorithm.  Let me show you why this is important.

Let’s say we got 50,000 unique visitors to our landing page.

3.0% conversion rate	5.0% conversion rate

So you say, great, orange converted better. So what? Everyone knows orange buttons convert better. Well you’re right, but we also tested some much more interesting things that I’m not willing to share. But, let me show you something more important.

Assume we had 50,000 unique visitors, with a $200 sale price.

50,000 * 3% = 1500 = $300,000
50,000 * 5% = 2500 = $500,000

If we had simply 50/50 split tested to SEE which result was better:

25,000 * 3% + 25,000 * 5% = $150,000 + $250,000 = $400,000

But using a genetic algorithm that optimized in real-time for the best conversion rate:

10,000 * 3% + 40,000 * 5% = $60,000 + $400,000 = $460,000

Because our algorithm optimized itself for the best conversion, we made an extra 15% in revenue.

The coolest thing about MVT with a genetic algorithm is that it will find combinations that work the best that you would never have dreamed of.

If you aren’t using the tools available, you are leaving money on the table.

I recently picked up a Withings scale because I am tracking as much data as I possibly can while using the Perpetual Progress protocol.  It is neat and everything, but it has one massive design flaw.  It is a Wifi scale that uses AAA batteries. Suffice to say it chewed through a set of batteries in 1 week.  There is no option to use a power adapter at all.  Horrible, horrible design decision.  Fortunately, it was pretty trivial to hack.

UPDATE: A few hours after posting this I got an email from the CTO of Withings.  He checked out the debug logs, and determined that the batteries that shipped with the scale were defective (voltage logs at the bottom).  According to Withings, the batteries should last 6 months on a good set of alkaline batteries.

The prompt and thorough follow-up by the CTO just shows how well they’ve thought out this product.  I don’t want this to be a full review, just a quick hack post, but I have to say the product is exceptional.  All the setup and out-of-box stuff was fantastic.  The Withings scale is a great product.

Nonetheless, I am sticking with AC power.

First thing you need is a power adapter or wall wart.  You’ll need something that outputs roughly 6 volts, and I’m just guessing on current requirements but 500mA should be more than enough.  I happened to have a Nokia phone charger laying around that was rated at 5.7V and 800mA.  Perfect.  If you don’t have things like that laying around, make a trip to Radio Shack and buy a 6V wall wart.

Next step was to determine the polarity and which of the battery contacts mattered.  The way these things work is that the metal tabs are just connect different ends of the batteries to each other in series.  So only 2 matter, the negative and the positive connected to the device.  They’re marked on this image:

Next up you’re going to strip the wires and determine the polarity of the wall wart.  I can’t think of any way to explain how to do this without using a voltmeter or at worst an LED.  Then again, if you don’t have a voltmeter around the house you probably aren’t trying to hack your Wifi scale to add a power adapter.

I could have made this next part a lot more complicated, but I am a fan of getting things done, not coming up with impressive complex solutions.   All I did was strip the wires, insert them behind the batter tabs, and pop the batteries in.  This pushed the wires against the case so hard, that there is no way they are going anywhere.

Since the batteries are there for no purpose but to hold the wires, and you’re leaving the middle 2 batteries out, they aren’t even part of the circuit.  I added a couple pieces of tape to keep everything in place, but they are very very snug anyway.

Magic:

I would really hope that the rev 2 of this scale would have a jack for a power adapter.  Using batteries for something like this is inexcusable.

[DBLIB] DBLIB_IE_PWR_DEBUG            : “6.49V (6.15V, 2.77Ohm)  97%”

4 days after you packed out the scale

[DBLIB] DBLIB_IE_PWR_DEBUG            : “6.23V (5.78V, 3.89Ohm)  77%”

Setting up Apple Qmaster and Compressor to use as many machines as you have for rendering can save a ton of time when compressing video for the web.  You’ll need to install Compressor on each machine, and then load up the Qmaster preference pane.  Here are the settings.  One absolutely crucial thing is the Cluster Storage path.  If all the computers can’t access this, then the render files can’t get passed around and the cluster will fail miserably.  It does NOT fail gracefully.  Here are the 2 best solutions that I can come up with:

1. Use a shared NAS or SAN drive and set all of the paths to the exact same path.  This would work well I think if you had extremely fast network attached storage.
2. Set them like I have, and make sure that all the nodes are running under the same username and the machines can access each other.  I don’t specifically know that this is how it works, but I’m pretty sure it is.

Here are the settings:

On your main cluster controller machine:

Advanced tab:

Setup tab for worker node:

Advanced tab for worker nodes:

Also, set this in Compressor->Preferences:

I started using Foursquare about a year ago. It was neat, and I hoped that it would catch on in a bigger way with more of my friends. I can imagine a world where you check Foursquare to see where your friends are out and about and go meet up with them.

That world hasn’t materialized, leaving us with just the “game” aspect of Foursquare. Put simply, it just isn’t fun. Sure I was the mayor of my favorite spots. Coincidentally, none of which had mayor offers leaving me with almost no incentive to care whether or not I was the mayor. About a month or two ago I just stopped caring about checking in completely.

I think a lot of people are having the same experience. Here’s the thing though: Foursquare is a lead gen dream come true.

Near Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis there is a Punch Pizza right next to a fantastic new bakery and coffee shop called Rustica.  When I say fantastic coffee shop, I don’t take that lightly.  They easily have the best espresso in Minneapolis.  When you checkin to Punch Pizza on Foursquare, you should get an offer from Rustica.  ”Have an espresso on us when you buy a Punch pizza”.  That isn’t happening.  Which is to say, the people who should be using Foursquare are not.

Another example: hellllllo customer acquisition.  Hi, @completelydark, can I offer you a coupon to try Galactic Pizza?

All of these services run into a chicken-and-egg situation.  Without users, Foursquare doesn’t get very far.  Without checkin locations and offers, Foursquare doesn’t get very far.  Except Foursquare is focusing way too much on acquiring users and not enough on getting offers out there to give people an incentive to check-in.

Foursquare should be taking a page out of Yelp’s playbook and creating a massive sales force to get 4sq into the hands of small business owners where it can add dollars to everyone’s bottom line.

I want to repost this story my Dad sent me out of the blue today. Here it is, unedited. Please note that my father started learning English at age 41, having immigrated from Italy.  My dad is 67.

Before I get into why I think anyone can benefit from kettlebell training I must tell you how everything started.

I was leaving for Italy, one morning in October 2008, to escort a small group to Turin for the bi-annual Salone del Gusto 8-day extravaganza. I woke up at 6:30AM with a pain in my left leg. A pain that had been bugging me for a couple of months but never got too serious to get the advice of my doctor.

I got up, had a breakfast and went out for my morning exercise of about 45 minutes of walking. At the end of the walk the pain was more noticeable, but I kept going on. There was no time to think of anything else than driving to the airport.

The problem was getting worse by the minute but only when we arrived in Milan and had to walk out of the airplane I realized that I was in for something really serious.

We arrived there a day ahead of the group, we checked into our hotel and decide to go into Milan, just for fun. But walking for me was really excruciating, I was almost in tears and decided to go back to the hotel. I had a miserable sleepless night. But the business was requesting my attention.

To shorten the story I returned from Italy on the 26th of October seated on a wheel chair. Early the morning after my return, I was at Mayo clinic to find out what was the reason of these pains. No painkiller was able to take care of the problem, the pain was unbearable.

After an extensive series of X-rays and a MRI the diagnosis was a “protruded disc” was pushing into the sciatic nerve, therefore the excruciating pains.

The options to alleviate the problem were just a couple, surgery or physical therapy. My doctor suggested the latter and I was happy because I didn’t feel like I wanted to have a surgery that would require a long and painful recovery. Unfortunately Mayo Clinic was fully booked for at least about two months.

A this point my son David decided that I needed to find an alternative. He was already training with kettlebells and started searching for somebody in the Rochester area. The only RKC trainer available was Tim McPhee in Byron. I get a call from my son: “give a call to him and make the arrangements to do the training.” David doesn’t waste much of his time, he knew that was the only thing I needed.

I called Tim and made the first appointment at his house and decided to start with two sessions weekly.

I must admit that I was really curious and hesitant, actually more hesitant than curious of this kettle bell training. I had no clue of what this was all about. I knew what kettle bells were but I couldn’t imagine why and how a cowbell could cure my back problems. But I didn’t have another option and had to go and meet with Tim.

Tim was very nice, we immediately established the right feeling, but the curiosity, and hesitation, around the system was still hanging there. Actually, before I started other thoughts were milling in my mind. One serious concerns was how in the world training with a weight could help my painful back? If there was any logic it should have been the opposite, call it ignorance or whatever these were my major concerns.

Honestly after the 2nd session all my concerns were gone. I was quickly getting better, the pains were gone, I quit taking painkillers and started moving a little bit better. And the fun part of the story is that I liked the work out. Maybe because I was getting relief and the pain was gone but I really started liking the exercise.

Now, after a little bit more than one year I can start getting an understanding of this experience that I believe it is extremely positive. No more back pains especially when I stand hours on my feet, neither for walking or sitting or sleeping. I lost some weigh from the 42 pant size, now I’m very comfortable (loose) in the 38 and hope to go back to wearing, again, those old 36 that are still hanging around in my closet.

An experience that I strongly recommend to all those people with back pains, do not be scared of the word weight, chose the bell weight you like better and work with that. To see the gain and benefits I suggest three sessions a week, keep your diet in control and you’ll a new person in just a few month. Thanks Tim & David.

Gabriele Dellanave
TravelingtoItaly.com

There is a lot I could write about this past weekend, in a way I don’t even know where to start. I could write a whole post about the new friends I made like Mark Wilson who runs a Bootcamp in Fargo, Josh Hanagarne who is the World’s Strongest Librarian, or Adam T Glass whom I’m not sure I even want to pigeon-hole with a title.

My friend Brad Nelson who runs the most successful kettlebell gym in the country put on a seminar on Saturday called Grip & Rip.

I went to G&R thinking I would learn a few things about how to get stronger and walk away with a few tips to work into my training. Instead, I was shown the keys to a method and ideas that have completely changed the way I look at human movement and development in general. It was bar-none the most eye-opening experience of my life. I will go into further detail in the future.

My favorite quote from the weekend was from Adam, but it may actually be attributed to Frankie Faires. He said, “It is your biological birth right to get better every single day.” To expand a bit on that, the human body is adapting every day. Whether or not you provide it the inputs to adapt in a positive way is up to you, but like it or not your body is adapting to stimuli every moment of every day. Our goal, is to provide as much beneficial stimulation as possible to adapt in a positive way.

I am looking forward to seeing where this takes me.

P.S. In the mean time, if you are dealing with any chronic pain issues and you’re ready to fix them, contact Brad Nelson or Adam Glass.

This works on Mac OS X for sure, but I suspect if you can find the right files on Windows it’s the same fix.

1. Quit Yammer.
2. Open Terminal
3. type: rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS
4. type: rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/Yammer*
5. Relaunch ze Yammer.

Thank Fox News for your latest edition of chartfail:

I was going to write a bit longer post, but in lieu of that I’m going to write a short but timely post.

Last week I was in beautiful Del Mar, CA for ThinkTank and I’m happy to report that it was a fantastic event. I’ll admit I was a little skeptical at first knowing all the crazy thing DK would have in store but it really all fits together.

This is the one event that you should attend if you need or want to make connections in the industry but are not very good at meeting people and networking at the typical conferences. The way DK has structured the activities it would literally be impossible to spend 3 days there and not at least meet every person.

As a result of ThinkTank, I also discovered surfing which could possibly be my obsession over the next 15 years.

My only criticism is that sometimes the event isn’t serious enough. But then again, if you are really serious about growing your business, go to Elite Retreat. Yeah DK, I know that’s a shameless plug, but it’s also true. ThinkTank is a wonderful, fun event but it is a lot harder (in my opinion) to get serious and see a return from what you do at ThinkTank than it is at Elite Retreat where there is a laser-focus on results.

All told, DK and his team put together a well-organized (much to my surprise) and fantastic 3 days in the sun and surf. Bravo.

Here is my scorecard for the TC50 at the end of day 1. Basically I am trying to see how well I score on judging these guys.

Fail: For one reason or another I feel this company will fail. Either a bad idea, bad execution, or a bad team. Failure is defined as either not doing great revenue a few years out, or not being acquired. Fire-sale asset acquisitions count as failures.
Hit: You’ll know it when you see it. These are companies either posting huge revenue, or getting acquired. Keep in mind I think some of these companies that will be Hit’s will not necessarily become a household name, but the technology or IP will be acquired for a gazillion dollars.