Fall CIO Wine Tasting Evening
Another incredible evening for the CIO Wine Tasting event hosted by Dee Thibodeau of Charter Solutions and Terri Naughtin of Naughtin Group. Tony Peleska of Kraus Anderson provides a stunning venue on their balcony in downtown Minneapolis. What a wonderful group of technology leaders to connect with. And the highlight of the evening is Chuck Kanski of Solo Vino providing an incredible array of unique wines with the background on each of the grapes. 🍷
ENS Continued Progress
I continue to believe that despite the volume of scammers in crypto there is real value and important capability in this technology. Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a key component of that and these three highlights stood out to me in ENS DAO Newsletter #70, Sept 24 2024
ENS Domains Now Supported on PayPal and Venmo…
ENS is now integrated with PayPal and Venmo, allowing users to simplify crypto transfers by entering their ENS name. This feature eliminates the need for copying long wallet addresses and enables secure, user-friendly transactions. An Address Book feature also allows users to save and recall frequently used ENS names and wallet addresses for faster transfers. This service is currently available in the U.S.
Eth.Link Operating Again…
The eth.link gateway is now officially powered by eth.limo, reviving its role as a key ENS gateway for decentralized websites.
POAP Providing Free ENS…
The latest release of the POAP Home app includes a feature allowing collectors to claim a free ENS subname.
And how about these incredible August 2024 DAO financials:
- Revenue > Cash Burn, Runway: 140 months
- Revenue: $1.9M (vs. $2.4M last month)
- Cash Inflow: $1M (vs. $1M last month)
- Normalized Cash Burn: $0.8M
- Reserves: $113M (ETH: 101M, USDC: 12M)
- Total Endowment: $79.7M
- P&L: -$15.7M (ETH mark-to-market)
All powered as an operating DAO.
Ordered an iPhone 16 Pro today. I currently have an iPhone 14 Pro. I typically wait three years between upgrades. The camera improvements and ability to use Apple Intelligence pushed me to upgrade earlier.
Nice evening for a fire at Quarterdeck Resort.
The sauna at Quarterdeck Resort is incredible. Enjoyed a couple of cycles through here on our stay.
On the corner of Get Outside Trail and Smore Fun Way at Quarterdeck Resort.
Minnedemo 40
The 40th installment of Minnedemo had me wondering about the first one — I was there for Holiday Minnedemo in October of 2006! I have a lot of Minnedemo blog posts. 🤩
HabitAware
App along with a bracelet that attempts to interrupt someone that is habitually picking on their skin, pulling their hair, or some other body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB). One of the founders successfully used this to stop a hair pulling habit. They demoed their solution now working as an app on an Apple Watch. They also have a new version of the bracelet on the way.
OmegaVR
Dagmawe Mamo, Mahamud Hussien + Keleabe Mamo
Focused on creating accessible technology specifically to allow VR usage for people that have mobility limitations. Allow user to move around VR space with eye tracking and other assistive methods. Uses EEG to monitor brain activity to allow navigation via thought.
tinkl: Pee in Peace
Not a launched app but will be soon. The app uses an established database with user generated content layered on to help locate gender neutral bathrooms. The app was originally built as part of Prime Academy program. Great name!
Attentio: Latent Signal Descent & Context Stacking
Platform to allow training and custom weights of an LLM using plain text. You can simply describe facets and data and then tell the LLM to save that and it will respond with that from then on. It was a good demo. It wasn’t clear to me how different it is from a Custom GPT in ChatGPT. It does work on significantly smaller and cheaper models.
Abe
Platform that connects DIY home repair people to others to help them solve problems in the home via online video sharing. Buy on demand expertise that can help you navigate projects. Particularly good where YouTube videos just don’t address the specific questions you have. Much cheaper than a handyman or tradesperson visiting, and perhaps a way for a tradesperson to generate additional income? The demo was replacing a flapper in a toilet. 🚽
HLRBO
Heath Schubert + Cookie Lithyouvong
Interesting idea that has market traction and raised investment round. Like VRBO, but for Hunting Leases. Provides a market for landowners to put the hunting rights up for lease, and provides the legal lease documents as well as hosting assets to better explain the plot of land. Seems like a solid idea taking an existing proven model and applying to a different asset.
The Poopcopter
Olson presented a classic Minnedemo that will be remembered for years — a drone that flies around and finding and removing dog poop. He has an operational drone that uses computer vision to spot dog poop, then descends onto it and uses a twisting motion to close a custom designed “scoop” which then flies away to collect it. Practical? No. Fun? Absolutely! 💩
See also official Minnedemo 40 recap!
Was great to run into this amazing group of Minnestar superstars at Minnedemo 40: Adrienne Peirce, Lindsi Gish, Jenna Pederson, and Justin Porter!
Apple updates tonight:
✅ 4 Macs
✅ 3 iPhones
✅ 4 Apple TVs
✅ 3 HomePods
✅ 2 Apple Watches
✅ iPad Pro
✅ Vision Pro