blog.mattgoyer.com

Last Friday after a blogger dinner at the office I hopped in a cab and went down to the Arcade Party at the warehouse at 3600 East Marginal Way. Unfortunately the cabbie got way lost even though it’s not that far south from Pioneer Square. At one point he ended up just south of the warehouse but there was a stopped train blocking East Marginal Way. Frustrated I paid my bill, hopped out, and climbed over the train to get to the party.

There I encountered huge crowds of architecture and interior design geeks.

Arcade Party Hosted on Zooomr

It was a good party though with $1 drinks and $1 pizza straight from a wood fire pizza oven on wheels.

Arcade Party Wood Fire Oven Hosted on Zooomr

On one of the walls at the party I found this message which I really enjoyed:

Arcade Party Hosted on Zooomr

This was my second party at this warehouse (last time was for a friend’s birthday party) and highly encourage you to attend any parties you get invited to there. It’s a cool space, albeit hard to get to and from if you’re not driving.

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Today a co-worker found this article of me in Time Magazine and the accompanying photo rapidly spread around the office:

It then wasn’t long before an email went out to a lot of people with the photo and accompanying challenge:

Okay folks! Here’s your chance!! Whoever can come up with the best caption for this photo WINS:

$14 Cold. Hard. Cash
A blank CD
A brand new tube of Studio Line Gel
An authentic one of a kind autographed photo from Matt Goyer himself!

And I’m sure you’re wondering about the replies the email got:

• This contest is too easy. I can already feel the gel in my hair…
• Upcoming star from Balliwood !!
• JC Chazez from N’Sync. A photo of his profits after his first solo album and the only CD sold.
• Verbatim CD-R prices, circa 1992.
• Hey baby, whadaya say you and me hit up the BK lounge for some burgers….I got the new Boyz to Men CD, come on…maybe after that we can watch Dawson’s Creek….my mom’s not home!
• I’m looking for 30 people who want to make big $$$$$ in their spare time for LOSING WEIGHT! If you can fit your torso through this CD, I have over FOURTEEN BIG ONES FOR YOU! Yes, you heard right, you can earn money AND lose weight in the privacy of your own home. How would you like to earn one, two, or even FIVE DOLLARS EVERY DAY just for not eating! Help your friends lose weight and earn even more money!! UNLIMITED INCOME POTENTIAL!!! WORK FROM HOME!!! FIRE YOUR BOSS!!!
• BTW, revision to the prize…the Studio gel is actually half full, and not brand new.
• I’m in Time Magazine BEOOOOOTCH!
• BOP TiGER beat 2006: December Feature Article: Teen Hunk, Matt Goyer who starred as Kirk Cameron’s replacement in 2006 ‘Growing Pains’ speaks publicly about his failed music career, selling his body in Hollywood and his decision to join Redfin. “ Tom Cruise paid me to keep our relations private… I felt so ashamed…” – Matt Goyer
• After years of evading the authorities Matt Goyer has been spotted lurking through the halls of Redfin. Reported to us by by one of his co-worker who shall remain nameless to secure their safety. Matt Goyer is wanted for the ebezzalment of old senior citizen women. He preys upon them with his looks and promise of romance. Help us capture this fugative. Call NOW! For the reward of $14. Please do not approach him yourself he may be armed and dangerous.
• GQ called - they want their photo back. You have to pay them for the rights to distribute it around the office.

Thanks god it wasn’t a Photoshop contest or else I’m sure this would have been a tame entry:

So yes, those slightly embarrassing photos of you will one day come back to haunt you. I’m just glad they didn’t get their hands on this photo:

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• Seattle Tech Startups
• Google to Let Employees Sell Stock Options in Auction
• Huge Profit at Goldman Brings Big Bonuses - ‘That figure works out to an average of $622,000 for each employee’
• Shoestring Ventures’ blog on the startup process
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• Omar on the beauty of combining hardware and software design - Example: Blackberry
• PDANet - Connect Q to laptop
• Gimstix - Way small computing
• You Paid How Much for That Bike?
• Tech4o Airpod - Calculate how much air time you get after a big hit while skiing/boarding

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Glenn, as always, has a funny post up announcing, Thursday-Night Chimichangas at the Redmond Azteca. Short version is that from 5 to 7pm Glenn (CEO), Michael (CTO), and myself (lowly IC) will be hanging out and drinking Corona’s at Azteca (it’s no coincidence that we choose a bar very close to Microsoft campus!) by ourselves unless some of you stop by and give us some company.

Feel free to come on by to heckle us on our bad performance, grab a free drink, suggest a feature or two, give us your resume, find out if Glenn really is as funny as his blog persona or find out that I’m really not a hipster.

And today we also updated our jobs page so take a look if you’re looking for SDE/SDET jobs in Seattle or San Francisco.

(Yes, I’m going to keep pimping Redfin job openings because we can’t hire more PMs until we hire more devs :) ).

Update: Apparently this conflicts with the Seahawks vs. 49ers game. Seeing as we’re web geeks we didn’t appreciate this until someone else pointed it out and after some deliberation we concluded that it’s likely you might not care either and if you do, well, you probably have a DVR.

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• Dairy Industry Crushed Innovator Who Bested Price-Control System
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A skipper I occasionally sail with recently bought a J-105 and invited me out this Saturday for Snowbird 06 - Race 2, his second race in it (and my first time on a J-105).

(For more pictures of Xtreme being surveyed check out Maurice’s photo album).

We started the race in the pouring rain and raced from Shilshole down to Alki and back. Even with all the ski gear that I’d wear up to around -5′C, the leg to Alki was very cold. We then turned around and tried to sail the asymmetric spinnaker in ~30 knot winds back home to Shilshole. Needless to say it was a wild ride as we sped along at 11 knots. After more than a few round ups and losing a good patch of skin off one finger (I need gloves with better coverage) we took the chute down and were still doing around 9 knots downwind to Shilshole.

Overall, it was pretty exhilarating, but I’m looking forward to learning how to sail this boat on a calmer day :).

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Just a note for all of you leaving a company and wanting to take your precious personal mail with you. Do not backup your .OST file. Export your email to a .PST. The .OST is tied to your Exchange credentials and if you don’t have access to the Exchange server the .OST is attached to you’re in trouble. I know because I tried every suggestion in this thread and none of them worked (and it took hours to try them all).

Now, if you do make the mistake of backing up your .OST because you think it’s the same as .PST (it’s not!) there is hope. The only option that worked is this service, Password Crackers, who for $15 will convert a .OST to a .PST. Much cheaper than spending $600 on a program to do it yourself, granted now all your secrets have now been shared with a cracker group :).

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Argh, I missed Ignite Seattle tonight. I just found out about it this morning and then it completely slipped my mind once I got home at 9:30. …Though I am completely exhausted.

But I’m left wondering how others keep track/keep up with techie events in Seattle? I read John Cook’s Venture Blog which tracks a lot of this stuff but somehow missed his post about it the event back in November and was wondering if there were any other good blogs to follow so that I don’t miss out on future events like this?

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• Seattle Times: Seattle rolls out Bicycle Master Plan
• New York Mag: Can’t Get No Satisfaction, ‘In a culture where work can be a religion, burnout is its crisis of faith.’
• Fortune: Is Google too smart for its own good?, ‘Google’s famous for hiring the best and the brightest, but when they get bored, they’re bound to create the son-of-Google, warns Fortune’s Jeffrey O’Brien.’
• Magnetic Yellow Card - Tag bad drivers with a yellow card if you’re a cyclist
• Washington Post: A Virtual Chalkboard For Budding NFL Fans - Video games teach people a lot about football, I wonder if a hockey video game would make me a better hockey player?
• Glenn on why we’re not freaking out about Zillow

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Today we’re expanding our Seattle blog and have hired a whole bunch of Redfin Mavens to scour the MLS and go visit listings to get the real scoop. The blog is edited by Marie who I’ve meet twice at Redfin focus groups. In her words:

House hunting has made me bi-polar. The high of reading a listing describing my dream home and then the depression that ensues upon getting there and it’s anything but. Meanwhile, I’ve hired a therapist to help me forget about that perfect house I was outbid on, and that one killer deal I just missed. To keep me from losing my mind and for the benefit of everyone in a similar predicament, the Sweet Digs blog now has a group of real estate mavens writing about homes for sale in the Seattle area. They’re scouring the market for the hottest properties, best deals, hidden gems, and white elephants, giving honest opinions and detailed reviews to help people find new digs.

To be honest, I’ve never met someone more real estate obsessed than Marie. Comments like, ‘Some days I get bored of Seattle real estate and find myself searching in San Francisco’ or ‘the feature I want most is to get notifications of new listings on my phone’ or ‘why can’t I browse Redfin using my [insert latest Smartphone model here]’. Hopefully Marie and the mavens now have an outlet for their enthusiasm :).

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