Recent Blog Posts

  • The Customer is Always Right, Even When They Call it an On-Premise MTA

    The Customer is Always Right, Even When They Call it an On-Premise MTA

    How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the On Premise MTA One fun thing about being a founder is that you get to be a chef, chief cook, and bottle washer, and on top of that, you have to handle the social media and SEO. In my latest work on helping people discover KumoMTA,…

  • We Built an Open-Source High-Performance MTA

    We Built an Open-Source High-Performance MTA

    “We just don’t want to get into another relationship like that again.” That’s something I’ve heard a lot over the last couple of years when talking to on-prem email senders, and it’s changed my life, read on to learn why. I’ve been working in on-prem email infrastructure since 2006 when I was the first Sales…

  • Product Managers need to Think from the Outside-In

    Product Managers need to Think from the Outside-In

    One of the easiest ways to kill a product is inside-out thinking in the Product org. Take a quick read of this and come back, I’ll wait: Imagine putting years of research and development into a product for it to end up being “completely stupid”. How does it happen? While some of the issues in…

  • Getting Started with Home Assistant and Node-RED

    Getting Started with Home Assistant and Node-RED

    Getting Into Home Automation and Home Assistant During the recent pandemic, it seemed like everyone was picking up a new hobby, and I was no exception. While I’d made some progress toward converting my home into a smart home by using a collection of smart devices, I didn’t have any real cohesion between the different…

  • I Opened an Atlanta VR Experience Center

    I Opened an Atlanta VR Experience Center

    My First VR Experience I didn’t just jump straight to opening a VR Experience center in Atlanta, as with most stories there’s an origin that starts when I was younger. I was in my early teens when I got my first taste of virtual reality thanks to a trip to the Calgary Stampede. My family…

  • The Joys of Yakiniku

    The Joys of Yakiniku

    Growing up I developed an interest early on in Japanese culture, thanks to my regular watching of Robotech as a child. I was fortunate to attend a high school that had a Japanese language program as one of its available courses and took three years of classes for a great teacher who immigrated from Japan and…

  • Dig a Little Deeper!

    I recently re-watched The Princess and the Frog and realized it could be interpreted on yet another level, as an allegory for how to be more successful as a Sales Engineer. For those who haven’t seen the film (and I recommend you do), you can catch up on the plot at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_princess_and_the_frog. The film has a…

  • Pictures from Life as a Sales Engineer

    There’s not many memes that I jump on the bandwagon for, but I’ve seen enough people having fun with this that I have to join in. When my demo hits a snag… When my Sales Exec calls to say the deal is closed… When my Sales Exec says he wants to move forward after I…

  • Why Your Email Marketing Sucks

    There’s a great article over at Hubspot that talks about “16 Things People Really Hate About Your Email Marketing” and it’s a good read. I especially liked: The content of your email — whether the copy itself or the offer you’re promoting — should be something the email recipient actually wants to receive. And you…

  • More Wisdom From Ed Catmull

    Another great video of Ed Catmull speaking at the 2012 General Commencement of the University of Utah: http://webapps5.utah.edu/digvid/?id=2012-05-04~88 Jump to 98:25 for the commencement address. What follows are my notes as I watch the video myself. I love the importance he ascribes to creativity, even in industries that are not typically considered creative. He also…