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	<title>RobertGryn.com</title>
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	<link>http://robertgryn.com</link>
	<description>my personal space</description>
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		<title>The War Between Developers, Designers, and Project Managers</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/internet/the-war-between-developers-designers-and-project-managers/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/internet/the-war-between-developers-designers-and-project-managers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:28:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[developers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[funniest thing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nbsp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[project managers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=118</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Funniest thing I&#8217;ve seen in a while, and at the same time you cannot deny you don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s true &#160; Incoming search terms:developers seen by developersdevelopers seen by designersseen by developersdevelopers seen bydevelopers as seen by designersdevelopers as seen bydevelopers as seen by developersdesigners as seen by developersseen by developers seen by designersas seen ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Funniest thing I&#8217;ve seen in a while, and at the same time you cannot deny you don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s true <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p><a href="http://robertgryn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/war_designers_developers_managers.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-119" title="war_designers_developers_managers" src="http://robertgryn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/war_designers_developers_managers-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Incoming search terms:</h4><ul><li>developers seen by developers</li><li>developers seen by designers</li><li>seen by developers</li><li>developers seen by</li><li>developers as seen by designers</li><li>developers as seen by</li><li>developers as seen by developers</li><li>designers as seen by developers</li><li>seen by developers seen by designers</li><li>as seen by designers</li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Muscle volume/mass vs Fat</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/health/muscle-volumemass-vs-fat/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/health/muscle-volumemass-vs-fat/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Aug 2011 06:12:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chemical energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[countless men]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[density]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[energy density]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health magazines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[liter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[men s health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muscle weight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sort]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[topic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[weight]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=115</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sort of off the usual topic but a facebook friend (female of course ) recently asked: &#8220;How much more does a muscle weight compare to fat of the same volume?&#8221;. It got me thinking, recalling all sorts of bullshit stats from the countless men&#8217;s health magazines I&#8217;ve read. At first I thought I remembered reading ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sort of off the usual topic but a facebook friend (female of course <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />  ) recently asked: &#8220;How much more does a muscle weight compare to fat of the same volume?&#8221;. It got me thinking, recalling all sorts of bullshit stats from the countless men&#8217;s health magazines I&#8217;ve read. At first I thought I remembered reading that muscle weighs 2-3x more than fat, bull. It wasn&#8217;t easy to google this up as people asking this question on teh internets would phrase it: &#8220;how much does a pound of muscle weigh compared to a pound of fat&#8221;&#8230; and the answers being, a pound is a flippin&#8217; pound.</p>
<p><span id="more-115"></span>I finally came across the answer which to be honest, surprised me as I was quite certain of my 2-3x estimate, it turns out that muscle density is 1.06 g/ml and fat density is (about) 0.9 g/ml. Thus, one liter of muscle would weigh 1.06 kg and one liter of fat would weigh 0.9 kg. In other words, muscle is about 18% more dense than fat.</p>
<p>The 3x figure applies to energy density, where a ml of muscle holds 3x more chemical energy as compared to fat.</p>
<p>There you go, useless health related fact for 2011.</p>
<h4>Incoming search terms:</h4><ul><li>muscle vs fat density</li><li>fat vs muscle density</li><li>muscle mass vs fat mass</li><li>fat mass vs muscle mass</li><li>density of fat vs muscle</li><li>muscle vs fat volume</li><li>muscle vs fat density picture</li><li>protein muscle vs fat muscle</li><li>fat muscle weight</li><li>fat versus muscle density picture</li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Don&#8217;t Die Sitting!</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/health/dont-die-sitting/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/health/dont-die-sitting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:51:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Billing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[billing and coding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Coding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medical billing and coding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stumbled]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Via]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=112</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Stumbled upon this interesting infographic. Interesting.. disturbing rather.. Via: Medical Billing And Coding]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Stumbled upon this interesting infographic. Interesting.. disturbing rather..</p>
<p><a href="http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org/sitting-kills"><img src="http://images.medicalbillingandcoding.org.s3.amazonaws.com/sitting-is-killing-you.jpg" alt="Sitting is Killing You" width="500" border="0" /></a><br />
Via: <a href="http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org">Medical Billing And Coding</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Sorry, this Profile is currently unavailable.</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/websites/sorry-this-profile-is-currently-unavailable/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/websites/sorry-this-profile-is-currently-unavailable/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:07:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Websites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aggressive marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[moment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pink box]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Profile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[profiles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Today]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WeSave]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[www]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=105</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Oh the dreaded pink box! Checking the company Facebook fanpage today, www.facebook.com/WeSave I encountered  the following message: Sorry, this Profile is currently unavailable. Sorry, this profile is not available at the moment. Please try again shortly. At first I was a little worried I had done something wrong, mostly because a bored competitor wrote on ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Oh the dreaded pink box! Checking the company Facebook fanpage today, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/WeSave">www.facebook.com/WeSave</a> I encountered  the following message:</p>
<h2 id="standard_error">Sorry, this Profile is currently unavailable.</h2>
<p id="standard_explanation">Sorry, this profile is not available at the moment. Please try again shortly.</p>
<p><span id="more-105"></span></p>
<p>At first I was a little worried I had done something wrong, mostly because a bored competitor wrote on the wall complaining about my aggressive marketing (thought that he wasted the time writing, he may as well have reported us for some made up reason..)</p>
<p>A bit of googling showed me mixed results, mostly older posts about actual profiles not pages &#8211; which led me to posting this in hopes I could comfort any worried page owner out there!</p>
<p>Anyway, all the info you need is here:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=200141076696775">http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=200141076696775</a></p>
<p>It just describes that this error is not displayed when your page has been banned or anything like that &#8211; it simply means that some sort of maintenance is going on. The page should be back within a few hours, and if not you can go ahead and use this contact form: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=pages_unavailable">http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=pages_unavailable</a></p>
<p>That&#8217;s it! I&#8217;ll post an update when my page comes back up/or if it doesn&#8217;t :S <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<h4>Incoming search terms:</h4><ul><li>Sorry this Profile is currently unavailable Sorry this profile is not available at the moment Please try again shortly</li><li>Sorry this profile is not available at the moment Please try again shortly</li><li>sorry this profile is currently unavailable facebook</li><li>Profile Unavailable Sorry this profile is not available at the moment Please try again shortly</li><li>facebook Sorry this Profile is currently unavailable</li><li>this profile is currently unavailable</li><li>facebook page sorry this profile is currently unavailable</li><li>sorry this profile is currently unavailable on facebook</li><li>facebook fan page profile unavailable</li><li>Sorry this Profile is currently unavailable pink box</li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>HTC Sensation, the first HTC dual core phone</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/technology/htc-sensation-the-first-htc-dual-core-phone/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/technology/htc-sensation-the-first-htc-dual-core-phone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:35:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[battery life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[body]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dual core]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[escapades]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htc phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[minor changes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[noticable differences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Product]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[screen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shape]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=93</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So after the wet escapades, it was time to piece my life back together (ie. get a new phone) so having turned to HTC just a month before I opted for the HTC sensation. Review: Price: Apple like Product: Good It&#8217;s really no different that the previous HTC phones for the average user (me). The ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So after the wet escapades, it was time to piece my life back together (ie. get a new phone) so having turned to HTC just a month before I opted for the HTC sensation.</p>
<p><span id="more-93"></span><strong>Review:</strong></p>
<p>Price: <em>Apple like</em></p>
<p>Product: <em>Good</em></p>
<p>It&#8217;s really no different that the previous HTC phones for the average user (me). The shape is perhaps more ergonomic, and the screen size:body ratio is fantastic (ie. massive 4.3&#8243; on a relatively small body). I had assumed it would be 4G compatible but that&#8217;s a different version of the same phone, what do you pay close to $1000 for.. one wonders.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you have some money to dish out, as I hear it&#8217;s not on contract in many places, go for it! If not, go for it!</p>
<p>I really don&#8217;t have much to say here, android 3.0 has very minor changes (other than dragging icons into a mystical bubble), and the phone itself, no noticable differences to the desire s, incredible s, or HD.</p>
<p>I will try to update this later after spending more time with the phone!</p>
<p>First update: Loving the battery life! It&#8217;s about two times longer than the Incredible S, 2-3 days.</p>
<h4>Incoming search terms:</h4><ul><li>laptop setup</li><li>bærbar pc oppsett</li><li>laptop 3 monitor</li><li>laptop external monitor setup</li><li>laptop use 3 monitor</li><li>#commentGot something to say? Go for it!</li><li>3 screen display setup</li><li>how to have 3 monitor display with a laptop</li><li>triple monitor laptop</li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The HTC Incredible S doesn&#8217;t float!</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/travel/the-htc-incredible-s-doesnt-float/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/travel/the-htc-incredible-s-doesnt-float/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:43:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Adventure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[afterparty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alcohol content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alcoholic beverages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ceremony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[equivalent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ganges river]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gangesa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[http www youtube]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muddy bottom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poprawiny]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[water]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=87</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You may recall my post about the Incredible S which I was so happy about &#8211; we&#8217;ll it&#8217;s life span turned out to be less than a month! I was in Warsaw the past week, both for a wedding and to finalize some paperwork for the startup. In Poland weddings tend to go on for ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You may recall my post about the <a href="http://robertgryn.com/hardware/the-quick-jump-from-apple-to-htc/">Incredible S</a> which I was so happy about &#8211; we&#8217;ll it&#8217;s life span turned out to be less than a month!</p>
<p>I was in Warsaw the past week, both for a wedding and to finalize some paperwork for the startup. In Poland weddings tend to go on for 2-3 days, the days following the main ceremony are called &#8216;poprawiny&#8217;, the English equivalent might be afterparty <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Things at the afterparty started calmly, people curing their hangovers with more alcoholic beverages, mind you it started at 2PM in the blazing sun and many people left the wedding around 7AM. Not even 2 hours later, a mystical beverage called &#8220;Woda Gangesa&#8217; or water of the Ganges River was distributed in the form of shots. This seemingly light lemony beverage had a 82% alcohol content, things were obviously going to get out of hand as it was so easy to down.. three more factors, it was hot, there were around 12 inflated golden elephants (bollywood theme) annnnnd there was a lake!</p>
<p><span id="more-87"></span></p>
<p>Without further words, this is the chaos that began to ensue around 7PM lasting for 5 hours until we were kindly asked to leave <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p><object width="500" height="306"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dxHDSVT085Q?version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dxHDSVT085Q?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="306" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p>Long story short, I was thrown in the water with my belongings, some of which were of a floating nature, other such as phones went down to the muddy bottom!</p>
<p>Which leads me to my next post about my new phone, the long awaited an hyped up HTC Sensation!</p>
<h4>Incoming search terms:</h4><ul><li>poprawiny english</li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>My First SkyDive / Tandem Jump</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/sports/my-first-skydive-tandem-jump/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/sports/my-first-skydive-tandem-jump/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 May 2011 17:18:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[altitude]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chute]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[exit position]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[harness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jump]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[position]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[survival instincts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tandem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tandem jump]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[undergrad studies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[university of surrey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=81</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This past weekend, I had two friends fly in from Copenhagen to visit me in Prague. We had met at the University of Surrey during out undergrad studies &#8211; I recall them as being healthily insane and it turned out things haven&#8217;t changed when I was told via Facebook that we&#8217;re going skydiving during their ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This past weekend, I had two friends fly in from Copenhagen to visit me in Prague. We had met at the University of Surrey during out undergrad studies &#8211; I recall them as being healthily insane and it turned out things haven&#8217;t changed when I was told via Facebook that we&#8217;re going skydiving during their visit with the message: &#8220;Robert, do you have vertigo??&#8221;.</p>
<p>Since I was little I&#8217;ve been flying quite a lot, but even so I only got over my fear of flying some 3+ years ago &#8211; jumping out of a plane was many years ahead of me, if at all! Of all the things in the world, the two that terrify me the most are sharks, and heights. So on my extreme 2 itemed list of things to do, one item remains <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<ol>
<li>Diving with great whites</li>
<li><del>Skydiving</del></li>
</ol>
<p><span id="more-81"></span>The whole experience of the skydive was immense. The <a href="skyservice.cz">site</a> is only 50km outside of Prague and I found out that a lot of tourist comes to the Czech Republic with skydiving in mind due to the safety records and low prices. A persons first jump is typically a tandem jump, which just means that you are attached with a special harness to a veteran skydiver (2000+ jumps).</p>
<p>The preparation for the tandem jump included putting on the special suit and harness and then 5 minutes of instructions which consisted of the exit position, mid-air position, and landing position. We got on the plane from which we were to jump from and right after take off is about when the reality of the situation hits a first time skydiver, the knowledge that you are taking off in a plane and jumping out of it at an altitude of 4000m! One of the most surprising things was how poorly a newbie judges distance/altitude, already at 1000m we thought we were almost at the dropzone, and 4000m looked more like 20km!</p>
<p>I was the last person to jump, which added to my excitement/adrenaline/survival instincts telling me not to jump. Then bam! Before I knew it I was plummeting through the air at 200kmph at first taking around 3 seconds for my brain to grasp what on earth was happening, then pure adrenaline and a lot of hardcore screams which you can see from the picture <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Following the free-fall came the scariest part, when the shoot opened you slipped down in your harness giving you the feeling that you are actually about to slip out and continue plummeting down to earth, but alone and without a chute. At this point, you will find yourself clinging on to the harness straps with super-human strength until the point you land on the ground!</p>
<p>The order of stages in terms of levels of fear I experienced:</p>
<ol>
<li>Chute opening</li>
<li>First minutes of the gliding</li>
<li>Watching people jump out of the plane before you</li>
<li>Ascending in the plane</li>
<li>Free-falling (your brain cannot comprehend what is going on so you do not experience anything but pure awesomeness!)</li>
</ol>
<p>Skydiving is something everyone should do, it&#8217;s an epic time, and I might go as far as saying it can be life changing for some, especially when you are really conquering a major personal fear!</p>
<h4>Incoming search terms:</h4><ul><li>my first skydive experience</li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>99DESIGNS.COM EXPERIENCE/REVIEW PART #2</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/reviews/99designs-com-experiencereview-part-2/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/reviews/99designs-com-experiencereview-part-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2011 10:07:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[action elements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[color variations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[initial impressions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[launch 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[project duration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=70</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s been almost a month since I wrote about my initial impressions with 99designs.com. Since then I&#8217;ve completed I finally got thru to customer service and they made my contest blind, after receiving around 25 designs, I made my contest guaranteed and managed to find a great designer that made around 10 revisions for me, ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s been almost a month since I wrote about my initial impressions with 99designs.com. Since then I&#8217;ve completed I finally got thru to customer service and they made my contest blind, after receiving around 25 designs, I made my contest guaranteed and managed to find a great designer that made around 10 revisions for me, followed by 8 color variations! Of course, he was the winner of the contest, and I am still in touch with him, as I plan to work with him outside of 99designs to continue improving the website for my upcoming internet startup (soft-launch 2 weeks ! ).</p>
<p><span id="more-70"></span>At this very moment the design is being coded, and the site is under development &#8211; which I&#8217;m extremely excited about! <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  As for 99designs, these are my final thoughts:</p>
<p>Working with 99designs.com is a lot more work than you can imagine. You&#8217;re paying top dollar for a layered RGB photoshop file, so you want it to be perefect &#8211; but for that to happen, you first need to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Write up a detailed spec of your site, to give the designer a feel for what your goal with the site is. This is especially pertinent when designing a page that you plan to make money with, design is design, but usability can almost be considered a separate element &#8211; and most designers don&#8217;t have much experience with landing page optimization, usability, call to action elements, etc.</li>
<li>You need to go out of your way to attract new designers to your project. This is something I was told around 5 days into my 7 day project duration. You&#8217;re supposed to browse thru the very few non-blind contests and find designers that work stands out in your eyes, and politely email them asking them to partake in your contest (I contacted around 6, managed to get 2 in).</li>
<li>You need to put a lot of work/time into feedback! It&#8217;s not a matter of uploading specs and waiting for the perfect design, you need to work with the good designers and guide them to where you want to be (which is never easy over simple messaging).  This actually started driving me crazy.. as I spent a good few hours a day for 9 days (I extended the contest by 2 days) trying to help several designers get to where I wanted them to be.</li>
<li>Go over your budget again, the generous 99designs.com estimate stated that I&#8217;d receive 80+ designs with my gold package, and a further 100 with the additional promotion I bought. Frankly it&#8217;s B.S. I got around 30 (80% were revisions), and an additional 15 in the extra 2 days I purchase. Which, is not cheap, $60 a day, which is why you need to consider you budget to be more than you pay initially &#8211; most people end up extending their contests.</li>
<li>Lower your expectations. As amazing as the concept of 99designs sounds, designers will pick and choose their contests. The number of design estimates are heavily based on revisions, I would divide any number 99design tries to sell to you by a factor of 6-10. If you&#8217;re told that you will get 80 designs, you will probably get 12 tops. In my case, I had only 10-11 designers enter my contest (the 99 designs estimate was 175 <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' />  ). I&#8217;m factoring in the fact that my wireframes and extensive specs scared away most designers (who surprise surprise, mostly come from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other Asian countries). Which is another reason I ask you to lower your expectations, most professional designers will not waste their time with 99designs, but a lot of freelancers from countries were $1000 is <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gro_nat_inc_percap-gross-national-income-per-capita">several months average income</a> will <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkB9OT2XVvA">jump in it</a>.</li>
<li>Be careful with the guaranteed prize &#8211; this is the reason why most people go over their budget. To get serious designers in that will make many revisions for you, you need to guarantee your contest prize for them to take you seriously. Once you do that, you will see that you will most probably be extending your project trying to make the most of that guaranteed prize (7 days is not that long a time when you consider that it takes around 3 days before you receive a single design).</li>
<li>Rethink selecting a website with more than one page template. The way this works is when you start reaching the end of your contest, and you have 1-3 designers you think are the winners, you need to choose one of their designs and on the basis of that design ask them to create the other templates for your page. You get very little value for your money here, as the additional pages/templates are very pricey (around $300 a page)! What you should do instead is just have your home page designed in 99designs, after you choose your winning designer, contact him about the other pages and agree on a set fee.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Summary in (+) (-) points.</strong></p>
<p>Plus points for 99Designs.com:</p>
<ul>
<li>A good alternative if you have a vague idea of what you are looking for in terms of website design</li>
<li>Receive plenty of designs to choose from</li>
<li>There are some good designers on 99designs, finding them is a different story.</li>
</ul>
<p>Minus points for 99Designs.com:</p>
<ul>
<li>It&#8217;s Expensive!</li>
<li>A lot of work/time/dedication needed to reap full benefits of this business model.</li>
<li>You will not get as many designs as you might be led to think</li>
<li>A lot of poor designers looking to make a quick buck</li>
<li>99Designs is meant for more static site design, such as a company site/personal site.</li>
<li>Will probably cost you more than you thought with extension days @ $60 per day</li>
<li>Multiple template/page design works very poorly in this system.</li>
<li>Poor customer service</li>
<li>Upselling exaggerated options</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
<p><em>Would I use 99Designs.com again? </em>No I would not, unless I need a logo designed, or some sort of static single page site. Even then &#8211; the prices would make me think twice.</p>
<p><em>Would I recommend 99Designs.com to a friend?</em> Yes but this would depend on their requirements.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Feel free to drop me a comment if you have any questions!</p>
<h4>Incoming search terms:</h4><ul><li>99design</li><li>how many revisions can i do on 99 designs?</li><li>how you get points on 99designs</li><li>orman clark 99designs</li><li>so you get revisions in 99designs com?</li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>The quick jump from Apple to HTC</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/hardware/the-quick-jump-from-apple-to-htc/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/hardware/the-quick-jump-from-apple-to-htc/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 May 2011 19:55:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apple products]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[delicate operation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[digitizer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ebay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gmail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone 4]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[republic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[screen]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=65</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve had my Apple iPhone 3GS for just over a year now (although I was not able to use it for the first few months having bought it in the US.. the employees claimed it would work in the &#8220;check republic&#8221; on O2). I finally dropped it one too many times around 2 weeks ago, ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve had my Apple iPhone 3GS for just over a year now (although I was not able to use it for the first few months having bought it in the US.. the employees claimed it would work in the &#8220;check republic&#8221; on O2). I finally dropped it one too many times around 2 weeks ago, cracking the screen. Having heard that you can replace the digitizer with relative ease, I went on to order one from eBay. Today I finally took the time to replace the screen, but managed to destroy the LCD in the process rendering the phone useless (or around $300 worth of repairs..) so I ran out and got myself the relatively new <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/product/incredibles/overview.html">HTC incredible S</a>. Is it incredible? I think it&#8217;s too soon to say &#8211; but at almost half the price of an iPhone 4 with some better hardware, I thought I&#8217;d give it a try.</p>
<p><span id="more-65"></span></p>
<p>My initial thoughts are that the build quality is noticeably lower than that of Apple products &#8211; but on the other hand, at the price I paid, the quality was absolutely acceptable.</p>
<p>Anyway, the point of my post was that if any of you crack you iPhone and want to fix it yourself, think twice <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />  It&#8217;s quite a delicate operation, and the tools that you get off of eBay or most other places are very poor and make it all the more challenging to disassemble your iPhone. If it&#8217;s just a cracked screen, you can get someone to fix that for you for around $75 &#8211; be it in Europe or the US.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not much of a phone enthusiast so don&#8217;t expect a detailed review, but I can say after having owned several Samsung models, an iPhone, this one comes as a refreshing change. Intuitive, the setup is straight forward and if you enjoy Google products, this is probably the phone for you. My gmail was setup within seconds, internet etc in moments. My favorite perk is not having to use iTunes or jailbreak the phone just to listen to music! Not only that, but after loading 2.5GBs of music on the new HTC, it was available instantly for listening unlike the Apple products which take ages to &#8216;clean up&#8217; and arrange your music collection.</p>
<p>Now if only <a href="http://www.andreasilliger.com/">tiny wings</a> were to come out on Android <img src='http://robertgryn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
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		<title>Basecamp Project Management (basecamphq.com)</title>
		<link>http://robertgryn.com/websites/basecamp-project-management-basecamphq-com/</link>
		<comments>http://robertgryn.com/websites/basecamp-project-management-basecamphq-com/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:22:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Websites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[basecamphq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[credit card details]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[discussion system]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[indispensable tool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[intuitive nature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[job]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[microsoft project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[project management software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[university]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://robertgryn.com/?p=52</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Not having had any real experience with project management software other than Microsoft Project at university, and Trac and Redmine at my last job it was time to find something, online based, to help manage the startup process. My partner recommended basecamphq.com &#8211; I went ahead and signed up, very straight forward process, dropped my credit card ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Not having had any real experience with project management software other than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Project">Microsoft Project</a> at university, and <a href="http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/TracTickets">Trac</a> and <a href="http://www.redmine.org/">Redmine</a> at my last job it was time to find something, online based, to help manage the startup process. My partner recommended <a href="http://basecamphq.com">basecamphq.com</a> &#8211; I went ahead and signed up, very straight forward process, dropped my credit card details, went for the Plus Plan for $49/month (30 day free trial) and had my account within minutes.</p>
<p><span id="more-52"></span></p>
<p>Went ahead and setup my first project, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Milestones</li>
<li>To-Do lists</li>
<li>Added files (wireframes for design)</li>
</ul>
<p>That&#8217;s it! From there you just add users to your projects, and it&#8217;s a comments/discussion system where you can discuss all the listed items, set due dates, assign tasks to people. You get a nifty calendar based on your milestones.</p>
<p>There are of course more features, and upgrades that you can purchase, but the simple and intuitive nature of the whole experience was a first for me (in terms of project management at least!).</p>
<p>I&#8217;m a little surprised it costs $49/month, but that does allow you to run 35 projects simultaneously, you also get 15GB of storage and unlimited users can access the projects.</p>
<p>The communication feels natural, you get email alerts, I completely recommend this to anyone running any sort of project, especially someone new to project management. Particularly if you&#8217;re starting up a business, it will become and indispensable tool for successful execution &#8211;  remember what they say, the idea is 10% of success, execution is the other 90%!</p>
<p><a href="http://basecamphq.com/signup">Sign up </a>you have nothing to lose, you get billed at the end of the free trial if you don&#8217;t cancel your account.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Incoming search terms:</h4><ul><li>project management</li><li>project manager</li><li>project management images</li><li>PROJECT MANAGEMENT PICTURES</li><li>project management websites</li><li>project management images pictures</li><li>basecamphq</li><li>no project manager</li><li>microsoft project management online</li><li>управление проектами</li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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