Over the past few weeks we’ve had our lead developer here at Imulus on vacation in Mexico. Initially there was some concern around the office that with him gone his day to day tasks would be a major time sink for the rest of us.

However, as the past few weeks have gone by I’ve come to the conclusion that missing a big piece of the puzzle every now and then is more of a positive than a negative. Not that we don’t want John to come back, or that we won’t be faster as a team once he returns. But more that the best way to force people to learn is to throw them into the water and make them swim. I.E. having John out may make us slower in the interim, but in the long run it will make us faster because each developer will be even more capable than before.

This trial by fire attitude is what makes people better all around, and consequently worth more in the long run.

So here’s my advice: if you’re used to having someone around that can help you get through tasks or problems stop asking them for help once in a while. Sacrifice some time, lose a few hours to the problem, and have faith that learning it on your own will be worth it in the long run. Both for your self value and the company’s. Having a tutor is great, and having a cohesive team is even better. But realizing the value in self growth is essential. It makes the process faster and less distracting for everyone in the end.

In their perpetual quest to index the World’s information Google has now started a health record service. Users can add medical conditions, allergies, procedures, test results and drug interactions. Partnerships with Walgreens, CVS and Quest Diagnostics allow users to import current records into Google Health.

Google Health aims to solve an urgent need that dovetails with our overall mission of organizing patient information and making it accessible and useful. Through our health offering, our users will be empowered to collect, store, and manage their own medical records online.

The service was officially announced in February of 2008 and tested via a pilot program with Cleveland Clinic with great success and acceptance. Personally, I’ve never seen my full health record. I have zero clue as to how many, and what people have seen it so far, so the fact that Google is holding this data is perfectly fine with me.

Anything worth while requires a bit of work and effort. Starting a company is no different. When we first started Imulus the initial excitement, creativity and energy was enough to propel us forward for the first few years. As a services company, our start-up capital was almost nil. A few computers, basic software and slightly longer hours was enough to be up and running.

Within 2 years our salaries were back to pre-layoff levels. However, we now had the freedom to work flexible hours and dictate our future. For this reason alone, I encourage anyone thinking of starting their own company to give it a try. Especially if it isn’t capital intensive.

As we’ve begun to mature, I see that the real challenge in starting a company is actually growing it, and you have to grow! Growing doesn’t necessarily mean you have to continue to hire employees and add new clients. It also means you have to innovate, challenge your skills and take risks. There is a real danger to being content. Sticking solely with what works is the surest path to stagnation and mediocracy.

I’ve repeatedly “heard” people tell me that vision and leadership are important traits to a successful future. Until recently, these words haven’t meant much because we’ve always been in a reactive mindset. To grow, a company needs vision. It needs to know what it wants to be when it grows up, or else it becomes a feral child.

I’d love to say we have this killer vision which is guiding us on a daily basis, but we do not. We have a rough idea of where we want to be but we haven’t developed the roadmap to get there…. yet! This my friends is the trick of growing a company. I’m perfectly confident we’ll find our way and develop a remarkable vision for the future of Imulus.

Until then, I’m open to suggestion, tips and any seasoned advice. The blueprints are out there for everyone to start a company; the growth, well that is an art which is a bit harder to master.

My friend Pete, a local art teacher has been practicing the Japanese art of Raku. Like most, I’ve never header of Raku before, but when Pete told me it involved dirt, fire and burning odd materials, I knew I’d like it.

Rather then doing a book report on Raku, you can read up on it for yourself on Wikipedia.

I didn’t want to make a traditional pot, but rather something very odd and different for my desk at work. The plan; to design a cool iPhone holder. Yep, pretty geeky, I know. Here are the highlights from my first experience with Raku.

1. Working with clay to make anything other then a straight pot is pretty difficult. Especially in the arid Colorado climate. The more you work a piece of clay the drier it gets and cracks start appearing. Next time, I’ll do more planning then experimenting before I start.
2. Let it sit. The longer it sits the drier the piece and the less likely it is to crack on firing.
3. Apply the glaze. I went with a copper glaze to give it the look I wanted. In hindsight I think I would have gone for a gloss black instead.
4. Toss it in the kiln. Apparently at 1600 degrees Raku is considered a low temperature pottery. Let it cook for about 1 hour.
5. This is where it gets cool. Create a nest of hay, saw dust and paper. Pull out the red hot pottery and toss it in the hay. The whole thing starts to burn, at which point you suffocate the fire and let it smolder.
6. The smoldering fire cracks and distorts the glaze to make the random patterns which Raku is known for.

Let it cool for another hour or so and then you’ll be good to go.

Here is my creation. It’s very rough around the edges but it makes for a great iPhone holder and an interesting conversation piece.

We’ve been receiving traffic here and there from Spoke.com and I’m really not sure why. The site is a piss-poor rip off of LinkedIN plus its’ loaded with inaccurate information.

For our company, Spoke is listing the names of two of our clients as Imulus employees. I see a problem here because Spoke is giving false data; and therefore misrepresenting a company profile. To me, Spoke feels like an spam outfit, setup to capture the names and emails of various corporate accounts. I’ll explain why:

1. In an effort to correct the data I created an account; now they have my contact information.
2. Upon confirming my account; I was redirected to the Spoke Web site, asked to complete a basic profile, but rather then COMPLETE / SIGN-UP or SUBMIT, my option was to “Install Windows Toolbar.” OK, now that is shady.
3. When I attempt to modify the company data, I’m greeted with a pop-up form stripped of all browser controls. The form fails to validate my completed fields, then it tells me to click “back” on my browser…. hello, you removed my browser controls!

Please tell me I’m wrong, but so far I feel like I’ve given my information to a spammer.