We’ve Launched! — BetterOmaha.com

• dusty
• August 22nd, 2008
• 01:08:01 AM
• 1 Comment

For those of you who weren’t at BarCamp to see the official announcement of the Feisty Piranha Project, we’ll make the announcement here as well! (albeit 6 days later … ) The project that our interns have been hacking away on for the past 3 months is…..drum roll… BetterOmaha.com !!!

Essentially, the BetterOmaha site is a news aggregator for the Omaha metro area, bringing in news from all of the relevant major local news sources (Omaha.com, KETV, WOWT, The Reader, etc), as well as local blogers who are writing great things. Think of is as Google News.. but just for Omaha.

Additionally, we are providing an Omaha Restaurant guide… with the hopes of being the most comprehensive, most usable, and all-around best looking restaurant guide for Omaha on the internet.

So, thats it! Exciting eh? You may be asking yourself… so Dusty, whats the big deal? Fair question…. The big deal is the approach that we take with our site…

We are 100% about the user

Basically, we are building this site for the users first, and for advertisers second. We want it to be not only the most useful site for Omaha information, but also the most usable. That means you’ll never find popup ads on our site. That means that our restaurant section is COMPREHENSIVE, even if a restaurant hasn’t paid to be a “featured listing”. That means that we provide commenting and reviews on everything, even if it might detract from advertising appeal.

Not only that, I think our site *looks* pretty darn good. And that folks, goes a LONG way…

All in all, I’ve sooooo incredibly proud of what the three interns (Allyn, Robert & Erin#2) did this summer. Kevin and I couldn’t be happier. I think its quite safe to say that BrightMix’s first annual summer internship was a smashing success. Not only in the product we produced, but also in the fun that we had, and the all around experience. I can only hope that you the reader had as much fun following along, as we had being in the midst of it.

So thats it… head on over to http://www.betteromaha.com, and sign yourself up for a beta key! We’re letting in a few people per day, so be patient. If you have any feedback at all, or questions, please don’t hesitate to ask… send an email to info [at] betteromaha [dot] com…

This is likely the last post on the good old Feisty Piranha Project blog.. for more information about BrightMix, of course you can follow us over at

http://www.brightmix.com

or, to keep up to date with the developments happening on BetterOmaha.com, you can follow the BetterOmaha blog at

http://blog.betteromaha.com

Cheers and we’ll see you again next year for our next internship!

“E” Is For Erins

• erinh
• August 16th, 2008
• 09:37:17 PM
• 1 Comment

After reading Andy’s latest post on our Feisty Piranha blog, I realized that the whole Erin #1/Erin #2 thing might be a little confusing.  Isn’t it kind of odd to find 2 Erins in a 7 person company?

I certainly haven’t spent my summer researching the occurances of multiple Erins in small businesses, but I my gut says it’s a rare thing.  A summer’s worth of turning my head, only to find that the speaker was referring to someone else, says it’s also confusing.

Fortunately, the confusion has been worth it.  Erin #2 and I have been able to transform this potential chaos into a true learning experience.  What did we learn about?  Erins, of course!  For example, did you know that Erins enjoy gardening?  I always thought it was a personal preference, but I now know that I am predisposed to enjoy gardening because I am an Erin!  Below are just a few fun facts about Erins.

Fun Facts About Erins (Applies to all Erins)

BrightMix is 28.6% powered by Erins

Erins Love:
Coffee, Artichokes, Eggplants, Hummus, Volkswagens, Teva sandals, and the UserName “Erin”

Erins Don’t Love:

maggots, corporate work environments

Erins Agree to Disagree On:
Hollandaise high-heeled flip flops, and whether or not to eat meat

We’re launching at BarCamp Omaha!

• dusty
• August 14th, 2008
• 05:15:28 PM
• No Comments

In case you missed the original announcement, we’re officially launching the product on Saturday, at BarCamp Omaha! If you’re following the blog, you should definitely come out to the event and watch the unveiling! Additionally, BarCamp will be filled with lots of other interesting talks and great people… Definitely something to check out!

What: BarCamp Omaha
Where: Frost Acres – 96th & State St.
When: August 15 (Evening social gathering), 16th (Sessions all day), and 17th (Sunday breakfast + maybe a few sessions)

For all the details, and to sign up, check out http://www.barcampomaha.org

A Summer of Coffee

• andy
• August 14th, 2008
• 04:25:13 PM
• 2 Comments

Last week, Kevin literally got on his knees and begged me to write a post for this blog. He showed me my ridiculous keyboard-teeth avatatar and said what a waste to have created that in vain. While I have commented from time to time, I haven’t made a real post. That’s mainly because other than giving poor design advise to Erin#2, I haven’t worked on the internship project at all this summer.

I’ve been calling myself a ‘psuedo-intern’. I’m not even really an intern, although that’s what I interviewed for. (By the way; best interview ever. Hour-and-a-half flew by. Only seemed like hour-and-a-quarter. ) But I have been working on other sweet projects that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

So, now that the summer internship is almost over, I think I’ll reflect… on coffee.

It’s a long standing joke that internships are all about making coffee. This has been true for me. Erin#2 and I have been the main coffee makers all summer. Erin#1 started out that way (she’s usually the first person here) but soon decided to quit caffiene, so Erin #2 & I were left to fend for ourselves. Allyn drinks coffee too, but I’d rather drink doctors office fishtank water strained through a coal miner’s dirty sock than have his coffee. But the other day he got a thermos that looks like a mortar shell and holds more than a water tower. I’m jealous.

We drank Dunkin Donuts original blend until the Costco 33 gallon bag it came in was depleted. Then Erin#1 made a suggestion that brought us new horizon and higher state of consciousness: Starbucks Kopelani blend. Even the pixels spelling the name here taste good.

I’m not a Starbuzz-only guy by any means. I like the other roasters; especially local. But this was incredible. “These hand-selected beans are then roasted to bring out a juicy, crisp taste. And with a hint of citrus flavor you’ll experience the refreshing taste of Hawaii in every sip.” Wow. I kinda wish I’d been a writer for coffee descriptions instead of a crummy designer. (Another fun gig would have been to come up with paint color names. ‘Salmon in the Mist’. ‘Warm Fuzzy Philanthropy Yellow’. ‘Aromatic Fresh Baked Sugar Cookies Beige’. Etc.)

Bummer that Kopelani only lasted a month then Barstucks switched to a new flav-o-the-month and I haven’t found it again. Then I recommended my home brew of choice: Millstone Foglifter - a great blend of light and dark roasts - a bite like Columbian with the robust earthy flavor of Sumatra.

So it’s been a great summer of hot coffee in the morning & iced in the afternoon. With half-n-half and raw sugar, of course.

Challenge: Next time you talk about coffee, use the words ‘bright’, ‘earthy’, ‘aromatic’, and ‘floral notes’ in one sentance. Email me for a prize. Yay!

Crunch Time

• kevin
• August 6th, 2008
• 04:59:22 PM
• No Comments

Oh my! The summer is coming to a close, and with that, our summer internship.

As such, we’re readying up for the launch of the FPP application. As dusty mentioned, we’re launching it next Saturday, August 16th at Barcamp Omaha.

We’ve set ourselves a goal to have the application ready for launch by Wednesday of next week. This will hopefully give us some slack time if we need it (crosses fingers). Of course, there’s a boatload of bugs, unfinished features, and other misc loose ends. Needless to say, this last week will be pretty dang busy.

To aid them in their effort, we provided some delicious, nutritious Nestlé Crunch Bars (it was Allyn’s idea).

Will the interns pull through? Can they take the heat? Stay tuned to find out!