Growth Hacking Blogs

Note to self, follow these blogs:

Andrew Chen
http://andrewchen.co/recent/ 

 Noah Kagan
http://okdork.com/blog/ 

Hiten Shaw
http://hitenism.com/

USB Tethering to Mac with Nexus 5

I've been traveling around Australia for over a month now. Mainly we've been staying at hotels where we have some sort of status, Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton, etc., and the WiFi has been free.

This week I'm staying where they outsource the WiFi to Tomizone, which is fine, but they only let you use one device at a time, even though I've paid $60 for my 9 days.  I'm using a Nexus 5 lately so I've been using the N5 on the WiFi and then tethering to my Mac over bluetooth. This works but seems a bit flakey.  Occasionally the Mac can't connect and I have to turn the N5 bluetooth on and back off.  Luckily Android also supports USB Tethering.  Great, but of course the Mac doesn't support that out of the box.  A quick search lead me to HoRNDIS by Joshua Wise.  It works like a charm.  Extra bonus, my N5 is always charging while I'm using the Mac.

Thanks to Mactip for the great Android Mac USB Tethering howto guide.

Next step, turn on internet sharing and get my Kindle and Nexus 7 on the net through the Mac via WiFi!

Comedians, In Cars, Getting Coffee

Louie CK takes Jerry on for a boat ride. Great episode.

Lake Wakatipu versus Lake Tahoe

We've been spending some time next to Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown New Zealand. It reminds us a lot of Lake Tahoe at home. I decided to look up some stats. Tahoe is a bit larger, deeper, and higher. Wakatipu is amazing though, and longer. The water is fed from the glacier and it's filled with very finely ground granite, so it's a really unique color. Tahoe water is also amazingly blue but it's a different kind of blue.

Both lakes are amazing. We did have a windy day recently and I got to speak with a guy who just came in from kite surfing. He said it was pretty rare to be able to kite on Wakatipu.  The same could be said for Tahoe!

Max Length
Wakatipu 75 km
Tahoe 35 km

Max Depth
Tahoe 501 meters
Wakatipu 280 meters

Altitude
Tahoe 1,897 meters
Wakatipu 310 meters

Area
Tahoe 191 square miles
Wakatipu 112 square miles

Giant Clam on the Great Barrier Reef

Giant Clam on the Great Barrier Reef
Originally uploaded by albertwmui
Had a great experience diving the Great Barrier Reef today. Lots of amazing wildlife, but the most amazing new thing I saw was the Giant Clam. These things are pretty cool. They have a similar lifespan to humans!

I went on the Silver Sonic and would recommend them highly.  The divemasters were very good and the crew was super nice and helpful.  They warned us a few times about the high winds today and gave us the opportunity to reschedule. I didn't have the luxury of changing the date, so I went for it. Man, was it rough. About half the passengers lost their breakfast on the way out. I took some of the complementary ginger tablets and that did the trick on the way out. On the way back, after eating a bit too much for lunch, it was a real challenge to hold down my lunch, but I barely made it.

We did three dives, two of them drift dives where you drift along the reef and meet the boat at the other end. Besides clams, I saw a medium sized shark, a turtle, and tons of interesting coral, fish, and mollusks.  The divemaster would occasionally point out things we might have missed or hand us some creature that is safe to handle, like a starfish or sea cucumber.

Even though it was rough getting out and back from Port Douglas, it was worth it for me. I'm not sure the snorkelers on the trip would agree though.

Where is the Global Entry PASS ID or Membership Number?

It's on the back, in the upper left hand corner.  I found this information on the Global Entry site in this PDF file.

I was just filling out my profile on American Airlines, hoping that I'll get TSA Pre check next time I fly American.