Tips on Which Crops to Grow in We Rule (Game for iPhone/iPod/iPad)

Click on chart to enlarge.

If you play We Rule on your iPhone/iPad/iPod, you may find this tip sheet I put together helpful. It will help you know what are the best crops to plant, depending on your time schedule or even if you're spending Mojo.

For example, the best crops for earning gold per hour are (in order): Wheat, Corn, Rice, Peas, Onions, Strawberries, Pumpkins, Squash, Potatoes, Carrots, Watermelon, and then Beans.

Or, if you have Mojo to spend, and it's XP's you're interested in, then you'll want to go with (in order): Pumpkins, Carrots, Strawberries, Beans, Watermelon, Onions, Potatoes, Squash, Peas, Rice, Wheat, and then Corn.

Simply decide what your goal is, look at your inventory, and choose the crop highest up on the list. You can then see what your yield per hour or per Mojo will be.

I only have included crops for levels 15 and below (as I'm still working my way up to the higher levels myself). When I have all the additional crops for the other levels, I'll update my chart.

Click on the chart to blow it up full screen.

Enjoy, and pass it around to your friends!

Kevin

PS: Here is a snapshot of my "Kingdom" currently. (Click to enlarge.)

My Kingdom (Click to Enlarge).

Michael Robertson's $20,000,000 Mistake (Almost)

As most of you know, Michael Robertson is continuing his legal attack on some very good people who once worked at Linspire. As part of this legal assault, I have had to produce emails, documents, etc. in discovery. In going through the old emails I had kept, I found one that I thought I would share here.

One day Robertson and I were arguing about how to treat employees. I think employees are the most important asset of a company. Robertson yells and swears at them, tries to make them feel small, gives them crappy severance, and even ends up suing them. During one of these "how do you treat employee" arguments, I was trying to explain to him that the employees I was defending had just brought in millions of dollars in revenues and profits. He would always come back with, "Yes, and that's their job. That's what they get paid to do." He then went on to brag about how "he" got $20M from Microsoft years earlier by forcing them into a rough situation where they had to pay us to change our name.

Oh?

See the email I've pasted below which I had sent to Michael Robertson back in 2002. It's an email that I spent a great deal of time and thought on writing before sending it to Robertson. This email, and my subsequent cajoling of Robertson, would end up being worth $20M to Linspire two years after I wrote it.

"Lindows" had just gotten a favorable ruling in one of the very early rounds of the Microsoft v Lindows trademark case (a full two years before we actually settled). I remember that day very well, as we heard of the ruling right in the middle of a developer's conference that we were holding at the Lindows offices. (I'm sure many of the developers who were at that conference will remember it too, as it was a big victory for Lindows against the giant Microsoft.) After the ruling, Robertson told me that his plan was to try and settle with Microsoft and change our name to ChoicePC. He figured he could get between $100,000 to $250,000 from Microsoft on the heels of this loss for them and that they would now agree to settle. As you'll be able to see in my email to him, I thought that was a bad idea. Much of the press Lindows had been getting was coming FROM the lawsuit. Without that, we were just one of a thousand other Linux distors. We needed something to help us build our brand. To me, that was the name Lindows. I also knew we had little downside but HUGE upside to one day settle for a lot more. Knowing that you can't easily change Robertson's mind (you have to stroke his ego and make him think everything is HIS idea so he can later take the credit), I crafted this well-thought-out email. The next day, after MR had read my email, we met and I continued by tactfully cajoling him. Robertson then agreed with me and decided not to change our name. I remember the sense of relief I felt when he changed his mind. Whew! I'm quite confident that without this email and my cajoling, Robertson would have settled with Microsoft at that time. The rest is history. We continued to milk the press from the name and ultimately took $20M from Microsoft to change our name.

Here's the email.

From: Kevin Carmony [mailto:kevin@lindows.com]
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 8:13 PM
To: michael@lindows.com
Subject: Lindows.com

Michael,

First off, congratulations! Not sure if I actually congratulated you on the ruling, so I'll do it now. Not everyone here was as close to the legal proceedings as I was, so they probably don't fully understand how significant your direction in this case was. I was fortunate to have been able to sit in on many of the meetings, calls, e-mails, etc., and to me it was very clear. Many will congratulate our company over this victory, but I sincerely congratulate you personally. Sure, Brobeck has a good team and did some great work (especially Daniel), but I honestly give the bulk of the credit to you. Like you said over dinner, winning doesn't teach you much, but losing does. Lindows.com is the beneficiary of the experience you gained at MP3.com.

As I came back to the office and looked around this place (I was the only one here, everyone was over at the dinner still), and had a minute to think, I have come to the strong opinion that we should keep using the "Lindows" name. I suppose the argument can be made to make the change if MS comes back with a quick settlement, but something tells me they won't, and to be honest, I hope they don't and that we decide to stick with the Lindows name. Let me give you a few reasons why I feel this way...

1. Dvorak said it best, "Lindows has a name that in itself is genius." Two names have put this company squarely on the map: "Michael Robertson" and "Lindows." It was a brilliant move then, and I believe still is, for all the same reasons it was "genius" back then and now even more reasons.

2. Yes, ChoicePC is a very good name as well, BUT it doesn't have the history that "Lindows" now has. I believe the name "Lindows" now stands for much more than when we started (Linux + Windows). It now also stands for not being afraid of taking on MS, it now stands for victory, it now stands for the days of MS always getting there way are numbered. Every army needs a banner, an ensign to rally around..."Lindows" I believe has become that ensign...I'd hate to lose it.

3. Today's victory was felt by so many...you, me, Brobeck...but far more important...our employees, our customers, our Insiders, our supporters, investors, the press, fans, etc. I would feel that if we abandon the name now, in a way we're abandoning them and all the trust they've put in you to fight this fight. What will Dvorak think? What will our Insiders think? What will our employees think? So many people have felt a stake in this fight (you heard the cheers during your toast tonight), I don't want to lose their ardent support. "Lindows" has become the icon of our fight, to bring choice to MS's monopoly. I think it would be a mistake to walk away from that now.

4. I agree we need to focus on making a great product and not fighting legal battles. I believe we've proven we can do this. Our engineering team continues to plow forward, regardless of any legal entanglements. I don't see this a dilution of engineering, but rather a HUGE boost to marketing. I believe we have been handed the best pre-branded name we could possibly have, and it will take much to replace that. Sure, we could work to brand ChoicePC so that everyone comes to know the name...but will the name bring up the same emotions? David V Goliath has served us well in these early days, and I believe there is still steam in that model.

5. We can still introduce the concept of a "ChoicePC" without abandoning Lindows.com or LindowsOS. A "ChoicePC" is one running LindowsOS and shopping at the Lindows.com warehouse. We can gradually brand "choice" while keeping our Lindows banner flying proudly.

6. Lindows has been through the battle and come out victorious (yes, I know this could change, but given such a strong opinion on the PI, I'm feeling confident we will remain victorious.) This battle and victory has injected something into the Lindows name that only another lawsuit could put into ChoicePC. I fear any other lawsuits will be longer fought and perhaps not easily won. We should take this first win and wear it as a badge of honor and courage. As you say, we didn't run when the bully picked on us the first day of school...let's not let MS ever forget that!

7. Finally, I'm exceptionally proud to be associated with this company, and I know all the employees here feel the same way. Lindows is now such a huge part of that pride and our legacy...I don't want to walk away from that. I bet if you took a vote of our employees, 100% would agree. Even if it's not the logical thing to do, it IS the emotional one...and emotions are a powerful thing when trying to get employees to love a company.

You instinctively KNEW that "Lindows" was the right name when we started, just like MP3.com was the right name. My instincts are screaming to me it is even a more brilliant name now.

Just wanted to share my insight as you consider this decision.

Congratulations again! I hope you take some time to cherish the moment...not many can say the took on MS and won.

Kevin

Just wanted to make sure Robertson doesn't try re-writing history. Robertson likes taking the good ideas from employees (read this for example), but then treats them poorly, like pawns in his little world. Just ask most of those who have had the misfortune of having worked for him (or been sued by him).

Kevin

I Love my iPad--Another Game Changer from Apple

Unboxing my new iPad.

During my lifetime, I've been truly blown away more times by Apple than any other company. They've done it to me five times now.

I can still remember the very first time I ran each of these devices from Apple: Apple IIe, iPod/iTunes, iPhone, and the Mac. Each time I was completely blown away, giddy even, with the sizable leap in innovation with each of these products. Well, it happened to be again yesterday, when my iPad was delivered to my home. I spent a good portion of the day using it. And I have to say, I love it. It exceeded my expectations.

Sure, I expected it to be nice, but in a way my expectations were kept in check, given I have owned the iPhone since the day it came out. I guess in a way I was expecting it to be just an iPhone, only bigger. I found it to be so much more. The larger screen allows iPad apps to be much nicer than their iPhone counterpart. They aren't just marginally better and easier to use, but a magnitude better.

With a few taps I was streaming full-length TV shows in beautiful clarity. Photo viewing, web browsing and email have never been so enjoyable. Games are amazing. It's the ideal device to use while watching TV, laying in bed, and certainly to watch movies while traveling.

It's not perfect, no 1st generation product is. Just like with the iPhone, I'm sure it will improve each year. But, this first product is far enough along for me to already know I wouldn't want to not have one. Anyone who waits for the next generation of the iPad will miss out on all the amazing things it can do right now.

For those of you skeptical about "do I really need a device between my iPhone and laptop?" You'll see. You do. And you will be getting an iPad. The iPad will be big. That's my prediction.

Apple has done it again.

Kevin

PS: As some of you may know, my company has five different apps in the Top 100 of the iPhone app store (social networking). We just submitted our first iPad-optimized app, CLIPish for iPad, and it should be available any day in the app store. Look for it.

Michael Robertson Finally Has a Good Idea, Mine.

Robertson FINALLY has a good idea, which he talked about in his most recent Michael's Minute called byo.fm. Oh, wait, that's right, this wasn't Robertson's idea, it was MY idea from years ago when I pitched it to him at MP3.com, called My Way Radio. I've posted below one of the mocks I made when I made my pitch to Robertson. In fact, you can find the Power Point overview I put together for My Way Radio back then here. You won't see anything on byo.fm that wasn't discussed in my overview. Glad to see the light finally came on for him.

Robertson likes to bill himself as a forward-thinking visionary. It would appear he's more a backward-thinking idea taker. Robertson, just remember as you're building out your new venture, you're helping prove MY idea was a good one. Thanks Michael! I wish you much success with my idea, it IS a good one! =)

The mock I made for MyWayRadio.com from nearly ten years ago.

Kevin

My Third Annual American Idol Predictions - Season 9 - 2010

As some of you know, each year I make my predictions for who I think will win American Idol and in what order I think the contestants will be voted off. (Here were my predictions for 2009 and for 2008.) I set my predictions after the first performance night of the Top 12 (which was last night).

Here are my predictions for this year. As always, I'm not saying these are my PERSONAL favorites, but just how I think America will end up voting. (Siobhan, Lee and Didi are my personal favs.)

My predictions are:

CLICK TO ENLARGE - #1 is my predicted winner,
and #12 my prediction as first to be voted off.

Also, as with previous years, email me with YOU predictions or post them as a comment to this thread, and we'll use the same point system used in previous years to see who is winning at the end of each week and how we all did by the end of the season. (Don't worry if you miss sending me your predictions before they start voting people off tonight, as the point system takes into account when you jumped in with your predictions with a slight penalty for jumping in late.)

To make it easy to email or post your predictions, here are the contestant's names in text form, so you can easily cut, paste and move them around in the order you predict.

Aaron Kelly
Andrew Garcia
Casey James
Crystal Bowersox
Didi Benami
Lacey Brown
Lee Dewyze
Katie Stevens
Michael Lynche
Paige Miles
Siobhan Magnus
Tim Urban

Kevin

SCORING POINT SYSTEM: Every week, you get 1 point for every number off you were for where someone would be voted off. For example, if you predict Casey will make it to #2, but he gets voted off #4, then you get 2 points. If you guess it smack on, you get no points. Like Golf, the LOWEST SCORE WINS.

PENALTY POINTS FOR LATE ENTRANTS: If your prediction doesn't come in before the first round (when there were 12 contestants), you are penalized 1 point. If you miss the first two rounds, you are penalized 3 points. If you miss the first three rounds, you are penalized 6 points. No more entries after the first three rounds and we are down to 9 contestants.

Nearly Two Years and Michael Robertson Remains Silent to Linspire Shareholders

Michael Robertson still not talking to shareholders.

It's been nearly two years since Michael Robertson sold Linspire to Xandros without any shareholder input. To this day, Robertson has never held a shareholder meeting or sent any communication to the one hundred or so Linspire shareholders with the details about that transaction.

It took a shareholder lawsuit (which Robertson unsuccessfully tried to thwart) for Robertson to finally come up with any information. After a year and a half, that case was finally settled. Here is what was disclosed from that settlement:

Kevin La Rue 7:36am March 11th, 2010

Dear Fellow Stockholder of Digital Cornerstone (formerly known as Linspire, Inc.),

As you may know, in October 2008, I initiated a lawsuit as a shareholder of Linspire relating to actions taken by Michael Robertson and Larry Kettler in operating Linspire and their mismanagement of the company. I have settled this matter, receiving no money from Linspire personally, but required that a condition of settlement be that I be allowed to disclose to the other shareholders the information I learned during the litigation about what happened to the company’s assets.

Specifically, under the terms of the settlement agreement, I have been authorized to disclose to the shareholders of Linspire how Linspire’s funds were used by category, how much cash Linspire had at the time its assets were sold to Xandros, and a specific accounting of distributions to Linspire’s shareholders or shareholder related entities. It is important to note that the settlement specifically states that this disclosure I am making is not made on behalf of Linspire, Michael Robertson or Larry Kettler.

Based on the information I received during the course of the litigation, below is the disclosure I have been authorized and am able to make to each of you:

As of July 31, 2007, Linspire had $3,802,531.20 of cash on hand. As of June 30, 2008, when Linspire sold substantially all of its non-cash assets to Xandros, Inc., Linspire had $1,077,952.58.

Between June 2007 and June 2008, Linspire expended: $286,329.96 on its data center.

Between July 2007 and July 2008, Linspire expended: $1,629,907.06 in payroll expenses.

Between June 2007 and June 2008, Linspire paid Ajax13, a company related to Michael Robertson, $180,000.00 for a licensing fee for certain software Linspire was allegedly using.

In September 2008, Linspire transferred $600,000.00 to “SKL Trust, Michael Robertson” for “MP3Tunes Pmt.”

Finally, Xandros acquired Linspire for 4,098,360 shares of Xandros (a privately held company). I was unable to verify the valuation of those shares or to obtain who or what entity currently owns these Xandros shares.

I have tried to send this information to all the shareholders of whom I am aware and for which I have a method to contact them (via email addresses or social media services). To the extent you know any other Linspire shareholders, please feel free to forward this to them for their information.

Yours,

Carl Kevin La Rue

It would appear this is the best the Linspire shareholders can hope for. No shareholder meeting. No detailed explanation. In fact, you'll notice one of the terms of the settlement was that the disclosure was NOT made "on behalf of Robertson," who is clearly doing everything possible to avoid any accounting to Shareholders.

I'm sure the Linspire common shareholders would still like to know:

What was the valuation of the Xandros stock? Who holds that stock now? (Presumably Robertson took this as the preferred shareholder.)

What in the world did Linspire need from Ajax13 to warrant a $180K payment to this Robertson-owned company? As the former CEO for Linspire, I can't think of a single thing that Ajax13 had which Linspire needed, but I can certainly see Ajax13 needing Linspire's cash.

It appears that Robertson forced Linspire into liquidation so he could take the $600K (and presumably all the Xandros stock), and yet has kept the company going to attack former employees. The 100 some-odd shareholders still hold stock in Digital Corner Stone, Inc., and that company has lawsuits going on, attacking former employees and trying to shut down Freespire.com. I still own shares of that business. I don't want to see them attacking good people. To this day, Robertson is using Digital Cornerstone to attack Theresa, Cliff, Randy, and others, forcing them to each spend thousands in legal bills defending their good names.

I have no problem with Robertson as a preferred shareholder getting what is rightfully his due. What I DO have a problem with is 1) him doing everything he did without sharing any information to shareholders for years, and 2) him transferring the assets out of the company as some "liquidation," and then keeping the company going so that Robertson can attack good, honest people.

Michael acts as if because he put up millions, he's the only one who deserves to be treated with any fairness or respect in the Linspire failure. He gives no credit to the 100 or so shareholders who wrote checks to buy shares in the company and exercise stock options, or the employees who worked countless, dedicated hours. When I left there, the team of employees left the company profitable with millions in the bank. How are they rewarded? With legal attacks. The $600K Robertson took was only made possible because of the work those employees did. You could take all the salaries from all the employees he is attacking, for the entire time they worked at Linspire, and it would not equal the revenue these employees brought in to Linspire in their last year there alone. Way to "take care of the peeps" Robertson.

Not long ago, I emailed Michael and offered to take down Freespire.com and even purge all my blogs about him if he would back off his legal attacks against these good people. Robertson declined my offer and to this day continues his attacks.

Even if what he did was technically proper, the way he has treated shareholders and employees is unethical and wrong. That's what I have a problem with.

Kevin

Will Freedom of Speech be Banned in America? Michael Robertson hopes so!

Will freedom of speech be banned in America? If Michael Robertson has his way it will be. He wants Freespire.com taken down because the site is critical of him and exposes many of his questionable business practices. Robertson is trying to use trademark law to shut down Freespire.com. Fortunately, America has a rich history of supporting freedom of speech on the Internet. Robertson already lost in summary judgment in the case, and it goes to full trial later this month. (If you're in the San Diego area and would like to attend the hearing, email me for details.)

For Robertson to shut Freespire.com down, he needs to prove I had bad faith intent to "profit" from the site, such as by confusing visitors. For example, show that people visiting Freespire.com would somehow be so daft that they would be confused and think the site was run by Xandros (the trademark holder for the term "Freespire") and that this confusion was created so that I would profit from the site.

If you visit http://freespire.com, you'll see first hand how ridiculous that argument is. There's clearly no confusion that this site is from Xandros (or Linspire), nor has there ever been any such confusion, and the site has never received one dime of revenue or profited. (Robertson's lawyers know the case is a dog, but they love taking Robertson's money and he's crazy enough to pay it. Doi!)

Xandros, the trademark holder, has never expressed to me any problem with the Freespire.com site or asked me to turn the domain name over to them. It's Robertson (who does NOT have the trademark) who is spending tens of thousands trying to take Freespire.com down and silence his detractors. Does anyone really think Robertson is looking out for Xandros? Robertson doesn't even look out for his OWN employees and shareholders, why would he care about Xandros? He clearly only cares about one thing--twisting trademark law to kill freedom of speech that is critical of him.

Robertson loves to whine about others who don't respect freedom of markets, speech, etc., and yet he's the one wasting loads of cash trying to do that very thing.

Long live freedom of speech. Hopefully the court will defend it later this month. I have every confidence they will. I'll be back to report when it does.

Kevin