...based on the scores and reviews of several critics websites, magazines, newspapers, etc.  Similar to Rotten Tomatoes. So far, this is the closest.

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/ 

Web Development 

• ASP.NET - Everything you wanted to know and do with .NET stuff
• 4 Guys From Rolla - The guys who've been into programming since Classic ASP days
• W3 Schools - One of my favorite ones
• Developer Tutorials - Lots of nice random articles
• Smashing Magazine - A site that's really good at digging for well designed sites.

 There are a ton of other sites that are useful out there that can help improve the site but these will just do for now. 

Complaining is easy. The path of complaining is also easy. Nothing is ever perfect and all a complainer has to do is voice things that could be improved when they see them. Sure enough certain things could have been better, and sadly they get compliments about how they did someone a favor or helped avoid spending money on something, and ignorant people agree. This only encourages the complainer.

Here's the thing with complaining - lots of people don't want to be around them. However, if you're giving constructive criticism, that's different. You're helping. But, back to topic.

At a group level it only gets worse. Complainers start forming up into groups where they can complain about similar stuff. It leads to acceptance... and makes people that complain together feel happy together. Groups of complainers will then onslaught other groups as this makes the group only feel that more important. And if you dare complain about something another complainer seems to like, now you just fragmented the group. If you are going to be in the group all you can do is continue complaining about the same things.

So, over the last few weeks and months I've been trying to be better about how I view things, but I suck at it. Instead of trying to enjoy them for the good parts, I've focussed more on what could have been better. In the lack of new positive things I've come across during the past month or so, I've (sadly) complained. I avoid talking about something simply because I have nothing nice to say about it.

I think it's harder to be positive and have resolve. Now I'm not saying that we reach a happy attitude about everything? Or should we? Would it be better to be positive all the time or is that just as bad as being negative all the time? I know it annoys me to be around people that even though they are shoveling crap into their mouths will continue to claim that if you don't like it you are clearly using the wrong tastebuds... and they are like this ALL the time. How do you reach a happy medium?

They say that it's a bad idea to talk about your business. I find it the opposite. Some people put too much emphasis on the idea and not on its execution. Some people believe that their idea is so original that it must be protected at all cost. But when the "build it and they will come" method doesn't work, they're puzzled. Why is this?

Prior to the internet, this worked. Nowadays, you have people online providing feedback in seconds as opposed to days. If you are planning on releasing the next Google or Facebook, think about how they got out there. They just built it and created a good enough framework to build off. These companies had a vision and learned to see how the public reacts to their products and adjust from there. 

It's similar to a football team that overprepares for the game. They do all the planning but they forget about the details - tackling the competition. One missed tackle and boom, game over.

Now that's not to say that you just start putting things together and see if your project sticks, there has to be a balance. You have to have a roadmap when building things. What must you have for this product release? What could you live without or do later that will not impact the company in a major way in the future? 

Any thoughts are welcome.

We've all seen Texas Hold'Em, Street Racing, The "Farm" game, and a whole slew of other gaming goodness in Facebook. But what if you want to actually make use of your social network? This is in order of usefulness. 

10. Marketplace by Oodle

The Oodle Marketplace is a great alternative to going to Craigslist and Ebay in terms of selling items privately. But with the power of Facebook, your friends now get in the mix and you will be able to share pictures and other items on the Oodle Marketplace. It's biggest drawback is of course the size of the community.  

9. Flixster

Looking to see which movies are good to watch. Do you value your friend's opinions than the critics? Flixster is a great application that extends the website's functions to Facebook and uses it with good reason. Friends of friends who install the application can also put in rating and comments on recent theatrical releases or old-school movies.

8. eBay Auctions

Ever tried posting some things you have in your garage that you thought some of your friends my be interested in? If you answered "yes", it's probably fair to say that you've probably posted a bunch of links on your wall, profile, etc. But why do that when you can install a facebook app that does it for you and shares with the rest of your friends? It's a great app that also displays the current bidding price on all your items. Great time saver. Wish there was an app for Craigslist.

7. Simply RSS

Stream almost any website that has a "XML" or "RSS" button labeled on it. You should be able to stream your blog too? Why waste the time cutting and pasting or hitting the "share" link? Get this application and get it over with. 

6. SocialCalendar

SocialCalendar has changed lately since the developers of the facebook application are beginning to charge for certain things but to be able to share a calendar with your friends and do RSVP, guest management, and invites within your Facebook world, this works best. You can keep your brithdays or coordinate plans/events with your facebuddies and never miss anything important again.
 

5. Yelp 

Interface everything about Yelp into Facebook. Favorite restaurants, places, and a bunch of activities you can share with friends. It's a good app that provides a stream of updates that can alert the rest of your friends and puts a little nice looking gadget on your profile.

4. Picasa (developer Alan) or Flickr

Is one of my favorite Facebook apps. If you're the type of person who is tired of having to re-post whole albums after taking up a whole lifetime to post an album in Friendster or MySpace, this is the answer for you. The application install a tab on your profile and retrieves the comments. Pretty cool stuff.

3. My Restaurants

Why read a bunch of food reviews from strangers when you can read them from your very own friends! The best restaurant suggestions we get are from friends anyway. What really surprised me was seeing a large selection of restaurants from the get-go. Then again, I maybe lucky. So far, I have added many restaurants from their database and not one restaurant I actually visited was missing. Don't be surprised if you happen to find your most obscure restaurant here. 

2. Cities I've Visited (developed by TripAdvisor.Com)

Probably one of the most popular and useful apps on Facebook. Where have you traveled? Create an interactive travel map to share with your friends and help them plan their trips. When it's installed, people can see all of the cities you've visited worldwide and see certain stats of places you've visited. You can provide ratings to nearby restaurants or gauge your knowledge of that place through a simple rating system. It's even tagged as a Facebook verified app - something that works well for Facebook users.

1. Selective Twitter Status 

Some Facebook Twitter apps love to be annoying. Maybe you don't want to send every single update of how much you love hot dogs or whether you're having your haircut today. If you're the type of person that would rather annoy your friends less and send only the updates you want in Twitter, install this app. It's a great help and is considered really useful when you want to start doing some marketing.

What the heck is this all about? What's all this code? Let's say you run a blog, a store, a forum, anything. Let's say that you've decided to change the name of your site from "TheOldCompanyName" to "TheNewCompanyName" and all of the areas in the blog, store, or anywhere on your site where you use that word needs to be changed. Let's say that your pages are not your simple HTML pages. Instead, the content of your site sits inside a database - like *ahem* SQL Server 2005 or something.

Basically, I had this situation where I wanted to keep my old site but wanted to change the domain name slightly like "http://archive.radcastro.com". Previously it was called "http://www.radcastro.com". But since I changed the domain of the old site all of its references which use "http://www.radcastro.com" are broken. So if you used something like <img src="http://www.radcastro.com/Photos/Family.jpg"> it would break. Why? Because now it should be <img src="http://archive.radcastro.com/Photos/Family.jpg"> for the image to display. So below is a little sql script that you can run on SQL Server 2000 or 2005 that will allow you to enter a table of your choosing and replace any phrase or text. It's pretty powerful stuff and this is why I blogged it. God knows that I'll use something like this in the future. Imagine having an online store and you want to rename hundreds of products. Super useful stuff.

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Fine. But there's truly no get rich quick scheme for this. You have an idea but you're not sure where to start or where to begin. If you have never done anything like this before, make sure you understand what you're getting into. Alot of friends come up to me to start businesses but never get anywhere. It takes somewhat of an obsession...but a healthy one. It starts with a passion to help others and creating a product you could be proud of. Most successful sites are managed by people who have good discipline and a real work ethic.

Here is what I call my first 5:

1. Write a business plan.

It is a must. If it is in your head - forget it. Get your idea on paper - even if it's one page. It gives you direction and it doesn't need to be pitched to investors or banks. Even if you feel that your idea is so simple that you don't need one, write one anyway. Even the most simplest ideas need support. I remember sitting down with a client thinking his idea was simple until I began introducing potential issues with his idea.

Here's how to write a business plan in plain english. 

2. Have the right people in place.

If you're the only person doing it, don't. Seriously don't. Ideally you want between two and four people. It would be hard to start with just one. One person would find starting a company hard to bear. Even Bill Gates, who seems to be able to take a bit of moral weight, had to have a co-founder. But you don't want so many founders that the company starts to look like a group photo. Partly because you don't need a lot of people at first, but mainly because the more founders you have, the worse disagreements you'll have. When there are just two or three founders, you know you have to resolve differences quick or you'll die. If there are seven or eight, disagreements can linger and harden into separate groups. You don't want mere voting; you need a company. The main point is that you must need someone that can compliment your skills and work ethic. I can't emphasize this enough.  

3.  Protect your company 

Secure the domain names (i.e. yourcompany.com, yourcompany.net, etc.), your trade secrets and your company name. A trade secret could be a marketing technique, a technological device, a manufacturing ploy or even designs for a particular tool. Whatever the case, you'll want to know how to legally protect your company's trade secrets. Make sure investors or other people you may decide to share the idea with to get a sign non-disclosure agreements.

Also, get a lawyer who specializes in protecting intellectual property if your idea is that special.

 4.  Keep costs low, manage risk, avoid investors at all costs; even if it's money from family.

Here's something from Mark Cuban's blog (blogmaverick.com) on having investors to start a business:

"Investors don’t care about your dreams and goals. They love that you have them. They love that they motivate you. Investors care about how they are going to get their money back and then some. Family cares about your dreams. Investors care about money. There is a reason why venture capitalists are often referred to as Vulture Capitalists. The minute you slide off course from the promises you made to get the money, your dreams fall in jeopardy. You will find yourself making promises to keep investors at bay. You will find yourself avoiding your investors. Then you will find yourself on the outside looking in. The reality of taking money from non family members is that they are doing it for only one reason, to make more money. If you can’t deliver on that promise, you are out. You will be removed from the company you started. You will find someone else running your dream company. If this sounds like a scene out of the Sopranos or an episode you would watch on TV about a loan shark, you are right. The only difference is that it’s all legal." 

Read the rest here: http://blogmaverick.com/2008/01/02/the-best-equity-is-sweat-equity/

 5.  Learn to listen, be patient and understand your customers/users

Surround yourself with other business owners and don't take user feedback personally. The most successful businesses tend to worry less about "this sucks"  criticisms and instead figure out how to get less of them. 

Ideally you want to make large numbers of users love you, but you can't expect to hit that right away. Initially you have to choose between satisfying ALL the needs of a small set of users, or satisfying SOME needs of ALL potential users. Take the first. It's easier to expand user-wise than satisfaction-wise. And maybe more importantly, it's harder to lie to yourself. If you think you're 85% of the way to a great product, how do you know it's not 70%? Or 10%? Whereas it's easy to know how many users you have. 

Thanks for reading 

Well, I am a solutions guy, who happens to be a developer and a designer. So, basically, I've been through the whole thing - from gathering requirements to deployment, beginning to end, etc. I know what ticks and know how to make it tick.

I currently work at the Department Of Homeland Security and have led several successful projects. In the past, I've worked on several startups, large private corporations, and government agencies. During those days, I have experienced failure and success at equal levels. I'm also a published author on gaming but plan to publish more on doing business over the web. On a part-time basis, I help aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses get a piece of that pie online.

If you have met me at one point or another, you'll notice that I talk about business alot. However, at my very core, I'm a god-fearing family man who is happily married to my wife Odessi (pronounced Odyssey) and inspired by my little goofball Owen Radley.

 Thanks for checking in. Want to know more?