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Colin Dean Managing Consultant, Infosphere Data Explorer, IBM

Greater Pittsburgh Area

Technologist, journalist, and organization leader. I write code, articles on tech and life, business plans, and contracts. I organize several hundred person events. Co-founder of three businesses. I ran a small newspaper for two years.

My views are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.

Areas of Expertise

  • Reviews 11
  • Answers 3

Colin was extremely organized and managed meetings, concerns, and chapter-related issues well. He made accommodations for others (both on the Board and within the chapter) when necessary and spearheading several projects such as assisting the chapter in getting a new deck built off of the back of the house. He puts his best foot forward in everything that he does and does what is necessary to get the job done.

Source: LinkedIn John Nagy Mar 10, 2013

Colin Dean, as a member of at least 2 courses and then as an individual student in an independent study, exhibited intelligence, energy, and talent. He writes clearly and thanks on his feet. I respect his integrity, too, and endorse him without hesitation for employment or further education. I believe he will contribute mightily to our world.
I'm happy to provide further information, if I have it and if you have more questions.
best,
Evann Galbreath Garrison
Lecturer, Department of English and Public Relations
Westminster College
724 946-7341

Source: LinkedIn Evann Garrison Mar 10, 2013

Colin was a hard working and intelligent student. He demonstrated a lot of intellectual curiosity in and out of the classroom. He'd be a great asset to any organization.

Source: LinkedIn Terri Lenox Mar 10, 2013

Colin assisted with a large campus-wide development project. His expert knowledge of multiple operating systems, programming and testing methodology proved invaluable. With his help our project was completed ahead of schedule for two years in a row. After I graduated Colin took the project on himself and ran the development team.

Source: LinkedIn Geoff Zimmerman Mar 10, 2013

Colin is energetic and passionate about computer science and programming. He pays attention to detail and makes every attempt to cover all the bases when defining a solution.

Source: LinkedIn Christopher Grill Mar 10, 2013

Colin is a creative and enthusiastic developer. He takes every assignment seriously. He is always eager to learn and come up with new ideas. I recommend Colin for any development position.

Source: LinkedIn Michael Broudy Mar 10, 2013

What can I say that you can't see from Colin's impressive resume? He was extremely hard-working in his career, his schoolwork, his social life and his side work which managed to find time for. It is hard to find a college student who could multitask all these things so well and even harder to find someone who actually enjoyed doing so. Colin loves taking on challenging work and will jump to learn bleeding edge technology and techniques. I can recommend Colin Dean if the position calls for a person who can juggle multiple tasks and incorporates any time period of technology; and on the off chance he doesn't know how to do it, Colin will find out how quickly and expertly, and be your man to do the job before you can even ask the next resume holder.

Source: LinkedIn Jake Romigh Mar 10, 2013

Colin was an excellent resource for new technologies. He was able to think outside the box and then efficiently convey his ideas in everyday language to non-technical administrators.

Source: LinkedIn Jonathan Smith Mar 10, 2013

Colin is a hard worker and thinks outside the box well.

Source: LinkedIn Jonathan Smith Mar 10, 2013

Working with Colin was a great experience. He ran meetings well and still managed to make them enjoyable. Whenever someone had a concern he was very willing to talk with them and try to fix the problem. He was always open to new ideas and encouraged people to think outside the box.

Source: LinkedIn Sky Chernauskas Mar 10, 2013
Colin Dean, Managing Consultant, Infosphere Data Explorer, IBM answered:

Melissa has too many potential pronunciations

Here are two, in IPA (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_pronunciation):

/məˈlɪsə/
/meɪlisɑ/

Consider something that's a little more internationally pronounceable in order to avoid having multiple names for your product across the globe as you expand.

Definitely don't exceed three syllables, but two is probable a goal. "Siri" is two, "OK, Glass" is three, and "OK, Google" is four. You know what's easier to say quickly!

Colin Dean, Managing Consultant, Infosphere Data Explorer, IBM answered:

By "opportunities", I assume that you mean speculation opportunities.

I feel that the boat has sailed for mining, meaning that it's not a good investment to purchase mining equipment. Using a profitability calculator, such as the one available at bitcoinx.com, you can see that it takes several hundred dollars worth of mining equipment to have a profitable operation *at the start*. Profitability will decline unless the price also rises. My mining rig was netting me about 1 BTC/month at this time last year, down from 4 BTC/month at the same time in 2011. Now, I'm lucky if I'll see a BTC in a decade. Mining really is an arms race that only very serious investors with a lot of cash to risk should consider. Hosted mining encounters the same problem, but at least the logistics are easier! However, you don't have neat hardware to sell when you want to get out.

Buying Bitcoins (or other altcoins) is probably the best speculative option available presently. You can check out http://coinmarketcap.com to see some altcoins that are making moves. Be wary of anything, though, because only Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Namecoin are names I trust with certainty. The latter two are still small enough to be manipulated.

Consider also any arbitrage opportunities. It may be a 1% or 2% gain, but it's something! Do that weekly and your money will be doubled in less than a year.

Starting a business is hard, but it's probably the best bet in the long run. You could start a Bitcoin-centric business, that is, one that serves the Bitcoin community as an exchange, broker, escrow, tumbler (beware of local laws outlawing this), or protocol-centric system.

Or, you could start a business that simply accepts Bitcoin. What's the easiest way to get Bitcoin, people ask me. "Convince others to give it to you," I respond. Offer a product, even if that product is knowledge in the form of a book or pamphlet, and ask for payment in Bitcoin. There are some in the community who will support you just because you accept Bitcoin.

The trick about the business is beating others to the punch. Dropbox doesn't accept Bitcoin. Become the first online storage system to accept Bitcoin for real and you'll instantly have a community that will be interested in your service.

I rambled a bit, but I'd be happy to talk!

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