a.m.s.

I wrote a post a few months back about how I made it a point to myself to begin paying for the premium services I’ve come to enjoy, and rely on, so much. For example, I’m a paying user of Pinboard, Instapaper, Readability and LastPass to name a recent few. I feel much better to support these amazing developers and services, plus it helps to ensure they don’t go by the wayside.

Pinboard’s developer made a point about this in his latest blog post.

Read through it. He makes many great points, which are echoed by Instapaper’s developer here.

If you like a service, pay for it. Don’t be the type of person that leaves less than stellar reviews because it’s not free, or ads are displayed. Pay to remove the ads! Support the developer! I plan on continuing to pay for more services — Evernote, you’re next.

*EDIT — Now that I read through that old post of mine, I clearly lost track of posting reviews for my paid services, so I plan to finish those before the year ends. That way I’ll be able to tally my number of services and the contributions I’ve made.

Pirates get some love on both fronts. Listed first under the winners:

Pittsburgh Pirates: The Pirates were having an awful August at the big league level, falling out of contention for the National League playoffs. But they revived the hopes of their reinvigorated fans by signing No. 1 overall pick Gerrit Cole for a straight $8 million bonus and getting second-rounder Josh Bell done for $5 million.

Cole’s contract was a surprise only in that he didn’t receive a major league contract, which has become the norm for college pitchers at the top of the first round. Instead, he received the largest bonus in draft history for a player who signed with the team that drafted him, breaking the $7.5 million bonus record set in 2009 as part of Stephen Strasburg’s $15 million major league deal.

Bell’s bonus is the largest in draft history for a player picked after the first round, shattering the old mark of $2.75 million set in 2000 by Rockies second-rounder Jason Young. More on Bell later.

Then, under the losers is every team that passed on Josh Bell.

Teams That Passed On Josh Bell: There have to be 28 teams (the Tigers didn’t draft early enough to have a shot at him) that were stunned to see Bell sign for $5 million. The Texas prep outfielder’s family sent a letter to all 30 clubs indicating his unwillingness to sign—a letter that most scouting departments viewed as heartfelt and sincere—and it was rumored in early August that it could take an eight-figure bonus to land Bell.

The Pirates took the plunge in June, spending a second-round pick on Bell, and wound up being rewarded. Plenty of teams are happy with what they got, but many of them are wondering how different they’d feel if they had added Bell for $5 million.

The draft has become like Christmas for the Pirates. Now comes the hard part — developing the talent.

Gruber linked to this March story in PC World. It details how Google was just awarded a U.S. patent for its “Google Doodles” — 10 years after its initial submission by Sergey Brin in 2001.

As you can see, the patent is titled “Systems and Methods for Enticing Users to a Web Site.” Really.

It sucks that companies have to submit patents or ideas like these. It sucks even more that it takes 10 years to be accepted. Imagine if it was something revolutionary — 10 years in technology is a ridiculously long time. Things get outdated in a year or two these days.

Patents are stifling innovation and do nothing more than add to a respective company’s arsenal when it comes to lawsuits. Hopefully the recent Google/Microsoft spat over patents will lead to some reform. Doubt it, though.

Update:  Mark Cuban has a few ideas on patents. A good read.

I subscribe to a lot of magazines. Out of all of them, Inc. has one of the best features — “The Way I Work:” which lets different entrepreneurs and business people describe their working days. Recently, Michael Arrington had a great piece.

In February’s issue, Gary Vaynerchuk takes center stage.

Vaynerhcuk, known best for his Wine Library TV, has since turned a majority of his attention to another family-owned business, VaynerMedia. With his latest venture, Vaynerhcuk educates businesses, most famously the New York Jets and NHL, on how to properly use social media and online tools to enhance their brand.

It’s a great read, and he’s one of the best in the business. What stood out most to me is Vaynerchuk’s quote about what it means to provide this extra element to consumers. It shares my view as both a customer and professional in the field. (Emphasis provided below).

We’re humanizing the NHL. For instance, every time somebody says, “Can’t wait for the Rangers game tonight” on Twitter, the NHL will now respond with something like, “Have a great time!” Those fans feel different about the NHL.

Too many people think this one-on-one stuff doesn’t scale, but giving a shit has an enormous return yield. For example, if a florist is nice to you, you’ll buy flowers there, even if 1-800-FLOWERS is cheaper. Yes, it’s hard work, but once everybody understands the value of engagement, everybody will do it.

Exactly.