Kevin Henrikson is Co-Founder of Pretty Good AI (prettygoodai.com), focused on healthcare automation. Previously co-founded Acompli (acquired by Microsoft for $200M, became Outlook Mobile), led operations at Instacart, and built enterprise email systems at Zimbra.https://kevinhenrikson.com/en-UShttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/red-cessna/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/red-cessna/A blast from the past. Cessna 182.\ \ First plane I flew in with my dad and got basic pilot skills and lots of "on the job" training.Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/the-hacker-house-that-shaped-a-culture/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/the-hacker-house-that-shaped-a-culture/Len Sassaman, Meredith L. Patterson, and My Time at SuperHappyDevHouse In the early 2000s, a remarkable community of creators, hackers, and dreamers gathered to share ideas, build new projects, and…Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTStartupsTech In My Lifehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/hacking-disneyland/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/hacking-disneyland/Disneyland has become an iconic American family retreat, drawing almost 20 million visitors from across the globe every year. There’s so much to see and do that even mere minutes become valuable, as…Tue, 03 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMTtech-in-my-lifehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/how-many-hours-do-you-work-part-iii-the-art-of-delegation/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/how-many-hours-do-you-work-part-iii-the-art-of-delegation/How often do you try to do everything on your todo list? Frankly, if you ever try to do everything on your todo list, you’re making a big mistake. But you’re in good company. It’s a mistake made by…Mon, 09 Dec 2013 00:00:00 GMTtech-in-my-lifehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/new-startup-strategy-making-smart-strategic-decisions/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/new-startup-strategy-making-smart-strategic-decisions/The work involved in getting a startup off the ground can feel, at times, like a neverending task. If you’ve ever lived through a kitchen remodel, you know the drill. You start with a dream a vision…Mon, 02 Dec 2013 00:00:00 GMTacomplistartupshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/new-organized-startup-files-organization/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/new-organized-startup-files-organization/When you’re running a startup, it’s easy to get caught up in actually doing the work. Running the business. Meeting your goals. But it’s just as important to make sure you have a solid system in…Mon, 25 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMTstartupshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/the-right-space-for-your-startup/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/the-right-space-for-your-startup/When you’re starting up a business on a budget, your office space can be the biggest expense especially in the San Francisco area. But, as with all things, you have options. The big three options…Mon, 18 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMTstartupshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/how-many-hours-do-you-work-part-ii/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/how-many-hours-do-you-work-part-ii/In Part I of this post, we talked about how you likely work fewer hours and get less done than you think. Now it’s time to take a closer look at how you can reclaim your time. Here’s the thing: my…Mon, 11 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMTtech-in-my-lifehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/the-cheats-and-hacks-every-startup-needs-to-know-about/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/the-cheats-and-hacks-every-startup-needs-to-know-about/Startups, from bootstrapped to wellfunded, should be budgetconscious as a rule. You've got to make that runway as long as possible until you can jump to your next round or achieve profitability.…Mon, 19 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMTstartupshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/how-many-hours-do-you-work/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/how-many-hours-do-you-work/One of my favorite questions to ask people is, “How many hours a week do you work?” The answers tell us a lot about ourselves. First, hardly anyone it seems, works a 40hour week. We are all putting…Tue, 23 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMTtech-in-my-lifehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/how-mobile-devices-are-changing-email-marketing/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/how-mobile-devices-are-changing-email-marketing/Email marketing has proven itself as a solid marketing channel with enviable conversion rates. Sexier platforms like video and social media have not been able to duplicate the power of email to build…Tue, 25 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMTemailtech-trendshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/backups-and-backups-how-i-keep-my-familys-computers-safe/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/backups-and-backups-how-i-keep-my-familys-computers-safe/Lots of people ask me what I use at home for backups. This post should give me an easy place to send folks from now on. Picture your computer falling from your desk or your child spilling coffee on…Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMTappletech-in-my-lifehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/trying-to-blog-again/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/trying-to-blog-again/It's been a long while since I've written anything here. Thinking about putting some posts up. Mostly just common questions people ask me or things I feel may be of some use. If you didn't see it…Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 GMTtech-in-my-lifehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/evdo-speedtest-bellagio-las-vegas-nv/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/evdo-speedtest-bellagio-las-vegas-nv/Took a couple tests from our room in the Bellagio. (reports expired) it was a good speed though ;)Sun, 07 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMTappleevdohttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/update-macbook-pro-evdo-v640-card-problems/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/update-macbook-pro-evdo-v640-card-problems/Ever since I've been on Verizon's EVDO with my MacBook PRO my Mac won't sleep as quickly. Sometimes it won't sleep at all and lets the battery drain completely. What's worse is when it does sleep it…Sun, 07 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMTappleevdohttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/google-video-ads-appearing/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/google-video-ads-appearing/Google has been testing Video ads for some time. Tonight for the first time I saw them appear on a few blog posts here. They are ads for Pontiac's new car. Will be interesting to see how the CTR and…Fri, 29 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMTadsensegooglehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/macbook-pro-evdo-v640-card-problems/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/macbook-pro-evdo-v640-card-problems/EVDO on my Macbook PRO works just fine... Well the first time after a clean boot. If the computer goes to sleep the EVDO connection/card fails to reconnect. No amount of ejecting or restarting the…Fri, 29 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMTappleevdohttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/firebug_private_beta/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/firebug_private_beta/I've been playing with the Firebug 1.0 private beta for the last few days and it's quite a tool. v0.4 the last release of Firebug had already combined the most popular features Venkman, Console2, and…Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxfirefox-pluginsjavascriptvenkmanweb-browserhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/upgraded-wordpress-to-204/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/upgraded-wordpress-to-204/I thought it'd have been easier. Ok it was pretty simple. Just FTP the new release over the current one. I made a backup first. I had hacked up the default theme a good bit to I had to restore my…Wed, 11 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMThttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/bad-user-experience-ask-blog-search/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/bad-user-experience-ask-blog-search/Went to search for some OSCON related blog posts and what do I get Why don't they put this on the search bar itself BEFORE I search? Bad user experience.Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMThttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/gmail-pop-ssl-certs-for-symbian-nokia-phones/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/gmail-pop-ssl-certs-for-symbian-nokia-phones/Connecting to Gmail's POP (POPS) server always caused a certificate warning on my Nokia E61 Symbian based phone. The solution is to add Google's Gmail root SSL certificate to the phone. First check…Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMTgadgetshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/macos-x-1046-wget/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/macos-x-1046-wget/Well my MacBook Pro arrived. Couldn't find a binary version of wget for MacOSX 10.4.6 so decided to build it for myself. wget makes easy work of downloading HTTP/FTP items. I needed this to grab some…Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/macbook-pro-getting-closer/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/macbook-pro-getting-closer/<table width="455" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"<tbody<tr bgcolor="999999"<td width="5" height="24"<img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="" border="0"</td<td colspan="2"…Wed, 07 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMTapplegadgetshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/time-to-switch-thinkpad-vs-macbook-pro-part-iv/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/time-to-switch-thinkpad-vs-macbook-pro-part-iv/The wait is over. I've decided to order my MacBook Pro. See the details below. Lenovo decided to drop Linux as a focus for the Thinkpad line. The lack of a well supported Linux/Unix distro further…Tue, 06 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMTapplegadgetshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/world-cup-starting-to-heat-up/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/world-cup-starting-to-heat-up/A quick check of the Technorati top searches reveals World Cup News is starting to heat up in the blogosphere. Less than a week away from the first games and we can already see a steady increase in…Tue, 06 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMThttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/time-to-switch-thinkpad-vs-macbook-pro-part-iii/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/time-to-switch-thinkpad-vs-macbook-pro-part-iii/Well the 17" MacBook Pro's are starting to arrive. From the reports I've read the 17" MBP lack the whine which appears in many of the early production 15.4" MacBook Pro models. There are a few things…Fri, 12 May 2006 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/time-to-switch-thinkpad-vs-macbook-pro-part-ii/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/time-to-switch-thinkpad-vs-macbook-pro-part-ii/Apple released the 17" MacBook Pro last Monday. In Part I of my Apple vs Thinkpad post I mentioned a few reasons why I'm strongly considering the MacBook Pro. The 17" model adds Firewire 800, 8x…Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/download-firefox-extensions/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/download-firefox-extensions/Firefox is a very extensible browser. Here's a list of top Firefox extensions. These are the Firefox browser extensions that are most popular and have the highest number of downloads. Download your…Sun, 09 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMTfirefox-pluginshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/time-to-switch-thinkpad-vs-macbook-pro-part-i/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/time-to-switch-thinkpad-vs-macbook-pro-part-i/<script type="text/javascript"<! auctionadsadclient = "5c3f8b0a7b6b73849edd"; auctionadsadcampaign = "00a77cdcff925d9f8a1cc5439f24a90b"; auctionadsadwidth = "125"; auctionadsadheight = "125";…Fri, 07 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMTapplehttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/firefox-lead-to-join-opera/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/firefox-lead-to-join-opera/Well Asa has decided to take a job with Firefox rival Opera................................. Just after his don't be a fool post. Nice one! read more | digg storySat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMThttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/new-toy-panasonic-42-plasma/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/new-toy-panasonic-42-plasma/Panasonic 42" Diagonal Plasma HDTV with BuiltIn ATSC/QAM/NTSC Tuners and SD Memory Card Slot Deep Blacks, Bright Whites, and 29 Billion Colors The realism of a TV's image is strongly linked to its…Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMTgadgetshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/faster-dom-queries/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/faster-dom-queries/Dean Edwards has posted a demo with a cross browser way of super quick DOM queries. Limitations \ As described earlier, speed improvements only apply on page load for IE. Further DOM queries will…Wed, 29 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxjavascripthttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/gmail-whoas/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/gmail-whoas/Gmail and Talk have been having some trouble again. It's been slow more often than not and I captured a few more \error modes\. Today I saw Gmail chat recover with this little gem. Hey at least they…Wed, 15 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxemailhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/500-mashups/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/500-mashups/ProgrammableWeb.com now has over 500 mashups listed. As shown on Mashup Feed the average new mashups per day is up to 2.81. And that is just those added to the database here. This is up from 2.6 or…Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/jsonrequest/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/jsonrequest/JSONRequest has been proposed by Douglas Crockford as a new native method for web browsers to exchange data with servers. The biggest notable difference with XMLHttpRequest is that it doesn't prevent…Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxjavascriptweb-browserhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/crockford-on-jsmin-and-obfuscation/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/crockford-on-jsmin-and-obfuscation/Douglas Crockford knows a thing or two about compressing JavaScript. He wrote JSMin which IMHO is the simplest and fastest JavaScript minifer out there today. Coupled with his lint checker JSLint…Tue, 07 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMTjavascriptvenkmanhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/origami-to-launch-cebit/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/origami-to-launch-cebit/Microsoft's Origami which many are calling the iPod killer is planned to launch at CeBIT. YouTube has a good video which explores some Origami features. The official Origami site is a page right out…Sat, 04 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMTgadgetshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/gmail-chat-problems/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/gmail-chat-problems/I've noticed a few errors in gmail's new chat interface. The gmail quick contacts are not always uptodate. Just yesterday I got this this error message: It's a new service, so not too surprised that…Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxemailjavascripthttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/ajax-amazon-music-search/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/ajax-amazon-music-search/Put together an AJAX demo using Amazon's webservice API. Basically type in an artist name or song title and it'll return the first 10 hits from Amazon's music search. It's using script.aculo.us for…Mon, 27 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxjavascripthttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/yubnub-suggest-reloaded-dojo/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/yubnub-suggest-reloaded-dojo/First YubNub Suggest example used script.aculo.us. This time tried Dojo's autocomplete code. Smoother auto complete, including support for arrow keys, but has a harder time selecting an option.…Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/firefox-arraytostring-is-very-slow/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/firefox-arraytostring-is-very-slow/Ran into an interesting problem with JavaScript's Array.toString() in Firefox.  It's extremely slow even for a very small array.  Take an array with a single object and you'd like to call toString()…Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTjavascripthttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/ajax-auto-complete/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/ajax-auto-complete/Few sites these days are using AJAX Auto Complete to help users filter known choices or reduce typing.  As more AJAX libraries are released this practice should appear more frequently. Autocomplete…Tue, 21 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/yubnub-suggest/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/yubnub-suggest/YubNub has been around for sometime. I went looking for a Suggest version that would autocomplete common commands. I did a few searches and all I came up with was DashNub which is an OSX Widget.…Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxjavascripthttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/ajax-developers-toolbox-firefox-plugins/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/ajax-developers-toolbox-firefox-plugins/Earlier I wrote about a few developer must have's for AJAX coders. There are several useful plugins to Firefox that also come to mind.  Venkman, the JavaScript debugger leads the list, but since I…Sun, 19 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxfirefox-pluginshttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/favicon-fun/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/favicon-fun/Ever need to create a favicon image?  Not something you do everyday but when you do it sure would be nice to have a tool.  You could always use Photoshop, Microsoft Paint, etc.  I wanted an easier…Thu, 16 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTweb-browserhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/graded-browser-support/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/graded-browser-support/Nate posted an article which coincided with Yahoo's launch of their UI Library titled "Graded Browser Support".  It appears he first coined the phrase in 2004.  Subsequent google hits all point to…Tue, 14 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxjavascriptweb-browserhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/ajax-developers-toolbox-overview/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/ajax-developers-toolbox-overview/AJAX programmers today have many tools available to them. Here's a quick overview of some popular ones. Debuggers<brFirefox Venkman without a doubt is a must have for any serious JavaScript hacker…Sat, 11 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTajaxjavascriptvenkmanhttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/eval-is-evil-window-to-the-rescue/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/eval-is-evil-window-to-the-rescue/In JavaScript eval() has long known to be evil. Take for example: <pre function foo(){} foo\["str1"\] = "aaaa"; foo\["str2"\] = "bbbb"; foo\["str3"\] = "ccccc"; </pre Elsewhere you need to lookup…Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTjavascripthttps://kevinhenrikson.com/post/opera-8x-xmldom-appendchild-problem/https://kevinhenrikson.com/post/opera-8x-xmldom-appendchild-problem/Found a problem with Opera's XML/DOM support. Seems that they don't support appendChild() if the document is created with an "" (empty) QualifiedName. <pre…Wed, 08 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMTjavascript