Absolutely nothing to do with startups, but how cool is this classic
The Jerry Thomas Bartender’s Guide from 1862 is now available in its entirety on-line. Featuring such classics as the Martinez and the Spread Eagle Punch.

That last one sounds great —

• a bottle of scotch (Islay single of course)
• a bottle of Monongahela Rye (good luck finding that nowadays, but I guess you could use any old Rye)
• Lemon peel, sugar and boiling water at discretion.

Now I need to find out what a pony measure is. I guess google is my friend here.

In the blatant self-promotion department and because people have been asking me about it I have updated my Who am I section over the last couple of weeks.

I currently have a long but bound to eventually be embarrassing Rambling Bio, where I go into way to much detail than I probably should.

Also see my client list (which isn’t complete) and my open source projects list. I need to further add a list of my own projects, but current projects can be found from the main Who am I page and some of my older projects are listed in my Bio.

I received this very good question from a reader about share ratios when converting from a partnership to a LLC. Note I have dropped his name and changed the details a bit

Let me ask you…I am about to form an LLC for a small business that I have been running for several years. I have one major partner, and I am trying to get some advice on whether I should split the shares 50-50, or if I should retain
a majority (55-45) since I was the founder and ultimately have the largest assets into the business?

Firstly, much more than a legal issue this is a human issue. It really depends all on your relationship with the partner. The simple answer from a legal standpoint would be to retain the majority, because you don’t know what could happen in the future.

All this being rationally true it could work against
you, maybe your partner would feel cheated because of this and start
bearing a grudge. As in any relationship grudges have a way of rearing
their head at some point in the future, when you least want them to do
so.

To sum it all up while rationally you should have more because you are the founder, you need to avoid grudges against you, but then again you also need to avoid grudges in you against your partner. It is all together better to avoid the times when you need that controlling stake, than having a remedy after the fact. Condoms over abortion!

One thing you might try is to offer a 50%/50% revenue split, but retain control. That seems like a good compromise. Stuff like that you can specify in the LLC agreement or in a separate contract.

Also remember I am no lawyer, then again this is a human subject and lawyers only ever should get involved when the human beings are past talking.

Anyway if anyone else has questions, please send them to me at [email protected] and let me know if you want to be anonymous. Of course I am no lawyer and I my answers might cause you to loose your house or worse your powerbook. Also feel free to comment with your own experiences and opinions below.

I’m in Tallinn, Estonia right now. Just for the day on business. This is the home of sensible tax policies and free wifi. It snowed last week, which I could see flying in over the forests. But it’s much better weather now than in Copenhagen. The free wifi is much better than that in the airport in Copenhagen as well.

Anyway Tallinn is as always a great modern place. Btw. If you go to Tallinn the taxi drivers are notorious for boosting the prices. Always ask for a receipt, when you get in the car and you should be alright.

Final note, if you like many people buy vodka back from Estonia buy it from the supermarkets. It is not cheaper in the airport.

So today is my last day at my day job. It will be great to have more time for other things. I have a few things todo this week in the annoying paperwork department, but then again not much so I’m cool.