People, like you, behind CrossLoop

As a company, we believe in building technology that brings people closer to one another and empower others. So, one of the things we want to do moving ahead is be ‘live’, ‘personable’ and really connect with our users and very importantly, have a lot of fun doing so.

One great way to start might be with personal introductions, something beyond the normal work bios, to the small group working away on bringing CrossLoop to you.

But first, for the benefit of all the readers, let me share a little about the genesis of CrossLoop.

CrossLoop came about when Tom Rolander's father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Tom wanted to stay as close as possible to his parents as they dealt with this disease but Tom lived in Pacific Grove and his parents lived in an apartment in Seattle. To leverage the power of the Internet to shrink this distance, Tom needed a simple solution to help his mom and dad with their PC. So, he built one. This pre-cursor to CrossLoop allowed him to remotely drive various applications like photo slide shows to help his father with his memory, use free communication tools like Skype to visit with him regularly and configure webcams that allowed each side to see one another as they talked. The same technology was then used to empower the entire family to always be 'in the loop’ with their father even though they all lived many miles apart. From this personal need, flowed the version of CrossLoop that you see today which has no learning curve or knowledge of technology required. With one click - one can securely and privately share screens!

Now that you know that, let’s introduce you to the rest of us before we come back to Tom – he goes last and you will know why when you get to him.

Bob Silberstein - Bob got hooked on to contradancing a number of years ago, where he discovered a love of traditional music as well as dance. This led to swing dancing, Argentine tango, and more recently to forming a band, the Crabapples, where he play mandolin and piano. They play for contradances, company picnics, parties, and just for the fun of it. So if you need music and fun anytime, call the Crabapples!

Lee Lorenzen - Lee starts businesses for fun (he’s started over 18!) and is an evangelist for entrepreneurism who likes to talk others into taking the start-up plunge. He really does do that – as some of us can confirm. And of course since certain pressures come along with the “startup territory,” he likes to relieve stress while talking on the phone, by balancing on his Bongo Board (or IndoBoard).

Joe Stark also known as JoeS - JoeS likes to go fishing and camping when he can get away but spends most of his time trying to keep up with 6 grandkids. Yep – that is a lot of work!

Joe Wein also known as JoeW - JoeW loves music, from reggae and African to Bossa Nova and Jazz. His collection spans decades from vinyl to MP3. We believe he will retire well with that vinyl collection on ebay!

Matt Lorenzen – Matt enjoys road trips and once drove from Monterey, California to Alaska with a few friends (over 50 hours in the car). When he is not working or taking care of his 100 lb. silver lab, Rick, he and his wife Emily like to go to Lake Tahoe to wakeboard in the summer and snowboard in the winter.

Mrinal Desai – Mrinal loves playing Darth Vader with his 9 month old daughter, who surprisingly enough loves to dress up as Princess Leia. If he is not meeting new people at his local Starbucks, he is dancing away with his wife on some 80s music. He has knack for doing doing face plants while learning to snowboard. We are hoping Matt will give him a hand soon. Also he is working hard to be able to run at least 3 miles without collapsing (which would be easier if he quit smoking but then he likes the Darth Vader sound effect that comes with it) and Tom has offered to help – here is why.

Tom Rolander - Tom’s free time is filled with a myriad of unusual hobbies and interests. He has had his pilot’s license since high school and is an avid marathoner, completing 87 marathons( yup – that is not a typo!), including the Big Sur, Boston and NYC marathons this year. Every summer he does a cycling tour of between 400 and 1000 miles. He is also an accomplished calligrapher and enjoys digital photography. Tom makes birthdays very special. For his 40th, he did a 40 mile double traverse of the Grand Canyon in one day; and for the big 5-0, he took a trip to East Africa and ran the Mount Meru Marathon in Arusha in addition to flying chartered small planes over the Serengeti and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Now you know why we all wanted to be featured before Tom.

Guessing who is who in the pictures is left to you :)

Now that you know us better, don't hesitate to Skype us, leave comments to say Hellooooo!

Comments

[David]

I was very disappointed to find that it's not available for Macs. I could really use this service.

[David Ross]

I do my best to mentor Senior Citizens on computer and internet security and usage, and Crossloop has been a wonderful tool, as it is so easy to initiate at either end without obscure settings and "geekspeak", but unfortunately several of my "students" use new iMacs given to them to replace older PCs. I still can help them via long-distance (read: expensive) but it is very frustrating to not be able to use Crossloop any longer. Because I am also am a Senior on limited income, I can't afford to buy Timbuktu or other grossly expensive cross-platform utilities. I am hoping Crossloop will come to the rescue!

[Jay Weldy]

I've been using Crossloop for some time to support my clients and it's been a life saver for both client and myself. I've recently converted my offices to Macs because we do a lot of web design work and now keep just one PC for remote tech support. I would be GREAT to have this for Macs!

[Regis Thibeault]

Hi there,

just discovered crossloop through a friend's invitation to test it with him.

In one word? "GREAT!"

If I may suggest a few things that would improve and simplify our lives :

- Have the possibility to resize the shared screen to a personalised size. That way, if I'm on a 1200 X 1024 resolution and the shared one is on a 1600 X 1200, I'll see everything in one window without having to scroll vertically or horizontally.

- Have the possibility to personalise our profile page. If another Regis Thibeault signs up, he'll have the possibility to chose another profile name that fits what he does. Or... I could use my website's URL as a name to be easier to find.

- Have the possibility to personalise the delay before someone hooks up to your shared screen, or the possibility to renew the 2 minutes as often as you like until the other person you are waiting for to hook up does so.

- Did I notice a code in the "promote" section that permits people to "call" us directly from our web site? With a "sleeping" crossloop waiting in the tray, any potential customer could ask for help with a simple click & download.

Continue the great job!

Long live crossloop,

merlinregis

[Josh Dionne]

You know, a Mac version would be nice, and is doable. However, Linux might be a little trickier; not all Linux' (Linuxes?) are created equal.

Granted the default install of something like Ubuntu might be very doable.

[Juan Gomez]

I could help building that promising MAC version.

[George Corder]

I too would like to request that a Mac version be made available.

[Curtis Vaughan]

I'm wondering whether there is or will be any endeavor to port CrossLoop to Mac and Linux. If I have any request out of CrossLoop that would be it.