Inc 19
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Most Topular Stories
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Health care reform, the bottom line from Consumer Reports & what to do
cnewmark12 Mar 2010 | 5:16 am -
Does Time Heal All Wounds?
Howard Lindzon11 Mar 2010 | 10:33 pm -
PHOTO: Sculptor Alex Queral carves up phonebooks
Signal vs. Noise12 Mar 2010 | 9:13 am -
The Wordperfect Axiom
Seth's Blog10 Mar 2010 | 2:35 am...is not the same as obeying the list.Do you make the list you check off, follow and work on every day? When does it get made? Who approves it? Do you identify tasks or perform them?If you had a better list, would you do better work? If you made the list instead of just obeying it, would you be a more valuable member of the team?Yes, asking questions is often more valued than answering them. (If they're the right questions.) -
The iPad Stock Market…Transparency is the NEW ‘Alpha’
Howard Lindzon7 Mar 2010 | 7:58 pmI get so many questions from people that say they are beginners and they always seem so confused. I generally tell them that I wish I knew than what I knew now, which is to keep it simple and find a mentor. The markets can be very complicated…or insanely simple. The hardest part of investing is keeping it simple. The second hardest part is finding someone to help you keep it simple and than someone else to back that person up and so on…. I love reading about the economy and the markets, but for the time spent, I might have been better off as a lawyer just billing my time . For all…
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Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist
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Live video chat: How to find the hidden job market
11 Mar 2010 | 7:05 amThis video chat will take place Friday, March 12, 1pm eastern. (Sign up here.) This chat will be about how to get a job by looking in the right places. (And, I am experimenting with mysterious titles for my video chats. Do more people sign up if the title sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery?) The last video chat was so out of control that I actually got reprimanded from just about everyone in the company. Except Andrew Shell, who said it was funny and funny is all people care about. So I have a choice of doing a private chat for Andrew, or I can switch up the format to be less obnoxious. And, as… -
The biggest triumph is getting out of bed
9 Mar 2010 | 9:46 amPsychology Today did an interview with me. It was about my most triumphant moments in my life, and how I overcame obstacles to get there. I knew immediately that the interview was going to be a disaster, so I told them I wanted to do the interview written, rather than on the phone. Then I didn’t write the interview for a week. Then I complained about the questions: I don’t really believe in triumph. Because the most triumphant moments are the days when I have no idea how I'm going to fix anything, but I get out of bed anyway. On the other hand, the moments of huge achievement are not… -
List of things I hate #3
3 Mar 2010 | 10:52 pmThis is not an exhaustive list on the topic. In fact, it may be an inexhaustible topic. There are older lists of what I hate. So today's post is merely my most recent list. Which is notable because hatred is a process. Neurologists have proven that love and hate are closely related, and I have found it's hard to hate a person unless I am also close to that person, and the same is true for a topic. In that vein, life is the process of expanding our love and our knowledge, and I suppose, our hate. So here are some things that I have recently reached the point of thinking so much… -
Live video chat: Blogging Bootcamp, Tuesday March 2
1 Mar 2010 | 2:24 pmYep, that's right. I'm going to tell you how to write a blog that will help you meet your goals. Tuesday night at 8 p.m. eastern. The chat will be upbeat and inspirational. At the beginning. And then I will rant about my pet peeves. For example: Why you should not try to make money from your blog Why you should not start a second blog Why you should take care to link to other blogs, a lot But mostly, I'll answer your questions, which you can ask in real-time. I'm doing this video stuff with Ryan Paugh. (I am linking to his personal blog to show you that I take my own… -
5 Ways to make telecommuting better
27 Feb 2010 | 4:42 pmI have this idea that I am going to start working from home. I tried to go into the office. But the only alone time I have in my day is the time I’m not with the kids, and if I spend my alone time with other people, then I don’t have alone time and I start to panic, and I do things like tell the guy in the cube next to me that he can’t talk to me. 1. Get a spot where you can concentrate. So I tried working from home, but then I started feeling like I am the most alone person in the world. So I thought I’d change it up a little; I’d work from home, but the farmer’s home. I call him…
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How To Change the World
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Pictures from my trip to the Winter Olympics
17 Feb 2010 | 3:32 pmHaving a great time in Vancouver. If you want to see how great, check out my pictures from Day 1 and Day 2. -
How to Avoid Gullibility
8 Feb 2010 | 3:45 pmWe’ve all been sucked into doing something stupid, right? Fortunately, Steven Greenspan has written a book called Annals of Gullibility. In its conclusion he explains how to avoid gullibility, and I’ve provided a synopsis for you. Read the full story at the American Express Open Forum. More on psychology if you need the advice. -
How to Be Empathetic
4 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pmBy definition, good marketers are empathetic. That is, they have a capacity to understand and care for the needs of others. Bruna Martinuzzi explains how to be empathetic over at the American Express Open Forum. -
How to Not Be Annoying on Twitter
4 Feb 2010 | 10:19 pmAmber MacArthur explains how to not be annoying on Twitter over at the American Express Open Forum. Sage advice for you to develop a great reputation and following on Twitter. More Twitter tips. -
The Elements of Guyle: British Blogging
27 Jan 2010 | 10:06 pmWant to make your blog classier? You should blog like a Brit. I explain how to do this in ten easy steps.
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Signal vs. Noise
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PHOTO: Sculptor Alex Queral carves up phonebooks
12 Mar 2010 | 9:13 amSculptor Alex Queral carves up phonebooks to create portraits. Above: James Brown. [via TC] -
Method picks a fight with the jug
11 Mar 2010 | 11:21 amThere are two kinds of companies I really like. One that ignores the competition entirely. And one that picks a fight. Method, and their new laundry detergent line, is a great example of the latter. The new Method laundry product eschews the standard awkward, heavy, messy jug for a svelte, light, one-handed, easily stored, pump-powered dispenser bottle. It’s so much better. They claim it works better too, but I’m not concerned about that for this post. Even if it works just the same, the form factor is a huge win. I’ve run out of laundry detergent so many times because I… -
Zappos pranks itself for new ads
11 Mar 2010 | 10:33 amAd agency Mullen chose to focus on Zappos’ famous customer service for their new ad campaign. The twist is, behind the puppets and comedy are recordings of actual customer service calls. Mullen’s making of video explains how they basically pranked Zappos to get the audio for the ads. The results are funny, fresh, and true to the experience of calling Zappos. Awesome stuff. -
There is an inverse relationship between level of anonymity and quality of conversation
11 Mar 2010 | 10:01 am37signals Answers (recently launched) is our first new app built with 37signals ID integration. That means everyone involved is using real names and avatars. And wow, what a difference it makes. Trading anonymity for accountability has led to radically improved conversations. I’d point to a specific example but it’s more what’s missing now. A lot less antagonism and a lot more thoughtfulness and general politeness. Great to see. -
QUOTE: A perfectionist is someone who finishes the
11 Mar 2010 | 8:24 amA perfectionist is someone who finishes the backside of a drawer, which I consider completely unnecessary. —An interview with Helmut Krone.
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Blog Maverick
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If Free Works on the Internet, Can It Work for Health Insurance ?
27 Feb 2010 | 2:20 pmAs best I can tell, Health Insurance for the average family costs about 13k per year. For individuals, its about $6k per year. For some, employers pay a big chuck of that. For others, the deductibles and other charges are super high so that the monthly premium is lower. For many, its a health arbitrage. You pray you don’t get sick while you can’t afford the insurance. What we have is a product, health insurance, that everyone seems to need. And if you pay attention to the political world, its a product that our government wants everyone to have. Which got me thinking. $500… -
Senator Al Franken is Requesting User Caps on Internet Bandwidth ?
24 Feb 2010 | 11:29 amAccording to the LA Times, “In written questions to Comcast and NBC Universal regarding their $30-billion proposed marriage, Sen. Franken — who has been one of the harshest critics of the deal — wants Comcast and NBC Universal to promise that it will put all its television shows online. He also wants assurances that shows that the companies put online be made available to every one and not just people who get their Internet service through Comcast.” Also in the Times article: “As Franken notes in his questions to the two companies, “The Internet is the… -
How to Get Rich Part 1a
23 Feb 2010 | 8:48 amI wrote a post a while back about How to Get Rich. The no shortcuts version. It is posted below. I wanted to repost it because its been so popular in the archives. Plus, with the advent of some new banking laws, I wanted to update it with a quick note. On July 1, laws for banks change so that they can not charge you overdraft fees UNLESS YOU OPT – IN. In other words, if you want your bank to give you cash at an ATM, or cover a debit charge on your debit card when there isn’t enough money in your account to cover it, you have to give the bank permission to do so. When you give… -
The NFL, FCC, CBA, Start Up Leagues, Sub-Prime Mortgages and You
21 Feb 2010 | 3:39 pmIs it possible that the future economics of the NFL could be influenced by the FCC ? Absolutely. Does the NFL and all professional sports leagues have something in common with the Sub Prime mortgage mess and the collapse of home prices. Absolutely. Could both of these, along with the recession impact whether or not you will be able to watch your favorite professional sport in 2011 ? Absolutely. Sports fans probably are not paying attention to what is happening with broadcast television. The over the air broadcast networks, all of which are the biggest customers of the NFL (CBS, NBC,… -
Seth Godin Should Read His Own Book
10 Feb 2010 | 3:56 pmI was really surprised to see an entry in my icerocket.com feed from Seth Godin saying that “ Mark Cuban Is Completely Wrong About Aggregators I was particularly surprised because I am in the middle of reading his new book LinchPin which actually makes my point about why its a poor business move for newspapers and many others to be indexed by Google. I love Seth, but in this article he is simultaneously wrong and hypocritical. In the article, he makes my point very well when he says ” The person who chooses that information has power.” What does he think newspapers do ?
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Matt Mullenweg
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Bangkok Unrest
10 Mar 2010 | 11:26 pmIn celebration of my arrival in Bangkok the opposition party is apparently planning a million person “red shirt” rally. Exciting! On the bright side, “The UDD [United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship] can only afford to keep its protest going for three to five days. If the government has not fallen by that time, it will have to withdraw and draw up a new strategy.” I always pick the best times to travel. (Mom, don’t worry. I’ll stay safe!) -
Back to Firefox
8 Mar 2010 | 7:54 pmAfter a good while (I can’t search my Twitter stream) on Chrome I’m switching back to Firefox as my primary browser, and actually uninstalled Chrome. Why? I was getting the “Oh snap” failure page all the time, even on Google’s own Youtube! The only support I was pointed to was this page, and when I followed the instructions there when I restarted Chrome everything was gone. The sentence “copy the relevant files from the “Backup User Data” folder to your new “User Data” folder.” is useless when you consider the folder has 50+… -
Distributed Company
8 Mar 2010 | 6:44 pmToni Schneider, the CEO of Automattic, writes 5 reasons why your company should be distributed. -
LA Saturday
6 Mar 2010 | 12:00 amA day in LA spent looking at Fort Street carpets and vintage furniture around town, and then SOHO House for the Montblanc / Harvey Weinstein pre-Oscars dinner and party. (Stopped taking photos once the actual party started, didn’t want to get kicked out .) -
Harvard Gazette
4 Mar 2010 | 4:14 pmThe Harvard Gazette is now on WordPress, with a beautiful magazine-style design. There’s a whole meme/argument going around a few blogs and Twitter saying WordPress isn’t a CMS. Who cares what you call it, look at the amazing sites you can create. (And manage content on.) Who woulda thunk it. I thought WordPress was only good for “just a blog” — what are these Harvard gonzos doing? Fie! I say.
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Altimeter Group
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Altimeter Report: The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM, The New Rules of Relationship Management
5 Mar 2010 | 10:02 am18 Use Cases That Show Business How To Finally Put Customers First Social and CRM: How Companies Will Manage Their Social Relationships Over the last six months, I’ve been working closely with Ray Wang who is well known in the CRM space as an expert. Coupled with my focus on social technologies we did a deep dive on how our worlds are intersecting at Social CRM. In our opening webinar when we announced our joining of the firm, we made it clear that we were looking at the holistic business, across multiple business departments –not silos or roles. Companies are unable to scale to keep up… -
Social Strategy Webinar Slides Now Available
25 Feb 2010 | 10:26 amJeremiah Owyang and I held a webinar entitled “Developing A Social Strategy” that had over 495 participants asking very insightful questions — we had a great time sharing the information and got new ideas on how to develop our thinking as well. Many people who wanted to attend the webinar weren’t able to because of schedule conflicts. We also received quite a few requests from people for the slides or recording so that they can forward it to colleagues and friends who would benefit from the content. Feel free to forward this information along — we make these… -
Welcome Michael Gartenberg, New Altimeter Partner!
23 Feb 2010 | 10:00 amby Charlene Li A hearty welcome to Michael Gartenberg, the newest partner to join Altimeter. With the addition of Michael, we now have seven partners along with a staff of five other people. We also recently moved offices in San Mateo to accommodate our new growth (more on that below). Michael has been a long-time, respected voice in the space of personal and mobile technologies, and he brings to Altimeter a unique viewpoint of how these technologies are changing the consumer experience. Understanding how people use devices to connect with content and each other is an important linchpin in… -
Google Buzz and Kids – Parental Control Nightmare
21 Feb 2010 | 11:25 pmby Charlene Li Like many parents, I try to take steps to keep my kids safe online, making sure that they understand not to share personal information online, or even to use their real names. They know how to write appropriate emails, and I constantly monitoring what they do, the emails they send, and most importantly, engaging in a constant dialog with what they are doing online. But when I logged into my Google Buzz account this evening, I found that my 9 year old daughter had posted the following: Pretty innocuous, but it was PUBLIC! I saw it because Buzz conveniently made me a follow of… -
Welcome to new Altimeter Group partners: Alan Webber and Lora Cecere
26 Jan 2010 | 10:00 amI’m pleased to announce that Altimeter Group has brought on two additional partners to meet the growing demand of our clients, which now number over 40 retained clients. Alan Webber and Lora Cecere each bring with them unique areas of expertise, but what makes them great partners for Altimeter is their ability to help clients understand and address opportunities and problems created by emerging technologies. Trends such as open government and supply chain/demand orchestration disrupt traditional business and organizational models, creating both problems as well as opportunities. We…
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Howard Lindzon
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Does Time Heal All Wounds?
11 Mar 2010 | 10:33 pmNope! As I was getting the grey removed from my hair today, I started thinking about Nadsaq 5,000. I mean…all those Nasdaq points and not one good hair or aging solution… It has truly been an amazing 10 years since Nasdaq 5,000 in March 2000. It was a pretty amazing two years leading up to that as well. I started my small hedge fund in June, 1998 and knew amazingly little. I can’t believe how little I know 12 years later. Ten years from now, I will have no hair on my head and cabbage size patches in my nose and ears and time will be my enemy. In January of 2000 I invested… -
Ten Guidelines for Enjoying The Stock Market
8 Mar 2010 | 11:17 pmI get so many questions from people that say they are beginners and they always seem so confused. I generally tell them that I wish I knew than what I knew now, which is to keep it simple and find a mentor. The markets can be very complicated…or insanely simple. The hardest part of investing is keeping it simple. The second hardest part is finding someone to help you keep it simple and than someone else to back that person up and so on…. I love reading about the economy and the markets, but for the time spent, I might have been better off as a lawyer just billing my time . For all… -
The iPad Stock Market…Transparency is the NEW ‘Alpha’
7 Mar 2010 | 7:58 pmSo Steve was at The Oscar’s and by far the most important person in the place. Apple aapl also launched their first iPad commercial which of course was tight and fun: It makes sense that the market (especially the Nasdaq) is rallying into the iPad release of early April and the momentum should carry through until at least May. I have blogged about the importance of the iPad to the financial web . In 1994 we got the Motley Fool. In 1998 we got TheStreet.com. It has been a black hole for financial web innovation since (save Interactive Brokers and Baby ETrade). Cramer could have should… -
Howard’s America
7 Mar 2010 | 8:29 amI never thought I would run for office because the whole idea of dealing with politicians just bores me. I don’t want to know them. After spending so much time in Coronado, California though, a sliver of America that is almost perfect but has many of the same problems (real estate, housing) as the rest of America, I would rethink. It starts with community. Communities are miracles for sure but there needs to be one for significant change to happen. The community needs to be completely supportive (good scenairo) or completely apathetic. In Howard’s America, there would be no credit… -
Saturday Morning Options Class With Steven Place
6 Mar 2010 | 6:33 amAll our contributors are kicking ass for us at Stocktwits. On Saturday mornings for the last year, Steven Place has been running Stocktwits Brunch where he spends over an hour on live web TV answering questions from the community on the stream. I had him on my show this Wednesday and asked for a good LIVE example of a trade that he was in with his subscribers. He walked us through ITMN (minute 17 that begins) and how to manage the risk/reward of a stock (company) about to release major FDA news. On Friday, the stock was up in a gynormous fashion and Steven’s subscribers are happy once…
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The Jason Calacanis Weblog
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The Daily London: last lunch before I leave for sxsw!
12 Mar 2010 | 1:53 pm -
AMAZING: Philip K. Dick letter after seeing Blade Runner in 1981
12 Mar 2010 | 9:25 amMy favorite film…. -
The daily London video!
12 Mar 2010 | 9:08 am -
Need someone to do Ghost Writer Analysis M$25: http://bit.ly/bamftn
11 Mar 2010 | 8:55 amNeed someone to do Ghost Writer Analysis M$25: http://bit.ly/bamftn -
New Mahalo Profile pages are coming. Feedback? http://bit.ly/9MUo96
11 Mar 2010 | 8:45 amWe’re adding a really slick new feature to Mahalo: Twitter/Facebook/Google Buzz style profiles. This is like adding Facebook to Wikipedia to Yahoo Answers…. which is either a complete mess or brilliant. Time will tell if I’m visionary with Mahalo or a complete idiot… place your bets folks. Please post your thoughts here: http://bit.ly/9MUo96
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The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
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Why Grow? and Other Wisdom from 37Signals
8 Mar 2010 | 2:07 amThe path to profitability doesn’t need to be complicated. (Photo: El Photopakismo) I’ve known the guys at 37Signals for a little while. I first met Jason Fried at SXSW in 2008, and I then got to know David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) over e-mail and in person last year. On a fundamental level, I think, our philosophies just mesh well. Comfortably situated in Chicago outside of the “start-up” echo chamber, 37Signals is focused on getting sh*t done instead of chasing the Silicon Valley venture capital death spiral. Financing has it’s place, but it’s a means to… -
5 Travel Lessons You Can Use at Home
25 Feb 2010 | 9:09 pmRolf Potts is one of my favorite writers, and his book Vagabonding was one of only four books I recommended as “fundamental” in The 4-Hour Workweek. It was also one of two books, the other being -
Random Episode 8 – 2010 Resolutions with Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss
17 Jan 2010 | 10:52 amThis new, long overdue Random episode covers our personal resolutions–personal, business, physical, and otherwise–as well as favorite recent gifts (both given and received). The video is recorded on two cameras, including Glenn’s new experimental HD delight. Topics include: - Chocolate - Powerlifting - Filtering false friends - Funny hats - The art of the decline … and naked ladies. Best to give the video 10-20 minutes to buffer before watching. It’s a big ‘un. Please let us know in the comments what you’d like our next show topic to be! If you missed… -
The First Time Online – Enjoy While You Can
8 Jan 2010 | 2:00 amMost of you have never seen this. I really hope you enjoy it. To download, just sign into Vimeo and you’re set. If you Final Cut it up, please set to a Crystal Method or Sevendust soundtrack :) In other breaking news: I need only 120 more Amazon reviews to beat The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a dream I’ve had since 2007! Not because I dislike him, but precisely the opposite — he’s one of my writing role models and I long viewed his book as untouchable. If you’ve read the 4HWW but haven’t left a short review on Amazon, please take 30 seconds and help… -
Thank You, Facebook Bankruptcy, and Late Christmas Presents
6 Jan 2010 | 3:08 am(Photo: source) Thank you… Thank you… Thank you! The last two blog posts have moved me more than any others, and the new expanded 4-Hour Workweek has hit #4 on The New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today Money list! In a future post, I will explain exactly what I did in PR and marketing (including recordings and screenshots) to help it happen, but the reality is: you made it happen. You all rock. For buying the book? No. For making this community what it is. For helping one another and sharing your stories and lessons learned. For teaching me more than I can ever…
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Rashmi's Blog
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Social networks need time to grow up – thoughts on Buzz
13 Feb 2010 | 2:51 pmEmail is the ultimate social network. There is no doubt about that. And yet not many companies have attempted to unwrap that opportunity. Google made a big, bold move in that domain last week. Which is remarkable considering Google does not play (or play well) in the social domain. Buzz has unleashed all sorts of reactions and social gaffes (including pretty serious ones). While I am looking forward to Buzz for my company (we use Google Apps), there are some fundamental problems with the Buzz approach for personal email, and even more so, with the way it was launched. Most social networks do… -
Is it time to reimagine your product / service?
9 Jan 2010 | 2:50 pmIn his on stage interview with Michael Arrington (at the Crunchies), Mark Zuckerberg made the most insightful observation of the evening. On being asked about privacy, Mark said that Facebook default settings from private to public since that is what it would have been like if it started today. Things were very different when they started 6 years ago in his dorm at Harvard. People were questioning the basic concept – why should I share my info on the web. Things have changed a lot since then. People share a lot of their life online on different places on the web. If Facebook started… -
What is a startup? Is Facebook still one?
9 Jan 2010 | 11:10 amThe question came up post-crunchies where Facebook won the best startup and Twitter was runner up. The post crunchies conversation in the group I was in quickly turned to what is a startup and when does a company stop being a startup. Clearly Google is not a startup anymore. People also generally agreed Facebook is not a startup. About Twitter, there was mostly consensus that it is a startup at least for a little while more. The question is what makes a company a startup 1. Is it the number of employees (Zynga has 750!, Twitter has less than 200 – from what I know) 2. Is it the… -
Why Google is acquiring DocVerse or the Microsoft – Google web office battle heats up
20 Dec 2009 | 11:43 amInteresting news today – Google, which has been on a buying spree recently is acuiqring a startup in the Office document space called DocVerse. The startup was founded by Microsoft veterans, and lets people collaborate on the web, from within Office documents itself. The reason is not hard to understand – Google is going headlong into competition with Microsoft Office, and having an effective way to share documents from within Office itself will hit Microsoft hard. Right now, many companies (including the SlideShare team) use both Google docs and Microsoft Office. We use Microsoft… -
Can Facebook change from a private to public social space?
12 Dec 2009 | 3:01 pmIn another gutsy (though perhaps misguided) move, Facebook is encouraging all its users to go public with their and statuses and other information. The motivation is clear – take on Twitter, and partly Google. Become a bigger part of the open web. I will leave others to analyze the privacy implications (which are many). I am interested in a different aspect – is it possible to change from a private social space to a public social space. Can a living room become a bar, or a nook become a public park? Yes, you can encourage individual users to change their preference, but a social…
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Paul Graham: Essays
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Apple's Mistake
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What Startups Are Really Like
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Persuade xor Discover
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Post-Medium Publishing
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The List of N Things
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Seth's Blog
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Wondering around
12 Mar 2010 | 2:16 amI stumbled on a great typo last night. "Staff in the lobby were wondering around..."Wandering around is an aimless waste of time.Wondering around, though, that sounds useful.Wondering why this product is the way it is, wondering how you can make the lobby more welcoming, wondering if your best customers are happily sharing your ideas with others... So many things worth wondering about, so few people actually taking the time to do it.Wondering around is the act of inquiring with generous spirit. -
Helping spread the word
11 Mar 2010 | 11:56 amSince Linchpin was published six weeks ago, I've gotten some terrific email. Most of it is about individuals who used the ideas in the book to instigate a process of self-reinvention or validation. Some of the best mail, though, has come from managers and leaders who are using the book to inspire others. One company bought 800 copies for its management, while another reader told me how two copies helped change the way her organization coped with change.When I find a book that moves me, I spread it to everyone who's willing to listen. I hope you feel the same way.It's ever more clear to me… -
Creating the list
11 Mar 2010 | 2:21 am...is not the same as obeying the list.Do you make the list you check off, follow and work on every day? When does it get made? Who approves it? Do you identify tasks or perform them?If you had a better list, would you do better work? If you made the list instead of just obeying it, would you be a more valuable member of the team?Yes, asking questions is often more valued than answering them. (If they're the right questions.) -
The Wordperfect Axiom
10 Mar 2010 | 2:35 amWhen the platform changes, the leaders change.Wordperfect had a virtual monopoly on word processing in big firms that used DOS. Then Windows arrived and the folks at Wordperfect didn't feel the need to hurry in porting themselves to the new platform. They had achieved lock-in after all, and why support Microsoft?In less than a year, they were toast.When the game machine platform of choice switches from Sony to xBox to Nintendo, etc., the list of bestelling games change and new companies become dominant.When the platform for music shifted from record stores to iTunes, the power shifted too,… -
The factory in the center
9 Mar 2010 | 2:24 amOld time factories had a linear layout, because there was just one steam engine driving one drive shaft. Every machine in the shop had to line up under the shaft (connected by a pulley) in order to get power. That metaphor extended to the people working in the factory. Each person was hired and trained and arranged to maximize output. The goal was to engage the factory, to feed it, maintain it and have it produce efficiently. Distribution was designed in sync with the factory. You wanted to have the right number of trucks and drivers to handle whatever the factory produced and to get it where…
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A VC
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One Year Of Foursquare
12 Mar 2010 | 2:47 amOur portfolio company Foursquare turned one year old yesterday. They posted about their birthday on the company blog. It is stuff like this that makes startups so fun to be around: It was exactly a year ago when Naveen and I flipped the switch on foursquare. It was the day before we headed down to SXSW - back when we were still feeling 50/50 on whether people would think the “let’s turn real life into a game!” idea was really interesting or whether they’d laugh us out of Austin.We took separate flights. I remember walking down the tarmac into the plane still on my laptop fixing… -
The Cashless Exercise
11 Mar 2010 | 5:48 amSorry for the inside baseball title, this post is not about net exercising options or warrants. It is about an exercise I've been going through since the beginning of the year. I've always walked around with hardly any money on me. It drives the Gotham Gal nuts, but it's who I am. I don't like carrying cash and never have. But the past few months, I've been walking around with no cash, not a dime. I carry a host of stored value cards and credit cards on me. The picture at the top of this post is my wallet. The black cord is my daughter Emily's hairband. In that stack is a metrocard, my… -
Transitioning From One Job To Another
10 Mar 2010 | 3:59 amMark Suster just keeps putting out great stuff on his blog. Last night he posted about the tricky issue of transitioning from one job to another. Mark writes the post from the perspective of the entrepreneur/executive hiring someone who is currently working for another company. I love this part: I operate on the principal that you’re most vulnerable in any deal immediately after you’ve won. I believe the same is true in recruiting. So your goal is to get the employee working in your company as quickly as possible and with the least amount of collateral damage. That is… -
The Public Dashboard
9 Mar 2010 | 4:15 amI really like how Tumblr publishes some key stats publicly every month in their own stylized dashboard. I also like the way they foreshadow upcoming product features: As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Related articles by ZemantaTumblr Hits Major Milestones, Plans to Start Generating Revenue (mashable.com) Tumblr Is Growing Fast: Perfect Tool for Quick Blogging (crenk.com) -
Accounting
8 Mar 2010 | 3:41 amI'm making up the curriculum for MBA Mondays on the fly. The end game is to lay out how to look a businesses, value it, and invest in it. We started with the time value of money and interest rates, we then talked about the corporate entity. Now I want to talk about how to keep track of the money in a company. That is called accounting. This will be a multi-post effort and will include posts on cash flow, profit and loss, balance sheets, GAAP accounting, audits, and financial statement analysis. But before we can get to those issues, we need to start with the basics of accounting. Accounting…
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O'Reilly Radar
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Four short links: 12 March 2010
12 Mar 2010 | 3:00 amFlickr Flow -- a "season wheel", showing the relative popularity of colours in Flickr photos at different times of the year. Beautiful. (via gurneyjourney) Light Peak -- optical peripheral cabling and motherboard connections. (via timoreilly on twitter) British Museum Pilots "Wikipedian in Residence" -- Liam's underlying task will be to be to build a relationship between the Museum and the Wikipedian community through a range of activities both internally and public-facing. (via straup on Delicious) Twitter's Location Policy -- If you chose to tweet with a place, but not to share your exact… -
NHIN Direct: Open Healthcare Records and Government as a Platform
11 Mar 2010 | 11:50 amIn my advocacy around Government 2.0, I've been focused on the idea that government should act like a platform provider rather than a complete solution provider. That is, government should lay down rules of the road, create core functionality that others can build on, and then let the private sector compete to flesh out the offerings. You'd never think it from the right-wing media hysteria around the administration's health care initiatives, but some of the best thinking about minimal government intervention is happening right now in healthcare. I met yesterday morning with Dr. David… -
Personalization and the future of Digg
11 Mar 2010 | 7:47 amI recently talked to Joe Stump, CTO of SimpleGeo, about a number of topics related to location and databases. In the course of the interview, we also got around to discussing Digg. Previous to launching SimpleGeo, Stump was the lead architect at Digg, and he has a lot of insight into where the site is heading. We'll be running the rest of the interview soon, but what Stump told me about Digg got me thinking. We've all heard about citizen journalism. Digg, in principal, is citizen editing. One of the primary jobs of an editor is to decide what's important, and what's dross. Digg uses… -
How crowdsourcing helped Haiti's relief efforts
11 Mar 2010 | 6:25 amTech-minded volunteers quickly pitched in with a variety of communication and data services in the days following the Haiti earthquake. One company -- crowdsourcing platform CrowdFlower -- repurposed its service as a text-message translation tool to aid Mission 4636. CrowdFlower founder and CEO Lukas Biewald shares his story in this guest post. Before January 12, I knew little to nothing about Haiti or the role of crowdsourcing in disaster relief. My company, CrowdFlower, offers a crowdsourced labor platform to clients who are mostly Silicon Valley tech companies. The January earthquakes in… -
Four short links: 11 March 2010
11 Mar 2010 | 3:00 amDigital Inclusion: How Do You Tell? -- [N]either means nor skills are simple binary states. A while ago, I was talking to a young man looking for a job, and asked him why he didn’t look online. Because it’s two buses to get to the public library and you only get half an hour, was his reply. Or being in a library myself and watching an older man asking a bit tentatively if he could use one of the computers and being firmly told that he could book a slot for three days time. He turned away looking crestfallen and without making a booking. It didn’t look as though he would be…
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TechCrunch
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South Asian Mobile Social Network Mig33 Sending Twice As Many Messages A Day As Twitter
12 Mar 2010 | 2:02 pmMobile social networks have tremendous potential to flourish in developing countries where mobile phone usage trumps internet connectivity. SMS based social networks like SMSGupshup have gained considerable traction in Asia because of this. For example, in India, there is currently a 10 to 1 mobile-to-PC ratio. Mig33, a mobile social network that involves VoIP calls, instant messaging, e-mail, text messaging, and picture sharing, has accumulated 35 million registered users of its service and is growing fast in South Asian markets such as Indonesia and India. Assuming 3 to 10 percent are… -
It’s Hard To Watch The Newsosaurs Turn A Blind Eye To Their Own Extinction
12 Mar 2010 | 11:47 amSometimes it is obvious where the world is headed, but some people and industries become frozen in place and time. They are like the duckbilled dinosaurs happily munching on the still-abundant plants around them when the meteor strikes instead of the small furry mammals underfoot who take cover every day by natural habit. In the print newspaper industry, it’s the same story. Everyone wants to wall off the Web and keep grazing on declining ad revenues. A week ago, I wrote a post based on a conversation I had with Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Marc Andreessen in which he made… -
Brightkite’s Sneaky Plan To Get Regular Users Into Location: Group Text
12 Mar 2010 | 11:41 amBrightkite is tricky. Tricky and smart. While larger than most of their location-based rivals with over 2 million users, they know that in the past year they’ve lost some momentum to the newer check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla. So they’re trying to do something unique to swing momentum back in their favor. Today, at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, Brightkite is unveiling its new Group Text service. It’s both a feature on the website and a standalone application in the App Store (it should be available shortly). With it, Brightkite is latching onto one of the… -
CauseWorld’s New App Melds The Check-In With The Check-Out
12 Mar 2010 | 10:30 amLast night, we wrote about a CauseWorld teaming up with TechCrunch to provide double karma points during the SXSW festival starting today in Austin, Texas. These points, obtained through checking-in at various locations, can be used to donate to charities through big brands that support the app. It’s a great feature, and we hope you’ll use it in Austin. What we didn’t talk too much about is the app itself that enables it, CauseWorld, which just released a new version of its iPhone app in the App Store. We first covered the app back in December, but now it has been… -
FunMail’s FunTweet Visualizes Twitter Streams With Pretty Pictures
12 Mar 2010 | 9:58 amWe’ve written about FunMobility’s nifty picture messaging app for the iPhone and Android, called FunMail, that allows users to blasts their text into the application, which then breaks down whatever the user typed for context and places fun graphics with your original text. Now, FunMobility has caught the Twitter bug and is launching FunTweet, a web service which turns any Twitter stream into visual messages that are related to the text. Similar to FunMail, FunTweet will turn text in Tweets into a matching image. On FunTweet’s site, you sign in with your Twitter credentials…
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Scripting News
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Me and iPad: Not now
12 Mar 2010 | 11:50 amI was up this morning at 8:30AM Eastern and saw the notes that the iPad was now available for pre-order. So I went through the process, updated my credit card on Apple's website, changed the address and phone number. The total price was a bit of a shocker -- approx $650 including tax. I hesitated. I was typing the order on a $350 Asus Eee PC that I had bought a long time ago. It gets about 8 hours on the battery. It has a 160GB hard drive, three USB ports, Ethernet, webcam builtin. Real keyboard. No DRM. I went to Amazon to see what I could get for $650. Lots of stuff I'm not buying that I'd… -
I like abbreviated RSS feeds
11 Mar 2010 | 9:04 amJust read an article by Felix Salmon in response to a decision by Gawker to stop pushing the full text in their RSS feeds. I've heard this argument over years, from many people, but I've never agreed with it. I prefer if publishers include thoughtfully written synopses in their feeds, with links to the full articles. The reason I prefer this is that I am probably one of the few people to use River of News approach to feed reading, which imho is the only rational way to read feeds. I skim. I don't need the full text of each article, in fact I was so annoyed by feeds that publish full text that… -
Still waiting for my HTTP-scanner
11 Mar 2010 | 8:39 amMany years ago I wrote about an idea for simplifying hardware devices that scan stuff producing digital images. They shouldn't require any drivers and they should work effortlessly. But the architecture they use for these devices is still rooted in the 1980s, when it should have and easily could have made the transition to HTTP. I'm thinking about it again because I wasted a bunch of time on a Canon 700F scanner that, because of driver problems, just won't work with my Mac laptop. Now that I've got the problem I see that dozens of other users had it too (the problems didn't show up in the… -
Location-based content
10 Mar 2010 | 6:58 pmI can't figure out how the new location-based Twitter works. Firefox can't figure out where I am. No surprise, My 13-inch MacBook Pro doesn't have GPS. Is there some place I can click on a map to say This Is Where I Am? Not at all obvious. Other people say they see it. Not on my machine. Anyway, that doesn't mean we can't have fun with location stuff. On Twitter, I posted a link to a Google Map asking if this was the location of the Fillmore East. I got back an answer that it was close, but the supermarket next door is where the Fillmore was. I tweeted back that I had read somewhere that that… -
RSS enclosures from 2004 and 2005
10 Mar 2010 | 6:36 amI was doing some research for a blog post and came across this folder of RSS enclosures from late 2004 and early-mid 2005. These were the months when podcasting was beginning to take root. I was doing Morning Coffee Notes. Adam Curry was doing Daily Source Code. Together, we were doing the Trade Secrets podcast. Dave Slusher, Steve Gillmor, IT Conversations, Dawn and Drew, Tony Kahn at WGBH, Engadget. It occurred to me that this slice of early podcasting might be worth preserving, so turned it into a torrent and have uploaded it http://static.scripting.com/misc/earlyPodcasts.torrent If you…
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cnewmark
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Health care reform, the bottom line from Consumer Reports & what to do
12 Mar 2010 | 5:16 amCheck out Push health reform across the finish line from Consumer Reports, the independent organization which always sticks with the facts. So much is at stake for you and your family if health reform fails. Namely, the giant insurance companies will remain in control of your health care, your costs will continue to spiral unchecked, and you’ll have no guarantee of coverage you can count on. Disclaimer: Consumer Reports has the best record for integrity and usefulness of any org I've seen, so I've personally joined up with 'em. -
FCC, really serious about Internet for everyone, serious about listening to you
11 Mar 2010 | 5:38 amHey, we now have an Administration which is serious about sharing the power that the Internet enables in all citizens. That's means getting real about the Internet for real life for all Americans, whether it means helping people get jobs, or connecting a deployed troop connected to the family back home. The deal is that the FCC has a real plan for broadband Internet that treats everyone fairly, without favoring special interests. So, next week, they announce their plan, and will step up and answer your questions. Here's the info, at “The Internet in America”—Your YouTube… -
The deal with Net Neutrality
10 Mar 2010 | 5:33 amI haven't had much luck explaining what that is, but for a good summary, check out Net neutrality laws lie in FCC hands: Strip away the technical jargon and this name-calling brawl is about whether people have the right to talk to one another, write to one another and organize politically without the interference of large corporations. In the net neutrality debate, both sides have good points. Problem is that the opponents of net neutrality have enlisted influence peddlers who make a lot more money prolonging the argument, and creating fake or "astroturf" sites. It would be good if big… -
Consumer Reports for health care
9 Mar 2010 | 8:10 amWell, one thing we know for sure is that these guys are totally reliable, do fact-checking, and know what they're talking about, so I'm convinced. (So much so, I've personally joined up with 'em.) Check out Consumers can't wait any longer for health reform: So let me identify the key benefits consumers would get from health-reform legislation passed to date: No company could deny you health insurance for a pre-existing condition, or drop your coverage if you get sick. Insurance companies wouldn’t be able to cap the amount of care you may need for a serious illness, or stop paying your… -
Heavy hail in Cole Valley/San Francisco, and then...
8 Mar 2010 | 4:50 pm... this, and then, even heavier hail
