I don't think winners beat the competition because they work harder. And it's not even clear that they win because they have more creativity. The secret, I think, is in understanding what matters. It's not obvious, and it changes. It changes by culture, by buyer, by product and even by the day of the week. But those that manage to capture the imagination, make sales and grow are doing it by perfecting the things that matter and ignoring the rest. Both parts are difficult, particularly when you are surrounded by people who insist on fretting about and working on the stuff that makes no…
Inc 19
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Most Topular Stories
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Hard work on the right things
Seth's Blog15 May 2012 | 4:00 am -
Worldliness
Seth's Blog14 May 2012 | 4:41 amIntelligence is the combination of knowing a lot about a little while you also know a little about a lot. Deep domain understanding helps you create analyses. Your ability to understand how a particular system (no matter how small) works allows you apply a confident analysis to new systems you encounter. Once you know everything there is to know about nuclear physics, soccer or the praying mantis, it makes it easier to understand new systems. At the same time, it's impossible to be smart without also being aware of the wider world. That's because it's the random interactions and the… -
Attention to problems matters more than solutions to problems
Penelope Trunk Blog11 May 2012 | 12:22 amFortune magazine has started reporting about family in corporate life. We all know corporate jobs are messed up. Fortune magazine is a monument to how messed up corporate life really is. In November, Fortune wrote that the company that Sheryl Sandberg, a working mom, runs, has employees “on lockdown” and their kids come to the office to say goodnight before bed. In December Fortune reported that to get his almost-top spot at GE, John Krenicki relocated his family 11 times while the kids were growing up. Working at GE requires the same type of sacrifice from a family that the US expects… -
We're hiring: Help us significantly improve conversion and retention
Signal vs. Noise14 May 2012 | 12:18 pmWe’re looking for another teammate. This time we’re looking for someone who is completely focused on improving conversion and retention. You love moving the needle, one small step at a time. This job is all about seeing untapped potential. Conversion could be financial (get more people to start a trial or complete it – what we consider a “sale”), or outcome-based (inspire people to create more Basecamp projects by showing them creative ways to use Basecamp they never thought of before). Or something else. Retention could be reducing cancellations, or reducing… -
The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon
blog maverick13 May 2012 | 7:34 pmThis is what I see when i think about higher education in this country today: Remember the housing meltdown ? Tough to forget isn’t it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn’t afford the money they were borrowing. That money was then spent on homes with the expectation that the price of the home would go up and it could easily be flipped or refinanced at a profit. Who cares if you couldn’t afford the loan. As long as prices kept on going up, everyone was happy. And prices kept on going up. And as long…
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Penelope Trunk Blog
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Attention to problems matters more than solutions to problems
11 May 2012 | 12:22 amFortune magazine has started reporting about family in corporate life. We all know corporate jobs are messed up. Fortune magazine is a monument to how messed up corporate life really is. In November, Fortune wrote that the company that Sheryl Sandberg, a working mom, runs, has employees “on lockdown” and their kids come to the office to say goodnight before bed. In December Fortune reported that to get his almost-top spot at GE, John Krenicki relocated his family 11 times while the kids were growing up. Working at GE requires the same type of sacrifice from a family that the US expects… -
How to choose a career if your interests are wide
8 May 2012 | 11:04 amI’ve spent the last five years learning about farming. At first I couldn’t even tell the difference between a hay field and an oat field. Now I can tell when a planting is late. I have learned enough about cattle to sort them for breeding. I don’t do as good a job as the Farmer of course, but I won’t miss any that are really bad. I have learned how to milk a goat, even though I’m terrible at it. Now it’s spring, and the farm is incredible. There are baby animals everywhere. The farmer is letting the piglets slip out of their pen. The piglets run all over… -
What we can learn from the lies people tell
4 May 2012 | 1:46 pmI love watching people lie. I know that I probably have the same feelings the liars do, the feeling of being stuck. I like to think about what I do when I have that feeling, how people cope with it, and how much pain we can handle before we become our worst selves. Lately, I’ve been thinking about these lies and the feelings that provoke them: 1. The lie about expectations. Have you heard of Ashley Madison? It’s the site that caters to married people who want to cheat on their spouse. We could debate about the ethics of that business model (or this one), but I think Ashley Madison… -
How to make amends for bad behavior
1 May 2012 | 7:38 amPhoto by Roz Joseph c. 1970 It used to be that the reason people hated me was because I offended them. Poor social skills. I’m sure you can imagine, but if you can’t, here’s the post about how I spoke at a women in business blogging event and I offended everyone by telling them that their blogs sucked and how to fix them. Maybe I should set up a coaching business where I tell people how to fix their blogs, but really, most people don’t want to know. It’s like going to couples therapy. It’s a lot of work. And there’s always the hope that great sex can make up for everything else. -
5 tips for business travel
27 Apr 2012 | 11:00 amIn the airport a fight attendant said to my six-year-old son, “Where are you going today?” He said, “California.” She said, “You’re a lucky boy!” He said, “Actually, I’m really tired of going to airports with my mom.” This is because I’ve been taking him on all my business trips. And he is learning something important about business travel: It’s really, really hard to do a lot of it, and you need a strategy. To be sure, there are people who travel almost every day of the year. I think they’re nuts. They don’t have a life. I’m talking about…
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Signal vs. Noise
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We're hiring: Help us significantly improve conversion and retention
14 May 2012 | 12:18 pmWe’re looking for another teammate. This time we’re looking for someone who is completely focused on improving conversion and retention. You love moving the needle, one small step at a time. This job is all about seeing untapped potential. Conversion could be financial (get more people to start a trial or complete it – what we consider a “sale”), or outcome-based (inspire people to create more Basecamp projects by showing them creative ways to use Basecamp they never thought of before). Or something else. Retention could be reducing cancellations, or reducing… -
Taking the Pain Out of MySQL Schema Changes
14 May 2012 | 8:53 amA common obstacle we face when releasing new features is making production schema changes in MySQL. Many new features require additional columns or indexes. Running an “ALTER TABLE” in MySQL to add the needed columns and indexes locks the table, hanging the application. We need a better solution. Option 1: Schema Change in Downtime This is the simplest option. Put the application into downtime and perform the schema change. It requires us to have the application down for the duration of the “ALTER TABLE”. We’ve successfully used this option for smaller tables… -
Basecamp in Antarctica
10 May 2012 | 9:39 amWe have customers around the world doing extraordinary things with our software, but Ben Saunders is taking it to a whole new level. Ben and his team are using Basecamp to organize an expedition to the South Pole and back, unsupported and on foot. This is the same journey Captain Robert Scott died trying to achieve 100 years ago, and no one has attempted it since. Ben has been a professional polar explorer for more than 10 years and is one of only three people to complete a solo journey to the North Pole. He will be joined by Alastair Humphreys, who has cycled 46,000 miles around the world,… -
Sortfolio: Going once, going twice...
7 May 2012 | 5:19 pmA year ago we put Sortfolio up for sale. We entertained a variety of offers, met with a few potential suitors in person, and negotiated numbers. Ultimately nothing came together. Then we shelved the process so we could focus all of our efforts on designing and building the new Basecamp. Sortfolio continued to run itself for another year, generating over $200,000 in profit for us during that time. Our paying customer count continues to hover consistently in the 170s, each paying $99/month to be listed as a premium member. The price We’ve put Sortfolio on the clock: We either sell it by… -
VIDEO: Keynote by David from RailsConf 2012 on progress…
1 May 2012 | 2:05 pmKeynote by David from RailsConf 2012 on progress, curiosity, fear, and the danger of easy-bake ovens.
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blog maverick
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The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon
13 May 2012 | 7:34 pmThis is what I see when i think about higher education in this country today: Remember the housing meltdown ? Tough to forget isn’t it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn’t afford the money they were borrowing. That money was then spent on homes with the expectation that the price of the home would go up and it could easily be flipped or refinanced at a profit. Who cares if you couldn’t afford the loan. As long as prices kept on going up, everyone was happy. And prices kept on going up. And as long… -
Some Olympic Thoughts
22 Apr 2012 | 6:43 pmMy position on NBA players and the Olympics has not changed since I first wrote about it nearly 8 years ago. It was stupid then. It has not gotten any smarter. The following is an article put together by Brett Morris that provides an additional perspective and some more details that to me, re-enforce my position. ### When the Miami Heat’s Dwayne Wade said he thought “guys should be compensated” for participating in this Summer’s Olympics, he received a great deal of public backlash for being “un-American,” and “selfish,” from all walks of life… -
The Greatest Business Risk You Don’t Know About – Your Business Will Be Sued Over Patents
18 Apr 2012 | 1:53 pmYour business is at risk. For a lot of money. No matter what type of business you are in, you are susceptible to a patent infringement lawsuit. The worst part about this risk is that there is nothing you can do to protect yourself. You are a victim in a business world horror movie. Unfortunately , there is no one to scream “no don’t do it. Don’t open that door” and protect you. All the doors are open and the trolls are all attacking. Why wouldn’t they ? Put yourself in the position of a patent troll. If the laws changed in your industry so that if you… -
Dont Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort
18 Mar 2012 | 2:47 pmI hear it all the time from people. “I’m passionate about it.” “I’m not going to quit, It’s my passion”. Or I hear it as advice to students and others “Follow your passion”. What a bunch of BS. ”Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get. Why ? Because everyone is passionate about something. Usually more than 1 thing. We are born with it. There are always going to be things we love to do. That we dream about doing. That we really really want to do with our lives. Those passions aren’t… -
I Hope Yahoo Crushes Facebook in its Patent Suit
13 Mar 2012 | 3:10 pmAnyone who reads this blog knows how much I hate patent laws. I think 99pct of the time they are anti-competitive, corruptive, impede creativity and innovation and can kill small businesses. I think the ratio of patent law doing a good job protecting company IP vs it being used purely to negatively impact competitors or to troll for un-earned revenue is probably 1000 to 1, or worse. When I read that Yahoo was suing Facebook my immediate reaction was disdain. As I thought more about it, I came to realize that this case could be the water shed moment that causes enough people to recognize…
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Matt Mullenweg
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Diary Of A WordCamp
15 May 2012 | 10:41 amWith all the hubaboo going on about WordCamps right now, it’s nice to read Siobhan McKeown’s Diary Of A WordCamp on Smashing WordPress, a great story about her experience at WordCamp Netherlands. -
WP Businesses and Contributions
13 May 2012 | 7:54 pm10up partner Helen is now a core WP contributor and 10up highlights that contribution on their blog. It’s very exciting to see more core involvement springing up all over the WP ecosystem, as it has a big impact on the quality of the core software we all depend on. Let me know if you spot any more examples and I’ll share them here. -
Three Laws of Makerbot
8 May 2012 | 10:21 amThe landlord at 87 Third Avenue included a lease clause requiring that MakerBot comply with science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s “three laws of robotics,” which require that robots follow orders, not injure humans, and protect their own existence. Makerbot has a fun article in the WSJ today about moving office space. (Makerbot is an Audrey company.) -
Richard Clarke on Stuxnet
26 Apr 2012 | 10:46 amSmithsonian Magazine has a great article on Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar, discussing Who Was Behind the Stuxnet Attack. -
Automattic Growth
25 Apr 2012 | 9:40 amLiz Gannes writes for AllThingsD, Automattic Grows Up: The Company Behind WordPress.com Shares Revenue Numbers and Hires Execs. In addition to Stu joining as CFO and Paul as Consigliere/Automattlock, we’ve been on a hiring roll the past month or two with excellent folks joining at every level of the company, including two more Matts. If you’re passionate about Open Source and making the web a better place, like we are, there’s never been a better time to join. My favorite thing about logging in every morning is the people I work with. Friends say I work too much but it…
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Altimeter Group
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Beyond the IPO: Ten Implications of a Public Facebook
8 May 2012 | 4:21 amBy Susan Etlinger, Charlene Li and Rebecca Lieb The run-up to Facebook’s IPO reminds me a bit of a wedding: everyone’s attention is on the big day (expected to be Friday May 18), without much regard for the weeks, months and years afterward. Charlene Li, Rebecca Lieb, and I sat down to discuss some of [...] -
A New Category Defined: Social Performance Software
7 May 2012 | 11:31 pmA new software category has emerged to bring performance marketing to social channels. After interviewing over 10 software companies and 10 agencies, a new trend has emerged that will change the social business landscape. What is this trend? The marketing performance techniques to refine TV, Radio, SEO and other marketing mediums are now moving to [...] -
Call for Insight: The Altimeter “Blog Ring” focused on the Dynamic Customer Journey
1 May 2012 | 12:39 pmRequest: We want to hear from you. Tell us on your blog or website how the Dynamic Customer Journey is impacting your business, and we’ll cross-link to the conversation. During SXSW 2012, Altimeter Group launched its three research themes to the public: Dynamic Customer Journey, Adaptive Organization and Sentient World. Now, we’re asking you — [...] -
Recording: Three Disruptive Business Research Themes
29 Apr 2012 | 10:21 pmAdvance your career and learn about the three Disruptive Business Themes companies cannot ignore. Working among our team of analysts and researchers, Altimeter’s Research group has found three common higher level themes that will disrupt all businesses. Working among our analysts from mobile, content marketing, advertising, analytics, leadership, change management, user experience, and social, we’ve [...] -
Webinar Replay – Content: The New Marketing Equation
27 Apr 2012 | 11:53 amIf you missed Jeremiah and I presenting our webinar Content: Thee New Marketing Equation based on our recently published research report, you can watch it here or on SlideShare. Please watch and share the video, as it’s freely available as open research. How to Rebalance for Content as Part of the New Marketing Equation with [...]
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Howard Lindzon
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Facebook and Wall Street …SHARE IT is the new HOARD IT!
16 May 2012 | 10:13 amFacebook FB the most exciting IPO I have watched unfold. It is another nail in the coffin for the future of Wall Street research. All the experts on the topic of social graphs, the social web, the mobile mobile and the internet are outside the walls of Wall Street and the metrics that matter will be conceived by the masses on Twitter, Stocktwits and Facebook. Facebook is going to raise $15 (fifteen) billion from the public. As a frame of reference, GOOG has about $47 billion in the bank and $58 billion. Microsoft raised something like $50 million from their IPO. They did so with over 300… -
Momentum Monday…The Facebook IPO…What a Market Top Looks Like Part 3
15 May 2012 | 12:42 amMy first worries about this current market run and potential ‘Top’ began in February. I followed up in April when I sold the last of my AAPL. Today when I check the quotes of the stocks I own, I expect them to be down 20 percent because of Greece. It’s all part of the business of investing. What really changes when Facebook goes public this Thursday? For one, with the Facebook FB IPO, there will be less secrets in social. There will be more hype about ‘data’ as a business model. There will be way more pressure on companies to explain their mobile monetization… -
Yahoo and $2.1 Billion of Cash….Party Time Ross!
13 May 2012 | 12:59 pmIt would be a BLAST to be in control of $2.1 billion. First off, I could call my buddies at JP Morgan, or as I like to cal them ‘Jip Me’ Morgan and turn that into $3 trillion in derivatives and plunk it down in a greek recovery led by the lovely ‘Golden Dawn’ party. I kid. There is no one way that Ross can fix things. The Board is a shitshow of ego’s and self dealers. I would focus on the strengths like Sports and Finance where the demographics of the user are best and wrap a communication product around them to start. I would continue to slash and burn on the… -
Momentum Tuesday…Cracks!
8 May 2012 | 4:11 pmThe Momentum stocks are cracking. Today it was FOSL which is a store I have never shopped in but a teen favorite. Rackspace RAX, a longtime holding, also got whacked today. As I say in the show, this stuff just happens to you when you invest in big trends and momentum stocks. The cracks at the edge of momentum land have started to bleed into the general market, but institutions should step into the market here. Institutions have to follow one another and are generally lazy thinkers so markets just work this way. It’s an uptrend. That said, I am watching my stocks like I always do and… -
Momentum Monday…The Law of Large Numbers and Why Apple is Stalling
1 May 2012 | 2:41 amSorry about the sound for the first 10 minutes of the show. I have so much fun making Momentum Monday with Jon and Ivan. It helps me think about the bigger picture and catch up on what I am doing right and wrong over time. I promise to be more careful about the production value going forward. I am just trying to be consistent producing the show. The valuations of todays tech leaders is getting hard for most to digest. It is upsetting the non participators. Facebook is less than 10 years old and can pay $1 billion for 3 year old Instagram which is more than ANYONE will pay for The New York…
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Calacanis.com
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Today on This Week in Startups: @everlane !!!
1 May 2012 | 12:33 pmToday, on This Week in Startups, Jason was joined by Everlane (http://everlane.com) co-founder Michael Preysman (http://twitter.com/mpreysman) to unpack the luxury e-tailer's success thus far. Everlane is an online-only clothing and accessories shop that cuts out the middleman in order to offer high-quality tees, sweatshirts and more for as much as 90% off traditional retail pricing. If your interest is piqued, be sure to tune in at 1pm PT here: http://thisweekin.com/live We'll also be in the chats on our live channels on Justin.tv (http://justin.tv/thisweekin) and Ustream… -
Education Startup Seeks Managing/Executive Editor
29 Apr 2012 | 3:46 pmAnyone out there interesting changing the world, or at least trying to put a dent in it? best @jason Education Startup Seeks Managing/Executive Editor Hey, I'm the founder and CEO of a startup named Mahalo. My name is Jason Calacanis. I've built some solid brand in the past, like Engadget, Silicon Alley Reporter, TechCrunch50, LAUNCH, Cinematical, Open Angel Forum and TVSquad. You might have heard of one or two of them. Or not. They're kind of niche products. Anyway, we're a venture-backed startup with really cool offices in Culver City. Our mission is to help people… -
Awesome reviews for our first iBook: 4.5 stars after 46 ratings!
26 Apr 2012 | 12:44 pmhttp://itunes.apple.com/us/book/learn-guitar/id515889856?mt=11 So proud of my team! -
Mahalo to hit 1M App downloads this week.
26 Apr 2012 | 12:27 pmThe phoenix will rise, and it will be on the wings of the highest-quality content in the world. -
Four more free apps from Mahalo!
25 Apr 2012 | 1:49 pmhttp://media.mahalo.com/static/promo/ Learn Rhythm Guitar http://bit.ly/MasterRhythmB SoulCalibur V Guide http://bit.ly/SoulCailbur5B How to Draw http://bit.ly/HowToDrawAppB Learn Final Cut Pro X http://bit.ly/LearnFCBXB
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The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
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Tim Ferriss: A Day In The Life
24 Apr 2012 | 1:15 pm(Trouble viewing? See Tim Ferriss: A Day In The Life on Hulu. If you’re international, try using Hotspot Shield first.) I’m often asked, “What does your typical day look like?” In an attempt to answer this difficult question, I met up with Morgan Spurlock’s film crew for an episode of “A Day In The Life.” The full Friday we shot (I reserve Fridays for in-person meetings) reiterates a point I’ve driven home before: The 4-Hour Workweek is, and always has been, about using time optimally, not being idle. It also shows how much I love my POS VW… -
How to Build an App Empire: Can You Create The Next Instagram?
22 Apr 2012 | 9:01 pmChad Mureta runs his seven-figure app business from his iPhone. (Photo: Jorge Quinteros). I first met Chad Mureta in Napa Valley in 2011. Two years prior, he had been in a horrible car accident. He’d lost control of his truck in at attempt to avoid a deer, hit a median, and flipped four times, nearly destroying his dominant arm in the wreckage. While in the hospital for a lengthy recovery, a friend gave him an article about the app market. Shortly thereafter, Chad began designing and developing apps. His results? “In just over two years, I’ve created and sold three app companies… -
Richard Feynman: The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
19 Apr 2012 | 9:03 amMany times in the last five years, I’ve been asked: “If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be?” My answer is always the same: Richard Feynman. Right alongside Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic, Feynman’s book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) hugely impacted every aspect of my thinking when I first read them circa 2005. Since then, I have studied Feynman’s letters, teaching style, discoveries, and beyond. How many Nobel Prize winners also safe crack and play bongos in bars for fun? The above… -
Playing B-Ball with Obama: 6 Steps to Crossing Anything Off Your Bucket List
4 Apr 2012 | 9:00 amLet us start with a quote, often misattributed to Goethe: “Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or… -
Reinventing the Office: How to Lose Fat and Increase Productivity at Work
12 Mar 2012 | 3:33 am(Photo: watz) If you’re a white-collar worker, hacking your body isn’t limited to the gym. In fact, what you do outside of the gym might be more important that what you do inside the gym. Recent research suggests that those who sit from 9-5 (more than 6 hours daily) and exercise regularly are more likely to have heart disease than those who sit less than 3 hours per day and don’t “exercise” at all. ff Venture Capital, a New York early-stage technology venture capital fund, recently moved into a new NYC location, and they’ve documented their experiments and…
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Seth's Blog
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Digital analogs are no longer sufficient
16 May 2012 | 4:00 amThe parking meter was rebooting. I guess we're supposed to walk to the other end of the garage and find one that's working. We're seeing digital awareness coming to just about everything. In this case, it was the parking meter near the library. Of course, it's not really a parking meter, it's a centralized fee collection system that saves the town a lot of money. It's easier to collect from, certainly, it doesn't waste the time of meter readers (who get alerted as to what spaces aren't paid for, as opposed to checking them all) plus it doesn't let a new parker enjoy a few minutes of the last… -
Hard work on the right things
15 May 2012 | 4:00 amI don't think winners beat the competition because they work harder. And it's not even clear that they win because they have more creativity. The secret, I think, is in understanding what matters. It's not obvious, and it changes. It changes by culture, by buyer, by product and even by the day of the week. But those that manage to capture the imagination, make sales and grow are doing it by perfecting the things that matter and ignoring the rest. Both parts are difficult, particularly when you are surrounded by people who insist on fretting about and working on the stuff that makes no… -
Worldliness
14 May 2012 | 4:41 amIntelligence is the combination of knowing a lot about a little while you also know a little about a lot. Deep domain understanding helps you create analyses. Your ability to understand how a particular system (no matter how small) works allows you apply a confident analysis to new systems you encounter. Once you know everything there is to know about nuclear physics, soccer or the praying mantis, it makes it easier to understand new systems. At the same time, it's impossible to be smart without also being aware of the wider world. That's because it's the random interactions and the… -
The reason the customer is always right...
14 May 2012 | 4:08 amIf you insist that they are wrong, they stop being your customer* (if given half a chance). People spend their time and attention and money in places that make them feel valued. *There's nothing wrong with asking customers who are wrong to leave. Just be sure you do it on purpose. -
Dedicating the merit
13 May 2012 | 4:02 amFor an author, one of the nicest parts of the traditional book is the dedication page. The dedication is far more than an acknowledgement to someone who helped you write the book, it's a permanent signpost, a capstone to the work of a year or more. Even if the person you've dedicated the book to can't read it, the writer benefits from the knowledge that a connection was made and that a memory was preserved. Here's the thing: you can dedicate just about anything. A project, a meeting, a tweet. You don't have to tell anyone but yourself. This blog post, like all the posts before it, has a…
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A VC
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Bootstrapping
16 May 2012 | 4:43 amWith all the talk of massive amounts of cash sloshing around the web/mobile startup ecosystem (including things I've said recently), you would think that nobody bootstraps anymore. But that is not true at all. Last week my partner Albert blogged about our most recent investment in Behance. Behance was bootstrapped for its first five years. As Scott Belsky, Behance's founder and CEO, wrote on the Behance blog: For the past five years, Behance has been a bootstrapped enterprise. We’ve sold Action Pads, books, job postings, conference tickets, and even banner ads (horror!) to generate the… -
Mobile Native Services
15 May 2012 | 7:55 amOne of the most exciting areas of Internet applications these days are applications that are "mobile native". That doesn't just mean mobile first. It means mobile native - the app could not exist if the mobile smartphone didn't exist. A great example of this is the "book a cab ride on your phone" category. The leader in this category is Uber which does a great job and really nailed the experience. I've also used SideCar in San Francisco and Hailo in London. All three are great experiences. These services work so well because the cab driver and the passenger both have mobile phones that are… -
MBA Mondays Series: People
14 May 2012 | 5:31 amBased on the feedback I got on this topic last week, I've revised the title of the series and the topics we are going to cover. The series will be called People. Human Capital is a turnoff. Businesses are all about people. And people aren't capital. I've added posts on retention and asking someone to leave the company. So here is the schedule of posts: - The importance of culture and fit when hiring - Where to find strong talent - Optimal headcount at various stages - Best hiring practices - Retention - Asking somone to leave your company - How to leverage your partners (including your… -
Easy Come Easy Go
13 May 2012 | 9:21 amI just read that a lot of the social news reader traffic publishers like Washington Post and The Guardian were getting from Facebook has dropped off dramatically. Next we will read that the traffic social video apps get from Facebook has dropped dramatically. All of this reminds me of the big drop in traffic SEO driven sites deal with every time Google does an algorithm change. SEO and Facebook timeline integration is "best practice" on the Internet. You should do both. They can be great free acquisition channels. But they are not great retention channels. Because easy come easy go. Be your… -
Android in Europe and Asia
12 May 2012 | 9:03 amI was going through the board deck of our portfolio company Wattpad this morning. Wattpad is the leading writing/reading community on the web and mobile. Quantcast says over 7.5mm people visit their website each month. And Wattpad is one of the top free "Books" apps in both the iOS an Android apps stores. Wattpad has a very large mobile user base around the world as a result of the sucess of its mobile apps. And so this slide on geographic distribution of its user base caught my attention: The iOS user base for Wattpad is about 65% in North America. But Wattpad's Android user base is less…
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O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies.
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Velocity Profile: Justin Huff
16 May 2012 | 10:00 amThis is part of the Velocity Profiles series, which highlights the work and knowledge of web ops and performance experts. Justin Huff Software Engineer PicMonkey @jjhuff How did you get into web operations and performance? Picnik's founders Mike Harrington and Darrin Massena needed someone who knew something about Linux. Darrin and I had known each other for a few years, so my name came up. At the time, I was doing embedded systems work, but ended up moonlighting for Picnik. It wasn't long before I came over full time. I always expected to help them get off the ground and then they'd find a… -
A federal judge learned to code
16 May 2012 | 9:30 amThe last couple of days, there's been a fair amount of blogosphere angst over Coding Horror's "Please Don't Learn to Code." Ironically, the best argument for learning to code appeared this morning, when it turned out that Judge William Alsup in the Google case could program, and learned Java in the course of the trial, and wasn't going for Oracle's claim that a short range-checking function was days of work. Alsup recognized immediately (and says he wrote the function hundreds of times during the course of the trial) that it's just a few minutes work for a competent programmer. The importance… -
How to start a successful business in health care at Health 2.0 conference
16 May 2012 | 9:10 amGreat piles of cash are descending on entrepreneurs who develop health care apps, but that doesn't make it any easier to create a useful one that your audience will adopt. Furthermore, lowered costs and streamlined application development technique let you fashion a working prototype faster than ever, but that also reduces the time you can fumble around looking for a business model. These were some of the insights I got at Spring Fling 2012: Matchpoint Boston, put on by Health 2.0 this week. This conference was a bit of a grab-bag, including one-on-one meetings between entrepreneurs and their… -
The chicken and egg of big data solutions
16 May 2012 | 9:00 amBefore I came to O'Reilly I was building the "big data and disruptive analytics practice" at a major systems integrator. It was a blast to spend every week talking to customers in different industries who were waking up to the possibilities that technologies like Hadoop offered their businesses. Many of these businesses are going to fundamentally change as they embrace this stuff (or be replaced by those that do). But there's a catch. Twenty years or so ago large integrators made big business building applications on the then-new relational paradigm. They put in Oracle databases with custom… -
Four short links: 16 May 2012
16 May 2012 | 5:00 amMany Old Periodicals -- I'm working my way through the back issues of "Thrilling Love". Sample story, Moonmist for Mary by Dorothy Daniels, from Feb 1950. Filing clerk Mary wins the heart of her secret coworker romance AND closes the sale AND is promised stock. It's torn from the pages of real life, I tell ya! Please Don't Learn to Code (Jeff Atwood) -- my take: everyone who is a "knowledge worker" should learn to program (who of us has not seen people wasting time with something we could automate in 10 lines of code?). It's hard to justify an adult like Bloomberg to take the time to learn to…
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TechCrunch
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Viacom Gives Up Fight Against Time Warner Cable, Adds Channels to TWC iPad App
16 May 2012 | 2:35 pmCustomers of Time Warner Cable have some reason to rejoice today, as the cable company has gotten the go-ahead to add channels like MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central to its live streaming iPad app. The addition comes after the channels’ owner Viacom has settled its differences and resolved litigation with Time Warner Cable. The legal fight erupted last year, after Time Warner Cable released its iPad app, which lets subscribers stream live shows to tablets inside their homes. While many networks grumbled about the app, Viacom was most vocal in rejecting the app, taking its distribution… -
How Many Daily Downloads Does It Take To Reach The Top Of The App Store?
16 May 2012 | 2:01 pmIt’s hard to underestimate how important ranking in Apple’s top 25 in the iTunes store is for mobile app developers. After all, the top 25 is probably the single most important app discovery mechanism for most iOS users. But how many downloads does it take to rank in the top 25? Mobile app store analytics firm Distimo today published some interesting data that answers just this question. Turns out, in the U.S. store, the answer currently is about 38,400 daily downloads for free iPhone apps and 3,530 for paid iPhone apps. To rank in the top 25 per category, of course, takes… -
Third Pivot’s The Charm? Events Site Ravn Becomes Flash Sales Site Touch Of Modern
16 May 2012 | 1:34 pmNo one ever called a limit on the number pivots a company can do, right? So here’s the latest at a company we’ve been watching for a while now. RAVN, an event planning and sharing app that itself was the product of a pivot from the developers behind “experiences marketplace” Skyara, has sent a letter out to its users telling them that the app is getting shut down at the end of this month. In RAVN’s place, the founders are starting up yet another business — their third — also loosely based around events but with a decidedly more commercial bent: a… -
This Won’t End Well: Toyota Connects With Nintendo DS For In-Car Navigation Interface
16 May 2012 | 1:31 pmFor some inexplicable reason, Nintendo and Toyota have teamed up to turn the Nintendo DS into a navigational remote control, thereby allowing drivers (although I hope passengers do most of the fiddling) to set their routes using their game consoles. The service, called Kuruma de DS lets you see map and destination info as well as tour information as you drive through town. The service slightly gamifies the experience by adding a POI saving option. The compatible Toyota Smart Navi system costs about $3,000 while the game itself costs $92 – quite a bit of cash to simulate the map screens… -
Forrester: 32.1 Million U.S. Households Now Access Online Video On Their TVs
16 May 2012 | 1:04 pmAlmost 115 million households in the U.S. currently own at least one TV set and 36 million own four or more. That’s a huge market and as Apple, Google and Microsoft try to wrestle more of this business away from the traditional content and hardware players, the old-school cable and satellite providers now suddenly have to content with this new group of challengers that, until now, barely registered on their radars. According to Forrester analyst James McQuivey, it’s Microsoft that’s winning this platform war so far. Why? Microsoft, MCquivey argues, currently has a massive…
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Dave Winer's "Scripting News" weblog
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Should you learn to code?
16 May 2012 | 11:08 amI have to weigh in on this. You should learn enough about anything to find out if you love it. I had no idea I was good at writing software until, on a lark, I enrolled in a Computer Science class at Tulane University in 1975. So I'd say, looking back, that was a good thing. If it worked out for me, why not give it a shot. But programming is at one end of a spectrum. It's like mountain climbing or spelunking, not like bungee jumping or hiking in the Alps. Programming is hard. And it's definitely not for everyone. I think the reason well-intentioned programmers get irritated by the sudden rush… -
Quick idea for Quora
16 May 2012 | 10:51 amQuora just raised $50 million. Quora is a very nicely done piece of software. Almost everyone thinks so. But I also think they're too late. There are already plenty of corporate blogging silos for people to write into. And the demand for them never was that high. So I think it would be interesting, with all their money and nice software, if they tried a pivot. Here's the idea... 1. Position relative to wordpress.com. A simpler more modern, better-designed version. Updated. 2. If possible release the back-end as open source, so you can complete the picture. If not, start work on that, and make… -
Chrome is better, day 2
16 May 2012 | 10:23 amI'm now four days into using Chrome as my primary browser, after switching from Firefox. Top-line review: My work is better. Not just in the browser, everywhere. Having a strong competent tool in web browsing brings confidence to all my writing and programming work. I started a thread about this yesterday. A story. When I got angel funding for my first company, the lead investor arranged for the company to get me a car. I had been driving a rented Dodge Omni, month to month, a real piece of shit. I didn't have credit, or money for a down payment. So every month I scraped together the rent for… -
Run against the Republican Party
15 May 2012 | 11:59 amI saw Romney interviewed on Fox, and all the arguments about him being awkward and a flawed human being, to me, are unconvincing. To balance those, I look at what I know about the President. Honestly, measuring one man against another, it's a draw. The reason I'll almost certainly vote for Obama in the fall is that he is not a Republican. The thought of them controlling the government again, is a real motivator. I saw what they did in August with the debt ceiling. And I see it coming again and again. This is a party that's taken a very wrong turn. I think a United States run by Republicans is… -
Chrome is better
15 May 2012 | 10:34 amI've spend a couple of days working fulltime in Chrome, and it's improved my workflow.
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craigconnects
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Tips on Sharing Facebook Posts & Twitter Tweets
15 May 2012 | 4:01 pmHey, I figure that sometimes people doing good stuff want me to spread the updates to my networks in social media, starting with Facebook and Twitter.I tell 'em to email me the links to their posts, and maybe they should do so for all their supporters. Just send us the links with a few words as to what they're talking about.That means we can click on those links, and that brings up their posts in a browser. From there, we just click on Share or Retweet. Just two clicks, and the original post is sent throughout our networks.Here's how to send the link to a specific post:For… -
A New Era of Squirrel-Based Activism
30 Apr 2012 | 1:32 pmSo, here's the deal, folks – #Squirrels4Good has been taking over social networks. The good news about this is that the National Wildlife Federation surpassed the $5K mark that I recently promised.Since everyone is so passionate, and the @NWF has their boots on the ground doing such good work, I want to up the ante $5K more, and give the NWF a total of $10K if we can keep the #squirrels4good going.Here's a video I did with the NWF to support them, @common_squirrel, and squirrels everywhere:No matter what we do, no matter what we don't do, the squirrels are here. -
Follow Me
25 Apr 2012 | 12:00 pmGuest post by Brett SheatsFor the past ninety-four years, the United States Army Infantry School has been located at Fort Benning, Georgia. Thousands of young, freshly shaved heads enter its gates every year to undergo the metamorphosis from patriotic civilian to steely-eyed mayhem machine.During their time at Fort Benning, each new infantry recruit learns countless skills that will be key to his survival in combat, from accuracy with a rifle and equipment maintenance to small unit tactics. All of these lessons are neatly tied together with one inescapable fact: As infantrymen, when combat… -
#Squirrels4Good
23 Apr 2012 | 11:45 amHey there, are you feeling squirrelly? Many of you know my love for squirrels and birds. I've decided to team up with @common_squirrel and @NWF to raise money for #Squirrels4Good. I'm a fan of urban survivors, and for that matter, I've been told I can get a little squirrelly, and more than once. I know other people really have an affinity for squirrels, too.Here's the deal, for each time someone uses the hashtag, #Squirrels4Good on Twitter or on my Facebook page or NWF’s facebook page, I'll give $1 to the National Wildlife Federation up to $5K. I will also donate… -
Think You Have the Right to Vote? Not so Much!
29 Mar 2012 | 9:10 amFolks, think you have the right to vote? Maybe not so much. I've been working with some good folks focusing on Voter Suppression issues that are happening across the country. There are some bad actors who are trying to pass legislation that will keep eligible people from voting.What I learned in high school civics class is that an attack on voting rights is virtually the same as an attack on the country. So I asked people smarter than me to help me do what George Washington would have wanted me to do, collect and release the information you're getting from us today.I worked with the…
