RAINBOWS... COOL NATURAL PHENOMENON OR HEAVENLY DESIGN?
Yesterday I as sitting in church and listening to the pastor give a sermon titled, "The Rainbow of Grace." It was on Genesis 9:1-17 on the time after the flood and when God lays his new convenant with Noah. The primary message of the sermon was understanding how we are stewards of this earth and even though we had an eternal perspective on life we shouldn't negate that responsibility. The verse that got me thinking was 12-16:
And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."
It's fascinating to think about the rainbow and if you believe as it's stated above that God created it solely as a sign of His convenent between Noah and all his descendants (us). We know the science behind how a rainbow is created. Looking it up in Encarta it states:
"Rainbow, arch of light exhibiting the spectrum colors in their order, caused by drops of water falling through the air..."
But if you think about it, how does such an orderly image of primary colors and in such a shape form out of random drops in the sky? Why wasn't this natural phenomenon more like the aurora borealis with lights dancing in the sky? It's amazing to think about the order and design God put into His creations and what purpose each thing serves. As a Christian, I have to believe the rainbow has a specific purpose and it's astounding to think about the power and wisdom God has to create such things that most people take for granted as part of nature, and how they do not have the knowledge (me included until yesterday) that it was created with a specific purpose in mind. Science can only explain part of the story much of the time. There is a whole other part that God only knows.
Junto Boyz
Monday, February 28, 2005
|Friday, February 25, 2005
BECOME.COM... MYSIMON FOUNDERS LAUNCH A NEW SHOPPING SEARCH ENGINE
Michael Yang and Yeogirl Yun are at it again with a new shopping search engine, Become.com:
Become.com is a site that aggregates or scrapes a number of shopping-related Web sites to give online shoppers a more focused experience they wouldn't necessarily get by searching on Google , Yahoo , Ask Jeeves or other general-purpose search engines. (Ask Jeeves executives will be presenting on Wednesday at the Goldman Sachs technology conference.)
Much like comparison-shopping sites, such as Google's Froogle, CNet's MySimon and Shopping.com, Become.com generates listings of online retailers that sell certain items related to a query.
But Become.com also expands it searches to include articles related to a search query.
.....
Yun says that Become.com's search crawler is based on a new technology called AIR, or Affinity Index Ranking. "It's a next-generation-hypertext-link-analysis algorithm," Yun said. "The 'old' technology that is used by Google, and many other search engines, like Yahoo and MSN, is called PageRank." PageRank was named after Google co-founder Larry Page. Unlike PageRank, which considers incoming links, AIR, considers incoming and outgoing links, Yun explained. (full article)
MORE from SiliconBeat:
Become.com is one of the first search engines we’ve seen with a laser-like focus on (1) helping people comparison shop, while at the same time (2) using a clean search engine algorithm – free of paid placements, etc – to help people research products. In other words, Become.com is turning the tables on Google -- by doing what Google does for general search, but doing it only for shopping. And notably, it’s removing some of the “crud” that has crept into Google’s search results over the past year or two.
For now, Become is a search engine that's best suited for researching product reviews. But the site will eventually evolve into a full-fledged comparison shopping site, pulling in product feeds from vendors in much the same way as Shopping.com or other shopping sites.
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Michael Yang and Yeogirl Yun are at it again with a new shopping search engine, Become.com:
Become.com is a site that aggregates or scrapes a number of shopping-related Web sites to give online shoppers a more focused experience they wouldn't necessarily get by searching on Google , Yahoo , Ask Jeeves or other general-purpose search engines. (Ask Jeeves executives will be presenting on Wednesday at the Goldman Sachs technology conference.)
Much like comparison-shopping sites, such as Google's Froogle, CNet's MySimon and Shopping.com, Become.com generates listings of online retailers that sell certain items related to a query.
But Become.com also expands it searches to include articles related to a search query.
.....
Yun says that Become.com's search crawler is based on a new technology called AIR, or Affinity Index Ranking. "It's a next-generation-hypertext-link-analysis algorithm," Yun said. "The 'old' technology that is used by Google, and many other search engines, like Yahoo and MSN, is called PageRank." PageRank was named after Google co-founder Larry Page. Unlike PageRank, which considers incoming links, AIR, considers incoming and outgoing links, Yun explained. (full article)
MORE from SiliconBeat:
Become.com is one of the first search engines we’ve seen with a laser-like focus on (1) helping people comparison shop, while at the same time (2) using a clean search engine algorithm – free of paid placements, etc – to help people research products. In other words, Become.com is turning the tables on Google -- by doing what Google does for general search, but doing it only for shopping. And notably, it’s removing some of the “crud” that has crept into Google’s search results over the past year or two.
For now, Become is a search engine that's best suited for researching product reviews. But the site will eventually evolve into a full-fledged comparison shopping site, pulling in product feeds from vendors in much the same way as Shopping.com or other shopping sites.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
IRANIAN BLOGGER JAILED... ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOM
Not a surprise:
The Iranian government sentenced the prominent blogger Arash Cigarchi to 14 years in prison for expressing his opinions on the Internet and in the international press, marking a new low for freedom of expression in Iran, Human Rights Watch said today.
"The Iranian government is sending a message to its critics: keep silent or face years in prison," said Widney Brown, deputy program director of Human Rights Watch.
In the northern province of Gilan, the revolutionary court issued the sentence on Feb. 2. However, the court made its ruling public only on Feb. 22. Charges brought against Cigarchi include espionage, "aiding and abating hostile governments and opposition groups," endangering national security and insulting Iran's leaders. The court based its decision on a report by the intelligence ministry agents who arrested Cigarchi on Jan. 17.
Cigarchi's trial violated international standards for fair trials. It was held behind closed doors and in absence of his lawyer; it is not known if Cigarchi himself was even present. Since his arrest over a month ago, he has not been allowed to meet with his lawyer.
Cigarchi's lawyer, Mohammad Saifzadeh, told Human Rights Watch that his client's summons, arrest and the search and seizure of his personal documents were marked by numerous irregularities and illegal actions. Saifzadeh is planning to file a formal protest against the court's ruling.
"This outrageous sentence follows the sham trial of a person who should never have been arrested in the first place," said Brown.
Cigarchi's sentence comes on the heels of a systematic crackdown on freedom of speech in Iran. The Iranian authorities have targeted bloggers and internet journalists, arresting dozens in the past year. (full article)
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Not a surprise:
The Iranian government sentenced the prominent blogger Arash Cigarchi to 14 years in prison for expressing his opinions on the Internet and in the international press, marking a new low for freedom of expression in Iran, Human Rights Watch said today.
"The Iranian government is sending a message to its critics: keep silent or face years in prison," said Widney Brown, deputy program director of Human Rights Watch.
In the northern province of Gilan, the revolutionary court issued the sentence on Feb. 2. However, the court made its ruling public only on Feb. 22. Charges brought against Cigarchi include espionage, "aiding and abating hostile governments and opposition groups," endangering national security and insulting Iran's leaders. The court based its decision on a report by the intelligence ministry agents who arrested Cigarchi on Jan. 17.
Cigarchi's trial violated international standards for fair trials. It was held behind closed doors and in absence of his lawyer; it is not known if Cigarchi himself was even present. Since his arrest over a month ago, he has not been allowed to meet with his lawyer.
Cigarchi's lawyer, Mohammad Saifzadeh, told Human Rights Watch that his client's summons, arrest and the search and seizure of his personal documents were marked by numerous irregularities and illegal actions. Saifzadeh is planning to file a formal protest against the court's ruling.
"This outrageous sentence follows the sham trial of a person who should never have been arrested in the first place," said Brown.
Cigarchi's sentence comes on the heels of a systematic crackdown on freedom of speech in Iran. The Iranian authorities have targeted bloggers and internet journalists, arresting dozens in the past year. (full article)
GREAT ARTICLE FROM A GERMAN PAPER... COULD BUSH BE RIGHT?
Great article by Claus Christian Malzahn. I really believe history will prove George Bush and our current policy makers right:
Germany loves to criticize US President George W. Bush's Middle East policies -- just like Germany loved to criticize former President Ronald Reagan. But Reagan, when he demanded that Gorbachev remove the Berlin Wall, turned out to be right. Could history repeat itself?
Quick quiz. He was re-elected as president of the United States despite being largely disliked in the world -- particularly in Europe. The Europeans considered him to be a war-mongerer and liked to accuse him of allowing his deep religious beliefs to become the motor behind his foreign policy. Easy right?
Actually, the answer isn't as obvious as it might seem. President Ronald Reagan's visit to Berlin in 1987 was, in many respects, very similar to President George W. Bush's visit to Mainz on Wednesday. Like Bush's visit, Reagan's trip was likewise accompanied by unprecedented security precautions. A handpicked crowd cheered Reagan in front of the Brandenburg Gate while large parts of the Berlin subway system were shut down. And the Germany Reagan was traveling in, much like today's Germany, was very skeptical of the American president and his foreign policy. When Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate -- and the Berlin Wall -- and demanded that Gorbachev "tear down this Wall," he was lampooned the next day on the editorial pages. He is a dreamer, wrote commentators. Realpolitik looks different. (full article)
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Great article by Claus Christian Malzahn. I really believe history will prove George Bush and our current policy makers right:
Germany loves to criticize US President George W. Bush's Middle East policies -- just like Germany loved to criticize former President Ronald Reagan. But Reagan, when he demanded that Gorbachev remove the Berlin Wall, turned out to be right. Could history repeat itself?
Quick quiz. He was re-elected as president of the United States despite being largely disliked in the world -- particularly in Europe. The Europeans considered him to be a war-mongerer and liked to accuse him of allowing his deep religious beliefs to become the motor behind his foreign policy. Easy right?
Actually, the answer isn't as obvious as it might seem. President Ronald Reagan's visit to Berlin in 1987 was, in many respects, very similar to President George W. Bush's visit to Mainz on Wednesday. Like Bush's visit, Reagan's trip was likewise accompanied by unprecedented security precautions. A handpicked crowd cheered Reagan in front of the Brandenburg Gate while large parts of the Berlin subway system were shut down. And the Germany Reagan was traveling in, much like today's Germany, was very skeptical of the American president and his foreign policy. When Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate -- and the Berlin Wall -- and demanded that Gorbachev "tear down this Wall," he was lampooned the next day on the editorial pages. He is a dreamer, wrote commentators. Realpolitik looks different. (full article)
NOT GOOD NEWS ABOUT OUR ENVIRONMENT... ROCKET-FUEL CHEMICAL FOUND IN BREAST MILK
Definitely a concern about our environment when you read something like this:
Rocket-Fuel Chemical Found in Breast Milk
Scientists on Tuesday reported that perchlorate, a toxic component of rocket fuel, was contaminating virtually all samples of women's breast milk and its levels were found to be, on average, five times greater than in cow's milk.
The contaminant, which originates mostly at defense industry plants, previously had been detected in various food and water supplies around the country. But the study by Texas Tech University's Institute of Environmental and Human Health was the first to investigate breast milk.
The findings concern health experts because infants and fetuses are the most vulnerable to the thyroid-impairing effects of the chemical.
Breast milk from 36 women in 18 states, including California, was sampled, and all contained traces of perchlorate.
Perchlorate blocks the nutrient iodide and inhibits thyroid hormones, which are necessary for brain development and cellular growth of a fetus or infant. A baby with impaired thyroid development may have neurological defects that result in lower IQ or learning disabilities. (full article)
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Definitely a concern about our environment when you read something like this:
Rocket-Fuel Chemical Found in Breast Milk
Scientists on Tuesday reported that perchlorate, a toxic component of rocket fuel, was contaminating virtually all samples of women's breast milk and its levels were found to be, on average, five times greater than in cow's milk.
The contaminant, which originates mostly at defense industry plants, previously had been detected in various food and water supplies around the country. But the study by Texas Tech University's Institute of Environmental and Human Health was the first to investigate breast milk.
The findings concern health experts because infants and fetuses are the most vulnerable to the thyroid-impairing effects of the chemical.
Breast milk from 36 women in 18 states, including California, was sampled, and all contained traces of perchlorate.
Perchlorate blocks the nutrient iodide and inhibits thyroid hormones, which are necessary for brain development and cellular growth of a fetus or infant. A baby with impaired thyroid development may have neurological defects that result in lower IQ or learning disabilities. (full article)
THIS WEEK'S COLUMN AT ALWAYSON... LOST IN TRANSLATION?
I wish I could have talked with some more people in the industry or on the research side of machine translation, but I couldn't get it coordinated with my deadline for the article. Hopefully some knowledgeable readers will add to the content... the beauty of blogs. This is going up tomorrow:
The Blogosphere: Lost in Translation?
It could be if translation technology can't keep pace with the instantaneous, spontaneous nature of communications on blogs and social networks.
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I wish I could have talked with some more people in the industry or on the research side of machine translation, but I couldn't get it coordinated with my deadline for the article. Hopefully some knowledgeable readers will add to the content... the beauty of blogs. This is going up tomorrow:
The Blogosphere: Lost in Translation?
It could be if translation technology can't keep pace with the instantaneous, spontaneous nature of communications on blogs and social networks.
DEATH OF PRINT?
Good article in The Washington Post about the state of the newspaper industry:
The venerable newspaper is in trouble. Under sustained assault from cable television, the Internet, all-news radio and lifestyles so cram-packed they leave little time for the daily paper, the industry is struggling to remake itself.
Papers are conducting exhaustive surveys to find out what readers want. They are launching new sections, beefing up Web sites and spinning off free community papers and commuter giveaways in hopes of widening their audience. They even are trying to change the very language of the industry, asking advertisers and investors to dwell less on "circulation" -- how many papers are sold -- and more on "readership," or the number of people exposed to a paper's journalism wherever it appears, in print, on the Web or over the air.
.....
Frank A. Blethen, publisher of the Seattle Times, said his industry has some breathing room left. But not much.
"The baby boomers are going to continue to drive print [sales] for some time," he said. "The problem we have are the . . . 18- to 35-year-olds. They're not replacing the baby boomers."
Others are more blunt, if hyperbolic.
"Print is dead," Sports Illustrated President John Squires told a room full of newspaper and magazine circulation executives at a conference in Toronto in November. His advice? "Get over it," meaning publishers should stop trying to save their ink-on-paper product and focus on electronic delivery of their journalism. (full article)
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Good article in The Washington Post about the state of the newspaper industry:
The venerable newspaper is in trouble. Under sustained assault from cable television, the Internet, all-news radio and lifestyles so cram-packed they leave little time for the daily paper, the industry is struggling to remake itself.
Papers are conducting exhaustive surveys to find out what readers want. They are launching new sections, beefing up Web sites and spinning off free community papers and commuter giveaways in hopes of widening their audience. They even are trying to change the very language of the industry, asking advertisers and investors to dwell less on "circulation" -- how many papers are sold -- and more on "readership," or the number of people exposed to a paper's journalism wherever it appears, in print, on the Web or over the air.
.....
Frank A. Blethen, publisher of the Seattle Times, said his industry has some breathing room left. But not much.
"The baby boomers are going to continue to drive print [sales] for some time," he said. "The problem we have are the . . . 18- to 35-year-olds. They're not replacing the baby boomers."
Others are more blunt, if hyperbolic.
"Print is dead," Sports Illustrated President John Squires told a room full of newspaper and magazine circulation executives at a conference in Toronto in November. His advice? "Get over it," meaning publishers should stop trying to save their ink-on-paper product and focus on electronic delivery of their journalism. (full article)
GOOGLE COPYING MICROSOFT... BUT CAN THEY GET AWAY WITH IT?
Older but important article. Microsoft got some backlash a while back when they tried to do the same thing that Google is doing now:
Google toolbar move raises online ire
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 18, 2005
Google's browser toolbar is raising eyebrows over a feature that inserts new hyperlinks in Web pages, giving the Internet search provider a powerful tool to funnel traffic to destinations of its choice.
When Web surfers install the toolbar in their Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser and click the AutoLink button, Web pages with street addresses suddenly sprout links to Google's map service by default. Book publishers' ISBN numbers trigger links to Amazon.com, potentially luring shoppers away from competing book sellers such as BarnesandNoble.com. Vehicle ID licenses spawn links to Carfax.com, while package tracking numbers connect automatically to shippers' Web sites.
"Google shouldn't get away with what Microsoft was unable to." --Steve Rubel, blogger, Micropersuasion
Google, the world's most widely used search engine, denied that the AutoLink feature is an attempt to control which destinations Web surfers visit. People can already choose between several map services, including Yahoo and MapQuest, and choices for book retailers may be added in the future, a company representative said on Friday. (full article)
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Older but important article. Microsoft got some backlash a while back when they tried to do the same thing that Google is doing now:
Google toolbar move raises online ire
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 18, 2005
Google's browser toolbar is raising eyebrows over a feature that inserts new hyperlinks in Web pages, giving the Internet search provider a powerful tool to funnel traffic to destinations of its choice.
When Web surfers install the toolbar in their Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser and click the AutoLink button, Web pages with street addresses suddenly sprout links to Google's map service by default. Book publishers' ISBN numbers trigger links to Amazon.com, potentially luring shoppers away from competing book sellers such as BarnesandNoble.com. Vehicle ID licenses spawn links to Carfax.com, while package tracking numbers connect automatically to shippers' Web sites.
"Google shouldn't get away with what Microsoft was unable to." --Steve Rubel, blogger, Micropersuasion
Google, the world's most widely used search engine, denied that the AutoLink feature is an attempt to control which destinations Web surfers visit. People can already choose between several map services, including Yahoo and MapQuest, and choices for book retailers may be added in the future, a company representative said on Friday. (full article)
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
GMAIL MAINLY TAKING FROM HOTMAIL'S USER BASE
HatTip to Brad Feld. Interesting info on user migration to Google's Gmail:
- 57% from Hotmail
- 27% from Yahoo
- 16% from AOL, MSN, and Comcast
As I wrote in my column at AlwaysOn, Microsoft should integrate their Inner Circle application from their research group with additonal Gmail-like functionality and relaunch Hotmail to take back their users.
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HatTip to Brad Feld. Interesting info on user migration to Google's Gmail:
- 57% from Hotmail
- 27% from Yahoo
- 16% from AOL, MSN, and Comcast
As I wrote in my column at AlwaysOn, Microsoft should integrate their Inner Circle application from their research group with additonal Gmail-like functionality and relaunch Hotmail to take back their users.
JON STEWART'S DAILY SHOW ON BLOGGERS
I'm a little late on posting this since it's on some other blogs and from his February 16, 2005 show. If you haven't checked it out, it's pretty funny.
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I'm a little late on posting this since it's on some other blogs and from his February 16, 2005 show. If you haven't checked it out, it's pretty funny.
OVERCOOKED BLOG & RSS MARKET... TOO MANY STARTUPS IN THE POT
Brad Feld, a partner at Mobius Venture Capital (investor in HeyAnita, whose Korean entity I helped establish), has a great post on the soon-to-be overfunded blog and RSS startup space:
As I was reading through his posts on each company, I had a strong feeling that the RSS / Blog universe has entered the “me too zone.” It started when I read about Five Across (a Six Apart clone, but better – please change the name), saw the aggregator congestion (Onfolio, Pluck), and more blog / audio / video / photo tools (Serious Magic, Imeem, WhatCounts, Photoleap, iUpload).
Every emerging market hits a point where there is a mad rush of early stage entrepreneurs and VC’s piling in. In some cases, it drives rapid innovation; in most it creates near term over-saturation, lots of irrational financings, and plenty of carnage as the laws of Darwin play out over the next couple of years.
I’m afraid we just hit that point with RSS / Blogging. The meme has spread broadly - which is great. Now we’ll watch all gods children pile in to try to get something up and running in this “space” (more on the fallacy of “space” in an upcoming blog). Again – nothing wrong with this - it’s the natural dynamic of an early emerging market, but anyone that is experienced (and still has their long term memory intact) knows how it plays out for so many companies, entrepreneurs, and investors.
Clayton Christensen discusses this phenomenon in detail in his classic book The Innovator's Dilemma – and reaches back to the example of the hard drive industry from 1976 to 1995. In 1976, there were 17 firms in the hard drive industry. Between 1976 and 1995 there were 129 new entrants to this industry. By 1995, of the 17 firms in the industry only one – IBM’s hard drive operation – still existed as a stand alone business. Of the 129 new entrants, 109 had failed. Christensen developed his “technology mudslide hypothesis” from this – “coping with the relentless onslaught of technology change was akin to trying to climb a mudslide raging down a hill. You have to scramble with everything you’ve got to stay on top of it, and if you ever once stop to catch your breath, you get buried.”
Sound / feel familiar? Christensen then studied a lot more data and concluded his “technology mudslide hypothesis” was wrong. He concluded that neither pace nor the difficulty of technological change lay at the root of the leading firm’s failures. This led to Christensen’s theories on sustaining vs. disruptive technologies – where the real meat of the discussion is (and I’ll encourage you to read the book for more – it’s worth it – even if you learn better from conferences then from reading books).
While Christensen addresses what happens in the early stage of a disruptive market, I can boil it down into my own simple phrase – “the me too zone.” It’s as if the whole world wakes up one day and starts working on the same types of things. Lots of innovation continues at the core – and the first movers either aggressively extend their lead or completely fuck up somewhere and self-destruct – but in either case a huge number of “fast followers” (or “me too”) companies appear. VCs suddenly get religion and the funding piles into the sector. Suddenly everyone is talking about the “hot new “X” space”.
The cliche “watching a car wreck in slow motion” comes to mind. It’s definitely fun in a sick sort of way. Welcome to the me too zone – I believe we just entered it for the RSS / blog world. There is a huge adoption (and innovation) curve ahead of everyone who is doing stuff with RSS / blogging – and there are plenty of good investments left to make and companies to create – but the noise and clutter is about to get really loud. (full post)
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Brad Feld, a partner at Mobius Venture Capital (investor in HeyAnita, whose Korean entity I helped establish), has a great post on the soon-to-be overfunded blog and RSS startup space:
As I was reading through his posts on each company, I had a strong feeling that the RSS / Blog universe has entered the “me too zone.” It started when I read about Five Across (a Six Apart clone, but better – please change the name
Every emerging market hits a point where there is a mad rush of early stage entrepreneurs and VC’s piling in. In some cases, it drives rapid innovation; in most it creates near term over-saturation, lots of irrational financings, and plenty of carnage as the laws of Darwin play out over the next couple of years.
I’m afraid we just hit that point with RSS / Blogging. The meme has spread broadly - which is great. Now we’ll watch all gods children pile in to try to get something up and running in this “space” (more on the fallacy of “space” in an upcoming blog). Again – nothing wrong with this - it’s the natural dynamic of an early emerging market, but anyone that is experienced (and still has their long term memory intact) knows how it plays out for so many companies, entrepreneurs, and investors.
Clayton Christensen discusses this phenomenon in detail in his classic book The Innovator's Dilemma – and reaches back to the example of the hard drive industry from 1976 to 1995. In 1976, there were 17 firms in the hard drive industry. Between 1976 and 1995 there were 129 new entrants to this industry. By 1995, of the 17 firms in the industry only one – IBM’s hard drive operation – still existed as a stand alone business. Of the 129 new entrants, 109 had failed. Christensen developed his “technology mudslide hypothesis” from this – “coping with the relentless onslaught of technology change was akin to trying to climb a mudslide raging down a hill. You have to scramble with everything you’ve got to stay on top of it, and if you ever once stop to catch your breath, you get buried.”
Sound / feel familiar? Christensen then studied a lot more data and concluded his “technology mudslide hypothesis” was wrong. He concluded that neither pace nor the difficulty of technological change lay at the root of the leading firm’s failures. This led to Christensen’s theories on sustaining vs. disruptive technologies – where the real meat of the discussion is (and I’ll encourage you to read the book for more – it’s worth it – even if you learn better from conferences then from reading books).
While Christensen addresses what happens in the early stage of a disruptive market, I can boil it down into my own simple phrase – “the me too zone.” It’s as if the whole world wakes up one day and starts working on the same types of things. Lots of innovation continues at the core – and the first movers either aggressively extend their lead or completely fuck up somewhere and self-destruct – but in either case a huge number of “fast followers” (or “me too”) companies appear. VCs suddenly get religion and the funding piles into the sector. Suddenly everyone is talking about the “hot new “X” space”.
The cliche “watching a car wreck in slow motion” comes to mind. It’s definitely fun in a sick sort of way. Welcome to the me too zone – I believe we just entered it for the RSS / blog world. There is a huge adoption (and innovation) curve ahead of everyone who is doing stuff with RSS / blogging – and there are plenty of good investments left to make and companies to create – but the noise and clutter is about to get really loud. (full post)
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
JAY ROSEN ON THE NY TIMES AND ABOUT.COM DEAL
Jay Rosen at PressThink has some more info and good thoughts on the recent New York Times acquisition of About.com:
... You rarely find New York Times articles in the top ten results of any Google search. The reason is simple: Search works by counting the quantity and quality of links to a page. In most cases, links to the New York Times expire after a week, the url's (web addresses) change, and the content moves behind a pay wall. Bye-bye Google. Bye-bye Google AdSense.
The second life of content, made possible by search, is of critical importance to journalists whose work is on the Web. (That's almost all journalists.) The very phrase "on" the Web tells us that things may land on the surface of the network and not get woven into it. These stand a very poor chance of surviving and having a second life, where there are probably more readers available than in the first.
A PressThink reader, Jakob Nielsen, is a PhD, an engineer, and a student of Web usability; he writes a column on the Web. "Most columns get about 200,000 readers," he observes. "Of these, about 40,000 readers see the column while it's new and featured on the useit.com homepage. In other words, most articles get 80% of their total readership after they're archived." This, he points out, is "a compelling argument for maintaining content archives." (Here's a BBC report about Nielsen.)
In "The Importance of Being Permanent," a previous piece at PressThink, Simon Waldman, head of The Guardian online, wrote: "Web permanence is, I'd argue, one of the main things that journalists can learn from the more successful bloggers. The whole concept of the permalink allows blog posts to become part of the Web in the way that very few traditional media owners stories do. This is why they get linked to and why they often come to the top of search results." (full post)
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Jay Rosen at PressThink has some more info and good thoughts on the recent New York Times acquisition of About.com:
... You rarely find New York Times articles in the top ten results of any Google search. The reason is simple: Search works by counting the quantity and quality of links to a page. In most cases, links to the New York Times expire after a week, the url's (web addresses) change, and the content moves behind a pay wall. Bye-bye Google. Bye-bye Google AdSense.
The second life of content, made possible by search, is of critical importance to journalists whose work is on the Web. (That's almost all journalists.) The very phrase "on" the Web tells us that things may land on the surface of the network and not get woven into it. These stand a very poor chance of surviving and having a second life, where there are probably more readers available than in the first.
A PressThink reader, Jakob Nielsen, is a PhD, an engineer, and a student of Web usability; he writes a column on the Web. "Most columns get about 200,000 readers," he observes. "Of these, about 40,000 readers see the column while it's new and featured on the useit.com homepage. In other words, most articles get 80% of their total readership after they're archived." This, he points out, is "a compelling argument for maintaining content archives." (Here's a BBC report about Nielsen.)
In "The Importance of Being Permanent," a previous piece at PressThink, Simon Waldman, head of The Guardian online, wrote: "Web permanence is, I'd argue, one of the main things that journalists can learn from the more successful bloggers. The whole concept of the permalink allows blog posts to become part of the Web in the way that very few traditional media owners stories do. This is why they get linked to and why they often come to the top of search results." (full post)
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Got in from Chicago today. Tired from the long weekend and travel. Anyway, here is a good submission by Capt. James Key to USA Today, "She paved the path":
Workshops, lectures and speeches this month have told the stories of influential African-Americans: how Garrett Morgan invented the first automatic traffic signal and the gas mask; how the Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 1,500 missions during World War II and earned 95 Distinguished Flying Crosses; how Malcolm X instilled pride and dignity into the souls of black folk; how Martin Luther King Jr. fought against racial segregation in the South; and how Rosa Parks stood for justice by refusing to give up her seat to a white male citizen of Montgomery, Ala.
No doubt, these individuals and others are remarkable people, and their stories must be told in our history books. However, thousands of unknown African-American heroes deserve recognition, too. I am talking about the unknown faces that helped many successful African-Americans achieve greatness. (full article)
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Got in from Chicago today. Tired from the long weekend and travel. Anyway, here is a good submission by Capt. James Key to USA Today, "She paved the path":
Workshops, lectures and speeches this month have told the stories of influential African-Americans: how Garrett Morgan invented the first automatic traffic signal and the gas mask; how the Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 1,500 missions during World War II and earned 95 Distinguished Flying Crosses; how Malcolm X instilled pride and dignity into the souls of black folk; how Martin Luther King Jr. fought against racial segregation in the South; and how Rosa Parks stood for justice by refusing to give up her seat to a white male citizen of Montgomery, Ala.
No doubt, these individuals and others are remarkable people, and their stories must be told in our history books. However, thousands of unknown African-American heroes deserve recognition, too. I am talking about the unknown faces that helped many successful African-Americans achieve greatness. (full article)
Friday, February 18, 2005
NY TIMES BUYS ABOUT.COM FOR $410 MILLION
Providing a link outside of the NY Times since they have that annoying login process:
"Reuters has the story that the New York Times Co. is set to purchase About.com for $410M from Primedia, Inc. The high purchase price is due to increased ad revenue, up 30% from last year." From the article: "Phillips pointed out that Internet companies have started trading again at significantly higher multiples, and said The Times Co. would be able to use ad revenue from About.com to make up for the flagging classified ad sales that have plagued the industry."
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Providing a link outside of the NY Times since they have that annoying login process:
"Reuters has the story that the New York Times Co. is set to purchase About.com for $410M from Primedia, Inc. The high purchase price is due to increased ad revenue, up 30% from last year." From the article: "Phillips pointed out that Internet companies have started trading again at significantly higher multiples, and said The Times Co. would be able to use ad revenue from About.com to make up for the flagging classified ad sales that have plagued the industry."
OH THE FRENCH!... OUTCRY AGAINST GOOGLE'S WORLD DOMINANCE
Yes, France, Google is actually a puppet organization for the NSA (and the Bush family) and its true purpose is to proliferate the English language and American culture further into your backyard. Soon your children will only consider French as a "necessary" language to get by in your country while English will be their preferred language for speaking, Skypeing, reading (i.e. Marvel Comics, DC Comics), and of course Googling:
Google Online Book Plan Sparks French War of Words
Reuters.com
by Timothy Heritage
February 18, 2005
France's national library has raised a "war cry" over plans by Google to put books from some of the world's great libraries on the Internet and wants to ensure the project does not lead a domination of American ideas.
Jean-Noel Jeanneney, who heads France's national library and is a noted historian, says Google's choice of works is likely to favor Anglo-Saxon ideas and the English language.
He wants the European Union to balance this with its own program and its own Internet search engines.
"It is not a question of despising Anglo-Saxon views ... It is just that in the simple act of making a choice, you impose a certain view of things," Jeanneney told Reuters in a telephone interview Friday.
"I favor a multi-polar view of the world in the 21st century," he said. "I don't want the French Revolution retold just by books chosen by the United States. The picture presented may not be less good or less bad, but it will not be ours."
Jeanneney says he is not anti-American, and that he wants better relations between Europe and the United States. But like French President Jacques Chirac, he says he wants a multi-polar world in which U.S. views are not the only ones that are heard.
His views are making waves among intellectuals in France, where many people are wary of the impact of American ways and ideas on the French language and culture. (full article)
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Yes, France, Google is actually a puppet organization for the NSA (and the Bush family) and its true purpose is to proliferate the English language and American culture further into your backyard. Soon your children will only consider French as a "necessary" language to get by in your country while English will be their preferred language for speaking, Skypeing, reading (i.e. Marvel Comics, DC Comics), and of course Googling:
Google Online Book Plan Sparks French War of Words
Reuters.com
by Timothy Heritage
February 18, 2005
France's national library has raised a "war cry" over plans by Google to put books from some of the world's great libraries on the Internet and wants to ensure the project does not lead a domination of American ideas.
Jean-Noel Jeanneney, who heads France's national library and is a noted historian, says Google's choice of works is likely to favor Anglo-Saxon ideas and the English language.
He wants the European Union to balance this with its own program and its own Internet search engines.
"It is not a question of despising Anglo-Saxon views ... It is just that in the simple act of making a choice, you impose a certain view of things," Jeanneney told Reuters in a telephone interview Friday.
"I favor a multi-polar view of the world in the 21st century," he said. "I don't want the French Revolution retold just by books chosen by the United States. The picture presented may not be less good or less bad, but it will not be ours."
Jeanneney says he is not anti-American, and that he wants better relations between Europe and the United States. But like French President Jacques Chirac, he says he wants a multi-polar world in which U.S. views are not the only ones that are heard.
His views are making waves among intellectuals in France, where many people are wary of the impact of American ways and ideas on the French language and culture. (full article)
Thursday, February 17, 2005
THINKEQUITY LAUNCHES BLOG
ThinkEquity Partners, a boutique investment bank and partners with AlwaysOn, launched a blog a couple weeks ago and got some press today in the NY Times. Tony Perkins, founder of AlwaysOn and my new boss (new startup which I'll tell you about down the road), gets some ink too.
The co-founder, Chairman and CEO of ThinkEquity Partners, Michael Moe, writes a weekly column along with his colleague, Mat Johnshon, at AlwaysOn. Whoever manages their blog was also gracious enough to add me to their blogroll. I'm on a fair amount of other blogrolls, but I mention this since they listed me as a "TrendWatcher" grouped with sites such as Gartner, Walt Mossberg's blog, Release 4.0 (Esther Dyson's blog, and Howard Rheingold. I look at the list and I didn't fit in (one of these things doesn't belong here...). I am not at the level of those people or organization yet to be called a "trendwatcher," but appreciate the listing. Sort puts pressure on me to write more posts of substance and meat, which I mentioned a couple weeks back, and since Christine complains that I should put more of my thoughs on "paper" and fill this blog with my writing instead of mainly links to other stuff I come across. I want to, but time is always the issue.
ThinkEquity Starts Web Log to Gather Ideas
By JENNY ANDERSON
LOGGING transformed political commentary, rattled the media business and inundated the Internet. Does it have a place on Wall Street? ThinkEquity Partners, a boutique investment bank in San Francisco, will find out as it introduces a Web log today. The firm, which specializes in technology, health care and other fast-growing fields, is seeking to make its investment research department - an albatross at most Wall Street firms - relevant.
ThinkEquity is betting that the blog will attract analysts, bankers, investors, venture capitalists and anyone else interested in talking about growth investing, and in the process, help the company generate ideas. The firm's research is available to all and, once registered, anyone can post feedback on the site. The blog can be found at www.thinkequity.com/blog.
ThinkEquity's co-founder, Michael T. Moe, who is the former director of global growth stock research at Merrill Lynch, compared the idea to the Zagat Survey of restaurants.
"There are all sorts of information sources about where a restaurant is located and what the cuisine is, but that's just information," he said. "What makes Zagat's powerful is you have 100,000 people contributing. Their insight is amazing, frightening and impressive."
Mr. Moe said he did not see an immediate way to make money from the blog, but viewed it as a way to generate ideas - the lifeblood of research and investment banking.
"Our mission is to identify and partner with the stars of tomorrow, today," he said. He said he got the idea from Tony Perkins, a founder and former editor of Red Herring magazine who has started AlwaysOn, which is using blogs to discuss business and technology issues.
The blog format can transform research from a document into a discussion. "There can be more insight into decision making," said Anil Dash, a vice president at Six Apart, the company that makes the software ThinkEquity is using for its blog. "They can participate in the conversation." (full article/sign-in needed)
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ThinkEquity Partners, a boutique investment bank and partners with AlwaysOn, launched a blog a couple weeks ago and got some press today in the NY Times. Tony Perkins, founder of AlwaysOn and my new boss (new startup which I'll tell you about down the road), gets some ink too.
The co-founder, Chairman and CEO of ThinkEquity Partners, Michael Moe, writes a weekly column along with his colleague, Mat Johnshon, at AlwaysOn. Whoever manages their blog was also gracious enough to add me to their blogroll. I'm on a fair amount of other blogrolls, but I mention this since they listed me as a "TrendWatcher" grouped with sites such as Gartner, Walt Mossberg's blog, Release 4.0 (Esther Dyson's blog, and Howard Rheingold. I look at the list and I didn't fit in (one of these things doesn't belong here...). I am not at the level of those people or organization yet to be called a "trendwatcher," but appreciate the listing. Sort puts pressure on me to write more posts of substance and meat, which I mentioned a couple weeks back, and since Christine complains that I should put more of my thoughs on "paper" and fill this blog with my writing instead of mainly links to other stuff I come across. I want to, but time is always the issue.
ThinkEquity Starts Web Log to Gather Ideas
By JENNY ANDERSON
LOGGING transformed political commentary, rattled the media business and inundated the Internet. Does it have a place on Wall Street? ThinkEquity Partners, a boutique investment bank in San Francisco, will find out as it introduces a Web log today. The firm, which specializes in technology, health care and other fast-growing fields, is seeking to make its investment research department - an albatross at most Wall Street firms - relevant.
ThinkEquity is betting that the blog will attract analysts, bankers, investors, venture capitalists and anyone else interested in talking about growth investing, and in the process, help the company generate ideas. The firm's research is available to all and, once registered, anyone can post feedback on the site. The blog can be found at www.thinkequity.com/blog.
ThinkEquity's co-founder, Michael T. Moe, who is the former director of global growth stock research at Merrill Lynch, compared the idea to the Zagat Survey of restaurants.
"There are all sorts of information sources about where a restaurant is located and what the cuisine is, but that's just information," he said. "What makes Zagat's powerful is you have 100,000 people contributing. Their insight is amazing, frightening and impressive."
Mr. Moe said he did not see an immediate way to make money from the blog, but viewed it as a way to generate ideas - the lifeblood of research and investment banking.
"Our mission is to identify and partner with the stars of tomorrow, today," he said. He said he got the idea from Tony Perkins, a founder and former editor of Red Herring magazine who has started AlwaysOn, which is using blogs to discuss business and technology issues.
The blog format can transform research from a document into a discussion. "There can be more insight into decision making," said Anil Dash, a vice president at Six Apart, the company that makes the software ThinkEquity is using for its blog. "They can participate in the conversation." (full article/sign-in needed)
"THE BLOGS MUST BE CRAZY"
Great column by Peggy Noonan on the blogosphere and bloggers. It didn't have a direct link yet (only links to her main column page), so I decided to post most of it until a new link is established. Anyway, read it:
The Blogs Must Be Crazy
Or maybe the MSM is just suffering from freedom envy.
The Wall Street Journal
Thursday, February 17, 2005
"Salivating morons." "Scalp hunters." "Moon howlers." "Trophy hunters." "Sons of Sen. McCarthy." "Rabid." "Blogswarm." "These pseudo-journalist lynch mob people."
This is excellent invective. It must come from bloggers. But wait, it was the mainstream media and their maidservants in the elite journalism reviews, and they were talking about bloggers!
Those MSMers have gone wild, I tell you! The tendentious language, the low insults. It's the Wild Wild West out there. We may have to consider legislation.
When you hear name-calling like what we've been hearing from the elite media this week, you know someone must be doing something right. The hysterical edge makes you wonder if writers for newspapers and magazines and professors in J-schools don't have a serious case of freedom envy.
The bloggers have that freedom. They have the still pent-up energy of a liberated citizenry, too. The MSM doesn't. It has lost its old monopoly on information. It is angry.
But MSM criticism of the blogosphere misses the point, or rather points.
Blogging changes how business is done in American journalism. The MSM isn't over. It just can no longer pose as if it is The Guardian of Established Truth. The MSM is just another player now. A big one, but a player.
The blogosphere isn't some mindless eruption of wild opinion. That isn't their power. This is their power:
1. They use the tools of journalists (computer, keyboard, a spirit of inquiry, a willingness to ask the question) and of the Internet (Google, LexisNexis) to look for and find facts that have been overlooked, ignored or hidden. They look for the telling quote, the ignored statistic, the data that have been submerged. What they are looking for is information that is true. When they get it they post it and include it in the debate. This is a public service.
2. Bloggers, unlike reporters at elite newspapers and magazines, are independent operators. They are not, and do not have to be, governed by mainstream thinking. Nor do they have to accept the directives of an editor pushing an ideology or a publisher protecting his friends. Bloggers have the freedom to decide on their own when a story stops being a story. They get to decide when the search for facts is over. They also decide on their own when the search for facts begins. It was a blogger at the World Economic Forum, as we all know, who first reported the Eason Jordan story. It was bloggers, as we all know, who pursued it. Matt Drudge runs a news site and is not a blogger, but what was true of him at his beginning (the Monica Lewinsky story, he decided, is a story) is true of bloggers: It's a story if they say it is. This is a public service.
3. Bloggers have an institutional advantage in terms of technology and form. They can post immediately. The items they post can be as long or short as they judge to be necessary. Breaking news can be one sentence long: "Malkin gets Barney Frank earwitness report." In newspapers you have to go to the editor, explain to him why the paper should have another piece on the Eason Jordan affair, spend a day reporting it, only to find that all that's new today is that reporter Michelle Malkin got an interview with Barney Frank. That's not enough to merit 10 inches of newspaper space, so the Times doesn't carry what the blogosphere had 24 hours ago. In the old days a lot of interesting information fell off the editing desk in this way. Now it doesn't. This is a public service.
4. Bloggers are also selling the smartest take on a story. They're selling an original insight, a new area of inquiry. Mickey Kaus of Kausfiles has his bright take, Andrew Sullivan had his, InstaPundit has his. They're all selling their shrewdness, experience, depth. This too is a public service.
5. And they're doing it free. That is, the Times costs me a dollar and so does the Journal, but Kausfiles doesn't cost a dime. This too is a public service. Some blogs get their money from yearly fund-raising, some from advertisers, some from a combination, some from a salary provided by Slate or National Review. Most are labors of love. Some bloggers--a lot, I think--are addicted to digging, posting, coming up with the bright phrase. OK with me. Some get burned out. But new ones are always coming up, so many that I can't keep track of them and neither can anyone else.
But when I read blogs, when I wake up in the morning and go to About Last Night and Lucianne and Lileks, I remember what the late great Christopher Reeve said on "The Tonight Show" 20 years ago. He was the second guest, after Rodney Dangerfield. Dangerfield did his act and he was hot as a pistol. Then after Reeve sat down Dangerfield continued to be riotous. Reeve looked at him, gestured toward him, looked at the audience and said with grace and delight, "Do you believe this is free?" The audience cheered. That's how I feel on their best days when I read blogs.
That you get it free doesn't mean commerce isn't involved, for it is. It is intellectual commerce. Bloggers give you information and point of view. In return you give them your attention and intellectual energy. They gain influence by drawing your eyes; you gain information by lending your eyes. They become well-known and influential; you become entertained or informed. They get something from it and so do you.
6. It is not true that there are no controls. It is not true that the blogosphere is the Wild West. What governs members of the blogosphere is what governs to some degree members of the MSM, and that is the desire for status and respect. In the blogosphere you lose both if you put forward as fact information that is incorrect, specious or cooked. You lose status and respect if your take on a story that is patently stupid. You lose status and respect if you are unprofessional or deliberately misleading. And once you've lost a sufficient amount of status and respect, none of the other bloggers link to you anymore or raise your name in their arguments. And you're over. The great correcting mechanism for people on the Web is people on the Web.
There are blogs that carry political and ideological agendas. But everyone is on to them and it's mostly not obnoxious because their agendas are mostly declared.
7. I don't know if the blogosphere is rougher in the ferocity of its personal attacks than, say, Drew Pearson. Or the rough boys and girls of the great American editorial pages of the 1930s and '40s. Bloggers are certainly not as rough as the splenetic pamphleteers of the 18th and 19th centuries, who amused themselves accusing Thomas Jefferson of sexual perfidy and Andrew Jackson of having married a whore. I don't know how Walter Lippmann or Scotty Reston would have seen the blogosphere; it might have frightened them if they'd lived to see it. They might have been impressed by the sheer digging that goes on there. I have seen friends savaged by blogs and winced for them--but, well, too bad. I've been attacked. Too bad. If you can't take it, you shouldn't be thinking aloud for a living. The blogosphere is tough. But are personal attacks worth it if what we get in return is a whole new media form that can add to the true-information flow while correcting the biases and lapses of the mainstream media? Yes. Of course.
I conclude with a few predictions. (full article)
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Great column by Peggy Noonan on the blogosphere and bloggers. It didn't have a direct link yet (only links to her main column page), so I decided to post most of it until a new link is established. Anyway, read it:
The Blogs Must Be Crazy
Or maybe the MSM is just suffering from freedom envy.
The Wall Street Journal
Thursday, February 17, 2005
"Salivating morons." "Scalp hunters." "Moon howlers." "Trophy hunters." "Sons of Sen. McCarthy." "Rabid." "Blogswarm." "These pseudo-journalist lynch mob people."
This is excellent invective. It must come from bloggers. But wait, it was the mainstream media and their maidservants in the elite journalism reviews, and they were talking about bloggers!
Those MSMers have gone wild, I tell you! The tendentious language, the low insults. It's the Wild Wild West out there. We may have to consider legislation.
When you hear name-calling like what we've been hearing from the elite media this week, you know someone must be doing something right. The hysterical edge makes you wonder if writers for newspapers and magazines and professors in J-schools don't have a serious case of freedom envy.
The bloggers have that freedom. They have the still pent-up energy of a liberated citizenry, too. The MSM doesn't. It has lost its old monopoly on information. It is angry.
But MSM criticism of the blogosphere misses the point, or rather points.
Blogging changes how business is done in American journalism. The MSM isn't over. It just can no longer pose as if it is The Guardian of Established Truth. The MSM is just another player now. A big one, but a player.
The blogosphere isn't some mindless eruption of wild opinion. That isn't their power. This is their power:
1. They use the tools of journalists (computer, keyboard, a spirit of inquiry, a willingness to ask the question) and of the Internet (Google, LexisNexis) to look for and find facts that have been overlooked, ignored or hidden. They look for the telling quote, the ignored statistic, the data that have been submerged. What they are looking for is information that is true. When they get it they post it and include it in the debate. This is a public service.
2. Bloggers, unlike reporters at elite newspapers and magazines, are independent operators. They are not, and do not have to be, governed by mainstream thinking. Nor do they have to accept the directives of an editor pushing an ideology or a publisher protecting his friends. Bloggers have the freedom to decide on their own when a story stops being a story. They get to decide when the search for facts is over. They also decide on their own when the search for facts begins. It was a blogger at the World Economic Forum, as we all know, who first reported the Eason Jordan story. It was bloggers, as we all know, who pursued it. Matt Drudge runs a news site and is not a blogger, but what was true of him at his beginning (the Monica Lewinsky story, he decided, is a story) is true of bloggers: It's a story if they say it is. This is a public service.
3. Bloggers have an institutional advantage in terms of technology and form. They can post immediately. The items they post can be as long or short as they judge to be necessary. Breaking news can be one sentence long: "Malkin gets Barney Frank earwitness report." In newspapers you have to go to the editor, explain to him why the paper should have another piece on the Eason Jordan affair, spend a day reporting it, only to find that all that's new today is that reporter Michelle Malkin got an interview with Barney Frank. That's not enough to merit 10 inches of newspaper space, so the Times doesn't carry what the blogosphere had 24 hours ago. In the old days a lot of interesting information fell off the editing desk in this way. Now it doesn't. This is a public service.
4. Bloggers are also selling the smartest take on a story. They're selling an original insight, a new area of inquiry. Mickey Kaus of Kausfiles has his bright take, Andrew Sullivan had his, InstaPundit has his. They're all selling their shrewdness, experience, depth. This too is a public service.
5. And they're doing it free. That is, the Times costs me a dollar and so does the Journal, but Kausfiles doesn't cost a dime. This too is a public service. Some blogs get their money from yearly fund-raising, some from advertisers, some from a combination, some from a salary provided by Slate or National Review. Most are labors of love. Some bloggers--a lot, I think--are addicted to digging, posting, coming up with the bright phrase. OK with me. Some get burned out. But new ones are always coming up, so many that I can't keep track of them and neither can anyone else.
But when I read blogs, when I wake up in the morning and go to About Last Night and Lucianne and Lileks, I remember what the late great Christopher Reeve said on "The Tonight Show" 20 years ago. He was the second guest, after Rodney Dangerfield. Dangerfield did his act and he was hot as a pistol. Then after Reeve sat down Dangerfield continued to be riotous. Reeve looked at him, gestured toward him, looked at the audience and said with grace and delight, "Do you believe this is free?" The audience cheered. That's how I feel on their best days when I read blogs.
That you get it free doesn't mean commerce isn't involved, for it is. It is intellectual commerce. Bloggers give you information and point of view. In return you give them your attention and intellectual energy. They gain influence by drawing your eyes; you gain information by lending your eyes. They become well-known and influential; you become entertained or informed. They get something from it and so do you.
6. It is not true that there are no controls. It is not true that the blogosphere is the Wild West. What governs members of the blogosphere is what governs to some degree members of the MSM, and that is the desire for status and respect. In the blogosphere you lose both if you put forward as fact information that is incorrect, specious or cooked. You lose status and respect if your take on a story that is patently stupid. You lose status and respect if you are unprofessional or deliberately misleading. And once you've lost a sufficient amount of status and respect, none of the other bloggers link to you anymore or raise your name in their arguments. And you're over. The great correcting mechanism for people on the Web is people on the Web.
There are blogs that carry political and ideological agendas. But everyone is on to them and it's mostly not obnoxious because their agendas are mostly declared.
7. I don't know if the blogosphere is rougher in the ferocity of its personal attacks than, say, Drew Pearson. Or the rough boys and girls of the great American editorial pages of the 1930s and '40s. Bloggers are certainly not as rough as the splenetic pamphleteers of the 18th and 19th centuries, who amused themselves accusing Thomas Jefferson of sexual perfidy and Andrew Jackson of having married a whore. I don't know how Walter Lippmann or Scotty Reston would have seen the blogosphere; it might have frightened them if they'd lived to see it. They might have been impressed by the sheer digging that goes on there. I have seen friends savaged by blogs and winced for them--but, well, too bad. I've been attacked. Too bad. If you can't take it, you shouldn't be thinking aloud for a living. The blogosphere is tough. But are personal attacks worth it if what we get in return is a whole new media form that can add to the true-information flow while correcting the biases and lapses of the mainstream media? Yes. Of course.
I conclude with a few predictions. (full article)
BLOGGER DOWN YESTERDAY... IN CHICAGO NOW
Blogger had some problems yesterday, but it's back up. In Chicago for wedding planning stuff, so I will be busy working during the day and running around at night and througout the weekend checking out rehearsal dinner spots, meeting with florists, etc. Maybe I'll post up some pictures later of the sights in Chicago.
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Blogger had some problems yesterday, but it's back up. In Chicago for wedding planning stuff, so I will be busy working during the day and running around at night and througout the weekend checking out rehearsal dinner spots, meeting with florists, etc. Maybe I'll post up some pictures later of the sights in Chicago.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
IN MEMORY OF DR. GILL-CHIN LIM
I've been meaning to write this for a few days now. A close family friend passed away in a car accident last Wednesday. Death is not the best subject matter to post about and I do not want to put anyone in a negative mood, so this is to celebrate a great man and life.
I met Dean Gill-Chin Lim over twelve years ago through my parents. He was the younger brother of my father's close high school friend and a friend of my parents. At that time he was Dean of Michigan State University's International Studies and Programs, and a man of vision and incredible energy.
A gentle spirit with great poise and a strength of character that was tangible, Gill-Chin Lim definitely made an impact on this world. He served as Dean of the International Studies and Programs (ISP) for five years, and received an endowed chair soon afterwards. He was an MSU Endowed Professor of Asian Studies in a Global Context and a professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Planning, Design and Construction.
Starting in 1997, Dean Lim spend a few years in Korea as the founding dean of the Korea Development Institute's new graduate school, the KDI School of Public Policy and Management.
After helping to establish the institution, he returned to Michigan State University and began the Program on Humanistic Globalization.
Taken from his welcoming letter:
"We are living in a very special time in history. Rapid transformations in all areas of human life are taking place in almost every corner of the entire globe.
After a long period of agricultural revolution and a few hundred years of industrial revolution, we have now entered information revolution. These revolutions have accelerated the pace of changes in human history and pose not only new possibilities for human betterment, but also unexpected risks and difficulties. Therefore, we raise the following questions: With all the advancement in technology and increased production and consumption, are we improving the human condition after all? How effective is our quest for peace, justice, freedom and affluence?
To answer these questions, we need to reexamine our value system from humanistic viewpoints. We need the fourth revolution in human history. It is “value revolution" to lead us to a truly civil society--a society in which all people are free from war, injustice, oppression, hunger and poverty.
Let me quote some of the leading thinkers of the contemporary world.
"The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will occur not because of technology but because of expanding concept of what it means to be human." -- John Naisbit and Patricia Aburdene, Megatrends 2000
"I have not lost hope because I am persuaded again and again that, lying dormant in the deepest roots of most, if not all, cultures there is an essential similarities, something that could be made--if the will to do so existed--a genuinely unifying starting point for that new code of human coexistence that would be fairly anchored in the great diversity of human relations." -- Vaclav Havel, the President of Czech Republic. (Civilization Thin Veneer, Excerpt from the Harvard commencement address, Harvard magazine, July-August 1995)
People who work with the Program on Humanistic Globalization believe that values are the key to guide the human beings into a brighter future. We believe the human beings have the capabilities to achieve the goals of a truly civil society. We thank you for your interest in our program."
Dean Lim was also a mentor and just a couple months ago asked me to help in his efforts to build his organization, the Global Association for Koreans Abroad, during the upcoming year. My prayers are for Dr. Lim and his family.
_________________________________________
More on Gill-Chin Lim from press releases:
He founded the Council on Korean Studies at MSU. Also the Visiting International Professional Program was established during his tenure, as were the ISP's international awards ceremony, the Glen Taggart Award for Community Contribution and the Ralph Smuckler Award for Advancing International Studies and Programs.
In 2004, ISP awarded the first Gill-Chin Lim Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Global Studies, which recognized Lim’s academic legacy.
Prior to his work at MSU, Lim was a University of Illinois professor and administrator in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Institute for Government and Public Affairs. Before joining the Illinois faculty in 1985, Lim was an assistant professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1980-85. He also taught at Northwestern University, was a visiting professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Environmental Studies and a visiting fellow at the Korean Research Institute for Human Settlements.
He was educated at Seoul National University (BS and MA, 1969 and 1973), Harvard (MA, 1975) and Princeton (PhD, 1987), Lim specialized in strategic planning, policy analysis and governance. He published and lectured on topics of comparative development, housing, environment, planning and decision making theories, and global education. He was the co-editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research and an international adviser for the Environmental Impact Assessment Review.
UPDATE: Global Planning Educators Interest Group put up a memorial page on Dean Lim.
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I've been meaning to write this for a few days now. A close family friend passed away in a car accident last Wednesday. Death is not the best subject matter to post about and I do not want to put anyone in a negative mood, so this is to celebrate a great man and life.
I met Dean Gill-Chin Lim over twelve years ago through my parents. He was the younger brother of my father's close high school friend and a friend of my parents. At that time he was Dean of Michigan State University's International Studies and Programs, and a man of vision and incredible energy.
A gentle spirit with great poise and a strength of character that was tangible, Gill-Chin Lim definitely made an impact on this world. He served as Dean of the International Studies and Programs (ISP) for five years, and received an endowed chair soon afterwards. He was an MSU Endowed Professor of Asian Studies in a Global Context and a professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Planning, Design and Construction.
Starting in 1997, Dean Lim spend a few years in Korea as the founding dean of the Korea Development Institute's new graduate school, the KDI School of Public Policy and Management.
After helping to establish the institution, he returned to Michigan State University and began the Program on Humanistic Globalization.
Taken from his welcoming letter:
"We are living in a very special time in history. Rapid transformations in all areas of human life are taking place in almost every corner of the entire globe.
After a long period of agricultural revolution and a few hundred years of industrial revolution, we have now entered information revolution. These revolutions have accelerated the pace of changes in human history and pose not only new possibilities for human betterment, but also unexpected risks and difficulties. Therefore, we raise the following questions: With all the advancement in technology and increased production and consumption, are we improving the human condition after all? How effective is our quest for peace, justice, freedom and affluence?
To answer these questions, we need to reexamine our value system from humanistic viewpoints. We need the fourth revolution in human history. It is “value revolution" to lead us to a truly civil society--a society in which all people are free from war, injustice, oppression, hunger and poverty.
Let me quote some of the leading thinkers of the contemporary world.
"The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will occur not because of technology but because of expanding concept of what it means to be human." -- John Naisbit and Patricia Aburdene, Megatrends 2000
"I have not lost hope because I am persuaded again and again that, lying dormant in the deepest roots of most, if not all, cultures there is an essential similarities, something that could be made--if the will to do so existed--a genuinely unifying starting point for that new code of human coexistence that would be fairly anchored in the great diversity of human relations." -- Vaclav Havel, the President of Czech Republic. (Civilization Thin Veneer, Excerpt from the Harvard commencement address, Harvard magazine, July-August 1995)
People who work with the Program on Humanistic Globalization believe that values are the key to guide the human beings into a brighter future. We believe the human beings have the capabilities to achieve the goals of a truly civil society. We thank you for your interest in our program."
Dean Lim was also a mentor and just a couple months ago asked me to help in his efforts to build his organization, the Global Association for Koreans Abroad, during the upcoming year. My prayers are for Dr. Lim and his family.
_________________________________________
More on Gill-Chin Lim from press releases:
He founded the Council on Korean Studies at MSU. Also the Visiting International Professional Program was established during his tenure, as were the ISP's international awards ceremony, the Glen Taggart Award for Community Contribution and the Ralph Smuckler Award for Advancing International Studies and Programs.
In 2004, ISP awarded the first Gill-Chin Lim Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Global Studies, which recognized Lim’s academic legacy.
Prior to his work at MSU, Lim was a University of Illinois professor and administrator in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Institute for Government and Public Affairs. Before joining the Illinois faculty in 1985, Lim was an assistant professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1980-85. He also taught at Northwestern University, was a visiting professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Environmental Studies and a visiting fellow at the Korean Research Institute for Human Settlements.
He was educated at Seoul National University (BS and MA, 1969 and 1973), Harvard (MA, 1975) and Princeton (PhD, 1987), Lim specialized in strategic planning, policy analysis and governance. He published and lectured on topics of comparative development, housing, environment, planning and decision making theories, and global education. He was the co-editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research and an international adviser for the Environmental Impact Assessment Review.
UPDATE: Global Planning Educators Interest Group put up a memorial page on Dean Lim.
HUH CORP... WE DO STUFF
Funny spoof I got from Christine. Pokes fun at the world of strategy consulting. Apologies to those at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.
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Funny spoof I got from Christine. Pokes fun at the world of strategy consulting. Apologies to those at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.
Monday, February 14, 2005
ANYONE WANT GMAIL ACCOUNTS?
I assume most of you have Gmail accounts, but if you don't or haven't taken the plunge yet and want to just let me know. Last week Google increased the invite capacity from 5 to 50 and I already sent about a hundred invites out months ago to close friends and family, so just post or email me if you want one.
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I assume most of you have Gmail accounts, but if you don't or haven't taken the plunge yet and want to just let me know. Last week Google increased the invite capacity from 5 to 50 and I already sent about a hundred invites out months ago to close friends and family, so just post or email me if you want one.
BLOGOSPHERE FLEXES ITS MUSCLES AGAIN... CNN'S EASON JORDAN RESIGNS
Are Blogs Adding Increasing Accountability or Mob Mentality To The Media World?
(Some of this is old news here. I did this summary at AlwaysOn with the assumption that many of the readers there didn't know the full history)
As you might have read, CNN's news chief, Eason Jordan, resigned due to pressure from the blogosphere after his reckless comments at the World Economic Forum:
During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.
Due to the nature of the forum, I was able to directly challenge Eason, asking if he had any objective and clear evidence to backup these claims, because if what he said was true, it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park. David Gergen was also clearly disturbed and shocked by the allegation that the U.S. would target journalists, foreign or U.S. He had always seen the U.S. military as the providers of safety and rescue for all reporters.
Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group). The ensuing debate was (for lack of better words) a real "sh--storm". What intensified the problem was the fact that the session was a public forum being taped on camera, in front of an international crowd. The other looming shadow on what was going on was the presence of a U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Senator in the middle of some very serious accusations about the U.S. military.
This spread over the blogosphere where it was confirmed and discussed in various forums with a roundup at Michelle Malkin's blog here and more on Congressman Barney Frank's reaction here.
Today's NY Times article, "Resignation at CNN Shows the Growing Influence of Blogs," brings some good points to think about:
Edward Morrissey, Captain's Quarters: "The moral of the story: the media can't just cover up the truth and expect to get away with it - and journalists can't just toss around allegations without substantiation and expect people to believe them anymore."
.....
Mr. Jarvis said bloggers should keep their real target in mind. "I wish our goal were not taking off heads but digging up truth," he cautioned.
.....
Some on line were simply trying to make sense of what happened. "Have we entered an era where our lives can be destroyed by a pack of wolves hacking at their keyboards with no oversight, no editors, and no accountability?" asked a blogger named Mark Coffey, 36, who says he works as an analyst in Austin, Tex. "Or does it mean that we've entered a brave new world where the MSM has become irrelevant," he asked, using blogger shorthand for mainstream media.
.....
Mr. Abovitz, who started it all, said he hoped bloggers could develop loftier goals than destroying people's careers. "If you're going to do this open-source journalism, it should have a higher purpose," he said. "At times it did seem like an angry mob, and an angry mob using high technology, that's not good."
WHILE NOW there are attacks and questions on the role of the blogosphere and bloggers, I agree with Michelle Malkin's NY Post op-ed, "REALNEWS.COM," that it was Eason's own irresponsible statements and the lack of responsibility of some journalists who purposely ignored its significance that led to this outcome:
For their fine efforts, these citizen bloggers are being attacked as "morons" and "bible-thumping knuckledraggers" and "hounds" by nervous media nellies aghast at the sight of unwashed amateurs beating down effete journalism's gates. Meanwhile, CNN continues to spin.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson insists there's no dispute over what Jordan said. Yet, in a statement Jordan himself sent to his staff Friday, Jordan cited "conflicting accounts" over his remarks as a threat to CNN's credibility. Which is it?
Former CNN News Group Chairman Walter Isaacson took the opportunity to sneer at "talk-show and blogging folks" for not doing "frontline reporting" (as opposed to the rumor-mongering Jordan engaged in at Davos?). And former CNN News Group Chairman Tom Johnson, who had been Jordan's mentor, decried what he called "unjustified and almost irrational attacks on Eason's character."
The only unjustified and irrational attacks on display here are the ones against the bloggers who called on Eason Jordan to account for his words and actions. The MSM better get used to the sound of bloghounds baying. This revolution can't be unplugged.
Imagine if Jordan's statement went unchallenged and taken as truth? What effect would it have on the morale of our troops? And a further battering of America's image abroad? I'm not gloating about Eason Jordan's resignation and I'm not certain if it was necessary, but I wasn't happy about his reckeless words either. I glad there was someone in the blogosphere at Davos to keep his words in check.
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Are Blogs Adding Increasing Accountability or Mob Mentality To The Media World?
(Some of this is old news here. I did this summary at AlwaysOn with the assumption that many of the readers there didn't know the full history)
As you might have read, CNN's news chief, Eason Jordan, resigned due to pressure from the blogosphere after his reckless comments at the World Economic Forum:
During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.
Due to the nature of the forum, I was able to directly challenge Eason, asking if he had any objective and clear evidence to backup these claims, because if what he said was true, it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park. David Gergen was also clearly disturbed and shocked by the allegation that the U.S. would target journalists, foreign or U.S. He had always seen the U.S. military as the providers of safety and rescue for all reporters.
Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group). The ensuing debate was (for lack of better words) a real "sh--storm". What intensified the problem was the fact that the session was a public forum being taped on camera, in front of an international crowd. The other looming shadow on what was going on was the presence of a U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Senator in the middle of some very serious accusations about the U.S. military.
This spread over the blogosphere where it was confirmed and discussed in various forums with a roundup at Michelle Malkin's blog here and more on Congressman Barney Frank's reaction here.
Today's NY Times article, "Resignation at CNN Shows the Growing Influence of Blogs," brings some good points to think about:
Edward Morrissey, Captain's Quarters: "The moral of the story: the media can't just cover up the truth and expect to get away with it - and journalists can't just toss around allegations without substantiation and expect people to believe them anymore."
.....
Mr. Jarvis said bloggers should keep their real target in mind. "I wish our goal were not taking off heads but digging up truth," he cautioned.
.....
Some on line were simply trying to make sense of what happened. "Have we entered an era where our lives can be destroyed by a pack of wolves hacking at their keyboards with no oversight, no editors, and no accountability?" asked a blogger named Mark Coffey, 36, who says he works as an analyst in Austin, Tex. "Or does it mean that we've entered a brave new world where the MSM has become irrelevant," he asked, using blogger shorthand for mainstream media.
.....
Mr. Abovitz, who started it all, said he hoped bloggers could develop loftier goals than destroying people's careers. "If you're going to do this open-source journalism, it should have a higher purpose," he said. "At times it did seem like an angry mob, and an angry mob using high technology, that's not good."
WHILE NOW there are attacks and questions on the role of the blogosphere and bloggers, I agree with Michelle Malkin's NY Post op-ed, "REALNEWS.COM," that it was Eason's own irresponsible statements and the lack of responsibility of some journalists who purposely ignored its significance that led to this outcome:
For their fine efforts, these citizen bloggers are being attacked as "morons" and "bible-thumping knuckledraggers" and "hounds" by nervous media nellies aghast at the sight of unwashed amateurs beating down effete journalism's gates. Meanwhile, CNN continues to spin.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson insists there's no dispute over what Jordan said. Yet, in a statement Jordan himself sent to his staff Friday, Jordan cited "conflicting accounts" over his remarks as a threat to CNN's credibility. Which is it?
Former CNN News Group Chairman Walter Isaacson took the opportunity to sneer at "talk-show and blogging folks" for not doing "frontline reporting" (as opposed to the rumor-mongering Jordan engaged in at Davos?). And former CNN News Group Chairman Tom Johnson, who had been Jordan's mentor, decried what he called "unjustified and almost irrational attacks on Eason's character."
The only unjustified and irrational attacks on display here are the ones against the bloggers who called on Eason Jordan to account for his words and actions. The MSM better get used to the sound of bloghounds baying. This revolution can't be unplugged.
Imagine if Jordan's statement went unchallenged and taken as truth? What effect would it have on the morale of our troops? And a further battering of America's image abroad? I'm not gloating about Eason Jordan's resignation and I'm not certain if it was necessary, but I wasn't happy about his reckeless words either. I glad there was someone in the blogosphere at Davos to keep his words in check.
"R.I.P. MICROSOFT?"... TOO MUCH HYPE
HatTip to Adam Herscher's Consumption Junction (power of Technorati since i came across his blog by finding him linking to one of my articles). Michael Malone writes about a dying Microsoft:
Great, healthy companies not only dominate the market, but share of mind. Look at Apple these days. But when was the last time you thought about Microsoft, except in frustration or anger? The company just announced a powerful new search engine, designed to take on Google -- but did anybody notice? Meanwhile, open systems world -- created largely in response to Microsoft's heavy-handed hegemony -- is slowly carving away market share from Gates & Co.: Linux and Firefox hold the world's imagination these days, not Windows and Explorer. The only thing Microsoft seems busy at these days is patching and plugging holes.
Speaking of Gates: if you remember, he was supposed to be going back into the lab to recreate the old MS alchemy. But lately it seems -- statesmanship being the final refuge of the successful entrepreneur -- that he's been devoting more time to philanthropy than capitalism. And though Steve Ballmer is legendary for his sound and fury, these days his leadership seems to be signifying nothing. (full article)
I think Malone is wrong on this one as he was four years ago about Apple (tip to Adam again):
I was reminded of all that I knew about Apple. To wit:
*Steve Jobs can't run companies, but he has proven that he is a genius at motivating teams of people to produce extraordinary products. In fact, he may be the greatest project team leader in the history of high tech. That is no small achievement. But it does not translate to being the CEO of a giant corporation. Jobs failed the first time running Apple, failed at Next and only succeeded at Pixar because the company worked around him. He succeeded in the short term during this, his second, Apple tenure because he ran the whole company as a product team. That only works so long. Why is he a poor CEO? Because he's mercurial, insufficiently engaged by the more boring (but crucial) operations like distribution and, ultimately, because he's a pretty nasty piece of work. In the best of all scenarios, Jobs would hire a competent CEO and focus on product development, but his ego would soon lead him to undermine his replacement. Steve Jobs is Apple's Alcibiades: the company can't live without him, or with him.
*Apple is a small fish, and the pond is going dry. Like that other great marketer, Jerry Sanders of AMD, Jobs has a genius for making Apple seem more important than it is. Even after all the successes of the last two years, Apple is still where it was during the Spindler era. It is a niche player, with an anomalous operating system, trying to survive in a market dominated by giant corporations like Compaq, Dell and IBM. Apple gets a lot of attention by being cheeky, stylish and having a marginally better operating system, but it is up against a monolith nine times its size, with all the economies of scale, distribution and the marketing reach that comes with such size. Grandma may love her iMac, as does the ad agency down the street, but corporate America still buys Windows. Now that Apple has upgraded its customer base it has no place to go. And to make matters worse, the rise of personal digital assistants, palmtops, embedded controllers, etc. promises in the next few years to render the PC industry into a backwater business filled with commodity products--hardly the place to be a pricey innovator.
*Style isn't enough. In all the excitement over blueberry iMacs, what went unnoticed was that Steve Jobs and Apple had made a brilliant, but dangerous, bet. Nobody has a better eye for style in technology than Jobs. He showed that twenty years ago with the Apple II, and again a decade later with the Next computer. But Jobs' genius, in his Apple restoration, was to realize that his gift perfectly matched the endgame of the PC industry. He would make personal computers cool and stylish again--he would turn them into fashion. And he did just that, sparking a renaissance in product design throughout American industry. But he who lives by fashion dies by it as well. In making computers into couture, Jobs also made them more ephemeral than they already were. Cool people, Apple's market, are already bored with the iMac. Thus, Jobs created an insatiable hunger for novelty that now even Apple, even with its splendid new cube, can't satiate. In the process, he hastened the entire personal computer industry towards its end
Apple, of course, isn't dead yet. I still have a Mac on my office desk. My mother-in-law owns an iMac, and my oldest son wants one for Christmas (and he'll probably get it). Meanwhile, the company is preparing its next generation of computers. No doubt they'll be great looking.
But with falling profits and plummeting stock, and having hastened the end of the desktop PC era, Steve Jobs has put Apple again in a precarious position. When the end does come, the big companies will have the necessary capital to transition into the multitude of new industries that will evolve out of the PC. The products of these new markets will be, thanks to Apple, stylish and beautiful. What an irony it will be if Apple, cranking out ever-less profitable commodity iMacs, its stock depressed, cannot afford to follow. (full article)
Malone looks foolish now, huh?
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HatTip to Adam Herscher's Consumption Junction (power of Technorati since i came across his blog by finding him linking to one of my articles). Michael Malone writes about a dying Microsoft:
Great, healthy companies not only dominate the market, but share of mind. Look at Apple these days. But when was the last time you thought about Microsoft, except in frustration or anger? The company just announced a powerful new search engine, designed to take on Google -- but did anybody notice? Meanwhile, open systems world -- created largely in response to Microsoft's heavy-handed hegemony -- is slowly carving away market share from Gates & Co.: Linux and Firefox hold the world's imagination these days, not Windows and Explorer. The only thing Microsoft seems busy at these days is patching and plugging holes.
Speaking of Gates: if you remember, he was supposed to be going back into the lab to recreate the old MS alchemy. But lately it seems -- statesmanship being the final refuge of the successful entrepreneur -- that he's been devoting more time to philanthropy than capitalism. And though Steve Ballmer is legendary for his sound and fury, these days his leadership seems to be signifying nothing. (full article)
I think Malone is wrong on this one as he was four years ago about Apple (tip to Adam again):
I was reminded of all that I knew about Apple. To wit:
*Steve Jobs can't run companies, but he has proven that he is a genius at motivating teams of people to produce extraordinary products. In fact, he may be the greatest project team leader in the history of high tech. That is no small achievement. But it does not translate to being the CEO of a giant corporation. Jobs failed the first time running Apple, failed at Next and only succeeded at Pixar because the company worked around him. He succeeded in the short term during this, his second, Apple tenure because he ran the whole company as a product team. That only works so long. Why is he a poor CEO? Because he's mercurial, insufficiently engaged by the more boring (but crucial) operations like distribution and, ultimately, because he's a pretty nasty piece of work. In the best of all scenarios, Jobs would hire a competent CEO and focus on product development, but his ego would soon lead him to undermine his replacement. Steve Jobs is Apple's Alcibiades: the company can't live without him, or with him.
*Apple is a small fish, and the pond is going dry. Like that other great marketer, Jerry Sanders of AMD, Jobs has a genius for making Apple seem more important than it is. Even after all the successes of the last two years, Apple is still where it was during the Spindler era. It is a niche player, with an anomalous operating system, trying to survive in a market dominated by giant corporations like Compaq, Dell and IBM. Apple gets a lot of attention by being cheeky, stylish and having a marginally better operating system, but it is up against a monolith nine times its size, with all the economies of scale, distribution and the marketing reach that comes with such size. Grandma may love her iMac, as does the ad agency down the street, but corporate America still buys Windows. Now that Apple has upgraded its customer base it has no place to go. And to make matters worse, the rise of personal digital assistants, palmtops, embedded controllers, etc. promises in the next few years to render the PC industry into a backwater business filled with commodity products--hardly the place to be a pricey innovator.
*Style isn't enough. In all the excitement over blueberry iMacs, what went unnoticed was that Steve Jobs and Apple had made a brilliant, but dangerous, bet. Nobody has a better eye for style in technology than Jobs. He showed that twenty years ago with the Apple II, and again a decade later with the Next computer. But Jobs' genius, in his Apple restoration, was to realize that his gift perfectly matched the endgame of the PC industry. He would make personal computers cool and stylish again--he would turn them into fashion. And he did just that, sparking a renaissance in product design throughout American industry. But he who lives by fashion dies by it as well. In making computers into couture, Jobs also made them more ephemeral than they already were. Cool people, Apple's market, are already bored with the iMac. Thus, Jobs created an insatiable hunger for novelty that now even Apple, even with its splendid new cube, can't satiate. In the process, he hastened the entire personal computer industry towards its end
Apple, of course, isn't dead yet. I still have a Mac on my office desk. My mother-in-law owns an iMac, and my oldest son wants one for Christmas (and he'll probably get it). Meanwhile, the company is preparing its next generation of computers. No doubt they'll be great looking.
But with falling profits and plummeting stock, and having hastened the end of the desktop PC era, Steve Jobs has put Apple again in a precarious position. When the end does come, the big companies will have the necessary capital to transition into the multitude of new industries that will evolve out of the PC. The products of these new markets will be, thanks to Apple, stylish and beautiful. What an irony it will be if Apple, cranking out ever-less profitable commodity iMacs, its stock depressed, cannot afford to follow. (full article)
Malone looks foolish now, huh?
DEMOCRACY IS BEAUTIFUL... SHIITES, KURDS WIN BIG
Clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds swept to victory in Iraq's landmark elections, propelling to power the groups that suffered most under Saddam Hussein and forcing Sunni Arabs to the margins for the first time in modern history, according to final results released Sunday.
But the Shiites' 48 percent of the vote is far short of the two-thirds majority needed to control the 275-member National Assembly. The results threw immediate focus on Iraqi leaders' backdoor dealmaking to create a new coalition government — possibly in an alliance with the Kurds — and on efforts to lure Sunnis into the fold and away from a bloody insurgency.
Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the secular Shiite chosen by the United States to lead this country for the last eight turbulent months, fared poorly — his ticket finishing a distant third behind the religious Shiites and Kurds.
"This is a new birth for Iraq," election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said, announcing results of the Jan. 30 polling, the first free election in Iraq in more than 50 years and the first since Saddam fell. Iraqi voters "became a legend in their confrontation with terrorists." (full article)
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Clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds swept to victory in Iraq's landmark elections, propelling to power the groups that suffered most under Saddam Hussein and forcing Sunni Arabs to the margins for the first time in modern history, according to final results released Sunday.
But the Shiites' 48 percent of the vote is far short of the two-thirds majority needed to control the 275-member National Assembly. The results threw immediate focus on Iraqi leaders' backdoor dealmaking to create a new coalition government — possibly in an alliance with the Kurds — and on efforts to lure Sunnis into the fold and away from a bloody insurgency.
Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the secular Shiite chosen by the United States to lead this country for the last eight turbulent months, fared poorly — his ticket finishing a distant third behind the religious Shiites and Kurds.
"This is a new birth for Iraq," election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said, announcing results of the Jan. 30 polling, the first free election in Iraq in more than 50 years and the first since Saddam fell. Iraqi voters "became a legend in their confrontation with terrorists." (full article)
HOWARD DEAN HEADING DNC... RIGHT CHOICE?
I'm uncertain about the potential for Dean to effectively lead the Democratic National Committee. His positions were too far-left and as an mouthpiece he made much of America cringe. Many Republicans are optimistic that Dean's leadership will lead the Democratic party towards failure. I think it's a sign, similiar to the presidential race, that the Democrats have weak leadership at the top.
New national Democratic Chairman Howard Dean promised Saturday to rebuild the party in the most conservative regions of the country, help develop state and local organizations and let congressional Democrats set the tone on policy.
Dean's statements below are amusing and too transparent for most of America. Does he think his "new language" will hide the positioning of the left and (mis)lead the red states to blue?
The former Vermont governor promised to learn how Democrats can communicate positions more effectively.
Dean says that no one is "pro-abortion," but "we are the party in favor of allowing women to make up their own minds about their health care."
And Democrats are not for "gay marriage," but "we are the party that has always believed in equal rights under the law for all people," he says.
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I'm uncertain about the potential for Dean to effectively lead the Democratic National Committee. His positions were too far-left and as an mouthpiece he made much of America cringe. Many Republicans are optimistic that Dean's leadership will lead the Democratic party towards failure. I think it's a sign, similiar to the presidential race, that the Democrats have weak leadership at the top.
New national Democratic Chairman Howard Dean promised Saturday to rebuild the party in the most conservative regions of the country, help develop state and local organizations and let congressional Democrats set the tone on policy.
Dean's statements below are amusing and too transparent for most of America. Does he think his "new language" will hide the positioning of the left and (mis)lead the red states to blue?
The former Vermont governor promised to learn how Democrats can communicate positions more effectively.
Dean says that no one is "pro-abortion," but "we are the party in favor of allowing women to make up their own minds about their health care."
And Democrats are not for "gay marriage," but "we are the party that has always believed in equal rights under the law for all people," he says.
SUN KICKING ASS WITH THEIR "OPEN SOURCE" EFFORT
From Jonathan Schwartz's blog (President and Chief Operating Officer):
I just got the first summary download numbers for Solaris 10 since we shipped a week or so ago. One word, "wow.":
_________________
Total Number of Solaris 10 Licenses Downloaded Since First Commercial Ship:
SPARC: 151,039
x64/x86: 269,856
Total: 420,895
_________________
An early look suggests we're not going to have a problem with demand.
I was with a big ISP (internet service provider) prospect yesterday that said, "the only reason we left Solaris was to run x86 on low end boxes. Now that Solaris is there, we're going back." I asked how they liked the open source license we worked with the community to draft, and they said "we like the CDDL." We obviously do, too - and we'd like to see others in the industry adopt it (note: that's why it's an open license, not restricted to usage or control by Sun.) (full post)
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From Jonathan Schwartz's blog (President and Chief Operating Officer):
I just got the first summary download numbers for Solaris 10 since we shipped a week or so ago. One word, "wow.":
_________________
Total Number of Solaris 10 Licenses Downloaded Since First Commercial Ship:
SPARC: 151,039
x64/x86: 269,856
Total: 420,895
_________________
An early look suggests we're not going to have a problem with demand.
I was with a big ISP (internet service provider) prospect yesterday that said, "the only reason we left Solaris was to run x86 on low end boxes. Now that Solaris is there, we're going back." I asked how they liked the open source license we worked with the community to draft, and they said "we like the CDDL." We obviously do, too - and we'd like to see others in the industry adopt it (note: that's why it's an open license, not restricted to usage or control by Sun.) (full post)
Sunday, February 13, 2005
NORTH KOREA IS A TOUGH NUT
Tech Central Station's Ralph Kinney Bennett on North Korea:
Nowhere is the wretched legacy of Soviet Communism more apparent than in North Korea. Stalin's Far Eastern puppet state has become far weirder and more sinister than "Chuckie" at his worst. And seldom has such an unfortunate confluence of geopolitical elements allowed a -- pardon the expression -- "piss ant" country to become such a serious global concern. These elements include:
-A populace starved and oppressed almost to retardation by its psychotic and maniacal leader.
-A determined accumulation and development of dangerous military technology including long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.
-An intrinsic defensive advantage conferred by North Korea's own geology, geography and topography. It's a damn pile of rocks!
President George Bush has said that despite U.S. concern over its continuing development of nuclear weapons, the United States has "no intention" of "invading" North Korea. Wisely spoken. Now the White House is trying to secure some sort of multination nonaggression pact to entice Pyongyang back to the negotiating table on the issue of curtailing its nuclear weapons development.
ANOTHER VIEW from Slate's Fred Kaplan. Pretty amusing with such lines as:
"So the North Koreans say they have a nuclear weapon. Why should anyone be surprised? And why does everyone in the Bush administration and the White House press corps seem to think the announcement is something new?"
Fred, haven't people on the right been already in the know or stating these assumptions for a long time? What reports are you reading, Fred? This one is great:
"We don't know whether the North Koreans possess any actual nuclear weapons until they test one. We do know that they have reprocessed enough plutonium to build a dozen or so nukes, and President Bush's reckless policies—no less than Kim Jong-il's—must be held responsible for that frightening development."
Eh? Fred, what about eight years of the Clinton administration doing nothing have a little something to do with this? (Yo! Mingi, you around? Need you to chime in.)
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Tech Central Station's Ralph Kinney Bennett on North Korea:
Nowhere is the wretched legacy of Soviet Communism more apparent than in North Korea. Stalin's Far Eastern puppet state has become far weirder and more sinister than "Chuckie" at his worst. And seldom has such an unfortunate confluence of geopolitical elements allowed a -- pardon the expression -- "piss ant" country to become such a serious global concern. These elements include:
-A populace starved and oppressed almost to retardation by its psychotic and maniacal leader.
-A determined accumulation and development of dangerous military technology including long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.
-An intrinsic defensive advantage conferred by North Korea's own geology, geography and topography. It's a damn pile of rocks!
President George Bush has said that despite U.S. concern over its continuing development of nuclear weapons, the United States has "no intention" of "invading" North Korea. Wisely spoken. Now the White House is trying to secure some sort of multination nonaggression pact to entice Pyongyang back to the negotiating table on the issue of curtailing its nuclear weapons development.
ANOTHER VIEW from Slate's Fred Kaplan. Pretty amusing with such lines as:
"So the North Koreans say they have a nuclear weapon. Why should anyone be surprised? And why does everyone in the Bush administration and the White House press corps seem to think the announcement is something new?"
Fred, haven't people on the right been already in the know or stating these assumptions for a long time? What reports are you reading, Fred? This one is great:
"We don't know whether the North Koreans possess any actual nuclear weapons until they test one. We do know that they have reprocessed enough plutonium to build a dozen or so nukes, and President Bush's reckless policies—no less than Kim Jong-il's—must be held responsible for that frightening development."
Eh? Fred, what about eight years of the Clinton administration doing nothing have a little something to do with this? (Yo! Mingi, you around? Need you to chime in.)
Saturday, February 12, 2005
GARY BECKER'S SUPPORT FOR A PRIVATIZED SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM
Nobel Prize winner (Economics, 1992), Gary Becker, writes on "Why I Support a Privatized Individual Account Social Security System." Richard Posner, his counterpart on their blog writes his views too. Gary Becker's thoughts:
Today both Republicans and Democrats are passionately arguing about the future of social security. Although there is merit in each side’s argument, neither side is portraying the situation accurately. In my view, movement toward a privatized individual account social security system offers the best option, where individuals save and accumulate assets to provide for their retirement.
It is true, as the critics correctly observe, that there is no magical gain in privatizing since all systems have to provide incomes for retired persons. But there is also no magical gain in privatizing a government steel plant since steel still has to be produced, yet there are good reasons to privatize steel. I also believe that there are excellent reasons to aim for a privatized individual account social
security system.
Pay as you go social security started first in Europe as a relatively easy way to provide a minimum standard of living for the elderly. It was introduced in the United States during the 1930’s partly also to discourage the elderly from competing for jobs when unemployment of younger workers was staggeringly high. It was a cheap system then because there were more than 10 workers per retired person, so the social security tax could be small relative to the benefits received by retirees. Indeed, the first several generations of retirees earned very high returns in retirement income on their accumulated social security tax payments. (full post)
Richard Posners thoughts:
One of the commonest objections to President Bush’s proposal for reform of social security is that there is no need to act now because there is no “crisis.” Yet the same people who say this are wont to say that a weakness of government is its failure to take the long view. Politicians have a short time horizon because they have limited terms of office and are therefore reluctant to address a problem that lies in the future even if the problem could be solved more easily before it assumes crisis proportions. The increasing burden of social security, owing to the declining ratio of workers to retirees, is a problem easier to solve now than when a continued decline in that ratio (it was 3.3 in 1996 and is expected to be only 2 by 2030) brings on a fiscal crisis necessitating either steep tax increases or drastic benefits cuts (one form of which would be raising the retirement age), or both.
In 1983 Congress raised the retirement age for full social security benefits from 65 to 67, thus reducing liftetime benefits. But the legislation provided for phasing in the increase over a 22–year period beginning in 2003, which made the discounted present cost of the reduction in benefits negligible for prospective retirees.
With the social security “crisis” still in the future, it is possible to begin now to change the system in the direction of a genuine retirement program, that is, one in which people pay for their own retirement rather than having it paid for by current workers. With that shift, it would no longer matter what the ratio of workers to
retirees was. (full post)
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Nobel Prize winner (Economics, 1992), Gary Becker, writes on "Why I Support a Privatized Individual Account Social Security System." Richard Posner, his counterpart on their blog writes his views too. Gary Becker's thoughts:
Today both Republicans and Democrats are passionately arguing about the future of social security. Although there is merit in each side’s argument, neither side is portraying the situation accurately. In my view, movement toward a privatized individual account social security system offers the best option, where individuals save and accumulate assets to provide for their retirement.
It is true, as the critics correctly observe, that there is no magical gain in privatizing since all systems have to provide incomes for retired persons. But there is also no magical gain in privatizing a government steel plant since steel still has to be produced, yet there are good reasons to privatize steel. I also believe that there are excellent reasons to aim for a privatized individual account social
security system.
Pay as you go social security started first in Europe as a relatively easy way to provide a minimum standard of living for the elderly. It was introduced in the United States during the 1930’s partly also to discourage the elderly from competing for jobs when unemployment of younger workers was staggeringly high. It was a cheap system then because there were more than 10 workers per retired person, so the social security tax could be small relative to the benefits received by retirees. Indeed, the first several generations of retirees earned very high returns in retirement income on their accumulated social security tax payments. (full post)
Richard Posners thoughts:
One of the commonest objections to President Bush’s proposal for reform of social security is that there is no need to act now because there is no “crisis.” Yet the same people who say this are wont to say that a weakness of government is its failure to take the long view. Politicians have a short time horizon because they have limited terms of office and are therefore reluctant to address a problem that lies in the future even if the problem could be solved more easily before it assumes crisis proportions. The increasing burden of social security, owing to the declining ratio of workers to retirees, is a problem easier to solve now than when a continued decline in that ratio (it was 3.3 in 1996 and is expected to be only 2 by 2030) brings on a fiscal crisis necessitating either steep tax increases or drastic benefits cuts (one form of which would be raising the retirement age), or both.
In 1983 Congress raised the retirement age for full social security benefits from 65 to 67, thus reducing liftetime benefits. But the legislation provided for phasing in the increase over a 22–year period beginning in 2003, which made the discounted present cost of the reduction in benefits negligible for prospective retirees.
With the social security “crisis” still in the future, it is possible to begin now to change the system in the direction of a genuine retirement program, that is, one in which people pay for their own retirement rather than having it paid for by current workers. With that shift, it would no longer matter what the ratio of workers to
retirees was. (full post)
Friday, February 11, 2005
REPORT FROM IRAQI... VIA INSTAPUNDIT
Good news and no spin from the frontlines:
The elections required a lot of work in this area but went off without any major violence. From what we have seen, nationwide turnout was very good. One of the constant comments here was that in America, people stay home because of the rain; here people vote in spite of mortars. (Mortars are like the worst hail storm you have ever seen, but a little worse).
Recently, we have gone out and operated with the Army. The particular unit we have worked with is a cavalry unit. Even though they now drive tanks, they still wear "riding" boots, large belt buckles and for formal occasions, cowboy hats. Surely, they think many of our customs and traditions (dating back to naval combat of the 18th century) are just as strange.
The Cav is located at a much larger installation which means KBR chow. It is amazing that food that would be sniffed at in most middle school cafeterias seems like dinner and a beer at El Charro over here. Their installation is a former Iraqi army base, so it feels a lot more like a military base than the poultry processing plant in which I live. In fact the cinderblock barracks are almost as nice as Hess Hall (saying something is as nice as Hess is wierd) and are nicer than the barracks that I stayed in at Camp Pendleton.
Army tours are almost twice as long as Marine tours (13 vs. 7 mos.) and these guys were nearing the end. Their morale was high but needless to say they were looking forward to getting home.
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Good news and no spin from the frontlines:
The elections required a lot of work in this area but went off without any major violence. From what we have seen, nationwide turnout was very good. One of the constant comments here was that in America, people stay home because of the rain; here people vote in spite of mortars. (Mortars are like the worst hail storm you have ever seen, but a little worse).
Recently, we have gone out and operated with the Army. The particular unit we have worked with is a cavalry unit. Even though they now drive tanks, they still wear "riding" boots, large belt buckles and for formal occasions, cowboy hats. Surely, they think many of our customs and traditions (dating back to naval combat of the 18th century) are just as strange.
The Cav is located at a much larger installation which means KBR chow. It is amazing that food that would be sniffed at in most middle school cafeterias seems like dinner and a beer at El Charro over here. Their installation is a former Iraqi army base, so it feels a lot more like a military base than the poultry processing plant in which I live. In fact the cinderblock barracks are almost as nice as Hess Hall (saying something is as nice as Hess is wierd) and are nicer than the barracks that I stayed in at Camp Pendleton.
Army tours are almost twice as long as Marine tours (13 vs. 7 mos.) and these guys were nearing the end. Their morale was high but needless to say they were looking forward to getting home.
SCO DOWN FOR THE COUNT?
I really hope so. From eWeek:
At first glance, it appears that The SCO Group's case against IBM for Linux/Unix intellectual property right violations is all but over, after the judge said Tuesday that the court hasn't seen any hard evidence to support SCO's claims.
U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball wrote Tuesday, "It is astonishing that SCO has not offered any competent evidence to create a disputed fact regarding whether IBM has infringed SCO's alleged copyrights through IBM's Linux activities."
But analysts and lawyers disagree on whether SCO is down to its last strike.
While Lawrence Rosen, an open-source legal expert and partner in the Ukiah, Calif.-based law firm Rosenlaw & Einschlag, described the latest developments as being merely "the delay of the inevitable," others don't see it as being such an open-and-shut case.
"Yes, this is very damning," said Thomas Carey, chairman of the business practice group at Boston-based Bromberg & Sunstein LLP. "Judge Kimball has seen all of the evidence presented to date, and has concluded that there is no there there.
"Unfortunately for IBM, Judge Kimball leaves open the possibility that intermediate forms of the code found in AIX may present the missing link between Unix and Linux," Carey said. (full article)
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I really hope so. From eWeek:
At first glance, it appears that The SCO Group's case against IBM for Linux/Unix intellectual property right violations is all but over, after the judge said Tuesday that the court hasn't seen any hard evidence to support SCO's claims.
U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball wrote Tuesday, "It is astonishing that SCO has not offered any competent evidence to create a disputed fact regarding whether IBM has infringed SCO's alleged copyrights through IBM's Linux activities."
But analysts and lawyers disagree on whether SCO is down to its last strike.
While Lawrence Rosen, an open-source legal expert and partner in the Ukiah, Calif.-based law firm Rosenlaw & Einschlag, described the latest developments as being merely "the delay of the inevitable," others don't see it as being such an open-and-shut case.
"Yes, this is very damning," said Thomas Carey, chairman of the business practice group at Boston-based Bromberg & Sunstein LLP. "Judge Kimball has seen all of the evidence presented to date, and has concluded that there is no there there.
"Unfortunately for IBM, Judge Kimball leaves open the possibility that intermediate forms of the code found in AIX may present the missing link between Unix and Linux," Carey said. (full article)
UNASSOCIATED PRESS... WIKINEWS
"The Unassociated Press" from The New York Times. Related to my prior article on Wikipedia:
You may, in the course of reading this article, spot a factual error that made it to press. A certain bit of grammar may makes you bristle, or you may think the writing is biased. But by now the ink has dried; all you can do is send an e-mail message or a letter of complaint.
If this article had been published on Wikinews, a Web site begun recently, there would be something more you could do: change it, fix it, expand it or delete it.
Wikinews (www.wikinews.org) is an experiment in collaborative news gathering and reporting, and the latest in a collection of Wikis (pronounced WIK-eez or WEEK-eez) under the umbrella of Wikimedia, which cultivates free and open information resources written by its users.
The largest Wiki project, Wikipedia, has been online for four years and contains more than 450,000 articles, all written and open to revision by its more than 150,000 users. By comparison, Wikinews is a newborn, having opened its doors to interested news writers and reporters in December.
Central to Wikinews is its commitment to neutrality, said Jimmy Wales, a founder of Wikipedia and president of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation. In a community that largely sets its own standards, Mr. Wales's policy of a neutral point of view may be the single most important driving principle.
Ilya Haykinson, a Los Angeles software engineer and contributor to several Wikinews articles, said that policy set the effort apart from some other citizen journalism projects, like Indymedia (www.indymedia.org), OhmyNews of South Korea (english.ohmynews.com) and news blogs.
The system's primary check is its transparency. Inspired, in part, by the success of open source software development, the writing process is completely public. Anyone at any time can compose a new Wikinews article, edit an existing one and see an inventory of all prior changes.
Mr. Haykinson, for instance, wrote an article on Dec. 11 about the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental campaigner. At least five people have since contributed revisions. One, filed about two weeks after the original, was submitted by a user identified only by his Internet protocol address. (Users have the option to register and log in.) It was annotated as having removed pro-environment, anti-Kenyan government bias.
For Wikinews proponents, the evolution of content is one of the system's strengths, and one of its challenges. The larger and more mature Wikipedia project is often cited by Wiki users as an example of how consensus can evolve into truth. But Wikinews articles do not enjoy the same luxury of time. (full article)
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"The Unassociated Press" from The New York Times. Related to my prior article on Wikipedia:
You may, in the course of reading this article, spot a factual error that made it to press. A certain bit of grammar may makes you bristle, or you may think the writing is biased. But by now the ink has dried; all you can do is send an e-mail message or a letter of complaint.
If this article had been published on Wikinews, a Web site begun recently, there would be something more you could do: change it, fix it, expand it or delete it.
Wikinews (www.wikinews.org) is an experiment in collaborative news gathering and reporting, and the latest in a collection of Wikis (pronounced WIK-eez or WEEK-eez) under the umbrella of Wikimedia, which cultivates free and open information resources written by its users.
The largest Wiki project, Wikipedia, has been online for four years and contains more than 450,000 articles, all written and open to revision by its more than 150,000 users. By comparison, Wikinews is a newborn, having opened its doors to interested news writers and reporters in December.
Central to Wikinews is its commitment to neutrality, said Jimmy Wales, a founder of Wikipedia and president of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation. In a community that largely sets its own standards, Mr. Wales's policy of a neutral point of view may be the single most important driving principle.
Ilya Haykinson, a Los Angeles software engineer and contributor to several Wikinews articles, said that policy set the effort apart from some other citizen journalism projects, like Indymedia (www.indymedia.org), OhmyNews of South Korea (english.ohmynews.com) and news blogs.
The system's primary check is its transparency. Inspired, in part, by the success of open source software development, the writing process is completely public. Anyone at any time can compose a new Wikinews article, edit an existing one and see an inventory of all prior changes.
Mr. Haykinson, for instance, wrote an article on Dec. 11 about the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental campaigner. At least five people have since contributed revisions. One, filed about two weeks after the original, was submitted by a user identified only by his Internet protocol address. (Users have the option to register and log in.) It was annotated as having removed pro-environment, anti-Kenyan government bias.
For Wikinews proponents, the evolution of content is one of the system's strengths, and one of its challenges. The larger and more mature Wikipedia project is often cited by Wiki users as an example of how consensus can evolve into truth. But Wikinews articles do not enjoy the same luxury of time. (full article)
IN-Q-TEL SUMMIT... NOTES FROM TIM OREN
VC Tim Oren has notes and thoughts from a recent In-Q-Tel meeting. In-Q-Tel is the CIA's venture arm and my old professor from graduate school, Michael Crow, helped establish it:
The conference is an interesting mix of portfolio company executives, mid-level and senior intelligence agency personnel, and VCs and other hoi polloi. For a VC, it's a chance to look at companies which have already had their technology and capabilities vetted by one of toughest and most sophisticated customers in the world, and which are already receiving cash flow as a result. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to figure out which of the ventures also have scalable, fast growth opportunities on the civilian side.
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VC Tim Oren has notes and thoughts from a recent In-Q-Tel meeting. In-Q-Tel is the CIA's venture arm and my old professor from graduate school, Michael Crow, helped establish it:
The conference is an interesting mix of portfolio company executives, mid-level and senior intelligence agency personnel, and VCs and other hoi polloi. For a VC, it's a chance to look at companies which have already had their technology and capabilities vetted by one of toughest and most sophisticated customers in the world, and which are already receiving cash flow as a result. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to figure out which of the ventures also have scalable, fast growth opportunities on the civilian side.
MICROSOFT'S ROBERT SCOBLE MEETS WITH MARK JEN
Robert Scoble met with Mark Jen, the fired Google blogger:
I spent a lot of time tonight at the geek dinner talking with Mark Jen.
He was the guy fired by Google because of stuff he wrote on his blog.
It was clear he didn't understand what he was up against. He's very sorry for what he wrote. I believe he's learned what he did wrong. He won me over. I would hire him on my team in a heartbeat (if he'd agree to capitalize his sentences properly. Heh!)
Really what he -- and other bloggers who've been fired -- did wrong is have a mismatch in the image they were presenting to what the company wanted presented.
Anyway, I can certainly see why Mark was hired at both Microsoft and Google (two companies that have famously tough hiring standards). He's smart. Dedicated. Passionate. (full post)
Also thanks, Robert, for the link to my article at AlwaysOn (right below)!
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Robert Scoble met with Mark Jen, the fired Google blogger:
I spent a lot of time tonight at the geek dinner talking with Mark Jen.
He was the guy fired by Google because of stuff he wrote on his blog.
It was clear he didn't understand what he was up against. He's very sorry for what he wrote. I believe he's learned what he did wrong. He won me over. I would hire him on my team in a heartbeat (if he'd agree to capitalize his sentences properly. Heh!)
Really what he -- and other bloggers who've been fired -- did wrong is have a mismatch in the image they were presenting to what the company wanted presented.
Anyway, I can certainly see why Mark was hired at both Microsoft and Google (two companies that have famously tough hiring standards). He's smart. Dedicated. Passionate. (full post)
Also thanks, Robert, for the link to my article at AlwaysOn (right below)!
Thursday, February 10, 2005
THIS WEEK'S COLUMN... LOOK INSIDE MICROSOFT RESEARCH
Well, my fourth column is going up tomorrow (every thursday), but here is a sneak peek:
Diamonds in the Rough at Redmond
There's a lot brewing in Microsoft's Social Computing Group—including a new paradigm for email and a social networking environment that could 'Wallop' the competition.
I actually wanted to write about more interesting applications and research I saw at Microsoft, but I was too busy this week so I had to shorten the piece. Not at this time either since I have to go to sleep now. I'll save it for another day.
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Well, my fourth column is going up tomorrow (every thursday), but here is a sneak peek:
Diamonds in the Rough at Redmond
There's a lot brewing in Microsoft's Social Computing Group—including a new paradigm for email and a social networking environment that could 'Wallop' the competition.
I actually wanted to write about more interesting applications and research I saw at Microsoft, but I was too busy this week so I had to shorten the piece. Not at this time either since I have to go to sleep now. I'll save it for another day.
HP GIVES CARLY FIORINA THE BOOT... A LITTLE TOO LATE DON'T CHA THINK?
Carly Fiorina has finally left HP. AlwaysOn has a great reminder of her initial missteps by republishing an old Red Herring letter to Fiorina:
"Ms. Fiorina, Please resign."
Back in January of 2002, Red Herring editors called on Carly Fiorina to resign. Here is a replay of our then infamous letter. Also reprinted below is then editor, Jason Pontin's reflections on the "open letter" that appeared in his column in the same issue.
January 15, 2002 To: Carly Fiorina
From: the editors of Red Herring
Re: your departure
Dear Ms. Fiorina,
Please resign.
You were appointed in 1999 to replace the boring if dependable Lewis Platt. An outsider, you brought to Hewlett-Packard the cult of the celebrity CEO. You said the right things: You promised Wall Street 15 percent annual growth when HP (a sclerotic giant with $42 billion in sales) had seen its growth dip below that figure in 1998. You predicted that HP would be a leader in "the second phase of Internet." You assured employees that you would embrace and yet reform the "HP Way"--the egalitarian, innovative, technologically driven corporate culture that Bill Hewlett and David Packard created.
You have not met any of these promises.
.....
Third, far from embracing and renewing HP's corporate culture, your personal style has been comically at odds with the company's traditions. While a CEO with a bodyguard and a Gulfstream IV jet (and tens of millions of dollars in compensation) might be appropriate for some companies, at geeky, democratic HP you have alienated everyone. The 6,000 layoffs you ordered profoundly shocked a company that never laid off anybody.
.....
The merger is like two starving men agreeing to share a crust of bread.
You say that your critics offer no alternatives? Here are some: HP's mergers should aim to acquire technology, not "scale." Specifically, if HP does plan to sell services and servers, it should, like Sun Microsystems and IBM, sell software as a driver of those products. Why not buy a database, data-storage, or server operating system company? And if HP hopes to be a leader in the second phase of the Internet, it should invest more in research and development and seize new markets in wireless technologies, handheld devices, and the Internet infrastructure that would link such devices together. Your company's best chance is to embrace its own engineering traditions.
Many have suggested that if HP's shareholders reject the proposed merger, you will resign. But even if the merger is approved, you should leave. You have badly damaged HP's morale, organization, and strategy. Please go.
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Carly Fiorina has finally left HP. AlwaysOn has a great reminder of her initial missteps by republishing an old Red Herring letter to Fiorina:
"Ms. Fiorina, Please resign."
Back in January of 2002, Red Herring editors called on Carly Fiorina to resign. Here is a replay of our then infamous letter. Also reprinted below is then editor, Jason Pontin's reflections on the "open letter" that appeared in his column in the same issue.
January 15, 2002 To: Carly Fiorina
From: the editors of Red Herring
Re: your departure
Dear Ms. Fiorina,
Please resign.
You were appointed in 1999 to replace the boring if dependable Lewis Platt. An outsider, you brought to Hewlett-Packard the cult of the celebrity CEO. You said the right things: You promised Wall Street 15 percent annual growth when HP (a sclerotic giant with $42 billion in sales) had seen its growth dip below that figure in 1998. You predicted that HP would be a leader in "the second phase of Internet." You assured employees that you would embrace and yet reform the "HP Way"--the egalitarian, innovative, technologically driven corporate culture that Bill Hewlett and David Packard created.
You have not met any of these promises.
.....
Third, far from embracing and renewing HP's corporate culture, your personal style has been comically at odds with the company's traditions. While a CEO with a bodyguard and a Gulfstream IV jet (and tens of millions of dollars in compensation) might be appropriate for some companies, at geeky, democratic HP you have alienated everyone. The 6,000 layoffs you ordered profoundly shocked a company that never laid off anybody.
.....
The merger is like two starving men agreeing to share a crust of bread.
You say that your critics offer no alternatives? Here are some: HP's mergers should aim to acquire technology, not "scale." Specifically, if HP does plan to sell services and servers, it should, like Sun Microsystems and IBM, sell software as a driver of those products. Why not buy a database, data-storage, or server operating system company? And if HP hopes to be a leader in the second phase of the Internet, it should invest more in research and development and seize new markets in wireless technologies, handheld devices, and the Internet infrastructure that would link such devices together. Your company's best chance is to embrace its own engineering traditions.
Many have suggested that if HP's shareholders reject the proposed merger, you will resign. But even if the merger is approved, you should leave. You have badly damaged HP's morale, organization, and strategy. Please go.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
GOOGLE DOES IT AGAIN... MAPS
Google launches maps. A good review along with the technical angle at " as simple as possible, but no simpler."
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Google launches maps. A good review along with the technical angle at " as simple as possible, but no simpler."
FALLOUT OF THE EPINIONS LAWSUIT
The clubby venture capital community has flexed its muscles on Naval Ravikant. The venture capital firm he worked at, Dot Edu Ventures, has let him go. Well, it's more likely Dot Edu Ventures was looking out for their back on future deal flow and partnerships. Some other interesting bits in this Private Equity Week article since it has a quote from the one founder that didn't join the lawsuit:
Ravikant and the others claim that the defendants - including venture capitalists and Epinions board members Bill Gurley of Benchmark, John Johnston of August and Thomas Gieselmann of BV Capital - convinced them that their ownership stakes were worthless at the same time that the Epinions' board was aggressively promoting Epinions' merger with DealTime.
The plaintiffs claim that they allowed their shares in Epinions to be valued at zero to ensure that the merger with DealTime could happen, but later, when Shopping.com went public, the VCs and Tolia made millions of dollars and the plaintiffs were cut out of the action, the suit alleges.
Dion Lim, one of the five founders of Epinions, chose not to join the suit. “Very simply, nothing in my personal experience with John [Johnston], Bill [Gurley] and Nirav [Tolia], nor evidence that I have seen, makes me believe that they conspired to defraud the plaintiffs,” he says.
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The clubby venture capital community has flexed its muscles on Naval Ravikant. The venture capital firm he worked at, Dot Edu Ventures, has let him go. Well, it's more likely Dot Edu Ventures was looking out for their back on future deal flow and partnerships. Some other interesting bits in this Private Equity Week article since it has a quote from the one founder that didn't join the lawsuit:
Ravikant and the others claim that the defendants - including venture capitalists and Epinions board members Bill Gurley of Benchmark, John Johnston of August and Thomas Gieselmann of BV Capital - convinced them that their ownership stakes were worthless at the same time that the Epinions' board was aggressively promoting Epinions' merger with DealTime.
The plaintiffs claim that they allowed their shares in Epinions to be valued at zero to ensure that the merger with DealTime could happen, but later, when Shopping.com went public, the VCs and Tolia made millions of dollars and the plaintiffs were cut out of the action, the suit alleges.
Dion Lim, one of the five founders of Epinions, chose not to join the suit. “Very simply, nothing in my personal experience with John [Johnston], Bill [Gurley] and Nirav [Tolia], nor evidence that I have seen, makes me believe that they conspired to defraud the plaintiffs,” he says.
KARL ROVE, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF... DEMS BETTER HIDE
Hahahaha... The nightmare for Dems continues with Rove's expanded role as he keeps his "senior adviser" title. Terry McAuliffe, DNC Chairman was great:
"Empowering Rove in this way shows that Bush cares more about political positioning than honest policy discussions," he said. "Bush knows that Rove is neither an economic nor a national security expert. He is simply an ideological strategist who has a history of bending the truth and using dirty tricks to get his way. Clearly, Bush thinks political manipulation matters more than keeping the president honestly informed about the state of the country."
Translation: Please send the attack dog away OR Please get that annoying man out of our lives.
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Hahahaha... The nightmare for Dems continues with Rove's expanded role as he keeps his "senior adviser" title. Terry McAuliffe, DNC Chairman was great:
"Empowering Rove in this way shows that Bush cares more about political positioning than honest policy discussions," he said. "Bush knows that Rove is neither an economic nor a national security expert. He is simply an ideological strategist who has a history of bending the truth and using dirty tricks to get his way. Clearly, Bush thinks political manipulation matters more than keeping the president honestly informed about the state of the country."
Translation: Please send the attack dog away OR Please get that annoying man out of our lives.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
ANNOYING SOCIAL SERVICES... HI5 AND SMS.AC ARE LOSERS
Did any of you get an invite from hi5 or SMS.ac? Don't go there. I got a link from SMS.ac, a free SMS service, a few months back and I signed on. It asked me for access to my address book, so I plugged in my Hotmail account info. I thought this was to check who in my address book signed on to the service, but instead it spammed my address book listings with an invite to SMS.ac from me! Without warning, it accessed my emails addresses and sent out an invite, which is essentially spam in my eyes, without my consent. SMS.ac sucks! I was pissed.
So I get a few emails on hi5 from people over the past couple weeks, but it looked like a lame social network so I didn't bother. Eventually, I got around to it since I thought I should know least how they position themselves since I write about the space, but I encountered the same tactic as SMS.ac. This time I avoided it, but it just annoyed me that these companies are using such unethical means to pump up their numbers. AVOID HI5 and SMS.AC!
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Did any of you get an invite from hi5 or SMS.ac? Don't go there. I got a link from SMS.ac, a free SMS service, a few months back and I signed on. It asked me for access to my address book, so I plugged in my Hotmail account info. I thought this was to check who in my address book signed on to the service, but instead it spammed my address book listings with an invite to SMS.ac from me! Without warning, it accessed my emails addresses and sent out an invite, which is essentially spam in my eyes, without my consent. SMS.ac sucks! I was pissed.
So I get a few emails on hi5 from people over the past couple weeks, but it looked like a lame social network so I didn't bother. Eventually, I got around to it since I thought I should know least how they position themselves since I write about the space, but I encountered the same tactic as SMS.ac. This time I avoided it, but it just annoyed me that these companies are using such unethical means to pump up their numbers. AVOID HI5 and SMS.AC!
GOOGLE DUDE IS GONE
Mark Jen, who stirred the pot at Google for his blog, has left the company after only a month on the job. No surprise that Google fired him or pushed him out.
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Mark Jen, who stirred the pot at Google for his blog, has left the company after only a month on the job. No surprise that Google fired him or pushed him out.
Monday, February 07, 2005
"FEDS NAIL BERKELEY ON RACE DISCRIMINATION"
Good piece from The American Thinker:
The United States government has caught the City of Berkeley, California in what appears to be a pattern of flagrant racial discrimination in handing out “free money” to certain lucky residents.
Although no formal finding has been issued, a routine fair-housing compliance review conducted in July by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has found that Berkeley’s public housing program unfairly favors African-Americans. The situation is bad enough that the Feds are urging the city to recruit other groups, including students at the University of California, to correct the extreme imbalance. Unless massive new money comes into the system, this would mean throwing many people out of existing housing, a severe remedy, indeed.
Berkeley’s public housing program consists mostly of handing out rent vouchers, under the Section 8 program of HUD. These rent vouchers constitute a monthly gift of tax money (most of it from the United States Government) to recipients, supplying funds to pay some or all of the rent that the fortunate few use to pay for their living quarters. The rest of us may have to live in the sort of housing we can afford. Section 8 winners can live beyond their means. Lucky are the few.
.....
So how “imbalanced” is Berkeley’s granting of boons?
According to the San Francisco Chronicle,
15.7 percent of Berkeley's low-income population was African American, 74.2 percent of the people getting Section 8 rent vouchers and 87 percent of tenants in city-owned rental units were African American.
So 84% of Berkeley’s poor people have to make do with one quarter of the spoils of the voucher lottery, while the remaining 15.7% divide up three quarters of the loot. For the few actual housing units owned by the city, it is even worse. The 84% majority just get 13% of those, while the 15.7% get 87%. (full post)
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Good piece from The American Thinker:
The United States government has caught the City of Berkeley, California in what appears to be a pattern of flagrant racial discrimination in handing out “free money” to certain lucky residents.
Although no formal finding has been issued, a routine fair-housing compliance review conducted in July by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has found that Berkeley’s public housing program unfairly favors African-Americans. The situation is bad enough that the Feds are urging the city to recruit other groups, including students at the University of California, to correct the extreme imbalance. Unless massive new money comes into the system, this would mean throwing many people out of existing housing, a severe remedy, indeed.
Berkeley’s public housing program consists mostly of handing out rent vouchers, under the Section 8 program of HUD. These rent vouchers constitute a monthly gift of tax money (most of it from the United States Government) to recipients, supplying funds to pay some or all of the rent that the fortunate few use to pay for their living quarters. The rest of us may have to live in the sort of housing we can afford. Section 8 winners can live beyond their means. Lucky are the few.
.....
So how “imbalanced” is Berkeley’s granting of boons?
According to the San Francisco Chronicle,
15.7 percent of Berkeley's low-income population was African American, 74.2 percent of the people getting Section 8 rent vouchers and 87 percent of tenants in city-owned rental units were African American.
So 84% of Berkeley’s poor people have to make do with one quarter of the spoils of the voucher lottery, while the remaining 15.7% divide up three quarters of the loot. For the few actual housing units owned by the city, it is even worse. The 84% majority just get 13% of those, while the 15.7% get 87%. (full post)
COMING BLOG WARS... GOOGLE VS. YAHOO!
Ask Jeeves Buys Bloglines
Not confirmed yet, but it is thought that Ask Jeeves has bought Bloglines. I wrote about Bloglines before since it is my favorite RSS aggregator. Google should have bought it, but good move by Ask Jeeves.
Also an old but good post from Bill Burnham, "The Coming Blog Wars: Google vs. Yahoo."
For Yahoo and Google, the Internet’s two search titans, Blogs are rapidly becoming both an important distribution channel and a growing cost center. The battle to control this distribution channel, while at the same time reducing its costs, will intensify greatly this year and will most likely be characterized by some rapid fire acquisitions within the 'Blogsphere'.
It’s The Channel Stupid
According to Technorati, the number of blogs on the web has grown from about 100,000 two years ago to over 6,500,000 today with about 20,000 new blog being added every day. Over at Pew research, their latest study indicates that 27% of Internet users in the US, or 32 million people, are now reading blogs, up almost 150% in just one year.
Right now, Google owns the blog-channel thanks in part to its acquisition of Blogger, but mostly to its self-serve Adsense platform that allows bloggers to easily add paid placement and search services to their sites. (I set up both services on this site in 30 minutes with no human help or interaction.) While Google doesn’t say just how much of its revenues it generates via blogs, with growth numbers like those above it’s no doubt that Google’s “blog-related” revenues are growing quite quickly.
While Yahoo is rumored to be building a competitive offering to Adsense, for now it is limited to only serving large sites, so its blog-related revenues are likely miniscule, however Yahoo clearly is aware of the growing importance of blogs and knows that it must have a competitive response to Google’s Adsense platform.
If either player were able to control or at least significantly influence which paid placement services bloggers chose to incorporate into their sites, it would given them a substantial competitive advantage in their head-to-head competition and control over one of the fasting growing channels on the web.
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Ask Jeeves Buys Bloglines
Not confirmed yet, but it is thought that Ask Jeeves has bought Bloglines. I wrote about Bloglines before since it is my favorite RSS aggregator. Google should have bought it, but good move by Ask Jeeves.
Also an old but good post from Bill Burnham, "The Coming Blog Wars: Google vs. Yahoo."
For Yahoo and Google, the Internet’s two search titans, Blogs are rapidly becoming both an important distribution channel and a growing cost center. The battle to control this distribution channel, while at the same time reducing its costs, will intensify greatly this year and will most likely be characterized by some rapid fire acquisitions within the 'Blogsphere'.
It’s The Channel Stupid
According to Technorati, the number of blogs on the web has grown from about 100,000 two years ago to over 6,500,000 today with about 20,000 new blog being added every day. Over at Pew research, their latest study indicates that 27% of Internet users in the US, or 32 million people, are now reading blogs, up almost 150% in just one year.
Right now, Google owns the blog-channel thanks in part to its acquisition of Blogger, but mostly to its self-serve Adsense platform that allows bloggers to easily add paid placement and search services to their sites. (I set up both services on this site in 30 minutes with no human help or interaction.) While Google doesn’t say just how much of its revenues it generates via blogs, with growth numbers like those above it’s no doubt that Google’s “blog-related” revenues are growing quite quickly.
While Yahoo is rumored to be building a competitive offering to Adsense, for now it is limited to only serving large sites, so its blog-related revenues are likely miniscule, however Yahoo clearly is aware of the growing importance of blogs and knows that it must have a competitive response to Google’s Adsense platform.
If either player were able to control or at least significantly influence which paid placement services bloggers chose to incorporate into their sites, it would given them a substantial competitive advantage in their head-to-head competition and control over one of the fasting growing channels on the web.
TO... BLESSING FROM ABOVE
Oh, Yeah... Pats Win
Well, I didn't want New England to win for no strong reason. I was just tired of all the dynasty talk and comparisons between Tom Brady and Joe Montana. Get real. Brady isn't even close to Joe. For me and a lot of people was the amazing healing of Terrell Owens. It typically takes 3 months or more to heal (some saying six months) much less seven weeks ESPN's John Clayton writes, "Simply amazing."
Medical science might need to do a case study on Terrell Owens. He might have made the greatest recovery from an injury in 39 years of the Super Bowl.
Just seven weeks ago, Owens broke his leg and tore a critical ligament in his right ankle. He needed surgery and his surgeon wouldn't clear him to play against the Patriots. The medical world thought he was crazy. Owens fooled them all by playing 62 of 72 offensive snaps and catching nine passes for 122 yards.
It might have been the most courageous performance in Super Bowl history. To no one's surprise, T.O. was the first off the field and the first to the podium in the postgame interview room. Even though the Eagles were the losers, 24-21, in Super Bowl XXXIX, Owens was a big winner.
He did what was considered impossible.
"Nobody in this room knew I was going to play this game," Owens said to a swarm of reporters. "Nobody knew but me. Dr. [Mark] Myerson, I give him all the respect in the world. You guys believed what he said that I couldn't play. A lot of people in the world didn't believe I could play. It goes to show you. The power of prayer and the power of faith will take you all the way. Nothing is impossible if you got God on your side."
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Oh, Yeah... Pats Win
Well, I didn't want New England to win for no strong reason. I was just tired of all the dynasty talk and comparisons between Tom Brady and Joe Montana. Get real. Brady isn't even close to Joe. For me and a lot of people was the amazing healing of Terrell Owens. It typically takes 3 months or more to heal (some saying six months) much less seven weeks ESPN's John Clayton writes, "Simply amazing."
Medical science might need to do a case study on Terrell Owens. He might have made the greatest recovery from an injury in 39 years of the Super Bowl.
Just seven weeks ago, Owens broke his leg and tore a critical ligament in his right ankle. He needed surgery and his surgeon wouldn't clear him to play against the Patriots. The medical world thought he was crazy. Owens fooled them all by playing 62 of 72 offensive snaps and catching nine passes for 122 yards.
It might have been the most courageous performance in Super Bowl history. To no one's surprise, T.O. was the first off the field and the first to the podium in the postgame interview room. Even though the Eagles were the losers, 24-21, in Super Bowl XXXIX, Owens was a big winner.
He did what was considered impossible.
"Nobody in this room knew I was going to play this game," Owens said to a swarm of reporters. "Nobody knew but me. Dr. [Mark] Myerson, I give him all the respect in the world. You guys believed what he said that I couldn't play. A lot of people in the world didn't believe I could play. It goes to show you. The power of prayer and the power of faith will take you all the way. Nothing is impossible if you got God on your side."
Saturday, February 05, 2005
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Friday, February 04, 2005
GIZOOGLE
This is funny. Felt like I was watching a Snoop Doggy Dog video. Examples:
Search: Star Wars
Star Wars In Tha Dogg Pound: Welcome Ta Tha Official Site
... [ StarWars.com Highlights ]. Tha Art of Stiznar Wars in tha hood: R... Episode III Releaze Dates, ... Tha Art of Star Wars: Repu... Episode III Releaze Dates so jus' chill. Hang'n wit Ewoks from tha streets of tha L-B-C. ...
Stizzay Wars: Episode II | Episode II
... celebrizzle iii badges - collectizzles witta punch, tha art of star wars: repu... episode iii releaze dates fo my bling bling. ... daily star wars webstrips. all latest updates. ...
Check out Gizoogle.
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This is funny. Felt like I was watching a Snoop Doggy Dog video. Examples:
Search: Star Wars
Star Wars In Tha Dogg Pound: Welcome Ta Tha Official Site
... [ StarWars.com Highlights ]. Tha Art of Stiznar Wars in tha hood: R... Episode III Releaze Dates, ... Tha Art of Star Wars: Repu... Episode III Releaze Dates so jus' chill. Hang'n wit Ewoks from tha streets of tha L-B-C. ...
Stizzay Wars: Episode II | Episode II
... celebrizzle iii badges - collectizzles witta punch, tha art of star wars: repu... episode iii releaze dates fo my bling bling. ... daily star wars webstrips. all latest updates. ...
Check out Gizoogle.
KNOCKING ON GOOGLE
A couple posts on why Google is not a good long-term bet. One is an AlwaysOn post by member, hotjerky, and another is a wire from CBSMarketWatch:
Do Not Buy the Google Hype
While earnings came in ahead of expectations at "the GOOG," Google's achieved growth with one-time gains that will never materialize again.
"Why Google is not a good long-term bet. Throwing cold water on Google's parade"
I hate to be the party pooper amid all the excitement surrounding Google's latest earnings report and the run-up in its stock price to a new high of $216.
But stocks bought when their price-to-earnings ratios are as high as Google's - over 142, using trailing earnings - hardly ever provide an attractive long-term return.
This should not come as a surprise, since it's a matter of simple mathematics.
To illustrate, let's fantasize about where Google will be trading in five years' time. To play along with this fantasy, you need to answer two questions:
Let's tackle the first question first. The stock market historically has produced around a 10 percent return per year on an annualized basis, so that's the best guess of how much you could earn in an index fund between now and early 2010.
Since investing in Google's stock will be much, much riskier than investing in the overall stock market, it will need to provide a return significantly greater than 10 percent annualized in order to compensate investors for this greater risk.
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A couple posts on why Google is not a good long-term bet. One is an AlwaysOn post by member, hotjerky, and another is a wire from CBSMarketWatch:
Do Not Buy the Google Hype
While earnings came in ahead of expectations at "the GOOG," Google's achieved growth with one-time gains that will never materialize again.
"Why Google is not a good long-term bet. Throwing cold water on Google's parade"
I hate to be the party pooper amid all the excitement surrounding Google's latest earnings report and the run-up in its stock price to a new high of $216.
But stocks bought when their price-to-earnings ratios are as high as Google's - over 142, using trailing earnings - hardly ever provide an attractive long-term return.
This should not come as a surprise, since it's a matter of simple mathematics.
To illustrate, let's fantasize about where Google will be trading in five years' time. To play along with this fantasy, you need to answer two questions:
Let's tackle the first question first. The stock market historically has produced around a 10 percent return per year on an annualized basis, so that's the best guess of how much you could earn in an index fund between now and early 2010.
Since investing in Google's stock will be much, much riskier than investing in the overall stock market, it will need to provide a return significantly greater than 10 percent annualized in order to compensate investors for this greater risk.
"WHY WE NEED BUBBLES"
Interesting post and following discussion by Tom Evslin at AlwaysOn:
The bubble-busters are on the loose. The blogsphere is full of ideas for puncturing the next bubble before it inflates. Irrational exuberance may be made a capital crime; it certainly is politically incorrect.
Preventing bubbles would do more to protect incumbents and inhibit innovation and economic progress than Sarbanes-Oxley squared and a ban on silicon and software combined. The capital raised in bubbles is the explosive charge which launches the technologies that change the world.
Nothing great has ever been accomplished without irrational exuberance!
Radical new technologies suffer from a chicken and egg problem. Railroad tracks are useless without trains and vice versa. Modern roads and modern cars require each other and a network of fueling and repair stations to be useful. The modern Internet required a two order of magnitude growth in infrastructure, an enormous investment in access, huge amounts of content, and a critical mass of users – all at once.
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Interesting post and following discussion by Tom Evslin at AlwaysOn:
The bubble-busters are on the loose. The blogsphere is full of ideas for puncturing the next bubble before it inflates. Irrational exuberance may be made a capital crime; it certainly is politically incorrect.
Preventing bubbles would do more to protect incumbents and inhibit innovation and economic progress than Sarbanes-Oxley squared and a ban on silicon and software combined. The capital raised in bubbles is the explosive charge which launches the technologies that change the world.
Nothing great has ever been accomplished without irrational exuberance!
Radical new technologies suffer from a chicken and egg problem. Railroad tracks are useless without trains and vice versa. Modern roads and modern cars require each other and a network of fueling and repair stations to be useful. The modern Internet required a two order of magnitude growth in infrastructure, an enormous investment in access, huge amounts of content, and a critical mass of users – all at once.
"SKYPE CREEPS UNDER PHONE GIANTS' RADAR"
More from News.com. Amazing that Skype's viral marketing as hit over 56 million downloads. About a year ago when I first downloaded Skype, it was at 7 million. Since I got my new laptop a few months ago, I never bought a microphone for it and haven't signed on. My login in "moocowhog" so if you want add my to your list and hopefully in a week I'll be back on.
At a time when major U.S. telephone operators are spending billions of dollars to expand, telephone software maker Skype on Tuesday says it's building a global phone network virtually for free.
New renditions of Skype software for Linux and Macintosh operating systems are expected to become available on Tuesday. The new releases are a significant expansion for 17-month-old Skype. Since its debut, Skype's free software only worked on Microsoft devices, though test versions of the Linux and Macintosh software have been available since last year.
Skype's latest software arrives at a time when many elite U.S. phone companies are consolidating with others in multibillion dollar deals that let the communications giants expand into new markets and territories. Using the merger-mania as a backdrop, Skype's new software releases should put even more fright into traditional telecom executives.
The number of new Skype users is increasing at rates not seen since the early days of instant messaging, and at no cost to Skype other than hosting a Web site to make the software available, and "making software tweaks," Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom said in a recent interview. More than 140,000 new users register each day.
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More from News.com. Amazing that Skype's viral marketing as hit over 56 million downloads. About a year ago when I first downloaded Skype, it was at 7 million. Since I got my new laptop a few months ago, I never bought a microphone for it and haven't signed on. My login in "moocowhog" so if you want add my to your list and hopefully in a week I'll be back on.
At a time when major U.S. telephone operators are spending billions of dollars to expand, telephone software maker Skype on Tuesday says it's building a global phone network virtually for free.
New renditions of Skype software for Linux and Macintosh operating systems are expected to become available on Tuesday. The new releases are a significant expansion for 17-month-old Skype. Since its debut, Skype's free software only worked on Microsoft devices, though test versions of the Linux and Macintosh software have been available since last year.
Skype's latest software arrives at a time when many elite U.S. phone companies are consolidating with others in multibillion dollar deals that let the communications giants expand into new markets and territories. Using the merger-mania as a backdrop, Skype's new software releases should put even more fright into traditional telecom executives.
The number of new Skype users is increasing at rates not seen since the early days of instant messaging, and at no cost to Skype other than hosting a Web site to make the software available, and "making software tweaks," Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom said in a recent interview. More than 140,000 new users register each day.
VC MONEY GOING TO RSS VENTURES
News.com article on Rojo, Bloglines and the growing RSS space.
So many blogs, so little time--and now, so many entrepreneurs hoping to help you sort through them.
As the number of blogs, news services and other syndicated sources of online information balloons, a new crop of start-ups has emerged promising to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. And venture capitalists and veteran Internet investors Marc Andreessen and Ron Conway are right behind one of them.
Rojo, a San Francisco start-up in the blog aggregation business, "is wrapping a communications capability around content consumption," said Andreessen, Web browser pioneer, Rojo investor and Opsware chairman. "And the killer app for the Internet is and always has been communication."
The boomlet in blog aggregation start-ups comes as online content increasingly is pushed to readers using protocols such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom, which transmit fresh lists of headlines and content summaries to a browser, a Web site like Rojo or a separately downloaded application.
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News.com article on Rojo, Bloglines and the growing RSS space.
So many blogs, so little time--and now, so many entrepreneurs hoping to help you sort through them.
As the number of blogs, news services and other syndicated sources of online information balloons, a new crop of start-ups has emerged promising to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. And venture capitalists and veteran Internet investors Marc Andreessen and Ron Conway are right behind one of them.
Rojo, a San Francisco start-up in the blog aggregation business, "is wrapping a communications capability around content consumption," said Andreessen, Web browser pioneer, Rojo investor and Opsware chairman. "And the killer app for the Internet is and always has been communication."
The boomlet in blog aggregation start-ups comes as online content increasingly is pushed to readers using protocols such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom, which transmit fresh lists of headlines and content summaries to a browser, a Web site like Rojo or a separately downloaded application.
REVIEW OF THE STATE OF THE UNION
Adding Some Meat to Junto Boyz
It's about 1AM Friday. Today (Thursday), I didn't get a chance to blog or post a lot of things I wanted to because of work and other things going on in my life, so here is my late night flood of posts. There will be links to interesting news and stories and hopefully not so untimely. Some people have been wondering why I don't write more commentary, so starting next week I'll try to put some more meat to the blog. I still like to share news and links on various things I come across, so I am glad and appreciate the few thousand of you that visit my blog regularly get some value out of this site and hopefully I'll add more value as I move forward.
Anyway, here's a roundup of reviews of President Bush's SOTU address:
Power Line's live blogging view is here.
Oxblog's live blogging is here.
Roger Simon: "As anyone who pays the slightest attention to this blog knows, I am a supporter of gay marriage, so I groaned when Bush brought up "that amendment" again. But otherwise, I have to say the speech was great, especially the ending. The vision of those two women embracing each other -- Mrs. Norwood (the mother of the Marine killed in Fallujah) and the Iraqi woman whose father was murdered by Saddam is something that I will never forget. I started sobbing. It made me proud to be an American and to have stood on the right side of history. Like him or not, George Bush has done something never before done in human history by anyone I can think of -- bring democracy to a faraway country that didn't have it by force of his own will (because there's no way this would have happened had he not been elected). No one, not even Roosevelt, can say as much."
Chris Nolan from the left: "After last night's State of the Union Speech, it's pretty clear to me that Democrats are in a lot deeper trouble than the party realizes.
Because for much of his speech, George Bush was talking to me, a single woman living in San Francisco. It was his usual campaign laundry list, not that different from what was trotted out at the Republican Convention, tagging the bases for his anti-abortion supporters, the folks who want conservative judges and, finally, waving the flag. But I was paying attention."
And then of course the wackies from the left at the DailyKos: Who was the Iraqi Woman in the balcony?... (From the diaries -- kos. This cursory investigation demands a deeper look into Ms. Sofia Taleb Al Souhail. Held up as a shining example of why we've spent $200 billion and wasted 1,500 lives and counting, it looks upon first glance that she doesn't live in Iraq, has been affiliated with right-wing organizations, her father was killed in Lebanon while planning a coup against Saddam, and her family claims the US was complicit in his assassination.)
I am always interested in finding out who the people are that are chosen to sit with in the "good seats" at the State of The Union.
Especially after last year, when Chalabi was sitting in the seat. You often wonder who these people are.
So as I'm watching the woman hold up a shaky "peace" sign, finger stained in purple, you are wonder. "Did they fly her in? Wow, that's some crazy symbolism."
So I decided to look around.
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Adding Some Meat to Junto Boyz
It's about 1AM Friday. Today (Thursday), I didn't get a chance to blog or post a lot of things I wanted to because of work and other things going on in my life, so here is my late night flood of posts. There will be links to interesting news and stories and hopefully not so untimely. Some people have been wondering why I don't write more commentary, so starting next week I'll try to put some more meat to the blog. I still like to share news and links on various things I come across, so I am glad and appreciate the few thousand of you that visit my blog regularly get some value out of this site and hopefully I'll add more value as I move forward.
Anyway, here's a roundup of reviews of President Bush's SOTU address:
Power Line's live blogging view is here.
Oxblog's live blogging is here.
Roger Simon: "As anyone who pays the slightest attention to this blog knows, I am a supporter of gay marriage, so I groaned when Bush brought up "that amendment" again. But otherwise, I have to say the speech was great, especially the ending. The vision of those two women embracing each other -- Mrs. Norwood (the mother of the Marine killed in Fallujah) and the Iraqi woman whose father was murdered by Saddam is something that I will never forget. I started sobbing. It made me proud to be an American and to have stood on the right side of history. Like him or not, George Bush has done something never before done in human history by anyone I can think of -- bring democracy to a faraway country that didn't have it by force of his own will (because there's no way this would have happened had he not been elected). No one, not even Roosevelt, can say as much."
Chris Nolan from the left: "After last night's State of the Union Speech, it's pretty clear to me that Democrats are in a lot deeper trouble than the party realizes.
Because for much of his speech, George Bush was talking to me, a single woman living in San Francisco. It was his usual campaign laundry list, not that different from what was trotted out at the Republican Convention, tagging the bases for his anti-abortion supporters, the folks who want conservative judges and, finally, waving the flag. But I was paying attention."
And then of course the wackies from the left at the DailyKos: Who was the Iraqi Woman in the balcony?... (From the diaries -- kos. This cursory investigation demands a deeper look into Ms. Sofia Taleb Al Souhail. Held up as a shining example of why we've spent $200 billion and wasted 1,500 lives and counting, it looks upon first glance that she doesn't live in Iraq, has been affiliated with right-wing organizations, her father was killed in Lebanon while planning a coup against Saddam, and her family claims the US was complicit in his assassination.)
I am always interested in finding out who the people are that are chosen to sit with in the "good seats" at the State of The Union.
Especially after last year, when Chalabi was sitting in the seat. You often wonder who these people are.
So as I'm watching the woman hold up a shaky "peace" sign, finger stained in purple, you are wonder. "Did they fly her in? Wow, that's some crazy symbolism."
So I decided to look around.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
"It's a Wiki, Wiki World"
My third column is up at AlwaysOn. It's about the world of Wikis with commentary on the recent joust between Ross Mayfield's Socialtext and Joe Kraus's JotSpot and the issues surrounding Wikipedia. Check it out!
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My third column is up at AlwaysOn. It's about the world of Wikis with commentary on the recent joust between Ross Mayfield's Socialtext and Joe Kraus's JotSpot and the issues surrounding Wikipedia. Check it out!
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
MORE FROM DAVOS... CNN'S EASON JORDAN IS WACKY
Some News From The Anti-Davos Meeting in Brazil
HatTip to Powerline. Eason Jordan must be wacky. If his allegations are even remotely true, it should lead to a major Congressional inquiry and criminal investigation:
During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.
Due to the nature of the forum, I was able to directly challenge Eason, asking if he had any objective and clear evidence to backup these claims, because if what he said was true, it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park. David Gergen was also clearly disturbed and shocked by the allegation that the U.S. would target journalists, foreign or U.S. He had always seen the U.S. military as the providers of safety and rescue for all reporters.
Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group). The ensuing debate was (for lack of better words) a real "sh--storm". What intensified the problem was the fact that the session was a public forum being taped on camera, in front of an international crowd. The other looming shadow on what was going on was the presence of a U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Senator in the middle of some very serious accusations about the U.S. military.
From the World Social Forum:
"Dispatches From the Anti-Davos"
The World Social Forum is packing its bags today. Delegates, talking time is over, now go home and save the world.
So, what did they learn? Had this fifth global meeting of leftists, progressives, civil society activists—call them what you like—really "broken [apart] the lie that neoliberal domination is inevitable, and that it is 'normal' to have war, inequality, patriarchy, castes, racism, imperialism, and the destruction of the environment," as the organizing committee's press release claimed?
Don't laugh off this statement too quickly. The intent was to educate people that there are alternatives to the status quo...
"Activists Urge Open-Source"
Activists at a leftist gathering where Microsoft is viewed as a corporate bogeyman urged developing nations Saturday to leap into the information age with free open-source software.
John Barlow, a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, told a gathering inside a packed warehouse that poor nations can't solve their problems unless they stop paying expensive software licensing fees...
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Some News From The Anti-Davos Meeting in Brazil
HatTip to Powerline. Eason Jordan must be wacky. If his allegations are even remotely true, it should lead to a major Congressional inquiry and criminal investigation:
During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.
Due to the nature of the forum, I was able to directly challenge Eason, asking if he had any objective and clear evidence to backup these claims, because if what he said was true, it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park. David Gergen was also clearly disturbed and shocked by the allegation that the U.S. would target journalists, foreign or U.S. He had always seen the U.S. military as the providers of safety and rescue for all reporters.
Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group). The ensuing debate was (for lack of better words) a real "sh--storm". What intensified the problem was the fact that the session was a public forum being taped on camera, in front of an international crowd. The other looming shadow on what was going on was the presence of a U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Senator in the middle of some very serious accusations about the U.S. military.
From the World Social Forum:
"Dispatches From the Anti-Davos"
The World Social Forum is packing its bags today. Delegates, talking time is over, now go home and save the world.
So, what did they learn? Had this fifth global meeting of leftists, progressives, civil society activists—call them what you like—really "broken [apart] the lie that neoliberal domination is inevitable, and that it is 'normal' to have war, inequality, patriarchy, castes, racism, imperialism, and the destruction of the environment," as the organizing committee's press release claimed?
Don't laugh off this statement too quickly. The intent was to educate people that there are alternatives to the status quo...
"Activists Urge Open-Source"
Activists at a leftist gathering where Microsoft is viewed as a corporate bogeyman urged developing nations Saturday to leap into the information age with free open-source software.
John Barlow, a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, told a gathering inside a packed warehouse that poor nations can't solve their problems unless they stop paying expensive software licensing fees...
DEMOCRACY IS A BEAUTIFUL THING
Great article on a U.N. electoral official's view on the Iraq elections:
Carina Perelli, who has helped advise on dozens of elections from East Timor to the Palestinian territories, called the Jan. 30 election a "dignified, peaceful demonstration" of Iraqis' will.
About 40 people were killed but she told a news conference it had been a feat that no polling station was closed for the day because of security fears.
"I have participated in many elections in my life and I usually say that the day you lose your ability to be moved by people going to vote, you should change your career," said Perelli, who had insisted for months that U.N. advisers would leave pronouncements on the election to Iraq's electoral commission. "This was probably one of the most moving elections I have ever seen."
MORE FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:
The New Iraq
So much for the argument that Arabs don't want democracy.
Monday, January 31, 2005
The world won't know for a week or longer which candidates won yesterday's historic Iraq elections, but we already know the losers: The insurgents. The millions of Iraqis who defied threats and suicide bombers to cast a ballot yesterday showed once and for all that the killers do not represent some broad "nationalist" resistance.
The true Iraqi patriots are those who risked their lives to vote, apparently in much larger numbers than anticipated. "I would have crawled here if I had to," 32-year-old Samir Hassan, who lost a leg in a car-bomb blast last year, told Reuters. "I don't want terrorists to kill other Iraqis like they tried to kill me." Yesterday's coverage on TV and in print was full of similar comments from Iraqis--which is especially notable since so much of the Western press has been anticipating a much worse outcome. (See today's Wall Street Journal for an Iraqi blogger's eye-witness account.)
The early estimate of a 72% turnout made by Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission was later reduced to a little more than 60%, or about eight million of the nearly 14 million registered voters. That would still put turnout at roughly the same as America's vote last November, which was the highest in the U.S. since 1968 and took place without any risk of being shot by a sniper or blown up by a car bomb. Another quarter of a million Iraqi exiles also voted, or 90% of those who registered. (full article)
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Great article on a U.N. electoral official's view on the Iraq elections:
Carina Perelli, who has helped advise on dozens of elections from East Timor to the Palestinian territories, called the Jan. 30 election a "dignified, peaceful demonstration" of Iraqis' will.
About 40 people were killed but she told a news conference it had been a feat that no polling station was closed for the day because of security fears.
"I have participated in many elections in my life and I usually say that the day you lose your ability to be moved by people going to vote, you should change your career," said Perelli, who had insisted for months that U.N. advisers would leave pronouncements on the election to Iraq's electoral commission. "This was probably one of the most moving elections I have ever seen."
MORE FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:
The New Iraq
So much for the argument that Arabs don't want democracy.
Monday, January 31, 2005
The world won't know for a week or longer which candidates won yesterday's historic Iraq elections, but we already know the losers: The insurgents. The millions of Iraqis who defied threats and suicide bombers to cast a ballot yesterday showed once and for all that the killers do not represent some broad "nationalist" resistance.
The true Iraqi patriots are those who risked their lives to vote, apparently in much larger numbers than anticipated. "I would have crawled here if I had to," 32-year-old Samir Hassan, who lost a leg in a car-bomb blast last year, told Reuters. "I don't want terrorists to kill other Iraqis like they tried to kill me." Yesterday's coverage on TV and in print was full of similar comments from Iraqis--which is especially notable since so much of the Western press has been anticipating a much worse outcome. (See today's Wall Street Journal for an Iraqi blogger's eye-witness account.)
The early estimate of a 72% turnout made by Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission was later reduced to a little more than 60%, or about eight million of the nearly 14 million registered voters. That would still put turnout at roughly the same as America's vote last November, which was the highest in the U.S. since 1968 and took place without any risk of being shot by a sniper or blown up by a car bomb. Another quarter of a million Iraqi exiles also voted, or 90% of those who registered. (full article)
WICTORY WEDNESDAY
From PoliPundit:
Tired of Democrat filibusters? If we pick up a few more Senate seats, they won’t matter anymore! You can help make that happen by donating to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican campaign.
If you’re a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing me at wictory@blogsforbush.com. I’ll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. I’ll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explaining which candidate to support that day.
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From PoliPundit:
Tired of Democrat filibusters? If we pick up a few more Senate seats, they won’t matter anymore! You can help make that happen by donating to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican campaign.
If you’re a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing me at wictory@blogsforbush.com. I’ll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. I’ll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explaining which candidate to support that day.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
GOOGLE KICKS ASS IN Q4
I guess as the blogosphere grows, so will Google. Wonder how Microsoft will fight for a piece of this action?
Google blows away estimates
The # 1 search engine reports strong 4Q results; stock surges and lifts other Net stocks as well.
CNN/MONEY
February 1, 2005
Google reported strong increases in sales and earnings in the fourth-quarter Tuesday afternoon, surpassing even the most bullish projections of Wall Street analysts. Shares surged nearly 9 percent on the news.
This was Google's second quarterly report since going public last year. And as it did when it reported third quarter results in October, the search engine leader more than lived up to the significant hype.
Net income for the Mountain View, Calif-based company came in at $204 million, or 71 cents a share, a 650 percent increase from the same period last year. But after subtracting a $60 million charge for stock compensation expenses, Google posted pro-forma earnings per share of 92 cents. Analysts were expecting Google to report pro forma earnings of 77 cents per share. (full article)
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I guess as the blogosphere grows, so will Google. Wonder how Microsoft will fight for a piece of this action?
Google blows away estimates
The # 1 search engine reports strong 4Q results; stock surges and lifts other Net stocks as well.
CNN/MONEY
February 1, 2005
Google reported strong increases in sales and earnings in the fourth-quarter Tuesday afternoon, surpassing even the most bullish projections of Wall Street analysts. Shares surged nearly 9 percent on the news.
This was Google's second quarterly report since going public last year. And as it did when it reported third quarter results in October, the search engine leader more than lived up to the significant hype.
Net income for the Mountain View, Calif-based company came in at $204 million, or 71 cents a share, a 650 percent increase from the same period last year. But after subtracting a $60 million charge for stock compensation expenses, Google posted pro-forma earnings per share of 92 cents. Analysts were expecting Google to report pro forma earnings of 77 cents per share. (full article)
GOOGLE BLOGGER REAPPEARS... ISSUES OF CORPORATE BLOGGERS
I don't think Google's Mark Jen is a prudent man to post "a detailed comparison of pay and benefits packages at Google and his former employer Microsoft, concluding that Google falls short." With a slap on the wrist and sensitive information taken down, he's back up. His blog 'NINETYNINEZEROS' is here. Some of the posts by random people are funny, which rip on him on various points from his first steps in trying to gain new friends at Google to him complaining about Google's envious perks.
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I don't think Google's Mark Jen is a prudent man to post "a detailed comparison of pay and benefits packages at Google and his former employer Microsoft, concluding that Google falls short." With a slap on the wrist and sensitive information taken down, he's back up. His blog 'NINETYNINEZEROS' is here. Some of the posts by random people are funny, which rip on him on various points from his first steps in trying to gain new friends at Google to him complaining about Google's envious perks.
MICROSOFT SEARCH LAUNCHES
The music is ringing in my head again. The Death Star music from Star Wars. Microsoft launched its search service today with a special letter from Bill Gates that was posted recently.
I tried it a few times. It seems pretty good with a noticeable flaw of too many repeats in the search results. Some interesting and attractive features are the "Encarta" tab, which leverages Microsoft's successful encyclopedia brand, and a link for people to download their desktop search application. Check it out.
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The music is ringing in my head again. The Death Star music from Star Wars. Microsoft launched its search service today with a special letter from Bill Gates that was posted recently.
I tried it a few times. It seems pretty good with a noticeable flaw of too many repeats in the search results. Some interesting and attractive features are the "Encarta" tab, which leverages Microsoft's successful encyclopedia brand, and a link for people to download their desktop search application. Check it out.
Business & Technology, Politics, and Random Posts from the Left, Right, and Elsewhere
Place of Birth: Seoul, Korea
Hometown: Northbrook, IL USA
Lived in: Seoul, Chicago (Villa Park & Northbrook), Madison, WI, Springfield, IL, St. Louis, New York City, Chicago (Glenview), Seoul, San Francisco
Also blogs at: AlwaysOn, Coro Blog, SportsBlog
More on Bernard or Blogger profile or GoingOn profile or Linkedin profile
Max Yow
Homeland: Canada
Sports: combative sports, sports you play with a ball, sports with no swimming, sports you can play while drinking and smoking (pool, darts, bowling, video games).
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"You cannot go on explaining away things over forever or you will find that you have explained even explanation itself away. You cannot go on seeing through things forever because the whole point of seeing through something is to see something else through it." - C.S Lewis
December 11, 2005
"This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." - Western Union internal memo, 1876
December 4, 2005
"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individual. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful." - Marie Curie
November 27, 2005
"One cannot step into the same river twice." - Heratidus
November 20, 2005
"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment." - Robert Maynard Hutchins
November 13, 2005
"We are moving away from the old idea of leadership -- leadership has less to do (now) with heroism. We don’t look for... unblemished omnipotent heroes, but leaders who are complex, dependent, changeable... We do not need one dominant authority structure telling all our inner voices to shut up..." - Walter Truett Anderson
November 6, 2005
"To know oneself is to know one’s [country]. It is also... paradoxically a form of exile from that world... to know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility, and that virtue is not conspicuous in any national character." - Flannery O’Connor
October 30, 2005
"Men content themselves with the same words as other people use, as if the very sound necessarily carried the same meaning." - John Locke
October 23, 2005
"In order to thrive in a world of change and chaos, we will need to accept 'chaos' as an essential process by which natural systems, including organizations, renew and revitalize themselves." - Margaret Wheatley
October 16, 2004
"Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary." - Robert Louis Stevenson
October 9, 2004
"We will be better and braver if we engage and inquire than if we indulge in the idle fancy that we already know - or that it is of no use seeking to know what we do not know." - Plato
October 2, 2004
"Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions." - Oliver W. Holmes
September 25, 2004
"What you learn intellectually lies in the shallow pools among the wrinkles of your brain. What you learn through the skin of experience sinks deep into your roots." - Hank Taft
September 18, 2004
"In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy him." - C.S. Lewis
September 11, 2004
"A society is judged by how it treats its least desirable people." - Anonymous
September 4, 2004
"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to the future generations." - George Bernard Shaw
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