WHAT IS GREAT LEADERSHIP?
Fast Company's Doug Sundheim has a post on "What is Great Leadership?" It sucks that you can't access the article in this month's Fast Company he links to without subscribing, which is an annoying move by them (most major magazines have the issue online for free for a limited time). Anyway, I initially posted this at the Coro Blog, which I've been horrible at maintaining lately, since it's part of a leadership development program I went through.
I thought it would be good to post it here too, so I decided to cut and paste it here. Once in a while I'll post the same content on both blogs, but generally it's a pain. This is one reason why I'm looking forward to our platform, GoingOn, launching since we will provide people with the power to post once and it will go up onto as many blogs as you like. Cool for lazy-butts like me :)
FC's current issue on Leadership got me thinking about the definition of the word. In my consulting and coaching I often ask my clients to define great leadership. The most
common answer I get is a list of traits. It usually includes descriptions such as effective communicator, strategic thinker, visionary, smart, charismatic, and straightforward, among many others. I point out that while these lists are interesting and useful, they don't actually define great leadership. They merely define possible characteristics of great leaders. What they don't tell you is how
effectively a leader is actually leading.
Something to consider:
Exhibiting leadership traits" doesn't make one a great leader. If you really want to know how well someone is leading, look at his/her followers. How are they behaving? What are they producing? How have they grown? While traits are good at predicting leadership success, only followers' actions can demonstrate it.
Something to try:
1. On a scale of 1-10, rate your leadership abilities based solely on your followers' actions.
2. Write down where on the scale you'd like to be.
3. If there's a gap, what can you be doing better?
4. If you're not sure, check in with some colleagues or staff members.
5. To be a great leader, stay focused on creating an environment in which others can excel.
Questions: How do you define great leadership?
Junto Boyz
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
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FRIENDSTER, THE ENTERPRISE BUSINESS PLATFORM?
HatTip to Valerie. I don't read SiliconValleyWatcher everyday, so I received an email link to this post by Tom:
I ran into Dave Kochbeck, Director of Operations at Friendster, at a Novell/Horn group media roundtable earlier in the week. He's a very interesting guy and he completely remade my impression of Friendster.
The original social media network is growing up; and its going to be making its platform available to other businesses. In other words, as Dave said, "It has to be about more than just getting teenagers laid." That's a killer quote - Dave knows the value of a soundbite.
.....
Friendster as an enterprise platform makes perfect sense. After all, business relationships are all about personal relationships. And Friendster has been developing some algorithms that map relationships between people in interesting ways - though that work is still in the lab. (full post)
So I read the headline, "Friendster-the enterprise business platform," and I'm thinking that I must be reading The Onion. Then I'm imagining a man with a Friendster t-shirt and hat drowning in the middle of vast ocean... stretching for a life-preserver that slowly floats by (don't delete my profile, guys:). Since they missed the News Corp. luxury liner that MySpace jumped into, Friendster seems to be splashing around for a business model.
Enterprise platform? If they really do go this route, they need an obvious name change, identity make over, and overhaul in their platform. This is no nip tuck job, more like carve and shove. Can you imagine them going to executives at Boeing, "Hi, we're from Friendster, an enterprise solutions for your business needs..."
Of course, I work for GoingOn Networks, which isn't that much of a better name for a enterprise platform company :)
Tom's comment, "Friendster as an enterprise platform makes perfect sense," sounds like its out of The Onion too. I don't think Tom has tried out Linkedin or Visible Path who are much further along in the corporate space for social networks. I don't want to poke too much fun since Tom wrote about GoingOn in the space below his Friendster post and he says he might try us out. I just found this notion of Friendster shifting gears and moving into the enterprise space funny.
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HatTip to Valerie. I don't read SiliconValleyWatcher everyday, so I received an email link to this post by Tom:
I ran into Dave Kochbeck, Director of Operations at Friendster, at a Novell/Horn group media roundtable earlier in the week. He's a very interesting guy and he completely remade my impression of Friendster.
The original social media network is growing up; and its going to be making its platform available to other businesses. In other words, as Dave said, "It has to be about more than just getting teenagers laid." That's a killer quote - Dave knows the value of a soundbite.
.....
Friendster as an enterprise platform makes perfect sense. After all, business relationships are all about personal relationships. And Friendster has been developing some algorithms that map relationships between people in interesting ways - though that work is still in the lab. (full post)
So I read the headline, "Friendster-the enterprise business platform," and I'm thinking that I must be reading The Onion. Then I'm imagining a man with a Friendster t-shirt and hat drowning in the middle of vast ocean... stretching for a life-preserver that slowly floats by (don't delete my profile, guys:). Since they missed the News Corp. luxury liner that MySpace jumped into, Friendster seems to be splashing around for a business model.
Enterprise platform? If they really do go this route, they need an obvious name change, identity make over, and overhaul in their platform. This is no nip tuck job, more like carve and shove. Can you imagine them going to executives at Boeing, "Hi, we're from Friendster, an enterprise solutions for your business needs..."
Of course, I work for GoingOn Networks, which isn't that much of a better name for a enterprise platform company :)
Tom's comment, "Friendster as an enterprise platform makes perfect sense," sounds like its out of The Onion too. I don't think Tom has tried out Linkedin or Visible Path who are much further along in the corporate space for social networks. I don't want to poke too much fun since Tom wrote about GoingOn in the space below his Friendster post and he says he might try us out. I just found this notion of Friendster shifting gears and moving into the enterprise space funny.
GOOGLE: THE NEXT MICROSOFT? NOOOO!
USA Today's Kevin Maney has an article on Google's march towards the "darkside." As with much of mainstream media, he's a bit late on this idea, but it's a decent read:
...On top of that, Google last week also came out with Google Desktop 2, which can sit on your PC screen like a control panel, searching files on your hard drive and working as a launch point for playing music, navigating the Web or most anything else you do on your PC. Until recently, most of those functions had been Microsoft's territory.
But wait — there's more! Google Maps and Google Earth are crashing the whole mapping and navigation party. Launched in early 2005, Google Maps is quickly gaining on leaders Yahoo Maps and MapQuest, according to Web research firm Hitwise.
Plus, Google has Gmail, Blogger and Picasa photo sharing. It invested in Current Communications, which makes technology that lets electrical wires carry Internet communications. And now, Google is selling shares to raise $4 billion so it has the cash to do even more stuff, setting off yet more speculation.
Around the world, people are trying to read the Google tea leaves. Search for Google on Google News, and you'll find headlines from the U.K., South Africa and Australia.
In Pakistan, English-language Kashar News concludes a story by saying, "Google Talk may be just another step toward world domination by Google." (full article)
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USA Today's Kevin Maney has an article on Google's march towards the "darkside." As with much of mainstream media, he's a bit late on this idea, but it's a decent read:
...On top of that, Google last week also came out with Google Desktop 2, which can sit on your PC screen like a control panel, searching files on your hard drive and working as a launch point for playing music, navigating the Web or most anything else you do on your PC. Until recently, most of those functions had been Microsoft's territory.
But wait — there's more! Google Maps and Google Earth are crashing the whole mapping and navigation party. Launched in early 2005, Google Maps is quickly gaining on leaders Yahoo Maps and MapQuest, according to Web research firm Hitwise.
Plus, Google has Gmail, Blogger and Picasa photo sharing. It invested in Current Communications, which makes technology that lets electrical wires carry Internet communications. And now, Google is selling shares to raise $4 billion so it has the cash to do even more stuff, setting off yet more speculation.
Around the world, people are trying to read the Google tea leaves. Search for Google on Google News, and you'll find headlines from the U.K., South Africa and Australia.
In Pakistan, English-language Kashar News concludes a story by saying, "Google Talk may be just another step toward world domination by Google." (full article)
RANDOW NEWS QUICKLIST
"Iraq stampede kills 'up to 1,000'"
"Netanyahu launches Likud campaign"
"Scientists Decipher the Chimpanzee's DNA"
"Microsoft Makes Splash With VoIP Acquisition"
"Federated Completes Merger With May" (wonder what my old professor, Alan Kane, thinks about this?)
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"Iraq stampede kills 'up to 1,000'"
"Netanyahu launches Likud campaign"
"Scientists Decipher the Chimpanzee's DNA"
"Microsoft Makes Splash With VoIP Acquisition"
"Federated Completes Merger With May" (wonder what my old professor, Alan Kane, thinks about this?)
PAYPAL INTRODUCES MICROPAYMENT PRICING
Big move. Wonder if Google Wallet is moving into this space too? This is definitely a must have for our new platform since we're offering a bunch of cool services that will have micropayments attached. My friend, Max, who rarely blogs here would definitely be interested since his online gaming company is setting up shop in the U.S. soon.
PayPal, the global online payment service, today announced new micropayments processing fees for digital goods. The new pricing will provide merchants with a more affordable way to process payments for low-cost digital content such as video games, online greeting cards, news articles, mobile phone content and digital music. PayPal's micropayments pricing is designed to give customers the convenience of a-la-carte purchases, such as 99-cent downloadable ringtones, without having to sign up for annual subscriptions or pre-funded payment accounts.
An extension of PayPal's existing payment service for digital music providers, PayPal's new micropayments pricing is designed especially for payments less than $2. The new fees will enable merchants to process payments at a rate of 5 percent plus 5 cents per transaction. Because of the reduced fixed fee, merchants can save 40 to 60 percent when processing low-cost payments, compared to the industry's current payment processing rates of approximately 2 percent plus 20 to 30 cents per transaction. (full article)
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Big move. Wonder if Google Wallet is moving into this space too? This is definitely a must have for our new platform since we're offering a bunch of cool services that will have micropayments attached. My friend, Max, who rarely blogs here would definitely be interested since his online gaming company is setting up shop in the U.S. soon.
PayPal, the global online payment service, today announced new micropayments processing fees for digital goods. The new pricing will provide merchants with a more affordable way to process payments for low-cost digital content such as video games, online greeting cards, news articles, mobile phone content and digital music. PayPal's micropayments pricing is designed to give customers the convenience of a-la-carte purchases, such as 99-cent downloadable ringtones, without having to sign up for annual subscriptions or pre-funded payment accounts.
An extension of PayPal's existing payment service for digital music providers, PayPal's new micropayments pricing is designed especially for payments less than $2. The new fees will enable merchants to process payments at a rate of 5 percent plus 5 cents per transaction. Because of the reduced fixed fee, merchants can save 40 to 60 percent when processing low-cost payments, compared to the industry's current payment processing rates of approximately 2 percent plus 20 to 30 cents per transaction. (full article)
APPLE AND MOTOROLA LAUNCHING IPHONE
If Yahoo! has got its groove back, so does Motorola. From BusinessWeek:
Apple and Motorola may soon unveil their long-awaited iTunes cell phone, but the device is facing a slew of rival mobile music options
Apple Computer's cryptic announcement that it's holding an "invitation-only event" in San Francisco on Sept. 7 has rekindled media buzz around the computer maker's planned release of a music-playing mobile phone, developed in conjunction with Motorola. (full article)
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If Yahoo! has got its groove back, so does Motorola. From BusinessWeek:
Apple and Motorola may soon unveil their long-awaited iTunes cell phone, but the device is facing a slew of rival mobile music options
Apple Computer's cryptic announcement that it's holding an "invitation-only event" in San Francisco on Sept. 7 has rekindled media buzz around the computer maker's planned release of a music-playing mobile phone, developed in conjunction with Motorola. (full article)
GOOGLE GOING OFFLINE FOR ADS
Interesting experiment and move by Google. Wonder if this will last.
Google is expanding its lucrative Internet advertising network into the print world in a bold attempt to capture traditional ad dollars.
The search king, which makes 99 percent of its revenue from Internet ads, is quietly testing the waters of print advertising sales, according to executives at several companies that have bought the ads. Google recently began buying ad pages in technology magazines, including PC Magazine and Maximum PC, and reselling those pages--cut into quarters or fifths--to small advertisers that already belong to its online ad network, dubbed AdWords.
"We were approached by Google two and a half months ago, telling us that they were starting this print advertising campaign," Michael Keen, president of Inksite, one of the five advertisers in PC Magazine, said Monday. "Because we had been one of their AdWords advertisers, they thought we would be a good candidate to try their new advertising" effort.
The experiment, as it is described by the companies buying the ads, is Google's latest foray into display advertising and another big step toward becoming a one-stop shop for ad sales, whether online or offline. The trial also marks the first time the company has ventured offline with any of its products, according to industry watchers. (full article)
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Interesting experiment and move by Google. Wonder if this will last.
Google is expanding its lucrative Internet advertising network into the print world in a bold attempt to capture traditional ad dollars.
The search king, which makes 99 percent of its revenue from Internet ads, is quietly testing the waters of print advertising sales, according to executives at several companies that have bought the ads. Google recently began buying ad pages in technology magazines, including PC Magazine and Maximum PC, and reselling those pages--cut into quarters or fifths--to small advertisers that already belong to its online ad network, dubbed AdWords.
"We were approached by Google two and a half months ago, telling us that they were starting this print advertising campaign," Michael Keen, president of Inksite, one of the five advertisers in PC Magazine, said Monday. "Because we had been one of their AdWords advertisers, they thought we would be a good candidate to try their new advertising" effort.
The experiment, as it is described by the companies buying the ads, is Google's latest foray into display advertising and another big step toward becoming a one-stop shop for ad sales, whether online or offline. The trial also marks the first time the company has ventured offline with any of its products, according to industry watchers. (full article)
FLOOD AID... CALL FOR HELP
Obviously many of you have been reading about the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Glenn Reynolds has a list of places where you can donate money to. N.Z. Bear has a list too.
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Obviously many of you have been reading about the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Glenn Reynolds has a list of places where you can donate money to. N.Z. Bear has a list too.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
SILICON VALLEY IS BACK!... HEIDI ROIZEN INTERVIEW
John Furrier, CEO of Podtech.net and an interview madman, has a good interview with Heidi Roizen, a venture capitalist at Mobius Venture Capital. Check it out here!
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John Furrier, CEO of Podtech.net and an interview madman, has a good interview with Heidi Roizen, a venture capitalist at Mobius Venture Capital. Check it out here!
HILL & KNOWLTON OPENS UP BLOGS TO EMPLOYEES
HatTip to scale|free. Pretty cool that one of the leading PR agencies started a company-wide blogging initiative. This is an old post, but an interesting one especially since we're launching a product that would be perfect for them :)
Hill & Knowlton asks their employees to take a short assessment test before they start blogging. Here is their join page.
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HatTip to scale|free. Pretty cool that one of the leading PR agencies started a company-wide blogging initiative. This is an old post, but an interesting one especially since we're launching a product that would be perfect for them :)
Hill & Knowlton asks their employees to take a short assessment test before they start blogging. Here is their join page.
BUSINESSWEEK'S BEST OF THE WEB
HatTip to Blogspotting. There are 34,000 votes in so far. Check it out here.
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HatTip to Blogspotting. There are 34,000 votes in so far. Check it out here.
FLICKR FANS FLICK OFF YAHOO
Funny title from Wired News, "Flickr Fans to Yahoo: Flick Off!"
A splinter faction of Flickr photo-sharing community members is threatening a symbolic "mass suicide" to protest closer integration with the website's new owner, Yahoo.
The portal giant bought Flickr's developer, Ludicorp, for an undisclosed sum in March and took ownership of the site when it moved from Vancouver, Canada, to Yahoo's Sunnyvale, California, campus this summer.
Now, angered by a new requirement to tie their member profiles with Yahoo accounts, some Flickrites say they plan to kill off their identities before they can be moved into the new family next year.
"If Flickr really forces me to join Yahoo in 2006 in order to still use my account, I will quit 24 hours before the deadline," wrote Thomas Müller, a Hamburg, Germany-based artist who shows more than 1,400 photos at the site. On Wednesday, Müller created a protest group, Flick Off, that has attracted almost 400 members. (full post)
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Funny title from Wired News, "Flickr Fans to Yahoo: Flick Off!"
A splinter faction of Flickr photo-sharing community members is threatening a symbolic "mass suicide" to protest closer integration with the website's new owner, Yahoo.
The portal giant bought Flickr's developer, Ludicorp, for an undisclosed sum in March and took ownership of the site when it moved from Vancouver, Canada, to Yahoo's Sunnyvale, California, campus this summer.
Now, angered by a new requirement to tie their member profiles with Yahoo accounts, some Flickrites say they plan to kill off their identities before they can be moved into the new family next year.
"If Flickr really forces me to join Yahoo in 2006 in order to still use my account, I will quit 24 hours before the deadline," wrote Thomas Müller, a Hamburg, Germany-based artist who shows more than 1,400 photos at the site. On Wednesday, Müller created a protest group, Flick Off, that has attracted almost 400 members. (full post)
Monday, August 29, 2005
SKYPE SLOWING DOWN?
Arieanna Foley over at Stowe's Get Real (confusing, huh? just wanted to write it like that:) identifies an interesting trend with Skype:
Average minutes of use per day
* Jan - 28,954,133
* Feb - 37,533,906
* Mar - 41,745,885
* Apr - 41,732,959
* May - 39,451,552
* Jun - 38,479,729
* Jul - 35,754,556
She wonders if it's a "summer thing or competitive pressure." I'd say competitive pressure. People are gunning for them. Why did Google call their new IM/VoIP service "GoogleTalk" instead of "GoogleChat?" :)
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Arieanna Foley over at Stowe's Get Real (confusing, huh? just wanted to write it like that:) identifies an interesting trend with Skype:
Average minutes of use per day
* Jan - 28,954,133
* Feb - 37,533,906
* Mar - 41,745,885
* Apr - 41,732,959
* May - 39,451,552
* Jun - 38,479,729
* Jul - 35,754,556
She wonders if it's a "summer thing or competitive pressure." I'd say competitive pressure. People are gunning for them. Why did Google call their new IM/VoIP service "GoogleTalk" instead of "GoogleChat?" :)
RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
"North Korea to Delay Return to Nuke Talks"
"India, Afghanistan to nurture 'sturdy tree' of democracy"
"NSW politician quits after slur"
"Bush to Promote Prescription-Drug Plan"
"Boost to CO2 mass extinction idea"
"P2P users traveling by eDonkey"
"PayPal co-founder readies photo-sharing service"
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"North Korea to Delay Return to Nuke Talks"
"India, Afghanistan to nurture 'sturdy tree' of democracy"
"NSW politician quits after slur"
"Bush to Promote Prescription-Drug Plan"
"Boost to CO2 mass extinction idea"
"P2P users traveling by eDonkey"
"PayPal co-founder readies photo-sharing service"
"MAKE SAN FRANCISCO THE LEFTWING PARADISE IT HOPES TO BE"
Tech Central Station's James Miller has an amusing article on my city's supervisors recent vote against making the USS Iowa into a tourist attraction:
San Francisco's city supervisors voted 8-3 against allowing the USS Iowa to become a tourist attraction in their city. The battleship saw action in WWII, Korea and the Persian Gulf. One supervisor voting against the USS Iowa complained about the military's treatment of homosexuals, another objected to America's involvement in Iraq and said "I am sad to say I am not proud of the history of the United States of America since the 1940s."
The vote against the USS Iowa shows that San Francisco is being treated unfairly by the U.S. military. Our military defends the people of San Francisco even though the city's elected leaders want nothing to do with the military. All Americans should be horrified that the good leftists of San Francisco must suffer the crushing moral burden of being protected by a force their leaders so despise. I therefore propose that the U.S. armed forces withdraw their protection of San Francisco. (full article)
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Tech Central Station's James Miller has an amusing article on my city's supervisors recent vote against making the USS Iowa into a tourist attraction:
San Francisco's city supervisors voted 8-3 against allowing the USS Iowa to become a tourist attraction in their city. The battleship saw action in WWII, Korea and the Persian Gulf. One supervisor voting against the USS Iowa complained about the military's treatment of homosexuals, another objected to America's involvement in Iraq and said "I am sad to say I am not proud of the history of the United States of America since the 1940s."
The vote against the USS Iowa shows that San Francisco is being treated unfairly by the U.S. military. Our military defends the people of San Francisco even though the city's elected leaders want nothing to do with the military. All Americans should be horrified that the good leftists of San Francisco must suffer the crushing moral burden of being protected by a force their leaders so despise. I therefore propose that the U.S. armed forces withdraw their protection of San Francisco. (full article)
"GOOGLE GETS BETTER. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?"
The New York Times's David Pogue has a good article on Google.
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The New York Times's David Pogue has a good article on Google.
BOB METCALFE INTERVIEW... "TAKE THAT, MR. SULZBERGER!"
Tony and Rich has a good interview series with Bob Metcalfe, inventor of the Ethernet and partner at Polaris Ventures. The title is similar to my prior article at AO, so I don't know if Rich just wanted use a similar theme for this title or Tony wanted to take another poke at the NY Times, which we both aren't that fond of.:)
AlwaysOn: Right. If you want to set up and type away in your underwear for free, god bless America, but critical mass creates money. I could teach you how to make a million bucks doing a blog, but it would take a lot of your time. Do you really believe that the New York Times is going to be put out of business by open-source media?
Metcalfe: I really want Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s newspaper—which he's corrupting and perverting—to go directly out of business. They're not willing to try anything. So blogs might be the future.
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Tony and Rich has a good interview series with Bob Metcalfe, inventor of the Ethernet and partner at Polaris Ventures. The title is similar to my prior article at AO, so I don't know if Rich just wanted use a similar theme for this title or Tony wanted to take another poke at the NY Times, which we both aren't that fond of.:)
AlwaysOn: Right. If you want to set up and type away in your underwear for free, god bless America, but critical mass creates money. I could teach you how to make a million bucks doing a blog, but it would take a lot of your time. Do you really believe that the New York Times is going to be put out of business by open-source media?
Metcalfe: I really want Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s newspaper—which he's corrupting and perverting—to go directly out of business. They're not willing to try anything. So blogs might be the future.
Friday, August 26, 2005
SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING?
HatTip to Christine. We got in to Chicago at 5am on the redeye flight, and then we had to go to our wedding photographer's office to choose our album and getting layout sheets. We got back to my parents home and both had conference calls at 1pm cst/11pm pst to prepare for. Anyway, she forwarded this email that I thought was good content for a Friday afternoon. Have a good weekend!
-A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
-A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
-A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
-A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
-A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
-A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
-A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
-A snail can sleep for three years.
-Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
-All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
-Almonds are a member of the peach family.
-An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
-Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
-Butterflies taste with their feet.
-Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
-"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
-February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
-In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
-If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
-If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
-It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
-Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
-Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
-No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
-On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
-Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
-Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite .
-Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
-"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.
-The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
-The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
-The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
-The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
-The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
-The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).
-There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
-There are more chickens than people in the world.
-There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous
-There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
-There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.
-Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
-TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
-Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
-Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
-Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.
Now you know everything.
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HatTip to Christine. We got in to Chicago at 5am on the redeye flight, and then we had to go to our wedding photographer's office to choose our album and getting layout sheets. We got back to my parents home and both had conference calls at 1pm cst/11pm pst to prepare for. Anyway, she forwarded this email that I thought was good content for a Friday afternoon. Have a good weekend!
-A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
-A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
-A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
-A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
-A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
-A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
-A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
-A snail can sleep for three years.
-Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
-All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
-Almonds are a member of the peach family.
-An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
-Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
-Butterflies taste with their feet.
-Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
-"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
-February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
-In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
-If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
-If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
-It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
-Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
-Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
-No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
-On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
-Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
-Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite .
-Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
-"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.
-The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
-The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
-The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
-The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
-The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
-The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).
-There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
-There are more chickens than people in the world.
-There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous
-There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
-There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.
-Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
-TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
-Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
-Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
-Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.
Now you know everything.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
BLAST IN EGYPT KILLS TWO
Another bomb attack. My parents just got back from their tour of Egypt and Turkey. A couple weeks ago there was another bomb attack that killed one or two people in Egypt, and actually a few months back there was another one. So I was asking my dad why are they going to Egypt of all places and telling him that it wasn't safe to go. My dad just said they aren't going to the areas were the bomb attacks were. Ok, whatever. Good thing now is that they are safe at home.
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Another bomb attack. My parents just got back from their tour of Egypt and Turkey. A couple weeks ago there was another bomb attack that killed one or two people in Egypt, and actually a few months back there was another one. So I was asking my dad why are they going to Egypt of all places and telling him that it wasn't safe to go. My dad just said they aren't going to the areas were the bomb attacks were. Ok, whatever. Good thing now is that they are safe at home.
VONAGE GOES FOR IPO?
HatTip to Om. It's definitely now or never. Skype, Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, etc. Om's comments:
Multiple sources including The Daily Deal and The Wall Street Journal are reporting that Vonage is about to file for an initial public offering and is hoping to raise between $400 and $600 million. The Daily Deal has the scoop.
.....
Dual track process? Now that’s interesting! I get a feeling, that it might be a one-track process - IPO because of the greater fool theory - because not many buyers out there who can pay enough money to give investors (read VCs) a decent return on investment.
Lots of questions in my mind, which will hopefully clear up soon. Just doing the numbers - Vonage has raised $400 million, and with $600 million in IPO proceeds, that’s a whopping $1 billion. Not bad for a company that has shade less than a million customers. So investors in the company are tentatively valuing each Vonage customer at about $1000 - or about 40 months of revenues.
I find the timing of this news pretty interesting! There is clearly lots of competition, including cable companies which are just cranking their sales machine and pushing VoIP like crazy. Skype, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google’s Voice-over-IM offerings are going to put some if not a lot of deflationary pressure on the prices. Price pressure is going to be rampant. Good time, to re-read my Telecom Death Spiral essay. And that’s not even taking into account some of the problems incumbents can create for all indy-VoIP people (without risking the ire of FCC, of course!) (full post)
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HatTip to Om. It's definitely now or never. Skype, Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, etc. Om's comments:
Multiple sources including The Daily Deal and The Wall Street Journal are reporting that Vonage is about to file for an initial public offering and is hoping to raise between $400 and $600 million. The Daily Deal has the scoop.
.....
Dual track process? Now that’s interesting! I get a feeling, that it might be a one-track process - IPO because of the greater fool theory - because not many buyers out there who can pay enough money to give investors (read VCs) a decent return on investment.
Lots of questions in my mind, which will hopefully clear up soon. Just doing the numbers - Vonage has raised $400 million, and with $600 million in IPO proceeds, that’s a whopping $1 billion. Not bad for a company that has shade less than a million customers. So investors in the company are tentatively valuing each Vonage customer at about $1000 - or about 40 months of revenues.
I find the timing of this news pretty interesting! There is clearly lots of competition, including cable companies which are just cranking their sales machine and pushing VoIP like crazy. Skype, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google’s Voice-over-IM offerings are going to put some if not a lot of deflationary pressure on the prices. Price pressure is going to be rampant. Good time, to re-read my Telecom Death Spiral essay. And that’s not even taking into account some of the problems incumbents can create for all indy-VoIP people (without risking the ire of FCC, of course!) (full post)
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
"SOME THOUGHTS ON CASUALTIES IN TIMES OF WAR AND PEACE"
Power Line's John Hinderaker with some good thoughts:
It is universally acknowledged that public support for the Iraq war is eroding. Some of the polls supporting this claim are faulty because they are based on obviously misleading internal data, but the basic point cannot be denied: many Americans, possibly even a majority, have turned against the war.
This should hardly be a surprise. On the contrary, how could it be otherwise? News reporting on the war consists almost entirely of itemizing casualties. Headlines say: "Two Marines killed by roadside bomb." Rarely do the accompanying stories--let alone the headlines that are all that most people read--explain where the Marines were going, or why; what strategic objective they and their comrades were pursuing, and how successful they were in achieving it; or how many terrorists were also killed. For Americans who do not seek out alternative news sources like this one, the war in Iraq is little but a succession of American casualties. The wonder is that so many Americans do, nevertheless, support it.
The sins of the news media in reporting on Iraq are mainly sins of omission. Not only do news outlets generally fail to report the progress that is being made, and often fail to put military operations into any kind of tactical or strategic perspective, they assiduously avoid talking about the overarching strategic reason for our involvement there: the Bush administration's conviction that the only way to solve the problem of Islamic terrorism, long term, is to help liberate the Arab countries so that their peoples' energies will be channelled into the peaceful pursuits of free enterprise and democracy, rather than into bizarre ideologies and terrorism. Partly this omission is due to laziness or incomprehension, but I think it is mostly attributable to the fact that if the media acknowledged that reforming the Arab world, in order to drain the terrorist swamp, has always been the principal purpose of the Iraq war, it would take the sting out of their "No large stockpiles of WMDs!" theme. (full post)
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Power Line's John Hinderaker with some good thoughts:
It is universally acknowledged that public support for the Iraq war is eroding. Some of the polls supporting this claim are faulty because they are based on obviously misleading internal data, but the basic point cannot be denied: many Americans, possibly even a majority, have turned against the war.
This should hardly be a surprise. On the contrary, how could it be otherwise? News reporting on the war consists almost entirely of itemizing casualties. Headlines say: "Two Marines killed by roadside bomb." Rarely do the accompanying stories--let alone the headlines that are all that most people read--explain where the Marines were going, or why; what strategic objective they and their comrades were pursuing, and how successful they were in achieving it; or how many terrorists were also killed. For Americans who do not seek out alternative news sources like this one, the war in Iraq is little but a succession of American casualties. The wonder is that so many Americans do, nevertheless, support it.
The sins of the news media in reporting on Iraq are mainly sins of omission. Not only do news outlets generally fail to report the progress that is being made, and often fail to put military operations into any kind of tactical or strategic perspective, they assiduously avoid talking about the overarching strategic reason for our involvement there: the Bush administration's conviction that the only way to solve the problem of Islamic terrorism, long term, is to help liberate the Arab countries so that their peoples' energies will be channelled into the peaceful pursuits of free enterprise and democracy, rather than into bizarre ideologies and terrorism. Partly this omission is due to laziness or incomprehension, but I think it is mostly attributable to the fact that if the media acknowledged that reforming the Arab world, in order to drain the terrorist swamp, has always been the principal purpose of the Iraq war, it would take the sting out of their "No large stockpiles of WMDs!" theme. (full post)
RAPID BLOG GROWTH
Some good information and charts here from eMarketer:
Blog Traffic Rises
Two new studies report rapid traffic growth in the Blogosphere. comScore estimates that about 30% of US Internet users visited blogs in the first quarter. Nielsen//NetRatings says the top 50 blog sites, including blog hosts, draw about 20% of active Internet users.
comScore's blogging study, which was sponsored by Gawker Media and SixApart, estimates that 50 million US Internet users visited blogs in the first quarter of 2005, up from about 34 million a year earlier, and says blog visitation is up 31% from January 2005 through July 2005.
The top blog hosting services have grown significantly. ComScore reports that the number of unique visitors to six of the top 10 services grew by more than 100% from the first quarter of 2004 to the first quarter of 2005. Blogspot.com (better known as Blogger.com), continues to be the largest service.
Leading Blog Hosting Services 2005
About 39 million blog visitors in the first quarter of 2005 visited at least one blog residing on one of the major blog hosts. Some 28 million users visited at least one non-hosted, or standalone, blog.
Stand Alone Blogs 2005
Of standalone blogs, comScore found that over 40% focused on news or politics, including leading blogs like FreeRepublic, Dailykos and Wonkette. Blogs about business made up just 3% of the total.
Type of Blogs Visited 2005
The fastest-growing blog site, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, was MSN Spaces, which was only unveiled in December 2004. Standalone sites like Gawker and Daily Kos saw traffic rise sharply over the period. Nielsen//NetRatings said that the top 50 blog sites (a list that includes both blog hosts and individual blogs) were visited by about 29.3 million people in July, up 31% from the beginning of the year.
Fastest Growing Services
"Accumulated Number of Users" * "Percentage of Accounts in Use"
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Some good information and charts here from eMarketer:
Blog Traffic Rises
Two new studies report rapid traffic growth in the Blogosphere. comScore estimates that about 30% of US Internet users visited blogs in the first quarter. Nielsen//NetRatings says the top 50 blog sites, including blog hosts, draw about 20% of active Internet users.
comScore's blogging study, which was sponsored by Gawker Media and SixApart, estimates that 50 million US Internet users visited blogs in the first quarter of 2005, up from about 34 million a year earlier, and says blog visitation is up 31% from January 2005 through July 2005.
The top blog hosting services have grown significantly. ComScore reports that the number of unique visitors to six of the top 10 services grew by more than 100% from the first quarter of 2004 to the first quarter of 2005. Blogspot.com (better known as Blogger.com), continues to be the largest service.
Leading Blog Hosting Services 2005
About 39 million blog visitors in the first quarter of 2005 visited at least one blog residing on one of the major blog hosts. Some 28 million users visited at least one non-hosted, or standalone, blog.
Stand Alone Blogs 2005
Of standalone blogs, comScore found that over 40% focused on news or politics, including leading blogs like FreeRepublic, Dailykos and Wonkette. Blogs about business made up just 3% of the total.
Type of Blogs Visited 2005
The fastest-growing blog site, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, was MSN Spaces, which was only unveiled in December 2004. Standalone sites like Gawker and Daily Kos saw traffic rise sharply over the period. Nielsen//NetRatings said that the top 50 blog sites (a list that includes both blog hosts and individual blogs) were visited by about 29.3 million people in July, up 31% from the beginning of the year.
Fastest Growing Services
"Accumulated Number of Users" * "Percentage of Accounts in Use"
"A UNIFIED THEORY OF VC SUCKAGE"
I just randomly came across Paul Graham's website. He has some great essays that he wrote on his site, so check it out when you can. One of them, "A Unified Theory of VC Suckage," cracked me up:
A couple months ago I got an email from a recruiter asking if I was interested in being a "technologist in residence" at a new venture capital fund. I think the idea was to play Karl Rove to the VCs' George Bush.
I considered it for about four seconds. Work for a VC fund? Ick.
One of my most vivid memories from our startup is going to visit Greylock, the famous Boston VCs. [1] They were the most arrogant people I've met in my life. And I've met a lot of arrogant people.
I'm not alone in feeling this way, of course. Even a VC friend of mine dislikes VCs. "Assholes," he says.
But lately I've been learning more about how the VC world works, and a few days ago it hit me that there's a reason VCs are the way they are. It's not so much that the business attracts jerks, or even that the power they wield corrupts them. The real problem is the way they're paid.
The problem with VC funds is that they're funds. Like the managers of mutual funds or hedge funds, VCs get paid a percentage of the money they manage: about 2% a year in management fees, plus a percentage of the gains. So they want the fund to be huge-- hundreds of millions of dollars, if possible. But that means each partner ends up being responsible for investing a lot of money. And since one person can only manage so many deals, each deal has to be for multiple millions of dollars.
This turns out to explain nearly all the characteristics of VCs that founders hate.
It explains why VCs take so agonizingly long to make up their minds, and why their due diligence feels like a body cavity search. [2] With so much at stake, they have to be paranoid.
It explains why they steal your ideas. Every founder knows that VCs will tell your secrets to your competitors if they end up investing in them. It's not unheard of for VCs to meet you when they have no intention of funding you, just to pick your brain for a competitor. This prospect makes naive founders clumsily secretive. Experienced founders treat it as a cost of doing business. Either way it sucks. But again, the only reason VCs are so sneaky is the giant deals they do. With so much at stake, they have to be devious.
It explains why VCs tend to interfere in the companies they invest in. They want to be on your board not just so that they can advise you, but so that they can watch you. Often they even install a new CEO. Yes, he may have extensive business experience. But he's also their man: these newly installed CEOs always play something of the role of a political commissar in a Red Army unit. With so much at stake, VCs can't resist micromanaging you. (full post)
This totally reminded me of one of our investors/board members who called me partner and friend, Jimmy. On Saturday morning, he was driving by our office and he saw that the front doors were locked, so he calls Jimmy.
"Jimmy! Where are you?!"
A bit puzzled and startled he replied, "Uhh... in the office, Shmoe."
"Well, I see that your front door is locked, so I'm guessin you're not at the office! You should be since you have a long way to make this company a success."
"Well, Shmoe, I assure you that I am in the office working - hard - and there are about 15 engineers with me. We had the front lobby area cleaned today, so we all went through the back of the building."
(silence)
"Oh. I see. Okay, well work hard."
Shmoe's level of micromanaging was unnecessary and counter-productive. I believed that much of his behavior was due to his lack of ability to provide any real guidance or knowledge.
If you're a VC that doesn't display of these negative characteristics, just email me :)
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I just randomly came across Paul Graham's website. He has some great essays that he wrote on his site, so check it out when you can. One of them, "A Unified Theory of VC Suckage," cracked me up:
A couple months ago I got an email from a recruiter asking if I was interested in being a "technologist in residence" at a new venture capital fund. I think the idea was to play Karl Rove to the VCs' George Bush.
I considered it for about four seconds. Work for a VC fund? Ick.
One of my most vivid memories from our startup is going to visit Greylock, the famous Boston VCs. [1] They were the most arrogant people I've met in my life. And I've met a lot of arrogant people.
I'm not alone in feeling this way, of course. Even a VC friend of mine dislikes VCs. "Assholes," he says.
But lately I've been learning more about how the VC world works, and a few days ago it hit me that there's a reason VCs are the way they are. It's not so much that the business attracts jerks, or even that the power they wield corrupts them. The real problem is the way they're paid.
The problem with VC funds is that they're funds. Like the managers of mutual funds or hedge funds, VCs get paid a percentage of the money they manage: about 2% a year in management fees, plus a percentage of the gains. So they want the fund to be huge-- hundreds of millions of dollars, if possible. But that means each partner ends up being responsible for investing a lot of money. And since one person can only manage so many deals, each deal has to be for multiple millions of dollars.
This turns out to explain nearly all the characteristics of VCs that founders hate.
It explains why VCs take so agonizingly long to make up their minds, and why their due diligence feels like a body cavity search. [2] With so much at stake, they have to be paranoid.
It explains why they steal your ideas. Every founder knows that VCs will tell your secrets to your competitors if they end up investing in them. It's not unheard of for VCs to meet you when they have no intention of funding you, just to pick your brain for a competitor. This prospect makes naive founders clumsily secretive. Experienced founders treat it as a cost of doing business. Either way it sucks. But again, the only reason VCs are so sneaky is the giant deals they do. With so much at stake, they have to be devious.
It explains why VCs tend to interfere in the companies they invest in. They want to be on your board not just so that they can advise you, but so that they can watch you. Often they even install a new CEO. Yes, he may have extensive business experience. But he's also their man: these newly installed CEOs always play something of the role of a political commissar in a Red Army unit. With so much at stake, VCs can't resist micromanaging you. (full post)
This totally reminded me of one of our investors/board members who called me partner and friend, Jimmy. On Saturday morning, he was driving by our office and he saw that the front doors were locked, so he calls Jimmy.
"Jimmy! Where are you?!"
A bit puzzled and startled he replied, "Uhh... in the office, Shmoe."
"Well, I see that your front door is locked, so I'm guessin you're not at the office! You should be since you have a long way to make this company a success."
"Well, Shmoe, I assure you that I am in the office working - hard - and there are about 15 engineers with me. We had the front lobby area cleaned today, so we all went through the back of the building."
(silence)
"Oh. I see. Okay, well work hard."
Shmoe's level of micromanaging was unnecessary and counter-productive. I believed that much of his behavior was due to his lack of ability to provide any real guidance or knowledge.
If you're a VC that doesn't display of these negative characteristics, just email me :)
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
RUDY GIULIANI LEADS IN REPUBLICAN ONLINE STRAW POLLS
HatTip to Instapundit. There were various online polls going on at the leading right-leaning blogs. At Patrick Ruffini's blog, the results were:
Giuliani - 31%
Allen - 20.4%
Gingrich - 14.7%
Romney - 9.7%
McCain - 7.6%
More from Instapundit:
RUDY GIULIANI IS KICKING BUTT in Patrick Ruffini's 2008 Republican straw poll. What's really interesting, though, is that the results are pretty robust notwithstanding the different flavors of blogs. Giuliani is a huge favorite among InstaPundit readers (McCain is a distant second). But he also holds the lead (albeit narrowly) among Hugh Hewitt readers, who are on the social-conservative side and who didn't favor him last time around. He also leads among Michelle Malkin readers and among Power Line readers.
FreeRepublic readers favor Tom Tancredo, which probably says something about the GOP's vulnerability on immigration. And Condi Rice seems to lead pretty much everywhere in the "fantasy candidate" category. I think this makes her a very plausible VP candidate.
Interestingly, I'm pretty sure that a similar poll of Democrats would show a similar lead for Hillary Clinton. Is there some sort of New York magic at work? Forget a "subway Series" -- could we have a "subway election" in 2008?
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HatTip to Instapundit. There were various online polls going on at the leading right-leaning blogs. At Patrick Ruffini's blog, the results were:
Giuliani - 31%
Allen - 20.4%
Gingrich - 14.7%
Romney - 9.7%
McCain - 7.6%
More from Instapundit:
RUDY GIULIANI IS KICKING BUTT in Patrick Ruffini's 2008 Republican straw poll. What's really interesting, though, is that the results are pretty robust notwithstanding the different flavors of blogs. Giuliani is a huge favorite among InstaPundit readers (McCain is a distant second). But he also holds the lead (albeit narrowly) among Hugh Hewitt readers, who are on the social-conservative side and who didn't favor him last time around. He also leads among Michelle Malkin readers and among Power Line readers.
FreeRepublic readers favor Tom Tancredo, which probably says something about the GOP's vulnerability on immigration. And Condi Rice seems to lead pretty much everywhere in the "fantasy candidate" category. I think this makes her a very plausible VP candidate.
Interestingly, I'm pretty sure that a similar poll of Democrats would show a similar lead for Hillary Clinton. Is there some sort of New York magic at work? Forget a "subway Series" -- could we have a "subway election" in 2008?
GOOGLETALK... WATCH OUT SKYPE?
Another service I saw about a month ago but couldn't blog about. Google's IM/VoIP client seems like any other and I disagree with some of those that say there isn't room for another IM service. Wanna bet? It's not about challenging the incumbents, but about keeping people within the Google universe. Like I wrote back in March, I was just waiting for Google to create the universal login that ties all their services together and keeps people in the world of Google. Looks like it's going to happen. Is that the Death Star theme or the Mary Poppins chimney song? Silicon Beat has more:
It's official: Google has launched a Google instant messenger/chat service, called Google Talk.
Yes, Google shared the news with us a couple of days ago. Alas, they required us to hold to an embargo of this evening, 9pm, as a condition of being included. So we've faithfully sat on this all day, even as many other folks have reported on elements of it.
So here's the fully story, to run in the Mercury News tomorrow....
Google already offers everything from e-mail to social networking. Now the popular Mountain View search engine company is jumping in with another popular form of communication: Google Talk, where you can instant message and chat with your friends directly from your computer to theirs.
Google also may unleash a voice service that lets you call fixed-line phones too, the company said. It's Google's latest effort to expand beyond simple search into a wide array of communication services. It is also taking on competitors Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft's MSN, which already offer instant messaging and chat and are also trying to upgrade their voice communications -- though it has been slow-going. (full post)
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Another service I saw about a month ago but couldn't blog about. Google's IM/VoIP client seems like any other and I disagree with some of those that say there isn't room for another IM service. Wanna bet? It's not about challenging the incumbents, but about keeping people within the Google universe. Like I wrote back in March, I was just waiting for Google to create the universal login that ties all their services together and keeps people in the world of Google. Looks like it's going to happen. Is that the Death Star theme or the Mary Poppins chimney song? Silicon Beat has more:
It's official: Google has launched a Google instant messenger/chat service, called Google Talk.
Yes, Google shared the news with us a couple of days ago. Alas, they required us to hold to an embargo of this evening, 9pm, as a condition of being included. So we've faithfully sat on this all day, even as many other folks have reported on elements of it.
So here's the fully story, to run in the Mercury News tomorrow....
Google already offers everything from e-mail to social networking. Now the popular Mountain View search engine company is jumping in with another popular form of communication: Google Talk, where you can instant message and chat with your friends directly from your computer to theirs.
Google also may unleash a voice service that lets you call fixed-line phones too, the company said. It's Google's latest effort to expand beyond simple search into a wide array of communication services. It is also taking on competitors Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft's MSN, which already offer instant messaging and chat and are also trying to upgrade their voice communications -- though it has been slow-going. (full post)
GOOGLE BUYS ANDRIOD
Yeah, I forgot to post this up last week. I actually heard about Android through an acquaintance from Orange a couple months ago, but I promised not to write about it. Sort of feel like a "real" journalist when people make me promise such things. BusinessWeek has an article on it here and states that it was 22-months old, but I heard it was more like a year old. Here's an overview from FierceWireless:
Google buys mystery wireless startup Android
Google acquired mobile software startup Android. The 22-month-old startup is making software for mobile phones. No one seems to know very much about the company besides the fact that it seems to have been working on some form of location-based application for mobile phones. Some insiders suggest that Google plans to use Android's software to enhance its mobile search application with location and presence, though nothing has been revealed about the deal that confirms this. No financial details about Google's deal for Android were released.
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Yeah, I forgot to post this up last week. I actually heard about Android through an acquaintance from Orange a couple months ago, but I promised not to write about it. Sort of feel like a "real" journalist when people make me promise such things. BusinessWeek has an article on it here and states that it was 22-months old, but I heard it was more like a year old. Here's an overview from FierceWireless:
Google buys mystery wireless startup Android
Google acquired mobile software startup Android. The 22-month-old startup is making software for mobile phones. No one seems to know very much about the company besides the fact that it seems to have been working on some form of location-based application for mobile phones. Some insiders suggest that Google plans to use Android's software to enhance its mobile search application with location and presence, though nothing has been revealed about the deal that confirms this. No financial details about Google's deal for Android were released.
"THE POSTMODERAN NEW YORK TIMES"... "KRUGMAN'S BIG LIE"
The American Thinker's Diana Muir writes a good essay about The NY Times. And Richard Baehr writes on "Krugman's Big Lie" and "More baloney from Krugman." I love The American Thinker.
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The American Thinker's Diana Muir writes a good essay about The NY Times. And Richard Baehr writes on "Krugman's Big Lie" and "More baloney from Krugman." I love The American Thinker.
Monday, August 22, 2005
GOOGLE SIDEBAR DEBUTS... WARPATH TO MICROSOFT
I couldn't write about it, but I saw this beta a few weeks back and first thought that came to mind is, "They're building a 'desktop OS'... Microsoft is going to feel the heat." Do you Microsoft? Anyway, download it here and here's some more info from CNet:
Google has rolled out a beta version of its desktop software, adding such features as "Sidebar," which offers a personalized panel of information such as e-mail, stock quotes and news.
The software, unveiled on Monday, also includes a scratch pad style tool for taking notes and tools for searching one's desktop and Microsoft Outlook inbox. Called Desktop 2, the software can be downloaded for free from Google's Web site.
With this move, Google is stepping deeper into territory held by Microsoft--which has its own notepad and search features--and Yahoo, with its My Yahoo personalization efforts.
The Google software contains three major components: a toolbar that runs in Outlook; Sidebar, which shows up as a vertical panel; and "Quick Find," which is designed to let users find files on their hard drives and launch applications.
Quick Find, which shows up as part of Sidebar or as a more compact "Deskbar," can also be used to search the Web.
People who opt for the compact view can have the Deskbar sit in the Windows taskbar, or they can choose a "Floating Deskbar" that can be dragged anywhere on the desktop. A button on the right end of the Deskbar lets the user expand Desktop to the full Sidebar view. (full article)
MORE from Bloomberg and the San Francisco Chronicle.
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I couldn't write about it, but I saw this beta a few weeks back and first thought that came to mind is, "They're building a 'desktop OS'... Microsoft is going to feel the heat." Do you Microsoft? Anyway, download it here and here's some more info from CNet:
Google has rolled out a beta version of its desktop software, adding such features as "Sidebar," which offers a personalized panel of information such as e-mail, stock quotes and news.
The software, unveiled on Monday, also includes a scratch pad style tool for taking notes and tools for searching one's desktop and Microsoft Outlook inbox. Called Desktop 2, the software can be downloaded for free from Google's Web site.
With this move, Google is stepping deeper into territory held by Microsoft--which has its own notepad and search features--and Yahoo, with its My Yahoo personalization efforts.
The Google software contains three major components: a toolbar that runs in Outlook; Sidebar, which shows up as a vertical panel; and "Quick Find," which is designed to let users find files on their hard drives and launch applications.
Quick Find, which shows up as part of Sidebar or as a more compact "Deskbar," can also be used to search the Web.
People who opt for the compact view can have the Deskbar sit in the Windows taskbar, or they can choose a "Floating Deskbar" that can be dragged anywhere on the desktop. A button on the right end of the Deskbar lets the user expand Desktop to the full Sidebar view. (full article)
MORE from Bloomberg and the San Francisco Chronicle.
RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
"Last Jewish Settlers Leave Gaza"
"'Half Asian children' in poverty"
"Japanese-Americans interned during WWII get diplomas"
"Rudolph Apologizes, Sentenced to Life"
"How label-backed P2P was born"
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"Last Jewish Settlers Leave Gaza"
"'Half Asian children' in poverty"
"Japanese-Americans interned during WWII get diplomas"
"Rudolph Apologizes, Sentenced to Life"
"How label-backed P2P was born"
OLD DAYS... TOP 10 DOT-COM FLOPS
MSN is making us remember the old days with its list of the "Top 10 dot-com flops." Here is their list without the commentary:
1. Webvan
2. Pets.com
3. Kozmo.com
4. Flooz.com
5. eToys.com
6. Boo.com
7. MVP.com
8. Go.com
9. Kibu.com
10.GovWorks.com
My sad connection with the companies on this list is that I partied with a couple of these founders in Seoul during my youth:). Joe Park, a co-founder of Kozmo.com, was a friend of my good friend, Billy, so we hungout once in a while when he visited Korea. I remember the hype since they raised $280 million, the most out of any startup in 1999 (when I was at HeyAnita, our competitor, Tellme, raised the most for 2000 with $236 million). Kozmo.com should have just stay in densely populated cities, which is probably only NYC in the U.S.
Kaleil, a co-founder of GovWorks.com, was friends with my good friend, Sandor, so we went to one of the 2002 World Cup games in South Korea together and a couple parties in Seoul. I heard about GovWorks.com initially from my friend, Mike, who left Goldman Sachs to work there. Since I have an interest in goverment and public service, I thought the concept was great and really hoped that it would take off. Too bad it crashed and burned with the rest of them on this list.
Both of Joe and Kaleil had similar mixed reputations for being bold and arrogant during the time of their startup's rise and fall. Also both had documentaries made about their experiences, Startup.com and E-Dreams.
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MSN is making us remember the old days with its list of the "Top 10 dot-com flops." Here is their list without the commentary:
1. Webvan
2. Pets.com
3. Kozmo.com
4. Flooz.com
5. eToys.com
6. Boo.com
7. MVP.com
8. Go.com
9. Kibu.com
10.GovWorks.com
My sad connection with the companies on this list is that I partied with a couple of these founders in Seoul during my youth:). Joe Park, a co-founder of Kozmo.com, was a friend of my good friend, Billy, so we hungout once in a while when he visited Korea. I remember the hype since they raised $280 million, the most out of any startup in 1999 (when I was at HeyAnita, our competitor, Tellme, raised the most for 2000 with $236 million). Kozmo.com should have just stay in densely populated cities, which is probably only NYC in the U.S.
Kaleil, a co-founder of GovWorks.com, was friends with my good friend, Sandor, so we went to one of the 2002 World Cup games in South Korea together and a couple parties in Seoul. I heard about GovWorks.com initially from my friend, Mike, who left Goldman Sachs to work there. Since I have an interest in goverment and public service, I thought the concept was great and really hoped that it would take off. Too bad it crashed and burned with the rest of them on this list.
Both of Joe and Kaleil had similar mixed reputations for being bold and arrogant during the time of their startup's rise and fall. Also both had documentaries made about their experiences, Startup.com and E-Dreams.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
MORE ON BUILDING TEAMS... CONTINUING FROM TOM EVSLIN'S POST
I was planning on posting a follow up to my article at AlwaysOn here, but since Tom Evslin posted a response at his blog I decided to continue the conversation from the topics he brought up. Oh, if you're an entrepreneur or thinking about starting something, Tom's blog is a must read.
I didn't get a chance to touch upon the base assumption of why you should or at least strongly consider starting a company with other people. Solo is doable, but not advised especially as the complexity of the technology, market, and product you are building increases. A few years ago, Professor Ed Roberts, from MIT’s Sloan School, conducted a study and found that the probability of success dramatically increased with team size up to four or five entrepreneurs. One underlying reason was that teams of people with complementary skill sets perform far better than they would as individuals.
Apple's Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak; Microsoft's Bill Gates had Paul Allen; Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang had David Filo; Google's Sergey Brin had Larry Page; Intel had Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove; Sun had Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim.
At GoingOn, I would describe part of my role on the team as a naysayer. Tony just calls me "Mr. No" a lot. I have to ask the questions that swirl in my mind, "How are we going to achieve that? What if our assumptions are wrong about our targeted market and they behave like this instead of that? What if a bottleneck is created here due to this?"
Since Tony and Marc are the primary visionaries with our platform, I guess someone has to play the other side. It's funny because during my first two startups, which had the same three founders for both, I played a similar counter-balance to my friend, Jimmy. He was the optimistic, storm-up-the-hill person, and I was always the skeptical one that tried to ignore the hype and noise of deals or people we met.
Anyway, back to Tom's points. Tom's first minor disagreement is one I can agree with. I just used an adage many people state and Tom's is another:
A C-grade hire is a negative – especially for a startup. Better to leave the position unfilled. No matter what you multiply a negative by, you still get a negative.
This is true especially in the critical positions and early roles within a new company. So I agree with Tom to just avoid the C-grade hires. As the company grows, some tend to relax their hiring standards, but this is a decision left for the company executives. I warn against becoming lax and recommend not to lower your standards since you should maintain the level of excellence you established since your company's founding to keep the company DNA and culture. A great example of this is Google. I believe up until recently Sergey and Larry still approved every single hire at the company, and beforehand each person would have to go through a series of interviews that would make many merry-go-round operators dizzy.
On Tom's second disagreement:
Bernard says to hire team players. You need to hire people you can work with but NOT necessarily team players. Team players won’t tell you when you’re dead wrong; they won’t be the only dissenting voice even when they’re right and everybody else is wrong. Startups need a team but I think a CEO can mold a team, has to mold a team, from very strong individuals.
I believe this was a matter of semantics. I believe team players are people who put the success of the company above their personal goals and desires. So I believe under this definition these people will "tell you when you’re dead wrong." Along this line, I would add to never hire "yes" people in key positions. You don't want to hire people that will always seek agreement or are afraid to place a stake in the ground on an idea or issue affecting the company. These people will never contribute to the betterment of the company or conversations that lead to decisions.
You also want people that don't take themselves or the discusions too seriously. This is related to second point in my article, "Check egos at the door." In the startup environment, you will get into heated discussions, so just remember that everyone is seeking the same goal, which is to find the best solution for the benefit of the company. I remember a dozen times when Jimmy, Peter, and I would get into heated debates to the point of yelling at the top of our lungs, but in the end we wouldn't take these situations personally and joke about it an hour later. Many times these intense sessions would quickly dissipate in the face of reason and logic.
"Oh, that sounds right... ok, you're right. I was off in my calculation."
"Dude, I'm so annoyed, but you're right. Crap. That would be better for us."
Anyway, I agree with Tom's overall theme, "Go for The Moon When Hiring for a Startup," (love the pun) and always hired the best possible people you can find.
[tags: startup, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, business, team, team building, vc, venturecapital ]
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I was planning on posting a follow up to my article at AlwaysOn here, but since Tom Evslin posted a response at his blog I decided to continue the conversation from the topics he brought up. Oh, if you're an entrepreneur or thinking about starting something, Tom's blog is a must read.
I didn't get a chance to touch upon the base assumption of why you should or at least strongly consider starting a company with other people. Solo is doable, but not advised especially as the complexity of the technology, market, and product you are building increases. A few years ago, Professor Ed Roberts, from MIT’s Sloan School, conducted a study and found that the probability of success dramatically increased with team size up to four or five entrepreneurs. One underlying reason was that teams of people with complementary skill sets perform far better than they would as individuals.
Apple's Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak; Microsoft's Bill Gates had Paul Allen; Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang had David Filo; Google's Sergey Brin had Larry Page; Intel had Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove; Sun had Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim.
At GoingOn, I would describe part of my role on the team as a naysayer. Tony just calls me "Mr. No" a lot. I have to ask the questions that swirl in my mind, "How are we going to achieve that? What if our assumptions are wrong about our targeted market and they behave like this instead of that? What if a bottleneck is created here due to this?"
Since Tony and Marc are the primary visionaries with our platform, I guess someone has to play the other side. It's funny because during my first two startups, which had the same three founders for both, I played a similar counter-balance to my friend, Jimmy. He was the optimistic, storm-up-the-hill person, and I was always the skeptical one that tried to ignore the hype and noise of deals or people we met.
Anyway, back to Tom's points. Tom's first minor disagreement is one I can agree with. I just used an adage many people state and Tom's is another:
A C-grade hire is a negative – especially for a startup. Better to leave the position unfilled. No matter what you multiply a negative by, you still get a negative.
This is true especially in the critical positions and early roles within a new company. So I agree with Tom to just avoid the C-grade hires. As the company grows, some tend to relax their hiring standards, but this is a decision left for the company executives. I warn against becoming lax and recommend not to lower your standards since you should maintain the level of excellence you established since your company's founding to keep the company DNA and culture. A great example of this is Google. I believe up until recently Sergey and Larry still approved every single hire at the company, and beforehand each person would have to go through a series of interviews that would make many merry-go-round operators dizzy.
On Tom's second disagreement:
Bernard says to hire team players. You need to hire people you can work with but NOT necessarily team players. Team players won’t tell you when you’re dead wrong; they won’t be the only dissenting voice even when they’re right and everybody else is wrong. Startups need a team but I think a CEO can mold a team, has to mold a team, from very strong individuals.
I believe this was a matter of semantics. I believe team players are people who put the success of the company above their personal goals and desires. So I believe under this definition these people will "tell you when you’re dead wrong." Along this line, I would add to never hire "yes" people in key positions. You don't want to hire people that will always seek agreement or are afraid to place a stake in the ground on an idea or issue affecting the company. These people will never contribute to the betterment of the company or conversations that lead to decisions.
You also want people that don't take themselves or the discusions too seriously. This is related to second point in my article, "Check egos at the door." In the startup environment, you will get into heated discussions, so just remember that everyone is seeking the same goal, which is to find the best solution for the benefit of the company. I remember a dozen times when Jimmy, Peter, and I would get into heated debates to the point of yelling at the top of our lungs, but in the end we wouldn't take these situations personally and joke about it an hour later. Many times these intense sessions would quickly dissipate in the face of reason and logic.
"Oh, that sounds right... ok, you're right. I was off in my calculation."
"Dude, I'm so annoyed, but you're right. Crap. That would be better for us."
Anyway, I agree with Tom's overall theme, "Go for The Moon When Hiring for a Startup," (love the pun) and always hired the best possible people you can find.
[tags: startup, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, business, team, team building, vc, venturecapital ]
Friday, August 19, 2005
"PROTECTING WHAT HAS BECOME THE SOUTH KOREAN WAY OF LIFE"
Mingi has another good op-ed in the JoongAng Daily:
While President Roh Moo-hyun has been outspoken about developing independent defense capabilities for South Korea, Seoul's military budget has barely increased. As a result, certain weapons acquisition programs are seeing questionable compromises stemming from a restricted budget. A prime example lies in South Korea's pursuit of an air defense system.
The Roh administration has been trying to acquire surface-to-air missiles through a misguided acquisition program, which looks to purchase second-hand PAC-2s from Germany, primarily because they are cheaper.
PAC-2s were initially used during the 1991 Gulf War. Many analysts say they were an unspeakable failure. Nowadays, instead of targeting missiles, PAC-2s are primarily used to target aircraft. Indeed, with a lower price comes great sacrifice.
In the latest war in Iraq, an improved missile produced by Lockheed Martin, the PAC-3, was used to target Iraqi missiles and other airborne objects. Its performance was reportedly more than satisfactory.
However, there exist two arguments in Korea against the PAC-3 systems. The first is the obvious ? the cost, which is more than double that of the PAC-2s.
Second, and more importantly, is the political implications of acquiring PAC-3s, which would make South Korea a part of the U.S.-led theater missile defense system and strengthen the U.S.-R.O.K. alliance. Unfortunately, South Korea's left-wing, which governs the country today, worries that might irritate China, South Korea's largest trading partner.
In the coming decades, however, South Korea has more to defend than its economy. If the opinions of Southeast Asian pro-democracy groups are any indication, South Korea is gradually establishing itself as East Asia's role model in terms of its democratic achievements. After decades of bloodshed, South Korea has become what is arguably the most advanced democracy in Asia.
The question for the future, however, is can South Korea defend its democratic achievements? In other words, in the midst of China's expanding economic and military influence throughout East Asia, can South Korea maintain its advances as part of the so-called "free world?" (full article)
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Mingi has another good op-ed in the JoongAng Daily:
While President Roh Moo-hyun has been outspoken about developing independent defense capabilities for South Korea, Seoul's military budget has barely increased. As a result, certain weapons acquisition programs are seeing questionable compromises stemming from a restricted budget. A prime example lies in South Korea's pursuit of an air defense system.
The Roh administration has been trying to acquire surface-to-air missiles through a misguided acquisition program, which looks to purchase second-hand PAC-2s from Germany, primarily because they are cheaper.
PAC-2s were initially used during the 1991 Gulf War. Many analysts say they were an unspeakable failure. Nowadays, instead of targeting missiles, PAC-2s are primarily used to target aircraft. Indeed, with a lower price comes great sacrifice.
In the latest war in Iraq, an improved missile produced by Lockheed Martin, the PAC-3, was used to target Iraqi missiles and other airborne objects. Its performance was reportedly more than satisfactory.
However, there exist two arguments in Korea against the PAC-3 systems. The first is the obvious ? the cost, which is more than double that of the PAC-2s.
Second, and more importantly, is the political implications of acquiring PAC-3s, which would make South Korea a part of the U.S.-led theater missile defense system and strengthen the U.S.-R.O.K. alliance. Unfortunately, South Korea's left-wing, which governs the country today, worries that might irritate China, South Korea's largest trading partner.
In the coming decades, however, South Korea has more to defend than its economy. If the opinions of Southeast Asian pro-democracy groups are any indication, South Korea is gradually establishing itself as East Asia's role model in terms of its democratic achievements. After decades of bloodshed, South Korea has become what is arguably the most advanced democracy in Asia.
The question for the future, however, is can South Korea defend its democratic achievements? In other words, in the midst of China's expanding economic and military influence throughout East Asia, can South Korea maintain its advances as part of the so-called "free world?" (full article)
GONZO VC... TIM DRAPER
HatTip to Alarm:Clock. TheDeal.com has an entertaining article on Tim Draper:
Draper, however, is best known for self-promotional stunts such as singing at conferences, dressing up as Batman on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and generally, just making really silly public statements that attract attention. While VC investing may require brains and native shrewdness, Draper's rebound may show that success can also come through a willingness to take risks on new geographies and sectors. And if self-promotion and buffoonery are an inseparable part of that risk-taking proposition, so be it.
A recent example of that buffoonery was on display in Kiev. Draper boasted in a press release that he came away from a meeting with Ukraine's leader awash in hyperbole. "If President Yuschenko gets the support he deserves, Ukraine could even become freer market than America!" he said.
Draper was in the Ukrainian capital to welcome the firm's latest affiliate to his VC network, TechInvest, a Kiev-based firm. According to TechInvest, Draper is trying to raise $50 million to $80 million for a new fund called the DFJ-Nexus Fund, which the two firms will manage and will target Ukrainian and Russian high-tech startups.
Draper's done this sort of work before. He lends his name to investors in communities worldwide so they can raise funds to invest in local startups. In return, he gets management fees and dealflow. Some of those arrangements have succeeded. Others, such as an ill-starred, closed-end venture firm called meVC, have bombed.
Now, let's get this straight. Draper should be lauded for venturing where few other Silicon Valley venture capitalists dare to tread. And he's reaping some of the rewards of that wanderlust. Baidu.com's IPO could value the company at nearly $1 billion. In the Ukraine, there are a ton of talented engineers and possibly the seeds of good deals. But did Draper have to say, "Ukraine will become an economic powerhouse, I know it, I see it, and I smell it"? (full article)
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HatTip to Alarm:Clock. TheDeal.com has an entertaining article on Tim Draper:
Draper, however, is best known for self-promotional stunts such as singing at conferences, dressing up as Batman on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and generally, just making really silly public statements that attract attention. While VC investing may require brains and native shrewdness, Draper's rebound may show that success can also come through a willingness to take risks on new geographies and sectors. And if self-promotion and buffoonery are an inseparable part of that risk-taking proposition, so be it.
A recent example of that buffoonery was on display in Kiev. Draper boasted in a press release that he came away from a meeting with Ukraine's leader awash in hyperbole. "If President Yuschenko gets the support he deserves, Ukraine could even become freer market than America!" he said.
Draper was in the Ukrainian capital to welcome the firm's latest affiliate to his VC network, TechInvest, a Kiev-based firm. According to TechInvest, Draper is trying to raise $50 million to $80 million for a new fund called the DFJ-Nexus Fund, which the two firms will manage and will target Ukrainian and Russian high-tech startups.
Draper's done this sort of work before. He lends his name to investors in communities worldwide so they can raise funds to invest in local startups. In return, he gets management fees and dealflow. Some of those arrangements have succeeded. Others, such as an ill-starred, closed-end venture firm called meVC, have bombed.
Now, let's get this straight. Draper should be lauded for venturing where few other Silicon Valley venture capitalists dare to tread. And he's reaping some of the rewards of that wanderlust. Baidu.com's IPO could value the company at nearly $1 billion. In the Ukraine, there are a ton of talented engineers and possibly the seeds of good deals. But did Draper have to say, "Ukraine will become an economic powerhouse, I know it, I see it, and I smell it"? (full article)
AMERICA'S TRUE GOLD STAR MOMS
Gotta love the New York Daily News:
Only at the risk of seeming stone-hearted does one beat up on such a grief-torn soul as Gold Star Mom Cindy Sheehan - unless one is a Gold Star Parent oneself and thus entitled to viewpoints every much as morally authoritative as hers.
Many moms and dads who have lost their own sons and daughters to Iraq are informing Sheehan that hers is hardly the only Gold Star out there, and that personally they choose to honor their dead by supporting the war. "Chris and all those over there are fighting for all of us," a mourner said the other day at a service for 19-year-old Ohio Marine Christopher Dyer. His mother, Kathy, urged family and friends not to let anger at Christopher's death turn them against the war. Christopher served his country "with the greatest pride ... fighting to preserve freedom." (full article)
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Gotta love the New York Daily News:
Only at the risk of seeming stone-hearted does one beat up on such a grief-torn soul as Gold Star Mom Cindy Sheehan - unless one is a Gold Star Parent oneself and thus entitled to viewpoints every much as morally authoritative as hers.
Many moms and dads who have lost their own sons and daughters to Iraq are informing Sheehan that hers is hardly the only Gold Star out there, and that personally they choose to honor their dead by supporting the war. "Chris and all those over there are fighting for all of us," a mourner said the other day at a service for 19-year-old Ohio Marine Christopher Dyer. His mother, Kathy, urged family and friends not to let anger at Christopher's death turn them against the war. Christopher served his country "with the greatest pride ... fighting to preserve freedom." (full article)
RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
"French Fries in Childhood Tied to Breast Cancer?"
"Iraq security chief warns of civil war over federalism"
"Jordan rockets miss US Navy ship"
"Ohio Governor Vows to Stay in Office"
"Google to sell shares valued at over $4b"
"Racing to build the world's mightiest computer"
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"French Fries in Childhood Tied to Breast Cancer?"
"Iraq security chief warns of civil war over federalism"
"Jordan rockets miss US Navy ship"
"Ohio Governor Vows to Stay in Office"
"Google to sell shares valued at over $4b"
"Racing to build the world's mightiest computer"
BLOGTRONIX LAUNCHES... THE LAUREL AND HARDY SHOW
Some amusing drama goingon at AO. Blogtronix, Vassil Mladjov's new company, launched and announced on AlwaysOn. If you visit the post, you'll see an example of a Laurel and Hardy show where he had his colleagues post and try to knock down Drupal and open source platforms:
"finally something more reliable. those drupal and some other FREE solutions ....(free, some other time, not to use the right expression connected to the lower part of human's back....).. they just do not work, anything on open source platform that has over 1000 bloggers or users is so bad that it is not even funny. Where do i get the trial though ....."
Why would they do such a thing? Because him and his developers in Bulgaria were the initial team to build the GoingOn platform. Wisely, Tony wanted to test their abilities before fully committing so he asked them to clean up the AlwaysOn system which had a messy backend. A two week promise became two months. I was guessing since they only new .NET that they were learning how to work in a PHP environment on the fly. They didn't perform and Vassil made a couple critical mistakes, so the relationship was severed. Obviously, they were not happy.
This is where I lose respect for Vassil. He could have just quietly launched on his own, but he goes and announces on Tony's AO site and he includes criticisms of Drupal and open source platforms, which he knows that we are building on. Dude, why? Just launch and be happy. You don't go pissing in someone's backyard and start to bite and pull hair, which is how I see his and his colleagues posts. Especially since they lie about Drupal, PHP (which is what the AO site is written in and they couldn't code in), and open source in an obvious attempt to put fear or concerns about our platform. Totally picturing Mike Tyson biting Holyfields ear right now.
Anyway, I actually wanted to give the Bulgarian team another chance after they couldn't optimally perform on the AlwaysOn site, but did some information gathering. One source was Carl Wescott, Marc's partner and interim CTO of GoingOn, who operates very objectively and knows something about building stable and scalable systems (i.e. CharlesSchwab.com). He said there were red flags for him since the AlwaysOn site was down for whole weekends which didn't make sense. Carl said longest a live site should be down for upgrades or correction is an hour or so. He assumed they didn't do enough testing before taking the site down, which reflected a lack of certain skillsets.
So in his immature fashion, he announces on AO and takes stabs at Drupal, PHP, and open source. I've posted here before, it cracks me up when grown men act like grade school kids. Actually, many people never grow up.
Anyway, we're very happy with our development team who built the Ourmedia site. Our CTO, Carl, is stud and so are our lead developers, Ashish and Gaurav, who kicked ass at Microsoft (they know something about .NET and are happy with Drupal:) and left to found Tekriti Software.
MORE. Roland Tanglao's a post on Vassil's comments:
"Pure FUD. Perhaps Vassil doesn't realize that 1000s of companies are happily using LAMP and other open source solutions for their blogging and business networking needs without fearing the integration bogeyman. In 1999, companies were wary of using open source, in 2005 it's a no brainer."
Which I would add and did on the AlwaysOn site in response to the first quote above:
"i dont' know where you get your information, but it's wrong and seems purposely misleading. please place your propaganda on some flaming chatroom not at AO. ourmedia, which was built on DRUPAL has over 30,000 users and it works well on cheap hardware and zero IT support. also Friendster (you know Friendster, right?) has over 19 million users and it runs on LAMP very smoothly."
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Some amusing drama goingon at AO. Blogtronix, Vassil Mladjov's new company, launched and announced on AlwaysOn. If you visit the post, you'll see an example of a Laurel and Hardy show where he had his colleagues post and try to knock down Drupal and open source platforms:
"finally something more reliable. those drupal and some other FREE solutions ....(free, some other time, not to use the right expression connected to the lower part of human's back....).. they just do not work, anything on open source platform that has over 1000 bloggers or users is so bad that it is not even funny. Where do i get the trial though ....."
Why would they do such a thing? Because him and his developers in Bulgaria were the initial team to build the GoingOn platform. Wisely, Tony wanted to test their abilities before fully committing so he asked them to clean up the AlwaysOn system which had a messy backend. A two week promise became two months. I was guessing since they only new .NET that they were learning how to work in a PHP environment on the fly. They didn't perform and Vassil made a couple critical mistakes, so the relationship was severed. Obviously, they were not happy.
This is where I lose respect for Vassil. He could have just quietly launched on his own, but he goes and announces on Tony's AO site and he includes criticisms of Drupal and open source platforms, which he knows that we are building on. Dude, why? Just launch and be happy. You don't go pissing in someone's backyard and start to bite and pull hair, which is how I see his and his colleagues posts. Especially since they lie about Drupal, PHP (which is what the AO site is written in and they couldn't code in), and open source in an obvious attempt to put fear or concerns about our platform. Totally picturing Mike Tyson biting Holyfields ear right now.
Anyway, I actually wanted to give the Bulgarian team another chance after they couldn't optimally perform on the AlwaysOn site, but did some information gathering. One source was Carl Wescott, Marc's partner and interim CTO of GoingOn, who operates very objectively and knows something about building stable and scalable systems (i.e. CharlesSchwab.com). He said there were red flags for him since the AlwaysOn site was down for whole weekends which didn't make sense. Carl said longest a live site should be down for upgrades or correction is an hour or so. He assumed they didn't do enough testing before taking the site down, which reflected a lack of certain skillsets.
So in his immature fashion, he announces on AO and takes stabs at Drupal, PHP, and open source. I've posted here before, it cracks me up when grown men act like grade school kids. Actually, many people never grow up.
Anyway, we're very happy with our development team who built the Ourmedia site. Our CTO, Carl, is stud and so are our lead developers, Ashish and Gaurav, who kicked ass at Microsoft (they know something about .NET and are happy with Drupal:) and left to found Tekriti Software.
MORE. Roland Tanglao's a post on Vassil's comments:
"Pure FUD. Perhaps Vassil doesn't realize that 1000s of companies are happily using LAMP and other open source solutions for their blogging and business networking needs without fearing the integration bogeyman. In 1999, companies were wary of using open source, in 2005 it's a no brainer."
Which I would add and did on the AlwaysOn site in response to the first quote above:
"i dont' know where you get your information, but it's wrong and seems purposely misleading. please place your propaganda on some flaming chatroom not at AO. ourmedia, which was built on DRUPAL has over 30,000 users and it works well on cheap hardware and zero IT support. also Friendster (you know Friendster, right?) has over 19 million users and it runs on LAMP very smoothly."
Thursday, August 18, 2005
BLOG BUSINESS SUMMIT STARTS TODAY
I'm off to the Blog Business Summit at starts today and goes through tomorrow. I did attend a dinner last night that Niall Kennedy organized. It was great meeting some of the attendees and industry people that went to the gathering. Some people actually were not attending the conference, but went to the dinner because of Niall's post.
Sidenote... This was the first time I had Chinese food where people ordered individually. I always found it funny when non-Asians ordered it this way (is that guy really ordering a whole kung pao chicken for himself? a whole plate of hunan beef? doesn't it get boring?), but was never in the middle of it. I have primarily only seen this type of ordering from small town America, so it was even weirder that we were in San Francisco which has a huge Chinese population and a high percentage of Asians. I think Jewish people are the only non-Asians where I can safely assume that they know how to order Chinese food (multiple dishes that you share). Go to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas and you'll see.
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I'm off to the Blog Business Summit at starts today and goes through tomorrow. I did attend a dinner last night that Niall Kennedy organized. It was great meeting some of the attendees and industry people that went to the gathering. Some people actually were not attending the conference, but went to the dinner because of Niall's post.
Sidenote... This was the first time I had Chinese food where people ordered individually. I always found it funny when non-Asians ordered it this way (is that guy really ordering a whole kung pao chicken for himself? a whole plate of hunan beef? doesn't it get boring?), but was never in the middle of it. I have primarily only seen this type of ordering from small town America, so it was even weirder that we were in San Francisco which has a huge Chinese population and a high percentage of Asians. I think Jewish people are the only non-Asians where I can safely assume that they know how to order Chinese food (multiple dishes that you share). Go to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas and you'll see.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
BUILDING THE PERFECT TEAM... MY COLUMN IS GOING UP
This week I couldn't think of a relevant article for my Reality Media column, so took an idea for a piece I was going to post here and made it for my column. It's a bit off topic, but my editors, Rich and Jill, approved so I went ahead with it.
I had a few more anecdotes in the original piece, but Jill edited them out to keep the article focused and flowing. She is a great editor and my writing is better because of her. Anyway, here it is:
Building the Perfect Team
One entrepreneur's recipe for assembling a startup team that sticks.
For the third time in my career, the excitement of building a company from the ground up is running through my veins. I love everything about this process—from writing the business plan to building the financial model, closing the initial round, developing and launching the product, and recruiting talent. I even enjoy talking about the process and advising other entrepreneurs. In such conversations, however, one topic invariably comes up: team building. As it happens, this topic has been much on my mind of late as I attempt to take my latest venture—the blogging and communications platform GoingOn Networks—to profitability. What better time, then, to present my own boilerplate for successful team building—one gleaned equally from experience and knowledge shared by entrepreneurs and mentors.
While there are countless articles and blog posts that purport to describe what venture capitalists are looking for in startups, none offers the one true formula for success. And as many people are quick to point out, there are plenty of venture capitalists out there who would have slammed the door on Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos if they'd come knocking in their early days. (full article)
ALSO Brad Feld was nice enough to comment and link to it. Thanks, Brad!
Also Torsten Jacobi links and posts about my article here. Some others here. Thanks!
[tags: startup, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, business, team, team building, vc, venturecapital ]
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This week I couldn't think of a relevant article for my Reality Media column, so took an idea for a piece I was going to post here and made it for my column. It's a bit off topic, but my editors, Rich and Jill, approved so I went ahead with it.
I had a few more anecdotes in the original piece, but Jill edited them out to keep the article focused and flowing. She is a great editor and my writing is better because of her. Anyway, here it is:
Building the Perfect Team
One entrepreneur's recipe for assembling a startup team that sticks.
For the third time in my career, the excitement of building a company from the ground up is running through my veins. I love everything about this process—from writing the business plan to building the financial model, closing the initial round, developing and launching the product, and recruiting talent. I even enjoy talking about the process and advising other entrepreneurs. In such conversations, however, one topic invariably comes up: team building. As it happens, this topic has been much on my mind of late as I attempt to take my latest venture—the blogging and communications platform GoingOn Networks—to profitability. What better time, then, to present my own boilerplate for successful team building—one gleaned equally from experience and knowledge shared by entrepreneurs and mentors.
While there are countless articles and blog posts that purport to describe what venture capitalists are looking for in startups, none offers the one true formula for success. And as many people are quick to point out, there are plenty of venture capitalists out there who would have slammed the door on Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos if they'd come knocking in their early days. (full article)
ALSO Brad Feld was nice enough to comment and link to it. Thanks, Brad!
Also Torsten Jacobi links and posts about my article here. Some others here. Thanks!
[tags: startup, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, business, team, team building, vc, venturecapital ]
ALLEN MORGAN'S TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Mayfield's Allen Morgan has a couple good posts on what entrepreneurs should think about before approaching venture capitalists:
Some Tough Questions You Should Ask
If you want to raise money from VC’s, here’s a really tough, really important question you ought to ask yourself very early in the process: “How many co-founders should I have?” Having the wrong “answer” to this question can make your life difficult in some subtle (and odd) ways. Plus, unlike some miscalculations, here the wrong answer hurts only the founders, not the VC or later employees. Here’s how to look for the right answer.
Although entrepreneurs are motivated by things in addition to money, money’s important to everyone I’ve ever met trying to start a company. Monetary rewards in a startup, as everyone knows, ultimately derive from ownership of stock (not salaries or bonuses). Since there can never be more than 100% of the founders’ stock available for allocation, every co-founder should focus on ensuring that the allocation best matches the realistic, expected contributions of each founder to the success of the Company. (full post)
More on "Tough Questions"
In my last post, I advised entrepreneurs seeking VC funding to think carefully about choosing their co-founders. I claimed this decision is often gotten wrong and that, not infrequently, one or more co-founders leave the company with an amount of founder’s equity disproportionate to their contribution (in the eyes of their co-founders). Finally, I noted that, in this situation, the “remaining” co-founders almost always bear the economic brunt.
How to avoid this? I wish I had a crisp, clean and clear answer. Like a lot of other important questions in life, however, the answers are messy, ambiguous and highly context-dependent. All of us, VC’s and entrepreneurs alike, wish we could just call up “Central Casting” and order “the perfect startup team”. But, of course, we can’t. That said, there are some useful ways to think about this situation, and, below, I’ve set out some guidelines that a VC will likely use in evaluating this aspect of a startup. I hope these will be helpful to entrepreneurs as they’re building out their co-founding teams. (full post)
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Mayfield's Allen Morgan has a couple good posts on what entrepreneurs should think about before approaching venture capitalists:
Some Tough Questions You Should Ask
If you want to raise money from VC’s, here’s a really tough, really important question you ought to ask yourself very early in the process: “How many co-founders should I have?” Having the wrong “answer” to this question can make your life difficult in some subtle (and odd) ways. Plus, unlike some miscalculations, here the wrong answer hurts only the founders, not the VC or later employees. Here’s how to look for the right answer.
Although entrepreneurs are motivated by things in addition to money, money’s important to everyone I’ve ever met trying to start a company. Monetary rewards in a startup, as everyone knows, ultimately derive from ownership of stock (not salaries or bonuses). Since there can never be more than 100% of the founders’ stock available for allocation, every co-founder should focus on ensuring that the allocation best matches the realistic, expected contributions of each founder to the success of the Company. (full post)
More on "Tough Questions"
In my last post, I advised entrepreneurs seeking VC funding to think carefully about choosing their co-founders. I claimed this decision is often gotten wrong and that, not infrequently, one or more co-founders leave the company with an amount of founder’s equity disproportionate to their contribution (in the eyes of their co-founders). Finally, I noted that, in this situation, the “remaining” co-founders almost always bear the economic brunt.
How to avoid this? I wish I had a crisp, clean and clear answer. Like a lot of other important questions in life, however, the answers are messy, ambiguous and highly context-dependent. All of us, VC’s and entrepreneurs alike, wish we could just call up “Central Casting” and order “the perfect startup team”. But, of course, we can’t. That said, there are some useful ways to think about this situation, and, below, I’ve set out some guidelines that a VC will likely use in evaluating this aspect of a startup. I hope these will be helpful to entrepreneurs as they’re building out their co-founding teams. (full post)
EGYPT'S FIRST MULTI-CANDIDATE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION... IT'S A START
The fruits of the war in Iraqi. Egypt is holding it's first multi-candidate presidential election. I don't know how much of a fair race this really is, but it's a start:
Campaigning in Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential election kicked off Wednesday with President Hosni Mubarak — unchallenged for 24 years and almost certain to win — trying to depict himself as just another competitor in a 10-man race.
The Sept. 7 election is the cornerstone of Mubarak's reform program, and his government is trying to show it will be a fair race to convince skeptical Egyptians it is serious about greater democracy.
Previously, Mubarak was re-elected in yes-no referendums with only him on the ballot. But the United States has been pressing Mubarak, one of its closest Arab allies, to move ahead with democratic change, and the fairness of the election is a major test of Washington's policy of promoting reform in the Middle East.
Several major opposition parties are boycotting the vote, saying claims of open competition are a sham. The overpowering edge Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party enjoys in organization and influence was clear from the first day of campaigning, when billboards praising him cropped up overnight across the Egyptian capital. No opposition ads were to be seen. (full article)
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The fruits of the war in Iraqi. Egypt is holding it's first multi-candidate presidential election. I don't know how much of a fair race this really is, but it's a start:
Campaigning in Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential election kicked off Wednesday with President Hosni Mubarak — unchallenged for 24 years and almost certain to win — trying to depict himself as just another competitor in a 10-man race.
The Sept. 7 election is the cornerstone of Mubarak's reform program, and his government is trying to show it will be a fair race to convince skeptical Egyptians it is serious about greater democracy.
Previously, Mubarak was re-elected in yes-no referendums with only him on the ballot. But the United States has been pressing Mubarak, one of its closest Arab allies, to move ahead with democratic change, and the fairness of the election is a major test of Washington's policy of promoting reform in the Middle East.
Several major opposition parties are boycotting the vote, saying claims of open competition are a sham. The overpowering edge Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party enjoys in organization and influence was clear from the first day of campaigning, when billboards praising him cropped up overnight across the Egyptian capital. No opposition ads were to be seen. (full article)
"WRONG ON NORTH KOREA"
HatTip to Mingi. He adds, "A rarity regarding North Korea, but these two liberals get it right."
Wrong on North Korea
The Baltimore Sun
July 13, 2005
Bruce B. Lee, Attorney,
Michael E. O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies (The Brookings Institute)
In the debate over North Korea policy, Democrats have avoided raising the human rights issue, conceding it to President Bush and the evangelical wing of the Republican Party.
This approach may seem to make sense on narrow military grounds because it is principally North Korea's nuclear weapons that threaten us and therefore natural to focus on them in policy debates. But it is a serious mistake.
There are three major problems with the Democrats' reluctance to demand improvements in North Korea's human rights conditions as a necessary prerequisite to any substantial détente between the two countries.
First, in U.S. political terms, it is helping turn Korean-Americans increasingly to the Republican Party, making them one of only two major Asian-American groups (along with Vietnamese) to favor the GOP.
There are 2 million Korean-Americans in the United States, with a substantial number successful economically, active politically and highly educated. More than 70 percent are Christian, and the majority can trace family roots to North Korea. For them, the issue of human rights in North Korea is an emotional issue just as the Soviet Jewry movement of the 1970s was for American Jews. In the last year, Korean-Americans have been politicized as never before.
There are more than 70 college chapters of LINK (Liberation in North Korea) across the country, and the Korean Christian community recently held a rally attended by more than 2,000 pastors. These efforts were largely responsible for the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act last year. If Democrats appear indifferent to the well-being of helpless North Korean citizens, political prisoners and refugees in China, the Korean-American tilt toward the GOP will likely increase. (full article)
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HatTip to Mingi. He adds, "A rarity regarding North Korea, but these two liberals get it right."
Wrong on North Korea
The Baltimore Sun
July 13, 2005
Bruce B. Lee, Attorney,
Michael E. O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies (The Brookings Institute)
In the debate over North Korea policy, Democrats have avoided raising the human rights issue, conceding it to President Bush and the evangelical wing of the Republican Party.
This approach may seem to make sense on narrow military grounds because it is principally North Korea's nuclear weapons that threaten us and therefore natural to focus on them in policy debates. But it is a serious mistake.
There are three major problems with the Democrats' reluctance to demand improvements in North Korea's human rights conditions as a necessary prerequisite to any substantial détente between the two countries.
First, in U.S. political terms, it is helping turn Korean-Americans increasingly to the Republican Party, making them one of only two major Asian-American groups (along with Vietnamese) to favor the GOP.
There are 2 million Korean-Americans in the United States, with a substantial number successful economically, active politically and highly educated. More than 70 percent are Christian, and the majority can trace family roots to North Korea. For them, the issue of human rights in North Korea is an emotional issue just as the Soviet Jewry movement of the 1970s was for American Jews. In the last year, Korean-Americans have been politicized as never before.
There are more than 70 college chapters of LINK (Liberation in North Korea) across the country, and the Korean Christian community recently held a rally attended by more than 2,000 pastors. These efforts were largely responsible for the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act last year. If Democrats appear indifferent to the well-being of helpless North Korean citizens, political prisoners and refugees in China, the Korean-American tilt toward the GOP will likely increase. (full article)
THE RISE OF RSS
Tom Taulli has an article in Forbes on RSS. Good timing that all these articles on RSS are out since my next column will also cover this space.
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Tom Taulli has an article in Forbes on RSS. Good timing that all these articles on RSS are out since my next column will also cover this space.
"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ALWAYSON GETS GOINGON? BLOGWORKING TAKE TWO?"
Jesse Taylor has a post at AlwaysOn about our company. Jesse's company, Netmodular, provides the current social networking tool for AlwaysOn. We're building our own for the GoingOn platform, where the AlwaysOn site will be transferred to in a few months. Here's his post and I think he might have taken my line ("cat is out of the bag") from my prior post about GoingOn, and he's definitely promoting his new word, "Blogworking":
Finally, the cat is out of the bag. This fall, one of the pioneers of blogging and social networking, Tony Perkins will release his latest media concept, and it just might be another hit.
Back in 2002, people said that you could not build true editorial content around a group weblog because it would rapidly grow out of control, it would inevitably turn into what some just refer to as a mob-blog. A place where inflammatory remarks and personal attacks are commonplace, and relevant content is often left buried.
Flying in the face of such evidence, Perkins founded AlwaysOn with just such a goal, to create a blogging community centered quality editorial content.
Perkins learned from the mistakes of others and quickly combined his blogging with social networking features. Features that promoted positive, like-minded activity and article content that would rival his own editorial staff. By creating quality editorial content and infusing it with compelling style and branding, Perkins created a shared weblog which acted like an online magazine. (full post)
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Jesse Taylor has a post at AlwaysOn about our company. Jesse's company, Netmodular, provides the current social networking tool for AlwaysOn. We're building our own for the GoingOn platform, where the AlwaysOn site will be transferred to in a few months. Here's his post and I think he might have taken my line ("cat is out of the bag") from my prior post about GoingOn, and he's definitely promoting his new word, "Blogworking":
Finally, the cat is out of the bag. This fall, one of the pioneers of blogging and social networking, Tony Perkins will release his latest media concept, and it just might be another hit.
Back in 2002, people said that you could not build true editorial content around a group weblog because it would rapidly grow out of control, it would inevitably turn into what some just refer to as a mob-blog. A place where inflammatory remarks and personal attacks are commonplace, and relevant content is often left buried.
Flying in the face of such evidence, Perkins founded AlwaysOn with just such a goal, to create a blogging community centered quality editorial content.
Perkins learned from the mistakes of others and quickly combined his blogging with social networking features. Features that promoted positive, like-minded activity and article content that would rival his own editorial staff. By creating quality editorial content and infusing it with compelling style and branding, Perkins created a shared weblog which acted like an online magazine. (full post)
FEEDSTER TOP 500 BLOGS... HEAR THAT? SHOT ACROSS THE BOW OF TECHNORATI
HatTip to Erick Schonfeld at Business 2.0's blog. Check out the Feedster Top 500.
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HatTip to Erick Schonfeld at Business 2.0's blog. Check out the Feedster Top 500.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
"Clashes Erupt in Gaza Strip, 50 Arrested"
"N.Koreans Milk Liberation Day for Proaganda Value"
"Earthquake rocks northern Japan"
"Scientists make nerve stem cells"
"New Internet Worm Targeting Windows"
"Koreans Not Ready to Give Up on CRTs"
"Kissinger finds parallels to Vietnam in Iraq"
Ok, I have to comment on this last news link. This is a headline written to support the opinions of CNN and probably Wolf Blitzer and takes what Kissinger said out of context. Nice stab at the Bush Administration, CNN.
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"Clashes Erupt in Gaza Strip, 50 Arrested"
"N.Koreans Milk Liberation Day for Proaganda Value"
"Earthquake rocks northern Japan"
"Scientists make nerve stem cells"
"New Internet Worm Targeting Windows"
"Koreans Not Ready to Give Up on CRTs"
"Kissinger finds parallels to Vietnam in Iraq"
Ok, I have to comment on this last news link. This is a headline written to support the opinions of CNN and probably Wolf Blitzer and takes what Kissinger said out of context. Nice stab at the Bush Administration, CNN.
FIREFOX'S MARKET SHARE SLIPS
The Firefox's rapid growth has hit a wall. Maybe all the early-adopters and techy geeks who would have used Firefox are using it now. Now we known how large this market is.:)
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The Firefox's rapid growth has hit a wall. Maybe all the early-adopters and techy geeks who would have used Firefox are using it now. Now we known how large this market is.:)
AOL GETS ITS GROOVE BACK?... FROM THE DEPTHS
Good post by Russell Beattie on "AOL Rising":
Maybe its because I now work at an Internet Portal and thus am more aware of these things, but it seems that AOL is making all the right moves lately to become a serious competitor to MSN and Yahoo! Let's tick off the things they've done over the past month or so:
1) They opened up their network and redesigned their pages. AOL has always had a bunch of neat content trapped behind their walled garden, but us on the outside couldn't take advantage of it so it didn't matter. Now that they're opening this stuff up, suddenly AOL seems relevant again, no?
2) They webcast Live8 flawlessly. The way that AOL did Live8's live cast and now have all of it available on demand is exactly the way all of us would want it: Free, organized, high-quality. It was the first time a video event was really, truly better online than on TV. That's a watershed event, IMHO.
3) They launched their mobile search using InfoGin's transcoding technology. Web search, yellow pages (local) and product search all derived from their existing websites (aolsearch.com "enhanced" by Google, yp.aol.com, and instore.com). Using this same technology, look for AOL to quickly get a lot more mobile content up and running soon.
4) They launched competitive online services such as the My AOL RSS aggregator home page and "AIM Mail". The My AOL page is good looking and functional giving My Yahoo! a real competitor for the first time in a year or so. And though the email is lagging everyone (Y! Mail, GMail, HotMail) it's a core service they now offer and I'm sure updates will be coming quickly.
5) They relaunched the AOL Instant Messenger client with a nicer interface, and an innovative marketing site called AIM Fight which is really going get people (kids especially) to recruit others to download AIM and sign them up as buddies. This is a brilliant, brilliant idea.
6) They bought XDrive. I just found this out this morning, and it's an amazing purchase. Read my post about XDrive from February to know why: They have a streaming media solution based on the MP3s and other content you store on their servers. Also read my startup plans back in March 2003 under the section "mDrive" - the idea being that every mobile phone should have their own server-side space to offload content.
7) They bought WildSeed today and created a new division called AOL Wireless Group. I've never heard of WildSeed, but they (like many other companies like it) make phone personalization software. This is key to improving the dismal end-user experience that mobile users have to deal with right now. Look for custom mobile AIM clients in the future, or even an AOL Phone. (full post)
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Good post by Russell Beattie on "AOL Rising":
Maybe its because I now work at an Internet Portal and thus am more aware of these things, but it seems that AOL is making all the right moves lately to become a serious competitor to MSN and Yahoo! Let's tick off the things they've done over the past month or so:
1) They opened up their network and redesigned their pages. AOL has always had a bunch of neat content trapped behind their walled garden, but us on the outside couldn't take advantage of it so it didn't matter. Now that they're opening this stuff up, suddenly AOL seems relevant again, no?
2) They webcast Live8 flawlessly. The way that AOL did Live8's live cast and now have all of it available on demand is exactly the way all of us would want it: Free, organized, high-quality. It was the first time a video event was really, truly better online than on TV. That's a watershed event, IMHO.
3) They launched their mobile search using InfoGin's transcoding technology. Web search, yellow pages (local) and product search all derived from their existing websites (aolsearch.com "enhanced" by Google, yp.aol.com, and instore.com). Using this same technology, look for AOL to quickly get a lot more mobile content up and running soon.
4) They launched competitive online services such as the My AOL RSS aggregator home page and "AIM Mail". The My AOL page is good looking and functional giving My Yahoo! a real competitor for the first time in a year or so. And though the email is lagging everyone (Y! Mail, GMail, HotMail) it's a core service they now offer and I'm sure updates will be coming quickly.
5) They relaunched the AOL Instant Messenger client with a nicer interface, and an innovative marketing site called AIM Fight which is really going get people (kids especially) to recruit others to download AIM and sign them up as buddies. This is a brilliant, brilliant idea.
6) They bought XDrive. I just found this out this morning, and it's an amazing purchase. Read my post about XDrive from February to know why: They have a streaming media solution based on the MP3s and other content you store on their servers. Also read my startup plans back in March 2003 under the section "mDrive" - the idea being that every mobile phone should have their own server-side space to offload content.
7) They bought WildSeed today and created a new division called AOL Wireless Group. I've never heard of WildSeed, but they (like many other companies like it) make phone personalization software. This is key to improving the dismal end-user experience that mobile users have to deal with right now. Look for custom mobile AIM clients in the future, or even an AOL Phone. (full post)
Monday, August 15, 2005
WEB 2.O... AN OPPORTUNITY FOR VENTURE CAPITAL?
Clarence Wooten at Venturepreneur Partners has a good article, "Web 2.0: An opportunity for venture capital, or just a boom in lifestyle businesses?", on the current environment for startups and building companies. He also has a little plug for GoingOn, but not sure if he knows what we're really trying to build since Marc's posts and the articles about us are everywhere:
I wasn’t at OSCON this year but I was told that Tim O’Reilly referred to the Ruby programming language as “the Perl of the Web 2.0 era” – I agree. Furthermore, innovation is being driven by the excitement surrounding Ajax coupled with development of open source programming frameworks such as Ruby on Rails and Django. These frameworks are designed to accelerate programming, ease Ajax implementation and improve code by enforcing the DRY (don’t repeat yourself) principal.
By leveraging these platforms, a plethora of new Web 2.0 startups are bootstrapping and rapidly building focused WebApps such as Basecamp (web-based project management), Blinksale (web-based invoicing), Chalk.it and Writeboard (web-based white boarding), and many more that are fueling the creation of new businesses at a rapid clip (see TechCrunch for daily examples). Innovation at this level has not been seen for some time – It was ten years ago this month that Netscape had its wildly popular IPO. This was the tipping point that lead to the boom and eventual bust of the Web 1.0 era.
So what makes the creation of Web 2.0 businesses different from the Web 1.0 startups that preceded them? I believe, three things separate the two:
1) open source, 2) blogging, and 3) social networks.
.....
The impact of social networks.
In this second, Web 2.0, phase of the Web, networking has now extended from machines to people. The underlying networking infrastructure of the Web has become the foundation for a vast social networking infrastructure for groups. Popular social networking services such as LinkedIn, Del.icio.us, and MySpace are enabling like-minded individuals to come together and form social networks that are empowering groups to create value and share value like never before. The GoingOn Network plans to take interoperability between social networks to a new level. (full article)
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Clarence Wooten at Venturepreneur Partners has a good article, "Web 2.0: An opportunity for venture capital, or just a boom in lifestyle businesses?", on the current environment for startups and building companies. He also has a little plug for GoingOn, but not sure if he knows what we're really trying to build since Marc's posts and the articles about us are everywhere:
I wasn’t at OSCON this year but I was told that Tim O’Reilly referred to the Ruby programming language as “the Perl of the Web 2.0 era” – I agree. Furthermore, innovation is being driven by the excitement surrounding Ajax coupled with development of open source programming frameworks such as Ruby on Rails and Django. These frameworks are designed to accelerate programming, ease Ajax implementation and improve code by enforcing the DRY (don’t repeat yourself) principal.
By leveraging these platforms, a plethora of new Web 2.0 startups are bootstrapping and rapidly building focused WebApps such as Basecamp (web-based project management), Blinksale (web-based invoicing), Chalk.it and Writeboard (web-based white boarding), and many more that are fueling the creation of new businesses at a rapid clip (see TechCrunch for daily examples). Innovation at this level has not been seen for some time – It was ten years ago this month that Netscape had its wildly popular IPO. This was the tipping point that lead to the boom and eventual bust of the Web 1.0 era.
So what makes the creation of Web 2.0 businesses different from the Web 1.0 startups that preceded them? I believe, three things separate the two:
1) open source, 2) blogging, and 3) social networks.
.....
The impact of social networks.
In this second, Web 2.0, phase of the Web, networking has now extended from machines to people. The underlying networking infrastructure of the Web has become the foundation for a vast social networking infrastructure for groups. Popular social networking services such as LinkedIn, Del.icio.us, and MySpace are enabling like-minded individuals to come together and form social networks that are empowering groups to create value and share value like never before. The GoingOn Network plans to take interoperability between social networks to a new level. (full article)
GROWING STARTUP ACTIVITY IN SILICON VALLEY... INSANE
I came across Nivi's blog today for the first time, and he had an interesting post and observation on the current state of entrepreneurship in the Bay Area:
If you had any doubt that the level of startup activity in the Bay Area had reached epic proportions, a quick perusal of craigslist should set you straight.
I was recently looking through craigslist’s Bay Area computer gigs for engineers on a project I am working on (codename: Ninja). And I was blown away by the number of people who are looking for co-founders for their burgeoning startups on craigslist. They are not looking for engineers to build out their team, they are literally looking for co-founders!
Here are five random posts from the just the last few days.
- looking for co-founder - Social network startup
- Looking for a technical partner to start a web-startup
- Entrepreneur is looking for a technical leader/ CTO
- Seeking Developers to create Killer 3g Application
- Startup co-founder wanted, eBay services startup (full post)
I will say that if you're looking for a co-founder, that is a high hurdle to jump towards success because you have to have complete trust and faith in the person you're building a new company with and it's hard to start from ground zero for such a relationship. I'm actually drafting an essay on the important team elements for startups, and hopefully I'll have time this week to post it up.
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I came across Nivi's blog today for the first time, and he had an interesting post and observation on the current state of entrepreneurship in the Bay Area:
If you had any doubt that the level of startup activity in the Bay Area had reached epic proportions, a quick perusal of craigslist should set you straight.
I was recently looking through craigslist’s Bay Area computer gigs for engineers on a project I am working on (codename: Ninja). And I was blown away by the number of people who are looking for co-founders for their burgeoning startups on craigslist. They are not looking for engineers to build out their team, they are literally looking for co-founders!
Here are five random posts from the just the last few days.
- looking for co-founder - Social network startup
- Looking for a technical partner to start a web-startup
- Entrepreneur is looking for a technical leader/ CTO
- Seeking Developers to create Killer 3g Application
- Startup co-founder wanted, eBay services startup (full post)
I will say that if you're looking for a co-founder, that is a high hurdle to jump towards success because you have to have complete trust and faith in the person you're building a new company with and it's hard to start from ground zero for such a relationship. I'm actually drafting an essay on the important team elements for startups, and hopefully I'll have time this week to post it up.
"ALIBABA RELIED ON SERAPHIM FOR ITS SALE TO YAHOO"
HatTip to Jeff. Interesting that Alibaba use Seraphim, a boutique investment bank like my old firm, as an advisor on the Yahoo! deal. Similar to when I was with iRG Limited, it makes sense since they can provide equivalent services (assuming the talent of individuals is all equal) if you don't need the connection to a larger institution's research or sales groups, and just advice on the deal side.
I'm sure Matt and others were wishing that they got this deal. Anyway, I'll make a plug for my old firm. If you need a boutique investbank in Asia for advisory work in the TMT (technology, media and telecommunications) space, contact iRG. Matt Burlage is a stud. He was part of the team along with Ravi Sarathy that took the first wave of Asian tech companies onto NASDAQ, such as Pacific Internet, Korea Thrunet, and Chinadotcom. They were ranked Number One in ex-Japan Corporate Asia, and Number Two in Corporate Asia, by Institutional Investor back in 2000. The firm has solid inroads in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan, and for Korea work avoid them since their guy for that market is a dork.
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HatTip to Jeff. Interesting that Alibaba use Seraphim, a boutique investment bank like my old firm, as an advisor on the Yahoo! deal. Similar to when I was with iRG Limited, it makes sense since they can provide equivalent services (assuming the talent of individuals is all equal) if you don't need the connection to a larger institution's research or sales groups, and just advice on the deal side.
I'm sure Matt and others were wishing that they got this deal. Anyway, I'll make a plug for my old firm. If you need a boutique investbank in Asia for advisory work in the TMT (technology, media and telecommunications) space, contact iRG. Matt Burlage is a stud. He was part of the team along with Ravi Sarathy that took the first wave of Asian tech companies onto NASDAQ, such as Pacific Internet, Korea Thrunet, and Chinadotcom. They were ranked Number One in ex-Japan Corporate Asia, and Number Two in Corporate Asia, by Institutional Investor back in 2000. The firm has solid inroads in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan, and for Korea work avoid them since their guy for that market is a dork.
YAHOO LAUNCHING VOIP SERVICE SOON?
Red Herring has an article on Yahoo!'s possible launch of their Skype competitor in the coming weeks. Like I wrote before, it won't be much longer before Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google jumping into the VoIP P2P pool. Splash! Last one in...
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Red Herring has an article on Yahoo!'s possible launch of their Skype competitor in the coming weeks. Like I wrote before, it won't be much longer before Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google jumping into the VoIP P2P pool. Splash! Last one in...
CRISTETA COMERFORD... COMMANDER-IN-CHEF
Another break through for woman and minorities under Republican leadership... the first woman head chef at the White House. Did you know Republicans have more such firsts in Congress and the White House than Democrats? DNC, party of woman and minority rights? Whatever. :)
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Another break through for woman and minorities under Republican leadership... the first woman head chef at the White House. Did you know Republicans have more such firsts in Congress and the White House than Democrats? DNC, party of woman and minority rights? Whatever. :)
INTUIT DOES SOCIAL NETWORKING... ZIPINGO
I don't use Quicken, I use TurboTax and now I might use Zipingo. Pretty cool service by Intuit. It allows you to rate local businesses, such as mechanics, doctors, and coffee shops. Latest count is 52,414 postings.
Zipingo is the fastest way to find the best local businesses based on community feedback. (Oh, and it's free.). Think of it as the yellow pages with customer ratings. Love it? Hate it? Rate It!
Also check out the development team's blog.
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I don't use Quicken, I use TurboTax and now I might use Zipingo. Pretty cool service by Intuit. It allows you to rate local businesses, such as mechanics, doctors, and coffee shops. Latest count is 52,414 postings.
Zipingo is the fastest way to find the best local businesses based on community feedback. (Oh, and it's free.). Think of it as the yellow pages with customer ratings. Love it? Hate it? Rate It!
Also check out the development team's blog.
"YAHOO!'S PERSONALITY CRISIS"... FROM THE ECONOMIST
Interesting article from The Economist. Tony Perkins, AlwaysOn and GoingOn's CEO, was asked for his view on Yahoo! and is quoted below. I'm posting the majority of this article since this has been placed in their premium content section:
Yahoo!'s personality crisis
Aug 11th 2005
From The Economist print edition
Yahoo! is doing so many different things that it may have neglected to figure out what it wants to be
STUDENTS from Harvard Business School and MIT's Sloan School of Management were recently invited to play a "war game" between the big four internet portals--Yahoo!, Google, Time Warner's AOL, and Microsoft's MSN. The organiser, Fuld & Company, a consultancy, split the students into teams, which began by delivering a brutally honest analysis of each firm's position and then did battle. Yahoo!, its team thought, is in essence a smorgasbord. "I don't have to be the best at everything; I just have to be good enough for you," said the team's presenter. Google's team, by contrast, was confident that it alone was the true technological innovator. The MSN team, predictably, talked mostly about "leveraging Windows", Microsoft's ubiquitous operating system, which excited nobody. And the AOL team began its presentation by saying that "we are fortunate just to be invited to the party." In the end, Google won and Yahoo! came last. The winning team got $5,000.
In the real world, the stakes are far higher, but the basic analysis may prove correct. As if to prove the smorgasbord theory, Yahoo! this week finalised a $1 billion deal with Alibaba.com[1], a Chinese firm, that will give Yahoo! greater exposure to the promising, fashionable Chinese market, but may make Yahoo!'s product portfolio even less coherent.
.....
ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN
Yahoo!, of course, would disagree. "The only place anyone needs to go to find anything, communicate with anyone, or buy anything," is how the firm describes itself, adding that it has a web audience of over 345m users in 25 countries. This appears to be paying off handsomely. Last month, Yahoo! reported quarterly revenues up by 51%, and profits up by 70%, compared with the same period last year (excluding the spectacular profits that Yahoo! made by selling shares it owned in its rival, Google). Internet advertising is growing fast, but Yahoo! is growing even faster, said Mr Semel.
Yet by other measures, Yahoo! is not the hottest thing on the internet. Microsoft appears to consider Google its only real threat, and vice versa. If the standard is product excellence, Google seems to be the clear winner in the biggest category, search--its share of searches has been rising, to 52% in America as of June, whereas Yahoo!'s has fallen, to 25%. Ditto for music, blogging, pictures and many other categories--in each, there is another firm that most users currently consider better. If Wall Street is the judge, Yahoo! also loses--with roughly equal revenues, it is worth only 60% of Google's market capitalisation of $84 billion (see chart).
The question, then, is what Yahoo! is ultimately planning to become that is different from its rivals. One clue is the people it is hiring. Starting with Mr Semel, a Hollywood veteran and former technophobe, Yahoo! has been recruiting traditional media types. Its head office is in Silicon Valley, but Yahoo! has been expanding a campus in Los Angeles. Google has nothing in Hollywood, and is hiring software geeks, starting with its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, who previously ran Novell, a software firm, and was chief technologist at Sun Microsystems, a big hardware maker.
Google, in short, is at heart a technology firm. It is about algorithms. Yahoo! sees itself as a media firm. "Google says 'trust the machine'; Yahoo! says 'trust the editor or the community'," says Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future. "Its DNA is editors and making recommendations to other people." Consider, say, the difference between the firms' news sites: Google's story list is picked by computers with no human intervention; Yahoo!'s is edited by journalists. Yahoo!'s Hollywood types do deals with film studios and news organisations--from September, for instance, Yahoo! will offer video feeds from ABC News and CNN. Google's geeks "merely" try to write great computer code.
Yahoo!'s ambition is to become the leader in the 21st century's media industry. In this era, it believes (with almost everyone in the internet industry), content will no longer be generated by a few large, wealthy firms, but by users themselves, through their photo and video blogs, podcasts, hyperlinks and so on. Hence Yahoo!'s purchase of Flickr, a site where people can share pictures with the public or their friends. And hence Yahoo! 360, a service, to be launched this summer, that lets users combine their photos and music, restaurant reviews and blogs in a personal space into which they can invite other Yahoo! users by instant-messaging, voice chatting or simply hyperlinking. Yahoo! wants to "marry search with community," says Jeff Weiner, Yahoo!'s search boss.
There is a huge problem with this vision, however. Yahoo!'s "business model is necessarily in conflict," says John Battelle, the author of a forthcoming book on the search industry. With so much content owned by Yahoo! or generated within its site by users, the quandary for the firm will be: "Do you point people to your own stuff or to the most relevant stuff?" If the former, Yahoo!'s reputation as a trusted internet search and navigation brand may evaporate; if the latter, its content may not earn the returns to justify Yahoo!'s investments in it. By contrast, says Mr Battelle, Google, which has chosen not to make content, does not face this conflict.
The dilemma may be even larger than that. "The Yahoo! guys are trying to create a walled-garden experience; they're like AOL in '95," says Tony Perkins, the founder of AlwaysOn, an online social network for technology insiders. That is not a compliment, as AOL, which began as a proprietary online service, started its long decline at about that time, after missing the impact of the new, open environment of the world wide web. With "closed" services like 360, says Mr Perkins, it is now Yahoo! that is missing the trend toward an ever more "open web" that will be "full of one-trick ponies" all available at a single click. If Yahoo!'s users get the feeling that they are being ushered to sites purely because they belong to Yahoo!, reckons Mr Perkins, they will simply click out.
This may be Yahoo!'s fatal flaw. "MSN and AOL are going nowhere," says Mr Saffo, for they have "no soul, no passion." Yahoo! has passion, like Google and other newcomers. It may also have correctly spotted the shift from old media to new, user-generated media. But, says Mr Saffo, it seems to have missed one thing. The "world of the few and large" belongs to media in the 20th century, whereas this century will bring a "world of the many and small". Yahoo!, in short, has old-media plans for the new-media era.
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Interesting article from The Economist. Tony Perkins, AlwaysOn and GoingOn's CEO, was asked for his view on Yahoo! and is quoted below. I'm posting the majority of this article since this has been placed in their premium content section:
Yahoo!'s personality crisis
Aug 11th 2005
From The Economist print edition
Yahoo! is doing so many different things that it may have neglected to figure out what it wants to be
STUDENTS from Harvard Business School and MIT's Sloan School of Management were recently invited to play a "war game" between the big four internet portals--Yahoo!, Google, Time Warner's AOL, and Microsoft's MSN. The organiser, Fuld & Company, a consultancy, split the students into teams, which began by delivering a brutally honest analysis of each firm's position and then did battle. Yahoo!, its team thought, is in essence a smorgasbord. "I don't have to be the best at everything; I just have to be good enough for you," said the team's presenter. Google's team, by contrast, was confident that it alone was the true technological innovator. The MSN team, predictably, talked mostly about "leveraging Windows", Microsoft's ubiquitous operating system, which excited nobody. And the AOL team began its presentation by saying that "we are fortunate just to be invited to the party." In the end, Google won and Yahoo! came last. The winning team got $5,000.
In the real world, the stakes are far higher, but the basic analysis may prove correct. As if to prove the smorgasbord theory, Yahoo! this week finalised a $1 billion deal with Alibaba.com[1], a Chinese firm, that will give Yahoo! greater exposure to the promising, fashionable Chinese market, but may make Yahoo!'s product portfolio even less coherent.
.....
ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN
Yahoo!, of course, would disagree. "The only place anyone needs to go to find anything, communicate with anyone, or buy anything," is how the firm describes itself, adding that it has a web audience of over 345m users in 25 countries. This appears to be paying off handsomely. Last month, Yahoo! reported quarterly revenues up by 51%, and profits up by 70%, compared with the same period last year (excluding the spectacular profits that Yahoo! made by selling shares it owned in its rival, Google). Internet advertising is growing fast, but Yahoo! is growing even faster, said Mr Semel.
Yet by other measures, Yahoo! is not the hottest thing on the internet. Microsoft appears to consider Google its only real threat, and vice versa. If the standard is product excellence, Google seems to be the clear winner in the biggest category, search--its share of searches has been rising, to 52% in America as of June, whereas Yahoo!'s has fallen, to 25%. Ditto for music, blogging, pictures and many other categories--in each, there is another firm that most users currently consider better. If Wall Street is the judge, Yahoo! also loses--with roughly equal revenues, it is worth only 60% of Google's market capitalisation of $84 billion (see chart).
The question, then, is what Yahoo! is ultimately planning to become that is different from its rivals. One clue is the people it is hiring. Starting with Mr Semel, a Hollywood veteran and former technophobe, Yahoo! has been recruiting traditional media types. Its head office is in Silicon Valley, but Yahoo! has been expanding a campus in Los Angeles. Google has nothing in Hollywood, and is hiring software geeks, starting with its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, who previously ran Novell, a software firm, and was chief technologist at Sun Microsystems, a big hardware maker.
Google, in short, is at heart a technology firm. It is about algorithms. Yahoo! sees itself as a media firm. "Google says 'trust the machine'; Yahoo! says 'trust the editor or the community'," says Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future. "Its DNA is editors and making recommendations to other people." Consider, say, the difference between the firms' news sites: Google's story list is picked by computers with no human intervention; Yahoo!'s is edited by journalists. Yahoo!'s Hollywood types do deals with film studios and news organisations--from September, for instance, Yahoo! will offer video feeds from ABC News and CNN. Google's geeks "merely" try to write great computer code.
Yahoo!'s ambition is to become the leader in the 21st century's media industry. In this era, it believes (with almost everyone in the internet industry), content will no longer be generated by a few large, wealthy firms, but by users themselves, through their photo and video blogs, podcasts, hyperlinks and so on. Hence Yahoo!'s purchase of Flickr, a site where people can share pictures with the public or their friends. And hence Yahoo! 360, a service, to be launched this summer, that lets users combine their photos and music, restaurant reviews and blogs in a personal space into which they can invite other Yahoo! users by instant-messaging, voice chatting or simply hyperlinking. Yahoo! wants to "marry search with community," says Jeff Weiner, Yahoo!'s search boss.
There is a huge problem with this vision, however. Yahoo!'s "business model is necessarily in conflict," says John Battelle, the author of a forthcoming book on the search industry. With so much content owned by Yahoo! or generated within its site by users, the quandary for the firm will be: "Do you point people to your own stuff or to the most relevant stuff?" If the former, Yahoo!'s reputation as a trusted internet search and navigation brand may evaporate; if the latter, its content may not earn the returns to justify Yahoo!'s investments in it. By contrast, says Mr Battelle, Google, which has chosen not to make content, does not face this conflict.
The dilemma may be even larger than that. "The Yahoo! guys are trying to create a walled-garden experience; they're like AOL in '95," says Tony Perkins, the founder of AlwaysOn, an online social network for technology insiders. That is not a compliment, as AOL, which began as a proprietary online service, started its long decline at about that time, after missing the impact of the new, open environment of the world wide web. With "closed" services like 360, says Mr Perkins, it is now Yahoo! that is missing the trend toward an ever more "open web" that will be "full of one-trick ponies" all available at a single click. If Yahoo!'s users get the feeling that they are being ushered to sites purely because they belong to Yahoo!, reckons Mr Perkins, they will simply click out.
This may be Yahoo!'s fatal flaw. "MSN and AOL are going nowhere," says Mr Saffo, for they have "no soul, no passion." Yahoo! has passion, like Google and other newcomers. It may also have correctly spotted the shift from old media to new, user-generated media. But, says Mr Saffo, it seems to have missed one thing. The "world of the few and large" belongs to media in the 20th century, whereas this century will bring a "world of the many and small". Yahoo!, in short, has old-media plans for the new-media era.
COUNTRY BREAKDOWN OF VISTORS
I don't check this often, but I just checked out the country visitor chart for my blog. Here are the top ten:
1. United States
2. Korea, Republic Of
3. Taiwan
4. United Kingdom
5. Canada
6. Nigeria
7. Unknown
8. Australia
9. Singapore
10.India
I don't know where "unknown," but I assume it's just blocked IP addresses. After this, Nigeria is the one that makes me wonder. I didn't know Junto Boyz had a small following in Nigeria. Maybe it's just one mad clicker sitting there everyday.:)
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I don't check this often, but I just checked out the country visitor chart for my blog. Here are the top ten:
1. United States
2. Korea, Republic Of
3. Taiwan
4. United Kingdom
5. Canada
6. Nigeria
7. Unknown
8. Australia
9. Singapore
10.India
I don't know where "unknown," but I assume it's just blocked IP addresses. After this, Nigeria is the one that makes me wonder. I didn't know Junto Boyz had a small following in Nigeria. Maybe it's just one mad clicker sitting there everyday.:)
Friday, August 12, 2005
GOINGON'S DEVELOPMENT TEAM
This week was a bit hectic. Carl and I were running around to various meetings visiting potential technology and service partners. Reminds me very much when I use to run around with my friend and former colleague, Peter, signing up strategic partners for our first startup, ViewPlus. Peter would cover the technical side and I would cover the business side. We were pitching our prototype in the same manner that Carl and I are presenting our vaporware. It's only been a few weeks, so it will take a little more time before we're completely in sync and rhythm with each other.
Carl is also a tech stud like Peter. He's been CTO of a few companies and led the development for very large, robust systems, which is a perfect fit for GoingOn. He's best known for leading the build of Charles Schwab's online investing system, and was featured on CNN and on the cover of Internet Week for his work there.
Early this week, I met Ashish Kumar, a co-founder of Tekriti Software, who is one of the lead developers for GoingOn Networks. He flew in for the Open Source Convention and to meet up with Marc, Carl, Phil Pearson, and our team. Gaurav Bhatnagar, who I met a couple months ago, is another co-founder of Tekriti, and both of them came out of Microsoft and went back to India to establish their new development shop. I didn't meet the third co-founder, Manish Dhingra, yet. I definitely have full confidence in their skills to implement our vision, desired functions, and hundreds of wish list items.:)
Ashish and Phil were really nice and easy to talk with. Phil is part of Marc's shop, BroadBand Mechanics, and flew in from New Zealand for another project. Anyway, so Ashish and Gaurav's team is doing the development of GoingOn's platform while Carl is the high-level CTO managing the project and deliverables. Marc is the lead architect pushing his vision and meshing into Tony's vision for this new blogging & communications platform while Valerie and I deal with some of the details, functions, and processes our users will encounter and hopefully enjoy. Anyway, it was a fun and fruitful week meeting with everyone and digging down into the details of our product spec. It was also great to meet Ashish and Phil since they live on the other side of the globe, and I don't know how often we will see them. The GoingOn platform is going to be a solid, robust high-performance platform... and very cool too.
Actually, if you're a corporate marketing person, online publication geek, or part of a company seeking out a blogging solution, email me at bernard.moon@gmail and I'll put you on our beta list.
[tags: software, marketing, beta, pr]
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This week was a bit hectic. Carl and I were running around to various meetings visiting potential technology and service partners. Reminds me very much when I use to run around with my friend and former colleague, Peter, signing up strategic partners for our first startup, ViewPlus. Peter would cover the technical side and I would cover the business side. We were pitching our prototype in the same manner that Carl and I are presenting our vaporware. It's only been a few weeks, so it will take a little more time before we're completely in sync and rhythm with each other.
Carl is also a tech stud like Peter. He's been CTO of a few companies and led the development for very large, robust systems, which is a perfect fit for GoingOn. He's best known for leading the build of Charles Schwab's online investing system, and was featured on CNN and on the cover of Internet Week for his work there.
Early this week, I met Ashish Kumar, a co-founder of Tekriti Software, who is one of the lead developers for GoingOn Networks. He flew in for the Open Source Convention and to meet up with Marc, Carl, Phil Pearson, and our team. Gaurav Bhatnagar, who I met a couple months ago, is another co-founder of Tekriti, and both of them came out of Microsoft and went back to India to establish their new development shop. I didn't meet the third co-founder, Manish Dhingra, yet. I definitely have full confidence in their skills to implement our vision, desired functions, and hundreds of wish list items.:)
Ashish and Phil were really nice and easy to talk with. Phil is part of Marc's shop, BroadBand Mechanics, and flew in from New Zealand for another project. Anyway, so Ashish and Gaurav's team is doing the development of GoingOn's platform while Carl is the high-level CTO managing the project and deliverables. Marc is the lead architect pushing his vision and meshing into Tony's vision for this new blogging & communications platform while Valerie and I deal with some of the details, functions, and processes our users will encounter and hopefully enjoy. Anyway, it was a fun and fruitful week meeting with everyone and digging down into the details of our product spec. It was also great to meet Ashish and Phil since they live on the other side of the globe, and I don't know how often we will see them. The GoingOn platform is going to be a solid, robust high-performance platform... and very cool too.
Actually, if you're a corporate marketing person, online publication geek, or part of a company seeking out a blogging solution, email me at bernard.moon@gmail and I'll put you on our beta list.
[tags: software, marketing, beta, pr]
SORRY, TECHNORATI
How many times have you seen this from Technorati over the past few weeks?
Sorry
We couldn't complete your search because we're experiencing a high volume of requests right now. Please try again in a minute or two. We're working hard to make our search results better. Thanks for your patience.
How many times has your tags on Technorati not shown up for days or weeks? They really didn't make their system scalable. Out of frustration I've been checking out other search sites, such as Feedster, which I've used often before, BlogPulse, and PubSub. Also you definitely know Yahoo!, Microsoft, and maybe Google are going to move into this space. How hard is it for a team of engineers at Google to whip up a scalable, blog search engine? It will be a slow death for some of these players, but soon we will be reminded of such names as Excite, Lycos, Magellan, and WebCrawler (initially use this one all the time).
UPDATE: While using BlogPulse, I came across this rumor that Technorati was in buyout talks. Hmmm... I wondering who? The blog that I linked to has everyone guessing. Well, if it's sold, the timing is excellent. Good luck, Dave! (And I hope you're not annoyed that I was frustrated with your product.)
[tags: technorati, blogpulse, feedster, pubsub]
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How many times have you seen this from Technorati over the past few weeks?
Sorry
We couldn't complete your search because we're experiencing a high volume of requests right now. Please try again in a minute or two. We're working hard to make our search results better. Thanks for your patience.
How many times has your tags on Technorati not shown up for days or weeks? They really didn't make their system scalable. Out of frustration I've been checking out other search sites, such as Feedster, which I've used often before, BlogPulse, and PubSub. Also you definitely know Yahoo!, Microsoft, and maybe Google are going to move into this space. How hard is it for a team of engineers at Google to whip up a scalable, blog search engine? It will be a slow death for some of these players, but soon we will be reminded of such names as Excite, Lycos, Magellan, and WebCrawler (initially use this one all the time).
UPDATE: While using BlogPulse, I came across this rumor that Technorati was in buyout talks. Hmmm... I wondering who? The blog that I linked to has everyone guessing. Well, if it's sold, the timing is excellent. Good luck, Dave! (And I hope you're not annoyed that I was frustrated with your product.)
[tags: technorati, blogpulse, feedster, pubsub]
"THE LIFE OF AN AVERAGE WANG"
David Scott Lewis, my fellow columnist at AlwaysOn, has a good piece on life in China. I finally met David at the AlwaysOn conference, and one amusing thing he told me was that he didn't know I would be so tall (David is a bit shorter and I'm 6'1". Average if you grew up in the Midwest) because of my picture (the surfing caricature I use at AO and some other sites) that I use in my profile page made him think that I was short. Anyway, check out David's article:
The Life of an Average Wang
Politics are low on the discussion and interest list in the face of daily struggle with poverty.
I am not going to attempt a defense of the central government, but I do want to shed some light on the every day happenings of the average mainlander. This might be an eye-opener, even to well-traveled tourist executives who frequent China.
For most Chinese, the political debate is of no importance. Chinese are much less interested in politics than Westerners. Beijing might be an exception, but even in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chongqing, political discussions are rarely hot items in daily discourse. Fact is, when most Chinese think of politics, they are not thinking about Taiwan, tensions with Japan, the "strategic" alliance between China and India, China's space program, the 2008 Olympics, or anything to do with the United States. What they are thinking about is the social welfare system, the rising cost of health care, outrageous property values, food safety, unemployment and job security, and education for their one child. And guess what? In only slightly modified form, these are the same things that we Westerners think about. We might venture a bit broader, but the fundamentals are the same. (full article)
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David Scott Lewis, my fellow columnist at AlwaysOn, has a good piece on life in China. I finally met David at the AlwaysOn conference, and one amusing thing he told me was that he didn't know I would be so tall (David is a bit shorter and I'm 6'1". Average if you grew up in the Midwest) because of my picture (the surfing caricature I use at AO and some other sites) that I use in my profile page made him think that I was short. Anyway, check out David's article:
The Life of an Average Wang
Politics are low on the discussion and interest list in the face of daily struggle with poverty.
I am not going to attempt a defense of the central government, but I do want to shed some light on the every day happenings of the average mainlander. This might be an eye-opener, even to well-traveled tourist executives who frequent China.
For most Chinese, the political debate is of no importance. Chinese are much less interested in politics than Westerners. Beijing might be an exception, but even in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chongqing, political discussions are rarely hot items in daily discourse. Fact is, when most Chinese think of politics, they are not thinking about Taiwan, tensions with Japan, the "strategic" alliance between China and India, China's space program, the 2008 Olympics, or anything to do with the United States. What they are thinking about is the social welfare system, the rising cost of health care, outrageous property values, food safety, unemployment and job security, and education for their one child. And guess what? In only slightly modified form, these are the same things that we Westerners think about. We might venture a bit broader, but the fundamentals are the same. (full article)
"MAYFIELD TAKES LP LUMPS"
Daniel over at PE Week Wire has been writing about VCs more often than usual over the past couple weeks. He usual has some story on private equity firms. Anyway, he has the scoop on how seven top-tier limited partners did not come back and invest in Mayfield's new fund. Entertaining read if you're interested in this space:
Mayfield, one of the earliest and most prestigious venture capital firms, has lost its luster among the crème de la crème of limited partners. The Sand Hill Road firm is about to close its twelfth fund, but without at least seven top-tier limited partners who had invested in prior Mayfield funds. What follows has been independently confirmed with five different sources, who agreed to speak only under the condition that neither they nor their institutions be identified. What I can share, however, is that the seven dissenting LPs are brand names – in some cases household names – from the university endowment, private foundation and fund-of-funds arenas. Also, I made multiple attemps to speak with Mayfield (and offered to hold the story until the fund closed, if Mayfield was concerned about SEC regs), but never received a response.
The roots of Mayfield’s problem lie in its eighth and ninth funds, which were closed in 1995 and 1997, respectively. Each fund featured budget-based management fees, which is an alternative to the status quo of charging LPs an annual percentage (typically 2%) of total committed capital. Budget-based fees require the firm to annually come up with an itemized expense list, and are generally considered LP-friendly measures that also are employed by firms like Greylock and New Enterprise Associates. In Mayfield’s case, the partnership agreement allowed the firm’s annual budgets to equal up to 2.5% of committed capital, but it never came close to doing so. Therefore, LPs were initially happy, particularly because both funds also happened to be wildly profitable.
One problem for firms with profitable funds, however, is that they sometimes can generate “clawback” situations (for those unfamiliar with clawbacks, I’ve posted an explanation). This happened with both Mayfield VIII and Mayfield IX, which theoretically meant that the Mayfield general partners would have to reach into their own pockets to compensate their LPs. Standard operating procedure.
What Mayfield did next, however, was stunning. Rather than taking out its collective checkbook, sources say the firm proposed a partnership amendment whereby much of the clawback would be paid by charging LPs the difference between what they had paid in management fees, and the 2.5% maximum that they could have been charged. Analogy? You buy a loaf of bread on sale at Wal-Mart for $1.50 instead of for $2.00. When you go back to the store the following week, the Wal-Mart greeter asks you for the fifty cents. Even worse, Mayfield was asking for a cumulative payment, based on the "savings" that LPs enjoyed over the life of the funds.
Most LPs, of course, balked at the proposal. It wasn’t the first time that a VC firm had proposed a fee-for-clawback exchange, but LPs tell me that Mayfield was the only one to do so without its metaphorical hat in hand: “It was like they never even considered that we might disagree,” says a fund manager whose institution chose not to re-up for Mayfield XII. “The whole thing could probably have been avoided if they had just shown a little humility and interest in working with us on something that we could all live with.”
But Mayfield refused to give up, and the discussions moved quickly through another couple of stages before Mayfield basically offered an ultimatum to the dissenters: Vote to ratify the amendment or we’ll just pay the clawback out of cash on hand (read: committed LP cash on hand, plus future management fees). Two LPs tell me that they consulted attorneys on the matter, but were told that the case was gray enough that either side could prevail in a courtroom. The result was that enough – albeit not all -- LPs bit the bullet and signed the amendment this past spring.
"They are arrogant in dealing with LPs, and I’m saying that in the context of most VCs being arrogant," says a Mayfield investor. That characterization was used by all but one person I spoke with. (full post)
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Daniel over at PE Week Wire has been writing about VCs more often than usual over the past couple weeks. He usual has some story on private equity firms. Anyway, he has the scoop on how seven top-tier limited partners did not come back and invest in Mayfield's new fund. Entertaining read if you're interested in this space:
Mayfield, one of the earliest and most prestigious venture capital firms, has lost its luster among the crème de la crème of limited partners. The Sand Hill Road firm is about to close its twelfth fund, but without at least seven top-tier limited partners who had invested in prior Mayfield funds. What follows has been independently confirmed with five different sources, who agreed to speak only under the condition that neither they nor their institutions be identified. What I can share, however, is that the seven dissenting LPs are brand names – in some cases household names – from the university endowment, private foundation and fund-of-funds arenas. Also, I made multiple attemps to speak with Mayfield (and offered to hold the story until the fund closed, if Mayfield was concerned about SEC regs), but never received a response.
The roots of Mayfield’s problem lie in its eighth and ninth funds, which were closed in 1995 and 1997, respectively. Each fund featured budget-based management fees, which is an alternative to the status quo of charging LPs an annual percentage (typically 2%) of total committed capital. Budget-based fees require the firm to annually come up with an itemized expense list, and are generally considered LP-friendly measures that also are employed by firms like Greylock and New Enterprise Associates. In Mayfield’s case, the partnership agreement allowed the firm’s annual budgets to equal up to 2.5% of committed capital, but it never came close to doing so. Therefore, LPs were initially happy, particularly because both funds also happened to be wildly profitable.
One problem for firms with profitable funds, however, is that they sometimes can generate “clawback” situations (for those unfamiliar with clawbacks, I’ve posted an explanation). This happened with both Mayfield VIII and Mayfield IX, which theoretically meant that the Mayfield general partners would have to reach into their own pockets to compensate their LPs. Standard operating procedure.
What Mayfield did next, however, was stunning. Rather than taking out its collective checkbook, sources say the firm proposed a partnership amendment whereby much of the clawback would be paid by charging LPs the difference between what they had paid in management fees, and the 2.5% maximum that they could have been charged. Analogy? You buy a loaf of bread on sale at Wal-Mart for $1.50 instead of for $2.00. When you go back to the store the following week, the Wal-Mart greeter asks you for the fifty cents. Even worse, Mayfield was asking for a cumulative payment, based on the "savings" that LPs enjoyed over the life of the funds.
Most LPs, of course, balked at the proposal. It wasn’t the first time that a VC firm had proposed a fee-for-clawback exchange, but LPs tell me that Mayfield was the only one to do so without its metaphorical hat in hand: “It was like they never even considered that we might disagree,” says a fund manager whose institution chose not to re-up for Mayfield XII. “The whole thing could probably have been avoided if they had just shown a little humility and interest in working with us on something that we could all live with.”
But Mayfield refused to give up, and the discussions moved quickly through another couple of stages before Mayfield basically offered an ultimatum to the dissenters: Vote to ratify the amendment or we’ll just pay the clawback out of cash on hand (read: committed LP cash on hand, plus future management fees). Two LPs tell me that they consulted attorneys on the matter, but were told that the case was gray enough that either side could prevail in a courtroom. The result was that enough – albeit not all -- LPs bit the bullet and signed the amendment this past spring.
"They are arrogant in dealing with LPs, and I’m saying that in the context of most VCs being arrogant," says a Mayfield investor. That characterization was used by all but one person I spoke with. (full post)
"LIES BEHIND AN INTER-KOREAN CELEBRATION FOR INDEPENDENCE"
My friend, Mingi, has an op-ed piece up at the JoongAng Daily's English edition:
Next week, a North Korean delegation will arrive in Seoul to celebrate Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule. They will most likely smile and clink glasses with various South Koreans, government officials and civilians alike.
Yet, will these North Koreans honestly reflect the sentiments held by the North Korean people? In other words, can the North Korean people, who currently live under an abusive and tyrannical leadership, celebrate any form of independence, especially one that took place 60 years ago?
While I cannot speak on behalf of the North Korean people, it would seem difficult for those who have never had a taste of independence to celebrate it.
Indeed, next week's celebrations will be enjoyed by the South Korean left-wing and the minions of the North Korean government, while the soccer teams of the two Koreas play in games that most North Koreans in all likelihood will not watch.
All Koreans should celebrate Korea's independence from Japan's atrocious colonial rule. However, celebrating it with a tyrannical regime ruins the spirit and meaning of an important day in Korean history.
The Japanese government and many of its citizens failed to treat Koreans in a humane manner. In North Korea, however, the atrocities are not caused by a foreign entity. Instead, a small group of Koreans are engaging in acts comparably atrocious to those committed by the Japanese, whether it's torture, rape or murder.
What is worse is the North Korean leadership has been supported by the South Korean government and many of its people.
South Koreans have consecutively elected left-wing administrations that have strived to guarantee the survival of the very regime that prevents the North Korean people's freedom. In addition, the elected governments have been reluctant to help North Korean refugees trapped in China or Vietnam, unless they sense heavy foreign media attention.
Meanwhile, most North Koreans have continued to starve under their leadership or attempted to escape toward the free world. As for those who have successfully reached South Korea, many of them have continued to suffer from tremendous difficulties in adjusting to life in a very different Korea, while receiving little help from their southern brethren. (full post)
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My friend, Mingi, has an op-ed piece up at the JoongAng Daily's English edition:
Next week, a North Korean delegation will arrive in Seoul to celebrate Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule. They will most likely smile and clink glasses with various South Koreans, government officials and civilians alike.
Yet, will these North Koreans honestly reflect the sentiments held by the North Korean people? In other words, can the North Korean people, who currently live under an abusive and tyrannical leadership, celebrate any form of independence, especially one that took place 60 years ago?
While I cannot speak on behalf of the North Korean people, it would seem difficult for those who have never had a taste of independence to celebrate it.
Indeed, next week's celebrations will be enjoyed by the South Korean left-wing and the minions of the North Korean government, while the soccer teams of the two Koreas play in games that most North Koreans in all likelihood will not watch.
All Koreans should celebrate Korea's independence from Japan's atrocious colonial rule. However, celebrating it with a tyrannical regime ruins the spirit and meaning of an important day in Korean history.
The Japanese government and many of its citizens failed to treat Koreans in a humane manner. In North Korea, however, the atrocities are not caused by a foreign entity. Instead, a small group of Koreans are engaging in acts comparably atrocious to those committed by the Japanese, whether it's torture, rape or murder.
What is worse is the North Korean leadership has been supported by the South Korean government and many of its people.
South Koreans have consecutively elected left-wing administrations that have strived to guarantee the survival of the very regime that prevents the North Korean people's freedom. In addition, the elected governments have been reluctant to help North Korean refugees trapped in China or Vietnam, unless they sense heavy foreign media attention.
Meanwhile, most North Koreans have continued to starve under their leadership or attempted to escape toward the free world. As for those who have successfully reached South Korea, many of them have continued to suffer from tremendous difficulties in adjusting to life in a very different Korea, while receiving little help from their southern brethren. (full post)
HENRY'S TOUGHASS DAD
My friend, Henry, who was Korea's first multiple martial arts champ (e.g. UFC, Pride) sent this random picture of his father. I knew he was a Tae Kwon Do instructor, but I didn't know he helped train the president of South Korea's chief of security. No wonder where Henry gets his badass side from. Of course, if you met Henry you wouldn't suspect anything like that. He's a big teddy bear.
I wonder if his father knew one of my dad's acquaintances since the elite martial artists travel a small circle. He was one of Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer, personal body guards for several years. I believe Khashoggi had eight of them. If you also saw this man, you wouldn't think much of him. He was skinny as a rail and unassuming, but I heard from my father and his best friend, who I think was his brother-in-law or something, that he was one badass dude.
Grandmaster Won Sun Jung
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My friend, Henry, who was Korea's first multiple martial arts champ (e.g. UFC, Pride) sent this random picture of his father. I knew he was a Tae Kwon Do instructor, but I didn't know he helped train the president of South Korea's chief of security. No wonder where Henry gets his badass side from. Of course, if you met Henry you wouldn't suspect anything like that. He's a big teddy bear.
I wonder if his father knew one of my dad's acquaintances since the elite martial artists travel a small circle. He was one of Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer, personal body guards for several years. I believe Khashoggi had eight of them. If you also saw this man, you wouldn't think much of him. He was skinny as a rail and unassuming, but I heard from my father and his best friend, who I think was his brother-in-law or something, that he was one badass dude.
Grandmaster Won Sun Jung
MICHAEL POWELL JOINS PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM
Almost following in the same path as his father, Michael Powell has joined Providence Equity as an advisor:
Providence, which focuses on media, communications and information companies, said its principals manage funds with more than $9 billion in equity commitments.
"Michael will advise us on some of our current investments and will assist us in identifying and pursuing new opportunities in his areas of expertise," said Providence Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Nelson. (full article)
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Almost following in the same path as his father, Michael Powell has joined Providence Equity as an advisor:
Providence, which focuses on media, communications and information companies, said its principals manage funds with more than $9 billion in equity commitments.
"Michael will advise us on some of our current investments and will assist us in identifying and pursuing new opportunities in his areas of expertise," said Providence Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Nelson. (full article)
GOOGLE IS HIRING... TWO EXECUTIVE CHEFS
Great post at the Google Blog. Two of my favorite things: Google and food. A sample of Google's daily menu is posted up to show potential hires what they need to produce on a daily basis.
Anyway, Google's cafeteria is the best I've visited. If I worked there, I would serious have weight control issues. Check out a sample:
SALADS
Ahi Tuna & Avocado Poke
Fresh line caught Ahi tuna diced with organic avocados and minced ginger, habanero chilies, cilantro, green onions and sesame seeds, tossed with a fresh dressing of orange juice, rice vinegar, tamari, sesame oil, lime juice, tangerine oil, sambal oeleck and garnished with black and white sesame seeds.
Calypso Rice Salad
Perfectly steamed wild rice with Valencia orange segments, currants, diced red bell peppers, cilantro, green and red onions, mint, coriander and cayenne, tossed with orange juice and extra virgin olive oil.
Tuna Melt Salad
Al dente elbow macaroni tossed with mayonnaise, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and lemon juice, then topped with tuna salad, cheddar cheese and green onions.
CHARLIE’S GRILL
Pork Loin Steak
Berkshire Farms pork loin brined in marjoram, paprika, red wine vinegar and brown sugar, then seared to perfection. Served with a roasted red pepper sauce.
Eggplant Ratatouille
Organic eggplant roasted with Roma tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, white onions, bell peppers, garlic, basil, parsley, extra virgin olive oil and a splash of red wine.
Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Organic russet potatoes mashed with buttermilk, cream and butter.
BACK TO ALBUQUERQUE
Agua Fresca… Mora
Blackberry infused water.
Pollo en Huerto
Free range chicken with garden vegetables: organic zucchini, onions, fresh corn off the cob, tomatoes, green, red and yellow bell peppers, carrots, jalapeños, cilantro, garlic and oregano.
Vegetarian Tamale Casserole
A casserole of organic zucchini, carrots, onions, green and yellow bell peppers, corn off the cob, green peas and diced tomatoes, with chili powder, oregano, cumin and garlic.
Snap Peas
Organic snap peas sautéed with garlic and extra virgin olive oil.
EAST MEETS WEST
Seared Day Boat Scallops in Green Coconut Curry Sauce
Day Boat scallops seared to perfection and tossed in green curry coconut. Topped with a red bell pepper coulis and daikon sprouts.
Pad Thai Noodles
Pad Thai noodles stir-fried with yellow and red bell peppers, garlic, ginger, shiitake mushrooms, cilantro and Thai basil.
Broccoli, Cauliflower & Haricot Verts
Stir-fry of organic broccoli, cauliflower and haricot verts with garlic, ginger and Dave’s special brown sauce.
Jasmine Rice
Jasmine-scented rice steamed to perfection.
I PIADINI
Arugula with Dried Apricots
Organic arugula with dried apricots, shaved Parmesan cheese, tossed with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar.
IL SECONDO PIATTO
Herb Roasted Chicken
Free range chicken legs and thighs roasted to perfection with extra virgin olive oil, fresh herbs and herb salt.
Creamy Tomato Polenta
A lush blend of polenta, slow roasted tomatoes, cream and butter.
Sautéed Wild Mushrooms
Organic shiitake, cremini, button and oyster mushrooms sautéed in garlic and herb salt.
Capelin Pesto
Toasted pine nuts, basil, Parmesan cheese, garlic and herb salt.
DESSERTS
Red Velvet Cake with Bright White Frosting
Hazelnut Shortcakes with Plum Compote
Chocolate Coconut Cheesecake
Creamy Lemon Macadamia Nut Cookies
Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
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Great post at the Google Blog. Two of my favorite things: Google and food. A sample of Google's daily menu is posted up to show potential hires what they need to produce on a daily basis.
Anyway, Google's cafeteria is the best I've visited. If I worked there, I would serious have weight control issues. Check out a sample:
SALADS
Ahi Tuna & Avocado Poke
Fresh line caught Ahi tuna diced with organic avocados and minced ginger, habanero chilies, cilantro, green onions and sesame seeds, tossed with a fresh dressing of orange juice, rice vinegar, tamari, sesame oil, lime juice, tangerine oil, sambal oeleck and garnished with black and white sesame seeds.
Calypso Rice Salad
Perfectly steamed wild rice with Valencia orange segments, currants, diced red bell peppers, cilantro, green and red onions, mint, coriander and cayenne, tossed with orange juice and extra virgin olive oil.
Tuna Melt Salad
Al dente elbow macaroni tossed with mayonnaise, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and lemon juice, then topped with tuna salad, cheddar cheese and green onions.
CHARLIE’S GRILL
Pork Loin Steak
Berkshire Farms pork loin brined in marjoram, paprika, red wine vinegar and brown sugar, then seared to perfection. Served with a roasted red pepper sauce.
Eggplant Ratatouille
Organic eggplant roasted with Roma tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, white onions, bell peppers, garlic, basil, parsley, extra virgin olive oil and a splash of red wine.
Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Organic russet potatoes mashed with buttermilk, cream and butter.
BACK TO ALBUQUERQUE
Agua Fresca… Mora
Blackberry infused water.
Pollo en Huerto
Free range chicken with garden vegetables: organic zucchini, onions, fresh corn off the cob, tomatoes, green, red and yellow bell peppers, carrots, jalapeños, cilantro, garlic and oregano.
Vegetarian Tamale Casserole
A casserole of organic zucchini, carrots, onions, green and yellow bell peppers, corn off the cob, green peas and diced tomatoes, with chili powder, oregano, cumin and garlic.
Snap Peas
Organic snap peas sautéed with garlic and extra virgin olive oil.
EAST MEETS WEST
Seared Day Boat Scallops in Green Coconut Curry Sauce
Day Boat scallops seared to perfection and tossed in green curry coconut. Topped with a red bell pepper coulis and daikon sprouts.
Pad Thai Noodles
Pad Thai noodles stir-fried with yellow and red bell peppers, garlic, ginger, shiitake mushrooms, cilantro and Thai basil.
Broccoli, Cauliflower & Haricot Verts
Stir-fry of organic broccoli, cauliflower and haricot verts with garlic, ginger and Dave’s special brown sauce.
Jasmine Rice
Jasmine-scented rice steamed to perfection.
I PIADINI
Arugula with Dried Apricots
Organic arugula with dried apricots, shaved Parmesan cheese, tossed with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar.
IL SECONDO PIATTO
Herb Roasted Chicken
Free range chicken legs and thighs roasted to perfection with extra virgin olive oil, fresh herbs and herb salt.
Creamy Tomato Polenta
A lush blend of polenta, slow roasted tomatoes, cream and butter.
Sautéed Wild Mushrooms
Organic shiitake, cremini, button and oyster mushrooms sautéed in garlic and herb salt.
Capelin Pesto
Toasted pine nuts, basil, Parmesan cheese, garlic and herb salt.
DESSERTS
Red Velvet Cake with Bright White Frosting
Hazelnut Shortcakes with Plum Compote
Chocolate Coconut Cheesecake
Creamy Lemon Macadamia Nut Cookies
Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
UPDATE ON ALIBABA.COM... SOFTBANK SHARES SURGE
I'm pretty sure Masayoshi Son had his influence on the Alibaba.com deal with Yahoo! The benefit of have money invested in both sides :)
Shares of Softbank Corp., controlled by billionaire Masayoshi Son, had their biggest gain in 15 months after the company yesterday sold a stake in a Chinese Web site to Yahoo! Inc. as a part of a $1 billion transaction.
Shares rose 8.1 percent, the biggest jump since May 31 last year, to 4,930 yen at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo. The stock is the biggest gainer on the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index in Asian hours.
Yahoo yesterday agreed to pay $1 billion in cash and cede control of its China business to Alibaba.com, China's biggest online retailer, in exchange for a 40 percent stake in the Chinese Internet company. Softbank, which is Alibaba's biggest shareholder and is a founding investor of Yahoo, will own a 27.4 percent stake in the new company. (full article)
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I'm pretty sure Masayoshi Son had his influence on the Alibaba.com deal with Yahoo! The benefit of have money invested in both sides :)
Shares of Softbank Corp., controlled by billionaire Masayoshi Son, had their biggest gain in 15 months after the company yesterday sold a stake in a Chinese Web site to Yahoo! Inc. as a part of a $1 billion transaction.
Shares rose 8.1 percent, the biggest jump since May 31 last year, to 4,930 yen at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo. The stock is the biggest gainer on the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index in Asian hours.
Yahoo yesterday agreed to pay $1 billion in cash and cede control of its China business to Alibaba.com, China's biggest online retailer, in exchange for a 40 percent stake in the Chinese Internet company. Softbank, which is Alibaba's biggest shareholder and is a founding investor of Yahoo, will own a 27.4 percent stake in the new company. (full article)
Thursday, August 11, 2005
LIBERAL HAWK IS A BAD THING?
Great post by Michael Totten over at Instapundit. The much of the left is guided by politics rather than principles. Check it out:
James Wolcott is beating up on liberal hawks (he singles out Roger L. Simon in particular) for making common cause with conservatives by supporting the Terror War:
The fact is that by subscribing to Bush's War on Terror and the invasion of Iraq with every corpuscle of your tired body you've made common cause with Republican conservatives, neoconservatives, and Christian fundamentalists who are dedicated to destroying those parcels of liberalism on which you stake your tiny claims of pride…Do you really think that conservative supremacy in the executive, congressional, and judicial branches of government means that gay rights and abortion rights will somehow be spared?
I can't speak for Roger, but I didn’t vote for “conservative supremacy in the executive, congressional and judicial branches of government.” I voted for a Republican White House and a Democratic Congress. That’s the sort of thing liberal hawks and other centrist types do. I made “common cause” with the Religious Right, which as a social-liberal/left-libertarian isn’t much fun. At the same time I made “common cause” with Dennis Kucinich, which as a foreign policy hawk isn’t much fun.
Politics isn’t binary, James. It’s not a war between the white hats and the black hats -- or the blue hats and the red hats for that matter. Tens of millions of Americans answer with “neither” when asked if they consider themselves liberal or conservative. Some of us vote for third parties. Some of us vote for both of the two major parties at the same time. It’s about tough choices and lesser evilism. If you’re a liberal I suppose the choice is an easy one. Some of us non-liberals see nuance and shades of gray. Maybe you've heard of those things. (full post)
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Great post by Michael Totten over at Instapundit. The much of the left is guided by politics rather than principles. Check it out:
James Wolcott is beating up on liberal hawks (he singles out Roger L. Simon in particular) for making common cause with conservatives by supporting the Terror War:
The fact is that by subscribing to Bush's War on Terror and the invasion of Iraq with every corpuscle of your tired body you've made common cause with Republican conservatives, neoconservatives, and Christian fundamentalists who are dedicated to destroying those parcels of liberalism on which you stake your tiny claims of pride…Do you really think that conservative supremacy in the executive, congressional, and judicial branches of government means that gay rights and abortion rights will somehow be spared?
I can't speak for Roger, but I didn’t vote for “conservative supremacy in the executive, congressional and judicial branches of government.” I voted for a Republican White House and a Democratic Congress. That’s the sort of thing liberal hawks and other centrist types do. I made “common cause” with the Religious Right, which as a social-liberal/left-libertarian isn’t much fun. At the same time I made “common cause” with Dennis Kucinich, which as a foreign policy hawk isn’t much fun.
Politics isn’t binary, James. It’s not a war between the white hats and the black hats -- or the blue hats and the red hats for that matter. Tens of millions of Americans answer with “neither” when asked if they consider themselves liberal or conservative. Some of us vote for third parties. Some of us vote for both of the two major parties at the same time. It’s about tough choices and lesser evilism. If you’re a liberal I suppose the choice is an easy one. Some of us non-liberals see nuance and shades of gray. Maybe you've heard of those things. (full post)
ODEO, MEETRO... TESTING THINGS OUT
I signed up for the Odeo beta a while back and I got an email invite over a month ago. For some weird reason, I kept that one email unread throughout all these weeks. It's weird because I'm typically an anal email person. I read everything and delete unnecessary emails even though I use Gmail. I will also go into the trash and "delete forever" emails I know I will never read again. I don't like clutter online and offline, so I don't know why I did this. Maybe part of my brain wanted to rebel? Who knows?
Anyway, I downloaded it and tested it out. Cool. Not a big podcast listener, but it's cool. They also got recently funded. More from the company blog here.
While I was trying out Odeo, I thought I would also check out Meetro. It's a location-based chat service. I believe they are or were in talks with Google to get bought out. CNet's Google Blog also has some thoughts on this acquisition. Stefanie Olsen, the blogger, speculates a combination of Hello and Meetro for a future IM service from Google. I heard somewhere that Google built their own IM system, so maybe there will be a three-way combo of these IM platforms?
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I signed up for the Odeo beta a while back and I got an email invite over a month ago. For some weird reason, I kept that one email unread throughout all these weeks. It's weird because I'm typically an anal email person. I read everything and delete unnecessary emails even though I use Gmail. I will also go into the trash and "delete forever" emails I know I will never read again. I don't like clutter online and offline, so I don't know why I did this. Maybe part of my brain wanted to rebel? Who knows?
Anyway, I downloaded it and tested it out. Cool. Not a big podcast listener, but it's cool. They also got recently funded. More from the company blog here.
While I was trying out Odeo, I thought I would also check out Meetro. It's a location-based chat service. I believe they are or were in talks with Google to get bought out. CNet's Google Blog also has some thoughts on this acquisition. Stefanie Olsen, the blogger, speculates a combination of Hello and Meetro for a future IM service from Google. I heard somewhere that Google built their own IM system, so maybe there will be a three-way combo of these IM platforms?
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
SKYPE SHOPPING ITSELF?
Om Malik has the scoop again. Morgan Stanley, my wife's old shop, has been hired as an advisor to screen and scope potential buyers. As I've written before, it's probably the best time to sell with Vonage, Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, SBC, maybe Comcast, and whoever else chasing behind Skype with guns ablazing. More from Om:
Skype has hired Morgan Stanley as an adviser who can screen the “buyers.” While that’s the case, my Yahoo sources tell me that Skype approached them, and they balked at the asking price. What was the asking price? No one will even as much as hint to confirm this, but Skype wanted a billion dollars. Beyond that, everything else, I take with a pinch of salt.
So what does that really tell me? Two things. First, Skype is open to the right offer. Secondly, the asking price of $3 billion is tad too over optimistic. There must also be realization that in not so distant future, the wireless and wireline operators are going to clamp down on Skype, and create quality of service issues for the service. More on that later. (full post)
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Om Malik has the scoop again. Morgan Stanley, my wife's old shop, has been hired as an advisor to screen and scope potential buyers. As I've written before, it's probably the best time to sell with Vonage, Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, SBC, maybe Comcast, and whoever else chasing behind Skype with guns ablazing. More from Om:
Skype has hired Morgan Stanley as an adviser who can screen the “buyers.” While that’s the case, my Yahoo sources tell me that Skype approached them, and they balked at the asking price. What was the asking price? No one will even as much as hint to confirm this, but Skype wanted a billion dollars. Beyond that, everything else, I take with a pinch of salt.
So what does that really tell me? Two things. First, Skype is open to the right offer. Secondly, the asking price of $3 billion is tad too over optimistic. There must also be realization that in not so distant future, the wireless and wireline operators are going to clamp down on Skype, and create quality of service issues for the service. More on that later. (full post)
WILL TV DIE?
At the AlwaysOn Summit, George Gilder brought up his old prophecy that TV would soon die out... a slow death of course.
So Mark Cuban has taken the task of beating down Gilder's viewpoint and responded to Paul Kagan's article in CableWORLD, "TV Is Dead—Long Live TV" (I wanted to introduce myself to Kagan at the AO Summit, but didn't get a chance to. I enjoyed his video-on-demand conferences when I attended in the late '90s). Cuban frames it in a good argument and informative post titled:
Rules of Success - The Path of Least Resistance
I just read a note in CableWorld by Paul Kagan referring to George Gilders “vision” that in the future TV will die, regardless of delivery medium simply because people will watch only what they want to watch.
How wrong he is. Why he is wrong is a lesson in basic business.
It was Aaron Spelling I believe who said that “TV is the path of least resistance from complete boredom”. Which is another way of saying that its easier to watch TV, than to sit there and do nothing.
Which describes exactly how people make most of their choices in life. They take the easy way. They take the path of least resistance.
.....
So when Gilder thinks we will only watch exactly what we want to watch, he is dead wrong because we don’t know what we want to watch as often, if not more often than we do know.
When we get to a point that there are thousands of on demand TV choices, we won’t approach TV programming guides like we do a search engine, looking for a specific target. That’s too much work. The smart on demand providers will present their programming guides more like Amazon.com. or Netflix.com. Both of which do a great job of “suggestive programming.”
We will get a personalized page with options that it thinks we might like based on our previous viewing decisions. Then different categories of shows, within each we will see best rated, most viewed and newest added, along with “play lists” suggested by branded guides who make recommendations. All of these simple options will make it easy for us to make a choice with some level of confidence. We won’t feel like we are missing something and we will know that if we don’t like the show, we can quickly go back to a point that makes it easy to find another selection.
Aaron Spelling was exactly right when he said that TV is the best alternative to boredom, future providers of on demand content will hopefully remember this when devising their user interfaces, and every business should remember it as well.
Everyone follows the path of least resistance. (full post)
Cuban's follow up post is "Broadcast TV will never die."
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At the AlwaysOn Summit, George Gilder brought up his old prophecy that TV would soon die out... a slow death of course.
So Mark Cuban has taken the task of beating down Gilder's viewpoint and responded to Paul Kagan's article in CableWORLD, "TV Is Dead—Long Live TV" (I wanted to introduce myself to Kagan at the AO Summit, but didn't get a chance to. I enjoyed his video-on-demand conferences when I attended in the late '90s). Cuban frames it in a good argument and informative post titled:
Rules of Success - The Path of Least Resistance
I just read a note in CableWorld by Paul Kagan referring to George Gilders “vision” that in the future TV will die, regardless of delivery medium simply because people will watch only what they want to watch.
How wrong he is. Why he is wrong is a lesson in basic business.
It was Aaron Spelling I believe who said that “TV is the path of least resistance from complete boredom”. Which is another way of saying that its easier to watch TV, than to sit there and do nothing.
Which describes exactly how people make most of their choices in life. They take the easy way. They take the path of least resistance.
.....
So when Gilder thinks we will only watch exactly what we want to watch, he is dead wrong because we don’t know what we want to watch as often, if not more often than we do know.
When we get to a point that there are thousands of on demand TV choices, we won’t approach TV programming guides like we do a search engine, looking for a specific target. That’s too much work. The smart on demand providers will present their programming guides more like Amazon.com. or Netflix.com. Both of which do a great job of “suggestive programming.”
We will get a personalized page with options that it thinks we might like based on our previous viewing decisions. Then different categories of shows, within each we will see best rated, most viewed and newest added, along with “play lists” suggested by branded guides who make recommendations. All of these simple options will make it easy for us to make a choice with some level of confidence. We won’t feel like we are missing something and we will know that if we don’t like the show, we can quickly go back to a point that makes it easy to find another selection.
Aaron Spelling was exactly right when he said that TV is the best alternative to boredom, future providers of on demand content will hopefully remember this when devising their user interfaces, and every business should remember it as well.
Everyone follows the path of least resistance. (full post)
Cuban's follow up post is "Broadcast TV will never die."
PODSHOW GETS $8.85 MILLION FROM KLEINER AND SEQUOIA
It's funny that that this news came up about Kleiner and Sequoia. On Monday, I was having lunch with a friend and began telling me the story of how Donald Valentine, founder of Sequoia Capital and long-time VC icon, and John Doerr, general partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and VC icon, were taking a tour of a foreign country along with other venture capitalists and how they consciously sat on opposite ends from each other. It seems they see each other as competitors and probably the only worthy ones within the clubby world of venture capitalists.
Anyway, PE Wire Week's Daniel Primack has his take on this recent series A financing:
There is little that gets Valley girls and boys as hot and bothered as when an Internet company gets funded by both Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. So it's worth noting that the iconic venture shops have participated in an $8.85 million Series A round for PodShow Inc., according to a regulatory filing. For an added bonus, both John Doerr and Ray Lane have taken board seats, joining both Jerry Newman of Bear Stearns and omnipresent angel investor Ram Shriram (Google, Plaxo, Zazzle, etc.), who is representing shareholder Harris MyCFO Inc.
PodShow is a Miami Beach-based company focused on the development, management and promotion of online audio programming, with an obvious focus on the podcasting phenomenon. It seems to be the renamed version of Boku Communications, which was launched last year by Ron Bloom and "The Podfather" Adam Curry (who was the MTV VJ with whom I grew up).
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It's funny that that this news came up about Kleiner and Sequoia. On Monday, I was having lunch with a friend and began telling me the story of how Donald Valentine, founder of Sequoia Capital and long-time VC icon, and John Doerr, general partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and VC icon, were taking a tour of a foreign country along with other venture capitalists and how they consciously sat on opposite ends from each other. It seems they see each other as competitors and probably the only worthy ones within the clubby world of venture capitalists.
Anyway, PE Wire Week's Daniel Primack has his take on this recent series A financing:
There is little that gets Valley girls and boys as hot and bothered as when an Internet company gets funded by both Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. So it's worth noting that the iconic venture shops have participated in an $8.85 million Series A round for PodShow Inc., according to a regulatory filing. For an added bonus, both John Doerr and Ray Lane have taken board seats, joining both Jerry Newman of Bear Stearns and omnipresent angel investor Ram Shriram (Google, Plaxo, Zazzle, etc.), who is representing shareholder Harris MyCFO Inc.
PodShow is a Miami Beach-based company focused on the development, management and promotion of online audio programming, with an obvious focus on the podcasting phenomenon. It seems to be the renamed version of Boku Communications, which was launched last year by Ron Bloom and "The Podfather" Adam Curry (who was the MTV VJ with whom I grew up).
BUSH PUSHES FOR "INTELLIGENT DESIGN" IN CLASSROOM
'Evolution vs. Creationism' in the modern form is 'Evolution vs. Intelligent Design'. During high school I did a year long honors research study (yes, i had to put in "honors" to communicate that it wasn't for some detention hall assignment. i actually did this for fun:) on the theories of evolution and creation. To simplify, the conclusion I reached was that both were a matter of faith. While non-religious scientists love to claim that evolution is a fact, there has been no proof of new species being created from another, or species jumping. Creationism obviously involves faith because it assumes the existence of a great unseen, God.
Anyway, President Bush has recently put this issue to the forefront by stating that "intelligent design" should be taught in the classroom. I'm not sure what context, but I'm all for alternative theories being presented.
President George Bush has started a national debate in the US over the teaching of evolution in school.
The president has suggested that a theory known as "intelligent design" should be taught in the classroom.
It proposes that life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and an unseen power must have had a hand.
President Bush's championing of intelligent design will be interpreted as further evidence of the growing influence of the religious right. (full article)
Tech Central Station's Frederick Turner has a series of good articles, such as "Divine Evolution."
Dr. Roy W. Spencer, from Tech Central Station, has a good overview of intelligent design:
Twenty years ago, as a PhD scientist, I intensely studied the evolution versus intelligent design controversy for about two years. And finally, despite my previous acceptance of evolutionary theory as "fact," I came to the realization that intelligent design, as a theory of origins, is no more religious, and no less scientific, than evolutionism.
In the scientific community, I am not alone. There are many fine books out there on the subject. Curiously, most of the books are written by scientists who lost faith in evolution as adults, after they learned how to apply the analytical tools they were taught in college.
You might wonder how scientists who are taught to apply disciplined observation and experimentation and to search for natural explanations for what is observed in nature can come to such a conclusion? For those of you who consider themselves open-minded, I will try to explain. (full post)
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'Evolution vs. Creationism' in the modern form is 'Evolution vs. Intelligent Design'. During high school I did a year long honors research study (yes, i had to put in "honors" to communicate that it wasn't for some detention hall assignment. i actually did this for fun:) on the theories of evolution and creation. To simplify, the conclusion I reached was that both were a matter of faith. While non-religious scientists love to claim that evolution is a fact, there has been no proof of new species being created from another, or species jumping. Creationism obviously involves faith because it assumes the existence of a great unseen, God.
Anyway, President Bush has recently put this issue to the forefront by stating that "intelligent design" should be taught in the classroom. I'm not sure what context, but I'm all for alternative theories being presented.
President George Bush has started a national debate in the US over the teaching of evolution in school.
The president has suggested that a theory known as "intelligent design" should be taught in the classroom.
It proposes that life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and an unseen power must have had a hand.
President Bush's championing of intelligent design will be interpreted as further evidence of the growing influence of the religious right. (full article)
Tech Central Station's Frederick Turner has a series of good articles, such as "Divine Evolution."
Dr. Roy W. Spencer, from Tech Central Station, has a good overview of intelligent design:
Twenty years ago, as a PhD scientist, I intensely studied the evolution versus intelligent design controversy for about two years. And finally, despite my previous acceptance of evolutionary theory as "fact," I came to the realization that intelligent design, as a theory of origins, is no more religious, and no less scientific, than evolutionism.
In the scientific community, I am not alone. There are many fine books out there on the subject. Curiously, most of the books are written by scientists who lost faith in evolution as adults, after they learned how to apply the analytical tools they were taught in college.
You might wonder how scientists who are taught to apply disciplined observation and experimentation and to search for natural explanations for what is observed in nature can come to such a conclusion? For those of you who consider themselves open-minded, I will try to explain. (full post)
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
MSN FILTER... MICROSOFT'S PAID BLOGGING PLAY
Read about this last week somewhere, but here are various sources on Microsoft's steps into the blogging and nanopublishing:
MSN Launches Blog Media Network: MSN, in hunt for some differentiation from other portal players, has launched a blog network, similar to what Weblogs Inc or Gawker Media has. The network, launched in beta on August 4th, is called MSN Filter, and has topics ranging from music, tech, lifestyle, sports etc. It has been hiring for these blog writing positions for some time now. The MSN blogs don't have any writer names, which is a bit strange, considering what blogs are. (full post)
Some more from Rafat:
Adam Sheppard, lead product manager for MSN Filter, said MSN's model "is essentially Nanopublishing as originally championed by Nick Denton at Gawker Media and Weblogs Inc." With MSN Filter, Lead Program Manager at MSN Spaces, Mike Torres, said, "expect 5-10 high quality entries per day on topics near and dear to your heart -- you can even submit content, links, photos and multimedia to the bloggers on topics you're passionate about...That's why we chose the name 'Filter', there's a ton of content on the web on every topic imaginable but you have to know where to look in order to find the hidden gems."
More from Microsoft Watch here, and check out MSN Filter here.
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Read about this last week somewhere, but here are various sources on Microsoft's steps into the blogging and nanopublishing:
MSN Launches Blog Media Network: MSN, in hunt for some differentiation from other portal players, has launched a blog network, similar to what Weblogs Inc or Gawker Media has. The network, launched in beta on August 4th, is called MSN Filter, and has topics ranging from music, tech, lifestyle, sports etc. It has been hiring for these blog writing positions for some time now. The MSN blogs don't have any writer names, which is a bit strange, considering what blogs are. (full post)
Some more from Rafat:
Adam Sheppard, lead product manager for MSN Filter, said MSN's model "is essentially Nanopublishing as originally championed by Nick Denton at Gawker Media and Weblogs Inc." With MSN Filter, Lead Program Manager at MSN Spaces, Mike Torres, said, "expect 5-10 high quality entries per day on topics near and dear to your heart -- you can even submit content, links, photos and multimedia to the bloggers on topics you're passionate about...That's why we chose the name 'Filter', there's a ton of content on the web on every topic imaginable but you have to know where to look in order to find the hidden gems."
More from Microsoft Watch here, and check out MSN Filter here.
"THE MOST SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGY CANNOT BEAT THE INCUMBENT"
Interesting interview of George Gilder over at AlwaysOn:
George Gilder: I was writing a larger book about Carver Mead, and I got embroiled in this story, and it seemed to be an exciting story in itself. It also was a meaningful entrepreneurial story and scientific story. So I separated it out from the larger narrative that was about physics and focused on Foveon, which is a company that Carver Mead launched in 1996 to revolutionize photography.
AlwaysOn: What makes his work with the company such a big idea?
Gilder: It put analog technology on the digital Moore's Law learning curve. Until Carver began these experiments in the early '90s, analog devices were on a much larger scale than digital devices. They were five or six times larger, and that is the transistors they used. They were not capable of the kinds of advances that Moore's Law and part of the digital technology [allowed]. Carver used the same CMOS processes, the same plain-vanilla silicon processes that are used to make every Pentium microprocessor to make analog devices, and these analog devices could run sub-threshold. They run before the device switches; it functions as an almost perfect linear analog device. Making these small analog transistors made it possible to do a pixel that could produce a very high-resolution image. So they launched the project of making an analog pixel that could capture all the colors at every point in an image, unlike all other digital cameras. All digital cameras use the Bayer mosaic technique. Essentially they are light detectors. They only detect the intensity of the light, and in order to create colors they filter, they impose a filter, and the filter filters one color at every pixel—one primary color, green, blue, or red at every pixel. And then the actual colors of the image are calculated digitally.
The difference of the Foveon device that took a long time to perfect was that it collects all three colors in analog form at every pixel. And it derives from the well-known but little-used frequency-dependent penetration of light into silicon. The different colors penetrate different depths in the silicon. So you can collect the blue light near the surface, the green light a micron or so down, and the red light two microns down roughly—and thus can create an analog device that corresponds to the colors that human eyes detect. (full post)
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Interesting interview of George Gilder over at AlwaysOn:
George Gilder: I was writing a larger book about Carver Mead, and I got embroiled in this story, and it seemed to be an exciting story in itself. It also was a meaningful entrepreneurial story and scientific story. So I separated it out from the larger narrative that was about physics and focused on Foveon, which is a company that Carver Mead launched in 1996 to revolutionize photography.
AlwaysOn: What makes his work with the company such a big idea?
Gilder: It put analog technology on the digital Moore's Law learning curve. Until Carver began these experiments in the early '90s, analog devices were on a much larger scale than digital devices. They were five or six times larger, and that is the transistors they used. They were not capable of the kinds of advances that Moore's Law and part of the digital technology [allowed]. Carver used the same CMOS processes, the same plain-vanilla silicon processes that are used to make every Pentium microprocessor to make analog devices, and these analog devices could run sub-threshold. They run before the device switches; it functions as an almost perfect linear analog device. Making these small analog transistors made it possible to do a pixel that could produce a very high-resolution image. So they launched the project of making an analog pixel that could capture all the colors at every point in an image, unlike all other digital cameras. All digital cameras use the Bayer mosaic technique. Essentially they are light detectors. They only detect the intensity of the light, and in order to create colors they filter, they impose a filter, and the filter filters one color at every pixel—one primary color, green, blue, or red at every pixel. And then the actual colors of the image are calculated digitally.
The difference of the Foveon device that took a long time to perfect was that it collects all three colors in analog form at every pixel. And it derives from the well-known but little-used frequency-dependent penetration of light into silicon. The different colors penetrate different depths in the silicon. So you can collect the blue light near the surface, the green light a micron or so down, and the red light two microns down roughly—and thus can create an analog device that corresponds to the colors that human eyes detect. (full post)
YAHOO! INVESTING $1 BILLION IN ALIBABA.COM FOR 35%?
Interesting that the numbers of this deal were disclosed and that this was reported during the process. So I assume it's a done deal. I remember Alibaba.com since they were another Softbank company such as HeyAnita, which I mentioned here before as my second startup, that received funding from them a few months before us. It's funny that this B2B play has been so successful because back in 2000 Masayoshi Son was singing praises of Ariba and how it was going to be his Yahoo! of the B2B space. From Forbes:
Web media company Yahoo! is in advanced talks to purchase an approximately 35% stake in China's biggest home-grown e-commerce company for almost $1 billion, in what would be the biggest investment by a foreign company in China's Internet industry to date, sources close to the negotiations said.
Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people )would be gaining one of China's most coveted Internet partners. Alibaba.com is led by Jack Ma, a one-time English teacher whose unpretentious style and quick wit have made him one of China's most revered entrepreneurs. Alibaba operates two online business sites ---Taobao.com, an online auction site, and Alibaba.com, an online trading site. Both were ranked among the world's top 40 websites on Sunday by the Alexa, the Internet monitoring service.
The talks are nearing completion amid a stunning run-up in the valuations of China's Internet companies by Western investors angling to profit from the country's economic and Internet boom.
On Friday, shares in China's biggest online search company Baidu.com (nasdaq: BIDU - news - people ) more than quadrupled on their first day of Nasdaq trading, the biggest one-day rise for a U.S.-listed IPO in four years, that left the company valued at $4 billion. Baidu ranked No. 6 on Alexa's list of the world's Top 500 websites on Sunday, but had revenue of only $14 million last year.
Investors buoyant about China's economic outlook last month paid roughly 30 times 2005 earnings for shares in Shanghai-based ad broadcaster Focus Media after its stock began trading on the Nasdaq. The market capitalization of the company – only in business for two years -- stands at around $700 million.
The talks between Yahoo and Alibaba are complicated because they involve three big sets of valuations – Taobao, Alibaba's other assets, and Yahoo's assets in China. Yahoo last year purchased a local keyword search company named 3721 Network Software for what it said would be as much as $120 million, and the business has been a success even though its founder Zhou Hongyi recently announced plans to leave 3721 as well as his post as chief of Yahoo China. (full article)
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Interesting that the numbers of this deal were disclosed and that this was reported during the process. So I assume it's a done deal. I remember Alibaba.com since they were another Softbank company such as HeyAnita, which I mentioned here before as my second startup, that received funding from them a few months before us. It's funny that this B2B play has been so successful because back in 2000 Masayoshi Son was singing praises of Ariba and how it was going to be his Yahoo! of the B2B space. From Forbes:
Web media company Yahoo! is in advanced talks to purchase an approximately 35% stake in China's biggest home-grown e-commerce company for almost $1 billion, in what would be the biggest investment by a foreign company in China's Internet industry to date, sources close to the negotiations said.
Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people )would be gaining one of China's most coveted Internet partners. Alibaba.com is led by Jack Ma, a one-time English teacher whose unpretentious style and quick wit have made him one of China's most revered entrepreneurs. Alibaba operates two online business sites ---Taobao.com, an online auction site, and Alibaba.com, an online trading site. Both were ranked among the world's top 40 websites on Sunday by the Alexa, the Internet monitoring service.
The talks are nearing completion amid a stunning run-up in the valuations of China's Internet companies by Western investors angling to profit from the country's economic and Internet boom.
On Friday, shares in China's biggest online search company Baidu.com (nasdaq: BIDU - news - people ) more than quadrupled on their first day of Nasdaq trading, the biggest one-day rise for a U.S.-listed IPO in four years, that left the company valued at $4 billion. Baidu ranked No. 6 on Alexa's list of the world's Top 500 websites on Sunday, but had revenue of only $14 million last year.
Investors buoyant about China's economic outlook last month paid roughly 30 times 2005 earnings for shares in Shanghai-based ad broadcaster Focus Media after its stock began trading on the Nasdaq. The market capitalization of the company – only in business for two years -- stands at around $700 million.
The talks between Yahoo and Alibaba are complicated because they involve three big sets of valuations – Taobao, Alibaba's other assets, and Yahoo's assets in China. Yahoo last year purchased a local keyword search company named 3721 Network Software for what it said would be as much as $120 million, and the business has been a success even though its founder Zhou Hongyi recently announced plans to leave 3721 as well as his post as chief of Yahoo China. (full article)
OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL BUSTS OPEN... U.N. STARTS TO FREEFALL
An ex-U.N. official pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from U.N. contractors. I wonder how high this will go and when will Kofi Annan resign? Seriously, dude, just leave... the earth.
A former U.N. procurement officer pleaded guilty Monday to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from U.N. contractors, federal prosecutors said.
Alexander Yakovlev also admitted to soliciting a bribe under the U.N. oil-for-food program, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted program for Iraq.
He pleaded guilty to all three counts in the indictment — wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering — and could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. (full article)
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An ex-U.N. official pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from U.N. contractors. I wonder how high this will go and when will Kofi Annan resign? Seriously, dude, just leave... the earth.
A former U.N. procurement officer pleaded guilty Monday to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from U.N. contractors, federal prosecutors said.
Alexander Yakovlev also admitted to soliciting a bribe under the U.N. oil-for-food program, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted program for Iraq.
He pleaded guilty to all three counts in the indictment — wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering — and could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. (full article)
Monday, August 08, 2005
EVANGELICAL LUTHERANS SET TO VOTE THIS WEEK ON GAY ORDINATION AND UNIONS
Interesting conflict and movement within Christian denominations today. Definitely the blindfolds of pluralism and relativism in our modern society and culture have water-downed the principles of God's words in the Bible. Wow, do I sound like a fundamentalist or what?:)
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Interesting conflict and movement within Christian denominations today. Definitely the blindfolds of pluralism and relativism in our modern society and culture have water-downed the principles of God's words in the Bible. Wow, do I sound like a fundamentalist or what?:)
KOREAN ROOTS OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE
Marmot's Hole has a link to an old article by Jared Diamond (if you haven't read "Guns, Germs and Steel," try to when you have time. great book and winner of the Pulitzer) which analyzes various theories on the origins of the Japanese. Informative and some decent comment's by Marmot's readers. Here's a excerpt from Diamond's article:
One theory is that Jomon hunter-gatherers themselves gradually evolved into the modern Japanese. Because they had already been living a settled existence in villages for thousands of years, they may have been preadapted to accepting agriculture. At the Yayoi transition, perhaps nothing more happened than that jomon society received cold-resistant rice seeds and information about paddy irrigation from Korea, enabling it to produce more food and increase its numbers. This theory appeals to many modem Japanese because it minimizes the unwelcome contribution of Korean genes to the Japanese gene pool while portraying the Japanese people as uniquely Japanese for at least the past 12,000 years.
A second theory, unappealing to those Japanese who prefer the first theory, argues instead that the Yayoi transition represents a massive influx of immigrants from Korea, carrying Korean farming practices, culture, and genes. Kyushu would have seemed a paradise to Korean rice farmers, because it is warmer and swampier than Korea and hence a better place to grow rice. According to one estimate, Yayoi Japan received several million immigrants from Korea, utterly overwhelming the genetic contribution of Jomon people (thought to have numbered around 75,000 just before the Yayoi transition). If so, modern Japanese are descendants of Korean immigrants who developed a modified culture of their own over the last 2,000 years.
The last theory accepts the evidence for immigration from Korea but denies that it was massive. Instead, highly productive agriculture may have enabled a modest number of immigrant rice farmers to reproduce much faster than Jomon hunter-gatherers and eventually to outnumber them. Like the second theory, this theory considers modem Japanese to be slightly modified Koreans but dispenses with the need for large-scale immigration. (full article)
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Marmot's Hole has a link to an old article by Jared Diamond (if you haven't read "Guns, Germs and Steel," try to when you have time. great book and winner of the Pulitzer) which analyzes various theories on the origins of the Japanese. Informative and some decent comment's by Marmot's readers. Here's a excerpt from Diamond's article:
One theory is that Jomon hunter-gatherers themselves gradually evolved into the modern Japanese. Because they had already been living a settled existence in villages for thousands of years, they may have been preadapted to accepting agriculture. At the Yayoi transition, perhaps nothing more happened than that jomon society received cold-resistant rice seeds and information about paddy irrigation from Korea, enabling it to produce more food and increase its numbers. This theory appeals to many modem Japanese because it minimizes the unwelcome contribution of Korean genes to the Japanese gene pool while portraying the Japanese people as uniquely Japanese for at least the past 12,000 years.
A second theory, unappealing to those Japanese who prefer the first theory, argues instead that the Yayoi transition represents a massive influx of immigrants from Korea, carrying Korean farming practices, culture, and genes. Kyushu would have seemed a paradise to Korean rice farmers, because it is warmer and swampier than Korea and hence a better place to grow rice. According to one estimate, Yayoi Japan received several million immigrants from Korea, utterly overwhelming the genetic contribution of Jomon people (thought to have numbered around 75,000 just before the Yayoi transition). If so, modern Japanese are descendants of Korean immigrants who developed a modified culture of their own over the last 2,000 years.
The last theory accepts the evidence for immigration from Korea but denies that it was massive. Instead, highly productive agriculture may have enabled a modest number of immigrant rice farmers to reproduce much faster than Jomon hunter-gatherers and eventually to outnumber them. Like the second theory, this theory considers modem Japanese to be slightly modified Koreans but dispenses with the need for large-scale immigration. (full article)
PETER JENNINGS PASSES AWAY
At the age of 67, Peter Jennings gave way to lung cancer. CNN has a good look back on his life and career on video and other decent informational links.
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At the age of 67, Peter Jennings gave way to lung cancer. CNN has a good look back on his life and career on video and other decent informational links.
"GOOGLE'S PR HISSY FIT"
Dan Gillmor calls out Google and refers to their lack of maturity in a recent situation with the press:
Google got into a snit over this CNET News.com article, which graphically showed how the company's claims to believe in people's privacy are, at best, in a delicate balance with its voracious appetites for collecting and indexing information. The CNET piece showed what searches on Google and other databases turned up about the company's CEO, Eric Schmidt -- information that was hardly surprising or all that personal, but which nonetheless illustrated the point.
.....
Some bloggers are calling Google ugly names as a result of its ill-considered move, as if it overturns the corporate "don't be evil" motto. Nah. Google is a young company. We shouldn't be surprised that it sometimes acts its age. (full post)
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Dan Gillmor calls out Google and refers to their lack of maturity in a recent situation with the press:
Google got into a snit over this CNET News.com article, which graphically showed how the company's claims to believe in people's privacy are, at best, in a delicate balance with its voracious appetites for collecting and indexing information. The CNET piece showed what searches on Google and other databases turned up about the company's CEO, Eric Schmidt -- information that was hardly surprising or all that personal, but which nonetheless illustrated the point.
.....
Some bloggers are calling Google ugly names as a result of its ill-considered move, as if it overturns the corporate "don't be evil" motto. Nah. Google is a young company. We shouldn't be surprised that it sometimes acts its age. (full post)
Sunday, August 07, 2005
TECH WAR ON ALL FRONTS... MICROSOFT IE 7.0 BETA
A review by InternetWeek of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 1. The "big dog" is seriously walking strong and barking loud on the street lately... Virtual Earth knocking on Google, the new ad system set up against Google and Yahoo!, and now this shot back at Firefox.
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A review by InternetWeek of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 1. The "big dog" is seriously walking strong and barking loud on the street lately... Virtual Earth knocking on Google, the new ad system set up against Google and Yahoo!, and now this shot back at Firefox.
BAIDU QUADRUPLES STOCK PRICE IN IPO
Chinese search engine, Baidu, opened at $27 to close at $122.54 on it's Nasdaq IPO. Thefacebook's ridiculous valuation of $81 million pre-money, MySpace for $580 million, and now Baidu's IPO. Smells like a BBQ in 1998.
UPDATE on Monday: Older article on Baidu before the IPO.
Also DFJ's ePlanet Ventures made out pretty on this IPO. They are the largest shareholders with a 28% stake. From what I heard, this made a mediocre team look good. Hey, you can strike out 3 or 4 times in a baseball game, but if you hit that home run in the final inning to win the game you come out a star.
Some more from Good Morning Silicon Valley:
Baidu -- isn't that Chinese for "irrational exuberance"?
Wow. Search outfit Baidu.com, "The Google of China," went public on Friday pulling off the the best stock debut the U.S. market has seen in more than five years. Offered at $27, Baidu shares closed at $122.54 on Friday, an astonishing 354 percent increase in value. And it seems the run's not over yet. Today Baidu shares are trading above $140. "There's an overwhelming feeling in the marketplace that this was the second coming of Google, and people felt like they had to jump on it," analyst David Menlow, president of IPOFinancial.com, told the L.A. Times. "They said to themselves, 'I could have bought Google at $85 and now it's nearly $300.' They're smacking their heads and saying, 'I could've had a V8.' " (full post)
[tags: baidu, dfj, china, search, internet, ipo]
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Chinese search engine, Baidu, opened at $27 to close at $122.54 on it's Nasdaq IPO. Thefacebook's ridiculous valuation of $81 million pre-money, MySpace for $580 million, and now Baidu's IPO. Smells like a BBQ in 1998.
UPDATE on Monday: Older article on Baidu before the IPO.
Also DFJ's ePlanet Ventures made out pretty on this IPO. They are the largest shareholders with a 28% stake. From what I heard, this made a mediocre team look good. Hey, you can strike out 3 or 4 times in a baseball game, but if you hit that home run in the final inning to win the game you come out a star.
Some more from Good Morning Silicon Valley:
Baidu -- isn't that Chinese for "irrational exuberance"?
Wow. Search outfit Baidu.com, "The Google of China," went public on Friday pulling off the the best stock debut the U.S. market has seen in more than five years. Offered at $27, Baidu shares closed at $122.54 on Friday, an astonishing 354 percent increase in value. And it seems the run's not over yet. Today Baidu shares are trading above $140. "There's an overwhelming feeling in the marketplace that this was the second coming of Google, and people felt like they had to jump on it," analyst David Menlow, president of IPOFinancial.com, told the L.A. Times. "They said to themselves, 'I could have bought Google at $85 and now it's nearly $300.' They're smacking their heads and saying, 'I could've had a V8.' " (full post)
[tags: baidu, dfj, china, search, internet, ipo]
Friday, August 05, 2005
MORE ON SHADY AIR AMERICA
More from Michelle Malkin. Great stuff :)
AIR ENRON: QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS
One of my readers and advertisers, Bob Johnson of Rightalk.com, is a radio industry veteran and has compiled a helpful list of questions regarding the transactions between Progress Media, Gloria Wise and Piquant, LLC. Feel free to forward these to your favorite Air America host or New York Times editor:
A Third Rate Burglary
1. Which owners, officers and directors/executive committee members of Progress Media and Gloria Wise reviewed and approved the loans and transactions between the two organizations?
2. Were these meetings and transactions legally entered into corporate records and accurately reflected on financial statements and/or disclosures?
3. Who signed the notes on behalf of Progress Media and Gloria Wise?
4. What were the terms of the transactions?
5. What security was used to guarantee repayment?
6. Did Gloria Wise violate any federal, state or city laws in transferring money to Progress Media and/or Evan Cohen?
7. Which officers of Progress Media and Gloria Wise signed the notes?
Scam Media
1. What is the legal status of Progress Media? Has it been dissolved or is it a legal entity but not doing business?
2. Define the term “defunct”.
3. If Progress Media still exists, who holds ownership? (full post)
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More from Michelle Malkin. Great stuff :)
AIR ENRON: QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS
One of my readers and advertisers, Bob Johnson of Rightalk.com, is a radio industry veteran and has compiled a helpful list of questions regarding the transactions between Progress Media, Gloria Wise and Piquant, LLC. Feel free to forward these to your favorite Air America host or New York Times editor:
A Third Rate Burglary
1. Which owners, officers and directors/executive committee members of Progress Media and Gloria Wise reviewed and approved the loans and transactions between the two organizations?
2. Were these meetings and transactions legally entered into corporate records and accurately reflected on financial statements and/or disclosures?
3. Who signed the notes on behalf of Progress Media and Gloria Wise?
4. What were the terms of the transactions?
5. What security was used to guarantee repayment?
6. Did Gloria Wise violate any federal, state or city laws in transferring money to Progress Media and/or Evan Cohen?
7. Which officers of Progress Media and Gloria Wise signed the notes?
Scam Media
1. What is the legal status of Progress Media? Has it been dissolved or is it a legal entity but not doing business?
2. Define the term “defunct”.
3. If Progress Media still exists, who holds ownership? (full post)
"KOREAN GENETICIST BREAKS HOUND BARRIER"
HatTip to Good Morning Silicon Valley. This story and other news seems to create an image in South Korea as a leader in biotech, cloning, and stem cell research, but I heard much of this is hype or a few peaks across a vast flatland. I should get a more informative view on this from my former advisor who heads a major biotech research institute in South Korea.
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HatTip to Good Morning Silicon Valley. This story and other news seems to create an image in South Korea as a leader in biotech, cloning, and stem cell research, but I heard much of this is hype or a few peaks across a vast flatland. I should get a more informative view on this from my former advisor who heads a major biotech research institute in South Korea.
ASK JEEVES DEBUTS PAID SEARCH BIDDING MODEL... YAHOO DOES TOO AND MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES
Everyone is announcing their something about their Google Adsense competitor this week:
"Ask Jeeves to Debut Paid Search Bidding Model"
"Yahoo! Publisher Network to Compete with AdSense"
"MSN mimics Google with paid search"
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Everyone is announcing their something about their Google Adsense competitor this week:
"Ask Jeeves to Debut Paid Search Bidding Model"
"Yahoo! Publisher Network to Compete with AdSense"
"MSN mimics Google with paid search"
RIVER OF COCAINE
Definitely this area in Italy needs a cultural change, moral check, and efficiency upgrade:
Scientists have found large quantities of cocaine residue in a river in northern Italy - suggesting consumption is much higher than previously thought.
They say they found the equivalent of 40,000 doses a day in the Po valley, home to about five million people.
The study, published by the UK's Environmental Health magazine, tests sewage and rivers for levels of a by-product of cocaine metabolism. (full article)
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Definitely this area in Italy needs a cultural change, moral check, and efficiency upgrade:
Scientists have found large quantities of cocaine residue in a river in northern Italy - suggesting consumption is much higher than previously thought.
They say they found the equivalent of 40,000 doses a day in the Po valley, home to about five million people.
The study, published by the UK's Environmental Health magazine, tests sewage and rivers for levels of a by-product of cocaine metabolism. (full article)
PREVIEWSEEK... NEW SEARCH ENGINE, SILLY ARROGANCE
The founder, Chris Hong, has to take some serious lessons taking his foot out of his mouth. Sign-in required so I'm posting the whole thing.
Previewseek takes on Google
By Sam Varghese
August 4, 2005
UK firm Previewseek has launched a search engine of the same name which, it claims, will outdo Google.
Company chairman Chris Hong said the search engine was the first to "understand" the meaning of words - for example, differentiating between Java, the programming language, and Java, the island.
Mr Hong said the search engine provide results but also advise the user of other meanings for the words searched. The other meanings can be viewed if requested.
Previewseek was also more comprehensive, he maintained. "It visits all the major search engines on your behalf, so that you can be sure that you are not missing any result. We put the results back together and then we grade them according to our BehaveRank algorithm that continuously evolves based on user behaviour."
Additional features which Hong claimed put Previewseek ahead of Google were the ability to preview all the search results.
"It is also more helpful - regardless of what you are looking for, Previewseek automatically organises results based on related concepts or words to help you refine your search even further," Mr Hong said.
Previewseek could handle searches in a number of languages, including simplified and traditional Chinese, Russian and Hindi, he said.
Previewseek has a presence in the US and Hong Kong and claims to have more than 35 proprietary and patent pending technologies which were used to develop the search engine.
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The founder, Chris Hong, has to take some serious lessons taking his foot out of his mouth. Sign-in required so I'm posting the whole thing.
Previewseek takes on Google
By Sam Varghese
August 4, 2005
UK firm Previewseek has launched a search engine of the same name which, it claims, will outdo Google.
Company chairman Chris Hong said the search engine was the first to "understand" the meaning of words - for example, differentiating between Java, the programming language, and Java, the island.
Mr Hong said the search engine provide results but also advise the user of other meanings for the words searched. The other meanings can be viewed if requested.
Previewseek was also more comprehensive, he maintained. "It visits all the major search engines on your behalf, so that you can be sure that you are not missing any result. We put the results back together and then we grade them according to our BehaveRank algorithm that continuously evolves based on user behaviour."
Additional features which Hong claimed put Previewseek ahead of Google were the ability to preview all the search results.
"It is also more helpful - regardless of what you are looking for, Previewseek automatically organises results based on related concepts or words to help you refine your search even further," Mr Hong said.
Previewseek could handle searches in a number of languages, including simplified and traditional Chinese, Russian and Hindi, he said.
Previewseek has a presence in the US and Hong Kong and claims to have more than 35 proprietary and patent pending technologies which were used to develop the search engine.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
THE 100 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN
Forbes put this list out last week. Go Condy!
Our second ranking of the World's Most Powerful Women illustrates how fleeting power is. Megawati Sukarnoputri, the former president of Indonesia who lost her reelection bid, dropped off the rankings. Gone, too, is Carleton (Carly) Fiorina, booted from Hewlett-Packard. The scandal-plagued president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo (No. 4), could soon be off as well. Among the newcomers: Yulia Tymoshenko (No. 3), prime minister of Ukraine. (full article)
Below are the top ten. Who's number one? Of course...
1. Condoleezza Rice
2. Wu Yi
3. Yulia Tymoshenko
4. Gloria Arroyo
5. Margaret Whitman
6. Anne Mulcahy
7. Sallie Krawcheck
8. Brenda Barnes
9. Oprah Winfrey
0. Melinda Gates
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Forbes put this list out last week. Go Condy!
Our second ranking of the World's Most Powerful Women illustrates how fleeting power is. Megawati Sukarnoputri, the former president of Indonesia who lost her reelection bid, dropped off the rankings. Gone, too, is Carleton (Carly) Fiorina, booted from Hewlett-Packard. The scandal-plagued president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo (No. 4), could soon be off as well. Among the newcomers: Yulia Tymoshenko (No. 3), prime minister of Ukraine. (full article)
Below are the top ten. Who's number one? Of course...
1. Condoleezza Rice
2. Wu Yi
3. Yulia Tymoshenko
4. Gloria Arroyo
5. Margaret Whitman
6. Anne Mulcahy
7. Sallie Krawcheck
8. Brenda Barnes
9. Oprah Winfrey
0. Melinda Gates
MOORE'S LAW HITS THE BLOGOSPHERE
Decent article by Michael Malone:
Is there a Moore's Law of the Blogosphere?
The reason for asking that question is the announcement this week by blog tracker Technorati (a great site, by the way, for continuously following the state of the Zeitgeist), in its annual State of the Blogosphere report that the number of blogs in the world has jumped from 7.5 million in March to 14.2 million today. (full article)
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Decent article by Michael Malone:
Is there a Moore's Law of the Blogosphere?
The reason for asking that question is the announcement this week by blog tracker Technorati (a great site, by the way, for continuously following the state of the Zeitgeist), in its annual State of the Blogosphere report that the number of blogs in the world has jumped from 7.5 million in March to 14.2 million today. (full article)
CURRENT TV... AL GORE'S NEW THING
I put this on the backburner for the week, but decided to post about Current TV. Since it was the annoying Al Gore's new venture I was contemplating to scrap it, but it's an interesting play so here it is:
Gore Invents Current TV
Al Gore’s new Current TV channel premieres on cable, with submissions solicited from the Internet and independent video makers.
August 1, 2005
He may not have really invented the Internet, but former Vice President Al Gore has founded a new cable TV channel, Current, which debuted on cable systems Monday.
Featuring content produced by independent video makers and soliciting video content uploaded to its web site, Current.tv, the company presents its news reports in short segments that it calls "pods," and aims for an Internet-ready look that will appeal to young people.
The San Francisco-based channel is taking over the slot formerly occupied on cable systems by Newsworld International, a Canadian cable network that Mr. Gore and a group of investors acquired in 2004 for a reported $70 million.
Investors include Joel Hyatt, a former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Gore is the chairman of the new network, and Mr. Hyatt is chief executive.
"We’re creating a powerful new brand of television that doesn’t treat audiences as mere viewers, but as collaborators," said Mr. Gore when plans for the network were announced in April. (full article)
Heather Green has some more info on it and her take on getting scooped by The New York Times here.
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I put this on the backburner for the week, but decided to post about Current TV. Since it was the annoying Al Gore's new venture I was contemplating to scrap it, but it's an interesting play so here it is:
Gore Invents Current TV
Al Gore’s new Current TV channel premieres on cable, with submissions solicited from the Internet and independent video makers.
August 1, 2005
He may not have really invented the Internet, but former Vice President Al Gore has founded a new cable TV channel, Current, which debuted on cable systems Monday.
Featuring content produced by independent video makers and soliciting video content uploaded to its web site, Current.tv, the company presents its news reports in short segments that it calls "pods," and aims for an Internet-ready look that will appeal to young people.
The San Francisco-based channel is taking over the slot formerly occupied on cable systems by Newsworld International, a Canadian cable network that Mr. Gore and a group of investors acquired in 2004 for a reported $70 million.
Investors include Joel Hyatt, a former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Gore is the chairman of the new network, and Mr. Hyatt is chief executive.
"We’re creating a powerful new brand of television that doesn’t treat audiences as mere viewers, but as collaborators," said Mr. Gore when plans for the network were announced in April. (full article)
Heather Green has some more info on it and her take on getting scooped by The New York Times here.
NEW HOTMAIL COMING
Microsoft is working on launching a new version of Hotmail. Some information is here. Also a screenshot is here.
The screenshot looks similar to Inner Circle, the email program I wrote about back in February when I visited Microsoft Research. I wonder if someone got some ideas from my column?:)
Inner Circle. The most interesting application to come out this idea is an email program the group dubbed Inner Circle, which lists alphabetically a user's top 40 correspondents. The program dynamically changes this list over time to reflect the user's top current correspondents. Not surprisingly, the top people on these Inner Circle-created lists tend to be the individuals those users care about the most. When an Inner Circle user clicks on a person in that list, the program displays all the conversations the user has had with that person as well as any relevant documents or links that were sent. Users can also mark an item and share it with others on their lists.
Says Ms. Cheng, "We compared this email system to a search-based email client [folders]. [Although] search was faster, our test group liked this one [Inner Circle] the best. I think it was because with search, you know things are there, but you don't feel confident that things are being organized for you. So you still have that angst of not organizing anything because you don't trust it enough. So they like to see the people being organized in the system for them."
Personally, I found the service Ms. Cheng described to be very appealing—which led me to wonder why Microsoft hasn't already integrated it with Hotmail or Outlook. In fact, Outlook integration makes perfect sense because work-related emails are typically mixed with important personal contacts throughout a user's address book. With Hotmail, on the other hand, the service could lure back users who've jumped ship to take advantage of the unique functionality and structure of Google's Gmail service. Besides Gmail's increased storage capacity, users have been attracted by its unique interface, which lets you categorize and label emails without losing their place and time your overall inbox. Inner Circle represents another approach to email organization that Microsoft can integrate into its current email structures or intertwine with a Gmail-like system.
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Microsoft is working on launching a new version of Hotmail. Some information is here. Also a screenshot is here.
The screenshot looks similar to Inner Circle, the email program I wrote about back in February when I visited Microsoft Research. I wonder if someone got some ideas from my column?:)
Inner Circle. The most interesting application to come out this idea is an email program the group dubbed Inner Circle, which lists alphabetically a user's top 40 correspondents. The program dynamically changes this list over time to reflect the user's top current correspondents. Not surprisingly, the top people on these Inner Circle-created lists tend to be the individuals those users care about the most. When an Inner Circle user clicks on a person in that list, the program displays all the conversations the user has had with that person as well as any relevant documents or links that were sent. Users can also mark an item and share it with others on their lists.
Says Ms. Cheng, "We compared this email system to a search-based email client [folders]. [Although] search was faster, our test group liked this one [Inner Circle] the best. I think it was because with search, you know things are there, but you don't feel confident that things are being organized for you. So you still have that angst of not organizing anything because you don't trust it enough. So they like to see the people being organized in the system for them."
Personally, I found the service Ms. Cheng described to be very appealing—which led me to wonder why Microsoft hasn't already integrated it with Hotmail or Outlook. In fact, Outlook integration makes perfect sense because work-related emails are typically mixed with important personal contacts throughout a user's address book. With Hotmail, on the other hand, the service could lure back users who've jumped ship to take advantage of the unique functionality and structure of Google's Gmail service. Besides Gmail's increased storage capacity, users have been attracted by its unique interface, which lets you categorize and label emails without losing their place and time your overall inbox. Inner Circle represents another approach to email organization that Microsoft can integrate into its current email structures or intertwine with a Gmail-like system.
BENEFITS OF CORPORATE BLOGGING... BOEING BLOG
HatTip to BusinessWeek's Heather Green. Heather points us to:
Boeing's vice president of marketing for Commercial Airplanes, is a good example of a company effectively using a blog to discuss directly some critical points made by a Boeing fan about the next generation 787 Dreamliner passenger plane. (full post)
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HatTip to BusinessWeek's Heather Green. Heather points us to:
Boeing's vice president of marketing for Commercial Airplanes, is a good example of a company effectively using a blog to discuss directly some critical points made by a Boeing fan about the next generation 787 Dreamliner passenger plane. (full post)
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
START.COM... MICROSOFT'S GOOGLE
MSN Virtual Earth now Start.com. Check it out.
[tags: microsoft, google, searchengine, start.com]
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MSN Virtual Earth now Start.com. Check it out.
[tags: microsoft, google, searchengine, start.com]
POLITICAL COMEDY NIGHT WITH WILL DURST... TOMORROW IN SF
I don't know how many left-leaning readers we have at Junto Boyz, but this post is for you if you live in the Bay Area. My friend, Deborah, started "The Party Progressive" event series for you Bush-hating liberals, and she's put together some pretty good events (if you drink the same whacky Kool-Aid). So check it out:
Political Comedy Night with Will Durst
Featuring Johnny Steele
Hosted by Arthur Gaus
Thursday, August 4th
Doors & Drinks: 6:45pm
Show: 8pm
Tickets: $15
Cobb's Comedy Club
915 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-928-4320
BUY TICKETS IN ADVANCE (recommended)
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I don't know how many left-leaning readers we have at Junto Boyz, but this post is for you if you live in the Bay Area. My friend, Deborah, started "The Party Progressive" event series for you Bush-hating liberals, and she's put together some pretty good events (if you drink the same whacky Kool-Aid). So check it out:
Political Comedy Night with Will Durst
Featuring Johnny Steele
Hosted by Arthur Gaus
Thursday, August 4th
Doors & Drinks: 6:45pm
Show: 8pm
Tickets: $15
Cobb's Comedy Club
915 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-928-4320
BUY TICKETS IN ADVANCE (recommended)
MOZILLA MAKING MONEY
Mozilla is creating a for profit arm. Actually, it seems like three. I believe there are at least two startups, including Blake Ross's, that have "spun out" of there.
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Mozilla is creating a for profit arm. Actually, it seems like three. I believe there are at least two startups, including Blake Ross's, that have "spun out" of there.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
GOOGLE MAPS ON TREO 650... EATING CROW
Pretty cool. Download and check it out here. I recently got a Treo 650 as a birthday gift from Christine. I love it and found myself eating some of my words since I posted this last year:
Dying PDA Market?
06.02.04
Good thread from News.com on the PDA industry ("Is the PDA Dead?"). As an early PDA user, from Palm to Handspring, I loved the convenience and functionality that my PDAs provided. Everything was novel and cool. Beaming contact info into another Palm to downloading new programs to the game modules. When I moved to Asia four years ago, I found out that within that part of the world PDAs barely made a dent, especially in the the countries I lived in or visited frequently (e.g. China/Hong Kong, South Korea).
.....
I don't know about how PDAs are or will do in Europe or other markets. Anyone? But with cellphone technology and services finally catching up in the U.S., I assume the future for PDAs is very bleak now. A shrinking primary market with limited global growth in sight is not a happy future to gaze upon.
In the comments I wrote: Yeah, as long as PDAs can make the transition into the mobile phone market, but that's an uphill battle with against the giants of that industry. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, etc. I just think it's a device that seems headed towards being a niche product instead of the ubiquitous personal assistant it was once headed for (which I once thought). Cellphones are overlapping too much with PDAs. The phones in Korea and Japan are awesome and the products you see in the U.S. are two years behind. Anyway, I guess we'll see how the market develops in the U.S. and how PDA companies respond. It will be fun. Who knows, I might buy a Treo in a few months.
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Pretty cool. Download and check it out here. I recently got a Treo 650 as a birthday gift from Christine. I love it and found myself eating some of my words since I posted this last year:
Dying PDA Market?
06.02.04
Good thread from News.com on the PDA industry ("Is the PDA Dead?"). As an early PDA user, from Palm to Handspring, I loved the convenience and functionality that my PDAs provided. Everything was novel and cool. Beaming contact info into another Palm to downloading new programs to the game modules. When I moved to Asia four years ago, I found out that within that part of the world PDAs barely made a dent, especially in the the countries I lived in or visited frequently (e.g. China/Hong Kong, South Korea).
.....
I don't know about how PDAs are or will do in Europe or other markets. Anyone? But with cellphone technology and services finally catching up in the U.S., I assume the future for PDAs is very bleak now. A shrinking primary market with limited global growth in sight is not a happy future to gaze upon.
In the comments I wrote: Yeah, as long as PDAs can make the transition into the mobile phone market, but that's an uphill battle with against the giants of that industry. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, etc. I just think it's a device that seems headed towards being a niche product instead of the ubiquitous personal assistant it was once headed for (which I once thought). Cellphones are overlapping too much with PDAs. The phones in Korea and Japan are awesome and the products you see in the U.S. are two years behind. Anyway, I guess we'll see how the market develops in the U.S. and how PDA companies respond. It will be fun. Who knows, I might buy a Treo in a few months.
COMMEMORATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KOREAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT
HatTip to Thomas. A good resolution passed for Koreans and Korean Americans alike:
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 227
Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korean independence movement and recognizing Korean National Liberation Day.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 28, 2005
Mr. CROWLEY submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations
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CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korean independence movement and
recognizing Korean National Liberation Day.
Whereas in December 1943, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed the Cairo Declaration in which these countries expressed their determination that in due course Korea should become a free and independent state;
Whereas on August 15, 1945, a republic was established in the southern half
of the Korean Peninsula;
Whereas in December 1945, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed the Moscow Agreement, which was later adhered to by China, which proposed the re-establishment of Korea as an independent state;
Whereas it has been 102 years since people from Korea came to the United States, originally to Hawaii to work on plantations, and after World War II large numbers of immigrants from Korea came to the mainland of the United States;
Whereas August 15 of each year is celebrated as Korean National Liberation Day and Korean-Americans have worked to bring about better recognition of this important Korean holiday and to spread the historic meaning of this day to other Americans who are friends of Korea ;
Whereas Korean-Americans began working in their adopted land and adopted new communities of Korean-Americans, where many Korean-Americans live, work, and retain a link to their Korean heritage;
Whereas Korean National Liberation Day is a time of celebration of the Korean independence from colonialism and a reminder of the Korean independence movement against the tyranny of colonialism;
Whereas Korean National Liberation Day serves as a reminder and heightened awareness among the younger generations of Koreans for the struggle for independence through the noble deeds of their forefathers;
Whereas the independence of Korea was not only significant to Koreans, but also a turning point in the history of all countries in East Asia in the fight for democracy and civil liberties; and
Whereas the people of the United States are encouraged to reflect upon the relationship between the United States and Korea and remember the lives lost during the Korean conflict, once termed the `Forgotten War': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--
(1) commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Korean independence movement; and
(2) extends warm congratulations and best wishes to the Korean people as they celebrate Korean National Liberation Day.
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HatTip to Thomas. A good resolution passed for Koreans and Korean Americans alike:
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 227
Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korean independence movement and recognizing Korean National Liberation Day.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 28, 2005
Mr. CROWLEY submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations
--------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korean independence movement and
recognizing Korean National Liberation Day.
Whereas in December 1943, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed the Cairo Declaration in which these countries expressed their determination that in due course Korea should become a free and independent state;
Whereas on August 15, 1945, a republic was established in the southern half
of the Korean Peninsula;
Whereas in December 1945, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed the Moscow Agreement, which was later adhered to by China, which proposed the re-establishment of Korea as an independent state;
Whereas it has been 102 years since people from Korea came to the United States, originally to Hawaii to work on plantations, and after World War II large numbers of immigrants from Korea came to the mainland of the United States;
Whereas August 15 of each year is celebrated as Korean National Liberation Day and Korean-Americans have worked to bring about better recognition of this important Korean holiday and to spread the historic meaning of this day to other Americans who are friends of Korea ;
Whereas Korean-Americans began working in their adopted land and adopted new communities of Korean-Americans, where many Korean-Americans live, work, and retain a link to their Korean heritage;
Whereas Korean National Liberation Day is a time of celebration of the Korean independence from colonialism and a reminder of the Korean independence movement against the tyranny of colonialism;
Whereas Korean National Liberation Day serves as a reminder and heightened awareness among the younger generations of Koreans for the struggle for independence through the noble deeds of their forefathers;
Whereas the independence of Korea was not only significant to Koreans, but also a turning point in the history of all countries in East Asia in the fight for democracy and civil liberties; and
Whereas the people of the United States are encouraged to reflect upon the relationship between the United States and Korea and remember the lives lost during the Korean conflict, once termed the `Forgotten War': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--
(1) commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Korean independence movement; and
(2) extends warm congratulations and best wishes to the Korean people as they celebrate Korean National Liberation Day.
WIZBANG STANDALONE TRACKBACK PINGER... VERY COOL
Wizbang's Kevin Aylward created this standalone trackback pinger a while ago, so I don't know when it was updated to its current form but this is great. I didn't like it that Blogger didn't provide a trackback function to let people know that you linked to their post, but now I can provide this courtesy call.
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Wizbang's Kevin Aylward created this standalone trackback pinger a while ago, so I don't know when it was updated to its current form but this is great. I didn't like it that Blogger didn't provide a trackback function to let people know that you linked to their post, but now I can provide this courtesy call.
DINNERBUZZ... SOCIAL GUIDE TO FOOD AND DRINKS
Interesting new social network that provides user generated reviews of restaurants and bars. I've been playing around with it over the past couple weeks.
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Interesting new social network that provides user generated reviews of restaurants and bars. I've been playing around with it over the past couple weeks.
Monday, August 01, 2005
"A CHANGED WORLD FOR KOREA'S RETURNEES"... MRS. MOON THE CHANGE AGENT
My mom was interviewed for an article in the JoongAng Daily, one of the major Korean newspapers, called "A changed world for Korea's returnees." Of course, she didn't tell my younger brother or I about it. I had to receive an email from a friend. While the angle of the article can seem to portray my mother as a person who only went to Korea "for profit" that is far from the truth, but the quotes below are totally my mother:
One came back for a father-in-law; one came back for God. More than one came back for profit. Another calls Korea "an abnormal, sick society," and in the same breath says, "I'm more patriotic than anybody I know."
They left Korea decades ago, while the country was in the grip of dictators, in search of a better life in the United States. With most now closing in on their retirement years, they have returned to their homeland and discovered a new political, economic and social landscape. Some embrace it, some do not.
The first-generation returnees interviewed for this article are generally well-to-do, are fluent in English, possess degrees from American universities and, in most cases, have U.S. passports. Many of them are back in Korea for the same reason they left all those years ago: They're simply following the opportunities. The return doesn't mark a circular journey, but a linear one.
.....
Though more vocal than most, Mr. Yoon is by no means alone in his criticism of his homeland. Ms. Moon, who asked to be identified only by her last name, also talks about the decay in "moral fiber" she's seen accompany Korea's accumulation of wealth.
"Most people I know here are economically very well off, but their way of thinking is still the same as 30 years ago," she says. "The first thing they ask is, ‘How many pyeong (a unit of 3.3 square meters) is your apartment?'"
Ms. Moon, like other returnees, charges Koreans with worrying too much about what other people think, and consequently caring only about appearances.
"It's hard to be a woman of a certain age who likes to dress casually," she says.
Ms. Moon is also put off by what she sees as Koreans' overblown pride. "The sentiment I hear most here is ‘Daehanminguk chaegoda' (Korea is No. 1)," she says. "But I'd rather see Koreans honest, kind, and able to understand the feelings and pain of others in the community than to see them be the best in the world at this or that."
However, Ms. Moon's and Mr. Yoon's views come from two different places. Mr. Yoon criticizes Korea out of love, like one would a wayward child.
"No matter where I am, I'm always Korean, and a patriotic Korean," he says. "I might as well be in Korea."
Ms. Moon, in contrast, returned to Korea for a business venture and doesn't plan to stay. "In my heart, whenever I land back at O'Hare [airport], I feel that I'm home. Not when I land at Incheon," she says.
Her faith is in "the American spirit of democracy," she says, adding, "I realized how great a country America is after I came back to Korea." (full article)
It was interesting that this article was emailed to me today since I was planning on posting about a conversation I had last week with Christine and her colleague. We were discussing how Americans are considered prude in their views and behavior by much of the world. Christine's colleague, who received her MBA from INSEAD, was telling us about ethical situations they were discussing in a class in order to get business done in emerging markets. Most of the Americans were against presenting bribes or choose what they perceived as the least unethical, such as dinners and presents. While Europeans, Indians, and other student were mocking the uptight Americans for being so naive and prude.
"What's the difference," some questioned?
"Just get them a prostitute or a lump sum into their bank accounts."
"Face reality," others jeered.
In some ways, Christine's colleague accepted the view that Americans were being too uptight or should learn how to do business in developing nations. I rejected this notion since I have seen and know first-hand how a person can make an impact on a nation's business practices and cultural standards.
It was through my mother's efforts starting about eight years ago that I learned how one person can create ripples of change. My parents came out of a short retirement to go back to South Korea and start a coffee chain. My father would have preferred to golf everyday, but my mother is the type that is going to work until she goes into a grave so they set out to start this new business.
One of their initial obstacles was getting retail space in a major Korean department store. The local manager of this department was expecting some money under the table, but my parents stuck by their principles and didn't give in to "traditional" Korean business practices within this industry. Since my father's family is well connected, they could have pulled a favor with the person in charge of the whole department chain but they didn't. My parents went to a meeting and when the local manager stated that he expected some money, my mother told him that she would report him to his superiors. He was angry and upset that someone would dare to say such a thing. The meeting abruptly ended and my parents went back to their office. Later on, my mother decided to write a letter explaining the situation and addressed it to the local manager's supervisor. Her employees freaked out.
"That's not the Korean way (typical phrase in Korea that I learned to hate while I lived their for 4 years), Mrs. Moon! You just don't do that here... It won't work!"
My mother replied, "There is no 'Korean way' and only one way to do things. I will show you that you can change how things are done. Don't limit your thinking!"
So my mother met the local manager again with a stern warning and showed him the letter, but also with the promise that their business would generate the most money for him and make him look good with this decision. He backed down. Soon afterwards my parents established their store and it came to generate the most revenue for several years.
My parents employees were shocked and learned that change can come about in small ways and by holding to the principles that you decide upon. My mother did have the safety net of my father's connections and maybe this wouldn't have been possible in another situation with a more senior person or another industry, but I thought it was still a great example for me. It taught me how change is always possible even when the forces of culture and traditional seem too strong. So a note to people doing business in emerging markets, maybe sometimes you can't avoid crossing the ethical line but try sticking to your principles and see what happens. One instance of change is a powerful catalyst.
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My mom was interviewed for an article in the JoongAng Daily, one of the major Korean newspapers, called "A changed world for Korea's returnees." Of course, she didn't tell my younger brother or I about it. I had to receive an email from a friend. While the angle of the article can seem to portray my mother as a person who only went to Korea "for profit" that is far from the truth, but the quotes below are totally my mother:
One came back for a father-in-law; one came back for God. More than one came back for profit. Another calls Korea "an abnormal, sick society," and in the same breath says, "I'm more patriotic than anybody I know."
They left Korea decades ago, while the country was in the grip of dictators, in search of a better life in the United States. With most now closing in on their retirement years, they have returned to their homeland and discovered a new political, economic and social landscape. Some embrace it, some do not.
The first-generation returnees interviewed for this article are generally well-to-do, are fluent in English, possess degrees from American universities and, in most cases, have U.S. passports. Many of them are back in Korea for the same reason they left all those years ago: They're simply following the opportunities. The return doesn't mark a circular journey, but a linear one.
.....
Though more vocal than most, Mr. Yoon is by no means alone in his criticism of his homeland. Ms. Moon, who asked to be identified only by her last name, also talks about the decay in "moral fiber" she's seen accompany Korea's accumulation of wealth.
"Most people I know here are economically very well off, but their way of thinking is still the same as 30 years ago," she says. "The first thing they ask is, ‘How many pyeong (a unit of 3.3 square meters) is your apartment?'"
Ms. Moon, like other returnees, charges Koreans with worrying too much about what other people think, and consequently caring only about appearances.
"It's hard to be a woman of a certain age who likes to dress casually," she says.
Ms. Moon is also put off by what she sees as Koreans' overblown pride. "The sentiment I hear most here is ‘Daehanminguk chaegoda' (Korea is No. 1)," she says. "But I'd rather see Koreans honest, kind, and able to understand the feelings and pain of others in the community than to see them be the best in the world at this or that."
However, Ms. Moon's and Mr. Yoon's views come from two different places. Mr. Yoon criticizes Korea out of love, like one would a wayward child.
"No matter where I am, I'm always Korean, and a patriotic Korean," he says. "I might as well be in Korea."
Ms. Moon, in contrast, returned to Korea for a business venture and doesn't plan to stay. "In my heart, whenever I land back at O'Hare [airport], I feel that I'm home. Not when I land at Incheon," she says.
Her faith is in "the American spirit of democracy," she says, adding, "I realized how great a country America is after I came back to Korea." (full article)
It was interesting that this article was emailed to me today since I was planning on posting about a conversation I had last week with Christine and her colleague. We were discussing how Americans are considered prude in their views and behavior by much of the world. Christine's colleague, who received her MBA from INSEAD, was telling us about ethical situations they were discussing in a class in order to get business done in emerging markets. Most of the Americans were against presenting bribes or choose what they perceived as the least unethical, such as dinners and presents. While Europeans, Indians, and other student were mocking the uptight Americans for being so naive and prude.
"What's the difference," some questioned?
"Just get them a prostitute or a lump sum into their bank accounts."
"Face reality," others jeered.
In some ways, Christine's colleague accepted the view that Americans were being too uptight or should learn how to do business in developing nations. I rejected this notion since I have seen and know first-hand how a person can make an impact on a nation's business practices and cultural standards.
It was through my mother's efforts starting about eight years ago that I learned how one person can create ripples of change. My parents came out of a short retirement to go back to South Korea and start a coffee chain. My father would have preferred to golf everyday, but my mother is the type that is going to work until she goes into a grave so they set out to start this new business.
One of their initial obstacles was getting retail space in a major Korean department store. The local manager of this department was expecting some money under the table, but my parents stuck by their principles and didn't give in to "traditional" Korean business practices within this industry. Since my father's family is well connected, they could have pulled a favor with the person in charge of the whole department chain but they didn't. My parents went to a meeting and when the local manager stated that he expected some money, my mother told him that she would report him to his superiors. He was angry and upset that someone would dare to say such a thing. The meeting abruptly ended and my parents went back to their office. Later on, my mother decided to write a letter explaining the situation and addressed it to the local manager's supervisor. Her employees freaked out.
"That's not the Korean way (typical phrase in Korea that I learned to hate while I lived their for 4 years), Mrs. Moon! You just don't do that here... It won't work!"
My mother replied, "There is no 'Korean way' and only one way to do things. I will show you that you can change how things are done. Don't limit your thinking!"
So my mother met the local manager again with a stern warning and showed him the letter, but also with the promise that their business would generate the most money for him and make him look good with this decision. He backed down. Soon afterwards my parents established their store and it came to generate the most revenue for several years.
My parents employees were shocked and learned that change can come about in small ways and by holding to the principles that you decide upon. My mother did have the safety net of my father's connections and maybe this wouldn't have been possible in another situation with a more senior person or another industry, but I thought it was still a great example for me. It taught me how change is always possible even when the forces of culture and traditional seem too strong. So a note to people doing business in emerging markets, maybe sometimes you can't avoid crossing the ethical line but try sticking to your principles and see what happens. One instance of change is a powerful catalyst.
"REVENGE OF THE NERDS"... RECRUITING WARS IN SILICON VALLEY
BusinessWeek has a good article on the recruiting wars for engineers and talent that's ramping up in Silicon Valley. The strong get stronger:
Some call it the "giant sucking sound" emanating from Silicon Valley. For others, it's a migraine in the making. But whatever they're calling the hiring binge at Google and Yahoo!, just about everyone is a bit astonished at the fearsome force swallowing up some of tech's best and brightest.
.....
While the Internet leaders snatch up top tech talent, that creates headaches elsewhere. Some startups, for instance, say the talent drain has made their own hiring more difficult. Joe Kraus, a co-founder of early portal Excite and now the CEO of collaborative software startup JotSpot, says Google has been especially tough to go up against. "If you're talking to someone great, they're invariably talking to Google, and they often have an offer." (full article)
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BusinessWeek has a good article on the recruiting wars for engineers and talent that's ramping up in Silicon Valley. The strong get stronger:
Some call it the "giant sucking sound" emanating from Silicon Valley. For others, it's a migraine in the making. But whatever they're calling the hiring binge at Google and Yahoo!, just about everyone is a bit astonished at the fearsome force swallowing up some of tech's best and brightest.
.....
While the Internet leaders snatch up top tech talent, that creates headaches elsewhere. Some startups, for instance, say the talent drain has made their own hiring more difficult. Joe Kraus, a co-founder of early portal Excite and now the CEO of collaborative software startup JotSpot, says Google has been especially tough to go up against. "If you're talking to someone great, they're invariably talking to Google, and they often have an offer." (full article)
BLOGS UNDER BEIJING'S THUMB
BusinessWeek has an article on the Chinese blogosphere:
Blogs Under Its Thumb
How Beijing keeps the blogosphere from spinning out of control
These are busy times for Li Li, a 27-year-old pioneer of the Internet in China. Using the pen name Muzi Mei, Li started writing a Web log about her romantic adventures back in 2003. Today, she is working to promote blogs -- Web sites where people post their musings and opinions -- at home and abroad: Last November she was a judge at a blog competition in Germany and she's helping organize one in China. But Li has given up trying to publish her own sexually charged blog in her home country, and last year shifted it to a Chinese-language site in the U.S. -- far from China's cybercops. "With a blog, it's very easy to get attention from everyone," she says. But having her blog hosted in China was "too much trouble," she adds. (full article)
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BusinessWeek has an article on the Chinese blogosphere:
Blogs Under Its Thumb
How Beijing keeps the blogosphere from spinning out of control
These are busy times for Li Li, a 27-year-old pioneer of the Internet in China. Using the pen name Muzi Mei, Li started writing a Web log about her romantic adventures back in 2003. Today, she is working to promote blogs -- Web sites where people post their musings and opinions -- at home and abroad: Last November she was a judge at a blog competition in Germany and she's helping organize one in China. But Li has given up trying to publish her own sexually charged blog in her home country, and last year shifted it to a Chinese-language site in the U.S. -- far from China's cybercops. "With a blog, it's very easy to get attention from everyone," she says. But having her blog hosted in China was "too much trouble," she adds. (full article)
RUPERT MURDOCH BUYING SKYPE?... IF NOT, WHO?
Robert X. Cringely has a good piece on the potential sale of Skype:
In high tech, the theory goes, advantage lies with the pioneers -- the first company to introduce a product in a new category. And that's true except when it is not, which is typically when the pioneers were too early, too expensive, or too difficult to use. In those cases, a second model generally holds, and in that one, the dominant company is a later entrant who simply does the task far better than it had been done before. For Internet searching, Google is a perfect example of this latter effect, entering the market years after Alta Vista and Excite. And the Google of VoIP looks like it might be Skype, which was almost sold last week to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $3 billion.
.....
If Skype has 20 million regular users (there are 2.6 million signed-in right now as I am writing this) and 10 percent of those can be converted to SkypeIn, that's $74 million in revenue with some inevitable SkypeOut volume, too. In short, it is a business. But is it a business worth $3 billion?
Remember in the heady days of the Internet boom when Microsoft paid $400 million for Hotmail and AOL paid $178 million for ICQ, neither of which had revenue or even a HOPE of revenue?
Yeah, but that was then and this is now, and $3 billion is a LOT of money. What makes Skype worth so much?
The big difference between Skype and Hotmail or ICQ is that Skype threatens existing, highly profitable franchises. As free e-mail, Hotmail may have threatened paid e-mail services, but there were no hugely profitable paid e-mail services. And ICQ threatened nobody. But Skype absolutely takes money out of the pockets of existing telephone companies. And since the value of a telephone subscriber is generally a known quantity, the value of an active Skype customer can be at least guesstimated.
If Skype really has 20 million active users and the company is worth something near $3 billion, then the market value of a Skype customer is $150.(full article)
|
Robert X. Cringely has a good piece on the potential sale of Skype:
In high tech, the theory goes, advantage lies with the pioneers -- the first company to introduce a product in a new category. And that's true except when it is not, which is typically when the pioneers were too early, too expensive, or too difficult to use. In those cases, a second model generally holds, and in that one, the dominant company is a later entrant who simply does the task far better than it had been done before. For Internet searching, Google is a perfect example of this latter effect, entering the market years after Alta Vista and Excite. And the Google of VoIP looks like it might be Skype, which was almost sold last week to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $3 billion.
.....
If Skype has 20 million regular users (there are 2.6 million signed-in right now as I am writing this) and 10 percent of those can be converted to SkypeIn, that's $74 million in revenue with some inevitable SkypeOut volume, too. In short, it is a business. But is it a business worth $3 billion?
Remember in the heady days of the Internet boom when Microsoft paid $400 million for Hotmail and AOL paid $178 million for ICQ, neither of which had revenue or even a HOPE of revenue?
Yeah, but that was then and this is now, and $3 billion is a LOT of money. What makes Skype worth so much?
The big difference between Skype and Hotmail or ICQ is that Skype threatens existing, highly profitable franchises. As free e-mail, Hotmail may have threatened paid e-mail services, but there were no hugely profitable paid e-mail services. And ICQ threatened nobody. But Skype absolutely takes money out of the pockets of existing telephone companies. And since the value of a telephone subscriber is generally a known quantity, the value of an active Skype customer can be at least guesstimated.
If Skype really has 20 million active users and the company is worth something near $3 billion, then the market value of a Skype customer is $150.(full article)
ROBERT NOVAK SPEAKS OUT
Novak's response was needed:
The abuse of my integrity provokes this response
July 31, 2005
A statement attributed to the former CIA spokesman indicating that I deliberately disregarded what he told me in writing my 2003 column about Joseph Wilson's wife is just plain wrong.
Though frustrated, I have followed the advice of my attorneys and written almost nothing about the CIA leak over two years because of a criminal investigation by a federal special prosecutor. The lawyers also urged me not to write this. But the allegation against me is so patently incorrect and so abuses my integrity as a journalist that I feel constrained to reply.
In the course of a front-page story in last Wednesday's Washington Post, Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei quoted ex-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow describing his testimony to the grand jury. In response to my question about Valerie Plame Wilson's role in former Ambassador Wilson's trip to Niger, Harlow told me she "had not authorized the mission." Harlow was quoted as later saying to me "the story Novak had related to him was wrong." (full response)
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Novak's response was needed:
The abuse of my integrity provokes this response
July 31, 2005
A statement attributed to the former CIA spokesman indicating that I deliberately disregarded what he told me in writing my 2003 column about Joseph Wilson's wife is just plain wrong.
Though frustrated, I have followed the advice of my attorneys and written almost nothing about the CIA leak over two years because of a criminal investigation by a federal special prosecutor. The lawyers also urged me not to write this. But the allegation against me is so patently incorrect and so abuses my integrity as a journalist that I feel constrained to reply.
In the course of a front-page story in last Wednesday's Washington Post, Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei quoted ex-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow describing his testimony to the grand jury. In response to my question about Valerie Plame Wilson's role in former Ambassador Wilson's trip to Niger, Harlow told me she "had not authorized the mission." Harlow was quoted as later saying to me "the story Novak had related to him was wrong." (full response)
"ONE LOGIN TO BIND THEM ALL"... GOINGON THE IDENTITY HUB
Wired News has a good article and plug for GoingOn Networks, and Marc did a good job representing us:
Between Friendster profiles, Flickr photo streams, LiveJournal blogs and del.icio.us bookmarks -- not to mention e-mailing, instant messaging and Skyping -- the much-ballyhooed "social web" can feel like a slippery slope to multiple personality disorder.
But if a still-under-development service called the GoingOn Network lives up to its hype, our online selves may soon enjoy a long-overdue digital reintegration.
GoingOn, announced last week and slated for release in the fall, is the brainchild of Macromedia founder Marc Canter and Tony Perkins, the founder of business media site AlwaysOn.
Calling it a "digital lifestyle aggregator," Canter promises that individuals will need just one login and password to check news feeds, publish blog posts, manage social networks and swap photos or music online -- all while being able to access the same services they currently use.
GoingOn will also have its own social-networking component built in, but Canter is adamant that he's not trying to get other products to run on his platform. Instead, his goal is interoperability; in his words, "We will become an identity hub."
GoingOn is just one part of a growing movement called "Identity 2.0" that is dedicated to challenging the way our identities are managed online. (full article)
|
Wired News has a good article and plug for GoingOn Networks, and Marc did a good job representing us:
Between Friendster profiles, Flickr photo streams, LiveJournal blogs and del.icio.us bookmarks -- not to mention e-mailing, instant messaging and Skyping -- the much-ballyhooed "social web" can feel like a slippery slope to multiple personality disorder.
But if a still-under-development service called the GoingOn Network lives up to its hype, our online selves may soon enjoy a long-overdue digital reintegration.
GoingOn, announced last week and slated for release in the fall, is the brainchild of Macromedia founder Marc Canter and Tony Perkins, the founder of business media site AlwaysOn.
Calling it a "digital lifestyle aggregator," Canter promises that individuals will need just one login and password to check news feeds, publish blog posts, manage social networks and swap photos or music online -- all while being able to access the same services they currently use.
GoingOn will also have its own social-networking component built in, but Canter is adamant that he's not trying to get other products to run on his platform. Instead, his goal is interoperability; in his words, "We will become an identity hub."
GoingOn is just one part of a growing movement called "Identity 2.0" that is dedicated to challenging the way our identities are managed online. (full article)
THE NET 30 YEARS LATER
Last week Tony was at some roundtable discussion at Stanford on Innovation Journalism. I dropped by for a bit and found it very cool to see Vinton Cerf there. Cerf is commonly referred to as the "father of the Internet" and really co-founded the backbone protocol of the Internet. Anyway, I didn't know it, but Tony and Rich, the AlwaysOn managing editor, got some time to interview him, so check it out:
The Net 30 Years Later
Co-father of the Internet Vint Cerf reflects back on what he started and the 10-year cycles of innovation.
AlwaysOn: How does today's Internet compare to what you thought it would be?
Vint Cerf: The standard question is, "Did you have any idea that it would get this big when you started 30-some-odd years ago?" The answer is: No. We were trying to solve an engineering problem at the time and were very focused on the technical side of it. We had no inkling that this would become a commercially important functional capability or that it would have a global footprint. Inherent in the design and the ambitions for the technology are exactly the seeds of what we are seeing, but it wasn't obvious at the time. We wanted no limitation on the number of networks that could be interconnected. We wanted a nonproprietary capability for computers to communicate with each other. We wanted every new transmission and switching technology to bear Internet packets.
I was running around with a T-shirt that said, "IP on Everything," and the whole point was to try to absorb any new switching or transmission technology into the Internet architecture. I think we have done well with that because we assumed that the layers below the IP level would not be relied upon too heavily; that most of the interesting functionality would be derived from the edges of the technology. This was the inverse of the classic design of the telecoms (up to that time anyway)—which was that most of the systems had all their intelligence in the central-office switches and the conventional public-switch telephone net. (full interview)
|
Last week Tony was at some roundtable discussion at Stanford on Innovation Journalism. I dropped by for a bit and found it very cool to see Vinton Cerf there. Cerf is commonly referred to as the "father of the Internet" and really co-founded the backbone protocol of the Internet. Anyway, I didn't know it, but Tony and Rich, the AlwaysOn managing editor, got some time to interview him, so check it out:
The Net 30 Years Later
Co-father of the Internet Vint Cerf reflects back on what he started and the 10-year cycles of innovation.
AlwaysOn: How does today's Internet compare to what you thought it would be?
Vint Cerf: The standard question is, "Did you have any idea that it would get this big when you started 30-some-odd years ago?" The answer is: No. We were trying to solve an engineering problem at the time and were very focused on the technical side of it. We had no inkling that this would become a commercially important functional capability or that it would have a global footprint. Inherent in the design and the ambitions for the technology are exactly the seeds of what we are seeing, but it wasn't obvious at the time. We wanted no limitation on the number of networks that could be interconnected. We wanted a nonproprietary capability for computers to communicate with each other. We wanted every new transmission and switching technology to bear Internet packets.
I was running around with a T-shirt that said, "IP on Everything," and the whole point was to try to absorb any new switching or transmission technology into the Internet architecture. I think we have done well with that because we assumed that the layers below the IP level would not be relied upon too heavily; that most of the interesting functionality would be derived from the edges of the technology. This was the inverse of the classic design of the telecoms (up to that time anyway)—which was that most of the systems had all their intelligence in the central-office switches and the conventional public-switch telephone net. (full interview)
BUSH FLIPS OUT... CORRECTION
Last Friday, I saw a clip at the office from The Tonight Show that shows President Bush flipping off some reporters. It was hilarious to watch. Later it was found that it wasn't the middle finger but the thumb. Anyway, check it out here and of course I don't agree with the liberal blogger and his friends who I'm linking too :)
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Last Friday, I saw a clip at the office from The Tonight Show that shows President Bush flipping off some reporters. It was hilarious to watch. Later it was found that it wasn't the middle finger but the thumb. Anyway, check it out here and of course I don't agree with the liberal blogger and his friends who I'm linking too :)
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).
More on Max
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bill joy's apocalyptic vision, determinism, and commonality with stephen hawking
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protectionist china... will chinese or u.s. companies lose out?
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skype... p2p telephony & a very cool company
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it's not the deficit stupid!... tech is the primary driver for growth
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immature venture capital industry in asia (9/29/2003)
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my first op-ed
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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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