"MY LIFE AS A BLOGGER"
Forbes's Rich Karlgaard had a good piece in last week's print edition on his new life as a blogger. Check it out:
I've been writing a daily weblog on Forbes.com for two months now. This crazy assignment has forced two changes.
Though a die-hard West Coaster, I now must keep an East Coast schedule. I get up at 4:30, pour hot water and four Irish tea bags into a soup-bowl-size mug and sit down at my home-office Dell. Some mornings I don my Bose headset to shut out barks from Dakota, our dog, who's aroused by my predawn noises.
The other change has been a full-dunk immersion (as my Baptist minister might put it) into the blogosphere. This new medium is larger than the Pacific Ocean and growing by the day.
Here's what I've learned:
• Blogging is not overhyped. You may be forgiven for thinking so, as no day goes by without a story on blogs. But blogs are no fad. They are cheap and easy to do. And blogs fulfill that deepest of human needs as defined by psychologist Abraham Maslow: self-actualization. People write blogs because they want to know themselves and want to be known by others and because they want their lives to count. When a communications medium is both riding the Moore's Law cost-capability curve and tapping into a deep need, it's no fad.
• Don't judge blogging by the "average" blog. The average blog is amateurish, just as the average crooner is no American Idol. The law of large numbers guarantees that. How many blogs are out there? Maybe millions. Soon billions. This means, of course, that the vast majority of blogs will be of no interest to you or me. Even a 95th-percentile blog--judged by its quality--has little chance of making it into our busy reading schedules. But don't judge the blogosphere by the average quality. At the top of this huge pyramid are thousands of readable and useful blogs.
Think of the blogosphere as a bookstore where no book is refused. A store bigger than the Mall of America. (Ocean, pyramid, bookstore ... too many metaphors, I know.) (full article)
Junto Boyz
Friday, December 30, 2005
|
HOME SWEET HOME... CHICAGO
Originally, Christine and I were suppose to go to Shanghai and Seoul after our Maui trip for the days after Christmas and to celebrate New Years. We wanted to visit my cousin Jim and his wife, Kelly, and their kids in Shanghai. Jim is kickin ass at Dell's China operations and is part of their leadership team for China and across Asia. Seoul would have been great to see Christine's family and our friends.
For various reasons we came to Chicago since my parents recently moved back from Seoul for good and were readjusting to life in the U.S. They sold their business and are resting now, but I don't know how long it will be before they start another business.
Anyway, it's good to be back in my hometown. I get to see family and friends, and eat in some of the great restaurants Chicago offers. What's different about Chicago this trip for me is the fact that it's becoming a growing haven of cutting-edge entrepreneurial activity. There have always been a handful of startups here, but nothing like FeedBurner or 37Signals. These are two great examples of Chicago startups that are leading the pack in their respective spaces. FeedBurner is a leader and fan favorite of RSS feed management and metrics. 37Signals transformation from a design shop to a leading web-based application and tool company has been fun to watch. From Basecamp to their creation of Ruby on Rails, 37Signals has made a huge impact on the way online applications are designed and built. Go Chi-town! Now I gotta go eat some brats, ribs, steaks, wings,...
|
Originally, Christine and I were suppose to go to Shanghai and Seoul after our Maui trip for the days after Christmas and to celebrate New Years. We wanted to visit my cousin Jim and his wife, Kelly, and their kids in Shanghai. Jim is kickin ass at Dell's China operations and is part of their leadership team for China and across Asia. Seoul would have been great to see Christine's family and our friends.
For various reasons we came to Chicago since my parents recently moved back from Seoul for good and were readjusting to life in the U.S. They sold their business and are resting now, but I don't know how long it will be before they start another business.
Anyway, it's good to be back in my hometown. I get to see family and friends, and eat in some of the great restaurants Chicago offers. What's different about Chicago this trip for me is the fact that it's becoming a growing haven of cutting-edge entrepreneurial activity. There have always been a handful of startups here, but nothing like FeedBurner or 37Signals. These are two great examples of Chicago startups that are leading the pack in their respective spaces. FeedBurner is a leader and fan favorite of RSS feed management and metrics. 37Signals transformation from a design shop to a leading web-based application and tool company has been fun to watch. From Basecamp to their creation of Ruby on Rails, 37Signals has made a huge impact on the way online applications are designed and built. Go Chi-town! Now I gotta go eat some brats, ribs, steaks, wings,...
OFF TO CHICAGO... HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEARS!!
Taking off for Chicago soon for the New Years weekend with our family. My younger bro can't make it since he just became a father a couple days ago, and I'm a first-time uncle! God bless my nephew, Matthew Moon!
Anyway, have a great weekend and a Happy and Blessed New Years!
|
Taking off for Chicago soon for the New Years weekend with our family. My younger bro can't make it since he just became a father a couple days ago, and I'm a first-time uncle! God bless my nephew, Matthew Moon!
Anyway, have a great weekend and a Happy and Blessed New Years!
CIA RENDITIONS BEGAN UNDER CLINTON
Not good news for the Dems. Of course much of the U.S. MSM is ignoring this:
The US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) controversial "rendition" program was launched under US president Bill Clinton, a former US counter-terrorism agent has told a German newspaper. Michael Scheuer, a 22-year veteran of the CIA who resigned from the agency in 2004, has told Die Zeit that the US administration had been looking in the mid-1990s for a way to combat the terrorist threat and circumvent the cumbersome US legal system. "President Clinton, his national security adviser Sandy Berger and his terrorism adviser Richard Clark ordered the CIA in the autumn of 1995 to destroy Al Qaeda" (full article)
|
Not good news for the Dems. Of course much of the U.S. MSM is ignoring this:
The US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) controversial "rendition" program was launched under US president Bill Clinton, a former US counter-terrorism agent has told a German newspaper. Michael Scheuer, a 22-year veteran of the CIA who resigned from the agency in 2004, has told Die Zeit that the US administration had been looking in the mid-1990s for a way to combat the terrorist threat and circumvent the cumbersome US legal system. "President Clinton, his national security adviser Sandy Berger and his terrorism adviser Richard Clark ordered the CIA in the autumn of 1995 to destroy Al Qaeda" (full article)
JD'S TOP 10 TECH TRANSFORMATIONS 2005
JD Lasica has his list up. An overview of his list below. For all the meat, check out his post:
Everyone else is making Best of 2005 top 10 lists, so here's a quick list of Top 10 ways in which technology has impacted our culture during 2005, in no particular order. I didn't check any other writer's lists, so I probably missed some big ones.
1. The edges gain power.
2. Citizens media takes off.
3. The rise of Web 2.0.
4. Google grows into a collossus.
5. Skype hits 50 million users.
6. Social media become a force.
7. Cell phones get smart.
8. Print's decline accelerates.
9. Podcasting becomes a movement.
10. The power of goodwill.
|
JD Lasica has his list up. An overview of his list below. For all the meat, check out his post:
Everyone else is making Best of 2005 top 10 lists, so here's a quick list of Top 10 ways in which technology has impacted our culture during 2005, in no particular order. I didn't check any other writer's lists, so I probably missed some big ones.
1. The edges gain power.
2. Citizens media takes off.
3. The rise of Web 2.0.
4. Google grows into a collossus.
5. Skype hits 50 million users.
6. Social media become a force.
7. Cell phones get smart.
8. Print's decline accelerates.
9. Podcasting becomes a movement.
10. The power of goodwill.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
TIM DRAPER RIDING HIGH... DFJ, EPLANET BREAKUP
SiliconBeat and the Mercury News has a story on Tim Draper and DFJ's recent success with Baidu and Skype. The story redeems Draper from his old image as hack in the VC world riding on the coattails of his father and grandfather.
These links also contain news of DFJ's breakup with ePlanet. It will be interesting to see how ePlanet survives without DFJ and vice versa. ePlanet definitely built up its practice on the brand name of DFJ, but DFJ benefited from ePlanet's international presence. Now DFJ has to built out their operations if they want to maintain their activity across the globe.
Here is our story published today in the Merc about Tim Draper, of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, who other VCs had long dismissed as a bit of a hack. Until this year -- when he became the hottest VC around, with big hits Skype and Baidu.
As usual, our newspaper version was stuffed into a space of about 28 column-length inches, when we'd really wanted to run about 40 inches. There's so much to say about Draper. Not merely that he has a penchant for crazy antics -- like riding elephants into parties, dressing up as Batman, leading singalongs at investment conferences or skiing in boxer shorts. But that he has become one of the more vocal supporters of how...
venture capital can transform other regions for good: "I've got to say, it's my mission," he told us. "I know how venture capital can transform a region. It's really entrepreneurship that transforms a region, but venture capital encourages it. So it's a cycle." (full post)
|
SiliconBeat and the Mercury News has a story on Tim Draper and DFJ's recent success with Baidu and Skype. The story redeems Draper from his old image as hack in the VC world riding on the coattails of his father and grandfather.
These links also contain news of DFJ's breakup with ePlanet. It will be interesting to see how ePlanet survives without DFJ and vice versa. ePlanet definitely built up its practice on the brand name of DFJ, but DFJ benefited from ePlanet's international presence. Now DFJ has to built out their operations if they want to maintain their activity across the globe.
Here is our story published today in the Merc about Tim Draper, of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, who other VCs had long dismissed as a bit of a hack. Until this year -- when he became the hottest VC around, with big hits Skype and Baidu.
As usual, our newspaper version was stuffed into a space of about 28 column-length inches, when we'd really wanted to run about 40 inches. There's so much to say about Draper. Not merely that he has a penchant for crazy antics -- like riding elephants into parties, dressing up as Batman, leading singalongs at investment conferences or skiing in boxer shorts. But that he has become one of the more vocal supporters of how...
venture capital can transform other regions for good: "I've got to say, it's my mission," he told us. "I know how venture capital can transform a region. It's really entrepreneurship that transforms a region, but venture capital encourages it. So it's a cycle." (full post)
OVERVIEW OF GOOGLE ACQUISITIONS
HatTip to Adam Fields. William Slawski's SEO by the SEA blog has an overview of all of Google's acquisitions. Check it out.
|
HatTip to Adam Fields. William Slawski's SEO by the SEA blog has an overview of all of Google's acquisitions. Check it out.
"AMAZON HOSTING AUTHOR BLOGS"
This is a great move by Amazon. This is something I posted about before. All authors should have blogs to continue the conversation and discussions around their writing and thoughts to engage their readers and extended the life of a book.
Adding to its user-generated content, Amazon.com has launched a program to allow authors to blog on the Amazon.com site.
The Amazon Connect program, in beta for the past month, aims to increase the engagement between readers and authors, and between readers and Amazon.com. It provides authors with a channel to market new products to consumers who bought their books in the past, and gives them a reason to visit Amazon.com.
"This is a very smart move by Amazon. By asking authors to blog, Amazon is encouraging a dialogue with customers without having to invest any extra effort themselves. It's the online equivalent of an author book signing," Andy Beal, president and CEO of search and blog marketing firm Fortune Interactive, told ClickZ News. (full article)
|
This is a great move by Amazon. This is something I posted about before. All authors should have blogs to continue the conversation and discussions around their writing and thoughts to engage their readers and extended the life of a book.
Adding to its user-generated content, Amazon.com has launched a program to allow authors to blog on the Amazon.com site.
The Amazon Connect program, in beta for the past month, aims to increase the engagement between readers and authors, and between readers and Amazon.com. It provides authors with a channel to market new products to consumers who bought their books in the past, and gives them a reason to visit Amazon.com.
"This is a very smart move by Amazon. By asking authors to blog, Amazon is encouraging a dialogue with customers without having to invest any extra effort themselves. It's the online equivalent of an author book signing," Andy Beal, president and CEO of search and blog marketing firm Fortune Interactive, told ClickZ News. (full article)
RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
"S. Korean School Debunks Hwang's Research"
"Poland Keeping Troops in Iraq Another Year"
"AOL Unveils 2005's Top Spam Subject Lines"
"Man, 21, pleads guilty in attack on eBay"
"10 Greatest Gadget Ideas of the Year"
"Microsoft, Softbank in Japanese VoIP deal"
"What the Google-AOL deal means for users"
"Pentagon Shakes Up Emergency Hierarchy"
|
"S. Korean School Debunks Hwang's Research"
"Poland Keeping Troops in Iraq Another Year"
"AOL Unveils 2005's Top Spam Subject Lines"
"Man, 21, pleads guilty in attack on eBay"
"10 Greatest Gadget Ideas of the Year"
"Microsoft, Softbank in Japanese VoIP deal"
"What the Google-AOL deal means for users"
"Pentagon Shakes Up Emergency Hierarchy"
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
A GUY WITNESSES AN ACCIDENT... PHONE CALL FUNNY
HatTip to Heather. I guess this recorded phone call has been making the rounds. For me it was decently funny. The note I received along with the link:
It's a phone call from a man in Texas who witnessed a car accident that involved 4 elderly women. It was so popular when they played it on CHUM FM that they had to put it on their site.
|
HatTip to Heather. I guess this recorded phone call has been making the rounds. For me it was decently funny. The note I received along with the link:
It's a phone call from a man in Texas who witnessed a car accident that involved 4 elderly women. It was so popular when they played it on CHUM FM that they had to put it on their site.
CATCHING UP AGAIN WITH THE NEWS
Today has definitely been a catch up day... a few hundred emails to sort through, over 4,000 spam emails to delete (in my Yahoo! account, which is my email spam magnet), several emails to send back, documents to download and read, contracts to go through, and of course old bookmarks to read and post:
"What's in Jeff Bezos's Bag?"
A look into the recent move by Amazon to open up Alexa's web crawler to everyone. Business 2.0's Erick Schonfeld touches on Amazon's A9 search engine, which is doing some cool stuff (i.e. maps functions), and mentions how it uses Alexa but I thought they used Google's engine? Anyway, it's a decent overview.
"'Kong' box office highlights industry in flux"
Slump in 2005 due to the web or bad movies? I would guess a bit of the former but more of the latter. I've beeen echoing this point to friends that this year's movie crop sucks.
"Boring game? Hire a player"
China's online gaming scene follows South Korea's. Years ago PC room owners in Korea would hire kids to play online games to build up characters and items to sell through the online black market for games such as Lineage. Now the same same scene is being played out in China. Wonder when this will occur in the U.S.? Maybe the Mafia will get into the Second Life black market? :)
"The Start-Up"
A blook from JB Holston, Newsgator's CEO: A classic business thriller. Cybersecurity, the Feds, nefarious bankers and media magnates from around the globe, and Microsoft. Best possible plane food.
"Social Networks 3.0"
VC David Hornik's view of the social networking space.
|
Today has definitely been a catch up day... a few hundred emails to sort through, over 4,000 spam emails to delete (in my Yahoo! account, which is my email spam magnet), several emails to send back, documents to download and read, contracts to go through, and of course old bookmarks to read and post:
"What's in Jeff Bezos's Bag?"
A look into the recent move by Amazon to open up Alexa's web crawler to everyone. Business 2.0's Erick Schonfeld touches on Amazon's A9 search engine, which is doing some cool stuff (i.e. maps functions), and mentions how it uses Alexa but I thought they used Google's engine? Anyway, it's a decent overview.
"'Kong' box office highlights industry in flux"
Slump in 2005 due to the web or bad movies? I would guess a bit of the former but more of the latter. I've beeen echoing this point to friends that this year's movie crop sucks.
"Boring game? Hire a player"
China's online gaming scene follows South Korea's. Years ago PC room owners in Korea would hire kids to play online games to build up characters and items to sell through the online black market for games such as Lineage. Now the same same scene is being played out in China. Wonder when this will occur in the U.S.? Maybe the Mafia will get into the Second Life black market? :)
"The Start-Up"
A blook from JB Holston, Newsgator's CEO: A classic business thriller. Cybersecurity, the Feds, nefarious bankers and media magnates from around the globe, and Microsoft. Best possible plane food.
"Social Networks 3.0"
VC David Hornik's view of the social networking space.
BACK FROM MAUI
We got back from Maui this morning. It was a great vacation. I dropped Christine off at her office and came home to unpack and start catching up on work. Here are a couple pictures to share, and I'll probably post more pictures up on my Flickr account. The first picture was taken during our helicopter tour through Molokai, an island west of Maui which has Hawaii's highest waterfall and sea cliffs. The views were amazing. The second picture was from our snorkeling trip that was an hour south of our hotel by water. Anyway, I'll blog more later today.
|
We got back from Maui this morning. It was a great vacation. I dropped Christine off at her office and came home to unpack and start catching up on work. Here are a couple pictures to share, and I'll probably post more pictures up on my Flickr account. The first picture was taken during our helicopter tour through Molokai, an island west of Maui which has Hawaii's highest waterfall and sea cliffs. The views were amazing. The second picture was from our snorkeling trip that was an hour south of our hotel by water. Anyway, I'll blog more later today.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
OFF TO MAUI... HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HOLIDAYS!
My taxi is arriving in 15 minutes, so just wanted to briefly drop a note and wish everyone a blessed holiday season. Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy New Years!
I will not be blogging for a week. I will still be working, but not blogging :)
|
My taxi is arriving in 15 minutes, so just wanted to briefly drop a note and wish everyone a blessed holiday season. Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy New Years!
I will not be blogging for a week. I will still be working, but not blogging :)
GRAVITY TO PARTICIPATE IN ONLINE GAME DEVELOPMENT FUND
HatTip to Dave. I guess Gravity, a one-hit wonder online gaming company, is entering the investment side of the gaming industry. From it's offical press release:
Gravity announced that it has decided to invest Japanese Yen 1 Billion in "Online Game Revolution Vol. 1," an investment fund organized in Japan, pursuant to the approval of Gravity's board of directors meeting held on November 29, 2005. "Online Game Revolution Vol.1" ("Online Game Fund"), with a total proposed investment size of Japanese Yen 10 Billion, has an investment objective of investing in companies which develop online games in Japan. Movida Investment Inc., an affiliate of SoftBank Group ("Movida"), will operate the fund as the general partner of the fund.
Several Japanese and Korean developers of online games, including CJ Internet Corp. have agreed to invest in Online Game Fund. Mr. Il Young Ryu, the chief executive officer of Gravity said, "We hope that we will be able to contribute to the development of the online game industry in Japan with this investment, as the fund will invest in early-stage online game companies in Japan. We further hope that, in connection with this investment, we will be able to strengthen our online game publishing capability by gaining access to promising online games developed by investee companies, in addition to achieving appropriate rates of return as an investor in the fund." Mr. Ryu also noted, "We are also contemplating future investment in another fund (Global Highway Fund), contemplated target investment size of approximately 100 Billion KRW which will target developers of games and game related technology companies in Korea and elsewhere. We intend to continue to utilize some of our available cash to invest indirectly in companies with excellent technical competence and capability to commercially offer their products."
|
HatTip to Dave. I guess Gravity, a one-hit wonder online gaming company, is entering the investment side of the gaming industry. From it's offical press release:
Gravity announced that it has decided to invest Japanese Yen 1 Billion in "Online Game Revolution Vol. 1," an investment fund organized in Japan, pursuant to the approval of Gravity's board of directors meeting held on November 29, 2005. "Online Game Revolution Vol.1" ("Online Game Fund"), with a total proposed investment size of Japanese Yen 10 Billion, has an investment objective of investing in companies which develop online games in Japan. Movida Investment Inc., an affiliate of SoftBank Group ("Movida"), will operate the fund as the general partner of the fund.
Several Japanese and Korean developers of online games, including CJ Internet Corp. have agreed to invest in Online Game Fund. Mr. Il Young Ryu, the chief executive officer of Gravity said, "We hope that we will be able to contribute to the development of the online game industry in Japan with this investment, as the fund will invest in early-stage online game companies in Japan. We further hope that, in connection with this investment, we will be able to strengthen our online game publishing capability by gaining access to promising online games developed by investee companies, in addition to achieving appropriate rates of return as an investor in the fund." Mr. Ryu also noted, "We are also contemplating future investment in another fund (Global Highway Fund), contemplated target investment size of approximately 100 Billion KRW which will target developers of games and game related technology companies in Korea and elsewhere. We intend to continue to utilize some of our available cash to invest indirectly in companies with excellent technical competence and capability to commercially offer their products."
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
AND MORE XMAS WITH CALVIN
Swamped with work... not sleeping. I'll put up posts later tonight. Happy Holidays!
|
Swamped with work... not sleeping. I'll put up posts later tonight. Happy Holidays!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
WEB 2.0, SEMANTIC WEB, WHATEVER
A couple article links here. First is on Red Herring's take of the structure blogging initiative:
Semantic Web, Here We Come
A consortium of blogging startups wants to give deeper meaning to the Internet by giving people tools to categorize web pages.
And the post that created some buzz yesterday by ZDNet's Russell Shaw:
Web 2.0? It doesn't exist
No, I am not turning into a "flat-earther." The world is pear-shaped, Pluto is not a planet, and global warming exists.
But Web 2.0 does not exist.
The advances being touted under the general umbrella of Web 2.0- advances written about with considerable skill on our own Web 2.0 Explorer Blog by our own Richard MacManus - well, of course those advances exist. RSS, Social Media, content aggregation, podcasting, you have it.
My problem is not with the characterization of the components of Web 2.0. It is the implication inherent in the very livery, "Web 2.0," that I just don't get. (full post)
|
A couple article links here. First is on Red Herring's take of the structure blogging initiative:
Semantic Web, Here We Come
A consortium of blogging startups wants to give deeper meaning to the Internet by giving people tools to categorize web pages.
And the post that created some buzz yesterday by ZDNet's Russell Shaw:
Web 2.0? It doesn't exist
No, I am not turning into a "flat-earther." The world is pear-shaped, Pluto is not a planet, and global warming exists.
But Web 2.0 does not exist.
The advances being touted under the general umbrella of Web 2.0- advances written about with considerable skill on our own Web 2.0 Explorer Blog by our own Richard MacManus - well, of course those advances exist. RSS, Social Media, content aggregation, podcasting, you have it.
My problem is not with the characterization of the components of Web 2.0. It is the implication inherent in the very livery, "Web 2.0," that I just don't get. (full post)
VISA INCREASE DROPPED FROM BUDGET BILL... WHO'S LOBBYING AGAINST THIS?
Serious stupidity on Capitol Hill. An increase of 30,000 H-1B visas have been dropped from a budget bill. Foreign high-tech workers are a critical element of technology and manufacturing industries in the U.S. and a strong pool for future entrepreneurs that make an impact on U.S. soil. New companies = More Jobs = Happy Constituents or More taxes (whatever turns you on), DUH!
If there were such capable engineers, programmers, and other skilled workers, why would there be projected shortages? Why would the high-tech and manufacturing industries lobby for an increase in H1-Bs? Well, maybe the U.S. education system isn't producing what we need. Maybe Jim, a civil engineer in Kansas, isn't what Intel needs to hire. Maybe congressman and senators shouldn't be so concerned about a perception and image issue more than the reality that this shortage and turning away of foreign talent will have a negative and long-lasting impact on our economy.
Seriously, who is lobbying against this increase? Is there a concerted effort? By the KKK? Americans Scared of Success? Americans against foreigners without a reason?
A Senate-passed measure to add more visas for foreign workers in high-tech and specialty fields was dropped from a budget bill that passed the House early Monday, disappointing high-tech and manufacturing firms in search of skilled workers.
The Senate plan would have allowed 30,000 more of the popular H1-B visas each year, and increased fees for those visas to help trim the budget deficit. Congress capped the six-year H-1B visas at 65,000 per year in 2004, and that cap has already been reached for the 2006 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
The Senate language also would have allowed 90,000 more employment-based green cards that offer permanent residency to skilled workers, and added fees for those.
Critics contend the visas give foreigners high-level jobs that should go to American workers, and the plan was opposed by some House Republicans as a backdoor way to boost immigration. House and Senate negotiators left it out of the final version of a $39.7 billion federal budget bill that passed the House 212-206 and was expected to get a Senate vote later in the day.
"This is very, very disappointing," said Sandy Boyd, a vice president at the
National Association of Manufacturers. "What's distressing about this, and what the Senate clearly understood, is there is a real global competition for this work and for these employees, and the question is not whether the work is going to get done, it's where is the work going to get done. We've missed a real opportunity by not ensuring the work would be done here." (full article)
|
Serious stupidity on Capitol Hill. An increase of 30,000 H-1B visas have been dropped from a budget bill. Foreign high-tech workers are a critical element of technology and manufacturing industries in the U.S. and a strong pool for future entrepreneurs that make an impact on U.S. soil. New companies = More Jobs = Happy Constituents or More taxes (whatever turns you on), DUH!
If there were such capable engineers, programmers, and other skilled workers, why would there be projected shortages? Why would the high-tech and manufacturing industries lobby for an increase in H1-Bs? Well, maybe the U.S. education system isn't producing what we need. Maybe Jim, a civil engineer in Kansas, isn't what Intel needs to hire. Maybe congressman and senators shouldn't be so concerned about a perception and image issue more than the reality that this shortage and turning away of foreign talent will have a negative and long-lasting impact on our economy.
Seriously, who is lobbying against this increase? Is there a concerted effort? By the KKK? Americans Scared of Success? Americans against foreigners without a reason?
A Senate-passed measure to add more visas for foreign workers in high-tech and specialty fields was dropped from a budget bill that passed the House early Monday, disappointing high-tech and manufacturing firms in search of skilled workers.
The Senate plan would have allowed 30,000 more of the popular H1-B visas each year, and increased fees for those visas to help trim the budget deficit. Congress capped the six-year H-1B visas at 65,000 per year in 2004, and that cap has already been reached for the 2006 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
The Senate language also would have allowed 90,000 more employment-based green cards that offer permanent residency to skilled workers, and added fees for those.
Critics contend the visas give foreigners high-level jobs that should go to American workers, and the plan was opposed by some House Republicans as a backdoor way to boost immigration. House and Senate negotiators left it out of the final version of a $39.7 billion federal budget bill that passed the House 212-206 and was expected to get a Senate vote later in the day.
"This is very, very disappointing," said Sandy Boyd, a vice president at the
National Association of Manufacturers. "What's distressing about this, and what the Senate clearly understood, is there is a real global competition for this work and for these employees, and the question is not whether the work is going to get done, it's where is the work going to get done. We've missed a real opportunity by not ensuring the work would be done here." (full article)
BUSH INCREASES IN POLLS... DID YOU REALLY THINK HE WOULD STAY DOWN?
In all seriousness, who actually thought Bush's approval ratings would stay down? I'm sure he and his staff had the utmost confidence in his rebound even through all the partisan rhetoric the Dems were slinging around.
President Bush's approval rating has surged in recent weeks, reversing what had been an extended period of decline, with Americans now expressing renewed optimism about the future of democracy in Iraq, the campaign against terrorism and the U.S. economy, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll.
Bush's overall approval rating rose to 47 percent, from 39 percent in early November, with 52 percent saying they disapprove of how he is handling his job. His approval rating on Iraq jumped 10 percentage points since early November, to 46 percent, while his rating on the economy rose 11 points, to 47 percent. A clear majority, 56 percent, said they approve of the way Bush is handling the fight against terrorism -- a traditional strong point in his reputation that nonetheless had flagged to 48 percent in the November poll. (full article)
|
In all seriousness, who actually thought Bush's approval ratings would stay down? I'm sure he and his staff had the utmost confidence in his rebound even through all the partisan rhetoric the Dems were slinging around.
President Bush's approval rating has surged in recent weeks, reversing what had been an extended period of decline, with Americans now expressing renewed optimism about the future of democracy in Iraq, the campaign against terrorism and the U.S. economy, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll.
Bush's overall approval rating rose to 47 percent, from 39 percent in early November, with 52 percent saying they disapprove of how he is handling his job. His approval rating on Iraq jumped 10 percentage points since early November, to 46 percent, while his rating on the economy rose 11 points, to 47 percent. A clear majority, 56 percent, said they approve of the way Bush is handling the fight against terrorism -- a traditional strong point in his reputation that nonetheless had flagged to 48 percent in the November poll. (full article)
Monday, December 19, 2005
CATCHING UP IN THE TECH WORLD
Just catching up on newsclips and blog posts that I bookmarked over the past week. Better that I do it here than on del.icio.us, Furl, Spurl, Filangy, Tailrank, Digg, etc. since I don't know what you guys use :)
"Wikipedia vs. Britannica Smackdown ends in carrel throwing brawl"
"Alexa changing the search game?"
"NBA to create huge digital archive"
"Why Microsoft’s classifieds service will be better than Google Base"
"The Money Is In the Text Message Mail"
From alarm:clock. Pretty good idea:
This is a pretty cool product/company launch where users can pay each other via Text messaging in amounts up to $500. The service was developed in response to Craig's list purchases where buyers often don't approve a purchase until they are on the seller's premises.
"Yo, buddy! Do youze, uh, Yahoo?"
The silicon valley talent grab's gone bi-coastal. On Thursday Yahoo opened a new research operation in New York City and tapped Ron Brachman, a former scientist at the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to head it.
"The Big Bet"
Why the U.S. will not solve its economic, educational, health, retirement, energy, and other major structural problems until it suffers a major financial crisis.
Eric Janszen, AlwaysOn's most popular columnist is back! He's taken a longer break than I typically do between columns, so it's good to see Eric back in the middle column of AO.
|
Just catching up on newsclips and blog posts that I bookmarked over the past week. Better that I do it here than on del.icio.us, Furl, Spurl, Filangy, Tailrank, Digg, etc. since I don't know what you guys use :)
"Wikipedia vs. Britannica Smackdown ends in carrel throwing brawl"
"Alexa changing the search game?"
"NBA to create huge digital archive"
"Why Microsoft’s classifieds service will be better than Google Base"
"The Money Is In the Text Message Mail"
From alarm:clock. Pretty good idea:
This is a pretty cool product/company launch where users can pay each other via Text messaging in amounts up to $500. The service was developed in response to Craig's list purchases where buyers often don't approve a purchase until they are on the seller's premises.
"Yo, buddy! Do youze, uh, Yahoo?"
The silicon valley talent grab's gone bi-coastal. On Thursday Yahoo opened a new research operation in New York City and tapped Ron Brachman, a former scientist at the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to head it.
"The Big Bet"
Why the U.S. will not solve its economic, educational, health, retirement, energy, and other major structural problems until it suffers a major financial crisis.
Eric Janszen, AlwaysOn's most popular columnist is back! He's taken a longer break than I typically do between columns, so it's good to see Eric back in the middle column of AO.
SPEAKING OF GOOGLE... WEB CLIPS HUMOR
As you Gmail users out there might know, Gmail recently started showing "web clips" or RSS feeds on one line at the top of the main body. There are several pre-set feeds you can choose from, such as BusinessWeek, SI, ESPN, and Discovery Channel.
Anyway, if you click on the Spam inbox, you get "web clips" with Spam recipe ideas. Such as Spam Breakfast Burrito, Vineyard Spam Salad, French Fry Spam Casserole, and Spam Fajitas. I thought this was hilarious. The programmer at Google that came up with this idea definitely has a sense of humor. He might be also Hawaiian (Hawaii is the largest consumer of Spam... actually, Korea is second as geographic region and first as a foreign importer).
|
As you Gmail users out there might know, Gmail recently started showing "web clips" or RSS feeds on one line at the top of the main body. There are several pre-set feeds you can choose from, such as BusinessWeek, SI, ESPN, and Discovery Channel.
Anyway, if you click on the Spam inbox, you get "web clips" with Spam recipe ideas. Such as Spam Breakfast Burrito, Vineyard Spam Salad, French Fry Spam Casserole, and Spam Fajitas. I thought this was hilarious. The programmer at Google that came up with this idea definitely has a sense of humor. He might be also Hawaiian (Hawaii is the largest consumer of Spam... actually, Korea is second as geographic region and first as a foreign importer).
"HOW GOOGLE WOOS THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST"... ANOTHER PIECE FROM THE GOOGLE MAD MEDIA
I don't know which subject matter I'm more tired of these days... Web 2.0 companies on tech blogs or Google in mainstream media. Also in the first paragraph below, I think it's incorrect about the free laundary. Never heard about that perk.
Free cafeteria food, annual ski trips to the Sierra and free laundry are just some of the fringe benefits of working at Google. Getting hired is the trick.
Every month, aspiring workers deluge the popular Mountain View search engine with up to 150,000 resumes, equivalent to a stack of paper at least 50 feet high. And the firm claims to read each and every one.
As one of Silicon Valley's hottest companies, Google has become a beacon for job seekers. In just a few short years, the interest has helped the company amass an arsenal of what is arguably among the world's top technology minds.
"I would argue that definitely they have the best talent," said Joe Kraus, a co-founder of the Web portal Excite Inc. and who currently leads a startup, JotSpot, in Palo Alto. "They invest so much because the more great talent you have, the easier it is to attract even more great talent."
Google hires nine new workers a day. In less than two years, the number of employees has more than tripled to 4,989.
The growth spurt is being fueled by a gangbusters-like online advertising market and Google's boundless ambition, including new initiatives in everything from wireless Internet access to video downloads. The goal is to keep the production line of new products humming so that users spend more time on the Web site. (full article)
|
I don't know which subject matter I'm more tired of these days... Web 2.0 companies on tech blogs or Google in mainstream media. Also in the first paragraph below, I think it's incorrect about the free laundary. Never heard about that perk.
Free cafeteria food, annual ski trips to the Sierra and free laundry are just some of the fringe benefits of working at Google. Getting hired is the trick.
Every month, aspiring workers deluge the popular Mountain View search engine with up to 150,000 resumes, equivalent to a stack of paper at least 50 feet high. And the firm claims to read each and every one.
As one of Silicon Valley's hottest companies, Google has become a beacon for job seekers. In just a few short years, the interest has helped the company amass an arsenal of what is arguably among the world's top technology minds.
"I would argue that definitely they have the best talent," said Joe Kraus, a co-founder of the Web portal Excite Inc. and who currently leads a startup, JotSpot, in Palo Alto. "They invest so much because the more great talent you have, the easier it is to attract even more great talent."
Google hires nine new workers a day. In less than two years, the number of employees has more than tripled to 4,989.
The growth spurt is being fueled by a gangbusters-like online advertising market and Google's boundless ambition, including new initiatives in everything from wireless Internet access to video downloads. The goal is to keep the production line of new products humming so that users spend more time on the Web site. (full article)
BUSH DOUBLES DOWN... FROM INSTAPUNDIT AND OTHERS ON BUSH'S SPEECH
Summary of blogosphere reaction to President Bush's speech last night:
BUSH DOUBLES DOWN: I just watched Bush's speech. Nothing new there for anyone who's been paying attention to the speeches he's been giving over the past couple of weeks. But one big thing struck me: In this national televised speech, Bush went out of his way to take responsibility for the war. He repeatedly talked about "my decision to invade Iraq," even though, of course, it was also Congress's decision. He made very clear that, ultimately, this was his war, and the decisions were his.
Why did he do that? Because he thinks we're winning, and he wants credit. By November 2006, and especially November 2008, he thinks that'll be obvious, and he wants to lay down his marker now on what he believed -- and what the other side did. That's my guess, anyway. (full post)
|
Summary of blogosphere reaction to President Bush's speech last night:
BUSH DOUBLES DOWN: I just watched Bush's speech. Nothing new there for anyone who's been paying attention to the speeches he's been giving over the past couple of weeks. But one big thing struck me: In this national televised speech, Bush went out of his way to take responsibility for the war. He repeatedly talked about "my decision to invade Iraq," even though, of course, it was also Congress's decision. He made very clear that, ultimately, this was his war, and the decisions were his.
Why did he do that? Because he thinks we're winning, and he wants credit. By November 2006, and especially November 2008, he thinks that'll be obvious, and he wants to lay down his marker now on what he believed -- and what the other side did. That's my guess, anyway. (full post)
Sunday, December 18, 2005
MORE ON THE STRUCTURED BLOGGING DEBATE
Bob Wyman, PubSub's CTO, explains how Structured Blogging is a things you do and not so much a format... why is there a "format war" in the blogosphere? :) I think it's more of an ego war between Technorati and PubSub.
I've been pleased to see that the relaunch of Structured Blogging has been almost universally well received. However, I'm very puzzled by a number of folk who seem to be trying to find some kind of competition between Structured Blogging and "microformats." The reality is that Structured Blogging is a thing you do and is independent of formats. On the other hand, "microformats" is, as it's name implies, simply one of many approachs to defining the under-the-covers formats that are used by people who are doing Structured Blogging. The two concepts are orthogonal. They don't compete. They can't compete. Verbs don't compete with nouns. (full post)
|
Bob Wyman, PubSub's CTO, explains how Structured Blogging is a things you do and not so much a format... why is there a "format war" in the blogosphere? :) I think it's more of an ego war between Technorati and PubSub.
I've been pleased to see that the relaunch of Structured Blogging has been almost universally well received. However, I'm very puzzled by a number of folk who seem to be trying to find some kind of competition between Structured Blogging and "microformats." The reality is that Structured Blogging is a thing you do and is independent of formats. On the other hand, "microformats" is, as it's name implies, simply one of many approachs to defining the under-the-covers formats that are used by people who are doing Structured Blogging. The two concepts are orthogonal. They don't compete. They can't compete. Verbs don't compete with nouns. (full post)
REVIEWS OF LAST WEEK'S IRAQI ELECTION
The Hotline's Blogmeter has a round up of some thoughts last week's Iraqi election:
From the right -- Wizbang's Jay Tea compares the war to a long family car trip: "As the Iraqi elections wound down, I took a quick survey of some of the left end of the blogosphere. And I noticed" the "endlessly repeating ... mantra about 'bringing the troops home,' like annoying kids in the back seat with their endless queries of 'are we there yet? Are we there yet? How much longer?' And like those kids, as tempting as it is to turn around and smack them, we can't. But we can, at least, yell back at them." The Corner posts an e-mail from a "high-level muckety muck friend" at the WH who calls this "arguably the most successful and significant, election in Iraq" so far, in large part because of the Sunni participation. Captain's Quarters: "Those left out of the negotiations, such as the Zarqawi faction, obviously will continue to attempt their operations to disrupt the elections, but the lack of widespread violence may indicate that Zarqawi's ability to conduct such operations has been severely curtailed." CQ's Ed Morrissey also wonders why the major papers aren't editorializing about the election: "The RSS feed for the Opinion page at the Times just updated with tomorrow's articles. ... Wait -- perhaps one of their guests addresses it instead. Er, no." And the Washington Post? "The Washington Post editorial board passes on the elections as well. Instead, they talk torture, ANWR drilling, and a recount in Virginia's election for attorney general. ... The LA Times doesn't do much better."
Pajamas Media has a round up of Iraqi journalists & bloggers views on Iraqi elections here.
|
The Hotline's Blogmeter has a round up of some thoughts last week's Iraqi election:
From the right -- Wizbang's Jay Tea compares the war to a long family car trip: "As the Iraqi elections wound down, I took a quick survey of some of the left end of the blogosphere. And I noticed" the "endlessly repeating ... mantra about 'bringing the troops home,' like annoying kids in the back seat with their endless queries of 'are we there yet? Are we there yet? How much longer?' And like those kids, as tempting as it is to turn around and smack them, we can't. But we can, at least, yell back at them." The Corner posts an e-mail from a "high-level muckety muck friend" at the WH who calls this "arguably the most successful and significant, election in Iraq" so far, in large part because of the Sunni participation. Captain's Quarters: "Those left out of the negotiations, such as the Zarqawi faction, obviously will continue to attempt their operations to disrupt the elections, but the lack of widespread violence may indicate that Zarqawi's ability to conduct such operations has been severely curtailed." CQ's Ed Morrissey also wonders why the major papers aren't editorializing about the election: "The RSS feed for the Opinion page at the Times just updated with tomorrow's articles. ... Wait -- perhaps one of their guests addresses it instead. Er, no." And the Washington Post? "The Washington Post editorial board passes on the elections as well. Instead, they talk torture, ANWR drilling, and a recount in Virginia's election for attorney general. ... The LA Times doesn't do much better."
Pajamas Media has a round up of Iraqi journalists & bloggers views on Iraqi elections here.
SUPR.C.ILIO.US... THE ONION OF WEB 2.0
HatTip to David Parmet. I just met David this past week and he works at one of GoingOn's partner companies. I didn't even know he had a blog, which is cool, so I added it to my blogroll. He also pointed me to a blog that is so money right now. Check Supr.c.ilio.us out. It reflects at times how I feel about the growing flood of Web 2.0 and open media companies. I think of their blog as "The Onion of Web 2.0," but they call themselves "The Flickr of Snark."
|
HatTip to David Parmet. I just met David this past week and he works at one of GoingOn's partner companies. I didn't even know he had a blog, which is cool, so I added it to my blogroll. He also pointed me to a blog that is so money right now. Check Supr.c.ilio.us out. It reflects at times how I feel about the growing flood of Web 2.0 and open media companies. I think of their blog as "The Onion of Web 2.0," but they call themselves "The Flickr of Snark."
WEB TWO POINT OH!
HatTip to Don Leob. This is amusing and so true! The Web Two Point Oh! simulator will reveal "a pre-created VC friendly Web 2.0 company just for you!" Hit reload a few times to get some ideas for your next startup.
|
HatTip to Don Leob. This is amusing and so true! The Web Two Point Oh! simulator will reveal "a pre-created VC friendly Web 2.0 company just for you!" Hit reload a few times to get some ideas for your next startup.
Friday, December 16, 2005
|
HOWARD RHEINGOLD'S DIGITAL JOURNALISM COURSE AT STANFORD
Came across this blog with a description of Howard Rheingold's Digital Journalism course that he's teaching at Stanford for the upcoming quarter. What's cool is that one of my articles for AlwaysOn ("Open It Up, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle!") is part of the reading list.
|
Came across this blog with a description of Howard Rheingold's Digital Journalism course that he's teaching at Stanford for the upcoming quarter. What's cool is that one of my articles for AlwaysOn ("Open It Up, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle!") is part of the reading list.
JIBJAB'S YEAR-END ROUND-UP... 2-0-5!
The guys at JibJab are at it again. This time its a short on a round-up of President Bush's year. Pretty funny and you can check it out here.
|
The guys at JibJab are at it again. This time its a short on a round-up of President Bush's year. Pretty funny and you can check it out here.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
GOOGLE ROUNDUP
CNet has a bunch of recent articles on Google's latest activities:
Google strikes a chord with a new feature to help people find bands, lyrics and CDs. Also: The search giant ponies up for computer science research and touts its enterprise search offerings.
MORE from Om, "Google Video, A New Cash Machine?" and "Google Music, The King Maker?" which Om loves.
|
CNet has a bunch of recent articles on Google's latest activities:
Google strikes a chord with a new feature to help people find bands, lyrics and CDs. Also: The search giant ponies up for computer science research and touts its enterprise search offerings.
MORE from Om, "Google Video, A New Cash Machine?" and "Google Music, The King Maker?" which Om loves.
TECHNORATI KITCHEN... TECHNORATI EXPLORE
So Technorati launches their "Google Labs" and their first experiment is Explore, where TechCrunch writes a comparison to Memeorandum. I'm so tired of all these content hubs, but I'll try it out.
|
|
So Technorati launches their "Google Labs" and their first experiment is Explore, where TechCrunch writes a comparison to Memeorandum. I'm so tired of all these content hubs, but I'll try it out.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
VALIDATION OF YOUR IDEA/PRODUCT IS THE BEST FEELING FOR AN EARLY-STAGE ENTREPRENEUR... A NECESSARY EXERCISE TOO
This past week the GoingOn team met with a venture capitalist who the majority of us believe is the most knowledgeable and active in the Web 2.0/Open Media space. During the initial half hour, he really didn't give any indication of his thinking on our company and just listened to our presentation and asked a few questions. Soon after the first half hour, he began the discussion about how he was amazed that other established companies weren't doing what we set out to do. As the meeting went on, he provided some great insights on our pricing strategy and how to position ourselves in the market. He proved himself to be damn smart and confirmed he was an investor that we wanted.
More importantly the meeting was great for all of us because he provided validation of our vision and product. Over months of testing, pitching, reading, writing, and thinking about your startup and product, it's easy to become enamored with everything related to your efforts. As an entrepreneur, you sometimes have to wonder if you're just breathing in your own exhaust... drinking too much of your own kool-aid.
So the feeling when an experienced executive within your target industry, thought leader, successful venture capitalist, or a brilliant and respected person become interested or excited in your startup it's a great feeling. It's another bread crumb in the path towards success. This experience is especially rewarding if you're seeking seed funding.
During my first startup, ViewPlus, we found out that our idea and product was not an easy sell. First, our investors had to be knowledgeable or at least understand the cost of instructure of cable systems. Second, since it was a video-on-demand system, they had to understand the existing pay-per-view services and probably some of the issues with video distribution. We tried to simplify the problem we wanted to solve and clearly explain our kickass solution, but it was never an easy pitch.
When we met people that got what we wanted to build, it was exciting. "Got" I define as not just lip service, but actually understanding our vision and the ability to provide sound feedback and insight.
Back in 1999, when we were hungry entrepreneurs, Jimmy, Peter, and I got excited over every baby step we made. Back then Garage.com use to be a match-making service between entrepreneurs and investors before the recent shift to an early-stage fund. ViewPlus was accepted into Garage.com's "Heaven" which supposedly less than 2% of companies that applied were accepted. Once in "Heaven" their select investors would be able to search through this priority listing of startups. We were psyched.
I also remember how psyched we were when we finally met a cable TV executive that liked our idea. But for every interested investor, potential advisor, or strategic partner, there were many more naysayers and people who didn't get it. Obviously, if all you get are naysayers then you should rethink your product/service idea or overall business model. Anyway, I found out that it was important to listen carefully to the naysayers too unless they were complete asses. There could have been important ideas or feedback which we would incorporate into our product or business plan. I found that it was difficult to pitch an idea that was completely new and untested, but I loved my time and experience with ViewPlus.
HeyAnita Korea was different experience. It was a technology and concept that we didn't create. We provided the introduction to Softbank's founder, Masayoshi Son, as just a personal favor, and then some of HeyAnita's founders pitched us to help them set up operations in Asia starting with South Korea.
This experience was different not only because it wasn't our own, but because it was a "wow" technology that wasn't really trying to solve a problem but to make life easier... accessing information by voice through the phone. The demo was cool and gathered interest from most people, but the question was would they really use it?
Here it was easy to breathe our own exhaust. A cool technology with what we thought was a great business model we developed for the Korea market, but we had an uphill battle to convince the wireless carriers and telcos in Korea to integrate our services. The coolness factor of the technology clouded the real validation we needed to hear in terms of how we could build a lasting business out of it. How would people respond to this new technology and how much education would be needed? Was this a completely new behavior pattern we were forcing on people or was it a natural extension of their current phone behavior? So on and so on...
Even though ownership might have been an issue along with the coolness cloud that covered our eyes, we probably didn't seek out to challenge ourselves enough and our business model. Maybe we accepted lip service as validation of our efforts.
We struggled for the first year to find the right business model and target market, but by the second year HeyAnita Korea got its head out of the clouds and listened to the footsteps of the market.
Now for GoingOn Networks, I believe I learned from my past experiences, so hopefully I can effectively apply them as we build a business from our vision.
[tags: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurism, startup, VC, technology, business, blogging]
|
This past week the GoingOn team met with a venture capitalist who the majority of us believe is the most knowledgeable and active in the Web 2.0/Open Media space. During the initial half hour, he really didn't give any indication of his thinking on our company and just listened to our presentation and asked a few questions. Soon after the first half hour, he began the discussion about how he was amazed that other established companies weren't doing what we set out to do. As the meeting went on, he provided some great insights on our pricing strategy and how to position ourselves in the market. He proved himself to be damn smart and confirmed he was an investor that we wanted.
More importantly the meeting was great for all of us because he provided validation of our vision and product. Over months of testing, pitching, reading, writing, and thinking about your startup and product, it's easy to become enamored with everything related to your efforts. As an entrepreneur, you sometimes have to wonder if you're just breathing in your own exhaust... drinking too much of your own kool-aid.
So the feeling when an experienced executive within your target industry, thought leader, successful venture capitalist, or a brilliant and respected person become interested or excited in your startup it's a great feeling. It's another bread crumb in the path towards success. This experience is especially rewarding if you're seeking seed funding.
During my first startup, ViewPlus, we found out that our idea and product was not an easy sell. First, our investors had to be knowledgeable or at least understand the cost of instructure of cable systems. Second, since it was a video-on-demand system, they had to understand the existing pay-per-view services and probably some of the issues with video distribution. We tried to simplify the problem we wanted to solve and clearly explain our kickass solution, but it was never an easy pitch.
When we met people that got what we wanted to build, it was exciting. "Got" I define as not just lip service, but actually understanding our vision and the ability to provide sound feedback and insight.
Back in 1999, when we were hungry entrepreneurs, Jimmy, Peter, and I got excited over every baby step we made. Back then Garage.com use to be a match-making service between entrepreneurs and investors before the recent shift to an early-stage fund. ViewPlus was accepted into Garage.com's "Heaven" which supposedly less than 2% of companies that applied were accepted. Once in "Heaven" their select investors would be able to search through this priority listing of startups. We were psyched.
I also remember how psyched we were when we finally met a cable TV executive that liked our idea. But for every interested investor, potential advisor, or strategic partner, there were many more naysayers and people who didn't get it. Obviously, if all you get are naysayers then you should rethink your product/service idea or overall business model. Anyway, I found out that it was important to listen carefully to the naysayers too unless they were complete asses. There could have been important ideas or feedback which we would incorporate into our product or business plan. I found that it was difficult to pitch an idea that was completely new and untested, but I loved my time and experience with ViewPlus.
HeyAnita Korea was different experience. It was a technology and concept that we didn't create. We provided the introduction to Softbank's founder, Masayoshi Son, as just a personal favor, and then some of HeyAnita's founders pitched us to help them set up operations in Asia starting with South Korea.
This experience was different not only because it wasn't our own, but because it was a "wow" technology that wasn't really trying to solve a problem but to make life easier... accessing information by voice through the phone. The demo was cool and gathered interest from most people, but the question was would they really use it?
Here it was easy to breathe our own exhaust. A cool technology with what we thought was a great business model we developed for the Korea market, but we had an uphill battle to convince the wireless carriers and telcos in Korea to integrate our services. The coolness factor of the technology clouded the real validation we needed to hear in terms of how we could build a lasting business out of it. How would people respond to this new technology and how much education would be needed? Was this a completely new behavior pattern we were forcing on people or was it a natural extension of their current phone behavior? So on and so on...
Even though ownership might have been an issue along with the coolness cloud that covered our eyes, we probably didn't seek out to challenge ourselves enough and our business model. Maybe we accepted lip service as validation of our efforts.
We struggled for the first year to find the right business model and target market, but by the second year HeyAnita Korea got its head out of the clouds and listened to the footsteps of the market.
Now for GoingOn Networks, I believe I learned from my past experiences, so hopefully I can effectively apply them as we build a business from our vision.
[tags: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurism, startup, VC, technology, business, blogging]
SOUTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT HIRES LOBBYISTS FOR CAPITOL HILL
My friend's lobbying firm, Scribe Strategies & Advisors, got the first lobbying gig from the South Korean government:
On December 9, Korean Ambassador to the United States Lee Tae-sik sent a letter to the Budget and Account Committee of the National Assembly, Seoul. In his letter, Ambassador Lee called for a smooth allocation of the one-billion-won budget that the Embassy requested for lobbying the U.S. Congress next year. “We will focus on correcting our procurement system of U.S. weapons, which cost us more than Japan. We will also work on creating a favorable atmosphere for Korea’s joining of the Visa Waiver Pilot Program (VWPP) and concluding a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States,” said Lee, clarifying the specific goals of the lobbying.
The letter from Ambassador Lee seems to be a "record of resolutions" implying that it is "high time for Korea to open a new chapter in lobbying Washington in an open and legitimate manner." The Korean Embassy to the U.S. entered into a three-month pilot contract with a Washington-based lobbying agency Scribe Strategies and Advisors (SSA) from October through December to gauge the "possibility of lobbying diplomacy." According to a copy of the contract that Dong-A Ilbo obtained, the monthly payment to SSA is 10,000 dollars, which is tantamount to the actual expenses for a lobbying service.
The contract is considered Korea’s first legitimate lobbying campaign, for which the SSA will officially report to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as representatives of the Korean government. This means the Korean government has finally taken its first step onto K Street, the home of lobbying agencies in Washington. (full article)
|
My friend's lobbying firm, Scribe Strategies & Advisors, got the first lobbying gig from the South Korean government:
On December 9, Korean Ambassador to the United States Lee Tae-sik sent a letter to the Budget and Account Committee of the National Assembly, Seoul. In his letter, Ambassador Lee called for a smooth allocation of the one-billion-won budget that the Embassy requested for lobbying the U.S. Congress next year. “We will focus on correcting our procurement system of U.S. weapons, which cost us more than Japan. We will also work on creating a favorable atmosphere for Korea’s joining of the Visa Waiver Pilot Program (VWPP) and concluding a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States,” said Lee, clarifying the specific goals of the lobbying.
The letter from Ambassador Lee seems to be a "record of resolutions" implying that it is "high time for Korea to open a new chapter in lobbying Washington in an open and legitimate manner." The Korean Embassy to the U.S. entered into a three-month pilot contract with a Washington-based lobbying agency Scribe Strategies and Advisors (SSA) from October through December to gauge the "possibility of lobbying diplomacy." According to a copy of the contract that Dong-A Ilbo obtained, the monthly payment to SSA is 10,000 dollars, which is tantamount to the actual expenses for a lobbying service.
The contract is considered Korea’s first legitimate lobbying campaign, for which the SSA will officially report to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as representatives of the Korean government. This means the Korean government has finally taken its first step onto K Street, the home of lobbying agencies in Washington. (full article)
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
STRUCTURED BLOGGING ANNOUNCEMENT... CO-SPONSORED BY GOINGON NETWORKS
The official announcement is being held at Syndicate conference today at 5:00pm. This was Marc Canter's idea to create this standard to make blogging easier. Best described from the organization's site:
Structured Blogging will make it easy to create, edit and maintain different kinds of blog posts. The major difference is the structure will let you add specific styles to each type. For example, you'll be able to add links and pictures to spruce up your movie reviews. They will look completely different from, say, your calendar entries. Better yet, someone looking for a review of the movie Titanic will be likely to find your post about it.
The contributions for this initiative came from PubSub, Broadband Mechanics (Marc's consulting shop), and GoingOn Networks. Marc rounded up a great list of participants for this initiative which you can check out here (with a blurb about GoingOn). Funny thing is that we are the only company on the list that doesn't have a live product yet... sort of embarrassing :) Anyway, here is the official press release:
Broad New Initiative to Support Structured Blogging Announced
More Than 30 Companies Agree to Standardize How Web Data is Created and Organized to Develop Beneficial Consumer Applications
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 13, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Leading Web search, blog and development companies including PubSub, Bloglines, Feedster, Meetup, Sxip, CommerceNet, Broadband Mechanics and others today announced the start of an initiative to keep burgeoning structured content standards in sync at the Syndicate Conference in San Francisco.
"A new era in blogging is upon us. We're expanding the ways we create, share and syndicate content -- and we want to make sure that all the emerging standards are inter-operable," said Salim Ismail, Co-Founder of PubSub Concepts, a leader of the initiative.
"The code we're submitting is for peer review," said Marc Canter, CEO of Broadband Mechanics. "We're making sure that all appropriate existing standards are being supported in this plugin 'compatibility box'".
This initiative is being launched with the release of plugins for WordPress and Moveable Type platforms. The plugins will provide bloggers the ability to create Events, Reviews, People and Group Showcases, audio and video media posts and lists. These structured blog posts can then be routed to any destination. (full release)
MORE: ZDNet's Dan Farber has more here, and so does Richard MacManus here. Greg Yardley brings up his concerns here, but if you take into consideration Marc's intent on most things he isn't in it for the money. Phil Pearson has a round up of posts here.
|
The official announcement is being held at Syndicate conference today at 5:00pm. This was Marc Canter's idea to create this standard to make blogging easier. Best described from the organization's site:
Structured Blogging will make it easy to create, edit and maintain different kinds of blog posts. The major difference is the structure will let you add specific styles to each type. For example, you'll be able to add links and pictures to spruce up your movie reviews. They will look completely different from, say, your calendar entries. Better yet, someone looking for a review of the movie Titanic will be likely to find your post about it.
The contributions for this initiative came from PubSub, Broadband Mechanics (Marc's consulting shop), and GoingOn Networks. Marc rounded up a great list of participants for this initiative which you can check out here (with a blurb about GoingOn). Funny thing is that we are the only company on the list that doesn't have a live product yet... sort of embarrassing :) Anyway, here is the official press release:
Broad New Initiative to Support Structured Blogging Announced
More Than 30 Companies Agree to Standardize How Web Data is Created and Organized to Develop Beneficial Consumer Applications
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 13, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Leading Web search, blog and development companies including PubSub, Bloglines, Feedster, Meetup, Sxip, CommerceNet, Broadband Mechanics and others today announced the start of an initiative to keep burgeoning structured content standards in sync at the Syndicate Conference in San Francisco.
"A new era in blogging is upon us. We're expanding the ways we create, share and syndicate content -- and we want to make sure that all the emerging standards are inter-operable," said Salim Ismail, Co-Founder of PubSub Concepts, a leader of the initiative.
"The code we're submitting is for peer review," said Marc Canter, CEO of Broadband Mechanics. "We're making sure that all appropriate existing standards are being supported in this plugin 'compatibility box'".
This initiative is being launched with the release of plugins for WordPress and Moveable Type platforms. The plugins will provide bloggers the ability to create Events, Reviews, People and Group Showcases, audio and video media posts and lists. These structured blog posts can then be routed to any destination. (full release)
MORE: ZDNet's Dan Farber has more here, and so does Richard MacManus here. Greg Yardley brings up his concerns here, but if you take into consideration Marc's intent on most things he isn't in it for the money. Phil Pearson has a round up of posts here.
EPINIONS DRAMA SETTLED
Old news, but good news. Especially if it's true that Benchmark Capital and August Capital misled and presented false information to the other Epinions founders and employees. Not cool. I definitely would be cautious about working with the VCs from Benchmark and August that worked on this deal. From alarm:clock:
Benchmark Capital and August Capital have settled with 50 former employees of Epinions, who claimed that they were misled into believing that the company was in worse financial shape than it was and for signing away rights based on that false information. The amount of the settlement is unknown but lawyers for the 50 expressed satisfaction. (full post)
Peter Rip, from Leapfrog Ventures, chimes in on this issue since his firm invested in Naval Ravikant's new thing. Pretty cool since he could have gone the way of other VCs and blacklisted Naval and the other co-founders involved in the lawsuit:
The Epinions/VC lawsuit has been settled. The terms are confidential and I have no idea what the outcome was. But I am glad that this is over for one very special reason. Naval Ravikant was one of the principal shareholder plaintiffs suing the VCs, and even as that was unfolding, we made a decision to back him in his next venture.
Making a decision to sue a former partner is always tough. Regardless of the situation, when mud starts getting thrown, everyone gets sullied. We met Naval just after the mud started. The stakes are always high when you make an investment decision. They are that much higher when your potential new partner is in a fight with his old partners.
We didn't look at the merits of the case. We weren't in a position to evaluate it, not did we want to. We looked at Naval, how he defined "fairness", "honesty", and "trust" to understand if we shared his values. We talked to others he had worked with to see if our assessment synced with others.
What we saw and heard consistently was that here was a guy of high integrity, unbelievable creativity and intellect, and boundless energy. Regardless of what caused the breakage at Epinions between investors and shareholders, suing VCs was "not his new business model," as one reference put it. (full post)
|
Old news, but good news. Especially if it's true that Benchmark Capital and August Capital misled and presented false information to the other Epinions founders and employees. Not cool. I definitely would be cautious about working with the VCs from Benchmark and August that worked on this deal. From alarm:clock:
Benchmark Capital and August Capital have settled with 50 former employees of Epinions, who claimed that they were misled into believing that the company was in worse financial shape than it was and for signing away rights based on that false information. The amount of the settlement is unknown but lawyers for the 50 expressed satisfaction. (full post)
Peter Rip, from Leapfrog Ventures, chimes in on this issue since his firm invested in Naval Ravikant's new thing. Pretty cool since he could have gone the way of other VCs and blacklisted Naval and the other co-founders involved in the lawsuit:
The Epinions/VC lawsuit has been settled. The terms are confidential and I have no idea what the outcome was. But I am glad that this is over for one very special reason. Naval Ravikant was one of the principal shareholder plaintiffs suing the VCs, and even as that was unfolding, we made a decision to back him in his next venture.
Making a decision to sue a former partner is always tough. Regardless of the situation, when mud starts getting thrown, everyone gets sullied. We met Naval just after the mud started. The stakes are always high when you make an investment decision. They are that much higher when your potential new partner is in a fight with his old partners.
We didn't look at the merits of the case. We weren't in a position to evaluate it, not did we want to. We looked at Naval, how he defined "fairness", "honesty", and "trust" to understand if we shared his values. We talked to others he had worked with to see if our assessment synced with others.
What we saw and heard consistently was that here was a guy of high integrity, unbelievable creativity and intellect, and boundless energy. Regardless of what caused the breakage at Epinions between investors and shareholders, suing VCs was "not his new business model," as one reference put it. (full post)
WOLFRAMTONES FOR YOUR CELLPHONE
Some of you might know scientist Stephen Wolfram, who wrote A New Kind of Science. From his Mathematica algorithms, there is a site that creates random tones from various types of music styles, which you can download for your cellphone. Check it out here.
WolframTones works by taking simple programs from Wolfram's computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music. Each program in effect defines a virtual world, with its own special story--and WolframTones captures it as a musical composition.
|
Some of you might know scientist Stephen Wolfram, who wrote A New Kind of Science. From his Mathematica algorithms, there is a site that creates random tones from various types of music styles, which you can download for your cellphone. Check it out here.
WolframTones works by taking simple programs from Wolfram's computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music. Each program in effect defines a virtual world, with its own special story--and WolframTones captures it as a musical composition.
FEEDBURNER INTEGRATES WEB SERVICES INTO FEEDS... GOINGON OF RSS :)
HatTip to TechCrunch for this cool news. Sort makes Feedburner the GoingOn of RSS. Actually, it's probably the opposite since we're not launched yet... GoingOn is the Feedburner of blog platforms.
FeedBurner is launching FeedFlare tonight - a group of web services that can be integrated by the publisher into her/his feed. FeedFlare is located under the "Optimize" tab within the FeedBurner dashboard.
FeedBurner is also releasing a full set of open APIs to allow third party developers to build and integrate customized services.
'Give your subscribers easy ways to email, tag, share, and act on the content you publish by including as many or few of the services listed below. FeedFlare places a simple footer at the bottom of each content item in your feed, helping you to distribute, inform and create a community around your content.'
If a publisher chooses to include one or more services, they appear at the bottom of the feed. Currently offered services include:
* Email this - Send a link to your item to someone via email.
* Email author - Allow subscribers to email you directly.
* Technorati Cosmos - Display the number of links to your item from blogs, as measured by Technorati.
* Del.icio.us tags - Lists del.icio.us tags for an item.
* Save to del.icio.us - Allows subscribers to bookmark the item with del.icio.us.
* Count comments - Lists the number of comments posted to an item (for WordPress blogs only).
* Creative Commons - Displays the Creative Commons license that you may have applied to your feed or post. (full post)
|
HatTip to TechCrunch for this cool news. Sort makes Feedburner the GoingOn of RSS. Actually, it's probably the opposite since we're not launched yet... GoingOn is the Feedburner of blog platforms.
FeedBurner is launching FeedFlare tonight - a group of web services that can be integrated by the publisher into her/his feed. FeedFlare is located under the "Optimize" tab within the FeedBurner dashboard.
FeedBurner is also releasing a full set of open APIs to allow third party developers to build and integrate customized services.
'Give your subscribers easy ways to email, tag, share, and act on the content you publish by including as many or few of the services listed below. FeedFlare places a simple footer at the bottom of each content item in your feed, helping you to distribute, inform and create a community around your content.'
If a publisher chooses to include one or more services, they appear at the bottom of the feed. Currently offered services include:
* Email this - Send a link to your item to someone via email.
* Email author - Allow subscribers to email you directly.
* Technorati Cosmos - Display the number of links to your item from blogs, as measured by Technorati.
* Del.icio.us tags - Lists del.icio.us tags for an item.
* Save to del.icio.us - Allows subscribers to bookmark the item with del.icio.us.
* Count comments - Lists the number of comments posted to an item (for WordPress blogs only).
* Creative Commons - Displays the Creative Commons license that you may have applied to your feed or post. (full post)
Monday, December 12, 2005
"MONEY DOES BUY HAPPINESS, MILLION VALIDATED"
I came across Under The Counter last week through the guys at alarm:clock. The blog is like a live Liars Poker. If Michael Lewis continued his book on a blog, this might be it. Hmmm... maybe all book authors should continue the spirit and ideas of their work through blogs?
Anyway, Under The Counter has a summary of a new study that was written up in the WSJ:
This should be good news for all you i-bankers who have been putting in 18-hour days in the hope of big bonus payouts this year. Even if your kids don't recognize you and your wife won't speak to you, take comfort in the fact that economists have recently found that money does in fact buy happiness: Data from the National Opinion Research Center show that the top fifth of income earners are about 50% more likely to say they are "very happy" than people in the bottom fifth, and only about half as likely to say they are "not too happy." Money can buy you happiness another way: By giving it away. Studies have shown that people who donate to charity are 40% more likely to say they are "very happy" than non-donors. (full post)
|
I came across Under The Counter last week through the guys at alarm:clock. The blog is like a live Liars Poker. If Michael Lewis continued his book on a blog, this might be it. Hmmm... maybe all book authors should continue the spirit and ideas of their work through blogs?
Anyway, Under The Counter has a summary of a new study that was written up in the WSJ:
This should be good news for all you i-bankers who have been putting in 18-hour days in the hope of big bonus payouts this year. Even if your kids don't recognize you and your wife won't speak to you, take comfort in the fact that economists have recently found that money does in fact buy happiness: Data from the National Opinion Research Center show that the top fifth of income earners are about 50% more likely to say they are "very happy" than people in the bottom fifth, and only about half as likely to say they are "not too happy." Money can buy you happiness another way: By giving it away. Studies have shown that people who donate to charity are 40% more likely to say they are "very happy" than non-donors. (full post)
"HOW GOOGLE GOT GOING"
Good story on Google's early days over at Rich Karlgaard's blog, which I just learned about from Tony. I loved reading how Larry Page and Sergey Brin initially ran up the debt on their credit cards to start Google. I thought it was Andy Bechtolsheim's $100,000 check that started them off, but I guess I was wrong. It was wise of them to resist the initial angel offers and just do it on their own, which gave them leverage when they went to raise outside money.
It was also prudent of them in hindsight to reject Excite's offer back in 1999 to buy them out for a little under $1 million. I read that they would have sold at around $1.3 million. As fate would have it, it didn't happen and probably for the best since Google would have gone under with the whole Excite@Home crew.
This story also strikes a personal chord because it reminds me of my first startup effort, ViewPlus, when we lived off our savings, the FM (Father-Mother) Fund, and eventually numerous credit cards. I remember one night when Jimmy and I were going through as many online credit card applications as possible. Those were great times because everything we went through was a learning process and it was our first taste of building something from scratch. Of course, our outcome wasn't even close to Larry and Sergey's:)
|
Good story on Google's early days over at Rich Karlgaard's blog, which I just learned about from Tony. I loved reading how Larry Page and Sergey Brin initially ran up the debt on their credit cards to start Google. I thought it was Andy Bechtolsheim's $100,000 check that started them off, but I guess I was wrong. It was wise of them to resist the initial angel offers and just do it on their own, which gave them leverage when they went to raise outside money.
It was also prudent of them in hindsight to reject Excite's offer back in 1999 to buy them out for a little under $1 million. I read that they would have sold at around $1.3 million. As fate would have it, it didn't happen and probably for the best since Google would have gone under with the whole Excite@Home crew.
This story also strikes a personal chord because it reminds me of my first startup effort, ViewPlus, when we lived off our savings, the FM (Father-Mother) Fund, and eventually numerous credit cards. I remember one night when Jimmy and I were going through as many online credit card applications as possible. Those were great times because everything we went through was a learning process and it was our first taste of building something from scratch. Of course, our outcome wasn't even close to Larry and Sergey's:)
"WHAT BLOGGERS THINK ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS"... UMBRIA IS COOL
Here's a recent article on Umbria, a cool company that is also one of GoingOn's strategic partners:
The blogosphere is a vast, unruly, and totally tantalizing mother lode of unvarnished consumer opinion on every product and service in the capitalist universe. But to know what the masses are saying about your product, you would have to dig through 350,000 daily postings on a staggering 20 million blogs worldwide.
Enter Umbria, a market research firm in Boulder that designs software to find useful consumer intelligence on the Internet. "The blogosphere is overflowing with brutally honest opinion," says Howard Kaushansky, Umbria's 47-year-old CEO. "Our goal is to track those opinions down."
Every few hours Umbria sends an application called a spider out over the web to scour the blogosphere for postings about the firm's clients, most of which are big consumer companies, such as Electronic Arts, SAP and Sprint. By analyzing keywords in blogs on behalf of Sprint, for example, Umbria's software can tell whether a blogger is talking about customer service, the company's advertisements, or a particular calling plan.
To figure out whether an opinion is strong or tepid, the applications knows that "awesome" is a stronger endorsement than "pretty cool," and that "shoddy" is less damning than "abominable," thanks to several employees with Ph.D.s in linguistics and artificial intelligence.
Kaushansky claims his software can even identify sarcasm, a useful skill in the prickly blogosphere. It can also estimate the author's age and gender. Elongated spellings ("soooooooo"), multiple exclamation marks (!!!) suggest a teenage female. The blogger is probably a teenage boy if a posting is rife with hip-hop terminology such as "aight" (translation: "all right") and "true dat" ("I agree!"). (full article)
|
Here's a recent article on Umbria, a cool company that is also one of GoingOn's strategic partners:
The blogosphere is a vast, unruly, and totally tantalizing mother lode of unvarnished consumer opinion on every product and service in the capitalist universe. But to know what the masses are saying about your product, you would have to dig through 350,000 daily postings on a staggering 20 million blogs worldwide.
Enter Umbria, a market research firm in Boulder that designs software to find useful consumer intelligence on the Internet. "The blogosphere is overflowing with brutally honest opinion," says Howard Kaushansky, Umbria's 47-year-old CEO. "Our goal is to track those opinions down."
Every few hours Umbria sends an application called a spider out over the web to scour the blogosphere for postings about the firm's clients, most of which are big consumer companies, such as Electronic Arts, SAP and Sprint. By analyzing keywords in blogs on behalf of Sprint, for example, Umbria's software can tell whether a blogger is talking about customer service, the company's advertisements, or a particular calling plan.
To figure out whether an opinion is strong or tepid, the applications knows that "awesome" is a stronger endorsement than "pretty cool," and that "shoddy" is less damning than "abominable," thanks to several employees with Ph.D.s in linguistics and artificial intelligence.
Kaushansky claims his software can even identify sarcasm, a useful skill in the prickly blogosphere. It can also estimate the author's age and gender. Elongated spellings ("soooooooo"), multiple exclamation marks (!!!) suggest a teenage female. The blogger is probably a teenage boy if a posting is rife with hip-hop terminology such as "aight" (translation: "all right") and "true dat" ("I agree!"). (full article)
HOUSE HUNTING... SOME GREAT TOOLS FOR BAY AREA SHOPPERS
So Christine and I started the process of moving down to the burbs. We love living in the city and the Marina area, but the hour plus commute is wearing us down. These past few weeks we've been spending our weekends checking out homes in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and San Carlos. Also during this time we came across some great sites.
Our personal favorite is Trulia, which is a great Google maps mashup. The search interface is clean and the mashup with Google maps creates an easy way for you to see houses for sale in a certain area.
NestEgg Bay Area Home Buying is a comprehensive real estate blog written by a Bay Area couple who recently went through the home buying experience. Great info at this site.
HatTip to SiliconBeat. Lastly, Homethinking, which is in beta like Trulia, helps you find the best realtors to sell your home. We won't be using this site for now, but hopefully a few years from now we can consider it and hopefully it will be out of beta by then.
|
So Christine and I started the process of moving down to the burbs. We love living in the city and the Marina area, but the hour plus commute is wearing us down. These past few weeks we've been spending our weekends checking out homes in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and San Carlos. Also during this time we came across some great sites.
Our personal favorite is Trulia, which is a great Google maps mashup. The search interface is clean and the mashup with Google maps creates an easy way for you to see houses for sale in a certain area.
NestEgg Bay Area Home Buying is a comprehensive real estate blog written by a Bay Area couple who recently went through the home buying experience. Great info at this site.
HatTip to SiliconBeat. Lastly, Homethinking, which is in beta like Trulia, helps you find the best realtors to sell your home. We won't be using this site for now, but hopefully a few years from now we can consider it and hopefully it will be out of beta by then.
Friday, December 09, 2005
YAHOO! ACQUIRES DEL.ICIO.US
HatTip to TechCrunch. Michael has the news from Joshua Schachter:
I just got off an instant message conversation with Joshua Schachter, the founder of Del.icio.us. I was asking him for any comment on the Yahoo acquisition rumors and he pointed me to the del.icio.us blog.
y.ah.oo!
We’re proud to announce that del.icio.us has joined the Yahoo! family. Together we’ll continue to improve how people discover, remember and share on the Internet, with a big emphasis on the power of community. We’re excited to be working with the Yahoo! Search team - they definitely get social systems and their potential to change the web. (We’re also excited to be joining our fraternal twin Flickr!) (full post)
|
HatTip to TechCrunch. Michael has the news from Joshua Schachter:
I just got off an instant message conversation with Joshua Schachter, the founder of Del.icio.us. I was asking him for any comment on the Yahoo acquisition rumors and he pointed me to the del.icio.us blog.
y.ah.oo!
We’re proud to announce that del.icio.us has joined the Yahoo! family. Together we’ll continue to improve how people discover, remember and share on the Internet, with a big emphasis on the power of community. We’re excited to be working with the Yahoo! Search team - they definitely get social systems and their potential to change the web. (We’re also excited to be joining our fraternal twin Flickr!) (full post)
Thursday, December 08, 2005
EXIT STRUCTURE OF VENTURE CAPITAL
Prof. Gordon Smith from my alma mata has an interesting research paper on the exit structure of venture capital:
My latest paper -- The Exit Structure of Venture Capital -- is now available for download on SSRN. This is the first paper based on my study of 367 venture-backed firms. Although informed by empirical data, this paper is mostly descriptive and theoretical. Another paper with a more detailed examination of the provisions is in the works.
In my view, the most important contribution of this current paper is its discussion of the board composition proposals. (See Parts I.D and I.E of the paper.) The most cited study of venture capital terms to date was done by Steven Kaplan and Per Strömberg. Steven N. Kaplan & Per Strömberg, Financial Contracting Theory Meets the Real World: An Empirical Analysis of Venture Capital Contracts, 70 REV. ECON. STUD. 281 (2003). In that study, they describe board composition provisions in which the common stockholders and preferred stockholders must "mutually agree" to elect tie-breaking directors. This finding provided the foundation for Bill Bratton's intriguing paper. William W. Bratton, Venture Capital on the Downside: Preferred Stock and Corporate Control, 100 MICH. L. REV. 891 (2002).
Although I found such "mutual agreement" provisions in my sample, they were rare. Only 2.60% of the board composition provisions in my study include the language of "mutual agreement." Instead, most of the board composition provisions required common stockholders and preferred stockholders to vote together as a single class on tie-breaking directors. This is, of course, not the same as "mutual agreement," and I argue that this provison is part of contingent control transfer in the venture capital context. (full post)
|
Prof. Gordon Smith from my alma mata has an interesting research paper on the exit structure of venture capital:
My latest paper -- The Exit Structure of Venture Capital -- is now available for download on SSRN. This is the first paper based on my study of 367 venture-backed firms. Although informed by empirical data, this paper is mostly descriptive and theoretical. Another paper with a more detailed examination of the provisions is in the works.
In my view, the most important contribution of this current paper is its discussion of the board composition proposals. (See Parts I.D and I.E of the paper.) The most cited study of venture capital terms to date was done by Steven Kaplan and Per Strömberg. Steven N. Kaplan & Per Strömberg, Financial Contracting Theory Meets the Real World: An Empirical Analysis of Venture Capital Contracts, 70 REV. ECON. STUD. 281 (2003). In that study, they describe board composition provisions in which the common stockholders and preferred stockholders must "mutually agree" to elect tie-breaking directors. This finding provided the foundation for Bill Bratton's intriguing paper. William W. Bratton, Venture Capital on the Downside: Preferred Stock and Corporate Control, 100 MICH. L. REV. 891 (2002).
Although I found such "mutual agreement" provisions in my sample, they were rare. Only 2.60% of the board composition provisions in my study include the language of "mutual agreement." Instead, most of the board composition provisions required common stockholders and preferred stockholders to vote together as a single class on tie-breaking directors. This is, of course, not the same as "mutual agreement," and I argue that this provison is part of contingent control transfer in the venture capital context. (full post)
MOZILLA GOES WITH YAHOO! IN ASIA... INTRODUCING FIREFOX 1.5
From Mozilla's press release last week, I found it interesting but not surprising that they are partnering with Yahoo! in Asia. It probably was a practical move since Yahoo!'s overall presence in Asia is stronger than Google's.
I remember about three years ago when I was living in Seoul and talking with my friend at NHN Corp., who owns the leading search service Naver.com, on how surprising it was that Google still hasn't setup a strong presence in South Korea. It was and still is the 5th largest online advertising market in the world, but I believe Google had only one or two sales reps in Korea back then and less than 5% of the market. Why don't they have a full operating office here? This was a question that obviously came to mind.
Finally, Google is building out their presence in Asia, so it will be interesting to see how quickly they will ramp up and compete with Yahoo! and the local players in each market.
With Firefox 1.5, Mozilla continues its search partnership with Google in the Americas and in Europe and begins a new search relationship with Yahoo! in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
"Yahoo! is very pleased to enter into a strategic relationship with Mozilla that enables us to offer Firefox to further extend our network of products and services in four of the most rapidly-growing Internet markets in the world," said Farzad Nazem, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Yahoo! Inc. "By combining Yahoo!'s global Internet leadership with Mozilla's innovative, easy-to-use, open source Firefox Web browser and our shared commitment to end users, we will deliver an enhanced Web experience for millions of users worldwide, beginning with China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan." (full press release)
|
From Mozilla's press release last week, I found it interesting but not surprising that they are partnering with Yahoo! in Asia. It probably was a practical move since Yahoo!'s overall presence in Asia is stronger than Google's.
I remember about three years ago when I was living in Seoul and talking with my friend at NHN Corp., who owns the leading search service Naver.com, on how surprising it was that Google still hasn't setup a strong presence in South Korea. It was and still is the 5th largest online advertising market in the world, but I believe Google had only one or two sales reps in Korea back then and less than 5% of the market. Why don't they have a full operating office here? This was a question that obviously came to mind.
Finally, Google is building out their presence in Asia, so it will be interesting to see how quickly they will ramp up and compete with Yahoo! and the local players in each market.
With Firefox 1.5, Mozilla continues its search partnership with Google in the Americas and in Europe and begins a new search relationship with Yahoo! in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
"Yahoo! is very pleased to enter into a strategic relationship with Mozilla that enables us to offer Firefox to further extend our network of products and services in four of the most rapidly-growing Internet markets in the world," said Farzad Nazem, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Yahoo! Inc. "By combining Yahoo!'s global Internet leadership with Mozilla's innovative, easy-to-use, open source Firefox Web browser and our shared commitment to end users, we will deliver an enhanced Web experience for millions of users worldwide, beginning with China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan." (full press release)
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
GORE SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO OLLIE NORTH BACK IN 1987
HatTip to Thomas. Don't know where this originally came from:
It was 1987! At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt.Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration.
There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but what he said was stunning!
He was being drilled by a senator; "Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?"
Ollie replied, "Yes, I did, Sir."
The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience, "Isn't that just a little excessive?"
"No, sir," continued Ollie.
"No? And why not?" the senator asked.
"Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir."
"Threatened? By whom?" the senator questioned.
"By a terrorist, sir" Ollie answered.
"Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?"
"His name is Osama bin Laden, sir" Ollie replied.
At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn't pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn't. A couple of people laughed at the attempt. Then the senator continued. Why are you so afraid of this man?" the senator asked.
"Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of", Ollie answered.
"And what do you recommend we do about him?" asked the senator.
"Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth."
The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip.
By the way, that senator was Al Gore!
MORE ON ATTA:
Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called "political prisoners."
However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands, The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, "insisted" that all prisoners be released.
Thus Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked the US by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center. This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified.
It was censored in the US from all later reports.
|
HatTip to Thomas. Don't know where this originally came from:
It was 1987! At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt.Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration.
There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but what he said was stunning!
He was being drilled by a senator; "Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?"
Ollie replied, "Yes, I did, Sir."
The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience, "Isn't that just a little excessive?"
"No, sir," continued Ollie.
"No? And why not?" the senator asked.
"Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir."
"Threatened? By whom?" the senator questioned.
"By a terrorist, sir" Ollie answered.
"Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?"
"His name is Osama bin Laden, sir" Ollie replied.
At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn't pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn't. A couple of people laughed at the attempt. Then the senator continued. Why are you so afraid of this man?" the senator asked.
"Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of", Ollie answered.
"And what do you recommend we do about him?" asked the senator.
"Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth."
The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip.
By the way, that senator was Al Gore!
MORE ON ATTA:
Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called "political prisoners."
However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands, The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, "insisted" that all prisoners be released.
Thus Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked the US by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center. This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified.
It was censored in the US from all later reports.
TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Yeah, this is a very random post. A friend emailed me this, so I thought it was interesting enough to put it up. I remember reading about responsibilities of the soldiers that guard the tomb back in high school, and the same fact buzzes in my mind that the tomb has been guarded continuously 24/7 since 1930. I think I have a hidden anal side to me somewhere:
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?
21 steps. It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.
Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and if not, why not?
He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.
How often are the guards changed?
Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.
What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?
For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10" and 6' 2" tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30." Other requirements of the Guard: They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform {fighting} or the tomb in any way. After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their
lives or give up the wreath pin.
The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt. There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.
The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone, nor watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe E. Lewis {the boxer} and Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, {the most decorated soldier of WWII} of Hollywood fame.
Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.
In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington D.C., our U.S. Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment. They respectfully declined the offer, "No way, Sir!" Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be
afforded to a serviceperson. The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.
|
Yeah, this is a very random post. A friend emailed me this, so I thought it was interesting enough to put it up. I remember reading about responsibilities of the soldiers that guard the tomb back in high school, and the same fact buzzes in my mind that the tomb has been guarded continuously 24/7 since 1930. I think I have a hidden anal side to me somewhere:
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?
21 steps. It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.
Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and if not, why not?
He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.
How often are the guards changed?
Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.
What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?
For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10" and 6' 2" tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30." Other requirements of the Guard: They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform {fighting} or the tomb in any way. After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their
lives or give up the wreath pin.
The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt. There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.
The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone, nor watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe E. Lewis {the boxer} and Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, {the most decorated soldier of WWII} of Hollywood fame.
Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.
In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington D.C., our U.S. Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment. They respectfully declined the offer, "No way, Sir!" Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be
afforded to a serviceperson. The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.
TASTES OF CHICAGO... DEFINITELY MISS CHICAGO FOOD
I really don't know why some people in San Francisco say this is an eating town. Some of the high-end restaurants are good, but the overall restaurant scene is mediocre. Nothing like NYC or Chicago, which is why I loved getting a mailing from Lou Malnati's Pizzeria of Chicago a few days ago.
A sign of a good eating town in my mind is when you get great eats even with low-end and mid-tier restaurants. Also how I define "great" is not just a taste that satisfies you, but a taste that makes you crave for more. I crave Buffalo Joe's chicken wings, Pot Belly's subs, Chop House's 48 oz. Porterhouse, Ditka's fried ice cream...
Anyway, so I'm looking through the mailing that reveals Lou Malnati's is now sending food from other Chicagoland restaurants to anywhere in the U.S. For years, if not decades, Lou Malnati's has been mailing their famous pizzas frozen across the U.S. Now they are sending the goods from Carson's (excellent ribs), Portillo's (incredible Italian beef), Vienna Beef (the original Chicago dog), and a few others. This is AWESOME.
I'm going order some ribs and a few pounds of Italian beef! If you want to check out some nasty, fatty Chicago food go to Lou Malnati's Tastes of Chicago.
(I do not get paid for this or any plug on this blog. Nor do I know anyone at Lou Malnati's, but I wish I did)
|
I really don't know why some people in San Francisco say this is an eating town. Some of the high-end restaurants are good, but the overall restaurant scene is mediocre. Nothing like NYC or Chicago, which is why I loved getting a mailing from Lou Malnati's Pizzeria of Chicago a few days ago.
A sign of a good eating town in my mind is when you get great eats even with low-end and mid-tier restaurants. Also how I define "great" is not just a taste that satisfies you, but a taste that makes you crave for more. I crave Buffalo Joe's chicken wings, Pot Belly's subs, Chop House's 48 oz. Porterhouse, Ditka's fried ice cream...
Anyway, so I'm looking through the mailing that reveals Lou Malnati's is now sending food from other Chicagoland restaurants to anywhere in the U.S. For years, if not decades, Lou Malnati's has been mailing their famous pizzas frozen across the U.S. Now they are sending the goods from Carson's (excellent ribs), Portillo's (incredible Italian beef), Vienna Beef (the original Chicago dog), and a few others. This is AWESOME.
I'm going order some ribs and a few pounds of Italian beef! If you want to check out some nasty, fatty Chicago food go to Lou Malnati's Tastes of Chicago.
(I do not get paid for this or any plug on this blog. Nor do I know anyone at Lou Malnati's, but I wish I did)
CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOL SUCCESSS STORY
I love charter schools and I love The Wall Street Journal, so I'm posting this older article:
They Found Their Way in San Jose
A California charter school success story.
BY HENRY I. MILLER
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Life really can imitate art. The art I have in mind is the kind of tear-jerker movie in which, say, a beleaguered small-town basketball team beats the odds and makes it to the state finals. Or in which someone--imagine Sally Field in a faded gingham dress--struggles to bring in the harvest and save a farm.
Joanne Jacobs's "Our School," a vivid account of the creation and first years of a charter high school in San Jose, Calif., has that kind of drama. It reads like a novel whose characters are both stereotypical and improbable. The founders of Downtown College Prep--as the school is called--are a Jewish guy from an affluent family educated at Princeton and Stanford and a woman who had been raised by a working-class single mother and had sleepwalked through her own high-school experience until a year in Spain as an exchange student persuaded her to become a teacher. (full article)
|
I love charter schools and I love The Wall Street Journal, so I'm posting this older article:
They Found Their Way in San Jose
A California charter school success story.
BY HENRY I. MILLER
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Life really can imitate art. The art I have in mind is the kind of tear-jerker movie in which, say, a beleaguered small-town basketball team beats the odds and makes it to the state finals. Or in which someone--imagine Sally Field in a faded gingham dress--struggles to bring in the harvest and save a farm.
Joanne Jacobs's "Our School," a vivid account of the creation and first years of a charter high school in San Jose, Calif., has that kind of drama. It reads like a novel whose characters are both stereotypical and improbable. The founders of Downtown College Prep--as the school is called--are a Jewish guy from an affluent family educated at Princeton and Stanford and a woman who had been raised by a working-class single mother and had sleepwalked through her own high-school experience until a year in Spain as an exchange student persuaded her to become a teacher. (full article)
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
FLUXIOM... "AJAX ASSET MANAGEMENT"
HatTip to Pete Cashmore. This seems like a pretty cool app that's coming out. Mashable's Pete Cashmore has a review:
Here’s an app that’s generating a lot of interest from both Ruby on Rails and Ajax fans. Fluxiom is an asset management app for enterprises with a cool ajaxy interface - it reminds me of some of the work the 37Signals guys are doing. Thomas Fuchs, one of the creators of Fluxiom, explains the key features:
* Upload/Manage/Preview/Download digital media files and documents from any browser and platform (IE, Firefox/Mozilla, Safari and others)
* User-definable tags for categorizing, plus realtime tag filtering and RSS feeds for tag filters (like “inform me of any changes for assets tagged as ‘Marketing’ and ‘Logos’”)
* Freely zoomable "thumbnail" view and full-screen previews
* Realtime searching in metadata and inside files and documents (indexed fulltext search for things like PDF, DOC, and so on)
* Share assets with others using automatically generated .ZIP download packages (so you don’t have to send those 50MB emails)
* Uploads are presented with a progress bar plus you can continue to work in the application while doing an upload
* Supports more than 100 file formats, color profiles, EPS crop marks, plus some more "professional" features (full post)
|
HatTip to Pete Cashmore. This seems like a pretty cool app that's coming out. Mashable's Pete Cashmore has a review:
Here’s an app that’s generating a lot of interest from both Ruby on Rails and Ajax fans. Fluxiom is an asset management app for enterprises with a cool ajaxy interface - it reminds me of some of the work the 37Signals guys are doing. Thomas Fuchs, one of the creators of Fluxiom, explains the key features:
* Upload/Manage/Preview/Download digital media files and documents from any browser and platform (IE, Firefox/Mozilla, Safari and others)
* User-definable tags for categorizing, plus realtime tag filtering and RSS feeds for tag filters (like “inform me of any changes for assets tagged as ‘Marketing’ and ‘Logos’”)
* Freely zoomable "thumbnail" view and full-screen previews
* Realtime searching in metadata and inside files and documents (indexed fulltext search for things like PDF, DOC, and so on)
* Share assets with others using automatically generated .ZIP download packages (so you don’t have to send those 50MB emails)
* Uploads are presented with a progress bar plus you can continue to work in the application while doing an upload
* Supports more than 100 file formats, color profiles, EPS crop marks, plus some more "professional" features (full post)
ABU HAMZA RABIA, NO. 3 AL QAEDA MAN, DEAD... HEART OF AL QAEDA STABBED
This is a huge win for the U.S. Abu Hamza Rabia was the person in charge of planning terror attacks, which included strikes in the U.S. THIS IS HUGE.
Pakistani officials have confirmed the death of a top al Qaeda official, Abu Hamza Rabia, but witnesses and officials give conflicting stories of how he died.
Without elaborating, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday he was "200 percent" certain Rabia, the operations chief of the al Qaeda terrorist network, was killed Wednesday.
.....
Another Pakistani official, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, said only that the explosion killed "five miscreants, including three foreigners," and injured two others. Authorities are examining the home, he said.
However, residents of North Waziristan say they saw a unmanned aerial vehicle fire a missile on the house, Pakistani journalist Salim Bokhari said. Also, a photo from the European Pressphoto Agency shows Pakistani villagers holding a piece of shrapnel.
When the photo is enlarged, English words are visible on the shrapnel. (full article)
|
This is a huge win for the U.S. Abu Hamza Rabia was the person in charge of planning terror attacks, which included strikes in the U.S. THIS IS HUGE.
Pakistani officials have confirmed the death of a top al Qaeda official, Abu Hamza Rabia, but witnesses and officials give conflicting stories of how he died.
Without elaborating, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday he was "200 percent" certain Rabia, the operations chief of the al Qaeda terrorist network, was killed Wednesday.
.....
Another Pakistani official, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, said only that the explosion killed "five miscreants, including three foreigners," and injured two others. Authorities are examining the home, he said.
However, residents of North Waziristan say they saw a unmanned aerial vehicle fire a missile on the house, Pakistani journalist Salim Bokhari said. Also, a photo from the European Pressphoto Agency shows Pakistani villagers holding a piece of shrapnel.
When the photo is enlarged, English words are visible on the shrapnel. (full article)
"KIM JONG-IL VOWS TO BEAT HOLLYWOOD AT ITS OWN GAME"
HatTip to Mingi. Okay this is a great example of being dumb and delusional at the same time. Wow. It's like "Dumb and Dumber" meets "The Three Faces of Eve," or maybe "The Jerk" meets "Psycho." Whatever combination of dumb and delusional you can think of, it will accurately describe Kim Jong-il.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a reputed film buff, has reportedly vowed his impoverished country’s movies will win the competition with U.S. films. The Washington Times on Sunday said the remarks were quoted by Kim Man-sok, the head of overseas sales at North Korea's Pyongyang Film Studio.
The paper said the dear leader made the statement to encourage North Korean filmmakers during a visit on location. "We are not competing with U.S. and European films. We have to beat U.S. films," it quoted him as saying. The daily concluded the North’s "first potential international blockbuster already is in the pipeline." (article)
|
HatTip to Mingi. Okay this is a great example of being dumb and delusional at the same time. Wow. It's like "Dumb and Dumber" meets "The Three Faces of Eve," or maybe "The Jerk" meets "Psycho." Whatever combination of dumb and delusional you can think of, it will accurately describe Kim Jong-il.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a reputed film buff, has reportedly vowed his impoverished country’s movies will win the competition with U.S. films. The Washington Times on Sunday said the remarks were quoted by Kim Man-sok, the head of overseas sales at North Korea's Pyongyang Film Studio.
The paper said the dear leader made the statement to encourage North Korean filmmakers during a visit on location. "We are not competing with U.S. and European films. We have to beat U.S. films," it quoted him as saying. The daily concluded the North’s "first potential international blockbuster already is in the pipeline." (article)
BLOGS BECOME ASSETS IN KOREAN JOB MARKET
HatTip to Jeff. Again Korea proves to have a quicker uptake in all things digital. The one area South Korea was behind in was blogs and social networks compared to the U.S. (2 years behind in development), but with CyWorld's dramatic adoption rate (25% of the population signed up) and blogs experiencing rapid growth this news item isn't so much of a surprise.
The mini-homepages and blogs of Korea’s wired jobseekers are becoming a source of useful information as the recruiting season gets under way. SK Communications said Wednesday a recent survey of jobseekers asking them what extra documentation they would show prospective employers found that 28 percent out of 1,546 respondents would submit mini homepages. That was ahead of their school reports (27 percent) and personal diaries (18 percent).
Meanwhile, recruiting portal Powerjob asked 307 human resource managers of major domestic companies what information they would like to see, and 40 percent named blogs and mini-homepages. An overwhelming 94 percent said they were willing to give additional points to applicants who operate their own homepages that include helpful information related to applicants’ personal interest or academic field. (full article)
|
HatTip to Jeff. Again Korea proves to have a quicker uptake in all things digital. The one area South Korea was behind in was blogs and social networks compared to the U.S. (2 years behind in development), but with CyWorld's dramatic adoption rate (25% of the population signed up) and blogs experiencing rapid growth this news item isn't so much of a surprise.
The mini-homepages and blogs of Korea’s wired jobseekers are becoming a source of useful information as the recruiting season gets under way. SK Communications said Wednesday a recent survey of jobseekers asking them what extra documentation they would show prospective employers found that 28 percent out of 1,546 respondents would submit mini homepages. That was ahead of their school reports (27 percent) and personal diaries (18 percent).
Meanwhile, recruiting portal Powerjob asked 307 human resource managers of major domestic companies what information they would like to see, and 40 percent named blogs and mini-homepages. An overwhelming 94 percent said they were willing to give additional points to applicants who operate their own homepages that include helpful information related to applicants’ personal interest or academic field. (full article)
Monday, December 05, 2005
MORE GROWING PAINS FOR WIKIPEDIA
CNet has the latest growing pains for Wikipedia and its founder. Some of these issues I covered in my column, "It's a Wiki, Wiki World," this past February.
For Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, last week was a tough one. And he's going to change the ground rules for the popular anyone-can-contribute encyclopedia because of it.
First, in a Nov. 29 op-ed piece in USA Today, a former administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy lambasted the free online reference work for an article that suggested he may have been involved in the assassinations of both Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.
Then, on Dec. 1, a new flurry of attention came when former MTV VJ and podcasting pioneer Adam Curry was accused of anonymously editing out references to other people's seminal podcasting work in an article about the hot new digital medium.
To critics of Wikipedia--which, in a spin on the open-source model, lets anyone create and edit entries--the news was further proof that the service has no accountability and no place in the world of serious information gathering.
"Wales, in a recent C-SPAN interview...insisted that his Web site is accountable and that his community of thousands of volunteer editors...corrects mistakes within minutes," former Robert Kennedy aide John Seigenthaler wrote in USA Today. "My experience refutes that...For four months, Wikipedia depicted me as a suspected assassin." (full article)
|
CNet has the latest growing pains for Wikipedia and its founder. Some of these issues I covered in my column, "It's a Wiki, Wiki World," this past February.
For Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, last week was a tough one. And he's going to change the ground rules for the popular anyone-can-contribute encyclopedia because of it.
First, in a Nov. 29 op-ed piece in USA Today, a former administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy lambasted the free online reference work for an article that suggested he may have been involved in the assassinations of both Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.
Then, on Dec. 1, a new flurry of attention came when former MTV VJ and podcasting pioneer Adam Curry was accused of anonymously editing out references to other people's seminal podcasting work in an article about the hot new digital medium.
To critics of Wikipedia--which, in a spin on the open-source model, lets anyone create and edit entries--the news was further proof that the service has no accountability and no place in the world of serious information gathering.
"Wales, in a recent C-SPAN interview...insisted that his Web site is accountable and that his community of thousands of volunteer editors...corrects mistakes within minutes," former Robert Kennedy aide John Seigenthaler wrote in USA Today. "My experience refutes that...For four months, Wikipedia depicted me as a suspected assassin." (full article)
YOU'VE BEEN HOTDOGGED!... ALARM:CLOCK FUNNIES
I've posted before how I like the humor of the guys over at alarm:clock, a blog that covers VC deals and related news. The following isn't their commentary, but they led me to it:
The blogger Kurt Schrader riffed on this theme and related other tricks that he and his devious co-workers have dreamt-up to punk their cubicle prey. Schrader invites visitors to add other hotdogs.
- Adjust the mouse sensitivity and orientation. Nothing like moving the mouse up a bit and having the cursor fling diagonally downwards.
- Change their homepage to something totally inappropriate. Use your imagination here.
- Change the MS Word autocorrect so that the word "and" autocorrects to the word "shit" or something along those lines. This is always a good one, because they're not likely to discover it for awhile and it's really confusing when they do.
- Take a screenshot of their screen, make it their background, lock the machine, and then drag the unlock box off of the side. When they come back everything looks just like they left it, but nothing can be clicked on.
- Retheme their machine so that everything (mouse pointer, dialog boxes, text, background, etc) are all the same color. Not only can you not differentiate anything to get anything done, you can't even figure out how to pull up the dialog box to change things back.
|
I've posted before how I like the humor of the guys over at alarm:clock, a blog that covers VC deals and related news. The following isn't their commentary, but they led me to it:
The blogger Kurt Schrader riffed on this theme and related other tricks that he and his devious co-workers have dreamt-up to punk their cubicle prey. Schrader invites visitors to add other hotdogs.
- Adjust the mouse sensitivity and orientation. Nothing like moving the mouse up a bit and having the cursor fling diagonally downwards.
- Change their homepage to something totally inappropriate. Use your imagination here.
- Change the MS Word autocorrect so that the word "and" autocorrects to the word "shit" or something along those lines. This is always a good one, because they're not likely to discover it for awhile and it's really confusing when they do.
- Take a screenshot of their screen, make it their background, lock the machine, and then drag the unlock box off of the side. When they come back everything looks just like they left it, but nothing can be clicked on.
- Retheme their machine so that everything (mouse pointer, dialog boxes, text, background, etc) are all the same color. Not only can you not differentiate anything to get anything done, you can't even figure out how to pull up the dialog box to change things back.
MOBILE MONDAY... GEARON!
I'm attending my first Mobile Monday, which is cool. Eduardo Sciammarella's company gearON is presenting there. I recently posted about Eduardo here. If you're in the Bay Area and interested in attending, here is the info:
* What: December Mobile Monday (Demo Night II)
* When: December 5th, 2005 7:00pm
* Where: AOL Building 12, 401 Ellis St., Mountain View, CA
* Who: Anyone interested in mobility
* Cost: Nothing!
|
I'm attending my first Mobile Monday, which is cool. Eduardo Sciammarella's company gearON is presenting there. I recently posted about Eduardo here. If you're in the Bay Area and interested in attending, here is the info:
* What: December Mobile Monday (Demo Night II)
* When: December 5th, 2005 7:00pm
* Where: AOL Building 12, 401 Ellis St., Mountain View, CA
* Who: Anyone interested in mobility
* Cost: Nothing!
STRONG COMMUNITIES CAMPAIGN... FUNDRAISING FOR THE YMCA!
Recently, Christine and I joined the board of Shih Yu-Lang Central YMCA. It is a YMCA that is located in the Tenderloin, the poorest neighborhood in San Francisco, and provides numerous services and programs for its community members, especially targeted towards youth. This YMCA is an integral part of the neighborhood for many of the Tenderloin residents and the fruits of their effort is tangible everyday, which is the primary reason we joined its board.
The Shih-Yu Lang Central YMCA started its annual giving campaign, so if you are looking to give to a good cause definitely consider this organization. Whether it's $25, $50, or more, anything is appreciated. If you want to give, you can visit the link here.
Also in the reference box please enter my name, Bernard Moon, in it. If you have any questions about your donation or this YMCA's program, just email me. Thanks! God Bless!
|
Recently, Christine and I joined the board of Shih Yu-Lang Central YMCA. It is a YMCA that is located in the Tenderloin, the poorest neighborhood in San Francisco, and provides numerous services and programs for its community members, especially targeted towards youth. This YMCA is an integral part of the neighborhood for many of the Tenderloin residents and the fruits of their effort is tangible everyday, which is the primary reason we joined its board.
The Shih-Yu Lang Central YMCA started its annual giving campaign, so if you are looking to give to a good cause definitely consider this organization. Whether it's $25, $50, or more, anything is appreciated. If you want to give, you can visit the link here.
Also in the reference box please enter my name, Bernard Moon, in it. If you have any questions about your donation or this YMCA's program, just email me. Thanks! God Bless!
"INTEL'S OTELLINI FIELDS SOFTBALLS AT THE CHURCHILL CLUB"
ZDNet's Dan Farber takes a more critical view than me of Paul Otellini interview at last week's Churchill Club event, which can be seen here:
As my colleague David Berlind wrote in his post this morning, Intel has lost the high ground (performance benchmarks) to AMD in the expanding x64 processor world and is involved in a potentially explosive antitrust litigation with AMD. While AMD has picked up some significant market share, Intel is still cruising in terms of the volume lead.
At the same time, Sun has introduced the Niagra/UltraSparc T1 chip and will start shipping T1-based Sun Fire systems on Monday that will be priced at or below x86 servers from IBM, HP or Dell. Sun is claiming that it is establishing a five-year lead over any other processor architecture and is delivering systems that consume from a half to a third of the power and half to a quarter of the space of competitive chips. Even if the claims are half true, they have to be a cause for concern for Intel as well as AMD. Faster (multicore and massively ithreaded), cooler, smaller processors that can run Solaris (a free operating system) applications without rewriting any code is a compelling selling proposition.
As I wrote a few days ago, it's time for Intel's CEO Paul Otellini to dust off Andy Groves book, "Only the Paranoid Survive : How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company," At last night's Churchill Club 20th anniversary event, Otellini was the featured guest and sat down for an interview with NPR's Moira Gunn. The softball interview touched on his 31 years at Intel, the company reorg around markets, WiMax as a step toward a global Internet and the social duties (hanging out with Prince Charles and Camilla in San Francisco) that come with being the CEO of a Silicon Valley icon. No tough questions about AMD, Sun, Itanium or antitrust suits. (full post)
It's great that Dan provided this informative post since I haven't kept up with the chip industry and its recent activities.
|
ZDNet's Dan Farber takes a more critical view than me of Paul Otellini interview at last week's Churchill Club event, which can be seen here:
As my colleague David Berlind wrote in his post this morning, Intel has lost the high ground (performance benchmarks) to AMD in the expanding x64 processor world and is involved in a potentially explosive antitrust litigation with AMD. While AMD has picked up some significant market share, Intel is still cruising in terms of the volume lead.
At the same time, Sun has introduced the Niagra/UltraSparc T1 chip and will start shipping T1-based Sun Fire systems on Monday that will be priced at or below x86 servers from IBM, HP or Dell. Sun is claiming that it is establishing a five-year lead over any other processor architecture and is delivering systems that consume from a half to a third of the power and half to a quarter of the space of competitive chips. Even if the claims are half true, they have to be a cause for concern for Intel as well as AMD. Faster (multicore and massively ithreaded), cooler, smaller processors that can run Solaris (a free operating system) applications without rewriting any code is a compelling selling proposition.
As I wrote a few days ago, it's time for Intel's CEO Paul Otellini to dust off Andy Groves book, "Only the Paranoid Survive : How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company," At last night's Churchill Club 20th anniversary event, Otellini was the featured guest and sat down for an interview with NPR's Moira Gunn. The softball interview touched on his 31 years at Intel, the company reorg around markets, WiMax as a step toward a global Internet and the social duties (hanging out with Prince Charles and Camilla in San Francisco) that come with being the CEO of a Silicon Valley icon. No tough questions about AMD, Sun, Itanium or antitrust suits. (full post)
It's great that Dan provided this informative post since I haven't kept up with the chip industry and its recent activities.
GOOGLE HOLIDAY PARTY WAS PRETTY COOL
This past Friday Christine and I attended Google's Holiday Party down at Pier 48 in the city. It was an international theme where our check-in to the party was a "Google Air" counter where they checked our IDs and gave us airline tickets to our "remote destinations." India, Ireland, Japan, Brazil, and the UK were the themes.
Christine and I spend a lot of our time in Japan where they had karaoke singing. A few were great and many were awful. She signed up to sing a song, but the wait was so long that we moved to the other destinations. Eventually, we ended the night playing air hockey against each other, which was fun since I haven't played since my college days.
This year's party was definitely better than last year's. The food lasted beyond 8:30pm and the bars stayed opened beyond 10pm. Also the size of the party is reflective of Google's rapid growth. Last year I'm guessing there were a couple thousand people, but this year I believe there was almost 5,000 attendees.
|
This past Friday Christine and I attended Google's Holiday Party down at Pier 48 in the city. It was an international theme where our check-in to the party was a "Google Air" counter where they checked our IDs and gave us airline tickets to our "remote destinations." India, Ireland, Japan, Brazil, and the UK were the themes.
Christine and I spend a lot of our time in Japan where they had karaoke singing. A few were great and many were awful. She signed up to sing a song, but the wait was so long that we moved to the other destinations. Eventually, we ended the night playing air hockey against each other, which was fun since I haven't played since my college days.
This year's party was definitely better than last year's. The food lasted beyond 8:30pm and the bars stayed opened beyond 10pm. Also the size of the party is reflective of Google's rapid growth. Last year I'm guessing there were a couple thousand people, but this year I believe there was almost 5,000 attendees.
CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. JEFFREY BERGNER!... ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE
A few years back when my friends and I tried to raise a fund in Asia, Dr. Jeffrey T. Bergner was an advisor and lent his credibility to our effort. Our team really appreciated his help and commitment. My friend, Tom, who worked under Dr. Bergner in the past and provided the introduction for us, has just informed me that Dr. Bergner will be swore in as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs tomorrow.
|
A few years back when my friends and I tried to raise a fund in Asia, Dr. Jeffrey T. Bergner was an advisor and lent his credibility to our effort. Our team really appreciated his help and commitment. My friend, Tom, who worked under Dr. Bergner in the past and provided the introduction for us, has just informed me that Dr. Bergner will be swore in as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs tomorrow.
Friday, December 02, 2005
DAVID HENDERSON CALLS OUT NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE... "COMING $100 LAPTOP TRAGEDY"
After reading this, I hope Negroponte has thought through some of these issues Henderson brought up, or he'll seem very naive at the end of the day.
The biggest mistakes in any major project are typically the earliest mistakes.* Early decisions are important because of all the downstream resources and actions that they commit. A case in point is the vaunted $100 laptop. In case you haven't heard, Nicholas Negroponte, the founding chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, is pushing ahead with his plan to make a $100 laptop that will be distributed to millions of young people in poor countries around the world. Few people admire Mr. Negroponte more than I do, but his plan for how to distribute the computers is a tragedy in the making.
First, let's be clear on what is not tragic: the plan to produce a laptop that can sell for around $100. This would be a boon even if there were no plans to distribute them. Any time someone comes up with an improved technology or a technology that sells at a low price, society benefits. (I'm assuming, of course, that the technology is pro-wealth-creation and not anti-wealth-creation: for example, a new way of breaking into houses hurts rather than benefits most of society.) Not just people in poor countries, but also people in richer countries, would benefit.
.....
Would people in poor countries buy $100 laptops out of their own money? Some of them would. And if the goal is to get the computers into their hands, then no government program is needed other than to abolish government-imposed trade barriers. Many people in those poor countries -- the vast majority, I suspect -- would not be willing to spend even close to $100 on laptop. What that means is that they would prefer to spend $100 on other items -- food, iodine pills for water, DDT to protect them from malaria, basic generic drugs, maybe even a sewing machine. And if their governments are buying laptops for them, the governments are getting the revenues from somewhere. Possibly, Negroponte will be able to persuade Bill Gates or others to cough up many of the funds. But the vast majority of the funds are likely to come from the governments of poor countries, which means they will come out of the hides of those countries' citizens, all but the richest of whom are fairly poor. So what started off as a completely innocent, let's-help-the-poor-in-poor-countries proposal will end up, with government involved, as just one more way of government using force against its own people to buy goods for them that they regard as luxuries, preventing them from buying the goods that they need to make it to next year. That's a tragedy. And if Negroponte rethinks his strategy, it's a tragedy he can help avoid. He should help get the computers produced, keep a big distance between himself and the likes of Kofi Annan, and then let the market work. (full article)
|
After reading this, I hope Negroponte has thought through some of these issues Henderson brought up, or he'll seem very naive at the end of the day.
The biggest mistakes in any major project are typically the earliest mistakes.* Early decisions are important because of all the downstream resources and actions that they commit. A case in point is the vaunted $100 laptop. In case you haven't heard, Nicholas Negroponte, the founding chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, is pushing ahead with his plan to make a $100 laptop that will be distributed to millions of young people in poor countries around the world. Few people admire Mr. Negroponte more than I do, but his plan for how to distribute the computers is a tragedy in the making.
First, let's be clear on what is not tragic: the plan to produce a laptop that can sell for around $100. This would be a boon even if there were no plans to distribute them. Any time someone comes up with an improved technology or a technology that sells at a low price, society benefits. (I'm assuming, of course, that the technology is pro-wealth-creation and not anti-wealth-creation: for example, a new way of breaking into houses hurts rather than benefits most of society.) Not just people in poor countries, but also people in richer countries, would benefit.
.....
Would people in poor countries buy $100 laptops out of their own money? Some of them would. And if the goal is to get the computers into their hands, then no government program is needed other than to abolish government-imposed trade barriers. Many people in those poor countries -- the vast majority, I suspect -- would not be willing to spend even close to $100 on laptop. What that means is that they would prefer to spend $100 on other items -- food, iodine pills for water, DDT to protect them from malaria, basic generic drugs, maybe even a sewing machine. And if their governments are buying laptops for them, the governments are getting the revenues from somewhere. Possibly, Negroponte will be able to persuade Bill Gates or others to cough up many of the funds. But the vast majority of the funds are likely to come from the governments of poor countries, which means they will come out of the hides of those countries' citizens, all but the richest of whom are fairly poor. So what started off as a completely innocent, let's-help-the-poor-in-poor-countries proposal will end up, with government involved, as just one more way of government using force against its own people to buy goods for them that they regard as luxuries, preventing them from buying the goods that they need to make it to next year. That's a tragedy. And if Negroponte rethinks his strategy, it's a tragedy he can help avoid. He should help get the computers produced, keep a big distance between himself and the likes of Kofi Annan, and then let the market work. (full article)
GOOGLE VS. VENTURE CAPITALISTS
Om has a good and amusing story about how Google goes about seeking for acquisitions and how this is creating competition directly with VCs. It's not only Google since Yahoo! has entered this game of acquiring companies in their early stages before VCs can invest in them.
VCs looking to fund startups and flip them to Google (GOOG) are facing an unlikely rival -- Google. The Mountain View, Calif., search giant has started buying companies on the cheap, before they even make the pilgrimage to Sand Hill Road.
By encouraging entrepreneurs to pitch Google first, the company can shell out a nominal amount of cash for cutting-edge technologies and top-notch people. "These acquisitions are about talent," says Christopher Sacca, a principal for new business development at Google. "We want the people who are building the products." Google's sales pitch to the startups is simple: Come work for us, score some Google shares, and see your big idea rolled out to more than half a billion users. Sacca, for his part, says Google isn't trying to compete with VCs. "If your product is really a small feature, and if you are eventually going to be acquired, come to us early," he says.
Yet since it started the practice in 2003, Google has snatched up 12 companies, many of which had raised only small amounts of funding and sometimes no venture capital. And lately its pace of acquisitions has quickened. In the past six months, the company has purchased five microscopic startups.
Some didn't even make it beyond their campus digs. Kaltix, founded by three Stanford University students in June 2003, developed a prototype for a new personalized-search technology; Google nabbed the technology -- and the founders -- three months later. Google Local grew out of the acquisition of a startup called Where2 in March. Within weeks of the buyout, the four co-founders were rolling out their technology as part of Google's local search efforts. (full article)
|
Om has a good and amusing story about how Google goes about seeking for acquisitions and how this is creating competition directly with VCs. It's not only Google since Yahoo! has entered this game of acquiring companies in their early stages before VCs can invest in them.
VCs looking to fund startups and flip them to Google (GOOG) are facing an unlikely rival -- Google. The Mountain View, Calif., search giant has started buying companies on the cheap, before they even make the pilgrimage to Sand Hill Road.
By encouraging entrepreneurs to pitch Google first, the company can shell out a nominal amount of cash for cutting-edge technologies and top-notch people. "These acquisitions are about talent," says Christopher Sacca, a principal for new business development at Google. "We want the people who are building the products." Google's sales pitch to the startups is simple: Come work for us, score some Google shares, and see your big idea rolled out to more than half a billion users. Sacca, for his part, says Google isn't trying to compete with VCs. "If your product is really a small feature, and if you are eventually going to be acquired, come to us early," he says.
Yet since it started the practice in 2003, Google has snatched up 12 companies, many of which had raised only small amounts of funding and sometimes no venture capital. And lately its pace of acquisitions has quickened. In the past six months, the company has purchased five microscopic startups.
Some didn't even make it beyond their campus digs. Kaltix, founded by three Stanford University students in June 2003, developed a prototype for a new personalized-search technology; Google nabbed the technology -- and the founders -- three months later. Google Local grew out of the acquisition of a startup called Where2 in March. Within weeks of the buyout, the four co-founders were rolling out their technology as part of Google's local search efforts. (full article)
Thursday, December 01, 2005
CHURCHILL CLUB 20TH ANNIVERSARY
Tonight Christine and I went to the Churchill Club's 20th celebration. For those of you not in Silicon Valley, it is a nonprofit organization that provides the leading forum on business and technology to over 5,000 members.
It was founded by Tony Perkins, my co-founder for GoingOn Networks, and Rich Karlgaard, Publisher of Forbes. It's very cool how both of them started this forum twenty years ago and how it has not only lasted but has remained a strong organization.
The evening's program was a conversation with Paul Otellini, President and CEO of Intel, and moderated by Moira Gunn, host of NPR's "TechNation." I thought Paul Otellini was excellent in his insights and answers to Gunn's questions. Tonight's event was almost a celebration of Intel in Silicon Valley since the Churchill Club's first speaker back in 1985 was co-founder and first CEO of Intel, Robert Noyce.
At the table next to us was Andy Grove, co-founder and long-time CEO of Intel, and Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel's board and former CEO. It's amazing to think about the impact that Intel has had over the past 35 years on innovation, technology, and our lives.
Anyway, it was a good event and Christine and I enjoyed ourselves. More from the Churchill Club literature:
The Churchill Club was founded in 1985 by Rich Karlgaard, now publisher of Forbes magazine, and Tony Perkins, now Founder & Editor In Chief, AlwaysOn. Together, Tony, Rich, and a group of friends built an organization dedicated to producing programs where "important people say important things". The first Churchill Club program in November 1985 featured Intel's co-founder and first CEO, Robert Noyce, as the speaker.
Now, twenty years later as Silicon Valley's premier business and technology forum, we are pleased to present Intel's fifth CEO, Paul Otellini, as the featured speaker for this milestone event.
|
Tonight Christine and I went to the Churchill Club's 20th celebration. For those of you not in Silicon Valley, it is a nonprofit organization that provides the leading forum on business and technology to over 5,000 members.
It was founded by Tony Perkins, my co-founder for GoingOn Networks, and Rich Karlgaard, Publisher of Forbes. It's very cool how both of them started this forum twenty years ago and how it has not only lasted but has remained a strong organization.
The evening's program was a conversation with Paul Otellini, President and CEO of Intel, and moderated by Moira Gunn, host of NPR's "TechNation." I thought Paul Otellini was excellent in his insights and answers to Gunn's questions. Tonight's event was almost a celebration of Intel in Silicon Valley since the Churchill Club's first speaker back in 1985 was co-founder and first CEO of Intel, Robert Noyce.
At the table next to us was Andy Grove, co-founder and long-time CEO of Intel, and Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel's board and former CEO. It's amazing to think about the impact that Intel has had over the past 35 years on innovation, technology, and our lives.
Anyway, it was a good event and Christine and I enjoyed ourselves. More from the Churchill Club literature:
The Churchill Club was founded in 1985 by Rich Karlgaard, now publisher of Forbes magazine, and Tony Perkins, now Founder & Editor In Chief, AlwaysOn. Together, Tony, Rich, and a group of friends built an organization dedicated to producing programs where "important people say important things". The first Churchill Club program in November 1985 featured Intel's co-founder and first CEO, Robert Noyce, as the speaker.
Now, twenty years later as Silicon Valley's premier business and technology forum, we are pleased to present Intel's fifth CEO, Paul Otellini, as the featured speaker for this milestone event.
SOUTH KOREANS RALLY BEHIND UNETHICAL STEM-CELL PIONEER... NATIONALISM OVER ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
This is an odd piece of news coming out of South Korea that's not surprising. If there was a reporter and news program in the U.S. that uncovered an unethical researcher, there might accolades throw at them depending on the severity of the violations involved and then maybe protests against the affiliated research center. What happens in South Korea? People rally against the TV station, death threats are sent to the producers of the show, and 11 companies pull their advertising!
Almost seems like a segment out of The Twilight Zone for those of us in the U.S. and other similar nations, but South Korea is a nation that is still developing where nationalism outweights ethical and moral principles. Sometimes such fervent emotions for their nation is admirable, but when it blinds them to ignore unethical actions and even support them for "the good of a nation" it is a set back in its development as a democracy and global leader.
This news story also reminds me of the recent situation where corruption charges against some members of the Doosan family, a major chaebol (conglomerate), were dropped because it was stated that their contributions to Korea were invaluable as a chaebol. This was a horrible precedent because it practically gives free license to the major chaebols in Korea to do what they want. Illegal money management? Sure, go ahead, you're a chaebol that helps our nation so we'll just ignore those bad things you do!
All this is very disappointing for this Korean American.
South Koreans have rallied behind cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk after he admitted ethical lapses, with hundreds of women volunteering to donate eggs for research and supporters threatening a TV show reporting on the case.
The stem cell research center that Hwang led before resigning said Tuesday it hoped he would return, even though his lapses could hurt its efforts to work with other research institutions.
Hwang, who garnered international renown for his breakthroughs in stem cell research and cloning, has not reported to his office since apologizing last week for accepting egg donations from two junior scientists in his lab. He had denied those allegations for more than a year.
Under generally accepted international guidelines, scientists are warned to be cautious in allowing subordinates to be subjects for research because of concerns about possible coercion.
Still, the ethics controversy has generated huge public support for Hwang in South Korea, where he is viewed as a national hero. A growing number of volunteers are offering eggs.
"So far more than 700 South Korean women have pledged to donate their eggs and the number is steadily rising," said Lee Sun-min, an official at a private foundation launched last week to promote egg donations.
A TV station that reported on the controversy has attracted public anger, causing President Roh Moo-hyun to express concern about a climate of intolerance.
MBC television said last week it obtained documents from Hwang's lab showing possibly hundreds of human eggs had been bought for the research. The egg buying was not illegal at the time, but Hwang previously insisted that all eggs for his work were given by donors enthusiastic to see his work proceed.
Some of his supporters threatened in online message boards to kill family members of producers of the program, and 11 firms pulled advertising from the news magazine show.
"I am concerned about our society, which doesn't know tolerance," Roh wrote Sunday in a message posted on his office's Web site. "Protest messages and phone calls can be made ... but cancellation of advertisements showed things went too far and a social fear that does not tolerate resistance has been created." (full article)
|
This is an odd piece of news coming out of South Korea that's not surprising. If there was a reporter and news program in the U.S. that uncovered an unethical researcher, there might accolades throw at them depending on the severity of the violations involved and then maybe protests against the affiliated research center. What happens in South Korea? People rally against the TV station, death threats are sent to the producers of the show, and 11 companies pull their advertising!
Almost seems like a segment out of The Twilight Zone for those of us in the U.S. and other similar nations, but South Korea is a nation that is still developing where nationalism outweights ethical and moral principles. Sometimes such fervent emotions for their nation is admirable, but when it blinds them to ignore unethical actions and even support them for "the good of a nation" it is a set back in its development as a democracy and global leader.
This news story also reminds me of the recent situation where corruption charges against some members of the Doosan family, a major chaebol (conglomerate), were dropped because it was stated that their contributions to Korea were invaluable as a chaebol. This was a horrible precedent because it practically gives free license to the major chaebols in Korea to do what they want. Illegal money management? Sure, go ahead, you're a chaebol that helps our nation so we'll just ignore those bad things you do!
All this is very disappointing for this Korean American.
South Koreans have rallied behind cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk after he admitted ethical lapses, with hundreds of women volunteering to donate eggs for research and supporters threatening a TV show reporting on the case.
The stem cell research center that Hwang led before resigning said Tuesday it hoped he would return, even though his lapses could hurt its efforts to work with other research institutions.
Hwang, who garnered international renown for his breakthroughs in stem cell research and cloning, has not reported to his office since apologizing last week for accepting egg donations from two junior scientists in his lab. He had denied those allegations for more than a year.
Under generally accepted international guidelines, scientists are warned to be cautious in allowing subordinates to be subjects for research because of concerns about possible coercion.
Still, the ethics controversy has generated huge public support for Hwang in South Korea, where he is viewed as a national hero. A growing number of volunteers are offering eggs.
"So far more than 700 South Korean women have pledged to donate their eggs and the number is steadily rising," said Lee Sun-min, an official at a private foundation launched last week to promote egg donations.
A TV station that reported on the controversy has attracted public anger, causing President Roh Moo-hyun to express concern about a climate of intolerance.
MBC television said last week it obtained documents from Hwang's lab showing possibly hundreds of human eggs had been bought for the research. The egg buying was not illegal at the time, but Hwang previously insisted that all eggs for his work were given by donors enthusiastic to see his work proceed.
Some of his supporters threatened in online message boards to kill family members of producers of the program, and 11 firms pulled advertising from the news magazine show.
"I am concerned about our society, which doesn't know tolerance," Roh wrote Sunday in a message posted on his office's Web site. "Protest messages and phone calls can be made ... but cancellation of advertisements showed things went too far and a social fear that does not tolerate resistance has been created." (full article)
DERSHOWITZ VS. CHOMSKY ON 'ISRAEL & PALESTINE AFTER DISENGAGEMENT'
HatTip to Mingi that led me to Martin Solomon's post on this debate:
OK, I did a sort-of live blog which I've shuffled off into the extended entry. I found it very difficult to type and quip and still listen, so mostly I didn't.
Dershowitz fans will enjoy this, so give it a listen/watch when the video is up on the archive. He's aggressive and ready, occasionally delving more into the ad hominem than Chomsky (one of the expressions he likes to repeat is "Planet Chomsky," which I enjoyed but have to admit was getting personal), but overall driving the debate and responding extremely well. Chomsky is getting old. He's quieter and more tentative. Not as impressive a presence or voice. Classic Chomsky, he speaks like he writes, referring constantly to sources, "serious scholars," and things which "everyone knows" while waiving his hand. You can almost see the little footnote marks floating over his head. Dershowitz, of course, challenges the audience to do as Professor Chomsky says and check his sources. (full post)
More information on this Harvard sponsored event here and the video feed here.
|
HatTip to Mingi that led me to Martin Solomon's post on this debate:
OK, I did a sort-of live blog which I've shuffled off into the extended entry. I found it very difficult to type and quip and still listen, so mostly I didn't.
Dershowitz fans will enjoy this, so give it a listen/watch when the video is up on the archive. He's aggressive and ready, occasionally delving more into the ad hominem than Chomsky (one of the expressions he likes to repeat is "Planet Chomsky," which I enjoyed but have to admit was getting personal), but overall driving the debate and responding extremely well. Chomsky is getting old. He's quieter and more tentative. Not as impressive a presence or voice. Classic Chomsky, he speaks like he writes, referring constantly to sources, "serious scholars," and things which "everyone knows" while waiving his hand. You can almost see the little footnote marks floating over his head. Dershowitz, of course, challenges the audience to do as Professor Chomsky says and check his sources. (full post)
More information on this Harvard sponsored event here and the video feed here.
CRAIG NEWMARK INVESTS IN JEFF JARVIS STARTUP
Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, has invested in a new media venture that Jeff Jarvis is a part of. Jeff describes it as:
Our goal is to create a platform to organize the world’s news using the best of technology, community, and editors. We see an explosion of interest in and coverage of news from incredibly varied sources around the world and see a need around that.
Another one to wait and watch for.
|
Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, has invested in a new media venture that Jeff Jarvis is a part of. Jeff describes it as:
Our goal is to create a platform to organize the world’s news using the best of technology, community, and editors. We see an explosion of interest in and coverage of news from incredibly varied sources around the world and see a need around that.
Another one to wait and watch for.
YAHOO! RSS GOES MAINSTREAM WITH ITS MAIL AND ALERTS
Another step for RSS into the mindshare of America. John Furrier has the interview and podcast on this:
Scott Gatz lead RSS manager and Ethan Diamond lead Yahoo! Mail manager to introduce via a Podcast the Yahoo! expanded RSS platform and RSS integration into Yahoo! Mail.
TechCrunch has screenshots and more here.
|
Another step for RSS into the mindshare of America. John Furrier has the interview and podcast on this:
Scott Gatz lead RSS manager and Ethan Diamond lead Yahoo! Mail manager to introduce via a Podcast the Yahoo! expanded RSS platform and RSS integration into Yahoo! Mail.
TechCrunch has screenshots and more here.
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
ARCHIVES
- April 2003
- May 2003
- June 2003
- July 2003
- August 2003
- September 2003
- October 2003
- November 2003
- December 2003
- January 2004
- February 2004
- March 2004
- April 2004
- May 2004
- June 2004
- July 2004
- August 2004
- September 2004
- October 2004
- November 2004
- December 2004
- January 2005
- February 2005
- March 2005
- April 2005
- May 2005
- June 2005
- July 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- Current Posts
If you have questions, topic ideas, or whatever, just email bernard at bernard.moon@gmail.com. Thank you!
site feed
forget the long tail!
(03/21/2006)
2084
(11/02/2005)
building the perfect team
(08/17/2005)
open it up, new york times, chicago tribune, san francisco chronicle!
(06/07/2005)
staring down the digital divide
(06/08/2005)
2005 world series of poker... tech style
(03/30/2005)
rss: real simple syndication or really saturated space?
(02/10/2005)
blogosphere: lost in translation?
(02/10/2005)
diamonds in the rough at redmond
(02/10/2005)
it's a wiki wiki world
(02/03/2005)
where technology is ubiquitous, opportunity abounds
(1/12/2005)
start of "reality media" column
(12/23/2004)
Tech
bill joy's apocalyptic vision, determinism, and commonality with stephen hawking
(07/22/2005)
google economy => blogosphere
(01/25/2005)
power of the long tail
(12/14/2004)
protectionist china... will chinese or u.s. companies lose out?
(3/15/2004)
skype... p2p telephony & a very cool company
(2/13/2004)
poor george glider is right
(2/9/2004)
it's not the deficit stupid!... tech is the primary driver for growth
(12/02/2003)
immature venture capital industry in asia (9/29/2003)
boom time memories... masayoshi son was the man
(7/1/2003)
Politics
south korea's recent idiotic policies against foreign direct investment
(09/09/2005)
my first op-ed
(11/30/2004)
100,000 protest against Bush for... what?
(11/23/2003)
Society
generalizations of east asians
(5/16/2004)
sports is the great equalizer and unifer
(4/20/2004)
defining wisdom... age is the lesser factor
(10/18/2003)
living together before marriage
(8/25/2003)
friendships, relationships, people in life... (7/7/2003)
sugar mommas
(6/13/2003)
need for laws and enforcement
(4/10/2003)
old shaq issue
(4/2/2003)
Religion
creationism & christmas
(12/23/2004)
the passion of the christ... misunderstood
(2/20/2004)
christian's view of homosexuality
(1/13/2004)
is man determined or free?
(8/18/2003)
destructive christianity
(5/3/2003)
Others
"Blah Blah Bernard Blah Blah" Changing to "Junto Boyz"... A New Direction
(4/20/2004)
art of asking questions
(9/18/2003)
ode to bacon
(8/13/2003)
big guys... eating stories iv
(7/27/2003)
big guys... eating stories i
(4/2/2003)
cnn
cnet
businessweek
economist
forbes
fortune
fast company
pe week wire
the deal
ecommerce times
ne asia online
pacific epoch
eweek
release 1.0
technology review
techweb
zdnet news
the american spectator
drudge report
foreign policy
frontpage
harvard political review
mother jones
national review
the new republic
the weekly standard
il conservative politics
the atlantic
the hill
roll call
george f. will
asianweek
financeasia
korea herald
the onion
cox & forkum cartoons
garage technology ventures
growthink research
entrepreneur.com
entrepreneur america
venture economics
venture reporter
vfinance.com
yahoo! small business
nationmaster
thomas, legislative info
american enterprise institute
brookings institute
carnegie endowment
cato institute
center for american progress
center for strategic & int'l studies
heritage foundation
hudson institute
national center for policy analysis
progress & freedom foundation
progressive policy institute
rand corporation
reason public policy institute
urban institute
columbia institute for tele-info
international justice mission
charles barkley's outrageous career
liquid generation
wikipedia
"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
Yahoo! Directory
Vote for this Blog!
The Weblog Review
Wictory Wednesday Roll
Blogdom of God Roll
League of Reformed Bloggers Roll
ProLifeBlogs Roll
