Junto Boyz

"THE SOUNDS OF SILENCING"... ARROGANCE OF THE LEFT...

Bernard Moon — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 05:18:00 +0000

"THE SOUNDS OF SILENCING"... ARROGANCE OF THE LEFT IN AMERICA

Great editorial by Peggy Noonan. Revealing and disturbing actions of the left are described. Of course to be fair, the right does have crazies like Ann Coulter, but it seems the extreme words and arrogance of the left is more commonplace.

The Sounds of Silencing
Why do Americans on the left think only they have the right to dissent?

The Wall Street Journal
Friday, October 13, 2006

Four moments in the recent annals of free speech in America. Actually annals is too fancy a word. This all happened in the past 10 days:

At Columbia University, members of the Minutemen, the group that patrols the U.S. border with Mexico and reports illegal crossings, were asked to address a forum on immigration policy. As Jim Gilchrist, the founder, spoke, angry students stormed the stage, shouting and knocking over chairs and tables. "Having wreaked havoc," said the New York Sun, they unfurled a banner in Arabic and English that said, "No one is ever illegal." The auditorium was cleared, the Minutemen silenced. Afterward a student protester told the Columbia Spectator, "I don't feel we need to apologize or anything. It was fundamentally a part of free speech. . . . The Minutemen are not a legitimate part of the debate on immigration."

On Oct. 2, on Katie Couric's "CBS Evening News," in the segment called "Free Speech," the father of a boy killed at Columbine shared his views on the deeper causes of the recent shootings in Amish country. Brian Rohrbough said violence entered our schools when we threw God out of them. "This country is in a moral freefall. For over two generations the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum. . . . We teach there are no moral absolutes, no right or wrong, and I assure you the murder of innocent children is always wrong, including abortion. Abortion has diminished the value of children." This was not exactly the usual mush.

Mr. Rohrbough was quickly informed he was not part of the legitimate debate, either. Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post: "The decision . . . to air his views prompted a storm of criticism, some of it within the ranks of CBS News." A blog critic: Grief makes people say "stupid" things, but "what made them put this man on television?" Good question. How did they neglect to silence him?

Soon after, at Madison Square Garden, Barbra Streisand, began her latest farewell tour with what friends who were there tell me was a moving, beautiful concert. She was in great form and brought the audience together in appreciation of her great ballads, which are part of the aural tapestry of our lives. And then . . . the moment. Suddenly she decided to bang away on politics. Fine, she's a Democrat, Bush is bad. But midway through the bangaway a man in the audience called out. Most could not hear him, but everyone seems to agree he at least said, "What is this, a fund-raiser?"

At this, Ms. Streisand became enraged, stormed the stage and pummeled herself. Wait, that was Columbia. Actually she became enraged and cursed the man. A friend who was there, a liberal Democrat, said what was most interesting was Ms. Streisand made a physical movement with her arms and hands--"those talon hands"--as if to say, See what I have to put up with when I attempt to educate the masses? She soon apologized, to her credit. Though apparently in the manner of a teacher who'd just kind of lost it with an unruly and ignorant student.

On "The View" a few days earlier it was Rosie O'Donnell. She was banging away on gun control. Guns are bad and should be banned. Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who plays the role of the young, attractive mom, tentatively responded. "I want to be fair," she said. Obviously there should be "restrictions," but women have a right to defend themselves, and there's "the right to bear arms" in the Constitution. Rosie accused Elizabeth of yelling. The panel, surprised, agreed that Elizabeth was not yelling. Rosie then went blank-faced with what someone must have told her along the way is legitimately felt rage. Elizabeth was not bowing to Rosie's views. Elizabeth needed to be educated. The education commenced, Rosie gesturing broadly and Elizabeth constricting herself as if she knew physical assault were a possibility. When Rosie gets going on the Second Amendment I always think, Oh I hope she's not armed! Actually I wonder what Freud would have made of an enraged woman obsessed with gun control. Ach, classic projection. Eef she had a gun she would kill. Therefore no one must haf guns.

There's a pattern here, isn't there?... (full article)

CONGRESS WIMPS OUT ON REBUKE OF JAPAN'S COMFORT WO...

Bernard Moon — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:14:00 +0000

CONGRESS WIMPS OUT ON REBUKE OF JAPAN'S COMFORT WOMEN CRIMES

The Korean American community rallied to get a resolution passed that would formally acknowledge Japan's "enslavement of more than 200,000 Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian, and other women and girls in the 1930s and '40s to provide sex for imperial Japanese soldiers." I helped in this cause by contacting numerous friends, emailing information about this resolution, and encouraging people to write to their representatives in Congress. Unfortunately, this effort failed since the Japanese government brought out it's bigger lobbying guns on the Hill.

I just read that it was Hogan and Hartson, a top D.C. law firm, and Bob Michel, former House Majority Leader, that were the muscle for Japan. I'm sure the Japanese Government is a big client for them and that they are just doing their job, but I still have to say, "BOB MICHEL IS A TOOL!" (Immature rant allow for such a post :)

Some news articles on this bad decision:

"Congress backs off of wartime Japan rebuke"

"Cold Comfort: the Japan Lobby Blocks Resolution on WWII Sex Slaves"

CATCHING UP WITH SOME OLD LINKS... AND SOME VERY O...

Bernard Moon — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 06:18:00 +0000

CATCHING UP WITH SOME OLD LINKS... AND SOME VERY OLD LINKS

Some links of interest:

"Calculating the ROI of blogging" from Charlene Li

"Room for a million more: The user-count inflation of MySpace and its forbears"

"Tech Bust's Last Chapter Plays Out at VC Firms"

"Silicon Valley starts to party like it's 1999"

"MyWorld: eBay Becomes MySpace"

"Last Chance For AOL?"

"Three Can't-Miss School Reforms"

KI-MOON BAN, SOON-TO-BE U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL Ba...

Bernard Moon — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 23:55:00 +0000

KI-MOON BAN, SOON-TO-BE U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL

Ban, Ki-moon of South Korea is expected to be Secretary General of the U.N. I don't know if his low-key style what is needed at this time, but hopefully he'll at least use his administrative skills to clean up the U.N. Very glad that Kofi Annan is gone. I hope they dig up a corruption trail that sends him to jail. More here:

"No honeymoon for new UN Secretary General"

"Aspiring U.N. Chief Is a Harmonizer, Not a Rock Star"

GOOGLE ACQUIRES YOUTUBE... WAS IT WORTH IT? I gues...

Bernard Moon — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 21:17:00 +0000

GOOGLE ACQUIRES YOUTUBE... WAS IT WORTH IT?

I guess the question is, "Will it be worth it?" It's difficult to place a value on such deals and many times you can only eyeball whether it was a good or bad deal a few years down the road. I'm sure part of the incentive for Google was to lock out Yahoo! and other competitors from acquiring YouTube. Imagine if Yahoo! acquired YouTube? Google would always be second or worse in an ad space that has higher CPMs/CPCs than text AND seems to be the next big growth segment of online advertising.

If there could be such a controlled competitive field for Google, I'm sure they would have strongly considered to battle it out with YouTube and the rest of the field. How long would it have taken for Google to catch up especially since they seem to be maturing and focusing their resources more strategically now?

Anyway, here is the official press release. Dissenting view from Mark Cuban. Posts from Michael Arrington, where he brings up some good points on Google's relationship with Fox, and PaidContent.org has more here:

- Stock for stock transaction (for $1.65 billion)
- YouTube will operate independently to “preserve its successful brand and passionate community”.
- YouTube will continue to be based in San Bruno, CA, and all YouTube employees will remain with the company.
- The number of Google shares to be issued in the transaction will be determined based on the 30-day average closing price two trading days prior to the completion of the acquisition.

WORSE HAIRCUT IN TEN YEARS Quick post before I ta...

Bernard Moon — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 00:30:00 +0000

WORSE HAIRCUT IN TEN YEARS

Quick post before I take off for the airport. I went to this random hair salon in Palo Alto today. I asked for a trim and got a chop job. Afterwards I looked like Shemp from The Three Stooges. The worse part about it was that I had a meeting afterwards. So here I am looking like Shemp or a Chinese food delivery boy from the 70s facing these people that I don't know and probably thinking what I was thinking. Really sucked today.

REVISITING ASIA... "ASIAN FAB 50" A couple articl...

Bernard Moon — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:57:00 +0000

REVISITING ASIA... "ASIAN FAB 50"

A couple articles from Forbes that brings me back to my days in Asia. Definitely miss noodles houses, dim sum, and grouper in Hong Kong. Yes, grouper is the best fish to eat there. Miss BBQ houses, stews, and other random stuff in Seoul. Anyway, here are the articles:

"The Asian Fab 50"

"Richard Li's Tangled Web"

HILLARY CONDI HO DOWN! Funny flash short on Hillar...

Bernard Moon — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:02:00 +0000

HILLARY CONDI HO DOWN!

Funny flash short on Hillary and Condi fighting over who is a better presidential candidate.

CORPORATE BLOGGING she see saw at DEMOfall.

Bernard Moon — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:17:00 +0000

CORPORATE BLOGGING & SOCIAL SOFTWARE SPACE HEATING UP... BUT CAN WEB 2.0 BE ADAPTED TO BUSINESSES?

It's been almost two years since I met Tony and he told me about his vision for GoingOn, and then he asked me to help build this company. While I wasn't planning to do another startup for a few years, joining him was one of the best decisions I have made. It's been a fun ride so far and has been exciting to see the market develop and move faster than we ever foresaw.

One healthy sign of an early market is the number of competitors leaping into your space. It's been interesting to watch over the past several months some of competition that has been popping up:

- Five Across, which use to be a private-label IM (instant message) client and had a blogging platform (Bubbler) targeting the SMB market, completely changed to become... a blogging and social networkng platform. They position themselves as a "platform for social networking and communities." It's interesting because over a year ago they approached us to partner with them. I wonder where they got the idea for their revamped product and business model? Anyway, they recently signed a deal with the NHL, which was great for them and everyone in this space.

- Pluck, which use to be a RSS feed reader company, now primarily sells a blogging and social networking platform called SiteLife. They have taken a good approach in focusing on newspapers and media companies.

- Crowd Factory is a recent entrant into our space. One interesting note is that they promoted their product on our homepage/platform a month ago. I don't know why since we don't have that much traffic nor have we marketed our site enough to deserve such attention :)

- Cerado is a CRM company who recently launched products (i.e. "Business Blogging" and "Social Networking for Businesses") in our space and like Crowd Factory promoted themselves on our platform :)

Then are there others such as iUpload and Kintera, and overlapping players such KickApps and MyBlogLog to name a few.

Unlike many consumer "Web 2.0" plays, this competitive environment is not made up of one-feature companies that hope to generate enought traffic and get sold. All these players are selling something of value to companies and generating revenue, so it makes it a much more exciting market than something like the online calendar space.

In recent news, ZDNet's Dion Hinchcliffe continues his "Enterprise 2.0" discussion with this post, "Can Web 2.0 be adapted to the enterprise?" Of course. And of course I'm using a broader definition of "enterprise" than Dion, but I believe any of the companies I listed above will say that the consumer "Web 2.0" movement will transform how companies operate, sell, market, and function behind their walls. Omidyar Network's Christine Herron has some more information on this ("Web 2.0 Consumer Technology Hits the Enterprise") along with an overview of other applications and technologies reflective of this movement she see saw at DEMOfall.

"ONLY A MORON WOULD BUY YOUTUBE"... GOTTA LOVE CUB...

Bernard Moon — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 07:05:00 +0000

"ONLY A MORON WOULD BUY YOUTUBE"... GOTTA LOVE CUBAN

You gotta love Mark Cuban. In his latest public speech, he says only a moron would buy YouTube due to the potential lawsuits from copyright violations. Also the latest report from comScore Media Metrix doesn't help YouTube's valuation and potential sale:

MySpace Leads in Number Of U.S. Video Streams Viewed Online, Capturing 20 Percent Market Share; Yahoo! Ranks #1 in Number of People Streaming

comScore Media Metrix, the leader in digital media measurement, today released an enhancement to its U.S. Video Metrix service, with the inclusion of Flash video content as part of the monthly rankings for streaming video sites.
.....
More than 106.5 million people, or about 3 out of every 5 U.S. Internet users, streamed or downloaded video during the month of July. In total, nearly 7.2 billion videos were streamed or downloaded by U.S.
.....
Yahoo! Sites ranked as the top property by unique U.S. streamers with 37.9 million, followed very closely by MySpace, which attracted 37.4 million U.S. streamers. Fast-rising YouTube ranked third with 30.5 million U.S. streamers, followed by the Time Warner Network (25.7 million U.S. streamers) and Microsoft Sites (16.2 U.S. million streamers). (full press release)

I wonder what Mark Cuban would value Facebook at?

WE WEREN'T IN IRAQ WHEN THEY BOMBED THE WORLD TRAD...

Bernard Moon — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:12:00 +0000

WE WEREN'T IN IRAQ WHEN THEY BOMBED THE WORLD TRADE CENTER OR 9/11

Admittedly, President Bush is not the most eloquent speaker, but he does get his point across in response to the liberals and liberal media blasting the airwaves with the recent report that supposedly concludes how the war in Iraq has fueled jihadism worldwide. Powerline has a video clip of Bush's response here and more information here.

FOXTROT'S VIEW OF WEB 2.0 AND USER-GENERATED CONTE...

Bernard Moon — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:47:00 +0000

FOXTROT'S VIEW OF WEB 2.0 AND USER-GENERATED CONTENT

Amusing cartoon strip:

WALLOP LAUNCHED... YEAH, I'M GOOD Here's a bit of ...

Bernard Moon — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:13:00 +0000

WALLOP LAUNCHED... YEAH, I'M GOOD

Here's a bit of ego rubbing... rub, rub... rub, rub. In my AlwaysOn column back in February 2005, I expressed how I thought Wallop should have been publicly launched to compete with MySpace and Friendster during the initial rush in 2004. I wish Microsoft would have taken my advice sooner since it's a little late in the game, but Wallop has finally launched as a separate entity with Karl Jacob at its helm. He's a serial entrepreneur who has built successful companies, so it will be interesting to see how Wallop grows and develops in the consumer social software space.

More from TechCrunch here, Mashable here, and CNET here.

ME? THE BACHELOR? My wife found this amusing when...

Bernard Moon — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 22:25:00 +0000

ME? THE BACHELOR?

My wife found this amusing when I told her I got an invite through Linkedin about being a possible Bachelor candidate.

"Did they actually see you?!"

She was referring to my extra 30 pounds of love I developed over the years and knew Linkedin, as a professional social networking site, didn't ask for pictures or marital status. She offered to write the ABC staffer that sent me the mass invite and explain how I was married and overweight and how I would hurt their ratings, but I declined.

Dear Bernard,

ABC Television's hit reality television show, The Bachelor, is searching for its next star. After viewing your profile on LinkedIn, the casting producer has selected you as a potential candidate.

ABC is using LinkedIn to find its next Bachelor because this time around, they're looking for an accomplished professional. LinkedIn is about your professional life instead of your personal life, so we don?t know if your marital or relationship status qualifies you for the show. However, your professional profile fits the bill.

If you think you'd make a great 'Bachelor,' please let me know by reply and I will contact you regarding next steps. LinkedIn respects your privacy and will not release your contact information, so you must reply to the email above for us to pass you along as a candidate...