October 2008
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Where is My Mind - Nada Surf
Happy cover Friday...
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Apps or Platform
There have been many debates over the past decade about which is more valuable - the platform or the applications.
The question is about value creation to the user, monetization, differentiation and long term viability.
It was a debate in the desktop OS wars (Microsoft vs Lotus/IBM)
It was a debate in the networking wars. (Microsoft, Novell, Sun etc). Same thing with databases.
It was/is a...
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Sing Their Souls Back Home - Billy Bragg
I first...
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Thanks Om
Great companies have been started during the worst of times
We’ve been hearing this over and over again. And there are plenty of examples
But for some reason, people keep talking about Google as the poster child.
Nice story but it’s just not true. Google was started in 1998.
I’ve been meaning to write this post a few times over the last few weeks but I kept forgetting to do...
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WatchI spoke to Cory Levy this afternoon.
He’s a young (17 year old) entrepreneur. I really enjoyed talking to him.
He asked me if I was interested in becoming an entrepreneur when I was that young.
I told him that all wanted to do was work for Apple Computer at the time. But that was only half true.
I really wanted to be a rock star. Just like Roger, Pete, John and Keith.
(grabbed this...
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Troublemaker - Weezer
Just a fun song. Enjoy.
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The Power of Open Source
Peter Semmelhack, who is the founder of Bug Labs, told me once that if you were going to start a direct competitor to Microsoft today you would have to embrace open source. There would be no other option.
MySQL took that recipe and did very well with it.
We are now seeing the power of open source everywhere. Even the auto industry is embracing it.
And now we have Google’s Android. We...
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Letter To My Son - Bloc Party
Listening to the...
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Back to Entourage
I had a short term fling with Fusion
It worked just fine but I just couldn’t handle running Windows on my Mac. Felt like a waste of resources. Plus the reason I use a Mac is so I don’t have to deal with Windows.
I started using Fusion because as Albert points out my headache with Microsoft Entourage has been extensive.
I hope i’m not jinxing myself but I think I figured out...
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"Gadget Reviewers Look Out"
SInce 1991 Walt Mossberg has written the weekly Personal Technology column for the WSJ.
I remember in the early 90’s my friend Naveen and I would often say that Walt Mossberg has one of the best jobs on the planet. He gets access to all the cool consumer gadgets and gets to pick notables and write product reviews
A lot has changed since then but my love of consumer technology products...
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Polar Opposites - Modest Mouse
I’ve been in...
"You are getting old"
Me: Hey, in a few months you are going to be 10 years old.
Sophia: I know. I can’t wait.
Me: And guess what, in a few months I’m going to be 40.
Sophia: Oh. You are getting old.
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Love You In The Fall - Paul Westerberg
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iPhone apps I still use and my wishlist
The iPhone App Store and the Android App Market have changed the mobile game forever.
Joel Falconer over at Mashable has a post of the 8 iphone apps he still uses and the ones he doesn’t.
I thought that was a great post.
So here’s my list of iPhone apps I use regularly. (I’ll cover my favorite Android apps in a future post.)
1. Twinkle. My favorite twitter client for the...
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fred-wilson:
Never Let You Fall - Ben Kweller -...
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UI vs UX
There is a big difference between a great user interface (UI) and a great user experience (UX).
Every week I see new product demos. Most of them are early in development so often the founders are just trying to show me the core functionality of their product.
But the next step is a hard one. And it’s not just about finding a great designer to make pretty pictures. A beautiful design is one...
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Investing during a downturn
It’s amazing that Apple has more cash that Microsoft right now.
Say what you will about the two companies prospects but the cash speaks to the different strategies between Cupertino and Redmond.
Microsoft is using cash to acquire companies and provide dividends to shareholders.
Apple is accumlating cash while making big bets on new R&D projects - just like they did with iPod in the...
The war in Iraq
I know the economy is all the news these days
And so is the presidential election
But I’m shocked there isn’t more discussion about the war in iraq.
Take a look at todays New York Times.
Goto to their home page. No real news/insight about the war in Iraq.
Yet there even is a Movie Reviews section on the main page above the fold.
How about the Opinion page?
Nope, nothin there...
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Lookin For A Love - Wilco
It’s cover Friday...
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Can’t Hardly Wait - The Replacements
I took...
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Sawdust Man - Ben Kweller
Ok, clearly I’m...
“First, let me say that we are not economists. Your next-door neighbor can likely...”
– Steve Jobs - Apple F4Q08 Earnings Call Transcript - Seeking Alpha
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“There are some other fixes out there as well, some fairly obvious and some, I’m...”
– Why RAID 5 stops working in 2009 | Storage Bits | ZDNet.com (via mikehudack)
Timely quote given my last post about storage. Looking forward to trying out JungleDisk.
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The Sun Hasn’t Set On This Boy Yet - Nils...
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Still looking for a backup solution
Two years ago I wrote a post about backing up personal media on my old blog.
It’s funny to see what my needs were at the time.
-First of all bandwidth to my house has improved big time. I’m now getting 20Mbps up & down thanks to Verizon FIOS. At the time of my earlier post I was getting 5Mbps down and 2Mbps downstream.
-I still don’t need to backup the content on my DVR....
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If I Am A Stranger - Ryan Adams
I could listen to...
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“Not that I disagree with the motivation, but putting up an Obama poster in San...”
– Alex Payne via Twitter
great line.
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The Big Endorsement
After hearing the rumors for several weeks, I first heard about Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama on Twitter yesterday.
My reaction at the time was a knee jerk one and I offered this tweet:
“I don’t care about Powells endorsement. I haven’t forgiven him over the march to war in iraq and that bs united nations presentation”
I was upset with Colin Powell...
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I Remember - Whitley
Whitley opened for BK this...
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Skills To Pay The Bills - Beastie Boys
I love...
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My review of the G1 after 3 days
Full disclosure: I’m good friends with the founders of Android. Google bought the company several years ago. That team created the open source and full software stack that is leading to a number of Android powered phones & devices.
The first Android powered device is the HTC G1 that T-mobile will ship next week.
My Android friends gave me a G1 last Thursday.
My thoughts after a few...
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Falling - Ben Kweller
We saw Ben play at the...
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A Helping Hand
I’ve been meanging to write this post for the last few months. But I’m struggling with the best way to do it.
So here goes.
I’m almost 40. I don’t consider myself old (denial?) but I’ve seen good markets and down markets. A few times over. After college, when I moved to Silicon Valley in the early 90’s the market wasn’t great at all. Then it was very...
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Another Girl, Another Planet - The Replacements
...
“A painting done by Picasso in his mid-twenties was worth, he found, an average...”
– Annals of Culture: Late Bloomers: Reporting & Essays: by Malcolm Gladwell -The New Yorker
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The new MacBook
I bought a MacBook Air when it first came out and ditched my MacBook Pro.
I thought it was the right thing to do because I’m traveling a ton and wanted something lighter. And my back appreciates the lighter load. Especially when I’m running around NYC or SF.
But there are tons of tradeoffs with this machine. The two big ones in my mind are
1. can’t swap out the battery in the...
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Baby I’m Yours - Arctic Monkeys
This...
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Random thoughts for the day
I’m scrambling a bit this weekend. For those of you that don’t follow me on Twitter, Lauren is in NYC this weekend with a girlfriend.
So I’ve got the 3 kids to myself for the extended weekend (our office is closed tomorrow).
Just thought I’d write down a bunch of thoughts before I take the kids out to dinner.
1. It’s been too long since I had the kids all to myself...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-10-12) →
The Flaming Lips
Benji Hughes
Beck and The Flaming Lips
Rhett Miller
Okkervil River
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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“Here’s the deal. Everyone, including Sequoia, Benchmark, Ron Conway, etc,...”
– Don’t Shoot The Messenger - AVC
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Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell - The Flaming...