December 2008
1 tag
Elephant Gun - Beirut
I’m ending the year...
2 tags
Justin Vernon gets love from blogs but needs to...
The WSJ has an article today about Justin Vernon and his new band Bon Iver’s success.
The biggest part of the story is how much of Bon Iver’s success came from blogs.
“Thanks to the buzz his online tracks generated on music blogs and social-networking sites, Mr. Vernon has played at numerous venues and appeared on the “Late Show With David Letterman.” He signed a...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-12-21) →
Bon Iver (58)
The Raveonettes (11)
Thao Nguyen (8)
Thao (4)
Nguyen, Thao & the Get Down Stay Down (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
1 tag
In The Mausoleum - Beirut
My love affair with...
1 tag
The Twitter API
I’m enjoying two new Twitter products.
And the most powerful part is that the Twitter didn’t have develop them. They came from 3rd parties using their own creativity + Twitter API.
Dabr
I’m using a Blackberry Bold these days and I’m not a huge fan of any of the existing twitter clients for the blackberry. Dabr is mobile web interface to Twitter. It’s clean and...
1 tag
Postcards From Italy - Beirut
I must have been...
1 tag
“What became clear in the ensuing decade is that humans are not just part of the...”
– Google, WalMart, and MyBarackObama.com: The Power of the Real Time Enterprise - Tim O’Reilly
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
Thinking about patents
I met up with a close friend a couple of weeks ago in Palo Alto.
He has been building a highly sophisticated product. And if it works, it will significantly change a lot of things (for the better)
He’s a big fan of patents. He recognizes the flaws with our patent system today but he doesn’t want to get of them. He wants to make them better.
My friend Brad Feld has been a thought...
1 tag
Panic - Spoon
The original version by The Smiths...
1 tag
“After the Internet bubble burst in 2001, there were a lot of people in “the...”
– Innovation and Creative Destruction - Feld Thoughts
1 tag
The Only Living Boy Living In New York - Simon and...
“This year, all I really wanted for the holidays was the perfect smartphone. Not...”
– All I wanted this year was the best smartphone ever - Engadget
my thoughts exactly.
1 tag
WatchSanta Claus brought James this racetrack.
And he brought me a Flip MinoHD .
So I get to share both of them with this clip of my daughter Ellie and James that i took this morning.
1 tag
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Death Cab For...
1 tag
Getting power to developing nations
Earlier this week I met with some very interesting people. I just can’t get that meeting out of my head.
I learned a lot about the realities of electricity in developing third world nations. It’s not just that electricity is expensive. It’s simply not available - period.
So what is the best way to get power to these people?
Thats the question. There are smart people working on...
1 tag
1 tag
The Fire and the Thud - Arctic Monkeys
I was...
1 tag
Rick Warren: Point & Counterpoint
Like many progressives, I’ve been sick about Obama’s decision to have Rick Warren invocation at the inauguration.
It feels like a slap in face, kick in the teeth, takes the wind out of our sails….well, you pick the metaphor.
My immediate reaction was in sync with Michelle Goldbergs article in the Guardian, A Wolf In Sheeps Clothing:
If nothing else, Rick Warren is a miracle...
daryn:
Belle & Sebastian - Winter Wooskie
...
“So I buy all of this big, heavy, expensive stuff to take technically good but...”
– Marco.org: Why I take photos
I love Marco’s photography. He’s a lot more talented that he lets on here.
But I know what he’s talking about. I feel the same way. I always wanted to have that skill too.
1 tag
1 tag
Geography - Thao Nguyen
You can tell that...
1 tag
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-12-21) →
Bon Iver (58)
The Raveonettes (11)
Thao Nguyen (8)
Thao (4)
Rogue Wave (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
1 tag
Practice, Practice, Practice
I just read two posts about the importance of practice.
Tim O’Reilly writes about practice in programming:
“If some entrepreneur introduced the bicycle today, no one would fund him. You have to actuallylearn how to use it! …I saw a controller for Guitar Hero that costs a couple of hundred dollars. You can get a decent electric guitar for that price. But you’d have to...
2 tags
Mobile Payments & A Good Cause
Some people saw my recent tweet and asked me what it meant
There are two things to going on here.
First, Cambridge-based TipJoy has developed a super easy, lightweight to send mobile payments on Twitter. Simply enter the following into Twitter:
“pay $x @twitterusername”
And that’s it. You will have sent the other Twitter user a payment.
I can see a lot of ways people can...
1 tag
How to photograph children
DPS has some great tips for taking photographs of children.
I’m still learning but I try to keep these in mind whenever I’m out with my little ones.
I took this photo of james earlier today before going sledding.
1 tag
Bag of Hammers - Thao Nguyen
I’m late to...
“We don’t want to become just a carriage provider. That would tend to commoditize...”
– Shane Kim - Xbox VP via “What Xbox Wants to Be When It Grows Up” - NYTimes.com
Revealing interview with Xbox head at MSFT. Because they heavily subsidize the Xbox to generating game revenue, they are struggling with the idea of opening up Xbox to a wide variety of 3rd party services.
...
1 tag
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Hot Chip & Peter...
1 tag
My RSS feed moved
Somewhere along the way, Google moved my RSS feed to a new address.
For those of you that have kindly added me to your RSS reader, please update the feed to this address: http://feedproxy.google.com/typepad/bijanblog
or just click the RSS link along the top navigation bar.
Thanks!
1 tag
Walk On - Neil Young
You are either an On the...
1 tag
“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and...”
– Isaac Newton
1 tag
Aly, Walk With Me - The Raveonettes
There is so...
2 tags
Coming to Beacon Hill: A bill to get rid of...
About a year ago I wrote about the negative impacts of employee non compete agreements. I wrote that we should get rid of them in Massachussets and in other states where non-competes are routinely enforced.
Since then the collective voice for innovation and open competition has increased quite a bit. There have been a number of a panels discussing this topic openly. We’ve talked to members...
1 tag
Seconds - U2
When I landed in SFO yesterday, I...
2 tags
Traveling Man
I’ve been thinking about a lot of stuff as this year comes to a close.
One thing is clear. I’ve been traveling like crazy. Those of you that follow me on twitter probably know how much I’m in NYC and SF.
I love my work so I don’t see my travel schedule changing anytime soon.
I’ve got 3 little kids. And I love them more than anything. I try to leave them notes...
1 tag
Go Easy - Ryan Adams
I’m dealing with a...
2 tags
1 tag
Violence In The Snowy Fields - Dolorean
...
1 tag
“We’ve had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our...”
– Steve Jobs (via marco via mikehudack via danw)
1 tag
fred-wilson:
Souled Out! - Conor Oberst - Conor...
2 tags
Investing in Tumblr
Yesterday, Tumblr announced their Series B financing which came from my firm Spark Capital and our friends at Union Square Ventures. Both firms led the initial financing in the company last summer.
I typically announce on this blog when we make an initial investment in a new company. I’ll also write about new product stuff from our portfolio from time to time.
But I don’t think...