January 2010
Get Well Cards - Conor Oberst
My beef with the term "fiscal conservatives"
The term “fiscal conservatives” is back with a vengeance.
The phrase is often delivered by the Republican party although many “centrist” Democrats sing the song as well and know the lyrics by heart.
Here’s Mayor Bloomberg’s definition of the label (via wikipedia):
To me, fiscal conservatism means balancing budgets - not running deficits that the next...
“So, I made plans to go to lunch with Fred. And then the day before, the morning...”
– How Fred Wilson Won Jerry Colonna As A Partner By Canceling A Meeting With Him [clip] | Mixergy - Online Business Tips from Successful Entrepreneurs
Solid as a rock.
“Then the iPad announcement confirmed what has already been obvious since the...”
– An Industry Reborn - robgo.org
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Apple iPad
One of the most hyped products in recent memory was announced by the folks in Cupertino today.
The iPad.
Earlier this month, I posted my wish list for this device. I got a few things but we didn’t get wireless sync or hdmi output. And it doesn’t have a built in camera. I guess that will come in v2.
But I’m getting one.
The user interface is a huge step up from the iPhone and...
“Back to the nuts and bolts of the new Google Voice web app though — it shows the...”
– Google Voice Lands on iPhone and Palm as a Web App
Yes!
Connecting mentors and founders
I get asked all the time, how can i find a great advisor/mentor/angel for my startup? My friend Fred Wilson wrote a great post the other day about role models. I encourage you all to read it.
I’m a big believer in mentorship driven programs and have put my money where my mouth is as an investor in Techstars and YC companies.
It was nice to see so many local mentors come out and support a...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-24) →
Nada Surf (194)
The Rolling Stones (149)
Billy Bragg (147)
Ben Kweller (122)
Wilco (120)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
In The Sun - She & Him
Brand new single from...
Thoughts after getting my new phone number
I’ve been playing around with Google Voice for some time now.
It’s not perfect by any means and it certainly isn’t perfect on my iPhone (which I had to jailbreak to support GV Mobile)
But it’s good enough for my needs and as a result I changed my number yesterday.
The next step was to communicate my new number to my family, friends and business associates. So, I went...
Music startups are showing the way
It’s always fun watching startups taking on big companies. It’s particularly true in the music industry.
The labels have banded together with YouTube and created Vevo. In a short period of time, Vevo has attracted a huge US audience (thanks to YouTube) but I don’t sense any community powering the service. Since their launch I haven’t found myself clicking over. Same thing...
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“It is app store mania continuing its mad rush, and I for one don’t get why...”
– Why I don’t want apps on my Kindle (or toilet) - Antonio Rodriguez
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My Body Is A Cage - Peter Gabriel
Next week Peter...
The most interesting thing about the Kindle
Yesterday, Amazon made two announcements with regards to the Kindle.
First, they are going to open up the Kindle to 3rd party developers and a SDK is now available. It will be interesting to what apps come from this effort. My guess is that it wont be a meaningful number but it will make the Kindle a two way device at least.
The second thing is a new revenue share with authors. I...
Connected kids
As adults we are connected to the network. It’s always with us and that clearly has enormous benefits.
So it’s not really a surprise that our kids are connected as well.
I know my three kids prefer YouTube to POTV (plain old tv). My 10 year old blogs now. She would rather email than talk on the phone. All three know how to use my blackberry and iphone with ease - they can find the...
“Voter anxiety and resentment, building for months in a troubled economy,...”
– Voter anger caught fire in final days - The Boston Globe
I was at an event last night in nyc. lauren sent me a txt that said two words: “brown won”. It was crushing. Some of us are going to shine a light on the problems with our democratic party while others are going to step it up and...
You Must Be Out Of Your Mind - The Magnetic...
NYT lays out the MA senate race
If you live in MA and haven’t made up your mind about today’s important senate race then I encourage you to pick up the nyt and turn to page A20.
At the bottom of the page is a comparison of the two candidates on the important issues. At least they are to me.
Martha Coakley:
-supports comprehensive health care
-supports public option
-against the afghan troop increase
-first state AG to sue...
Safe European Home - The Clash
Back from a mini...
Little things to make email better
We are all drowning in email.
It’s so bad that people will tweet when they get to inbox-zero. I don’t blame them. It feels good getting to that magical place.
There are a number of reasons why email is hard to manage. The default setting doesn’t make sense - the most recent stuff bubbles to the top, not the most important or even relevant. And unlike a network like Twitter,...
The opposite of open
Just saw this on Caterina’s blog. It’s a quote from David Weinberg and it’s so good I had to reblog the entire quote:
The opposite of “open” is “theirs”
The Net as a medium is not for anything in particular — not for making calls, sending videos, etc. It also works at every scale, from one to one to many to many. This makes it highly unusual as a...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-17) →
My Morning Jacket (90)
Nada Surf (55)
Iron & Wine (54)
Billy Bragg (46)
The Rolling Stones (45)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Love Vigilantes - Iron & Wine
Original by New...
How to join a startup?
I often get emails from folks that have never done a startup asking me how they can “break into” the startup world and join a great young company.
The traditional way is to network into that company. Find someone you know that knows the people in the company or perhaps one of the investors or board members. This often can work out nicely (assuming of course that you are excellent and...
The Cleanse
Last year one of our close friends told Lauren about this cleansing thing. The idea is to give your body a break for 21 days and avoid the bad things we eat. Our friend said she felt great afterwards so we decided to give it a try in the new year.
So Lauren and I officially kicked off our 21 day cleanse on Monday. Things we are giving up: alcohol, caffeine, eggs, meat/fish, enriched white flour...
Is There Nothing We Could Do - Badly Drawn Boy...
“If CES happened every month, we would be the biggest company in the world”
– Fred just made this joke at the boxee board mtg. Cracked me up.
Mean Red Spider - Spoon
New album comes out next...
“Look, it comes down to this,” says Stairs. “You’ve spent two hundred and fifty...”
– “Full, Upright and Locked Position” - Andrew Olson
Andrew was one of the cofounder’s of thePlatform which was the first company I invested in after joining Spark (acquired by Comcast). He’s now writing a fiction book and one of the characters is apparently loosely based on me.
If you’d like to...
WatchVery cool clip of Avner, Boxee’s CEO and cofounder, giving a demo at CES.
Discovered it on Robert Scoble’s blog. Thx to the hat tip by Alan Warms!
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Software patents
My friends at USV and Brad Feld are pushing for patent reform or doing away with software patents wholesale. I encourage you to read Brad Burnhams post and Brad Felds follow up here. Brad Feld has been passionate about this topic for some time and sent me the book “Math You Can’t Use” last year.
There is a compelling argument for this push. The trolls are busier than ever and we...
Loving Cup - My Morning Jacket
Original by the...