April 2010
Vaporware
Wikipedia’s definition of vaporware:
Vaporware is a word used to describe products, usually computer hardware or software, not released on the date announced by their developer, or announced months or years before their release.
This morning the lead story on Techmeme is the news that HP is killing off their Windows 7 tablet and Microsoft is killing their Courier tablet product.
...
fred-wilson:
Homeward Bound - Ben Kweller -...
The toll collector
There are a number of healthy ecosystems that have evolved where the catalyst charges and collects a toll.
Classic examples include the credit card industry or the iTunes app store.
MasterCard and Visa charge a fee and many other entities can build businesses and products on top. Everyone in that value chain can make a living. And the rates are well understood for the most part.
Same is true...
Free Energy - C’mon Let’s Dance
New...
Ordered the 3g iPad
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my ipad over the last few weeks.
It truly has reduced the amount of time I spend with my MacBook Air. It’s lighter, more comfortable to use and the battery life is dreamy. And it’s just fun to use.
I agree with Marco, the Apple iPad case has some real issues. But it’s the best case for my needs. I like how it props up in landscape mode. It...
The Replacements - Achin’ To Be
song goes...
Startups & the product roadmap
In early stage startups, it’s not particularly helpful to obsess about long term financial projections - especially the revenue projections because we know it’s not always up and to the right.
The same is often true with long term product roadmaps.
Often times in board meetings we talk about a startup’s product plan. For an early stage startup the product is practically...
Wishing Rob Go the very best
After 2+ years, Rob Go has decided to leave Spark.
It has been an absolute pleasure working with Rob over these years. He’s one of the nicest guys I know in this business, and he has helped us in so many ways. We at Spark will miss working with him and wish him all the very best.
Filling Rob’s shoes won’t be easy, but I am delighted to report that we’ve hired a Senior...
Sunday at the doctor's office
On Friday, James wasn’t feeling well. Fever, sore throat, the whole thing. So Lauren took him to our peditrician. And we found out that he had strep throat. The doctor wrote us a prescription and said that she wanted to see James Sunday (today) for a follow up.
I thought to myself that Sunday was a bit unsual but we made the appointment.
Today I took James to see the doctor. He’s...
LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean
This new...
Some thoughts about privacy
I should probably know better than take on an issue like privacy when I’m in a hurry and jotting down a post on my iPhone but I can’t help myself.
Here goes…
This week there has been a lot of heat about our privacy. The nyt ran a story about “over sharing”, facebook now makes our data available in more places, blippy caught some tough press about a credit card...
“Facebook is the [social graph] market leader for sure. But its not winner takes...”
– Thoughts about “the winner takes it all” - bijansabet.com
the idea of reblogging myself turns my stomach a bit but this post came to mind when i read fred and albert’s mighty fine thoughts this morning.
Hot Chip - Graceland
This cover goes out to my...
scentweakly asked: What were your 3 favorite live shows in the last 12 months?
1 tag
The second screen
For years, many of us have imagined a world where a computer would sit in your family room and bring connectivity to your big screen, television.
I believe that is going to happen. And I’ve put my money where my mouth is with our investment in Boxee.
That computer is going to live inside of settops, blu-ray players, game consoles or connected tvs and other devices. It will have smart,...
WatchBiz Stone was on CBS with Katie Couric the other day. Found this clip on Kara Swisher’s blog. Nicely done @biz!
greghochsprung asked: What are your favorite five or so sources of tech and VC news/info? (Mine are PE Hub, TechCrunch, you, Fred Wilson/A VC, and John Gruber/Daring Fireball)
Shout Out Louds - Paper Moon
The new album is...
Random thoughts from the airport
I’m headed to NYC this morning to particpate in a talk at Jeff Pulvers 140conf. I arrived at the airport a bit early so I decided to jot down some random thoughts
On Monday night I started playing around with the Tumblr Ask feature. It’s a lot of fun and encourage you to give it a try if you are using Tumblr. I answered about 8 questions (all posted on my blog) and have another 30...
caterpillarcowboy asked: Do you think Y Combinator-esque programs with their short (3 month) durations and focus on traction discourages entrepreneurs from working on the Next Big Thing? Would Mark Zuckerberg have been accepted to build thefacebook.com? Would Larry & Sergey to build a search engine when no business model existed?
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-4-18) →
Harlem Shakes (10)
Beach House (3)
My Morning Jacket (1)
Radiohead (1)
Kate Nash (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Anonymous asked: Hi Bijan, thanks in advance for doing this. Q: of all your personal character traits, which in your opinion has attributed the most to your success?
Anonymous asked: What is your favorite restaurant in Boston?
aaroncohen asked: Bijan: Where is that spectacular family photo taken? I look forward to meeting you some time. my tumblr is aarondelcohen.com
peterkafka asked: Favorite Clash song?
Anonymous asked: what's the best way to pitch you :) ?
matthuntr asked: Have you tried Formspring? What are your thoughts on it vs. Tumblr questions?
Anonymous asked: I know concrete, existing models get attention, not "ideas". But what about the truly brilliant, potentially world-changing ideas trapped in people who are not in (or about to be in) the usual 'pipeline'? Every consider an "open" model to vet those ideas? Thank you.
Anonymous asked: Bijan,
How do you get most of your news/information? RSS? Twitter? What tools help you filter everything down and keep the amount of time you spend consuming information to a minimum so you can focus on higher priorities like being productive and spending time with family?
How do you get most of your news/information? RSS? Twitter? What tools help you filter everything down and keep the amount of time you spend consuming information to a minimum so you can focus on higher priorities like being productive and spending time with family?
via hypem: via jenrobinson:
Blur - Fool’s Day
...
Some thoughts about the marathon, startups &...
Today is Patriots Day which is a holiday here in Massachusetts and many offices including our office at Spark are closed.
The Boston marathon also takes place this morning which is the oldest annual marathon according to Wikipedia.
We love watching the runners in the marathon and we pretty much go every year. Young, old, wheel chair or elite. They are all incredible. And the amount of training...
1 tag
Freemium backlash?
It’s easy to kick someone when they are having trouble I guess. Ning announced a significant layoff and the critics pounced.
I guess I wasn’t surprised at this point. But the thing that surprised me was the negativity about freemium.
Just because some companies struggle with freemium doesn’t mean the model doesn’t work. In my mind that would be like writing off the entire...
Jonsi - Around Us
Jonsi is the lead for Sigur...
“The first step is creating a foundation of self-reliance: a survival dance of...”
– The Monster In Your Head » The Gift of the Survival Dance
I’m so glad I follow @jerrycolonna to find his posts like this one.
fred-wilson:
I Can’t Explain (Who cover) - David...
“There are two types of startup ideas: those that grow organically out of your...”
– Paul Graham - Organic Startup Ideas
2 tags
Quick thoughts after day 1 at Chirp
I was at Chirp, Twitter’s developer conference, yesterday in San Francisco.
First, let me say I fully recognize the tireless effort the folks at Twitter put into making such a great event. It showed in so many ways.
The team announced a number of things like some metrics and the new ad platform.
It was great to meet so many developers at once and in one place like that. The diversity...
1 tag
The Avett Brothers - If Its The Beaches
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-4-11) →
Johnny Cash (24)
Mumford & Sons (10)
The National (6)
Titus Andronicus (6)
Ben Folds (6)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“In short, “resonance” is Twitter’s quality score, its measure of whether an ad...”
– Twitter To Roll Out “Promoted Tweets”: Initial Thoughts (Developing) - John Battelle’s Searchblog (via fred-wilson)
Ask first before rushing to judgement
Last night was like any other night.
After a day at the office I got into my car and drove home. I got on the the Mass Pike near Copley Square and 100 yards later a SUV from the left lane came across two lanes hit me on the left side and drove me into the wall of the underpass.
The driver of the SUV came out of her car and said “what the hell were you thinking?!”
That wasn’t...
