July 2010
Revisiting apps that sync
I’ve been bitching about syncing forever. Syncing my iPhoto libraries - nightmare. Syncing an iPod or iPhone with different Macs - impossible. Family calendar and work calendar with my wife and work schedule - fussy. Contact sync between gmail and MS Exchange - frustrating world of dupes.
Then one day, a few years back, i realized i gave up on sync. I just lived without it because I lived...
Radiohead - On The Beach
Love this cover....
“The iPad is also too heavy to comfortably hold in most ways for long periods,...”
– Marco.org - The Kindle update
marco is so right but I can’t buy a kindle. i just don’t want that many devices in my life. I already feel like i have too many. so for the time being at least, i’ll continue reading with my heavy, distracting device :)
Ben Kweller - Thirteen
Sappy song I know. But...
Flipboard - wow!
I wrote about Flipboard last week
but that was before I had Twitter working with it.
This morning I received an email from the Flipboard folks saying I was good to go. I entered my Twitter credentials in the app and, oh. my. god. It’s fantastic.
Flipboard takes all the links that are passed around from the folks I follow on Twitter and creates this rich, ipad native experience.
...
Anonymous asked: How come you've never acknowledge your Iranian background and heritage? I feel like you should use your position to support Iranian entrepreneurs the same way that some other VC's ( i.e Shervin, Hooman, etc) do.
A follow up to my strategic investor post
I received a fair amount of feedback (offline and online) to my post about whether startups should bring on strategic investors or not.
I’d like to clarify a few things:
First, that specific post was inspired by a specific company going through a difficult experience with a strategic partner.
Second, I pointed out in the original post and in the comments later that there are times where...
A few thoughts about some rules I keep on this...
This morning it occured to me that I’ve got a few rules I keep on this blog. Here are two unrelated examples:
* * *
Yesterday, I met with a very smart and interesting founder. He’s building a product and going after an interesting space.
I asked him a question during that meeting about some a specific consumer behavior I’ve noticed on social nets for some time but we never...
The New Pornographers - Moves
Turn it up and...
inothernews asked: I want to start a small business, and besides capital (and many other things), I know I need to write out a business plan. Suggestions on where to start? I'm a complete noob at these things, and no, I've never been to business school. Thanks!
Anonymous asked: What'll it take for the Red Sox to overtake your beloved Yankees this year?
Anonymous asked: Are you philanthropically engaged in your community ?
Anonymous asked: What was the biggest obstacle to your success?
-@JCHeidi
-@JCHeidi
“Most people I know have problems with Internet addiction. We’re all trying...”
– Paul Graham - The Acceleration of Addictiveness
DODOcase review
I love my iPad. I take it everywhere and it has replaced my MacBook Air for overnight and day trips to NYC. And I rarely use my Mac at home except when I’m doing photography or video stuff. It’s really a wonderful machine.
But I’ve never been crazy about the Apple iPad case. Marco points out the problems with that case and I pretty much agree with him.
So I ordered...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-7-25) →
mia (274)
Animal Collective (113)
Pixies (40)
Passion Pit (39)
Paul Oakenfold (39)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“Even though I was taught about sunk costs in business school twenty-five years...”
– via Fred Wilson- A VC
So true.
The Avett Brothers - Famous Flower of Manhatten
Murder Mystery - Change My Mind
Discovered...
Some thoughts on Flipboard and content owners
I’ve been playing around with Flipboard over the last few days.
I haven’t been able to link my twitter account yet but I’m guessing that will be resolved shortly. But I’ve been using it with other content sources so far and I think Flipboard is fantastic. Looks great and is a pleasure to use.
The question that has come up recently is whether Flipboard is doing something...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-7-18) →
Rhett Miller (48)
Nada Surf (9)
The Drums (7)
Bright Eyes (4)
Elvis Costello (4)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“What will we see coming out of App Inventor? Probably lots of junk, but does...”
– App Inventor and the culture wars - O’Reilly Radar
“A quality that I find hugely important but increasingly rare in people is the...”
– Continuations: Admitting Mistakes
excellent.
Should a startup bring on a strategic investor?
A number of startups in our portfolio have considered taking an investment from a strategic customer. The idea is that the large company will care more about the relationship if they own a percentage of the startup company. The large company also feels better perhaps because they get upside if the startup becomes extremely valuable.
Simply put I’ve seen this play out in three different...
caterpillarcowboy:
anniehinton:
The National...
Thinking out loud about an idea: Ride Sharing
Earlier this week, I got around in a Zipcar. My car was getting fixed up in the body shop (lauren hit the the basketball pole in our driveway, long story :)
Anyway, I’ve used Zip several times before and I’m pleased with the service. Cars are clean and available. I dig the website and iphone app.
But here’s the thing: I wish i didn’t have to get a ZipCar. I wish I...
Teacher Reviews
A few years ago we moved to a different suburb outside of Boston. It made my commute a bit better and the public school system is supposed to be one of the best. The reputation came from a few parents we knew in the town and from various test scores.
Our kids are 11, 8 and 4 yrs old. We have a decent amount of public school experience. And so far we are pleased.
Each year we visit the teachers...
Paul Westerberg - Once Around The Weekend
Live...
“I hate AT&T’s quality, but I don’t hate it enough to leave. I didn’t really...”
– Why I can’t kick the Apple iPhone habit — Scobleizer
yep. what he said.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-7-11) →
The Clash (57)
Sigur Ros (49)
The Replacements (39)
Neil Young (38)
Weezer (31)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“I’ll admit now that I didn’t grow up in a June Cleever household. My mom owned...”
– Stuart Roseman - Living in a non June Cleever world
Great post from my friend Stu. My worked growing up as a kid (and still works every day even though she doesn’t need to). Thanks Mom!
Google App Inventor is the right idea
I was mostly offline this weekend. This morning I read with great interest the lead story on Techmeme about Google’s upcoming App Inventor for Android.
It provides a simple looking front end and toolset to allow just about anyone to create an Android app.
To me this very much reminds me of back in the day of Hypercard where just about anyone could learn how to build a Hypercard stack. I...
