Bijan Sabet

Moving from the Wii to the Xbox & need suggestions

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:58:51 -0500

We are moving to a new house next month (god willing).

It’s been a good excuse for me to make some new decisions on a new phone systems, wireless routers, back up systems and TV. I’ll likely write about those decisions in a future post.

We have had a Nintendo Wii at our house since they first came out. The kids mostly play games on the ipad or iphones. But when they have friends over they hit the Wii.

In the new house I’m planning on adding a Xbox + Kinect for the kids and for me.

But I’m a complete xbox noob. So I’d love to hear any recommendations for games for the kids (ages 6, 10, 12, 43) and any accessories I should pick up beyond the Kinect.

Thanks!

(via Skymra Canvas W | Tretorn ($50-100) - Svpply) just ordered...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:52:29 -0500

(via Skymra Canvas W | Tretorn ($50-100) - Svpply)

just ordered these

A-Punk (Vampire Weekend Cover) by Ryan Adams shared from exfm

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:25:00 -0500

A-Punk (Vampire Weekend Cover) by Ryan Adams

shared from exfm

New OSX could make the Mac as game-friendly as the iPhone

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:17:38 -0500

New OSX could make the Mac as game-friendly as the iPhone:

nabeel:

The new version of OSX that Apple announced today feels like it could strangely make the Mac as valuable a channel for games as Facebook or the iPhone.

Very interesting.

The Killing Moon by Echo & The Bunnymen Yeah. I love this...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:34:00 -0500

The Killing Moon by Echo & The Bunnymen

Yeah. I love this song.

shared from exfm

James is sick :( (Taken with instagram)

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:04:45 -0500

James is sick :( (Taken with instagram)

"Twitter cares more about its societal role—with its revenue model still a work in progress, it is..."

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:10:05 -0500

“Twitter cares more about its societal role—with its revenue model still a work in progress, it is about to move into new headquarters in the vast Art Deco Mart building, in one of the shabbiest sections of San Francisco’s Market Street skid row, with the quixotic hope of revitalizing the neighborhood.”

- Fast Company: The Women of Twitter - Magazine - Vogue

i love twitter.

Ben Kweller - Jealous Girl new song off the awesome new record...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:07:41 -0500

Ben Kweller - Jealous Girl

new song off the awesome new record Go Fly A Kite.

Wow! @fredwilson and I get a shout out on the new @benkweller...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:28:12 -0500

Wow! @fredwilson and I get a shout out on the new @benkweller record. Absolutely stunned. Thanks Ben!

First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes this song goes out to my...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:04:00 -0500

First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes

this song goes out to my valentine. found this photo of me and lauren almost 20 years ago in mendocino, california. just a couple of kids in love. then and now.

Take my data

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:03:30 -0500

The Path story continues this week.

You can check out all the various posts on the subject on Techmeme right now.

The issue is that Path 2.0 had used our personal address book data to find friends that also use Path.

At the highest level, I think that is a feature - not a bug or a problem for that matter.

I’m sure there are things that Apple and dozens (or more) of iOS apps can do better to make the user aware of what’s going on. But here’s the thing: i want apps to do more with my data. It makes my life better, not worse.

Consider Google.

Google knows everything about me. Everything. They know my search history. Map queries. They own my mail, calender and address book. They have my task manager. All my docs.

I made that trade because Google does those things better than desktop apps or behind the firewall apps. Close your eyes and imagine that you had to run your own mail server or use Microsoft Exchange.

I gave all my photos to Flickr back in the day because they did a better job with it than I could.

That’s the give:get thing about the web.

That doesn’t mean I should give my data and the web service should mistreat me and sell my data without my persmission. But if they want to use my data to provide better things like “find my friends” then please please take my data.

I trust that Path is going to use my data to make the product better. That’s Dave’s mission. He’s trying to build the best private social journal and he’s off to a great start.

I wish other things in my life used my data to make my life better. That’s a fair trade to me.

The Drums - Birthday original by the sugarcubes. enjoy.

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:58:57 -0500

The Drums - Birthday

original by the sugarcubes. enjoy.

Rare to see founders share this view of the world. I remember...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:34:36 -0500

Rare to see founders share this view of the world. I remember the day @jack showed it to the Twitter board. Healthy and important perspective.

via fred-wilson:

Joel Spolsky’s org chart from this guest post he did for me today. I love the marketing organization!

make a wish james

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:11:43 -0500

make a wish james

Taking big risks

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:16:09 -0500

There comes a time in every company where the leader or founders have to decide whether they are going to take a big risk or play it safe.

I met with a founder last week that was telling me about his frustration with his company. Things are going very well considering but he can’t get the team to take risks.

The most striking thing about Facebook is how often they are willing to take big chances that could mess things up.

The classic example was Beacon. It was a PR disaster but it was a bold effort in product and vision and they had to regroup and come up with a better idea.

But they push things forward. Even before Beacon, the introduction of the Facebook news feed was controversial.

As long as Mark Zuckerberg is running the company we are going to see him shake things up with that service. For better and for worse. Some will love it - some will hate it. But you have to admire the desire to push.

David Karp and the Tumblr team take risks as well. Over the years I can think of a number of features that were launched to the entire user base and either refined or simply removed.

An example of that was Tumblarity. Some folks loved it (like me) — others didn’t. It’s gone.

A few weeks back Tumblr released Highlighted Posts. Fred wrote about it last week. I am a big fan of this feature and I’m looking forward to see how it evolves. I know a lot of people love it but there are some that aren’t sure. One thing is clear, they continue to try new stuff over at Tumblr and it is very exciting to me.

Another area where I see companies taking a big bet/risk is in the area of acquisitions. We have had a few startups in our portfolio seek to purchase a smaller company to accelerate important areas. That’s always a risky move but it can be extremely rewarding. Twitter’s acquisition of Summize (in ‘08) had a lot of risk but paid off extremely well.

None of this is easy. It’s scary. Some of your investors will think you are nuts. Some of your employees will grumble. Your users may yell and scream. It requires vision, the will to inspire and a team to execute. Oh, and it doesn’t always work.

But taking risk is a big part of what makes a good company achieve greatness.

Nap time (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:37:07 -0500

Nap time (Taken with instagram)

This new record is so great. Can’t wait to see him play...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:06:00 -0500

This new record is so great. Can’t wait to see him play this live.

fred-wilson:

Full Circle - Ben Kweller - Go Fly A Kite

Ben and his new record, Go Fly A Kite, are the artist of the weekend on fredwilson.fm

Ben’s voice on this song is so awesome. I love the part about the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights

James learning all about Xbox at his cousins house (Taken with...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:51:08 -0500

James learning all about Xbox at his cousins house (Taken with instagram)

Back bay (Taken with Instagram at Top of the Hub)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:15:43 -0500

Back bay (Taken with Instagram at Top of the Hub)

Picked up new converse kicks today (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:12:22 -0500

Picked up new converse kicks today (Taken with instagram)