The NYT has an interactive timeline that looks at the effects of Steve Jobs departures from Apple.
I love this photo of the first Apple Computer. The Apple I came with a motherboard, keyboard and wooden casing.
I wonder if I can get one of these on ebay.
Winter Wooskie – Belle and Sebastian
reminding myself that winter is almost over. thank god.
Like Google, [Twitter is] finding new data to search,” says Sam Schillace, Google’s engineering director. “As an engineer, that makes my nose twitch.
Soul Kitchen – The Doors (live)
Last week I met with an entrepreneur that gave me a demo of his new product. His profile photo was Jim Morrison which quickly led me to a doors binge since.
This is from a live bootleg from 1967. I think a lot of folks forget how damn cool this band was live. Play the blues Jim.
Yesterday I wrote down my thoughts about when it sometimes makes sense for government to get involved in the business world.
But if the government doesn’t get involved to make things better, well, that simply can’t be a hall pass for companies to act badly towards their employees.
This morning I read on Techmeme that RIM records all employee phone calls. All of them.
I know many companies also do the same with employee email.
This has got to stop.
In bad markets and downturns, we all need to step up. Investors, employees and employers and need to act better, not worse. Life is hard enough for most people.
Companies have plenty of protection/assurances against rogue employee behavior. They can fire them at will. They have invention assignment clauses, they have non-solicitation agreements, they have lawyers, they have NDAs, etc.
Maybe it’s time employees get a bill of rights or something :)
(update: I understand for certain things like customer service in the financial world we need to record calls. my beef here with RIM is that this surveillance is a blanket program for all employees).
Young Adult Friction – The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Is it me or is there just a ton of great indie bands coming out of NY. These guys are trending big time on the Hype Machine right now and getting a lot of love from the blogs.
I can see why.
Evan Williams, cofounder & CEO of Twitter, on the Charlie Rose show.
Great job Ev!
(disclosure: I am on the Twitter board of directors along with Fred Wilson and Peter Fenton and we are investors in the company).
Some companies never ever announce new products until they are about to launch or the day of the launch. They keep the products in stealth mode until they are good & ready.
The classic example is Apple. I can’t imagine the gang in Cupertino shipping a product with the word “beta” on it.
Other companies like to show off prototypes/demos/products well before they are “real”
Google, Microsoft and others are in this category.
It’s not better or worse. It’s just different.
The same thing is true with startups. Take 2 different Spark portfolio companies as examples.
Tumblr rarely talks publicly about future things on their product plan. They work like crazy and then release insanely great products. They are working on some super cool stuff but I can’t see David talking about it or blogging about it until its launched.
Boxee on the other hand wears their plans and product ideas on their blog sleeve. Most of the time we know what cool stuff is coming down the path.
Which is better? I don’t think that is a fair question.
I believe that companies need to be true to themselves and do what feels natural.
But most of all, think about the user first. That is the key.
And I’m proud that both of those companies do just that.
(photo via flickr)
St. Stephen – Grateful Dead
I haven’t listened to the dead in some time. I’ve got “Aoxomoxoa” playing this morning.