April 2008
36 posts
2 tags
Twitter becoming the Midas Touch?
The influential Twitter mini-universe is going completely gaga over Brightkite. It’s nearly identical to the mobile geolocater service Plazes with a single exception: Twitter integration. Somehow that’s been sufficient to kick off a firestorm of signups and Brightkite is struggling to keep up with the influx of new users.
For now, it seems Twitter is firmly secure as the bleeding...
2 tags
“I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them...”
– An excerpt from Clay Shirky’s speech, Gin, Television, and Social Surplus, at the Web 2.0 conference about the increased productivity via “cognitive surplus.” Clay told this story to support his belief that this is more than just an idea and that people are growing accustomed to...
2 tags
“As an industry — as a business model — health care is winning. It is taking...”
– George Halvorson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente (via jayparkinsonmd.com)
If Microsoft goes fully hostile on Yahoo →
Great read at Marc Andreesen’s blog on how a potential hostile takeover by Microsoft of Yahoo could happen. The attorneys who compiled it drop a lot of hints to the finance departments other big dot-coms on what they should do to avoid a similar predicament.
Fleming: Inside the Life of James Bond’s Creator →
I had no idea Ian Fleming was such a renaissance man. Not only did he write the James Bond novels, earlier in his life he had worked as assistant to the British director of naval intelligence and later wrote a series of memorandums and letters to Col. William Donovan describing what a US intelligence agency should look like. In essence, he wrote up the blueprints for what would become the CIA.
...
3 tags
“I find myself thinking of a checklist Wozniak wrote a few years ago describing...”
– Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm (via jakoblodwick)
3 tags
Green is... not what PG&E is doing.
I pick up the mail this afternoon and in my stack of junk mail is an 8-page glossy booklet from PG&E telling me what it means to be “green.” Inside is a section on dwindling natural resources on Earth followed by recommendations on stuff I can buy to save energy. There’s also a postcard stapled to the center pages that I can fill out and mail to them to receive even more junk...
3 tags
A tale of Eric Ziebold, former #2 at Thomas...
As told by Shuna Fish Lydon, former pastry chef at The French Laundry.
“No.” Eric said to calm them a bit, “Stand over here, I’m going to show you how to put out this table, I’m going to show you how to cook, how to work like a team, how to put out just one ticket.”
And then he did. He cooked every single course, by himself, with not another soul on the...
2 tags
“The reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order.”
– Machiavelli (via Bits or pieces?)
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Across 110th Street by Bobby Womack
Lies I've told my 3 year old recently →
Some of them are so poetic I wish they were true.
“If you are very very quiet you can hear the clouds rub against the sky.”
“Sadness can be eaten.”
Some more “lies” and heartwarming stories from the comments in the Metafilter thread.
“Thunder was god bowling or moving furniture around.”
“There was a mouse that lived in my grandfathers...
The Long Way There: Photographs by Vincent Laforet →
11 tilt-shift photographs of American’s commuting patterns. Fun photos of planes, trains, and automobiles.
(via kottke.org)
Op-Chart: Making Money Hand Over Fist (The New... →
A Flash primer of an oil trader demonstrating the hand signals used on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange. All the signs (except for one) involve only one hand and sometimes the face but that’s it. There are signs for numerals for buying, numerals for selling, months of the year, and miscellaneous signals. The miscellaneous signs are particularly fun.
I’m utterly...
30 Most Notable Magazine Launches of 2007 →
I’ve found that the magazine aisles at bookstores give a good glimpse into what American people are interested in. Here, Mr. Magazine (Samir Husni) rounded up the 30 most notable 2007 magazine launches. The whole movement from niche interests to complete lifestyles is very apparent in many of the magazines, especially Heal (living with cancer), Men’s Health Living, Outside Go...
Taylor McKnight: "Tumblr Recommendation: Junesix... →
gtmcknight:
Really enjoying their tumblr lately.
Wow, Taylor, I’m really humbled. I’m a big fan of all your work, especially with Hype Machine and Project 365. Sched.org is a sweet project and I wished I could attend SXSW this past year if only to be able to use it. An embeddable version for other conferences in the works, perhaps? Namaste for your kind words.
TheFunded.com: Founding Member Presentation →
Adeo Ressi of The Funded gave this presentation at the Next Web conference. A lot of great tips to founders pitching VCs.
Additional tips:
The only time your lawyers will be honest with you in the venture raising process is when you interview them. After that don’t trust anything they say because their motivation is to close the deal and get the fee.
Everyone needs to go and pitch a VC...
