February 2008
88 posts
Google Sites Jumps the rel=nofollow Shark →
Google has officially jumped the rel=nofollow shark.
Google Sites is live and every page on the site uses rel=nofollow.
I just created a sample site and linked to my blog only to be…
“If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with...”
– Betty Reese (via SVN)
Google to Buy 19.9% of Yahoo To Block MSFT? Why... →
Rumor-monger TechCrunch cranks out another hot one—Google is thinking of buying just under 20% of Yahoo just to block the Microsoft-Yahoo deal. Rumor-squelcher Swisher howls in protest but…
That guy who saved my life →
I was talking today in a teleconference about how ‘friends’ aren’t really friends, at least not in most social graphs. I’m not much inclined to do a heroic favor for a friend of a friend of a…
Google's Marissa Mayer Just a Dolled-Up,... →
We’ve never met Google’s Marissa Mayer, but we will confess to having had a bit of a crush on her. We’ve imagined her as a Sue Decker-type: brilliant, powerful, smoking. But now comes San…
Google's Marissa Mayer Just a Dolled-Up,... →
We’ve never met Google’s Marissa Mayer, but we will confess to having had a secret crush on her. We’ve imagined her as a Sue Decker-type: brilliant, competent, smoking. But now comes San…
Bernanke: Who's the Crackberry Guy? →
I was watching Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s testimony this morning while I was in-air between San Diego and Salt Lake City. Peering through the compression artifacts, I couldn’t help but notice some…
“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of...”
– EB White (via mayagantt)
Tumblr's New Homepage: Leaked Screenshot →
Valleywag has procured a screenshot of the new Tumblr homepage, “Tumblr Radar,” a greatest-hits album of the microblogging site’s star curators. Check it out below. It looks like… a homepage.
Last week, Tumblr founder David Karp told CNet that an ad-supported homepage would be its first source of revenue. So now we see the homepage. (Which, like the rest of Tumblr, has a...
That guy who saved my life →
I was talking today in a teleconference about how ‘friends’ aren’t really friends, at least not in most social graphs. I’m not much inclined to do a heroic favor for a friend of a friend of a friend. As a result, because it feels icky to say ‘no’, I don’t hang out in the networking sites. On the other hand, that guy who saved my life once, he can ask for...
The Visa IPO, and the Secret History of Credit... →
I’ll come back later with some more detailed stuff on the gob-smackingly huge Visa IPO — it will likely be the largest in U.S. history; and, even if ill-timed, it follows Mastercard which has done a 5-bagger — but for now, two things. First, a chart putting the Visa IPO in historical context among its fellow titanic U.S. IPOs: Second, this Frontline special on the credit card...
“On a busy corner in São Paulo, Brazil, street vendors pitch the latest...”
– Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business (the article)
Chris Anderson: Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of... →
Fuck Grapefruit →
Switching to Gmail… →
Yeah, yeah, I know, I should have done this years ago. But Hotmail is just something I was addicted to. My email address is all over the Internet, so I resisted totally making the switch. Plus I was an Outlook guy, so didn’t really need to deal with the online service, all your emails just came into Outlook. Now I’m trying to move everything online. Why? Because I have several computers and I’m...
Google May Buy Balloon Company →
Google is considering working with, or buying Space Data Corp, a company that provides wireless services via Balloon, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Space Data Corp targets areas without existing internet access, such as rural areas and highways, providing wireless and internet services to truckers and rural folk. The company currently launches 20 balloons a day, and a single balloon...
“The Dutch, like the Scandinavians, have an enviable economy and social order...”
– Daily Candor » What Europeans think of each other
The New Backpack's First 24 Hours →
Yesterday’s big Backpack update was a huge success. It was the best day in Backpack’s history — even better than the last big update in July ‘07 and add anywhere in Oct ‘07. We usually don’t share numbers, but we thought we’d break tradition and give people a peek into Backpack’s signups, upgrades, and financial performance yesterday. 317 Upgrades Yesterday 317 people upgraded their Backpack...
Psychoanalyzing Entrepreneurs: They're Wacky →
Amusing excerpt from a longer research piece psycho-analyzing the entrepreneurial mindset: In the entrepreneurial theater a need for control, a sense of distrust, a desire for applause, and resorting to primitive defensive mechanisms such as splitting, projection, denial, and the flight into action (“the manic defense”) appear to be common. The behavior of a number of entrepreneurs...
eBay Sellers Launch Boycott, Little Impact So Far →
eBay sellers launched a one-week boycott on Monday. So far, listings are down 3%, says Fortune Small Business, with the full impact expected to hit in a few days, when last week’s listings begin to expire. (eBay says the boycott has had “no impact”).
Like previous eBay boycotts, this one probably won’t do much, but it serves to remind sellers (and shareholders) that they...
Blist Brings Bling to Databases and Spreadsheets →
Blist, a darling of the DEMO 08 conference, is announcing this morning that they have raised a $6m “A Round” of venture capital. Who knew that spreadsheets made social = big investments? That’s what they do, they make database information and spreadsheet social. Wonder at their uninspired blog, wonder at their nerdish CEO’s executive background at Microsoft and Smith Barney...
Theory and Practice →
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.” -Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut
Incredible (serial) entrepreneurs who made a... →
New York Times (NYT) To Fire Journalists →
They tried, but reality has finally set in:
After years of resisting the newsroom cuts that have hit most of the
industry, The New York Times will bow to growing financial strain and
eliminate 100 newsroom jobs this year, the executive editor said
Thursday.
The cuts will be achieved primarily through
attrition and buyouts, but layoffs are a real possibility, said the
executive editor, Bill...
Signaling →
Brad DeLong disentangles the messages that a (male) professor sends by wearing a tie. (Inspired by this sad little diatribe, properly mocked here.)
I have found that wearing a suit and tie is very effective if done occasionally with non-math-oriented students. It tells them that I care because it shows that I have taken sufficient time to prepare and teach the class even though I am a busy...
Nielsen: Women Like Web TV, Men Like Web Clips →
Nielsen Online shares some of its super-secret video research with the WSJ. The upshot? Women like network TV on the web, while click-happy men like short attention-span fare like user-generated video and comedy clips.
Does this surprise anyone? It shouldn’t, because women are much more likely then men to watch TV, period. The most interesting thing about the Nielsen research is the scale...
Altucher: College is "Abhorrent" →
I love my friend James Altucher dearly — and not just because his hair makes mine look half-decent, nor because he pitched in and helped last week at the Money:Tech conference — and his column in yesterday’s FT is another reason why. Blunt, smart, contrarian, empirical and irreligious, those are James’s calling cards. College a waste of time and money for kids By James...
Warren Buffett and the Case for Eliminating... →
Why does municipal bond insurance exist? After all, default rates are incredibly low, on the order of 0.1%, much lower than on corporate issues. Not surprisingly, this low-default insurance business has been highly profitable, at least until recently, for incumbents. Now, however, we have Warren Buffett wanting a piece of the (broken) action. Should he get it? A provocative piece in the upcoming...
10 minutes on whether Hillary can win →
A second, shorter video, about whether Hillary should win (and whether that should matter). Here both at blip.tv (which has better quality) and youtube.com, as well as a link to download the original. Original file here.
HotOrNot raised $40 million for its founder,... →
Murdoch's New WSJ: Stories People Want To Read →
At the NYT, media smart-guy David Carr analyzes Rupert Murdoch’s influence on the WSJ, which is already apparent on the paper’s front page: It’s full of political stories.
Four years ago, John Kerry effectively captured the Democratic nomination and made a brief
appearance on Page 1, but then it was back to the business of business.
In January 2008, there were 23 Page 1 stories...
“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people...”
– The Cheap Revolution: Top 20 Entrepreneurial Quotes
“It is not a matter of averages, but of extremes. Females are much of a muchness,...”
– Helena Cronin
Moral Realism -or- it’s a really light telescope →
Murdoch's New WSJ: Stories People Want To Read →
At the NYT, media smart-guy David Carr analyzes Rupert Murdoch’s influence on the WSJ, which is already apparent on the paper’s front page: It’s full of political stories.
Four years ago, John Kerry effectively captured the Democratic nomination and made a brief
appearance on Page 1, but then it was back to the business of business.
In January 2008, there were 23 Page 1 stories...
Dear Steve: Don't Buy Me. Signed, Jerry. →
Amusing faux note from Yahoo’s Jerry Yang to Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. Turns out the impending buyout rejection has something to do with Star Trek collectibles. [via NY Post]
The Cleverest Idea I've Seen In Years →
This is the cleverest idea I’ve seen in years (and Apple had nothing to do with it as far as I know): PlayPumps. Kids play and pump water for villages at the same time. Girls benefit in particular because they are usually the ones fetching water. How cool is that?!
The Color of Music →
Moody offers a different way to categorize your music collection. Using color-coded tagging, this app lets you categorize your iTunes music based on the “mood” of the song. Horizontally, the scale goes from sad to happy, and vertically the scale goes from calm to intense. When you listen to a song, you rate it using Moody, which launches in a small floating window on your screen...
