DaMoon

via Guy Shield Very creative marriage proposal

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:59:58 -0500

Very creative marriage proposal

"Interestingly, at least two of Gowalla’s individual investors—Conway and Rose—are..."

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:43:29 -0500

“

Interestingly, at least two of Gowalla’s individual investors—Conway and Rose—are also investors in Foursquare, another game-like “geo” app that lets you find your friends and collect “badges.” And at least four of them—Conway, Rose, Sacca, and Vaynerchuk—have additionally backed location software company SimpleGeo, whose funding CNET first reported late last month.

This either means that there are some well-moneyed people in Silicon Valley who throw money around blindfolded, or that some prominent folks think there’s room for more than one “geo” app out there.

”

- The geo wars heat up: Gowalla raises $8.4 million | The Social - CNET News

Or perhaps they are just hedging their bets.

via sundayhangover

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:22:51 -0500

via sundayhangover

I think there is some content near the bottom…

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:53:54 -0500

I think there is some content near the bottom…

I designed these Jack Purcell CP Canvas Converse to give as a...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:40:29 -0500

I designed these Jack Purcell CP Canvas Converse to give as a gift to my groomsmen at our wedding. We were all roommates in college together at UC Berkeley, hence the blue and gold motif.

They finally arrived today… our wedding was 10 days ago.

I think these Converse make for great personalized gifts, just make sure to tack on an extra 2 weeks on their expected date of delivery.

"Suppose you’re early to pickup your child from school, or your drive to dinner was quicker..."

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:28:21 -0500

“Suppose you’re early to pickup your child from school, or your drive to dinner was quicker than expected, or you’ve just checked into a new hotel. Chances are you’ve got time to kill, but you don’t want to spend it entering addresses, sifting through POI categories, or even typing a search. Instead you just want stuff nearby, whatever that might be. Your location is your query, and we hear you loud and clear.”

- Official Google Mobile Blog: Mobile Search for a New Era: Voice, Location and Sight

If you really want to see what’s around you, try UpNext. We think our location search is the best.

"So why do we need 3-D maps? Well, for simple things—driving directions, finding a..."

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:54:05 -0500

“So why do we need 3-D maps? Well, for simple things—driving directions, finding a business—Bing Maps already gives you a nice light AJAX experience. “But obviously things are moving to a much more expansive, immersive direction,” says Aguera y Arcas. “If you want to explore, if you want to really understand more about a place, you really need to be able to get right down in there, and see if from the point of view that people actually experience it. As great as it is to use cameras on top of cars for building that visual trellis, that’s not the actual human perspective.” Using Photosynth in Bing Maps, he says, is about bridging that connection between maps and photo-sharing sites like Flickr.”

- Bing Introduces 3-D Photosynth Maps | TechWatch | Fast Company

Hope

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:14:58 -0500

marco:

I’ve mostly stopped writing about the dismal App Store approval process and the issues it causes because I’ve felt hopeless. Nothing has changed. Nothing has improved. Despite some token status-reporting “improvement” attempts, nearly everything about the App Store is the same, or worse, than it was a year ago.

The average review time has nearly doubled. There are more undocumented rules being enforced less consistently than ever before. Apple is as just as opaque, unhelpful, and hostile as they’ve been. Unscrupulous publishers are gaming and abusing rankings, search results, and descriptions like crazy. Invalid or off-topic reviews are still rarely removed, and the rate-on-delete dialog still unfairly destroys every app’s average star rating. It’s a mess.

But I like it here.

A lot of things are wrong with my country, too. And my state. But it’s still the only place I want to be, and I’d rather fight to improve it than abandon it.

I don’t want to go to any other mobile platform. The iPhone is still an amazing device with a great hardware and software ecosystem and hundreds of high-quality apps. But app review is a massive problem that’s slowly degrading the platform.

This can only be fixed with a major policy change.

The people at Apple capable of changing this (a very high-level executive at least, but probably only Jobs) couldn’t possibly care less when any single developer leaves the platform or makes a stink, even if it’s Google, because it ultimately doesn’t generate a lot of bad press outside of geek circles.

But they hate bad mainstream press. And the amount of negative attention surrounding app review is finally reaching a level that inspires hope — hope that the shitstorm may finally be large enough to cause a policy change.

Any policy change would require a lot of work, technically. It’s unlike Apple to announce any upcoming changes before their release. If such a policy change happens, the decision will have probably been made at least a few months beforehand.

I suspect that we’re crossing that point now, and the decision is about to be made (or recently has been made) to abolish what we know of today as app review.

I have no idea what would replace it, or whether its replacement would be significantly better. But it’s not like Apple to sit on their hands with such a high-profile part of their product line and do nothing to improve it.

Maybe this is just blind hope. It’s certainly not based on any information. It’s a hunch at best. But I can hope.

Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!

Words That We, As An Internet, Have Overused And Are No Longer Permitted To Use

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:42:57 -0500

rafer:

marco:

media

brand

trend (as a verb, incl. “trending”)

invite (as a noun, thanks — “invitation” is permitted)

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Rafer sez:
Don’t forget “content.”

I usually just put “social” in front of all those words and it makes it all better.

(WSJ) Ron Conway Changes His Tune About The Big Apple

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:24:03 -0500

mikehudack:

arigreenberg:

Ron Conway fidgeted. He groaned. He called the scenario unfair.

As the mega-angel investor sat onstage during an exclusive event for New York entrepreneurs, a video played of Conway being interviewed for a program at Stanford University in which he’s asked if there’s any place in the world that could replicate the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Silicon Valley.

“Not even close,” Conway quickly replies in the video. “I’m really opinionated on this topic because we have like five investments in New York…they’re great companies but they’re more work than three companies in Silicon Valley.”

With a theater full of proud New York entrepreneurs, it could have been ugly for Conway, a prolific angel investor best known for his early investment in Google Inc. Fortunately, the crowd, and Conway, had a good laugh at his comments on the video, which was filmed nearly two years ago. And, fortunately for these entrepreneurs attending the Startup@Work Founders Speakers Series, Conway said he has changed his tune about business in the Big Apple.

In the past year Conway has invested in 45 start-ups, and 10 of those call New York home. One of those companies is hot social-networking mobile start-up Foursquare Labs Inc. When asked if that company should move to California, Conway responded, “Hell, no.”

He went on to label New York as a hotbed for social media companies that have a great advantage over start-ups in other locales given that New York is the media capital of the world.

Conway was the featured speaker for the third installment of the Startup@Work series organized by Warren Lee, a venture partner at Canaan Partners who interviews the speakers. Lee’s idea behind the invite-only event is to give entrepreneurs the chance to hear straight-talk about the challenges of founding and growing a company. (See our previous story about this event here.)

Conway, who has invested in more than 500 companies over the years, has always rooted for start-ups. He discussed how he left a marketing job at National Semiconductor Corp. in 1979 to join Altos Computer Systems, as a co-founder, president and CEO. Altos went on to be acquired in 1990 by Acer Inc.

Conway has been an active angel investor for more than 15 years. He was the founder and managing partner for the Angel Investors LP funds from 1998 to 2005 whose investments included Google, Ask Jeeves Inc. and PayPal Inc. Notable current investments include Digg Inc., Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.

He and two other partners and two associates now manage a pool of angel investor money for a firm called SV Angels. The group evaluates about five “quality” deals per day, Conway said, eliminating two to three of them immediately and considering the others.

Investments in New York include Associated Content Inc., Betaworks and Hunch Inc., among about 20 portfolio companies here.

While he’s often called the “Godfather of Silicon Valley,” it seems lately New York is glad to have him as a rich uncle.

(WSJ Link)

Sam Altman, left, and Alok Deshpande, center, co-founders of ...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:38:40 -0500

Sam Altman, left, and Alok Deshpande, center, co-founders of Loopt, met Patrick Chung, right, when they were testing their newest release.

___________

Amazing how these services are connecting us serendipitously… right?

http://www.loopt.com/about/board

Photo

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:56:44 -0500

More (Too Much?) Free from Google: Turn-By-Turn

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:53:24 -0400

continuations:

Yesterday, Google announced something stunning: free turn-by-turn directions for Android 2.0 to be first available shortly on the Droid phones. It is stunning because the previously cheapest software only alternatives were apps such as Navigon ($89.99) and TomTom ($99.99) for the iPhone (as an aside, stand alone GPS devices with turn-by-turn directions can now be found on Amazon for as little as $139 for a Garmin nuvi 260 and that’s after 2 seconds of looking). So here we have a case of Google taking something that previously cost nearly $100 per instance and making it free. Obviously, this is awesome news for the Android platform.

Tim O’Reilly greeted the news with the following tweet

Google Shrinks Another Market With Free Turn-By-Turn Navigation http://bit.ly/Oz00q Once again we see the disruptive power of big data.

To which I replied

@timoreilly we could also be seeing the power of something less benign: cross-subsidization

I was not the only one who had that reaction. For instance, Dare Obasanjo also tweeted more pointedly

timoreilly isn’t that really the disruptive power of monopoly profits? :)

Tim’s two part reply was

@Carnage4Life Nokia has Google scale profits, but couldn’t do free turn by turn despite buying NavTech. It’s more than just money (1/2)

@Carnage4Life It’s also understanding how to use data to create network effects in 2-sided markets (see http://bit.ly/lPemc ) 2/2

This brings up the basic issue: should it be legal for Google to give away a product below cost as part of a strategy of attracting users (and developers) to other services on which it does make money?

The answer to this question is anything but obvious. I remember well when Microsoft starting pushing Internet Explorer aggressively (and free) to “cut off Netscape’s air supply” (a quote denied by Paul Maritz, but mentioned in the antitrust case against Microsoft). Microsoft engaged in various forms of bundling, which is what made the strategy illegal. It could be argued that Google is not bundling and hence it should be legal (the impact on existing providers may be the same in any case with Garmin stock hammered yesterday). But with tons of free initiatives by Google, such as Chrome, Chrome OS, music in search results, book search, and the list goes on, there comes an eventual question as to whether this will all be good for competition and consumer benefit in the long run (it’s no doubt great in the short run!).

This will be a long discussion which I am sure will play itself out over several years to come in the press and in courts (and in a tiny part on this blog). So stay tuned for more!

Some excellent thoughts on Google’s ability to launch products for free because of their wonderful money printing machine, Adsense.

Like Albert says, in the short run this is awesome — free turn by turn directions on my phone — but ask the newspaper industry if they are happy about the way things turned out in the long run.

Los Angeles Clippers' Blake Griffin has broken kneecap, out weeks - ESPN

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:26:00 -0400

Los Angeles Clippers' Blake Griffin has broken kneecap, out weeks - ESPN:

As a Clippers fan, this is completely expected. The fact that it happened after an explosive dunk is even more fitting. There must be a teaser of excitement before it is ripped away from the fans, to really complete the experience of being a Clippers fan.

Sadly, this news does not even rank highly in terms of unfortunate franchinse moments.

innonate: homescreens: Nate Westheimer’s home...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:38:56 -0400

innonate:

homescreens:

Nate Westheimer’s home screen

Awesome, UpNext on the first page, second row. We are honored. If only we could get in front of that Maps icon to the left.

NSFW: Weezer, plane crashes and everything else that’s worrying about the real-time web

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:25:10 -0400

NSFW: Weezer, plane crashes and everything else that’s worrying about the real-time web:

Whether you love or hate the real time web, this is worth a read.

thegongshow: Caterina Fake’s recipe for a focused, productive...

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:38:01 -0400

thegongshow:

Caterina Fake’s recipe for a focused, productive day. Very cool (and very nicely designed). I wish I had the self-discipline to implement this, but both the nature of my job and the way my mind spins hold me back.

——————
singletasking (via caterina)

I believe most people already implement this as their work schedule.

Under “Focus 1-3 activities max/day” add

1) Email

2) Social Media: Blog, reblog, Facebook, Twitter

3) Meetings

Does that now look like your day?

Canal+ Best story ever Never underestimate the power of a good...

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:59:27 -0400

Canal+ Best story ever

Never underestimate the power of a good story

Sneak Preview: Goldman Fellas starring Robert De Niro as Goldman...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:06:08 -0400

Sneak Preview: Goldman Fellas

starring Robert De Niro as Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein

New Yorkers Share Their Favorite Smartphone Applications -- New York Magazine

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:57:20 -0400

New Yorkers Share Their Favorite Smartphone Applications -- New York Magazine:

Eric Hahn, process server
Favorite app: UpNext (iPhone/iPod Touch), $2.99
“You can zoom in and see an outline of every building near you. Touch one, and a list of every business located in there pops up.”

Excellent!