December 2007
The Archives
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12.12.07Facebook’s wall slowly crumblesThe Internet provides one of our greatest opportunities to study the "invisible hand" of a (virtually) free market economy. The network owned by no one, yet everyone fosters a level of democracy previously unseen. Competition between online properties is therefore very interesting and transparent as seen in Facebook's counter to OpenSocial. This move should should spur yet more developer interest in the platform now that it will presumably grow beyond a single domain and will quell some of the comparisons made between AOL and FB. I say some because it still looks an awful lot like a ...
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12.11.07Rant: Why I read non-fictionOne of the things that has changed while living alone is the abundance of time I spend alone. Sometimes it's creepy because of all the time I spend talking into the mirror. Although the majority of the conversations I have with myself I enjoy because I tend to learn something. Tonight is the first night I've been home recently and I got to talking. I was pursing for a book when my ego decided to be inquisitive and question why I primarily read non-fiction. I have always pegged it as a preference for real world knowledge. It ...
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12.11.07Something smells funny on TechcrunchI don't goto Techcrunch often anymore (that'll be a future post) but the story of Edgeio folding caught my eye since I knew Techcrunch founder Micheal Arrington was involved with both sites. I wanted to see what he said about one of his companies as it hit the Deadpool on his more successful venture. Talk about conflict of interest! I'll save you the effort: there was nothing out of the ordinary in the post. Really a typical, "you win some, you lose some," note. True. To tell you the truth, I wasn't even surprised to see ...
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12.11.07The "R" wordThe uncertainty in the U.S. economy has brought many people to claim that the nation is teetering edge of a recession. The Fed's 1 point drop in the Federal Interest Rate speaks to it's concern of a slowing economy. But, as of today's meeting, the Fed has yet to label this possible slowdown with the "R" word. NPR ran an interesting story that confirms the one thing that both sides can't argue with: no one knows what's going on.
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12.11.07BOGO: 2 for 1 on the soda aisleI have always found the idea of cycles in commerce to be intriguing. For example, one of the more popular examples of this phenomenon is the often noted 20 year cycle in fashion. This same principle happens all over including in our grocery stores. I stumbled into a 1989 New York Times article describing a Pepsi campaign to test market a high-caffeine version of it's cola targeted as a morning drink: The Pepsi-Cola Company next month will begin test-marketing Pepsi A.M., a cola drink with about 28 percent more caffeine an ounce than regular Pepsi This idea apparently bridges generations because ...
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12.07.07Two surprising facts in one quoteSix of the seven presidential tickets between 1980 and 2004 have included a Bush, and five of those six [have] won. American Theocracy Striking not only for illustrating one family's dominance of modern American leadership, but also because it shows (disappointingly) the fixed national mindset on one thing: oil.
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12.07.07Ever wonder where media is going and why?While pursing the oh-so-valuable fora.tv, I stumbled upon a talk given by Daniel Lyons, better known as Fake Steve Jobs. If you keep up with the blog or have read the book, it's a must see. He discusses the rise of the blog, it's acquisition by Forbes, why Google AdSense doesn't make cents, and his thoughts on the fast-changing print media industry. My favorite quote on the topic of the Internet: It's different when you put your hand on the third rail and you feel it. Whoa, this stuff is for real, it's for real, it's a global network and ...
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12.05.07The two worlds of car shoppingTypical American car shopping has involved haggling with a salesman at a local lot. Typical online car shopping is about trying to out-bid your neighbor. Interesting. [Marketing Charts]
recent posts
- The Wallstrip Edge [Book Terser]
- How to name your own price
- Keep your worthless predictions
- The Definitive Book of Body Language [Book Terser]
- Terse Reviews
- Flatten; because users are lazy.
- P(recession) = 1, P(American is shopper) = 1
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