April 2008
The Archives
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04.27.08No one knows what money isI was putting a book on the shelf this morning and began flipping through another only to find a Zimbabwe 20 dollar bill that I apparently used as a bookmark. Back and center on the colorful bill are the words: I promise to pay the bearer on demand twenty dollars for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Wait. Doesn't the twenty dollar bill represent 20 dollars? It says on the bill Zimbabwe 20, so how can someone be paid 20 dollars if not by this bill? What happens if you knock on the ...
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04.23.08Gas prices reshuffle the economyA Nielsen study finds that 4 dollar gas would mean a hefty shift in consumer's discretionary budgets: Dramatic fluctuations in gas prices are disrupting U.S. consumer spending and expected to continue, leaving consumers with less money to spend at retail, entertainment and dining out, according to a new study by The Nielsen Company. Nielsen’s research shows that in 2007, the gas share of consumers’ weekly spending ranged from 12 to 16 percent. As gas prices continue to rise, Nielsen expects consumers’ gas share of their weekly spend to rise to 19 percent... “With ...
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04.22.08Google Books and Amazon.com affiliate mash-upI realized while adding my Amazon.com library to FriendFeed that I should share the mash-up I made to display the books on the right side. Even if you don't care about the technologies -- Wordpress, syndication, and mash-ups -- you should at least read on to learn how the Internet is plugable. The only advertising on this site is the Dead Trees feed on the right; this is a list of the book titles I have recently read and liked enough to pass along. I link them as an affiliate of Amazon.com. Amazon.com won't give me a ...
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04.22.08Viewing Twitter as a news networkFred Wilson said it first but you can learn more from Twitter than CNN and MSNBC. Without a TV, it's become how I participate in the news around me. Search for anything important that's happening right now (current time). You'll get a conversation of the many rather than a presentation from a few. My right now is the democratic PA primary: Search: pa Search: obama Search: clinton Most people mislabel Twitter as a microblogging service. If that's what they really think, they are missing the point. Twitter's about chat. It's about lowering the threshold into participating on the web to 160 characters. ...
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04.12.08Why you need a blogFrom James Surowiecki in The Wisdom of Crowds: If you talk a lot in a group, people will tend to think of you as influential almost by default. Talkative people are not necessarily well liked by other members of the group, but they are listened to. And talkativeness feeds on itself. Studies of group dynamics almost always show that the more someone talks, the more he is talked to by others in the group. So people at the center of the group tend to become more important over the course of a discussion. ...
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04.12.08RIMM wants in on the ground floorRIM's bread-and-butter business comes from selling BlackBerry services to enterprises looking to give 24/7 mobile communications access to their workforce. Not the college kids that fill the databases of Facebook. So it may seem counterintuitive that RIM would develop a Facebook application to leverage their handheld devices. Two important things RIM is doing here: Giving consumer-oriented devices like the iPhone some much needed competition. This is happening as RIM must morph into a consumer-friendly brand to maintain growth Providing immediate value to America's next business leaders to adopt a ...
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04.12.08Truncated feeds are irrelevantI've begun to move more and more feeds with truncated entries to my too fast to care folder. Information is free and truncated feeds give me little incentive to step away from my stream of feeds to finish reading teaser content. If what you have to say is that important, it will find me. Online media is a conversation, and anyone that truncates their feed is committing suicide. They are muting their voice. And they are a progressively irrelevant participant. Even if a truncater is smarter than everyone else, their smart ideas will ...
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04.08.08The Mobile Web is (currently) boringHave a look at the top 10 mobile sites for February 2008: [via MarketingCharts] Just a bunch of ring tone offerings and service provider distribution hubs. If you are looking for the next big opportunity, mobile looks wide open.
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04.01.08FriendFeed changes name to FringeFeedSo that's an April Fool's joke but it should. Just look at the Popular FriendFeeders: Yeah. Tech heavy bloggers. Not quite mainstream. Interesting to see if this personal aggregation thing gets squashed by a more complete UI (Facebook) or crosses the chasm to the mainstream.
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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