July 2008
The Archives
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07.25.08It’s buy one get one free around hereFunny how these things work. I read through my friend Zack's work and he seems to be feeling the pain of cancer as well. His anchor seems more personal than mine, but his words ring equally true. Zack is a very talented writer. I ask him every time I see him for his book's manuscript. Sadly, he never delivers. I try to annoy him into writing a book. I theorize if I ask him enough that he'll eventually write something just to shut me up. Run to Zack's work. You'll be impressed. Here is my ...
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07.25.08Trimming back to move forwardLet the lack of activity here be evidence of a transition. My last two weekends were spent at the RTP and Columbus Startup Weekend events. Lots of cool stuff came from the weekends, with more on the horizon. In RTP I was part of the dealcastr team. Columbus birthed giggleSeed. I'll leave it at that for now, but more to come of this in the near future... Doing more with less is my general sentiment of the time. I forced myself to write a list of all the goals I was trying to accomplish and realized one ...
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07.21.0820 is the new 40Headlines about "college students" and "twenty somethings" finding early success no longer impress me. Not only has the Internet made age irrelevant, but it has debased experience as a key indicator of success. The Internet has exponentially increased the opportunities available for those whom are agile and fast enough to react to the ever broadening scope of opportunity. That said, why don't we expect that most people who change the world to be young, uncommitted, and industrial? After all, that is an apt description of most hungry and frugal 20 year old college students I know. ...
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07.12.08RTP Startup WeekendEditorial note: I'm at RTP Startup Weekend. Startup Weekend is a serial weekend-long codefest designed to design, birth, and launch a company in little less than two coffee-filled days. Watch the live-stream here. Lot's of smart, ambitious people here. Developing...
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07.09.08This should be illegalThe airlines suck even more today. Not because only one can manage a profit but because they are suggesting asserting speculation is the driving factor behind increasing oil costs. Mike forwarded an email he received from Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta, introducing a 12 airline initiative to end oil speculation: For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain. This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to ...
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07.09.08Extracting value from Twitter with no workYou don't have to talk on Twitter to get value from the service. You don't even have you "get it." You can just listen. Summize can be used to search Twitter real-time. This is compelling for two reasons: You can search for updates to ongoing sporting events, breaking news, public opinions, etc... You can subscribe to a feed of search results Real-time search of what people are saying is interesting on it's own merit. Try it the next time Tiger is playing at the US Open to see what I mean. Understanding the value of point number two isn't so easy, so let me illustrate. One ...
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07.06.08User experience by the numbersSometimes what is not said is most important. Take a look at how product development is viewed at Google through that very lens. Simplicity is Google's business. And just for fun, archive.org snapshots of Yahoo vs. Google homepages through the years: [courtesy of simplicity] Now -- some may argue GOOG and YHOO compete in the same space. I see a advertising and media company, respectively. Still, food for thought:
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07.01.08RiskyI'm long Visa at around $79.50 because I'm short biased at this point and it offers a high-risk, high-reward trade on the consolidation pattern. I have traded in and out of the stock recently as it's oscillated and feel comfortable with this trade. I have a tight stop at above $78.00. I'd like to see a clean break above $81.50 (the upper trend-line) for some peace of mind.
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07.01.08Easiest way to get an audience onlineIn two steps: Put yourself out there (and I mean everywhere it makes sense) Speak consistently, concisely, and with relevance.
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07.01.08Mobile sales 8x PC sales, both hard businesses without effortStaggering numbers from Jonathan Yarmis' interview on TechTicker today: PC market 200M units shipped per year sales growth of 9-11% year-over-year Now compare that to: Mobile market 1.6B units shipped last year sales growth of 20% year-over-year average device life-cycle of 21 months which means the device install base is completely cycled every 2 years The strong growth hasn't translated into bottom line profits for mobile incumbents. In fact, most mobile manufacturers have been hammered (see NOK ...
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