I found this from Paul Graham on how to keep your start-up alive. From there I followed a link to a page on his YCombinator company that supposedly funds start-ups. I then found this page where he details what they do as far as actually funding companies.
It says that they usually start people off with $5,000 plus an extra $5,000 per founder, in exchange for 2% to 10% of the company. Take a company with 4 founders, they will get $25,000. The site says that this should be enough to cover 4 months of living expenses. Maybe in Iowa it is, but certainly not in NY and not in the Bay Area. You would be lucky to find a closet in SF or NYC for $1,000 a month and that would leave you with $250 a month for food, utilities, and other expenses.
And in exchange for this pittance you give up up to 10% of your company (the say the median is 6%). Maybe I should get into this racket because any company that succeeds is going to be worth a lot more than the $250,000 to $1,250,000 you are being initially valued at (the median is $417,000) for a company with four founders. For one founder you would be valued at $100,000 to $500,000 with a median of $167,000. Unfortunately I don't have enough money saved up to fund more than 1 company which is not a very good risk vs reward scenario.
For that I would rather just bankroll it myself and keep that 10%. If it's an idea I believe in you would be silly to give up 2-10% of it for one month's pay working at an average job. You could easily take out a bank loan for more than that amount at under 10% a year. Instead of giving up 10% of your company you could pay 10% interest. Sounds like a no brainer to me.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Friday is finally here
Daily Motion raises more money... $34 million to be exact. Why is it that a company like mine, which has an original idea and great technology, is floundering while a YouTube copy is raising tens of millions of dollars? I have some thoughts but I can't share them publicly at this point in time.
NBC launches Hulu, bails on iTunes. I've only ever bought one thing off of iTunes and it was an episode of Battlestar Galactica that my DVR missed for some reason. Or maybe it got erased. Regardless, while it is a good way to manage your music library and apparently is very attractive to other people, I have never seen the value in buying music off of it.
This guy has come up with a good way to resize images. This is pretty nifty, although right now it only works for making things smaller.
Halo 3 is coming out soon. Yay. I don't play video games so I have no interest whatsoever. My friend here at work is obsessed with guitar here but I actually really play guitar so I don't think that learning to push buttons is going to be so easy. That is a great idea though - make a video game where all you do is push buttons fast and make the controller shaped like a guitar so people who like to play air guitar can now play video-game-fake-guitar instead. Genius.
NBC launches Hulu, bails on iTunes. I've only ever bought one thing off of iTunes and it was an episode of Battlestar Galactica that my DVR missed for some reason. Or maybe it got erased. Regardless, while it is a good way to manage your music library and apparently is very attractive to other people, I have never seen the value in buying music off of it.
This guy has come up with a good way to resize images. This is pretty nifty, although right now it only works for making things smaller.
Halo 3 is coming out soon. Yay. I don't play video games so I have no interest whatsoever. My friend here at work is obsessed with guitar here but I actually really play guitar so I don't think that learning to push buttons is going to be so easy. That is a great idea though - make a video game where all you do is push buttons fast and make the controller shaped like a guitar so people who like to play air guitar can now play video-game-fake-guitar instead. Genius.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Random Junk
With a context this is just silly, but without context it is completely absurd. So without further ado, I present to you this with no context:
More on the Miss Teen South Carolina:
And Jimmy Kimmel's take on it. Sorry I couldn't get this video to embed.
More on the Miss Teen South Carolina:
And Jimmy Kimmel's take on it. Sorry I couldn't get this video to embed.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Google, Mahalo and SEO
A bunch of people have come out against Robert Scoble's 30+ minute video about how Mahalo will crush Google within four years. Here is one and here is another. Now it's time to weigh in with my opinion...
I believe I have posted on this topic before, but to reiterate, I do think that SEO has negatively effected Google's results. Not necessarily SEO but the awareness of PageRank has enabled people to artificially get results in. SEO is a part of that, but not the whole thing.
I was just thinking a few weeks ago about this and I was trying to come up with a new method to generate search results that would bypass the spam that now clogs Google. Of course, any algorithm, once it is made public knowledge, will be able to be manipulated and hacked but a new one would at least give people clean results for a few years, like Google was for it's first half decade or so.
I have been very clear on my feelings about Mahalo and why I don't think it will ever work. Basically it is because, as everyone points out, Mahalo is not a search engine. It is a directory of links. If I want to search for a combination of words no one has ever searched for before (which I quite often do) Mahalo will not be able to give me any useful results. What we need is an automatic search algorithm that can filter out spam. Or better yet exclude spam.
I believe that Google is adjusting their algorithms to try to filter out the spam results, but the problem is that filtering won't work. The spammers will always be at most one step behind your filters, as evidenced by the plethora of email spam I spend hours deleting every day. At best filtering spam will give you a couple of days or weeks of peace before they work out a way to bypass the filters.
What we really need is a completely new way to do search. As I said, it will only yield clean results for at most a couple of years before people find ways to manipulate it and get their results in. The real holy grail in this situation would be an algorithm that completely defeats spam, but I don't think that is ever going to be possible. The nature of an algorithm is that it yields predictable results and once you know how the algorithm works and what the expected results are it is always going to be possible to manipulate the data to manipulate the results.
So, to summarize - Mahalo, Facebook and Techmeme are not Google killers. I don't think Google is going to be the Google killer, unless they buy the solution from someone else who comes up with it, which is exactly what I would do if I were them. PageRank is too widely known and understood to remain an effective search algorithm and spam is a huge problem with Google. I remember in the year 2000 you could type something into Google and you would get a list of very relevant results. Now you have to wade through pages of spam results to find the legitimate ones.
If I had the solution to this problem I would sell it to Google and be a wealthy man. Unfortunately for me, Google probably has people a lot smarter than me working on this right now. If Google could provide me with a sample of the data they collect on each page they index I would be more than happy to stare at it until I got some ideas but I don't think they will do that.
So for now we will have to continue to wade through spam to get our sparse relevant results, or use directories like Mahalo, which have historically failed miserably, until someone comes up with an idea to solve this problem. Many people have tried to get rid of spam, mostly in email, and none have succeeded so getting rid of it in search results will be a gargantuan task.
I believe I have posted on this topic before, but to reiterate, I do think that SEO has negatively effected Google's results. Not necessarily SEO but the awareness of PageRank has enabled people to artificially get results in. SEO is a part of that, but not the whole thing.
I was just thinking a few weeks ago about this and I was trying to come up with a new method to generate search results that would bypass the spam that now clogs Google. Of course, any algorithm, once it is made public knowledge, will be able to be manipulated and hacked but a new one would at least give people clean results for a few years, like Google was for it's first half decade or so.
I have been very clear on my feelings about Mahalo and why I don't think it will ever work. Basically it is because, as everyone points out, Mahalo is not a search engine. It is a directory of links. If I want to search for a combination of words no one has ever searched for before (which I quite often do) Mahalo will not be able to give me any useful results. What we need is an automatic search algorithm that can filter out spam. Or better yet exclude spam.
I believe that Google is adjusting their algorithms to try to filter out the spam results, but the problem is that filtering won't work. The spammers will always be at most one step behind your filters, as evidenced by the plethora of email spam I spend hours deleting every day. At best filtering spam will give you a couple of days or weeks of peace before they work out a way to bypass the filters.
What we really need is a completely new way to do search. As I said, it will only yield clean results for at most a couple of years before people find ways to manipulate it and get their results in. The real holy grail in this situation would be an algorithm that completely defeats spam, but I don't think that is ever going to be possible. The nature of an algorithm is that it yields predictable results and once you know how the algorithm works and what the expected results are it is always going to be possible to manipulate the data to manipulate the results.
So, to summarize - Mahalo, Facebook and Techmeme are not Google killers. I don't think Google is going to be the Google killer, unless they buy the solution from someone else who comes up with it, which is exactly what I would do if I were them. PageRank is too widely known and understood to remain an effective search algorithm and spam is a huge problem with Google. I remember in the year 2000 you could type something into Google and you would get a list of very relevant results. Now you have to wade through pages of spam results to find the legitimate ones.
If I had the solution to this problem I would sell it to Google and be a wealthy man. Unfortunately for me, Google probably has people a lot smarter than me working on this right now. If Google could provide me with a sample of the data they collect on each page they index I would be more than happy to stare at it until I got some ideas but I don't think they will do that.
So for now we will have to continue to wade through spam to get our sparse relevant results, or use directories like Mahalo, which have historically failed miserably, until someone comes up with an idea to solve this problem. Many people have tried to get rid of spam, mostly in email, and none have succeeded so getting rid of it in search results will be a gargantuan task.
Wednesday Morning Random Stuff
Another take on the Miss Teen USA thing:
Proud Parents Of Miss South Carolina - Watch more free videos
Japanese Butt Biting Bugs:
Proud Parents Of Miss South Carolina - Watch more free videos
Japanese Butt Biting Bugs:
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
4 Days Worth Of Japanese Weirdness
Sex with fish? Really?
Japanese companies make their employees take bizarre tests. Can't be any more bizarre than those game shows though.
And something non-Japanese: This is a farewell email.
Japanese companies make their employees take bizarre tests. Can't be any more bizarre than those game shows though.
And something non-Japanese: This is a farewell email.
Food Crunch
A blog about food written in the style of TechCrunch, this is hilariously dead on target.
Oh, Michael Arrington (and Fake Michael Arrington), what a douche bag you are. But I still read your site.
Oh, Michael Arrington (and Fake Michael Arrington), what a douche bag you are. But I still read your site.
Back from a Long Weekend
Just got back from a long weekend away, which was extended by me being miserably ill yesterday, and to a less degree today.
I haven't had time to watch these yet with trying to catch up on everything I have missed over the last couple of days at work but this seems interesting. Some guy explains how Facebook, Mahalo and TechMeme are going to crush Google. Could this be the Google-killer I've been speculating about? I doubt it because Facebook is a fad, Mahalo is a dumb idea and I don't even know what TechMeme is, but it seems like a feed aggregator.
UPDATE: Robert Scoble, the guy who recorded that video, is a former evangelist for Microsoft and apparently not very technically savvy. And I was correct in my assessment of TechMeme as a news aggregator. Not having watched the 30 minutes of video I have no idea what part that plays in the equation. I wish people would write stuff instead of recording videos. It's a lot easier to read than to have to sit through a 30 minute video.
I haven't had time to watch these yet with trying to catch up on everything I have missed over the last couple of days at work but this seems interesting. Some guy explains how Facebook, Mahalo and TechMeme are going to crush Google. Could this be the Google-killer I've been speculating about? I doubt it because Facebook is a fad, Mahalo is a dumb idea and I don't even know what TechMeme is, but it seems like a feed aggregator.
UPDATE: Robert Scoble, the guy who recorded that video, is a former evangelist for Microsoft and apparently not very technically savvy. And I was correct in my assessment of TechMeme as a news aggregator. Not having watched the 30 minutes of video I have no idea what part that plays in the equation. I wish people would write stuff instead of recording videos. It's a lot easier to read than to have to sit through a 30 minute video.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
MySpace, Facebook and Music
I was looking at the lineup for a concert and I noticed that every single band has a MySpace page as their web site. I find MySpace to be intolerably annoying and badly designed. Looking at a simple page without tons of crap on it gives me a headache, a page with all sorts of flashing banners and animations is enough to make me vomit.
Is MySpace the default way that independent musicians promote themselves now? Would having a site specialized towards musicians and not pre-teenage girls be something that people would be interested in?
I know MySpace started out as a site that a lot of musicians found useful but it has long since degenerated into a junior high school party held in a messy teenagers room.
As much as I hate Facebook at least it's clean looking. Actually I don't hate it. I just don't particularly like it. Today I was trying to join a network for a school I actually went to and I couldn't because I no longer have an email address there. It's not as user friendly as it looks, but I have to admit it does look nice. I enjoy minimalist, spare designs.
Is MySpace the default way that independent musicians promote themselves now? Would having a site specialized towards musicians and not pre-teenage girls be something that people would be interested in?
I know MySpace started out as a site that a lot of musicians found useful but it has long since degenerated into a junior high school party held in a messy teenagers room.
As much as I hate Facebook at least it's clean looking. Actually I don't hate it. I just don't particularly like it. Today I was trying to join a network for a school I actually went to and I couldn't because I no longer have an email address there. It's not as user friendly as it looks, but I have to admit it does look nice. I enjoy minimalist, spare designs.
Temperature Here at Work
It's cold in our office. Really cold. Here is an IM conversation I had with an employee:
employee: do u think we will all freeze to death in the office someday
skooch: I think we will
employee: we are planning on building Igloos in cubicles to try stay warm. Is there anything we can do to change the temp?
skooch: I will find out.
Screen names have been changed to protect the innocent.
A new show called who wants to be an internet millionaire apparently aired and unfortunately I am not in the cast. I don't know if it actually aired on TV or if it's just an internet only thing.
I was an internet millionaire for a few months last year. But the value came down before I had a chance to sell. I am still very upset about that. If I had sold I could have made a couple million and then bought back my share of the company for 1/30th of the sale price. I kick myself for not doing so every single day. Hopefully the company does well and the value recovers because this was my retirement plan, college savings, and a house fund as well.
If anyone has any good ideas for web sites I have the skills to make a prototype at least.
Here's a sort of good idea, in a sleazy way... Help women get breast implants. I need something better, though. Another silly idea... Girls moaning your IP address.
And this woman needs some help leveraging her extremely vague and non-specific upcoming 15 minutes if fame into longer fame and more money.
employee: do u think we will all freeze to death in the office someday
skooch: I think we will
employee: we are planning on building Igloos in cubicles to try stay warm. Is there anything we can do to change the temp?
skooch: I will find out.
Screen names have been changed to protect the innocent.
A new show called who wants to be an internet millionaire apparently aired and unfortunately I am not in the cast. I don't know if it actually aired on TV or if it's just an internet only thing.
I was an internet millionaire for a few months last year. But the value came down before I had a chance to sell. I am still very upset about that. If I had sold I could have made a couple million and then bought back my share of the company for 1/30th of the sale price. I kick myself for not doing so every single day. Hopefully the company does well and the value recovers because this was my retirement plan, college savings, and a house fund as well.
If anyone has any good ideas for web sites I have the skills to make a prototype at least.
Here's a sort of good idea, in a sleazy way... Help women get breast implants. I need something better, though. Another silly idea... Girls moaning your IP address.
And this woman needs some help leveraging her extremely vague and non-specific upcoming 15 minutes if fame into longer fame and more money.
Colbert Report
Last night I went to see the Colbert Report. We had tried to go in May and we were literally the first people in line who did not get in. That was especially annoying because I had let two people in front of us earlier when we were moving from one line to another and they were the last to get in.
To compensate us for taking a day off of work and wasting it waiting in line they sign us up for VIP tickets. Which are pretty awesome. We go yesterday, we go into a short VIP line, we wait outside the studio for about 45 minutes and then they let us in to the "loading area." We wait in there for about another 45 minutes then they start letting people into the studio. As we were VIP ticket holders we got to just walk right in and bypass the line and everything.
So then we get into the studio - it's weird seeing it in real live when you've been seeing it on TV. All of the stuff is there - the wall of memorabilia, the portrait, the fake fireplace, the desk, O'Reilly's microwave... So we sit in the studio for another 20 or 30 minutes or so. Then the warm-up guy comes out. He's mildly funny. Not really all that great but better than one would expect for a warm up guy. I talk to him a bit about being Swiss, how many official languages there are in Switzerland (for the record, four), my "Jesus look-alike contest winning", my divorce... About 30 minutes in you can start to see him sweat. He's not used to going that long.
Another 15 minutes go by and the intern or assistant or whatever comes out and says that they are running a bit late and they will give out t-shirts in return for answers to Colbert trivia. The questions are: Who was the first guest (Stone Philips), what is Stephen's middle name (Tyrone), and then finally my question - what is the building manager's name? I raise my hand and my wife is screaming for them to come see me because they are on the other side of the audience looking for someone with an answer. He finally comes over to me and I say "Todd." He asks me to spell it and I do and he says "nope, sorry." Then I remember - it's "Tad." I correct myself and he gives me a t-shirt, which my wife promptly swiped and claimed as her own. They run out of t-shirts and go back in to get more and come out with a few more. I know some of the answers but I don't want to take more than one t-shirt. Pigs get slaughtered.
They run out of t-shirts and still are not ready so they come out with some of the wrist strong bracelets and a piece of Colbert Report stationary. They start to ask questions and my wife offers to wrestle a nice woman in the audience who gave us nuts in the loading area for the piece of paper or a bracelet. The guy is thinking it over but before he can say yes...
The stage manager comes out and gives us a quick run-down. Yell and scream when he does the "festive paper waving" and laugh whenever we want. The Stephen comes out and asks if there are any questions people want to ask him before he goes into character and says all "those terrible things." People ask him questions - like how tall is the Empire State Building and other random pointless, stupid questions. No one came out with anything witty or clever like they had asked us to. At one point he is literally 6 inches from my face when he is groping the woman sitting next to me in response to one question.
I resist the temptation to touch his hair.
He goes to his desk and they start. While they are preparing he's making faces into the camera, wiggling his eyebrows and just being a general goober. He does the intro section and then the stage manager does the festive paper waving and we all clap and yell and scream. They do the opening credits in real time. They have them on the screen and he is quickly changing clothes while they are on. The credits end and he continues with the show.
He does the word. "November Surprise" about the elections. Then they go to another commercial break and I thought they would do that in real-time as well, but 5 minutes go by, then 10 and they are all just huddled around his desk spraying his hair and going over some papers. After a little while Stephen comes out and says that they had technical difficulties with a few lines from the Word and they need to reshoot it. So they do. It's literally like one sentence. He stands up and screams that he nailed it. They go to another short huddle break, but this one is maybe 5 minutes. He comes back and does Colbert Platinum and then introduces his guest. At this point he stands up and says that the interview is pre-taped and he will be watching it along with us.
We watch it on the monitors, he stands over at the side of the studio. I'm not going to give out details about the interview, even though it has already aired, but it did not seem real to me. The big hullabaloo seemed completely staged to me. Unless both Branson and Colbert are completely unflappable (which is a distinct possibility) it seemed totally staged. Neither one flinched or anything. I guess it could go either way. I really don't know.
Then Colbert comes out in a bathrobe and a towel and ends the show. We feel a little bit gypped because we didn't get to see an interview. We leave, go to the train station and go home, with a t-shirt but without a wrist strong bracelet or a piece of stationary. The other woman my wife was offering to wrestle got a bracelet but I don't think anyone else did.
It was totally worth it and we will definitely be going back as soon as they will let us. They have rules about how often you can see the show. And it looks like it is booked solid for the next year anyway.
Here are some clips from the show. Actually this is the entire show:
Look for me in the closing credits audience shot.
To compensate us for taking a day off of work and wasting it waiting in line they sign us up for VIP tickets. Which are pretty awesome. We go yesterday, we go into a short VIP line, we wait outside the studio for about 45 minutes and then they let us in to the "loading area." We wait in there for about another 45 minutes then they start letting people into the studio. As we were VIP ticket holders we got to just walk right in and bypass the line and everything.
So then we get into the studio - it's weird seeing it in real live when you've been seeing it on TV. All of the stuff is there - the wall of memorabilia, the portrait, the fake fireplace, the desk, O'Reilly's microwave... So we sit in the studio for another 20 or 30 minutes or so. Then the warm-up guy comes out. He's mildly funny. Not really all that great but better than one would expect for a warm up guy. I talk to him a bit about being Swiss, how many official languages there are in Switzerland (for the record, four), my "Jesus look-alike contest winning", my divorce... About 30 minutes in you can start to see him sweat. He's not used to going that long.
Another 15 minutes go by and the intern or assistant or whatever comes out and says that they are running a bit late and they will give out t-shirts in return for answers to Colbert trivia. The questions are: Who was the first guest (Stone Philips), what is Stephen's middle name (Tyrone), and then finally my question - what is the building manager's name? I raise my hand and my wife is screaming for them to come see me because they are on the other side of the audience looking for someone with an answer. He finally comes over to me and I say "Todd." He asks me to spell it and I do and he says "nope, sorry." Then I remember - it's "Tad." I correct myself and he gives me a t-shirt, which my wife promptly swiped and claimed as her own. They run out of t-shirts and go back in to get more and come out with a few more. I know some of the answers but I don't want to take more than one t-shirt. Pigs get slaughtered.
They run out of t-shirts and still are not ready so they come out with some of the wrist strong bracelets and a piece of Colbert Report stationary. They start to ask questions and my wife offers to wrestle a nice woman in the audience who gave us nuts in the loading area for the piece of paper or a bracelet. The guy is thinking it over but before he can say yes...
The stage manager comes out and gives us a quick run-down. Yell and scream when he does the "festive paper waving" and laugh whenever we want. The Stephen comes out and asks if there are any questions people want to ask him before he goes into character and says all "those terrible things." People ask him questions - like how tall is the Empire State Building and other random pointless, stupid questions. No one came out with anything witty or clever like they had asked us to. At one point he is literally 6 inches from my face when he is groping the woman sitting next to me in response to one question.
I resist the temptation to touch his hair.
He goes to his desk and they start. While they are preparing he's making faces into the camera, wiggling his eyebrows and just being a general goober. He does the intro section and then the stage manager does the festive paper waving and we all clap and yell and scream. They do the opening credits in real time. They have them on the screen and he is quickly changing clothes while they are on. The credits end and he continues with the show.
He does the word. "November Surprise" about the elections. Then they go to another commercial break and I thought they would do that in real-time as well, but 5 minutes go by, then 10 and they are all just huddled around his desk spraying his hair and going over some papers. After a little while Stephen comes out and says that they had technical difficulties with a few lines from the Word and they need to reshoot it. So they do. It's literally like one sentence. He stands up and screams that he nailed it. They go to another short huddle break, but this one is maybe 5 minutes. He comes back and does Colbert Platinum and then introduces his guest. At this point he stands up and says that the interview is pre-taped and he will be watching it along with us.
We watch it on the monitors, he stands over at the side of the studio. I'm not going to give out details about the interview, even though it has already aired, but it did not seem real to me. The big hullabaloo seemed completely staged to me. Unless both Branson and Colbert are completely unflappable (which is a distinct possibility) it seemed totally staged. Neither one flinched or anything. I guess it could go either way. I really don't know.
Then Colbert comes out in a bathrobe and a towel and ends the show. We feel a little bit gypped because we didn't get to see an interview. We leave, go to the train station and go home, with a t-shirt but without a wrist strong bracelet or a piece of stationary. The other woman my wife was offering to wrestle got a bracelet but I don't think anyone else did.
It was totally worth it and we will definitely be going back as soon as they will let us. They have rules about how often you can see the show. And it looks like it is booked solid for the next year anyway.
Here are some clips from the show. Actually this is the entire show:
Look for me in the closing credits audience shot.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Thursday Morning Crap
An experiment from the '60s to see how spiders react to different drugs:
IM conversation between Captain Caveman and the Geico Caveman.
IM conversation between Captain Caveman and the Geico Caveman.
Oldest Brain Surgeon
From the Onion:
World's Oldest Neurosurgeon Turns 100
Tips for drunks and alcoholics. Although I do miss having an occasional glass of wine or a cocktail with dinner I really don't miss drinking all that much. And another one about lazy-ass pot smokers.
Random sexy girls.
Girls getting stood up while wearing stupid t-shirts, from Gawker
Top ten Conan O'Brien characters. I actually have not watched the show in about 10 years but I really enjoyed it when I did used to watch it, in the days when I could stay up past 10pm
A dumb-ass goes on TV to advertise to the world that he has genital warts:
Seth Godin on really bad powerpoint
World's Oldest Neurosurgeon Turns 100
Tips for drunks and alcoholics. Although I do miss having an occasional glass of wine or a cocktail with dinner I really don't miss drinking all that much. And another one about lazy-ass pot smokers.
Random sexy girls.
Girls getting stood up while wearing stupid t-shirts, from Gawker
Top ten Conan O'Brien characters. I actually have not watched the show in about 10 years but I really enjoyed it when I did used to watch it, in the days when I could stay up past 10pm
A dumb-ass goes on TV to advertise to the world that he has genital warts:
Seth Godin on really bad powerpoint
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Record Store in NY
An article from CNET about a record shop in NYC. I remember the days when you couldn't walk down a street in the village without stumbling over a record shop. Sonic Groove, Vinyl Mania, Liquid Sky, Satellite... There were tons of them. Now they are mostly gone.
I went into a shop in the village a few weeks ago but all they had was "hipster rock." New music and 80s synthpop.
It's a sad state of affairs.
And on a completely unrelated note, a little article about Camel Cigarette's new ad campaign.
I went into a shop in the village a few weeks ago but all they had was "hipster rock." New music and 80s synthpop.
It's a sad state of affairs.
And on a completely unrelated note, a little article about Camel Cigarette's new ad campaign.
Later Tuesday Morning Stuff
Finally a magazine gets it right... Mark Zuckerberg - the smug little shit... from the Onion
Like the "blue screen of death except the screen is a stupid person..."
How to write a good resume (not a joke)
Some random junk from Gawker... I like the picture though.
Like the "blue screen of death except the screen is a stupid person..."
How to write a good resume (not a joke)
Some random junk from Gawker... I like the picture though.
Early Tuesday Morning Stuff
I had to get up really early this morning so I came straight to work. It's still early - I would actually be at work now even if I didn't have to get up this morning but I've been up for over 2 hours now whereas usually I would only have been up for 1.
Here is your Monday morning miscellaneous links:
Someone else's thoughts on the Gnomedex Winer v Calacanis bout
Someone's thought's on Mahalo, Calacanis' new venture, which is destined to fail
Conan O'Brien on the 2008 Olympics:
Here is your Monday morning miscellaneous links:
Someone else's thoughts on the Gnomedex Winer v Calacanis bout
Someone's thought's on Mahalo, Calacanis' new venture, which is destined to fail
Conan O'Brien on the 2008 Olympics:
Monday, August 20, 2007
Nerd Love
Julia Allison, inexplicable darling of Gawker, says that nerds make the best lovers. I think my wife would have to agree.
And on the topic, MC Frontalot does Nerdcore hip-hop. I haven't heard any of his new stuff in the last couple years but what I heard about 2 years ago was pretty damn good.
And a little clip from the Onion.
Why people shouldn't be totally insane.
And on the topic, MC Frontalot does Nerdcore hip-hop. I haven't heard any of his new stuff in the last couple years but what I heard about 2 years ago was pretty damn good.
And a little clip from the Onion.
Why people shouldn't be totally insane.
Credit Crunch
If I knew enough about exotic derivates to have been able to go short mortgage backed assets I would be a very rich man right now. I've been telling everyone who will listen that exactly what is happening now was going to happen for about 3 or 4 years now. I had arguments with people on welfare who were putting all of their welfare checks towards real estate in the hopes of making a quick buck. When people on welfare are speculating on real estate you KNOW there is a bubble.
I knew that this whole mortgage thing was going to happen. I did not know how it would affect the hedge funds and investment banks, but all of the retail stuff happened pretty much exactly as I thought it was going to.
My parents bought a new condo a little over a year ago. They took out an interest only mortgage because they expected to be able to pay the mortgage off in full as soon as they sold the house they have been in for the last 30 years. Of course they are not able to sell that house so have been renting out the new one and losing money on it, I might add.
The only problem was I was expecting this meltdown to happen a bit sooner than it did. The real estate bubble popped pretty much right on schedule but I thought this mortgage meltdown would happen much sooner after the bubble popped.
It seems like the Fed is trying to shake out the bad mortgages, which is theoretically a good idea, but if you think about the poor people who are going to lose their houses it doesn't seem like such a good plan anymore.
I also did not expect the crash to have this effect on the stock market. I thought that money would go into the stock market as real estate became a less good investment. But the MBS crisis went a lot further than I thought it would.
Thanks hedge fund idiots who have been investing way more money than they have in MBS's. Due to your ridiculous overuse of leverage and investments in MBS's that any idiot could see were going to default you've turned a downturn in real estate into a crisis that is effecting the whole world.
I knew that this whole mortgage thing was going to happen. I did not know how it would affect the hedge funds and investment banks, but all of the retail stuff happened pretty much exactly as I thought it was going to.
My parents bought a new condo a little over a year ago. They took out an interest only mortgage because they expected to be able to pay the mortgage off in full as soon as they sold the house they have been in for the last 30 years. Of course they are not able to sell that house so have been renting out the new one and losing money on it, I might add.
The only problem was I was expecting this meltdown to happen a bit sooner than it did. The real estate bubble popped pretty much right on schedule but I thought this mortgage meltdown would happen much sooner after the bubble popped.
It seems like the Fed is trying to shake out the bad mortgages, which is theoretically a good idea, but if you think about the poor people who are going to lose their houses it doesn't seem like such a good plan anymore.
I also did not expect the crash to have this effect on the stock market. I thought that money would go into the stock market as real estate became a less good investment. But the MBS crisis went a lot further than I thought it would.
Thanks hedge fund idiots who have been investing way more money than they have in MBS's. Due to your ridiculous overuse of leverage and investments in MBS's that any idiot could see were going to default you've turned a downturn in real estate into a crisis that is effecting the whole world.
Online Advertising
Article in Wall Street Journal small business section today about online advertising.
Complaints About Orbitz and Northwest
Here is an email I wrote to Northwest Airlines detailing the entire day I spent on the phone trying to get her flights straightened out. They were absolutely no help and neither was Orbitz. The basic problem was that I had booked her a multi-city trip with 4 sets of flights over 3 weeks. She missed her flight on Saturday morning and after Orbitz was absolutely no help we decided to try to get her to her next destination on AmTrak. But Northwest tells us that if she does not get on the plane she will have the rest of her trip cancelled. I offered to pay their change fee if they don't make her wait until Tuesday to leave, but they said no, unless she gets on the plane her trip will be cancelled.
This is the most outrageous and absurd thing I have ever heard. I am extremely angry and will never use Northwest, or Orbitz, again.
This is the most outrageous and absurd thing I have ever heard. I am extremely angry and will never use Northwest, or Orbitz, again.
Email below:
My grandmother missed her flight to Cleveland from LaGuardia this morning even though she was at the airport with plenty of time. Between the time waiting on the lines and her difficulty walking quickly it took her almost 2 hours to get checked in and by the time she was the flight had left.
She is going to see terminally ill relatives in Pennsylvania and she wants to get there ASAP. I called and spoke to an agent who told me that it would cost well over $1,000 to get her to Erie tomorrow but they could do it on Tuesday.
Then she goes on to tell me that if my grandmother does not fly from LaGuardia to Erie they will cancel the rest of her flights. She was willing to pay for an alternate method of getting there on her own, so I don't understand this policy. So I ask to speak to a supervisor and am on hold for ONE HOUR AND A HALF. Finally I call from my cell phone and get to a supervisor who confirms this absolutely ridiculous policy that if she does not fly from LGA to ERI the rest of her 3 week trip will be cancelled. I offered to pay the change fee and asked if she could still take AmTrak and we will GO TO THE AIRPORT to check her in ourselves. I was told, no, unless she gets on the plane the rest of her THREE WEEK trip will be cancelled. We were willing to pay for her to get there on our own, pay your ridiculous change fee, but I was told that the rest of the flight would still be cancelled.
Then after waiting on hold for another half hour with the supervisor I pay the change fee, change it to Tuesday, and she tells me that they need to charge me a $15 call center fee. So I have been on the phone on HOLD for TWO AND A HALF hours now and I have to pay $15 for the privilege of wasting my afternoon dealing with these ridiculous rules and restrictions.
We are all extremely unhappy and will probably never fly with you again. I would like the last 3 hours of my life back that I wasted on hold waiting for someone who NEVER EVEN ANSWERED the phone.
My grandmother is almost 80 years old and all her sisters and brothers are going to be dead within months and you just robbed her of her chance to spend more than a few days with them. You should be ashamed.
Wiki Jacking and Other Tech News
This is a pretty ingenious way to manipulate Google search results, though I'm not sure what practical applications it has other than pissing other people off:
This ad appeared in some Linux journal.
Napoleon Dynamite and Bill Gates - I hated that movie, it was ridiculous and idiotic, but this is slightly amusing... Actually not really. It's just annoying, but it was a good idea:
A bear dancing to music (a stuffed bear):
This ad appeared in some Linux journal.
Napoleon Dynamite and Bill Gates - I hated that movie, it was ridiculous and idiotic, but this is slightly amusing... Actually not really. It's just annoying, but it was a good idea:
Bill Gates Goes to College
Posted Sep 15, 2005The Microsoft bigwig teamed up with Napoleon Dynamite in this spoof video from PDC 2005. The camera's a little shaky, but you get the idea.
A bear dancing to music (a stuffed bear):
Monday Morning Miscellany
Ten F*cking Short Movies - they take movies and edit them down to a few minutes. Mildly amusing.
Top Ten Heather Graham Videos - No talent but still kinda cute.
Top Ten Heather Graham Videos - No talent but still kinda cute.
Facebook App News
This actually came out on Friday but I was out of the office Friday afternoon so, while I read it on Friday, I am just getting around to posting now.
"Where I've Been" is a silly little Facebook app. You select what countries and states you have been to and where you have lived. Actually pretty nifty but extremely simple and not very complex. The guy who wrote it sold it for $3 million to TripAdvisor.
Good for him. If I had ideas I would start writing silly little Facebook apps now as I expect a little wave of similar purchases will start taking place in the very near future.
"Where I've Been" is a silly little Facebook app. You select what countries and states you have been to and where you have lived. Actually pretty nifty but extremely simple and not very complex. The guy who wrote it sold it for $3 million to TripAdvisor.
Good for him. If I had ideas I would start writing silly little Facebook apps now as I expect a little wave of similar purchases will start taking place in the very near future.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Andy Kessler Interview
I've read his books and found them interesting and since then I've sort of followed what he has been writing:
iPhone
I used to be a big fan of Apple but not so much lately. My last Mac was a G4, or maybe it was a G3, but it was a long time ago. I had always had Macs growing up and didn't start using Windows until I graduated from college and entered the real world. For a while I kept using my Mac at home but inevitably I had to get a PC. For a few years I kept both hooked up with a KVM switch (although I had to keep separate keyboards and mice - thanks Steve Jobs!) I used the Mac mainly for image editing and audio recording and editing. Then Windows caught up to Apple in both those areas. Then I used it for Quicken because I had my financial records since 1997 on my Mac. Then I got a new version of Quicken for Windows and moved everything over.
So now my lonely Mac sits in the corner, collecting dust. I have had no need to touch it in years, and it's not even running OS X. I never bothered to upgrade it.
Then comes the iPod, which was pretty cool, even I have to admit. Then the iPhone, which I have not heard good things about. Even if I had $600 extra t0 spend I would not have bought an iPhone. For one thing AT&T Wireless service is absolutely the worst.
Then this poor girl gets a 300 page bill from AT&T. Apparently she text messages a lot. And they list every single one on the bill. How one person does 35,000 text messages a month is beyond me. That works out to over 1,000 messages a day, or 65 per hour for an 18 hour day, or one per minute. I guess it's possible if you did nothing else but text all day, but even then I would be hard pressed to write one a minute.
So now my lonely Mac sits in the corner, collecting dust. I have had no need to touch it in years, and it's not even running OS X. I never bothered to upgrade it.
Then comes the iPod, which was pretty cool, even I have to admit. Then the iPhone, which I have not heard good things about. Even if I had $600 extra t0 spend I would not have bought an iPhone. For one thing AT&T Wireless service is absolutely the worst.
Then this poor girl gets a 300 page bill from AT&T. Apparently she text messages a lot. And they list every single one on the bill. How one person does 35,000 text messages a month is beyond me. That works out to over 1,000 messages a day, or 65 per hour for an 18 hour day, or one per minute. I guess it's possible if you did nothing else but text all day, but even then I would be hard pressed to write one a minute.
Have a Web 2.0 and need a name?
Look no further! This site will generate your new business's name! (I actually registered a few of the domains this gave me).
Some of the sites it generated for me - some of them already taken:
Some of the sites it generated for me - some of them already taken:
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Webb Alert
This is the only video podcast I watch. I am not a big fan of video podcasts - they take too much time. An audio podcast I can listen to while doing something else but a video I can not do other stuff - I need my full attention on it.
This one is less than five minutes long, so it doesn't take a whole lot of time to watch it, it is about tech news, which I am of course extremely interested in, and it doesn't hurt that the host, Morgan Webb, is unbelievably gorgeous. And a geek to boot! She also hosts some gaming TV show - X-Play, I think - on the G4 network, which I have never heard of.
Morgan, if you ever happen to stumble on this site, I will divorce my wife to go out with you! Well, not really (except that I would.) Please don't make me sleep on the couch tonight!
Here is today's cast, conveniently embeddable:
A list of business changing videos. As per my aforementioned aversion to watching anything longer than 5 minutes on the internet I have not watched these videos. But they seem interesting.
This one is less than five minutes long, so it doesn't take a whole lot of time to watch it, it is about tech news, which I am of course extremely interested in, and it doesn't hurt that the host, Morgan Webb, is unbelievably gorgeous. And a geek to boot! She also hosts some gaming TV show - X-Play, I think - on the G4 network, which I have never heard of.
Morgan, if you ever happen to stumble on this site, I will divorce my wife to go out with you! Well, not really (except that I would.) Please don't make me sleep on the couch tonight!
Here is today's cast, conveniently embeddable:
A list of business changing videos. As per my aforementioned aversion to watching anything longer than 5 minutes on the internet I have not watched these videos. But they seem interesting.
Thursday Random Crap
Gays in the military:
'Gays Too Precious To Risk In Combat,' Says General
My wife saw this on TV and wants it now. Along with the other $60,000 worth of plastic surgery she thinks she needs, but really doesn't.
Chelsea Handler - I saw her old show once and it was just mind-numbingly terrible. I wondered why she keeps getting shows when she is so clearly not at all remotely funny. Then I read about how her boyfriend is the president of the E network.
I might need to get this book when it's available at the library. Parenting the Defiant Child
If anyone out there wants to help me, please! If you click on this link and signup for a $1 three-day trial I get paid $35. You can cancel anytime within the 3 days. I would really appreciate it.
'Gays Too Precious To Risk In Combat,' Says General
My wife saw this on TV and wants it now. Along with the other $60,000 worth of plastic surgery she thinks she needs, but really doesn't.
Chelsea Handler - I saw her old show once and it was just mind-numbingly terrible. I wondered why she keeps getting shows when she is so clearly not at all remotely funny. Then I read about how her boyfriend is the president of the E network.
I might need to get this book when it's available at the library. Parenting the Defiant Child
If anyone out there wants to help me, please! If you click on this link and signup for a $1 three-day trial I get paid $35. You can cancel anytime within the 3 days. I would really appreciate it.
VH1, Flavor Love and Decade Loving Deviants
Jimmy Kimmel at the Flavor Flav Comedy Central thing. I normally hate those things as most comedians are far from funny, and this is no exception, but this one is pretty amusing. I don't want to say anything bad against Flavor Flav because I still love PE and thing they are one of the greatest things since sliced bread (and I have "Bring the Noise" pretty much memorized!) but VH1 is incredibly pathetic. I wrote something about it a few years back when they were doing the whole "I Love the X0's" thing. I'll have to see if I can dig that up.
On the topic of loving decades, I think when VH1 does "I love the 00's", which should be about 3 minutes after we ring in the year 2011 (or maybe they should do a new year's eve special), we are going to see a bunch of people walking around in huge sunglasses, wearing crocks, pregnant, living in Williamsburg and listening to emo. Also boys with eyeliner and dumb ass haircuts. And also probably cocaine.
Anyway here is the video... I'm going to dig through the archives to see if I can find the old VH1 post:
On the topic of loving decades, I think when VH1 does "I love the 00's", which should be about 3 minutes after we ring in the year 2011 (or maybe they should do a new year's eve special), we are going to see a bunch of people walking around in huge sunglasses, wearing crocks, pregnant, living in Williamsburg and listening to emo. Also boys with eyeliner and dumb ass haircuts. And also probably cocaine.
Anyway here is the video... I'm going to dig through the archives to see if I can find the old VH1 post:
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Random Links for the Day
20 Ugliest Celebrities - I still have a huge problem with our whole concept of "celebrity" which I will post on one of these days
Dogs wearing wigs - the name says it all
Are entrepreneurs (successful ones) lucky or brilliant? Or both.
Random things to say at meetings.
This is just odd. Oh it's an advertisement for Axe, the product who's marketing I hate probably the most out of any current campaigns.
Despite the fact that this is pornography, it seems like a good idea and it works a lot like how I would envision a lot of community driven things to work. And while we are on that subject...
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
High Fidelity
My wife and I read books together. Actually I read them to her out loud. The last one we read was High Fidelity, which although it is extremely sentimental and male chick-lit, was still decent. So then we watched the movie. I had heard good things about it but it was absolutely terrible. The acting was horrible, the characters were one dimensional, the plot was extremely contrived. Even the timelines were impossible. Based on the songs they used playing in scenes - not soundtrack but characters listening to it - the timeline was completely impossible. They had songs from the late 90s playing presumably at some point in the late 80s or early 90s.
I also hated the changes they made from the book to Americanize it. I especially hated the way they changed the music. As a record collector myself I could appreciate the music in the book - it was good, obscure music that people would legitimately want to collect. In the movie it was just pop garbage. Green Day? Please.
I detested the film so much I almost turned it off a couple of times. Normally I will sit through a movie from end-to-end, no matter how bad it is. I figure that I at least owe the movie a chance to explain itself or redeem itself or something. I watched "The Devil Wears Prada" from end-to-end, it's just a compulsion I have. I see movies as works of art and you don't critique a painting or a sculpture without seeing the whole thing. But this was just absolute garbage. And I've sat through some pretty terrible, contrived, precious movies so there must be something else about this one that makes me hate it so much.
Or maybe it's just a crappy movie.
I also hated the changes they made from the book to Americanize it. I especially hated the way they changed the music. As a record collector myself I could appreciate the music in the book - it was good, obscure music that people would legitimately want to collect. In the movie it was just pop garbage. Green Day? Please.
I detested the film so much I almost turned it off a couple of times. Normally I will sit through a movie from end-to-end, no matter how bad it is. I figure that I at least owe the movie a chance to explain itself or redeem itself or something. I watched "The Devil Wears Prada" from end-to-end, it's just a compulsion I have. I see movies as works of art and you don't critique a painting or a sculpture without seeing the whole thing. But this was just absolute garbage. And I've sat through some pretty terrible, contrived, precious movies so there must be something else about this one that makes me hate it so much.
Or maybe it's just a crappy movie.
Social networking and Netflix
Netflix is apparently adding some social networking / community features including:
When Netflix put out their challenge to come up with a new algorithm to recommend movies I thought about it. Being a bit of a movie buff I have some problems with their recommendations. If I said I like "Raging Bull" they would be more likely to recommend "Rocky" than "Taxi Driver" or "Mean Streets," both of which are much more similar to "Raging Bull," thematically and visually, than "Rocky" is.
My thoughts about how the recommendations should be determined was that the user needs to specify some criteria - like what they look for most in a movie. I look at the director, my wife looks at the actors. As far as I am concerned I don't care who is in a Scorsese movie because I know Scorsese will do a good job. My wife doesn't care who directs a Nic Cage movie because she likes Nic Cage. My wife is concerned with what the movie is about, I don't really care what it's about because I see movies as works of art to be experienced while she sees them as stories.
If we each said we liked the same movies Netflix would recommend the same movies to both of us, at least I think it would, while we would actually be interested in widely different films.
To account for differences like these we either need a pretty complex algorithm with lots of user-inputted data, or we need some sort of social network. Ideally would be a combination of both. People who gave similar answers to the questions as you did are likely to like similar movies as you do. Or if not you can at least see what connects the choices of the two people and make an inference based on that. This can get extremely complicated which is why I never went ahead and wrote this, although I have most of it planned out in my head.
My wife suggested that a good idea for a site would be a gift recommender. For example all of the kids out here in NY are crazy about Webkinz. Her family back in California has not heard of them. So punch in 6 year old, boy, and a location and you get customized suggestions for what such a person might like. This would obviously require a strong social component and would need to learn from the results it gives.
Anyway this Netflix idea is great. This is where the power of social networking really lies. Not in stuff like MyFacester, but in learning from crowds and applying that knowledge. This is the core of Web 2.0 in my opinion. The Wisdom of Crowds. Check out the book if you haven't already.
- Latest reviews stream that continually loads movie reviews in real time as people post them to Netflix
- “Members’ Top 10 Lists” widget that displays user-generated movie lists based on what Netflix thinks you will like
- “Unique in…” area that shows the movies that are uniquely popular in your hometown
- Selection of strangers on Netflix who share your interests or are most “similar to you”
- List of your friends’ recent activities with Netflix (what movies they have requested, whether they have been returned, etc.)
- “Friends’ Quiz” that generates simple questions to test you about your Netflix friends’ movie-renting behavior
- Friends’ Love/Hated area that shows the movies your friends loved or hated (pretty self-explanatory)
When Netflix put out their challenge to come up with a new algorithm to recommend movies I thought about it. Being a bit of a movie buff I have some problems with their recommendations. If I said I like "Raging Bull" they would be more likely to recommend "Rocky" than "Taxi Driver" or "Mean Streets," both of which are much more similar to "Raging Bull," thematically and visually, than "Rocky" is.
My thoughts about how the recommendations should be determined was that the user needs to specify some criteria - like what they look for most in a movie. I look at the director, my wife looks at the actors. As far as I am concerned I don't care who is in a Scorsese movie because I know Scorsese will do a good job. My wife doesn't care who directs a Nic Cage movie because she likes Nic Cage. My wife is concerned with what the movie is about, I don't really care what it's about because I see movies as works of art to be experienced while she sees them as stories.
If we each said we liked the same movies Netflix would recommend the same movies to both of us, at least I think it would, while we would actually be interested in widely different films.
To account for differences like these we either need a pretty complex algorithm with lots of user-inputted data, or we need some sort of social network. Ideally would be a combination of both. People who gave similar answers to the questions as you did are likely to like similar movies as you do. Or if not you can at least see what connects the choices of the two people and make an inference based on that. This can get extremely complicated which is why I never went ahead and wrote this, although I have most of it planned out in my head.
My wife suggested that a good idea for a site would be a gift recommender. For example all of the kids out here in NY are crazy about Webkinz. Her family back in California has not heard of them. So punch in 6 year old, boy, and a location and you get customized suggestions for what such a person might like. This would obviously require a strong social component and would need to learn from the results it gives.
Anyway this Netflix idea is great. This is where the power of social networking really lies. Not in stuff like MyFacester, but in learning from crowds and applying that knowledge. This is the core of Web 2.0 in my opinion. The Wisdom of Crowds. Check out the book if you haven't already.
And Now For Something Completely Different
Now that I actually posted something semi-cogent it's time to get back to the usual inanity.
Rules on how to safely have sex with your doppelganger:
Maybe I should set up multiple blogs - one for the coherent, rational posts; another for the random crap. Good idea but way too much work. I don't really even expect anyone to read this - I use this more to store stuff I find amusing than anything else. And every now and then I do have something meaningful to say and will say it.
While I'm on the topic of random crap I am going to post some other random links here. Nothing special to see here, just posting them.
They want to eat babies, some people want to have babies, some people have weird fetishes, a failed company I started, a couple random domains I own for no good reason. My personal web site, some more random links.
Rules on how to safely have sex with your doppelganger:
Maybe I should set up multiple blogs - one for the coherent, rational posts; another for the random crap. Good idea but way too much work. I don't really even expect anyone to read this - I use this more to store stuff I find amusing than anything else. And every now and then I do have something meaningful to say and will say it.
While I'm on the topic of random crap I am going to post some other random links here. Nothing special to see here, just posting them.
They want to eat babies, some people want to have babies, some people have weird fetishes, a failed company I started, a couple random domains I own for no good reason. My personal web site, some more random links.
Winer vs. Calacanis (and Google)
All I've been hearing about this week is the fued between Jason Calacanis (of Weblogs Inc) and Dave Winer (of RSS and such). I don't live in California, although I would consider moving there, and I don't know any of these people (although they are both from NY).
If you are at all involved with Web 2.0 or the Silicon Valley gossip you have undoubtedly heard of this little tiff.
Here is Dave's attempt to put words in Calacanis's mouth.
It's all great - I just have one problem: Google is filled with Spam. I don't know enough about the other details he describes here to comment on them - I didn't hear Calacanis's speech nor was I at the conference - but I do know that Google is filled with spam. When I started using Google you typed something in and the relevant results came up quickly. Now you have to wade through 10 pages of spam results in order to find maybe 5 relevant results.
Google's PageRank algorithm was a great idea at the time - but now that it is common knowledge it is just too easy to spam it. I could get this little blog to the top of results for whatever word I wanted if I have enough domains available. Which I do.
I think we need a new search paradigm - one that will either work for a short-time of work indefinitely. PageRank is no longer effective now that all of the spammers are aware of it and know how to manipulate it. I think that Google and the other search engines are likely more interested in trying to remove the spam from their results than in coming up with entirely new algorithms. Maybe that will be the idea that makes me rich. If I can think of it.
Thoughts?
If you are at all involved with Web 2.0 or the Silicon Valley gossip you have undoubtedly heard of this little tiff.
Here is Dave's attempt to put words in Calacanis's mouth.
It's all great - I just have one problem: Google is filled with Spam. I don't know enough about the other details he describes here to comment on them - I didn't hear Calacanis's speech nor was I at the conference - but I do know that Google is filled with spam. When I started using Google you typed something in and the relevant results came up quickly. Now you have to wade through 10 pages of spam results in order to find maybe 5 relevant results.
Google's PageRank algorithm was a great idea at the time - but now that it is common knowledge it is just too easy to spam it. I could get this little blog to the top of results for whatever word I wanted if I have enough domains available. Which I do.
I think we need a new search paradigm - one that will either work for a short-time of work indefinitely. PageRank is no longer effective now that all of the spammers are aware of it and know how to manipulate it. I think that Google and the other search engines are likely more interested in trying to remove the spam from their results than in coming up with entirely new algorithms. Maybe that will be the idea that makes me rich. If I can think of it.
Thoughts?
Monday, August 13, 2007
Internet Addiction Boot Camp
If my friend doesn't stop playing Guitar Hero all the time, including at work when he should be working, I may consider sending him here.
Monday Morning
Foo is the new bar and other stuff that is the new stuff.
Some more weirdness from Japan
Some stupid mathematicians don't understand the difference between mean and median
Cocaine smelling perfume... Lovely.
Facebook's home page source code. I still have no idea what the big deal is about Facebook. It's not going to be the next Microsoft or Google or even Yahoo. People are going to get sick of it in a few years and move on to the next big thing. Zuckerberg is going to be kicking himself for not selling when the valuation was as ridiculously high as it is now. Unless he cashes out before the "Facebook bubble" bursts. Facebook is just MySpace for people who are not preteens and adults who do not wish to be preteens. Before MySpace there was Friendster, Tribe, and a whole bunch of other similar sites that no one even remembers the names of now.
Some more weirdness from Japan
Some stupid mathematicians don't understand the difference between mean and median
Cocaine smelling perfume... Lovely.
Facebook's home page source code. I still have no idea what the big deal is about Facebook. It's not going to be the next Microsoft or Google or even Yahoo. People are going to get sick of it in a few years and move on to the next big thing. Zuckerberg is going to be kicking himself for not selling when the valuation was as ridiculously high as it is now. Unless he cashes out before the "Facebook bubble" bursts. Facebook is just MySpace for people who are not preteens and adults who do not wish to be preteens. Before MySpace there was Friendster, Tribe, and a whole bunch of other similar sites that no one even remembers the names of now.
Friday, August 10, 2007
On Culture, Electronic Music and Dance Clubs
Daft Punk live in Brooklyn:
No Beastie Boys but it's good that at least some electronic dance artists are still playing in this country. The great thing about Daft Punk is that they are sticking to the roots of electronic music. They hide their faces during their shows. They don't want to be personalities, they want their music to do the talking. A lot of producers and DJs sold out at the first opportunity (Moby and Paul Oakenfold are two shining examples).
I absolutely hate the celebrity-obsessed culture we live in. I have many thoughts on this phenomenon, which I refer to as the celebrity vortex, which I will get around to rewriting one of these days. One of the main draws of electronic music for me was always the anonymity of it. That and the fact that the music you could create was only limited by your imagination. You are not limited by instruments, or your ability to play instruments. Any sound you can imagine can be created. And the only limit is your mind. It's music straight from the mind. Bypassing the fingers, reeds, strings, etc. that constrain live music.
My old college roommate was in France for the last year and he constantly sent me emails listing all of the great producers and DJs he had seen. In NYC, I don't even really know that there are many dance clubs left. I guess all the money is in the bottle service these days.
I miss Sound Factory, Twilo and all of the other great NYC dance clubs. I am totally too old to go out clubbing these days but I miss the fact that they exist. I still listen to and spin house and techno and I love the music, but the rest of the country for the most part seems to have forgotten about it.
No Beastie Boys but it's good that at least some electronic dance artists are still playing in this country. The great thing about Daft Punk is that they are sticking to the roots of electronic music. They hide their faces during their shows. They don't want to be personalities, they want their music to do the talking. A lot of producers and DJs sold out at the first opportunity (Moby and Paul Oakenfold are two shining examples).
I absolutely hate the celebrity-obsessed culture we live in. I have many thoughts on this phenomenon, which I refer to as the celebrity vortex, which I will get around to rewriting one of these days. One of the main draws of electronic music for me was always the anonymity of it. That and the fact that the music you could create was only limited by your imagination. You are not limited by instruments, or your ability to play instruments. Any sound you can imagine can be created. And the only limit is your mind. It's music straight from the mind. Bypassing the fingers, reeds, strings, etc. that constrain live music.
My old college roommate was in France for the last year and he constantly sent me emails listing all of the great producers and DJs he had seen. In NYC, I don't even really know that there are many dance clubs left. I guess all the money is in the bottle service these days.
I miss Sound Factory, Twilo and all of the other great NYC dance clubs. I am totally too old to go out clubbing these days but I miss the fact that they exist. I still listen to and spin house and techno and I love the music, but the rest of the country for the most part seems to have forgotten about it.
Friday at Last
Are we shaming obese children enough?
In The Know: Should We Be Shaming Obese Children More?
Human head found in hamburger:
Human Head Found In Hamburger
In The Know: Should We Be Shaming Obese Children More?
Human head found in hamburger:
Human Head Found In Hamburger
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Beastie Boys Last Night
So I went and saw the Beastie Boys in Central Park last night. I got there right after the doors opened at 5:30pm, the show was supposed to start at 7:00pm. It was at the Summerstage, so for anyone who doesn't know that it's basically a soccer field with fences around it and a big stage. Fits maybe 5000 people.
We waited and waited and waited. It was HOT, but luckily Time Warner Cable was distributing fans that we used to cool ourselves off.
Around 7:30 some shmuck comes on the stage. David something-or-other. The President of the Summerstage thing or some such nonsense. The crowd was not happy to have to listen to him jabber for 10 minutes. Halfway through his spiel he said "you guys better be nice to me because I'm the only thing standing between you and the Beastie Boys" to which the crowd replied with a hearty "fuck you." Beautiful.
I guess this David guy really did have some sort of power because after he was finally booed off the stage we waited and waited and waited some more. Finally around 8pm the boys came out. There was Mix Master Mike, Mike D, Adrock, MCA, a percussionist and a keyboardist. They played a couple punk tunes. Each one was maybe 45 seconds long. Awesome.
Then the percussionist and the keyboardist went away, they put down their instruments and MMM started spinning some beats. The show was a mix between their hip-hop stuff, 30 second punk songs, and the surprise highlight for me - their new, unreleased instrumental stuff. That shit was awesome. Makes me want to go see their instrumental show at the Hammerstein Ballroom tomorrow. Seriously some dope tunes.
Around 9:30 they said "thank you, good night" and walked off the stage. The crowd cheered for more and after about 5 minutes - the entirety of which we could see them waiting off to the side of the stage - they came back, picked up their instruments and did a couple more. They did a couple punk songs, a couple rap songs and ended with Sabotage, which was totally awesome.
I took a video clip on my cell phone of them doing Brass Monkey because I have a kid who loves that song. The sound quality sucks and you can't see shit but whatever... It was from my cell phone, what do you expect?
All in all it was a really, really, really good show. It turned out to be a nice night once the sun went down and it started to cool off. The music was good - especially their new stuff. Some drunk guy complained that they didn't play much off of License to Ill but what they did play was totally awesome. They were obviously having a ball - I would too if I was playing Central park - and the crowd loved it.
We waited and waited and waited. It was HOT, but luckily Time Warner Cable was distributing fans that we used to cool ourselves off.
Around 7:30 some shmuck comes on the stage. David something-or-other. The President of the Summerstage thing or some such nonsense. The crowd was not happy to have to listen to him jabber for 10 minutes. Halfway through his spiel he said "you guys better be nice to me because I'm the only thing standing between you and the Beastie Boys" to which the crowd replied with a hearty "fuck you." Beautiful.
I guess this David guy really did have some sort of power because after he was finally booed off the stage we waited and waited and waited some more. Finally around 8pm the boys came out. There was Mix Master Mike, Mike D, Adrock, MCA, a percussionist and a keyboardist. They played a couple punk tunes. Each one was maybe 45 seconds long. Awesome.
Then the percussionist and the keyboardist went away, they put down their instruments and MMM started spinning some beats. The show was a mix between their hip-hop stuff, 30 second punk songs, and the surprise highlight for me - their new, unreleased instrumental stuff. That shit was awesome. Makes me want to go see their instrumental show at the Hammerstein Ballroom tomorrow. Seriously some dope tunes.
Around 9:30 they said "thank you, good night" and walked off the stage. The crowd cheered for more and after about 5 minutes - the entirety of which we could see them waiting off to the side of the stage - they came back, picked up their instruments and did a couple more. They did a couple punk songs, a couple rap songs and ended with Sabotage, which was totally awesome.
I took a video clip on my cell phone of them doing Brass Monkey because I have a kid who loves that song. The sound quality sucks and you can't see shit but whatever... It was from my cell phone, what do you expect?
All in all it was a really, really, really good show. It turned out to be a nice night once the sun went down and it started to cool off. The music was good - especially their new stuff. Some drunk guy complained that they didn't play much off of License to Ill but what they did play was totally awesome. They were obviously having a ball - I would too if I was playing Central park - and the crowd loved it.
Thursday Miscellany
People who really don't look their age
Top ten celebrity meltdowns - I have some serious problems with the whole concept of celebrity in our society. I could write a whole book on it and maybe one day I will. For now you'll have to content yourself with waiting for some random thoughts on this subject maybe later today.
Women think ordering steak on a date is something special. I don't know. This article doesn't really make sense.
Diet foods might make you fatter
Clip from Superbad:
And this is just weird:
Top ten celebrity meltdowns - I have some serious problems with the whole concept of celebrity in our society. I could write a whole book on it and maybe one day I will. For now you'll have to content yourself with waiting for some random thoughts on this subject maybe later today.
Women think ordering steak on a date is something special. I don't know. This article doesn't really make sense.
Diet foods might make you fatter
Clip from Superbad:
And this is just weird:
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Advertising Bits
- When given two identical pieces of food, one in a branded McDonalds wrapper the other not, kids overwhelmingly say that the McDonalds one tastes better. The more TV they watch the greater they preferred the branded food.
"We found that kids with more TVs in their homes and those who eat at McDonald's more frequently were even more likely to prefer the food in the McDonald's wrapper," Mr. Robinson said. "This is a company that knows what they're doing. Nobody else spends as much to advertise their fast-food products to children."
Duh.
- Top Ten Most Popular TV Ads - I can't believe people get paid to actually do stuff like this. I just fast-forward through all ads with the aid of my trusty DVR.
- More breaking news - Drunk people remember alcohol ads well
Rehab and More
Lindsay Lohan's new, apparently less frilly, rehab center
How to beat a polygraph test
MegaVideo loves you more:
Louis CK talking about his kids:
How to beat a polygraph test
MegaVideo loves you more:
Louis CK talking about his kids:
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Alli
Alli is the generic version of some prescription weight-loss pill. It blocks the absorption of fat in your intestines. When the fat is not processed by your body it comes out the other end unchanged.
More Randomness
Single Parent Sex
WSJ Article about Technology and Relationships
Rich People Having More Kids
Cramer Flipping Out About Credit Problems:
WSJ Article about Technology and Relationships
Rich People Having More Kids
Cramer Flipping Out About Credit Problems:
Monday, August 06, 2007
Friday, August 03, 2007
Recipes from Playgirl
So that editor of Playgirl that I read the article about yesterday actually turns out to be pretty cool. She gave me a recipe for pesto mac and cheese that sounds really good. Thanks Colleen!
Throw the following in the food processor: half bag of frozen spinach, a few handfuls of fresh basil (if from your NY fire escape like ours, wash it very well!), one clove of garlic, about a cup of pine nuts, a big nard of fresh parmesan, and numerous glugs of olive oil. Process until pesto-y.
Meanwhile boil a box o' mac. Drain the mac, stir in the pesto (it was about 2 cups, I'd say?) then top with thin slices of fresh mozzarella and grated parmesan. Bake at 400 'til golden on top.
And there you have it, your 8000 calorie, 50 grams of fat dinner! Yummo
Check out her blog about moving to Baton Rouge. I wish I actually knew you, Colleen. Here is the link to the actual post about the recipe.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Random NY Stuff
Interview with former editor of Playgirl
Article about how rich people are now buying two homes in the same city.
Did Murdoch (gasp) buy off some advisors on the DJ deal?
And more kittens!!!
Article about how rich people are now buying two homes in the same city.
Did Murdoch (gasp) buy off some advisors on the DJ deal?
And more kittens!!!
More Cats
I love cats. I have three of them, a Siamese, a Persian and a domestic short hair. My wife thinks it's weird that I love cats so much but then the Siamese just gives her one of his trademark scathing "Are you talking to me? I don't see anyone else here so you must be talking to me" looks. The Siamese is really smart. He will play fetch. You throw something and he will bring it back so you can throw it again.
The Persian is the youngest and he's very wheezy. I think it's his flat face. He sneezes a lot too, but he is the sweetest thing. Very affectionate and friendly, unlike the Siamese who thinks he is better than everyone other than me. The Siamese is very friendly and affectionate as well, but it's just obvious that he thinks everyone else is beneath him.
The domestic short hair was rescued from the pound. She is also extremely sweet and affectionate but she smells really bad. And my wife is allergic to her - not to the others, just to her. I feel bad for getting the Persian from a breeder when there are cats to rescue at the pound, but it was worth it for my wife to not be allergic to it.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Advice on how to get out of debt
Pretty brilliant advice that I keep trying to explain to my wife. Actually she's really good about not spending money. (Please don't make me sleep on the couch!)
TV In Japan
I have many friends who live or have lived in Japan and they always tell me about how bizarre the TV shows there are. This site collects clips from various Japanese TV shows.
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