Not Feeling so Hot on a Tuesday

A great scene from a great movie, apropos of nothing:



A nerdy Flash game which involves breasts.

Some music industry people apparently are finally waking up to the new paradigm, rather than sticking their heads in the sand like the labels are doing.

More on the much ballyhooed alleged gPhone. And Google is teaming up with IBM.

Long article on a NY plastic surgeon. I didn't get all the way through it.

Article on tattoos in America. Take that, person I was arguing with about this last night. You were kind of right, actually, you just forgot to specify the age bracket.

Possibly the stupidest web site I have EVER seen, courtesy of TechCrunch.

WSJ article on the alleged Bubble 2.0. I tend to agree that things are getting silly again but I don't think it is a bubble yet because 1) the public is not heavily involved via the stock market, 2) history indicates that new technologies will initially cause a bubble which will burst and allow the survivors to build themselves up. See railroads in the 1800s for an example.

And finally, a Silicon Valley version of that Craiglist gold-digger post that's been going around.

Monday Morning Round-up

• An article on usage of Facebook apps. People probably shouldn't bank their futures on their Facebook apps. If they have any.
• Marc Andreesen on the web 2.0 bubble or something.
• 2007 Douchebag awards. None of my nominees were there and the skit isn't even really funny, but it could have been.
• An outsiders opinion of the NY Google office. Full disclosure - I have considered applying to Google in the past.
• Speaking of Google the NY Times has an article about the rumored gPhone. And a timeline of the gPhone rumors.
  

From the Obvious Files

An article about rent in NYC. Apparently its really expensive and hard to find apartments. Um... Duh?

And the newest, hottest Facebook app - dramatic whitespace! Awesome! Someone should buy this for at least $3 million.

Vaguely interesting article about the gentrification of Manhattan. Note the part about the number of Starbucks. Color me confused.

Lars and the Real Girl

Saw a screening of this movie last night and it was actually pretty good. Plot summary from some site:

Lars is a young man who spent much of his life alone with his widower father. When his dad finally passed on, his brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), moved home with his wife, Karin (Emily Mortimer). With his brother back and his father gone, Lars retreated not only to the garage, but further into himself. Karin, however, is determined to break Lars out of his shell and get him involved in the family. It is obvious that he cares about them, but at the same time, he uses any excuse possible to avoid Karin's invitations.

I always say that in good movies the plots are largely irrelevant to what the movie is about, and this movie is really about loneliness and community. Lars is extremely shy and socially awkward and also has a problem with being touched by others. He orders a sex doll off of the internet and is absolutely 100% convinced she is real, and the whole town plays along because they all care about Lars.

The film is very funny, largely due to the reactions of people to having this doll presented and addressed as a real live person, but it is not a comedy. It never plays for laughs - they are incidental. At its core the film is about loneliness, how one escapes loneliness, and how people can come together when you least expect it. In this case the whole town comes together for Lars as he works out some of his issues through his delusion of Bianca.

Ryan Gosling plays the part brilliantly. He and director Craig Gillespie were at the screening to discuss the film but didn't really have anything terribly profound to add. And Gosling, while a fabulous actor, came off as a bit of an ass. Gillespie did not.

This film opened at the TIFF earlier this year and I don't know if it is slated for theatrical release and, if so, when. If it is I highly encourage people to see it. And I smell an Oscar nom for Gosling. His performance is so incredible - he really drives and carries the whole movie. He was nominated last year for Half Nelson, which I still haven't seen but have heard nothing but raves about, and I expect he will be nominated again this year. The supporting performers also do a very good job. All of the acting is very understated for the most part.

Advertising Apartments in NYC

Some advertising people came up with this gem...

Financial Modelling for Start-ups

Guy Kawasaki's blog has some info from a guy at Redfin on how they did the financial modeling for their startup. Back when I was an Apple junkie I loved Guy Kawasaki. But regardless of that, this is a very interesting and informative article.

This is what my company did not do:

At least in the financial model, give yourself as much time to grow as you can.

Or this:

Since there's a natural limit on growth, be ready for the question: "What would your market-share be in year five?" If it's over 20%, take the jillion-dollar projection down a notch. Even a hit like iPod doesn't have 20% market-share. You'll be lucky to come close to 20% of any market.

But we just might do this, although revenues don't necessarily mean profit:

Hit $100 million in revenues within five years.

Trying to Marry Rich

This Craiglist post (since expired or deleted) is from a woman who wants to know why she can't find a man who makes more than $500k a year. She's stuck at $250k and that won't get her an apartment on the UWS. She's pretty, just moved to NY probably for the purpose of finding a rich man and wants to know how to find a very rich man. One of those men responds to her.

On a related note to gold digging sluts, Disney characters explain chlamydia.

And strippers, if you want to make money, stay off the pill and don't get knocked up.