February 2012
2 posts
“What she and her colleagues found out was that [the number of mentions of a TV...”
– So the take away is that the more people talk about the different facets of a show in social media, the more popular the show will be. As opposed to real life, where the more people talk about the different facets of a show in social media, the more popular the show will be.
A VC: Dispersion and...
January 2012
19 posts
“The cries from the media blaming Apple for the conditions at Foxconn are getting...”
– This is disingenuous at best. After more than a few days of talking about the astronomical profits that Apple hit in Q4, and then comparing it to everyone else, The Loop turns around and put them on equal footing when it comes to corporate responsibility? If they are making the most money from...
“A much narrower lesson of Kodak’s bankruptcy: that the tech industry and Wall...”
– “Alright everybody, show’s over, back to innovating.”
A Bankrupt Kodak Signals A Patent Bubble Burst | Epicenter | Wired.com
“The IPO market is dying,” he said. “You see companies achieving robust...”
– One of these is useful information, and the other a dishonest way to get page views:
Financial Media: Due to a number of forces, IPOs are becoming less attractive as a way to make a splash, or raise capital.
Tech Media: IPOS ARE DEAD!@!#!@$@!%
joshsternberg:
Barry Silbert, CEO of SecondMarket,...
“I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American...”
– I say to you that comparing VCRs to the Boston Stranglers is as dangerous to your movement’s credibility as DC sniper was to people who lived in DC.
Jack Valenti Testimony at 1982 House Hearing on Home Recording of Copyrighted Works
“I feel that way too. More than most, probably. I’m forever wanting...”
– Blah, blah, blah. That’s so deep. Two years ago it was e-readers, last year it was 3D-TVs, this year it’s, “CES sucks.” So many jaded writers acting like they don’t know that conferences are for talking and selling, not blowing your mind.
Fever Dream of a Guilt-Ridden...
“While most startups are focused on allowing users to share information as...”
– In the “I mean, I get it…” news category, Neko.io is a way to post secrets to a public form. Sounds plausible.
Neko.io Adds Private Sharing Layer To Social Media
Mouth To Mouth Marketing
I discovered the app Blip.Me on an Android Blog. Blip.Me is voice texting, similar to HeyTell, but dead simple and fun to use. I didn’t have any other friend using, so I told my girlfriend about it. As she has AT&T in the city, we can never call each other, and within days Blip.Me became our dominant digital communication tool. As we began using Blip.Me in public, people started asking...
“Also referred to as “spillage” in the industry, TowerGroup found...”
– The Unused Value in Gift Cards is Shrinking - ABC News
“Is it possible that actual human beings respond to a barrage of vagina jokes...”
– This is a great article about laugh tracks.
Coincidentally, there’s a very interesting, and very sad, story about the history of professional laughers, or people who get paid to sit in on sitcoms and laugh on queue. After two armed men broke into her house and brutally raped her and a friend,...
“We’re comfortable buying apps from third parties. Curated, third-party app...”
– Huge ups to my employer, GetJar for having a monster Q4, a very promising 2012, and hiring me full time as of today.
By the numbers: Mobile apps in 2011 — Tech News and Analysis
“Imagine an NFL coach,” writes Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of...”
– People underestimate how much the social sciences play into how the stock market works. The issues with the market aren’t just about unchecked greed and the 1%. It’s about inherent, unavoidable quirks in human behavior and psychology.
The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing...
December 2011
15 posts
White Supremacists Exchanging Recipes for Chicken... →
hman:
“Anyone have a really good recipe for Chicken Tikka Massala?”
“Ever wonder why shower curtains blow inward when taking a nice hot shower? So do...”
– So, apparently there are 4 competing theories for why I yell at a sheet of plastic every morning.
The Shower Curtain effect
“Further reflection revealed that it’s quite impractical—nearly impossible—to...”
– Waldo Jaquith - On the impracticality of a cheeseburger.
“We like our hand,” he said. “We just don’t know what all the cards are yet.”
– Dish Network CEO (and apparent poker enthusiast) Joesph Clayton discusses his interests in buying T-Mobile when/if/but most likely when the AT&T-Mo deal falls through.
Dish Network Seeks to Partner With T-Mobile USA If AT&T Acquisition Fails - Bloomberg
“Imagine, if you will, a man who, as Speaker of the House, orchestrates the...”
– Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker. (via langer)(via shorterexcerpts)
1 tag
“Nielsen shows that Facebook was the most used app in the U.S. during the last 30...”
– I guess you could look at numbers like that and whip up a frenzy about a dedicated Facebook Phone? But similar to the deep integration of Twitter in to the new Mac OS, I don’t get it.
The period of time between 2005 and 2015 will be known to me as the ‘Throw Stuff At A Wall And See What...
“I feel the Fire is going to be a failure,” Mr. Nielsen, of the Nielsen Norman...”
– In Monday’s edition of ‘Polemic Things People Say So As To Get Quoted In The New York Times,’ we have Jakob Nielson talking about his feelings.
Amazon Kindle Fire Faces Critics and Remedies Are Promised - NYTimes.com
“A truly open facet of Android — the open-source codebase, minus Google’s apps —...”
– Yeesh, what a buzz kill.
/via Marco.org
November 2011
19 posts
1 tag
The time I accidently went to a creationist museum
The Cabazon dinosaurs are a well known Southern California landmark.
On I10, south east of Palm Springs, you’ll see a T-Rex and a brontosaurus rising out of the desert. Claude Bell built the Wheelhouse Inn in 1958, and following through on a childhood wish he built the landmarks on the property.
The dinosaurs have been immortalized in films like Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure...
“A birthday card that sings ‘Happy Birthday’ to you — that birthday card has a...”
– Physicist Michio Kaku on Moore’s Law. (via nprfreshair)
It's Minority Report Monday
It’s been noted a few times that the film Minority Report is wildly considered to be the most accurate prediction of the future ever committed to film. I saw three stories today that remind me of the film:
-Retailers looking to track cellphone signals in a meat space application of the Internet browser concept of cookies.
-South Korea’s prisons looking to staff certain positions with...
“Several start-ups have also rebuffed Zynga this year, including Rovio. This...”
– Ouch. The article also points out that PopCap sold to EA instead of Zynga due to fears about the corporate culture.
Although, I didn’t realize that Zynga was already profitable, so kudos to them for that.
Zynga’s Tough Culture Risks a Talent Drain - NYTimes.com
“I expect the security issue to disappear over time as the younger generation,...”
– Yes, people got over their security fears about the web and became ready to shop and give out personal security info, but they didn’t take their desktop PC with them everywhere they went. You never left your desktop at a bar, or had it stolen from you while you at the park.
I’ve had...
“I think it was a combination of these preliminary, almost default moves toward...”
– How Manhattan became Manhattan is most interesting when compared to the identity of the city, and how different style elements, say European style boulevards or roundabouts, might have flavored Manhattan instead.
A Visual History of Manhattan’s Grid - Design - The Atlantic Cities
“Uninformed transactions. Uninformed buyers and sellers. Uninformed pricing....”
– Nick Kam’s dad shares my feelings on Groupon, as well as the whole secondary market.
Groupon goes public | Marketplace from American Public Media
