Connecting the dots ...
Valleywag’s Nick Douglas is leaving. Nick *was* Valleywag. Not much to add here, it’s the top item on Techmeme:
Good Morning Silicon Valley, Mathew Ingram, Master of 500 Hats, Thomas Hawk’s Digital …, Things That, WebProBlog, Federated Media …
But WTF is this new design?
Frankly, it makes me want to puke… except that it looks like someone has already puked on it 
AP, Seattle: “Some musicians spend 18 months working on a whole album. At Microsoft Corp., that’s how long it took to perfect just four seconds of sound.”
That’s the Vista Startup Sound. Microsoft hired famous guitarist Robert Fripp for the job.
Originally, in a perfect demonstration of product-focused thinking ignoring users, Microsoft planned to make this sound mandatory (impossible to modify or even shut off), but when Robert Scoble leaked the news, there was a huge backlash eventually Microsoft gave in, making the sound optional.
So in the end, 18 months of effort went into 4 seconds that you will turn off anyway. 
Much ado about nothing… in the end, this is all that matters:
Update (11/13): I’ve only discovered after writing this post that you can actually listen to the startup sound by clicking Play under the photo in the AP article. Wow… is that it? The heavenly experience? 
18 months…. LOL. Several years and latops ago I had my new mail notification sound set to a 3-4 second harp piece from Franz Liszt‘s Les Preludes. It took me a good 30 minutes to cut/edit it. 
Lots of noise about Web 3.0:
The NYT, Between the lines, Valleywag, Screenwerk, Scripting News, Center for Citizen Media, larry borsato, A VC, Mark Evans, deal architect, Rough type, Ross Mayfield and just about the entire Blogosphere…
But I’ve already “claimed” Web 4.0
Secondary school students will be able to use text speak in written examinations this year, legitimizing a language loved by teenagers.
In New Zealand, that is. Here’s a reader comment:
“u mst b joking. or r u smoking sumthg? lol. so what if kidz pruv they no sbjct mtr? f u cant communic8 yr noldg, it’s prty much wrthlss. nz alrdy has svr prbs w stndrd nglsh speling, punc. and grmmr. dont make wrs!!! “
I think I undestand (?)what the commenter says, and I wholeheartedly agree. Or, to quote another reader comment:
“Wot a ld o rubish! Our edukshun sys is bad ’nuff alrdy. Mre dum kids who cant spel.”
Update (11/12): the AP version of the story got Slashdotted and it’s on Techmeme today.
I know drugs kill .. bankrupt.. but apparently they also eat money, quite literally:
“BERLIN, Nov 11 (Reuters) – A mystery substance that caused some euro banknotes in Germany to fall to pieces may be linked to the party drug crystal speed, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday, quoting regional police. Users of crystal speed inhale it through the nose using rolled-up banknotes and chemists think impurities such as sulphates, mingled with sweat, could have created an acid that ate away at the notes, the magazine quoted police as saying.
Around 1,500 banknotes worth between 5 euros and 100 euros ($6.44-$129) crumbled shortly after being withdrawn from cash machines, the Bundesbank said earlier this month.”
Rummy’s resignation is definitely good news, but there are still others who don’t belong in DC .. but we have to wait a bit longer for this one to disappear
This is a reprint of a previous post, because with 250 registrations I can now offer the few remaining tickets at a huge discount ($49 vs $199) at this special link.
Mark November 8th, Wednesday on
your calendar for a full-day entrepreneurial
super-event (actually two) at the Microsoft Conference
Center in Mountain View.
At 8am SVASE
will present The Art of the
Start, a conference all about helping
entrepreneurs succeed, offering time-tested, battle-hardened business
strategies and the opportunity to meet experienced entrepreneurs and
investors.
The drought of the past few years is over
and venture capital is flowing again. But starting a high tech business
is no less challenging and demanding than it’s ever been, even in an
environment of venture capital overhang.
Pure
talent and winning ideas are never enough. Whether you’re an
entrepreneur in a garage, dorm room, lab or inside a big company, there
are fundamental business 
insights and skills you need
to succeed.
Start-up authority and
popular business author Guy
Kawasaki and experts from Garage, along with Silicon Valley
leaders and mavericks, venture capitalists, and successful start-up
CEOs explore the art of starting up.
The conference
includes breakfast and lunch, including a Fireside Chat with
Guy Kawasaki and
Mike Arrington of TechCrunch.
Check out the agenda
here, then rush to register.
Rush, as Early Bird registration ends tomorrow, November 3rd. (Yes, I
know, posting this late, sorry…)
The conference ends
at 3:30, and an hour later a related event, Launch: Silicon
Valley starts at the same venue.
Launch: Silicon Valley is an
opportunity for the next generation of emerging technology companies
will to tell their stories to the world – literally, as the event will
be videotaped and broadcast later. Over 150 startup
submissions from all over the country, several European countries and
as far as New Zealand have been reviewed by an Advisory Board of
investors and executives. The 30 most interesting companies have been
invited to participate in the “Launch: Silicon Valley”
showcase, and 15 of these companies have
also been invited to deliver product
presentation to an audience of Silicon
Valley’s leading movers and shakers.
Product presentations will take place in three
categories, 5 companies each:
technologies
CleanTech
Other
Please check out the complete
agenda, and again, rush to register,
as Early Bird pricing ends tomorrow, November 3rd for this
event, too. The Registration site allows you to book both
events together, or any of them selectively.
Now,
for the surprise: Silicon Valley Auto
Group will be displaying Aston Martin, Bentley, and
Lamborghini cars at both events, and I’m hearing they’ll schedule
test-drives. I’m sure half the participants – the cream of
the Valley VC community – can actually afford these cars… as for the
other half, the Entrepreneurs, how is this for an incentive?
Kawasaki, Art of the Start, entrepreneurship, startups, silicon
valley, social networking, business events, lamborghini, aston
martin, bentley, venture capital, vc, vc
funding, startup
24SevenOffice is an innovative software company offering SaaS for the SMB / SME market that should really be called 24SevenBusiness
Their system is modular but integrated with a breath of functionality I simply haven’t seen elsewhere: Accounting, CRM (Contacts, Lead Mgt, SFA), ERP (Supply Chain, Orders, Products, Inventory), Communication, Group Scheduling, HR, Project Management, Publishing, Intranet. Essentially a NetSuite+Communication and Collaboration.
They are innovators in many ways … had an AJAX system long before it was called AJAX and recently they created a “World’s First” by teaming up with a bank that becomes the SaaS provider offering its customers single sign-on Web solutions for banking and all other business software needs.
The system is really comprehensive so it may not be that easy to figure out all features, therefore they released a cool flash demo that walks through the major business processes. (hat tip: Espen Antonsen)
What I really like about 24SevenOffice is that they are proof to my favorite theme, i.e. that small businesses can now have “enterprise” system functionality. My only complaint is that so far they onu cover several European countries; I wish they were faster entering the US market. But I’m hearing that may not be too far now …
Update (11/12): check out Dennis Howlett’s post on Interprise Suite, another integrated system for the SMB market.
I’m lazy. This must be an only reason my browser’s homepage is still my.yahoo.com, set 10 or so years ago, instead of Netvibes or some other hot site. I rarely read stuff here, relying on social filtering – i.e. if something is of interest to me, it will likely show up in my feed reader, through a trusted individual’s blog.
Today I semi-automatically clicked on a news item and had that deja vu feeling… no wonder:
“Full coverage” (whatever the source) updated 4 days ago, Reuters updated 4 days ago. Not displayed, but AP Europe updated 3 days ago, San Jose Merc 3 days ago, Contra Costa times 3 days ago ..etc.
Is My Yahoo dead?
Update (116): Read about Start Pages / Widgets on the Read/Write Web.
The Big Week is coming… and you get to pick how much you’re willing to pay for being “there”. If you got invited and coughed up $3,500, you can be at the Web 2.0 Conference which is actually no longer a conference but a Summit. If you didn’t make it there, don’t worry, thanks to Chris Pirillo, here’s the summary:
Of course if you want to get ahead of the crowd, you can upgrade… all the way to Web 2.2
The 2.2 upgrade is considerably less expensive, registration is only $32.95. Of course it’s all so relative, the original Web 2.1 which I had a chance to sponsor was a mere $2.80 – yes, that’s not a mistake, $2.80. Now, if we do a little trendspotting, we can figure out what one of the talk topics will be about: at Web 2.3 and Beyond, What’s Really Next? they will have to decide whether to increase next year’s price to $329.50. 
(OK, just kidding, $32.95 is still affordable)
Happy (Un)Conferencing next week. Oh, and if you’re not attending any of these events, meet Guy Kawasaki, dozens of VC’s and 30 or so startups here. (The Lamborghini is not included in registration)
Publisher / Editor of CloudAve and Enterprise Irregulars.
I do most of my business blogging there, with occasional asides here. More...
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