Connecting the dots ...
Dennis just alerted me to this:
I’m in great company on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Thought Leadership list: fellow Irregular Jeff Nolan, Tom Raftery, Mark Evans, Sun’s Jonathan Schwartz... frankly, I don’t know what I am doing on this list … I’m humbled. Anyway, Dennis, you’ve made my day! 
(Updated)
Losing my data is one of my worst nightmare – I’m sure I’m not alone. Backing up used to require a lot of discipline (too much for me), so for years I ended up risking it all – not anymore. Mozy is an online backup service you set up once and can forget about… that is until disaster hits, i.e. you lose data. Well, with Mozy installed it’s no longer a disaster, you can conveniently pick the date you want to restore from, and voila’ – your precious data files are back!
Mozy is still beta, but a very stable, mature one. Since my previous post it has improved significantly. The key improvement is tracking byte-level changes, which results in a huge bandwith usage reduction. Let me explain: if you use Outlook, and just received an email, added a contact..etc, most programs out there, even my favorite FolderShare will copy the entire file, which in my case is about 180MB. With most high-speed Internet providers still limiting upstream, that in itself could be a significant burden. Mozy tracks byte-level changes, so it will only need a very small upload. It also handles files locked by a program (another shortcoming of FolderShare).
You can configure your backups to occur at a fix time (during the night), or dynamically after a period of low system resource usage. This is what I do, and the result is several backups a day, all in the background, which I don’t even notice.
If you don’t have a “lifesaver” yet, here’s the signup link for 2G free space, and by following it you’ve just increased both your space and mine. Yes, they have a referral program: after your first backup any new user you refer will add 256MB to both accounts.
Update (8/9): In a funny coincidence just hours after posting this Mozy came out with a new release, which is said to be twice as fast as the old one ….
Update (9/7): “Why Smart People Do Dumb Things” (Like Not Backup Their Hard Disk) – Guy Kawasaki.
Update (9/17): TechCrunch reviews Carbonite, and refers to Mozy as well.
So Niall Kennedy leaves Microsoft – everyone knows it, it’s all over TechMeme. But did he have to bring Windows Live down? 
(Updated – see podcast links at the bottom)
I’ll be moderating another SVASE VC Breakfast Club meeting on Thursday, Aug 10th in San Francisco, at the Embarcadero Center. As usual, it’s an informal round-table where up to 10 entrepreneurs get to deliver a pitch, then answer questions and get critiqued by a VC Partner. We’ve had VC’s from Draper Fisher, Hummer Winblad, Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, Mohr Davidow, Emergence Capital …etc.
Thursday’s featured VC is Chris Hollenbeck, Managing Director, Granite Ventures. The Zvents post has all the info and a map, and if you plan to attend, please register here.
These sessions are a valuable opportunity for Entrepreneurs, most of whom would probably have a hard time getting through the door to VC Partners. Since I’ve been through quite a few of these sessions, both as Entrepreneur and Moderator, let me share a few thoughts:
Here’s a participating Entrepreneur’s feedback about a previous event.
See you in San Francisco! 
Update (8/13): Listen to these podcasts recorded at the VC Breakfast by Vic at HotfromSiliconValley:
Click here to listen to the conversation with Chris Hollenbeck
Tags: Venture Capital, VC Breakfast, Funding, VC Funding, Startups, Entrepreneurship, SVASE
Katy Tanner was fired from her sales job at Blue Banana, a chain body-piercing studio in Cardiff, Wales, by SMS to his cellphone, on her day off.
“We are a youth business and our staff are all part of the youth culture that uses (text) messaging as a major means of communication,” says the company
Tanner said the text firing was unfair and it should have been done face-to-face.
“It was totally out of the blue,” she said..
Of course out of the Blue. Banana.
(full story on SFGate)
BEIRUT, LEBANON-As the cost of rocket fuel soared to $630 per gallon Monday, Middle Easterners who depend on the non-renewable propellant to power 10-kilogram rockets have been forced to severely restrict their daily bombing routines, bringing this latest round of fighting to an unexpected halt.
“The way things are going, I won’t have any money left over for other necessities, such as anti-aircraft missiles, land mines, and machine guns,” said Hezbollah guerrilla Mahmoud Hamoui, who is just one of hundreds of Islamic militants compelled to scale back their killing until rocket-fuel prices return to their pre-2006 levels.
“I admit I had grown accustomed to waking up every morning, driving my multiple-rocket-launcher to the launching site, and firing one unguided Katyusha rocket after another, even when it wasn’t absolutely necessary,” Lebanese militia member Omar Cheaib said. “But at these prices, I can’t even afford short-range launches over the border. I don’t know what to do with myself.”
“A helpful list of rocket-fuel-conservation tips was issued by the Lebanese government in early June, but it was virtually ignored,” Beirut Arab University environmental studies Professor Farid Issa said. “It suggested taking public transportation to the border to launch missiles, or simply gunning down Israelis with AK-47s. Instead, Hezbollah members chose to fire rockets from the convenience of their own backyards, as if rocket fuel grew on trees.”
(full article at The Onion)
(Updated)
Thank you, Google for resisting the DOJ’s effort to obtain user search data. You put up a good fight to protect our privacy, and you won. Too bad it was all in vain.
AOL, in blatant violation of its users privacy just released the log of 3 month’s worth of searches by 650,000 users. Not to the DOJ, but for open download by anyone. The claim:
“This collection is distributed for non-commercial research use only. Any application of this collection for commercial purposes is STRICTLY PROHIBITED”
Prohibited. Yeah, right. As if they could control it. The data is supposedly “anonymized”, which in AOL-speak means the screen-name is replaced by a unique user number. Anyone a little bit familiar with data mining knows what this means, and obviously some commenters on the AOL blog have already put two and two together, “outing” certain users whose identity was easy to find based on the search patterns. I don’t even want to think what data mining pro’s will do with this.
AOL, you betrayed your users. If they are any smart, they will boycott your services. 
Update #1 (8/6): I’m going out on a limb here with this prediction: as they realize the magnitude of what they did (or if they don’t, due to the PR nightmare) AOL will apologize, the fingerpointing starts and heads will roll. They will remove the download link. Not before anyone who wanted the data will have obtained it though.
Update #2 (8/6): TechCrunch further elaborates on the “utter stupidity” of this move by AOL:”
“The data includes personal names, addresses, social security numbers and everything else someone might type into a search box. The most serious problem is the fact that many people often search on their own name, or those of their friends and family, to see what information is available about them on the net. Combine these ego searches with porn queries and you have a serious embarrassment. Combine them with “buy ecstasy” and you have evidence of a crime. Combine it with an address, social security number, etc., and you have an identity theft waiting to happen. The possibilities are endless. “
Update #3 (8/6): The download link leads to a blank page. Perhaps AOL Exec’s are waking up… I wish all my predictions (see the first update above) would materialize this fast. I wonder if there will be a black market for the “limited edition” downloaded dataset… eBay, anyone? 
Update #4 (8/6): Dennis pondering about possible ramifications, partly based on our Skype IM:
of a market intelligence offering? Almost certainly the second if not
the first.
decent grounds for one of the ambulance chasers to send out its hit
squad – they may even get what they need from the file
Update #5 (8/6): The last thing I expected was to find myself deleting comments; but this situation forced me to. A commenter provided a link to his site where he put up the file for anyone to download. I know the cat is out of the bag, and there will be several other sites, but at least I don’t want to actively promote making a bad situation even worse. Since I can’t edit comments, my only choice was to delete it.
Update #6 (8/7): ZDNet agrees: “People will be boycotting the company because of their blatent disregard for the privacy of users.”
The news is out on Infoworld, was well as mainstream news media all the way to Korea.
Update #7 (8/7): AOL responded by email to John Battelle, also quoted at SiliconBeat. “The summary: Man, did we screw up.”
Related posts:
EverNote is the last company I expected to raise venture funding: has a mature product, a mix of freeware and a $35 version, and I pretty much considered them a good candidate for safe, organic growth. GigaOM just reported it EverNote’s funding to the tune of $6M. Wow…
My Love & Hate relationship? The love part is easy to understand; it’s a handy, easy-to-use notetaker, which I prefer to the comparable Microsoft OneNote, and the $0 price is quite unbeatable. The hate part: it really does not fit into strategy of moving off the desktop into the Cloud.
In fact it’s the only application that breaks my sync efforts between two laptops using FolderShare: if EverNote is loaded at bootup (which is the best way to use it), it will “renew” it’s data file even on the PC I am not actively using, and FolderShare will attempt to overwrite my good working copy with an older one (which however has a newer time stamp). The only solution: remember to remove EverNote from the auto-launch sequence on the secondary computer. Yet another reason why it’s safer in the Cloud.
My ideal solution would be an option to use EverNote on a data file stored online. Perhaps the $6M will cover this, too (?).
Update (8/6): Matt Marshall at SiliconBeat says EverNote will do exactly what I am asking for. 
Update (8/20/07): How Not To Drown in Info: Evernote by Digital Digression.
Geez, Skype is so simple yo use, will anyone actually pay $13.99 to buy this guide at TechRepublic?
It’s “official” though, with foreword written by Niklas Zennstrom…
Pranks seem to become the new trend in advertising. A few days ago I fell for the Alltel Spoof on Guy Kawasaki’s blog. (read more in the Wall Street Journal).
The viral video du jour is Agency.com’s prank, in which they broadcast their pitch process, including fake employment at their Client (prospect). Will it work? I don’t know. Steve Rubel dislikes it, other think it’s most effective… time will tell.
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