Archives for 2006

The Phaeton Fiasco

Posted on March 10, 2006 ·

I’m not a car expert, not even a marketing guru, but even I saw the disaster in the making. A few years ago at the San Francisco Auto Show I loved the new VW Phaeton. Too bad it will fail, I thought. It was really obvious this car would not sell, at least not in the US.

The car is perfect. In fact it’s a technological marvel full of luxuries. It only has one problem: the wrong badge. Volkswagen happens to mean “people’s car”, but that’s beyond the point. What matters is that VW’s are perceived as good middle-class cars, not more. At $80K people buy luxury cars, not just in terms of performance, but image, too. What were VW thinking ,when they have their own upscale brand, Audi? This car is clearly an Audi, mistakenly labeled Volkswagen.

There is a reason why Honda created Acura, Toyota created Lexus … but I guess VW slept through that class in Marketing.

Paul Kedrosky has more, including a sales chart.

Tags: Volkswagen, VW, Phaeton, Audi, Marketing, Branding, Brands, Cars, Car Sales

Filed Under: Business, Marketing / PR ·

Battle of the Bulge, Round 2.

Posted on March 9, 2006 ·

Tank The first Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II, in December-January of 1944. It was also the largest land battle the United States Army has fought to date. The historic battle has been the subject of numerous films and books, including the Battle of the Bulge made in 1965, starring Henry Fonda.

The second Battle of the Bulge is being fought entirely digitally. The new Superman, 26–year old Australian actor Brandon Routh is apparently … well, super-manly in a certain department down South. This worries studio Exec’s so much, they ordered to reduce the Bulge digitally.

Apparently, we’re still suffering from the wardrobe malfunction syndrome (isn’t it amazing there is an entry for this in Wikipedia?). The Rolling Stones gets censored, Superman (digitally) castrated, what’s next?

Update (3/9): Apparently other parts of the male anatomy need some flattening, too. This is getting scary. (hat tip: BL Ochman).

… and in some places chambermaids take care of the “flattening” (hat tip: Vinnie Mirchandani)

Tags: bulge, Battle of the Bulge, History, WWII, Superman, Wardrobe Malfunction, Censorship, Movies, Culture, Rolling Stones

Filed Under: Humor, Misc ·

Google No Longer Funny

Posted on March 8, 2006 ·

They used to have this message whenever Gmail went down:
“ Cross your fingers and try again in a few minutes”

I guess they’re now a serious company, Gmail dies just as frequently (like right now) but the message is:
“We’re sorry, but Gmail is temporarily unavailable. We’re currently working to fix the problem — please try logging in to your account in a few minutes.”

Oh well, growing (?) pains …

Update: Thanks to SiliconBeat, now we know what it is… it’s a:

Oops, this could be bad:

GMail Horror Story!

Tags: Google, Gmail, Gmail Outage, Gmail Down, Humor

Filed Under: Humor, Software, Technology ·

SVASE VC Breakfast Club with Sigma Partners

Posted on March 8, 2006 ·

Another SVASE VC Breakfast Club session is coming up on Thursday, March 9th in San Jose. 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 Gregory C. Gretsch, Managing Director, Sigma Partners. The Zvents post has all the info and a map , but please remember to click through to register either from zvents or directly here.

These sessions are an incredible opportunity for Entrepreneurs, most of whom would probably have a hard time getting through the door to a VC Partners. Since I’ve been through quite a few of these sessions, both as Entrepreneur and Moderator, let me share a few thoughts:

It’s a pressure-free environment, with no Powerpoint presentations, Business Plans…etc, just casual conversation, but it does not mean you should come unprepared!
Bring an Executive Summary, some VC’s like it, others don’t.
Follow a structure, don’t just talk freely about what you would like to do, or even worse, spend all your time describing the problem, without addressing what your solution is.
Don’t forget “small things” like the Team, Product, Market..etc.
It would not hurt to mention how much you are looking for, and how you would use the funds…
Write down and practice your pitch, be ready to deliver a compelling story in 5 minutes. You will have more time, but believe me, whatever your practice time was, when you are on the spot, you will likely take twice as long to deliver your story.
Last, but not least, please be on time! I am not kidding… some of you know why I have to even bring this up.

See you on Thursday!

Tags: Venture Capital, VC Breakfast, Funding, VC Funding, Startups, Entrepreneurship, SVASE

Filed Under: Bay Area, Business, Social Networking, Startups ·

Google Calendar and the TechCrunch Babel

Posted on March 8, 2006 ·

(Updated)

Here’s proof on how International TechCrunch’s readership is. This morning Mike leaked some information about Google’s long awaited calendar, which apparently won’t be called GCalendar, but CL2 (is that a chemical formula or what? ).

Before we lazy Californians woke up, he already had 89 comments, close to half non-English. By the time I finished writing this, comments are up to 103.. see samples below. (Update: the number is likely over 103 now, but my blogging platform is

down, who knows when I’ll be able to post it .. and in the meantime

TechCrunch appears to be down, too .. what a day!)

Btw., where is Chandler?

Pingback by pixelschrubber » Blog Archive » CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 12:59 am
[…] Schalalalala…er wir entwickelt: Der CL2, also known as Google Calendar. Mehr darüber hier: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/08/exclusive-screenshots-google-calendar/ […]
Pingback by AboutDigital.ru » CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 1:01 am
[…] Не буду переводить и комментировать эту стью в TechCrunch. Лучше посмотрите сами и оцените! Впечатляет! Тяжелые времена будут у других календарных сервисов… Google рулит! […]
Trackback by techmonster — March 8, 2006 @ 1:04 am
Google Kalender CL2…

Schon lange wurde darüber geschrieben und es gingen auch einige Bilder durchs Netz – jetzt tauchen erneut Bilder des bald erwarteten Google Kalender CL2 im Netz auf. Michael Arrington schreibt in seinem Blog das er nun neue Bilder hat….
Trackback by Julien Carnelos Blog — March 8, 2006 @ 1:20 am
Le Google Calendar arrive……

Vu sur TechCrunch,
le calendrier google pointe le bout de son nez….
Pingback by Luca Mondini » Blog Archive » — March 8, 2006 @ 1:30 am

[…] Sono disponibili in anteprima su TechCrunch, i primi screenshot di Google Calendar, applicazione di cui era previsto il lancio qualche mese fa. CL2, questo il nome del progetto, è invece ancora in beta e lo sarà, almeno secondo quello che riporta l’autore del post, Michael Arrington. La fuga di notizie, grazie ad uno dei 200 beta tester coinvolti, ci lascia intuire che CL2 sarà assolutamente integrato con GMail e permetterà la creazione, la ricerca e la condivisione di eventi. E’ probabile inoltre che l’aggregazione di eventi, in stile Eventful, sia implementata. Ai fan della grande G o delle applicazioni Web 2.0 non resta che aspettare, io continuerò ad utilizzare nel frattempo il mio D*I*Y Planner… […]

Trackback by Abundando — March 8, 2006 @ 1:44 am
Más pantallazos de Google Calendar…

Podéis encontrarlos en un post de Techcrunch: Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar….
Pingback by Details und Screenshots zu Google Calendar at RAINonline — March 8, 2006 @ 1:46 am
[…] Auf TechCrunch und GigaOM findet ihr die ersten Details und Screenshot zu “CL2&Prime – oder Google Calendar. […]

Pingback by Textw�ste » Blog Archive » Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 2:27 am
[…] Im Moment wehen einige Ger�chte �ber ein neues Google Produkt durch das Internet: den “Google Calendar”. TechCrunch hat jetzt Screenshots ver�ffentlicht und gibt auch sonst ein wenig Einblick. […]

Trackback by meneame.net — March 8, 2006 @ 2:41 am
Imagenes exclusivas del nuevo google calendar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…

Primeras imagenes oficiales del proximo lanzamiento de google…
Pingback by 还没想好 » 真正的Google CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 2:44 am
[…] 更多图片 […]

Pingback by Las capturas de Google Calendar — Proletarium — March 8, 2006 @ 2:48 am
[…] TEch Crunch es como el New York Times de internet, tiene acceso a cosas que nadie tiene, hoy han publicado las primeras capturas dignas de Google Calendar (¡por fin!): […]
Pingback by BlueAce » Google’s Office komt dichterbij dankzij CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 2:51 am
[…] TechCrunch heeft de scoop met nieuwe screenshots van een nog te releasen kalender dienst van Google: CL2. CL2 makes it easy — even effortless — to keep track of all the events in your life and compare them to what your friends and family have going on in theirs. […]

Trackback by meneame.net — March 8, 2006 @ 2:54 am
Anlise do Google Calendar…

Ainda no abriu mas esta revista j fez a anlise. Parece interessante….

Pingback by google calendar at quintal do xanato — March 8, 2006 @ 3:01 am
[…] jah ha algum tempo que os rumores comecaram a aparecer mas desta parece que eh mesmo a serio. podem ver com o que se vai parecer o cl2 (eh o nome da coisa e ainda bem porque nohs jah temos um cl), e sempre ajuda a passar o tempo ateh estar disponivel. […]
Trackback by Error500 — March 8, 2006 @ 3:04 am
Imágenes de Google Calendar ¿o CL2?…

Primeras imágenes de lo que será el Google Calendar, aunque al parecer el nombre oficial será CL2. Las tienen en …

Pingback by Desinformados » Primeras im�genes de Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 3:42 am
[…] La gente de TechCrunch (c�mo no) se ha hecho con las primeras im�genes de Google Calendar CL2, lo cual est� creando un buzz impresionante. Al contrario que los anteriores fakes, Michael Arrington afirma que estos screenshots fueron filtrados por trabajadores de Google, e incluye todas las im�genes con que se ha hecho y una buena descripci�n del servicio. Puedes verlo en este enlace. […]

Pingback by MTYBlogs » CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 4:07 am
[…] Al parecer este será el nombre del Google Calendar que ya arrojó sus primeras imágenes que pueden ser vistas en Techcrunch y una explicación mas detallada la puede ver en Error 500. […]
Pingback by .. — March 8, 2006 @ 4:17 am
[…] 然後文章中列出一些cl2的功能，看起來相當不錯，真令人期待 Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar […]
Trackback by kbglob — March 8, 2006 @ 4:26 am
Google Calender…

Ya estan empezando a aparecer algunos datos adicionales y screenshots del Google Calender.
Tiene la misma interfaz que Gmail, y la simpleza de todas las aplicaciones de Google.

……
Pingback by .:: www.marlonguerios.com ::. » Google Calendar em vista — March 8, 2006 @ 4:27 am
[…] Para saber mais: Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar […]

Pingback by Effair | Billet | Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 4:29 am
[…] Des screenshots de CL2, le nouveau logiciel de calendrier de Google. […]
Pingback by savek blog » Archiwum bloga » Screenshots: Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 6:25 am
[…] Screeny z nowego narzędzia Google: Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar. […]
Pingback by Macsira.com » Capturas de Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 6:28 am
[…] Aquí podeis ver el resto « Instalar Linux en un iPod 5G […]

Pingback by Blog de Dr. Max Glaser » Blog Archive » Mas informaciones sobre Google Calender — March 8, 2006 @ 6:40 am
[…] Hoy dia, en el blog de techcrunch han aparecido una serie de screenshots de Google Calendar. […]

Pingback by ENGRENAGEM – Media e Tecnologia: blog sobre jornalismo, citizen journalism, blogosfera e novas tecnologias — March 8, 2006 @ 6:55 am
[…] Uma fuga fez chegar � Web screenshots do Google Calendar. […]

Update (3/8): Related posts:

Tags: TechCrunch, Google, Calendar, Google Calendar, Gcalendar, CL2, Babel,

Filed Under: Bay Area, Blogging, Marketing / PR, Software, Startups, Technology ·

Google & Brondle, Toilet Matters

Posted on March 7, 2006 ·

Quite a co-incidence to see these two post in my reader this morning…

1.) Huge Net Capex: One-Time or Permanent?

The WSJ describes a key issue facing the big net companies, especially Google: massive (and increasing) capital spending. Last week, for example, Google stated that 2006 CAPEX would “significantly exceed” 2005’s mind-boggling $800 million, prompting analysts to toss out 2006 estimates in the $1.25 to $1.5 billion range. Yahoo! spent $400 million last year, up from $250 million the year before. Amazon’s cranking up spending… (full article at the Internet Outsider)

2.) Cuban invests in San Francisco toilet-seat maker

Mark Cuban, the wealthy Texan who sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999, has reached out to Silicon Valley and invested in Brondell, a manufacturer of Japanese-style toilets that wash your derriere with all kinds of delicate sprays (see video here)… (full article at SiliconBeat)

Tags: Google, Brondle, Humor

Filed Under: Humor ·

My Travel Map

Posted on March 6, 2006 ·

Inspired by Ben’s post I’ve plotted the map of countries and US states I’ve been to. Of course it’s not to scale, and the most obvious distortion is in Russia, where I’ve only been to 3 cities, and get this huge red block.

(Create your own maps here.)

Most of it was yeeeears ago. Ben, time is on your side, you’ll paint this map red before I do.

Filed Under: Misc ·

The Solution to your GDS Problem is CDS

Posted on March 6, 2006 ·

I can’t believe it: Google Desktop Search cannot track changes when you move files from a directory to another. That means the more you use your computer, the more your index will be out of sync. Perhaps that’s why they did not name it Desktop Find, because it only searches, does not find!

The recommended solution: uninstall GDS, then install it again…then wait a few hours for the complete reindex. WTF? The whole idea of an indexing program that I should not even know about it .. .it should do its thing in the background, as if it wasn’t there at all.

I have a better solution: get Copernic Desktop Search. It does not steal your data, does not come with a bunch of additional bloatware, it only does one thing, but does it really well: find and serve up your data. The screenshot below shows the powerful update options.