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Controversial Blog Advertising

(Updated)
The Blog-ad to the right is from Guy Kawasaki’s blog. I don’t really understand why Guy runs it – in fact I wonder if he paid attention to what this really is. Don’t get me wrong, this is not an “anti-Guy” rant, what I dislike is Class Action Suits, and stupid advertising in general.

I don’t think I am alone thinking that class action lawsuit are controversial, to say the least. Sure, they provide a way to curtail companies “evil” behavior – but provide little to no benefit to individual “class members”. In fact it’s widely known that the only party benefiting from settlements are the lawyers. For everyone else involved it’s a lot of hoopla for nothing.

As for the particular case, I admit I don’t know Alltel and their “My Circle” program: for all I know they may truly be evil, but this class action suit solicitation provides a link to them anyway, potentially boosting their business – not very smart, if you ask me.

Another link reveals the lead plaintiff’s background: he spent his life representing us, the “little man” against “bad industries”. Here’s a typical case:

“In 1998 a crossed leg, revealing a slouchy, wrinkled sock, falsely identified me as an untrustworthy loafer to other members of an important real estate consortium, costing me my seat on the board. After suing the sock company for damages, new industry standards were put in place, ensuring that the same fate won’t happen to you..”

Hm… personally, I would not want to be in a board where I can lose membership due to wrinkled socks 🙂 Seriously, Guy, do you really want to promote this angry man’s next tirade?

Update: While typing this up, I’ve just received an email solicitation to join (start?) another class action lawsuit, against Panda Software for their spam. I politely declined. I found my own creative way to stop Panda’s spam, and it worked. Case closed. I’m not interested in spending my life fighting.

Update: (7/30). OK, I bought it.  It’s a spoof .. or viral ad, whatever you want to call it. There is no class action lawsuit, only the campaign bu Alltel. Thanks to Thatedeguy for being doubtful enough .. (see his comment below). I digged further and I think he is right.

Update #3 (7/30): Guy Kawasaki confirms it’s a spoof, an ad run by Alltel. I’m glad to see we’re on the same page as far as the “class action lawsuit” is concerned, i.e. he rejected it when he thought it was real. Thanks, for coming over to comment, Guy!

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One Design Dell Should NOT Offer

Dell is offering a free skin with the purchase of an Inspiron or XP notebook. Clearly targeting the back-to-school crowd they have University-themes, as well as a range of other designs, one of them being Flaming Hot.

Hm… considering the two recent accidents of exploding Dell laptops, is offering a Flaming Hot skin such a good idea?

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Link-Love for Sex

  On The Turning Away gets a link for pimping Hugh’s Links for Sex deal 🙂

 

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Venture Zine

Hummer Winblad was the #1 search term on Technorati most of last Saturday and Sunday. I couldn’t find anything significant. Go figure …

Rick Segal is trying to place a half-a-million order but the company, a six-month-old startup is hiding:

Click on contact us.

Web form. We’ll get back to you with 2 -3 business days. WTF?

Hmm. Click on about us. Long dribble about why they exist, a founders message and nothing about the people.

Okay, let’s re-cap. We have a 6 month old start up making it as hard and as impersonal as possible to take an order while the founder drones on about Web 2.0, being innovative, blaah blaah blaah.”

You want to be successful in business? You need to be available.

Jason Wood raises his eyebrows on Jobster’s recent $18M funding, which he considers a sign of access Venture Capital:

“I don’t know if Jobster will end up a winning company or not, but I do know enough to raise a skeptical eyebrow when I read that they’ve now raised $50 million and carry a $100mm post-money valuation. This in a market that is CROWDED with startups (Simply Hired, Indeed), established online companies (Monster, CareerBuilders) and plenty of adjunct job-related resources (e.g., craigslist, LinkedIn).”

Calling in rich … well, this one certainly isn’t about me

“One of the best lines I have heard in a long time was uttered by an entrepreneur we know. He was talking about one of his co-founders who one day decided he didn’t want to work anymore. He said about his co-founder, “he called in rich“. I laughed so hard I almost cried.”

Funny as it sounds, it’s a potentially serious situation for a startup, says Fred Wilson, proposing a way to handle the situation when you just ost your motivation and are too wealthy to work. My personal experience is from the other side: when I interviewed for a VP position in a startup, the Founder/CEO was releived that my previous startup had not been financially successful – he only wanted team-mates who were still “hungry”.

The Business Model diagram below by Peter Rip reminds me of my previous life in Big 6 consulting 🙂

Of course the analytical approach helps understand a business, but clearly there are times when the entrepreneur still needs the 30-second summary… like those in our SVASE VC Breakfast sessions. Or the Office 2.0 Under the Radar event by IBDNetwork, where Peter will be a panelist.

Talk about Panel Discussions, here are a few more, all of them next week, in the SF Bay Area:

Jeff Clavier will moderate a discussion on Web 2.0 in the Enterprise by IBDNetwork. I heard Jeff and fellow “Irregular” Jeff Nolan discuss this meme a few times, it will be interesting to see/hear how it evolves. (I wrote about related issues here and here).

Web 2.0 Forum and Amidzad Summer Party. VC Panelists: Accel’s Kevin Efrusy, Opus Capital’s Ken Elefant, Partech’s David Welsh and David Lane from Diamondhead.

Raising Capital For Early Stage Tech Companies – The Definitive Crash Course by SVASE, with Lightspeed’s Jake Seid, DFJ’s Warren Packard, Garage’s Bill Reichert and former SVASE President Laura Roden from The Angels Forum.

Rick Segal always points to interesting stories, so I wanted to click throgh this post:

“And I thought the US was getting conservative
Check out this commercial that got pulled in New Zealand for being
a bit much. This is racy? Hmm…”

… but this is what I got:

To use this product, you need to install free software

This product requires Microsoft© Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft© Media Player 10, and Macromedia Flash 6. To download these free software applications, click the links below and follow the on-screen instructions.

Step 1: Download Microsoft© Internet Explorer 6

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 is free to download.

Damn, Microsoft, I have all the stuff you want on my PC, I just happen to browse in Firefox And no, I don’t care to switch browsers….

 

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Raising Capital For Early Stage Tech Companies – The Definitive Crash Course | SVASE Event

(Updated with special offer)
SVASE will host a Networking Dinner and lively Panel Discussion next Thursday (Aug 3rd) in Palo Alto on what it takes to create the winning funding pitch for startups. Zbutton Panelists will explore current trends and subjects like:

• What types of startups are getting funded? – Technology? Social? Web 2.0? or …?
• What are VCs looking for from startups – a long term company, or a quick flip to Google?
• What are the most attractive markets – 5 Million free members to the next Flagr/Fligr/Flikr or the Fortune 500?
• What’s the value of patentable IP, and other technology innovations?
• What old business models are looking shaky?
• What new models are you seeing emerging, and which ones look like they’re working?

The Panel is made up of 4 experienced, outspoken & opinionated early stage investors:
• Jake Seid, General Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
• Warren Packard, Managing Director, DFJ
• Bill Reichert, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures (Guy Kawasaki’s firm)
• Laura Roden, Managing Director, The Angels Forum

Moderator: John Beck, VP, The Brenner Group

For details and registration please visit the SVASE site. While walk-ins are allowed (add $10 to the price), the last SVASE event had a a huge turnout and about 30 people could not get in for fire safety reasons – so advance registration is a good idea.

Update:  Special offer to my readers: buy one, get one free through this special registration link.

Update (7/29): See HotfromSiliconValley on the event.

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F-15 Flying One Wing Only

Amazing video:


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Do You Like the New Technorati? Poll Results

Here are the poll results, based on 347 354 votes:

Do you like the new Technorati? - http://www.zohosheet.com

Since I am still getting quite a few page hits (thanks for the link, Robert), for now I’ve left the poll open and will continue to update the numbers.  The poll is now closed, thanks for your participation.

(Poll taken by Zoho Polls, chart created by Zoho Sheet.)

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Pilot Removed from Flight

Now that’s a funny title, isn’t it? If the pilot is removed from the flight, then who’s flying the plane?
That’s exactly what happened on Continental flight 706, when the pilot showed up smelling of alcohol.

The pilot was riding to the airport with several other employees, who reported smelling alcohol on the pilot’s breath. The employees alerted Continental Airlines management. The airline did not allow the pilot to get on the aircraft.”

Perhaps the pilot just got caught in the Europe’s latest war … (?)

Full story and video on Click2Houston.com.


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WAR in Europe – Over Vodka

European nations fight over what vodka is (by AP on Yahoo News)


“Rival groups fight for dominance in a booming world vodka market worth around $12 billion in annual sales…

Finland is aligned with Poland, Sweden and other traditional vodka producers around the Baltic Sea, who want the European Union to insist that only spirits made with traditional ingredients – barley grain and potato – should be allowed to carry the vodka label.

Pitched against them is a group led by Britain, the Netherlands, France and Austria – and backed by London-based multinational drinks producer Diageo – which take a more relaxed view of what can go into vodka, for example grapes, beets or citrus fruit

This is the first war with Britain, France and Austria on the same side….


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Technorati Got a Facelift

Technorati got a facelift this morning, and I caught it in the process. Before 5am (PST) all got was a white blank page. A little after 5am, the new Technorati came up:

I haven’t used it enough to decide if I like it or not, only have initial impressions. Search is different: now you have to use a pull-down menu to sleect between blog posts, tags, or blogs. Access to the “ping” buttons on the front page is definitely helpful. Once you click on your own blog, you get some additional useful information, like who has you as favorite, charts showing your traffic history, posts per day ..etc.

I’m sure David Sifry will post a detailed list of the changes later today  David Sifry posted details of the upgrade, including a video.

What’s your first impression? If you can’t see the poll box in your feed, here’s a direct link.

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