“A California Highway Patrol officer fired at a speeding motorcyclist who refused to pull over Sunday afternoon, authorities said.” (Sf Chronicle)
Wow… we’re at the Wild, wild West after all.
CHP Shooting at Speeding Motorist
Posted on June 12, 2006 ·
When Bloggers Unite…
Posted on June 12, 2006 ·
Read the phenomenal story of how a stolen Sidekick became the hot topic on the blogosphere. The victim’s friend wanted to publicly embarrass the alleged thieves to the point that they return it. So far about 500 blogs / sites picked up the story, he has received thousands of emails, got digged, slashdotted, linked to from MSNBC… crashed four different servers where he started forums. This is his ISP bill:
And the saga continues ….
Related posts:
Techdirt Greenhouse Launches New Social Experiment
Posted on June 10, 2006 ·
I’m at the Techdirt Greenhouse, starting in just a few minutes. The previous one was a great experience, and now I am back to lead one of the discussion groups.
One way to measure the success of a conference (unconference?) is how often you talk about it long after it’s over. Ever since the first Greenhouse I could not attend a conference without bumping into a few participants who’d start the conversation by saying how boring the old way felt after the Greenhouse experience.
Greenhouse has become the “gold standard” for participation, interactivity – there are no speakers and audience, just participants.
And now Techdirt is taking it one step further, by launching a social experience: at the end of the day, when everyone’s left, the discussions will not be closed. Greenhouse “lives on” here– courtesy of WetPaint. The site brings the best of wikis and forum discussions together, in an easy-to use format. Feel free to navigate around, and don’t just read – participate! You all have edit rights. Registration is not necessary, but helpful, especially if you’d like to be recognized for your contribution.
Bush Approval Map
Posted on June 8, 2006 ·
Check out this animated map of the President’s approval rating – in the beginning it’s easy to miss the changes, but it steps through the changes month by month.
Google Spreadsheet vs Zoho Sheet – a Visual Comparison
Posted on June 8, 2006 ·
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, I save you about 950 words, instead let these two pics show you why I am staying with Zoho Sheet, despite all the hoopla around Google Spreadsheet. I imported the same Excel Spreadsheet into both Zoho and Google – here’s the comparison:
Which one is more pleasing to the eye I leave it to you, dear reader 
but what happened to my chart? Gone. Google Spreadsheet does not do charts. Of course we can pick a number of analytical functions from Excel that both Zoho and Google are missing.. but I am the average user, barely using 10% of Excel’s functionality. Charting, however, is not “advanced” functionality, at least not in my book. It’s a most expressive way to visually convey information – a must for me.
There is a reason why I am using pictures above, not the original spreadsheets: Google has no global share option, I have to invite specific emails. Zoho Sheet allows me to create a URL for global sharing, and it also has a handy feature of publishing just the chart, without the rest of the spreadsheet.
Considering my own usage pattern, Zoho is the hands-down winner. But of course the significance of Google releasing their spreadsheet is way beyond the current functionality, it’s further validation of Office 2.0, using personal productivity and collaboration tools directly on the Web. In the near future I will come back to the issue of Offline/Online, and what I believe the ideal balance is.
Update (6/7): As luck would have it, “Flickr is having a massage” right now, and my Zoho pic shows, Google does not. That’s certainly not what I wanted to present, bt Flickr is expected to be back to normal in 40-50 minutes.
20%, Hackathon, Haxo, Fedex Day
Posted on June 7, 2006 ·
(Updated)
Now that title doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? It’s all about the same thing: Google’s model of allocating 20% of developers’ time to “doing their own stuff” as long as innovative and does NOT belong to their everyday project is becoming increasingly popular.
JotSpot defines it as a Hackathon:
“What the heck is a hackathon?
It’s a day-long event where our engineers each crank on something:
- valuable to the company
- but not what they’re “supposed” to be working on and
- that can be taken from idea to working prototype in one day
Why do a hackathon? Because even startups get into a grind where engineers are working on longer term projects and creativity can feel stalled. “
)“The general rule is that projects have to be somewhat related to the company’s direction, but everyone is encouraged to work on something new and different, and in particular on something that wouldn’t otherwise make it to the top of the priority list.”
Atlassian calls it Fedex Day, except that they extended it to Fedex Week.
“The development task must be something “out of the ordinary”…. it must be deliverable in one day (hence Fedex Day – “We deliver.”). “
And there is Bubbleshare, which simply calls it .. hm.. R&D time. (Isn’t that the term reserved for the other 80%? 
). I see a certain cultural influence here. Joke apart, who cares what the name is, Albert clearly “gets it”:
“You’ll get your best ideas/features from bottom-up skunkworks projects that would NEVER be “justifiable” under the company road map.”
Congratulations to all the creative teams, keep on hacking (haxing?) away.
Update (6/16): Techcrunch reports about Yahoo’s 24hr Hack Day.
Advisory Capital: a Lunch Discussion hosted by SVASE
Posted on June 7, 2006 ·
(Updated)
Advisory Capital is a relatively new term introduced by Stowe Boyd recently. W
hether you’re a startup entrepreneur, a Consultant potentially offering such services, or simply are interested in finding out what it’s all about, here’s your chance:
Join Stowe Boyd, Advisory Capitalist No. 1 and Manka Johnson, Management Consultant for a lunch discussion hosted by SVASE and Notre Dame de Namur University this Friday.
Schedule:
11:30-11:45 Registration, Networking and Food
11:45-12:00 SVASE/Startup-U Overview, Introductions, Speaker Intro
12:00- 1:25 Speaker Presentation and Interactive Q&A
1:25- 1:50 Networking with the presenters!
See event details and hurry to register, this event will likely sell out.
See you on Friday. 
Update (6/7): Stowe just posted about the event on his blog, with a link to his presentation– but like he says, it’s not fun to read without the stories. As it should be – if a presentation can be read in itself, it’s not a presentation. Better join us to get the real scoop from Stowe and Manka.
Update (6/13): See a summary of the event at Hot from Silicon Valley.
SaaS: Evolution or Revolution
Posted on June 6, 2006 ·
Blog-Based Analysts Shake Up IT Research – says InformationWeek. Well, I don’t know about shaking up, but I repeatedly find myself having to disagree with respected research firms.
First there was McKinsey, where I had to disagree with their assertion that financial applications will not see SaaS penetration for years to come. The ensuing discussion on several blogs, as well as statements by relevant software companies sufficiently buried that assertion.
Along comes Gartner with their Gartner Voice podcast. Not particularly exciting, I doubt you’ll hear anything new, but if you have 11 minutes to kill, why not download it.
“Right now [Saas] is a very small part of the marketplace. It only takes up…one-half of one-percent of overall enterprise applications. If you look out eight or ten years, that might go up all the way to 30%.”
While the first number is probably valid, comparing a new model to the legacy installed base says nothing about the health of the Software as a Service industry. Currently about 10% of all software sold is SaaS, and that ratio is expected to grow aggressively. There will not be wholesale migration from legacy systems, but withing years with SaaS gaining dominance in terms of new deals, hybrid environments will evolve, which eventually will tip the scale over. Gartner expects SaaS to reach 30% in 8-10 years? It took less for client-server to completely push out mainframe applications. And yes, dinosaurs do exist: at SAPPHIRE 06 SAP mentioned they still have 3-4 mainframe customers.
SVASE VC Breakfast Club with Menlo Ventures
Posted on June 6, 2006 ·
The next SVASE VC Breakfast Club meeting is on Thursday, June 8th in Menlo Park – the VC Mecca, Sand Hill Road. 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 Adam Marchick of Menlo Ventures. The Zvents post has all the info and a map, and if you plan to attend, please register here.
These sessions are an incredible 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:
- 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, and prepare to deliver a compelling story in 3 minutes. You will have about 5, 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. The second half of your time-slot is Q&A with the VC.
- Last, but not least, please be on time! I am not kidding… some of you know why I even have to bring this up.
Here’s a participating Entrepreneur’s feedback about a previous event.
See you on Thursday!
Recent Comments