Nathaniel's Blog

Big Ass Table -- Microsoft Surface

2007-06-21T11:29:00.000-04:00

Microsoft launched Microsoft Surface a short time ago. The technology they have developed is very cool, including a large touch screen with motion and touch sensitivity. It may change the way we interact with an every day object like a table.

Despite these advances, some (humorously) question why people are making such a fuss about something that is just a "Big Ass Table". Enjoy the parody shown below.

Evolution of Democracy in an Online World

2007-06-07T15:24:00.000-04:00

What would happen if you played a game online and thought that the company was cheating you or favoring one group of players over your own? You would likely dissent, raise your arms up, of use your digital feet to walk out the door. Eve Online is having these problems and doesn't want people to leave, so what are they to do?

Viewing themselves as the government and their players as the citizens, they are planning to hold elections, enabling different members of the community to elect their fellow players.

From the NYT:
"So now, in a sociological twist, the company that makes Eve, CCP, based in Iceland (population 300,000), says it will tackle the problem the way a democracy would. In what appears to be a first, the company plans to hold elections so that players can select members of an oversight committee."

It's an interesting development in an environment that will continue to evolve. First there were revolts in Ultima Online, then defacement and "grief" in Second Life and the Sims, and now in the face of civil disobedience, Eve is trying to figure out a diplomatic and democratic method for addressing their citizens concerns. Cool Stuff.

How to get started as a Venture Capital (VC) analyst

2007-06-06T13:46:00.000-04:00

Charlie O'Donnell writes a great post about how to get started as a Venture Capital analyst.

Having gone through the process of trying to get a job and now being in my job for about 8 months, I think he provides some great insights.

Take a look.

Things are changing... quickly

2007-06-03T23:48:00.000-04:00

This is a great presentation from SlideShare.com by a guy named Karl Fisch:

Bike Messengers Are on Crack

2007-06-03T01:39:00.000-04:00

Video of the week.

Congressional Hearing on the Future of Video

2007-05-14T00:40:00.000-04:00

I found a great video on Youtube of the concluding remarks of a handful of technology and entertainment luminaries about the future of video. I have embedded it here for your viewing. Enjoy.

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

2007-05-10T13:23:00.000-04:00

I was confused by the headline.

Take a look:
Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

Political Humor -- Off color

2007-03-29T19:08:00.000-04:00

Religious Insights

2007-02-15T18:56:00.000-05:00

The Donk

2006-06-20T12:34:00.000-04:00

Earlier today I read that the new Sidekick III had been released and I wanted to check out the price. I headed over to Amazon where I had purchased my Sidekick II ($175 - $200 in rebates = $25 in my pocket) and did a search for Sidekick.

I couldn't find it, but I did find an item which seems to a parfect gift for the man who has everything: JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank or more commonly referred to as The Donk. It is a multi-purpose tank which reaches a top speed of 40 mph and is complete with a 400 watt sound system and plush interior. The reviews seem positive, too.

Learn more here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00067F1CE/sr=8-4/qid=1150820966/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-7668865-1239007?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

It appears (I hope) that the people at Amazon have a good sense of humor. I added it to my wishlist, but I imagine parking it in New York might be a hassle.

St. Patricks Day in Seattle

2006-03-18T15:53:00.000-05:00

I love the green hair. Great spirit.

Rubik's Cube video

2006-02-20T18:33:00.000-05:00

This is a cool video of a guy solving the rubik's cube:

Testing out the Amazon affiliate service

2006-02-17T18:07:00.000-05:00

Investing Books

Get Star Wars movies from Amazon

Best Selling Software from Amazon

Find a great Camera Cell Phone

brrreeeport

2006-02-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

an interesting test from Scoble regarding the methods of seeding a search engine/tag engine and the relative power of the major competitors. By adding the term brrreeeport to a page, you can participate too. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get this page into the google, etc. search engines and to see where in the growing list it falls.

Superbowl: Steelers beat Seahawks

2006-02-06T15:23:00.000-05:00

The big game yesterday was another over the top fun fest with trick plays, exciting interceptions, big runs, and great commercials. The one that I liked best pulled at my heart strings, but somehow I doubt that I will be making any purchases of the product offered anytime soon. check out the commercial here, courtesy of google video:

Its a clock

2006-01-22T02:41:00.000-05:00

I was in a conversation earlier this evening about the string of numbers
that are displayed in union square (see photo) and I explained that they
were actually telling the time. He was a tad doubtful given the lengthy
and obviously consfusing set of numbers that are displayed. As you can
see in the photo, the first bunch of numbers represent the time (in
military hours, fyi) that it is currently and the latter half represnets
the time until the next time midnight occurs.

In this case, the clock reads:
0201.... Which means that it is is 2:01 am and the latter half reads:
..5821 which means that there are 21 hours and 58 minutes until the next
midnight

The numbers in between move much more quickly and represent the tenths,
hundredths, etc seperating these two times.

Come check out union square and see for yourself.

Alternative occupation?

2006-01-12T08:14:00.000-05:00

If only I had done better in woodshop, I could have had a different type
of job.

Urban Ninja -- bad ass stuff from You Tube

2006-01-04T13:26:00.000-05:00

Turn nozzle up to dry hair

2006-01-04T01:26:00.000-05:00

Is it just me or does this seem like an odd message to be on a hand
dryer?

I love hip hop

2005-11-18T16:57:00.000-05:00

New york city subway rides can be fun....

vending machine challenge

2005-10-24T02:55:00.000-04:00

If you like competitive eating and have a penchant for sweets, the vending machine challenge may be for you.

The challenge is to see which team (of four, I think) can eat the entire contents of a candy vending machine in the fastest time. I read about this while checking out teendrama.com.

Happy eating.

nanophone

2005-10-21T14:37:00.000-04:00

As a result of the luke warm reaction that Apple and Motorola had in response to the launch of the ROKR phone (ipod+phone) some users have been taking matters into their own hands.

My old friend Marcos sent me a link to his variation of the ROKR, which he dubs the nanophone. The phone is a combination of the Razor phone and the nano from Apple.

It looks pretty slick. how's that for a mashup?

Flock's New Browser

2005-10-19T22:27:00.000-04:00

Earlier today I got an email from the development crew over at Flock granting me access to the developers version of their new browser. The developer moniker is due to their interest in letting people know loud and clear that this product is still in beta and that it will likely have a few kinks to work out.

My reaction so far has been pretty positive. I am still playing around with the functionality and am actually posting this blog from within Flock. I may try to use this a bit over the next few days to see how I like this in comparison to Firefox and IE.

The major benefits that the Flock browser offers include integrated blogging and simplified tagging and social bookmarking. These are activities that I have been doing more actively and admit that this integration will certainly increase the amount that I post things to Del.icio.us or to my blog.

Technorati Tags: flock, web2, browser

Eric rocks marble

2005-10-19T19:39:00.000-04:00

My cousin performed tonight at marble church. Very impressive, I
thought.

Top Five Web 2.0 Venture Capitalists

2005-10-19T14:55:00.000-04:00

TechCrunch has a great article about the emergence of top venture capitalists looking at Web 2.0. In a post from today, they list the Top Five Web 2.0 Venture Capitalists.

A snippet of these folks include old standbys, such as Tim Draper and David Cowan but also:
-- Dan Grossman - former colleague of mine at McKinsey; from Venrock
-- Fred Wilson - One of the most interesting bloggers to cover the space and also a Wharton alum
-- Josh Kopelman - He did an investment in Odeo (an interesting podcasting company) not so long ago and is the brother of a former classmate of mine.

It will be interesting to see is able to get to the top of the heap with the best investments in this space. Stay tuned.

Dinner at carmines

2005-10-17T13:12:00.000-04:00

Group dinners are always nice and carmines made our group quite
satisfied. Yum

Why are there so many milano cookies?

2005-10-14T15:55:00.000-04:00

Picked up some cold medicine today and noticed this. There was
fortunately one bag of gingerbread men, too. Those are my favorite.

Can't sleep

2005-10-14T04:29:00.000-04:00

Been feeling sick last coupla days. Darn weather.

Just how much can you lose?

2005-10-11T15:45:00.000-04:00

I am very wary of most email that enters my inbox from a name that I do not recognize. I frequently receive emails telling me what is the hottest stock to buy; thankfully I have ignored them.

As shown by a guy named Joshua, you can lose a heck of a lot of money if you follow those recommendations. He has even set up a very cool Spam Stock Tracker which shows the overall value of his portfolio assuming he had invested in the stocks that had been recommended.

What's the damage? To date he has lost over $7,500 on a total of $17,405 invested. Thankfully he hasn't really invested his money.

The future of information? ineresting Ad from the ACLU

2005-10-11T15:29:00.000-04:00

The ACLU put together an interesting ad that depicts the potential hazards of public databases of personal information. It's kinda funny, and pretty scary.

Philly: Cut those wires!

2005-10-05T16:33:00.000-04:00

Philadelphia, my home for the past two years, has announced that they will be partnering with Earthlink to establish their municipal wireless infrastructure. The article is here.

Although many (including myself) applaud the move to provide free wireless to the people of Philadelphia, others balk at the move due ot its risks to their own business interests. Most notably Telco's and Cable Providers. (If I get it free, why pay?)

The Telco's are a bit of another story and it will be interesting to see how things develop over the next couple of years in this area. One of the most popular applications on the web is Skype, a Voice Over IP application that allows for computer to computer conversations or computer to phone for a small fee.

Well, once everywhere you go has wireless internet, why not have a VoWLAN solution where everyone has a phone which is connecting to the wireless connectivity and not solely to the Verizon's of the world. I remember seeing things like in the works, primarily on campus's around the US where the grounds were covered with WiFi. Covering a whole city, like Earthlink will be doing in Philly and Google will be doing in SF, will have a huge impact on telephony as well as computing more generally.

It will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

$279,000 worth of pixels sold so far

2005-10-05T14:35:00.000-04:00

I am amazed by the innovative things that people come up with. Here is a guy who is selling pixels for $1 each on his website. The funny thing is that people are buying them, by the droves. He has sold 279,300 of these as of this writing, basically for links to peoples web pages.

It looks like it was started as a joke/side project to help him pay off his debt. I would guess that by this point he has done that and is on his way to buying himself a nice car. Take a look.

Gladwell, Harvard, and the admissions process - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

2005-10-05T14:28:00.000-04:00

There is an interesting article and good debate about the value of a name brand education and the keys to success over at 37signals.

The article, titled Gladwell, Harvard, and the admissions process discusses the historical shifts in logic behind merit based admissions and how atheletes succeed in their careers. Matt, the author, offers his perspective on what makes a good colleague, saying that he looks for someone who is intellectually curious and is much more impressed than any piece of parchment.

I tend to agree with Matt, but I also think that in many ways, the people who top universities attract demonstrated intellectual curiosity to get into their university in the first place, so I would guess that the two types of people (ivy league grads and intellectually curious types) would have a large amount of overlap.

Personalize Skype

2005-10-02T19:17:00.000-04:00

An article I came across last week talks about a new plan that lets a user Personalize Skype by using avatars, having specialized ring tones, etc.

The ringtones and avatars are not particulary new, but what caught my eye was the partner they chose to enable the payments for these technologies. Qpass has been a market leader in the micropayment space for some time and from what I have heard they have made great strides as more and more digital content has been bought by users, in the form of ringtones, games, news articles, and phone minutes.

Qpass is a solid company for sure, but one has to ask if that relationship will last considering PayPal is now under the same roof as Skype. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Google Confirms Free San Francisco WiFi Plans

2005-10-01T19:30:00.000-04:00

Google will be offering free WiFi service covering San Francisco. At first blush one may think that this is an altruistic gesture, but when looking a little deeper you can think about the potential economic benefits Google can derive in return.

The article is here: "Google Confirms Free San Francisco WiFi Plans"

To understand the potential economic benefits you need to first understand the way Google makes money and how information about an individuals information can be used to increase those revenues.

First, Google makes money by providing advertisements relevant to the user. In their Google AdWords program they look at the search query submitted by a user and seek out the top paying and most relevant ads provided by their advertiser base. For example, if I search for Yankees the ads will be for merchants selling Yankee hats or shirts for example. Each time an advertisement is clicked on, the advertiser pays some fee to Google.

Google also has an AdSense program which is used on websites to help website owners generate revenue. The way this technology works is that Google will periodically spider a site looking at the content of the page where the advertisement appears looking for the category of a page and relevant keywords. Again, using this information they will provide ads relevant to the context of the page.

Now when one considers how local information impacts these models one can reflect on the business models of Yellow Pages (both online and traditional). Local merchants will try to get people to come use their services (dry cleaners, florists, etc.). Of course an ad for my local dry cleaner doesn't have much value to anyone except for people in a small geography.

Yellow Pages online allow for premium listings and blod face and all sorts of other ways to monetize a list of phone numbers. Merchants pay for these services because they see an increase in the traffic to their stores, etc. One variant on this is a newly released type of business model where an advertiser pays per call, as opposed to paying per click of for a certain number of impressions of their ad.

How does this impact Google and their ability to use local information to upgrade their current advertising model?

1. Local merchants can participate: a local dry cleaner can now effectively participate in the ad serving service. Because Google nows that a user is logged into the access point in Union Square they can provide advertisements that are relevant to the user based on this information.

2. There will be more advertisers in the system: With more advertisers, the cost per click will rise because the system is based on an auction. As more people enter the auction, the willingness to pay will creep upwards.

3. Potential integration with Google Talk: As mentioned there has been an interest from some types of merchants to pay for different types of leads. Some prefer branding their product (cars, insurance, etc.) and pay on a CPM basis. Some prefer a link to their sites (online retailers, etc.) and pay on a CPClick basis. Local merchants who do not have a web presence may prefer to pay on a CPCall basis. Google Talk may be a natural means to provide this type of service at some point in the future.

it will be interesting to see how this plays out. The cost to cover San Francisco with WiFi is really a test to see if this type of offering can scale. I for one hope that it does; if only so I never have the shoot the duck advertisements on my screen ever again.

Cousin storms New York

2005-09-30T13:43:00.000-04:00

My cousin, Eric Bjorklund, has taken New York by storm. He is kicking
butt and taking names, pretty amazing considering his reserved and
polite nature...

Street corner photo

2005-09-30T13:34:00.000-04:00

Busy new york street.. Sometimes it feels good to be a tourist.

Getting chilly in New York

2005-09-30T13:31:00.000-04:00

I am writing thid post from my sidekick as I walk to get some lunch. I
had set up the ability to post from my phone before and I am glad to
have it setup again. Hopefully I will be able to do a little moblogging
now.

4 million PayPass cards by year end

2005-09-20T16:33:00.000-04:00

It is wonderful to see something you worked on become big. Three years ago I worked for JP Morgan Chase on the launch of PayPass, a contactless payment technology being developed by MasterCard. Basically, it looks like a credit card, but you wave it near a reader instead of swiping it, plus there isn't a signature required for charges under $25. (I think this is still the case) At the time I started working on the project, the product didn't have a name, it hadn't been issued anywhere yet, and we were still working with all sorts of vendors to get things working. I even had the opportunity to make the second purchase ever (my boss did the first) using the technology at the MasterCard gift shop.

Since that time, pilots have take place in Florida, Texas, and Illinois(I think) to name a few and now finally the product is coming to the masses. According to an article on Reuters there will be 4 million PayPass cards issued by year end.

So now when you walk into the McDonalds or Duane Reade and see the funny looking credit card machines you will know what they are for. It will be interesting to see how the number of cards continues to grow over the next couple of years.

Google Secure Access: No comment

2005-09-20T16:17:00.000-04:00

There are web pages related to a new service from Google called Google Secure Access, but Google isn't talking about them (yet). Should be interesting to see how this is rolled out. From the FAQ it seems that the service will provide access to a google VPN and help secure your data transmissions. Interesting.

The Big Battle Over Ad Budgets

2005-09-16T14:18:00.000-04:00

Here is an interesting article related to the rapid increase in the amount of money going to online advertising, called The Big Battle Over Ad Budgets.

There are some amazing numbers about how advertising spend is moving rapidly from traditional outlets, such as newspapers, to newer, more interactive outlets, such as online ads.

There are many interesting things in store.

What's the weather in New York? -- Yahoo! Search - Instant Search

2005-09-15T14:07:00.000-04:00

Earlier today, Yahoo launched its Instant Search which allows a user to see the results of their search as they type.

Yahoo gives a few examples, including "boston weather" which will show you the weather in the city just as you hit "r" in weather, without hitting return or skipping to a results page. That's pretty nice. So is the example where I type in an address ("22 5th ave new york ny") and get a map popup on the page before I hit return.

So, to answer the question I asked as the header of this post: the weather in New York is 82 degrees and partly cloudy.

A Blogs impact on customer service - WOW!

2005-09-13T04:09:00.000-04:00

Last week, Charlie O'Donnell from This is Going to be big posted an article about how his furniture wasn't delivered. We have all been there, waiting for the phone guy or the cable guy hoping that they won't be late. In his case, the furniture delivery guy didn't show up. Most people would just call in and reschedule. Instead, Charlie posted about it and got in contact with the head of Logistics, Ward Dingmann, via LinkedIn.

When I saw his post, I commented on it asking to be kept abreast of the situation.

Now, according to a post on his blog, he not only has he received his furniture (including a couch that wasn't supposed to be delivered for a month) he also received first rate customer service. Kudos to the the guys at Levitz! They were able to turn what could have been a really bad PR black eye into a customer service win.

Ajax Apps... Check out Zimbra - email, calendering, and collaboration

2005-09-13T01:53:00.000-04:00

I have been reading a bit about Ajax lately and have been impressed by some of its capabilities. New applications are popping up all over the web these days. A good friend, Dan Grossman, recently posted about the top ten Ajax Applications.

He has a great list, but I think he might want to check out Zimbra. Their demo is very impressive and I imagine the interface might be quite fast given the capabilities of Ajax. good work guys.

nano nano - new iPod is slick and small

2005-09-08T13:35:00.000-04:00

It just keeps getting smaller and smaller. Nice work from the guys over at Apple. Take a look at the Apple - iPod nano.

Desperation in New Orleans

2005-09-04T15:05:00.000-04:00

newl2
Originally uploaded by tycoonforthekids.

This picture captures a bit of the desperation, fear, and misery that has been overwhelming New Orleans and a good portion of areas along the Southern Coast for the better part of the last week.

When seeing this picture and the coverage on CNN I can't help but be overwhelmed by the scope of this tragedy. Like many others, I have been frustrated by the pace of rescue and recovery and hope that in the days to come things improve.

My thoughts and prayers are those who are still struggling to leave the region or reconnect with their loved ones.

On a lighter note, I found this among a larger group of pictures tagged 'looting' in Flikr. It is amazing the kind of pictures you can find looking through the Flickr community.

Drinking Game Excellence

2005-08-17T15:29:00.000-04:00

If you have ever played the classic drinking game of quarters you know the frustration and excitement associated with getting a coin in a cup. These guys take the game to a whole new level, demonstrating that if you're playing quarters with them, you will be the one getting drunk. Check out the video here.

The impact of MMORPGs

2005-08-15T20:43:00.000-04:00

I have been following the growth of Massively Multiplayer Games for the last few years, watching the number of people playing these games balloon to nearly 10 million people internationally. An interesting (and humorous) article depicting the changes that will take place as a result of this meteoric growth can be found here.

Geeksta Rappin'

2005-07-26T22:43:00.000-04:00

This had me chuckling. Did I miss my calling?

Wired News: Rap Marketing Comes to Nerdcore

Tips from an "old hand"

2005-07-12T01:33:00.000-04:00

I appreciated reading this article from Fred Dolzer about how to successfully embark upon a career in venture capital. Thanks to Fred Wilson.

ChintaNo

2005-06-30T03:46:00.000-04:00

I have been doing a little work recently for a small startup called ChintaNo. The company has yet to launch its product, but the space Chintano is going after is large and the team is quite strong. Two of my former buds from PrivacyBank.com, Ramesh Haridas and Geoff Simons, founded the company and are busy working on the new company.

I also wanted to track the number of times Chintano appears on Google. As of this writing, it appears 1230 times. If all goes well, that number will go up significantly.

Mesothelioma

2005-06-29T03:03:00.000-04:00

I have been doing research on top paying keywords for google adwords.. According to one articleMesothelioma is the nets highest paying keyword, fetching in excess of $90 at times. Amazing.

Cool Advertisement for Security Glass

2005-02-23T23:20:00.000-05:00

Take a look at this ad from 3M advertising their new security windows. It's pretty compelling.

Augmented Reality

2005-02-07T11:03:00.000-05:00

D'Fusion Tenchnology is doing some very interesting things related to the world of gaming. The company blends real objects (i.e. your hand, your table, other physical objects) with video images (i.e., a flower, a lightsaber, vehicles, etc.) together into a single picture, allowing the two types of items to interact. The potential for video games, architecture, military actions, and even virtual sex seem fairly interesting. I am unable to do this justice, so I would recommend checking out the video on the Gear Live website. It really is an interesting watch.

From Usenet -- "I can't really imagine waiting until 1997 to see all nine parts"

2005-01-11T09:11:00.000-05:00

Earlier today, I saw that Google has made the last twenty years of Usenet available for search. They also provided links to a handful of memorable moments along the timeline since usenet was first introduced.

One that caught my eye was related to Star Wars, when a fan wrote about the upcoming release of Revenge [Return] of the Jedi. He also wrote the quote I used in my subject line about waiting another 15 years for the remaining movies to be made.

Take a look at the post here: "I can't really imagine waiting until 1997 to see all nine parts
of the Star Wars series."

Or see the link to the timeline here: "20 Year Usenet Timeline"

Enjoy

Possible AIDS vaccine?

2004-12-02T06:32:00.000-05:00

"It worked in mice. It worked in monkeys. And now in humans, a therapeutic vaccine has stopped HIV in its tracks." Read more here at WebMD.

Revenue Sharing + File Swapping + New Artists + DRM = Weed

2004-11-30T17:49:00.000-05:00

I first spotted Weed a long time ago when a former collegaue and I were looking into starting a business in the digital music arena. Although we ultimately decided to follow other pursuits, Weed is very similar to the concept that we had been toying with.

Basically, Weed allows an artist to sell their music online, protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management), via a p2p like interface. The distinction is that after being allowed to listen to a downloaded song three times, the user must pay for the song. The interesting catch is that once they have bought the mp3, they may in turn be a distributor for the song and collect some of the revenues from the person who downloads it from them for purchase.

Althoguh this service is mostly targeted at up and coming musicians, I think that it could conceivably be a business model applicable to a larger pool of artists. Keep up the good work and good luck!

Snap Search

2004-11-30T17:29:00.000-05:00

Snap is a new search service that has come out of Bill Gross' Idealab. The interesting part of the service is the transparency of the company revenues and cost. They seem to be picking up steam in terms of number of queries, but the daily revenues seem to be unable to consistently break the $100 mark. It will be interesting to see how this changes over time.

Findory

2004-11-30T17:27:00.000-05:00

Findory is a pretty cool news service which tracks the news articles you click on and updates the ones shown based on your preferences. I have only tried it a little, but it seems to already be pointing me in the direction of some relevant articles. Check it out.

New therapy improves breast cancer treatment

2004-11-17T04:55:00.000-05:00

An article on MSNBC caught my attention because of the interesting application of particle physics on breakthrough medicine.

My brother works with particle accelerators (previously at CERN and now at FERMI lab) and we have frequently discussed the value of pure science vs. applied science. His research is focused on the search for the Higgs particle using particle accelerators and we occassionaly discuss the cost and benefis of pure science research.

I am glad to see that we are seeing viable applications that have been derived from what has traditionally been pure science research. Hopefully this will cause more money to be pumped into this type of research for additional benefits in the future.

BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

2004-11-16T00:14:00.000-05:00

Jeff Jarvis slams the FCC for slamming fox with a huge fine due to the complaints of... three people. Read more at BuzzMachine: Jeff writes, "It's like a scene out of an old French Foreign Legion movie in which the tiny band of soldiers put helmets on sticks over the wall of the fort to make the stupid enemy think that they are facing not a handful but hundreds. Well, the FCC is that stupid enemy -- and so are we. We swallow the notion that the 'moral values' army huge and is winning elections and ruling America and demanding radical change in our own culture. Wake up: It's three people with empty helmets sticking up over the wall thanks to email and Xerox."

Skype Stats

2004-11-11T01:57:00.000-05:00

Kevin Werbach points to some great stats regarding the use of Skype. It's amazing to think that a simple piece of software has helped to provide almost 2.4 billion minutes of voice time. Although I joined Skype this past summer, I finally had a chance to try it this past weekend when a few of my friends decided to give it a shot. Read more of the stats here.

Blumberg: Gmail - I Don't Get It, Part II

2004-11-09T21:25:00.000-05:00

Great post from Matt Blumberg over at OnlyOnce related to the data his company is seeing related to email switching and the relevance of Gmail. According to the numbers, the numbers of people switching to Gmail is on the rise, but is still not nearly the number of rivals hotmail and yahoo, and perhaps most importantly, the number of people who stick with Gmail is lower than many had predicted. Matt surmises that this points to people trying out Gmail to see what all the buzz is about, but not necessarily sticking with it for the long hall. Worth a read.

How close will this election be?

2004-11-02T01:01:00.000-05:00

No doubt that any reader of this will see it after the elections are complete. Despite this, I thought the dynamic map available through Electoral-Vote.com tells the story best. It is a day by day estimate of the distribution of the electoral votes. As you will see, the lead changes many times during the course of the campaign and really brings home the point that the winner of the election is incredibly challenging to predict. Check out the 2004 Electoral Vote Animation.

How close will this election be?

2004-11-02T01:00:00.000-05:00

MVNO opportunity following Cingular - ATT Wireless Deal

2004-10-27T07:17:00.000-04:00

Consolidation in the wireless space continues. Today the Cingular-AT&T deal went through.
Details over here.

One of the interesting potential developments that could follow is AT&T (the long distance carrier, not AT&T Wireless) could launch an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) similar in nature to what Virgin has done through their Virgin Mobile service. Given the strong brand recogniztion of AT&T and the inherent customer loyalty of former AT&T Wireless customers, this could help AT&T long distance diversify their offering and bottom line.

Sprint PCS has been the leading provider of MVNO services, aiding Virgin Mobile in their role out with the use of their network. I wouldn't be surprised if AT&T Long Distance calls them today.

Why mobile content is important to mobile phone operators

2004-10-25T22:32:00.000-04:00

In light of a recent announcement about Nokia's announcement to launch a wireless content solution I thought it might be worthwhile to comment on the state and future of mobile content.

Mobile Operators have experimented with mobile content since at least 1998 as a means to bump their ARPU numbers. ARPU stands for Average Revenue Per User and is used as a measure of financial strength. ARPU numbers have been battered down as carriers compete to provide customers with a commodity of voice minutes. In order to buoy revenues and combat earnings erosion most mobile operators have turned to mobile content as a solution.

In the early days, carriers introduced "walled gardens" which would limit the content that a customer could view to a carrier defined menu, and tried to elicit slotting fees from content providers to garner access to that menu. Due to limited mobile traffic and the desire to maintain key content providers in tehir walled garden, most slotting fees were dropped.

Looking internationally for guidance, some US carriers followed in the footsteps of successful overseas carriers. AT&T established a direction which reflected the strategy of DoCoMo (the largest Japanese carrier), aiming to provide a platform to allow content providers to plug into their platform and allowing customers to pay for mobile services via their mobile phone bill. It appears as if integration challenges and limited traction slowed that effort considerably.

Another avenue that mobile operators have explored is in the realm of mobile commerce, such as Amazon on a phone. With limited customer interest and relatively high development costs, most carriers have moved away from this strategy in favor of soft goods, which can be delivered via the phone instead of via UPS.

To explore this route, mobile operators started to turn to the J2ME and BREW standards, providing games and other applications that customers could esily pay for over their phone. The biggest initial success of this area was in the area of ringtones, with $1 ringtones flying off the virtual shelf for many carriers.

Unfortunately, even when 1 million ringtones are sold, they still have limited impact on the top line revenue numbers of any of the top carriers. Ringtone downloads has passed the one million mark by far, but they have leveled off recently.

So, what is a mobile operator to do?

Well, we should look at what operators have control over and what drives the use of mobile content. I have always believed that there are three things that are needed for a mobile content plan to work: content, connection speed, and hardware. Operators have been busy trying to improve their networks, but still speeds are rarely above that of a 56k modem. Continued improvement will come, but it will take time and a great deal of money. Hardware is an area where carriers have limited impact. And last the content itself. How do carriers develop the content portion of their mobile phone customers?

The most successful way has been to provide an single open standard (such as the one DoCoMo has implemented) which has a low barrier to entry for content providers to plug into. The reality is that there are many different attempts at creating a standard, leaving content providers to choose sides.

So while the opportunity is large and the need is crucial to combat eroding revenues, the pieces needed to complete the puzzle are not in place at this time. With competing standards, such as the one introduced in the link above, operators and content providers will have a standards war to wage. Despite this gloomy read on the current state of the market, the bright side is that there is consolidation occuring among content providers, carriers continue to invest (albeit at a much slower pace than the late 90's/early 00's) in their networks, and handset developers continue to innovate as well.

Once these areas have been addressed, the growth of this market will make a sharper turn upwards and allow carriers to begin to offset their revenue degradation. As more developments occur, I will likely comment on them as well.

Entrpreneurship and Reverse the Curse!

2004-10-25T09:04:00.000-04:00

This morning I decided that even if the Yankees lost to the Red Sox, I could potentially make a little money on the frenzy attached to the World Series. I may try this with a few different key current events if this test pilot proves successul. Take a look at Reverse the Curse! | CafePress.

Terra Nova: A Riot

2004-10-22T21:29:00.000-04:00

A virtual riot broke out in A Tale in the Desert, a MMORPG, recently according to Terra Nova. Evidently, a character named Malaki was trading valuable, rare items with characters, but refused to trade with female characters, asking incendiary questions, such as, "Who is your master?" and "I don't trade with slaves."

This has caused a fair amount of discussion on the rules that shoul/shouldn't be applied to virtual worlds and the role of sociological experimentation in these worlds. More thoughts can be seen at Terra Nova.

One commented believes this might be the first virtual riot. I have to disagree as I recall the naked, drunk riot that occurred when the ultima online economy was being figured out in its early days. The original call to arms can be found thanks to google groups.

sneaker culture

2004-10-21T06:52:00.000-04:00

Interested in the latest design trends in sneaker wear? Chck out Flytip.com, a regularly updated blog related to sneaker culture, design, and mobility. It has a great collection of news bits and some original content.

Passport in a coma

2004-10-21T06:27:00.000-04:00

Microsoft's Passport is limiting its single sign on to its own properties and close partners, according to a Microsoft representative.

Perhaps that's for the best.

Passport had a grand plan of being the defacto method of signing in to dozens of websites, in order to streamline the sharing of personal information with trusted third parties. The plan had some merit. When Passport was released, back in 19 99 Hotmail had accumulated over 300+MM users and was intended to be the backbone of the system. The concept of being an infomediary, or trusted holder of personal information, had been made popular by John Hagel in his book Net Gain, and traction was growing to serve a very fragmented commercial landscape with hundreds of different online merchants.

Microsoft even had some traction getting a few merchants signed up and onboarding all of their online properties over the next year.

So what happened? well, a few things occurred that stymied Microsoft's plan (this is be conjecturing here...). First, 300+MM hotmail accounts does not equal 300M+ people; only a moderate (I am guessing here) percentage were loyal hotmail users. Many people didn't shop online or feel the need for quick login via passport. Online commerce became less fragmented with Amazon and ebay reaping the majority of the benefits. Merchants weren't a big fan of Microsoft knowing information about their customer and customer behavior, so merchant signups slowed. I also got the feeling that people didn't have enough comfort (with Microsoft or anyone else for that matter) to provide their personal information (including CC#, etc.) for a service that promoted the idea of information sharing, even if people knew that it was to be used for a specific purpose.

So, now they have scaled back the service and limited it to their own sites and a few close partners. My guess is that eventually the close partners will discontinue the service as well. For the few number of people who are active users, signing up directly with the merchant for continued service will be a small hiccup in their online lives. If you agree or disagree, please do let me know.

SI.com - MLB - Red Sox stun Yankees 10-3 to reach World Series - Thursday October 21, 2004 1:39AM

2004-10-21T04:10:00.000-04:00

It hurts. It really hurts. The Sox have beat my beloved Yanks.

I do indeed wish Bosox the best of luck in the World Series, and thank them for a hard fight.

Read more about how the Red Sox stunned the Yankees 10-3 to reach World Series.

Even though I rooted for the Yanks up until 12:01, my hats off the the sox. My favorite quote from the above article was, "This was for Williams, Doerr and Pesky, for Yastrzemski and Yawkey, for Fisk and Rice and even Buckner and Nomar, just a few of the hundreds who suffered the pain inflicted by their New York neighbors in a rivalry that has become baseball's best." Indeed, it is among baseball's best.

Linking to people profiles within blogs

2004-10-20T19:41:00.000-04:00

Steve Hall has a great post about Eliyon, a company which provides consolidated profie's of people's backgrounds, as aggregated from websites, press releases, and news articles.

I have used Eliyon dozens of times when trying to learn more about someone. It's a very helpful tool and I am happy to say that they even have a little background on me.

In Steve's post, he talks about having Eliyon linking to people profiles within blogs to help provide some context on the people the blog author is talking about. Kudos to Steve for a great idea. Hopefuly, Eliyon CEO, Jonathan Stern will be able to figure out a way to make this happen.

Jon Stewart kicks ass...

2004-10-19T01:41:00.000-04:00

How should the media respond to the ongiong debate to help decide our next President? Jon Stewart has an answer and he delivers it with gusto on the CNN show, Crossfire. Watch the clip via BitTorrent.

In my mind, the clip is notable for two reasons:
1. He makes some interesting (and valid) points about the emphasis news programs put on theatrics at the expense of journalistic integrity.
2. He calls Tucker Carlson a dick on national TV. Good for him!

Whittling down host of choices

2004-10-19T01:26:00.000-04:00

I am watching the Late Late Show (formerly with Craig Kilborn) as they go through an on-air interview process of sorts to determine the new host. An article on this process is available thanks to the Daily News. Personally, the guy who is on right now kinda sucks. I just had to say it somewhere.

PodCasting.. 100,000 links and growing...

2004-10-18T22:16:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday, guru Doc Searls asked the question, when will Google have more than 100,000 results for PodCasting. Last Wednesday it was sitting at 53,200. Today it is at 100,700. Talk about amazing growth. One question that still comes up in my mind is how RIAA and others will react if their music is shared via this method without compensation.

Check out Doc Searl's website here.

And a definition of Podcasting here.

4.6 posts per second

2004-10-18T22:08:00.000-04:00

Sifry points out the rapid growth of posting in the blogosphere. the most interesting this is to see when spikes in posting occurred: Dean's Scream, Nick Berg beheading, conventions, and the kryptonite lock controversy to name a few. Check it out here:

Sifry's Alerts: Oct 2004 State of the Blogosphere: 4.6 posts per second

Star Wars figures getting bigger

2004-10-18T21:44:00.000-04:00

I still prefer the original. Is it me or do Lando and Han just look too big? See the Action Figures here from Star Wars, as made in the 1970's and 1990's.

Bin Laden is in China?

2004-10-18T13:36:00.000-04:00

I can't tell if the following story is real or not. The article has a number of typos, the story isn't covered in "mainstream" press, and the assertion that Bin Laden is in China seems somewhat farfetched. Just the same, who knows, maybe Bin Laden is in China.

Get your facts right

2004-10-07T04:43:00.000-04:00

FactCheck.org provides insight into the claims that politicians make. Take a look at the response to the VP Debate.

Very addictive game

2004-10-06T04:08:00.000-04:00

An engineer at heart, I enjoyed this Bridge Building game very much. Enjoy.

Respect for Dangerfield

2004-10-06T02:15:00.000-04:00

Rodney Dangerfield passed away today. R.I.P.

Charge it to my Kitty

2004-10-05T15:44:00.000-04:00

I never thought I would see a Hello Kitty Debit Mastercard! But alas, the good folks at MasterCard have delivered. I am not the right demographic for this card, but it does say something about the niche markets and affinity groups the card issuers are entering.

Caffeinated Beer

2004-10-05T15:33:00.000-04:00

I am in the midst of seeking out entrepreneurial ideas for a class. A classmate of mine humorously suggested I consider going after the holy grail of the alcohol industry: Caffeinated beer. I chuckled at the thought, but apparently, Budweiser has developed the product for real. Here is an article from CNN on the announcment.

It will be in slightly smaller 10 oz. cans and will be targeted at the 21 to 35 year olds who have started to try more types of drinks and have been slowly switching to liquor as their preferred beverage. Should be interesting if this goes the way of new coke or if it takes Budweiser in a new promising direction.

How to get the youth of America to vote

2004-09-25T16:36:00.000-04:00

Many have tried interesting ways to get people to vote. One of the more interesting sites I have come across is Votergasm. Quite a spectacle.

Want Music?

2004-09-25T16:29:00.000-04:00

Each time I visit the Amazon.com website it seems as if they have some sort of new feature. On my last visit I saw a link to Musical Instruments which seems to be their latest foray into new verticals. Go Amazon!

Kerry was in town today

2004-09-24T20:36:00.000-04:00

John Kerry was in Philly today giving more remarks to attempt to boost his chances in November. While walking around there was additional security and a certain vibe walking around town. I saw a link to his speech (which I was unable to attend) and figured I would link it here.

How would you campaign if you were running for President?

2004-09-24T17:21:00.000-04:00

There's a fun game I found on the Internet call Campaign Trail 2004 which allows you to determine where you and your running mate will campaign and where to spend your campaign contributions. Obvioulsy it is incredibly simplified, but it is interesting to see how much weight the electoral college has on your decisions.

snopes calls florida hurricane connection to republican areas a hoax.

2004-09-23T18:31:00.000-04:00

Snopes is a great resource for figuring out when something is a hoax, witha broad range of backgrounds on various urban legends. And sure enough, he gives the smiting of republicans by God a big thumbs down. Read more here.

actual paths of hurricanes.

2004-09-21T21:52:00.000-04:00

After looking at the image linked in the prior post I decided to do a little research of my own. Here are the respective paths of the three hurricanes:

Frances

Charley

Ivan

It seems like although there may be some similarities to the prior map, it is shaky at best. Enjoy

Eerie coincidence, divine intervention, or hoax?

2004-09-21T21:31:00.000-04:00

Could it be that the paths of the three recent hurricanes targeted regions largely full of Bush supporters? Check it out. For the record, I do not know if these are the true paths or the true breakdowns of the Bush/Gore vote. But still it's either funny or scary.

Nice piece by Andrew Sullivan in Time Magazine about Blogs

2004-09-21T16:50:00.000-04:00

piece in Time Magazine about the influence of blogs. He cites a few good exmples, including:

Clinton Impeachment
Trent Lott losing his spot as Senate majority leader
and of course, the CBS memos.

Give it a read.

Swaggert is an idiot

2004-09-21T16:43:00.000-04:00

"...if one [a gay man] ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died."

This is a quote from Evangelist Jimmy Swagert. It's a true shame. Read more here.

Gbrowser

2004-09-21T16:40:00.000-04:00

There has been a bit of buzz about the possibility that Google is developiong a web browser. I got the link below from kottke. It seems as if Google has hired some browser developers, held Mozilla Developer Day at their campus, and has registered the domain name gbrowser. Also, kudos to Anil Dash for raising this as a possibility last summer. Find more info here .

Viral Marketing for voting

2004-09-20T03:40:00.000-04:00

I found a link on FuckedCompany about an effort being put on mby the guys over at Hot or Not to encourage people to vote. A random person will be picked to win $100,000 and the person that referred them will be given $100,00 as well.

To help boost my chances of winning the 100 grand, the link I have here uses my own reference code. You can do the same thing on your website, while pushing for a good cause. Nice idea, guys!

Blogger 1, CBS 0

2004-09-18T19:05:00.000-04:00

Jeff Nolan wrote a great piece on the occassional advantages that Bloggers have over main stream media. Check it out here.

Remembrance of 9/11, minute by minute

2004-09-14T02:23:00.000-04:00

MSNBC has a minute by minute description of the actions and reactions taken on September 11th and the days that followed in a very interesting graphic.

It can be seen here.

Appeal to Authority

2004-09-14T02:16:00.000-04:00

So, as everyone knows, the blogging world has been debating the question of whether or not 60 minutes showed forged documents in their recent coverage about Bush's military service.

although I am not an expert on typograpghy, typewriters, font spacing, superscript, or military purchases of the early 70's, I thought it was interesting to see the piece in the WSJ which points to the top brass at the CBS news journal pointing to the high stature of the show as a means to defend itself.

My favorite line is, "He fell back on what high school debaters call the appeal to authority,(italics mine) implying that the reputation of "60 Minutes" should be enough to dissolve doubts without the network sharing its methods with other journalists and experts.

Take a look at the article, I think it has some merit.

Yankees To Build New Stadium

2004-07-30T10:42:00.000-04:00

Will it be the house that Steinbrenner built?

There is a soft spot in my heart for the current stadium and I am sad to see it go. On the other hand I am happy that they are planning on building the new stadium (or so it appears now) in more or less the same location. I can't imagine calling the Yanks the Hells Kitchen Bombers... Check out the brief article on the move here.

I'm no doctor....

2004-07-29T10:55:00.000-04:00

....nor do I play one on TV, but I believe that the right to privacy is a fundamental right in our society. So, despite being very curious about the President's health I felt somewhat disappointed with a journalist while reading an article on Bush's alleged prescription drug use. I consider myself a democrat, appreciating that this information (if true) could help boot Bush in the coming election. In reality, however, it seems as if the journalist is too invasive and the article is too partisan to be credible.