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Q: Why are people so uncomfortable with Wikipedia, Google and that whole blog thing?
A: Because these systems operate on the alien logic of probabilistic statistics, which sacrifices perfection at the micro scale for optimization at the macro scale. -
Television is bad for your brain, but TV shows (via DVD/bittorrent) can be good for your brain. Some Reasons:
1) TV Addiction is a distinct possibility
2) TV News reduces left-brain logical thinking
3) Having TV in background causes “brain drain”(tags: television health)
December 27, 2005
links for 2005-12-27
December 26, 2005
links for 2005-12-26
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interesting idea on overcoming food shortage by using a series of high-rises in urban areas where fruit, vegetables and livestock can be raised by utilizing greenhouse methods and recycled resources year-round, allowing cities to become self-sufficient.(tags: environment agriculture)
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Photographer Jim Brandenburg’s challenge: Make a portrait of the north woods in upper Minnesota over the ninety days between the autumn equinox and winter solstice, with one, and only one, exposure per day. Amazing photos!(tags: photography)
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Google has just released a set of components called Libjingle that allow third party applications to interact with Google Talk. The components, which include some source code, are being released under a liberal license allowing for free incorporation.
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VC Fred Wilson says its high time the consumer electronics industry joins PCs and the internet in becoming flexible vis-a-vis consumers and entrepreneurs: its nearly impossible to take control of one’s experience and impossible to innovate in this sector.(tags: consumer electronics)
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talks about the “corporate” persona often assumed by startups and how it prevents relationship-building. “I slowly realized the importance of relationship building, especially with customers and how powerful it can be as a competitive advantage.”
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makes the point that the value of a social network is also determined by the strength of the connections between the people in it. gives examples that on Amazon individual reviewers don’t matter but on Skype, individual people you talk to do matter.
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In the long run, the value of a social network is not only determined by the number of people in it, but in the ability for the network to monetize them. It is much easier to do that if you are vertically focussed rather than horizontally focussed.
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presents four ways in which del.icio.us-like services can generate revenue: 1) Contextual Ads in a Social Search Engine 2) Selling “Tag-Stream Data” 3) Advertorial Tags 4) Other Contextual Advertising based on User Value
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Practical entrepreneurs don’t follow a big vision but look for a low-risk market where one’s skills can be applied. The 4 rules: 1) choose a fragmented market 2) sell to business not consumers 3) clear and simple revenue model 4) eat your own dog food
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discusses the “Edit & Continue” feature in Visual Studio in the context of whether such tool advances are making programmers more sloppy. Also, hypothesizes that additional checks are no guarantee and may paradoxically increase the probability of errors.(tags: programming quality)
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“In product management, the things you choose not to do are at least as important as the things you choose to do. Though it might seem like adding features is always a good thing, there are actually tradeoffs being made with each feature added.”
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an interesting post on what game developers should ask for in retail contracts.
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how filters/aggregators like Squidoo help micro-ISVs get attention and showcase their expertise and translate it into revenue.
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A list of all projects at IBM Research. Most of them have papers and documentation, and looking at them might spark off an idea..
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a great presentation on how Microsoft has changed the UI in Office 12 to make it more usable, essentially an exercise in managing complexity.
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a very fascinating story about how changes and trends in specific vertical industries can happen, giving the example of the centuries-old ice industry which is being forced to change in a disruptive way due to innovation.
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Ten tips for businesses analyzing the impact of a decision to use an open-source project. Quote: “Don’t be an Open Source ostrich. Open Source software is not likely to go away nor are you likely to avoid it. As always, “be prepared” is the best motto.
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a list of Google search operators, which actually pretty handy for repetitive searches that you make into shortcuts.
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“The Deep Web is the gigantic source of information stored deep down in databases – rendered through DHTML and not accessible to standard crawlers. In many cases, they actually do not even exist until a user asks a question by filling up fields in a form”
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In the light of Alexa (an Amazon-owned search company) opening up access to its index via an API at cheap rates to anyone who wants it, the index of a search engine is fast turning into a commodity.
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Discusses how simply reducing the complexity or number of steps marginally can lead to market dominance (eg. Google, Skype). Also discusses how reducing the barriers to entry make your products much more attractive.
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very interesting article which talks about competition in the software components market, and how it impacts the choices you make in development — essentially leading to analysis paralysis. also discusses the problems inherent in internal code reuse.
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good tips on overcoming fear and achieving success. “While fear embedded in the unconscious mind can sabotage our success, the reverse is also true. You can use your unconscious mind to influence your thinking in order to achieve your goals.”(tags: self_improvement)
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a very good summary of the conversation about how to make money from the Long Tail. a must read!(tags: longtail insightful)
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Can humor skills be developed? Yes, absolutely. Steve Pavalina gives some extremely good tips on how to develop them.
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how normal people act when committed people set out to do extraordinary things, taking examples from the author’s life. Very inspiring, makes you feel that you missed a lot by not acting when it was needed.(tags: motivation self_improvement)
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With bottlenecks removed and the costs of production dropping, IT Consulting looks like the Long Tail of services. The future of services is in making lots of small engagements pay, rather than shooting only for the big ones.
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discusses the fundamental tension of the internet: between convergence/anti-convergence, bundling/unbundling & centralization/decentralization and suggests that if all content is “unbundled”, the cultural products subsidized by commercial junk may go away
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quotes Bill Gates: “Google’s business model is based on advertisements from which they make a lot of money, which it keeps with itself” and makes the point that there’s too much profit right now in online advertising for Google, which isn’t going to last.
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explains in numbers how picking Rails over Java affects the bids he puts in for consulting jobs (considering only the actual programming part of the bid). The approach that Stuart takes in differentiating between the two is quite interesting.
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Microsoft’s Robert Scoble was concerned about the exodus of developers that are leaving .NET for Ruby on Rails, and asked for feedback on the reasons. Follow the comments/trackbacks for a very interesting discussion.
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TinyMCE is a open-source web based Javascript HTML WYSIWYG editor control. It has the ability to convert HTML TEXTAREA fields or other HTML elements to editor instances and is very easy to integrate into other CMS systems.
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Nice CSS technique for replacing multiple-select boxes with a scrollable series of checkboxes.
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an explanation of what all 99s in uptime measurement really mean in terms of hours. also recommends two rules for on-demand service providers: 1) Take steps to keep users informed 2) Be upfront about service levels(tags: webservice availability)
Humor from Overheard In The Office
I really love Overheard In The Office. Here are some recent gems that I particularly liked:
Agent #1: Why is that dog wearing a “W” on its head?
Agent #2: That’s not a “W”; it’s obviously an “M.” It’s just upside down.
Bystander: Um…those are reindeer antlers.
Boss: I’m getting nailed to the wall here, guys! C’mon! I’m not Jesus Christ! Help me out!
Manager: Here you go.
Employee: Oh, thank goodness. This is what she’s looking for…I’m so glad you found it. I would have had to redo it right now.
Manager: I found it on your desk.
CSR #1: What does IT stand for?
CSR #2: Idiotic tendencies.
CSR #1: Oh, so that’s why we forward them all the stupid questions.
CSR on phone: Sir, would you mind slowing down just a little bit? You’re really giving me a lot of information, and it’s not really registering in my brain because I’m still trying to type in all the other crap you told me.
Worker: So the Christmas party is mandatory?
Boss: Of course not, but if you don’t show you’ll probably be ostracized.
Worker: …And I have to sign a waiver to drink?
Boss: Do you think a company of lawyers would let everyone drink, then drive, and not cover their asses?
Co-worker #1: Where is my breakfast burrito?
Co-worker #2: Sorry bud, I totally forgot to order you one.
Co-worker #1: Next time I shoot my .357 magnum at the range…I’m going to draw your face on the target.
VP: There is only so much you can do with one hand.
Co-worker: I’m not going to touch that.
VP: We have to create the problem that the customer will want to solve.
Co-worker #1: I’m really hot.
Co-worker #2: I’m turning the heat down to 90. If anyone’s cold then they can go into [Jessica]’s office, but first you have to take off your clothes because it’s a sauna in there.
Co-worker #3: You shouldn’t tell people to take their clothes off before going into [Jessica]’s office.
Worker #1: Do you have any time available to meet on Thursday?
Worker #2: It will be pretty tough; I have back to back meetings all day.
Worker #1: How about 11AM?
Worker #2: Okay, I have nothing scheduled at all between 9AM and 5PM.
Warning: Incoming Links
I’ve been going through my backlog of links on bloglines, and I’ve bookmarked well over 30 links, so expect that the next post will have a lot of links to read through!
I tend to put description about the links in the del.icio.us entry itself, instead of creating a blog entry for every link (that would be too many entries!) and a duplication of effort. I also treat it as a challenge to produce a 255-character elevator pitch for the article. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don’t 
What do you think is the best way to go about it?
I’ll be posting how I use del.icio.us and bloglines to find good articles on the web within a few days.
December 25, 2005
links for 2005-12-25
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Google has firmly established that relevant, useful, and unobnoxious advertising can be stunningly lucrative: On average, every search you do on Google generates $.12 in revenue for the company.(tags: google advertising)
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mentions three kinds of companies: 1) Lifestyle companies, which aren’t geared for growth 2) Cash Flow companies, which are profitable and grow at 10-20% per year 3) High Growth companies, which can grow at 50-100% per year. VCs natually prefer the latter
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insightful blogging tips from professional blogger Darren Rowse
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Curious Office Partners (a Seattle incubator) is thinking small about the next consumer Internet applications, by funding often overlooked innovators in micropayments from $10,000 to $250,000.
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insightful advice from a VC on startups. “There’s never been a better time than now to start a company. In the past, entrepreneurs started businesses. Today they invent new business models. That’s a big difference, and it creates huge opportunities.”
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a good set of 12 questions to ask yourself if you are bootstrapping. Quote: “First time entrepreneurs have a major advantage/disadvantage: they don’t question everything before they leap into the business”
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brings up two important points about VC funding: timing and approach. Timing is important, as idea risk is more acceptable than execution risk, hence should be approached at the proper time via your contacts or networking.
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The advent of the Internet has created new opportunities for freelancing, particularly for software developers from countries with low average salaries(tags: freelance programming)
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great discussion on why the glitter of instant tech wealth is the reason for all the interest in startups like del.icio.us, skype, and riya — also discusses some hard facts: “the median VC investment loses 36%” and the implications of that statement
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long and interesting post from Rick Segal regarding the multi-step process that his firm (JL Albright) is using to invest in startups. a must read!
December 24, 2005
links for 2005-12-24
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del.icio.us has an option to post lists of the sites you tag on your blog – but to call it ‘undocumented’ would be very generous. Here’s how it works.(tags: del.icio.us)
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talks about various types of procastination, and why it may be very useful in getting things done ie. “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”
