...on The Rising Cost Of Fruit.:
18:03, August 6th, 2008: It's funny that operating systems other than Windows are just recently becoming awesome, as in OS X, or usable, as in Linux, just as the reputation of Windows is at its worst.
I wouldn't set up an office with a bunch of Windows machines unless a mission-critical application required it. When alternative or equivalent or better software is available for free, why would anybody?
A record store near me uses Ubuntu. I got excited and asked the clerk about it. She said "Uh... I don't know. It's Firefox."
...on Wi-Fi Doesn't Make Up For Terrible Service.:
13:45, August 6th, 2008: Some consider it the Greyhound of the air, but I like Southwest. It does exactly what an airline should—"[get] passengers from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible"—at reasonable rates. And they're doing well.
...on Finally - Apple As A Lesson On What Not To Do.:
19:03, August 5th, 2008: You're too kind.
...on Google 4 Eva?:
19:29, July 28th, 2008: I think cuil is kewl!
No, really. It's a promising start. The layout is intriguing. The "Explore by category" box is neat but could be more specific. And it's annoying that half my queries get no returns "due to excessive load".
Of course it's not at Google's level yet. It's barely useful right now. But I can see it being being at least bigger than Yahoo.
...on Top Five Things [One] VC Firm Wants To Fund.:
19:06, July 22nd, 2008: 4: I can see this getting funded.
2: A company that creates web forms? Seriously?
...on Rate The Start-Up: Fish Pedicures:
18:55, July 22nd, 2008: I'd do it. That sounds way too fabu not to do it.
...on Sleeping On The Airport Floor Just Got Nerdier.:
14:12, July 15th, 2008: Unless it's disposable and sold in the terminals, I can't imagine this being popular. Can you fold it up and drop it in your carry-on? Probably not. What traveling businessman wants to look like a backpacker?
...on Beer Is Beer, Except When It Isn't.:
12:08, July 15th, 2008: Since they've decided not to change the recipes, leaving the beer gross and undrinkable, then I'm pretty apathetic.
I wonder what this means for other nasty beer companies, like PBR and Lone Star, that are still American-owned?
...on eBay Small Businesses Take A Hit.:
15:10, July 14th, 2008: To me, there's something much more appealing about a sketchy bazaar than there is about a Wal-Mart. So it's back to Craigslist, I guess.
...on What's So Great About Lively?:
13:09, July 9th, 2008: People said the same thing about Second Life (which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, unlike Lively). Some people make their living designing avatar clothing and furniture on Second Life. So Second Life and, like, World of Warcraft have certainly "[changed] the way people interact over the Web" -- it's easy to get excited about a virtual world when you can make money or slaughter the orc hordes -- but Lively seems like a grown up Habbo Hotel to me.
Is talking to strangers really so horrifying that you need the buffer of irreality to do it? Why would you want your life to be any less real?
...on Maybe LV Should Sue China Next.:
14:15, July 3rd, 2008: "Selling fakes is certainly illegal", but, at least for some of the major fashion houses, is not discouraged. See Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano. Major fashion houses are complicit, illegal labor and distribution being a huge component of their operation and success -- they only denounced it, in Italy, when a high-profile investigation and court case exposed them. And many "fakes" are identical to "genuines", made from the same designs, with the same material, only one producer got the stamp of approval faster than another.
...on The Gallon Milk Jug Gets A Green Redesign - So Why Are Consumers Complaining?:
14:30, July 1st, 2008: After producers convince consumers that a little extra cost and a little inconvenience can be worth it, the next step will be to phase out plastic altogether. At least in what we usually consider "disposables". See here. Then see here.
...on .Com Is So Last Year.:
17:56, June 26th, 2008: Predictions for what will be the biggest new TLDs? I think, in order: specific popular media product types, like .movie, .game, .book, .band, .mag; then city names/acronyms like .pdx, .la, .nyc; then ...?
Predictions for the biggest new inconveniences? Probably entering the scripts and characters of, like, Arabic and Japanese. How many people know how to do that right now? How many browsers even fully support Unicode?
The best news to come from this? IE6 will most likely, FINALLY, be killed off. For the betterment of all mankind.
...on The Anti-iPhone Business Plan:
17:48, June 23rd, 2008: I don't think mobile entertainment's the way to go. Or, what sources of entertainment are available or suited for handhelds are already available. It seems like there's a much bigger space in mobile web browsing and enabling location-based applications. Watching a youtube clip or listening to mp3s are ok to do while you're on the bus or something, but wouldn't you rather use your handheld to, like, do fun things? Like play Pac-Manhattan? Or useful things, like a quick search on the nearest thai restaurant?
...on McDonald's Remote Ordering System Baffles The Mind.:
14:56, June 20th, 2008: Somewhat related, if you wanted to, you could order and track the delivery of a pizza from Domino's via your computer's command line. Why they allow this is a good question. Why you would want to, though, is a better one.
...on YouTube Tries Make Actual Profits With Screening Room.:
19:04, June 19th, 2008: This seems like a good idea. For some people, this might be their only chance to see those movies.
...on Enterprising Gossip Blogger Asks Readers To Pay Up, Faces Mutiny.:
19:00, June 19th, 2008: I don't know, depending on how useful the thing is I might consider paying for it. If Google said Pay up or get booted, would you pay for Gmail?
...on Burger King Launches $185 Burger, Loses Touch With Reality, Customers.:
18:55, June 19th, 2008: Yeah, there's a lesson about context here. If you want something from Tiffany's, you're not going to buy it at Target.
...on Does Yahoo's Yang Need To Go?:
14:07, June 17th, 2008: I don't know anything about Yang's capacities as a CEO, but if my feelings about Yahoo and their offerings is a reflection, then yeah, he should go. I never use Yahoo. Their pages are cluttered, their search is silly, their hosting service is a sham, never mind their email. Their games service is kind of neat. Maybe they should try to do one thing really well instead of crapping out doing so many things.
...on Franchises Aren't Always A Sure Thing.:
13:57, June 17th, 2008: I don't have any experience with this, but opening a franchise store seems like Entrepreneurship Lite, the coward's edition. And most likely a lose-lose for both the entrepreneur and consumers. The party least likely to be burned is the parent company.
Because if you're going to open a store, wouldn't you want it to be yours? If you open a Wienerschnitzel, it's not Your Wienerschnitzel. It only feels that way. From the outside it looks like an ordinary Wienerschnitzel. And that's the point—you're hoping to draw customers using Wienerschnitzel's name and selling Wienerschnitzel's products while not really being a Wienerschnitzel. But Wienerschnitzel's not really into the idea of opening a store where you want to, otherwise they'd do it themselves, wouldn't they?
And if they were wrong and your store does become a hit, wouldn't they want to buy it? In which case, you win, you cash out and find something else to do.
So there are worse ways to spend your time. But I think if you want to start a business, you should go for the gusto.
...on No More Free Texts For iPhone Users. OMG.:
15:06, June 12th, 2008: Yeah, the $199 price point for the 3g iPhones seems like a bad sleight-of-hand trick. Supposedly AT&T is subsidizing their production. And they might require buyers to activate when they buy it, which prevents the buyer from jailbreaking it (and signing with another carrier), which means AT&T chains them to a more-expensive 2-year contract at time of purchase. And while the rest of Apple's line is moving to aluminum casing (supposedly the new MacBooks will be cased the same as the Pro models), the 3g has a cheap plastic case. It's kind of educational to see where the cost got shifted.
I'm not sorry I bought a first-gen iPhone.
...on Supreme Court Upholds Common Sense.:
20:18, June 11th, 2008: Wow. I love it when common sense trumps selfish idiocy.
Something like a year ago Microsoft tried to claim a patent for a software technique that would, for a short duration, give a non-admin user admin-level permissions. I'm not a patent lawyer, but I think there's some language about "prior art" that prevents people from patenting something that already exists. *nix users have been using that technique, called "sudo", since 1980.
...on Think The iPhone Was Hyped? Check This Out.:
14:13, June 11th, 2008: Well, the Newton was a necessary first step. But the Segways are kind of ridiculous. Bikes, anyone?
...on Can Viral Marketing Work For Small Business?:
14:08, June 11th, 2008: It seems like viral videos could be the one of the more effective marketing strategies for small businesses. They can be made for cheap. Dissemination is out of your hands after you place it on a few hub sites. The hardest part would be coming up with the right idea. That and having a decent e-commerce setup.
...on Minority Business Feature: Tanka Bars.:
14:03, June 11th, 2008: Yeah, I like their illustration quite a lot, the dude running with the buffalo spirit.
It might not be that bad. Meat and fruit have been combined before.
...on Small Carrier Flies Again - For Now.:
13:50, June 11th, 2008: That's why I love Southwest. True southern hospitality. Any company that would clean themselves up before charging for checked bags is one I'll support.
...on Can Interactive Ads Work? Meebo Says Yes.:
15:43, June 9th, 2008: I don't think it's a ridiculous idea. Each new Apple ad gets posted to Digg. That Levi's ad got a lot of link-love.
If I'm going to watch guys do backflips into jeans, whether its an ad or not is kind of irrelevant. It's better than most of the drek on YouTube. Wasted time isn't a total waste if it benefits the economy in some way.
...on Are You Getting A 3G?:
15:02, June 9th, 2008: I won't. Most of the features currently missing (like sending and receiving pictures, or copying and pasting text) can be added via software updates. The 3G thing is a hardware update. And while the added speed would be nice, it's not really worth the price. To me, anyway.
Spore, however, might be worth the price.
...on Wal-Mart v. Craigslist:
18:29, June 3rd, 2008: Hey, Wal-Mart can be player in this space. Some people hold it in quite a high regard.
...on Why Can't Starbucks Even Get Wi-Fi Right?:
15:04, June 3rd, 2008: This is ridiculous. Seriously. I avoid Starbucks anyway, for the same reason I avoid Denny's, but what you've described is absurd.
Brent has a good point about security, but we don't know that the flaming hoops you jump through to connect with Starbucks WiFi earn you a more secure connection than simply password-protecting the network does (or do we?). This is smart and common: password-protect your network, give the password out to paying customers, and change the password every day.
...on Wii's Lesson For Entrepreneurs:
14:49, June 3rd, 2008: Am I the only one that thinks there's something inherently pathetic in preferring fantasy to reality? Seriously, why would you rather swing a WiiMote around your living room than play tennis with a racket and fuzzy green balls on a court with people?
That said, I'm looking forward to the release of WiiBocce. That's going to earn some serious cool cred for the game.
...on Celeb Business Model: WuChess:
14:37, June 3rd, 2008: Can you imagine playing chess to the tune of Dr Octagon? I can barely think when he comes on. My basic motor skills go buggy. Never mind focusing on a game of chess.
I might be willing to pay $48 a year to play Go with professional motocross racers. Just throwing that out there.
...on Is Amazon's Kindle A Threat to Small Booksellers?:
14:29, June 3rd, 2008: When cost comes down, I can see the Kindle being primarily useful for newspaper and magazine subscriptions and secondarily as a replacement for mass market paperbacks. The email feature seems kind of superfluous. Should/when I become a gargoyle, I'd probably use my phone to communicate, my computer to work, and my Kindle to read the news. Until The One Gadget to rule them all comes along, that is.
That said, look, publishers still make hardcovers. There's still a market for them. There are still people letter-pressing poetry chapbooks for small and eager audiences. The people that buy these books are willing to pay a little extra for a finer/specialized product. When they invest in a hardcover, they're not just buying the information, they're buying the artifact. That's something the Kindle can't compete with.
...on Web 2.0 Doesn't Make Money. VCs Keep Funding.:
14:25, May 28th, 2008: Yeah. The only way MySpace and friends, and, like, Twitter, can "effectively monetize" is to sell real estate. They don't offer an actual product and no one's going to pay for the service.
...on Starbucks Owns Circles, Stars, Sans Serif Font. Your Business Doesn't. :
13:44, May 28th, 2008: Yeah, to claim the stylized mermaid is one thing. But to claim the circle and stars is bad form. Not only is it clear that the Rat City Roller Girls aren't affiliated with or endorsed by Starbucks, but their logo is kind of an homage. The connection to the Starbucks logo is a benefit more than it is a detractor.
It's even worse when a company tries to claim a color.
And claiming to own a patent for something so obvious as using an image as a link is just pathetic.
PS. Shame on J&J. Seriously.
...on Cougar Website Seeks Investor:
19:48, May 27th, 2008: ToyBoyWarehouse.com wins Best Name of the Month award. Wow. Toy Boy Warehouse. That's amazing.
...on Speed Pitching: Speed Dating, Except With Investors.:
18:04, May 23rd, 2008: Writing a resumé makes me feel sleazy enough—I can't imagine how it would feel to try selling not only myself, but my baby too, in eight minutes flat. If someone's not willing to sit at a table and talk with me about an idea, like a frickin' human being, no way would I want them involved in my project. How arrogant. Seriously, have some decency.
...on Forget Google, Let's Live Search!:
14:40, May 23rd, 2008: No way will I Microhoo.
Get this. The other day I tried to find an article posted/hosted on Yahoo News using Yahoo. I had the title but wanted the story, so I searched the title in quotes. The word "the" was in the title. In some of Yahoo's top 10 returns, the only term matched was "the". Seriously.
Relevance aside, most of my searches don't have a related product. What's Microhoo going to offer me when I search "thermophiles"? 2-5% cash back on a deep trench submarine tour?
Unless someone comes out of left field with a really rocking semantics-based search engine before Google develops one, it's going to retain its position.
...on Social Networking 2.0:
16:04, May 22nd, 2008: What's old is new... Check out iwasabducted.com. After the initial nausea fades—its design is downright repugnant—you'll notice it's a site for (yes) abductees. Brave on through the splash page and you'll notice they have something called a "discussion forum". This is where concerned abductees can log on, share and compare their experiences of being beamed up and probed, commiserate and help each other adjust to being back in reality, great stuff like that.
Online forums have been around a long time. Add a feature where you can upload a few pictures of yourself, tell people where you live and what bands you like, etc—the vanity factor—and you have a social network.
Themed social networks are a lame idea not only because they're effectively themed discussion forums, but because the capability for them already exists in existing social networks. They're called "groups". MySpace, Facebook, maybe even the scary-looking FaceParty, already have a ton of them. If there isn't one for your special niche, you can start your own.
Maybe Facebook isn't "about" anything but Facebook, but it allows you to make it be about whatever you want. "The Rising" is scoped small by design. It's a splinter and there's nothing new about it. Lame.
No kudos for Spielberg on this one. He should, instead, take that money and make another Jurassic Park. Those were awesome.
...on Success Stories: Proclivity Systems:
16:05, May 21st, 2008: Maybe it's just the (lamentable) state of the art, maybe it's the Brownian trajectory of my interests, but I rarely-to-never follow on recommendation algorithms. The reasons I'm drawn to Novels in Three Lines will not lead a purchase of War and Peace, which Amazon, based primarily on the buying habits of others, thinks I might enjoy. So maybe it's skepticism, but I don't think an algorithm's recommendation—which only understands what I rented or bought—will ever have the clout or relevance of a friend's—who knows why.
...on Oil Prices Skyrocket, So Does Cost of Burger:
14:28, May 21st, 2008: Part of me would kind of love to be the guy that has to ask, after one of these gilded burgers, "Do I have any gold flecks between my teeth?"
...on VCs Look Into Their Crystal Balls , See Obvious.:
19:36, May 16th, 2008: I predict that these will not be as popular as the concurrently-available handheld devices.
...on A Synergistic Analysis of Re-Engineered Paradigms:
19:12, May 14th, 2008: And I thought pretension was the domain of hipsters and feeble artists...
