Netizen: IBM

Showing posts with label IBM. Show all posts

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Cisco's Big Dreams: A Clash Of Titans?

Cisco's Big Push into New Markets BusinessWeek In recent weeks, Cisco has cut deals with customers looking to use its technology in more expansive ways than ever before— Major League Baseball teams that want fully wired stadiums, the city of Miami as it develops a smart power grid....... While many companies retrench, the tech giant has strong profits and $33 billion in cash in its coffers. ...... the dominant provider of the networking gear that runs the Internet. ..... Just as the tech world revolved around IBM (IBM)'s mainframe computers in the 1970s and Microsoft (MSFT)-powered personal computers in the 1980s and '90s, Chambers believes Cisco has an opportunity now to make its digital networks the platform on which new innovations are built. ...... Cisco's stock, now $18 a share, is at the same level it hit in 1998. ...... hastening efforts to move beyond the core business of selling switches and routers. ...... digital billboards to stereos and video surveillance systems ...... "We're moving into new [areas] with a speed nobody has ever attempted" ........ danger of losing focus ...... concern is that Cisco will alienate key partners that as a group deliver more than 80% of the company's sales ........ HP and Cisco already have begun to spar publicly. ...... "[Chambers] is known for trying to find a win-win," says one tech CEO. "This isn't a win-win. It's a declaration of war." ....... Cisco could lose half of the $4 billion in gear sold each year by IBM and HP ....... P&G plans to install more than 75 of Cisco's high-end TelePresence videoconferencing systems in 55 countries by the end of the year to lower travel costs and hold more global consumer focus groups. ....... "No other company touches the content, the carrier, and the consumer—and the best part is they all drive each other," says Padmasree Warrior, Cisco's chief technology officer.

When it comes to the internet, Cisco has been for hardware what Oracle has been for software. These two are network giants. As the giants of the tech industry seek to expand, it is but inevitable that they will run into each other. C for capitalism, c for competition. Cisco just so happens to be in great financial health. John Chambers and Larry Ellison are very different personality types. Ellison is the brash cowboy. Chambers has the reputation of the smooth, warm, fuzzy guy, but never underestimate a guy who has done a marvelous job of keeping a relentless focus on the fundamentals of his business, innovation being one of them. You can't be in love with innovation and not seek out new markets to grow your company. To the world it might look dramatic what Chambers is attempting, but to his mind he is merely putting one step in front of the other. The internet giant deserves to take yet another stride.

Cisco Unified Computing System: To Tidy Up Data Centers

http://twitter.com/paramendra/statuses/1700944190
https://twitter.com/Padmasree/status/1260569556
https://twitter.com/paramendra/status/1227950181

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Mideast Peace: Tech Industry Style

"Life is brief, and then you die, you know?"
- Steve Jobs

Mideast: Permanent Peace Is Possible
Bloodbath In Sri Lanka: Where Is The Outrage?
The Final Inch

Larry Ellison is Jewish. Steve Jobs is Arab. And they are the best of friends.

Larry Ellison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Cyber Security: Growing Challenges

So much is happening online. There's much behind firewalls, but hackers have ended up everywhere before. Worms come down to your desktop, and if you are lucky you get to retrieve your work. Recently a teen spread a worm on Twitter. What's next? Gmail? So it is not like the cloud is sacred territory. There is no sacred territory.

There are rogue individuals, pranksters, spammers, spam spewing companies. Then there are the evil ones. They want your computer down. They want your system down. They want to steal your password, your credit card number. They show up in your inbox hoping to lure you to click on something or the other. It is a numbers game for them. They are counting on very few people to click, and those very few routinely do.

But what about hostile states and terrorist organizations? If the Al Qaeda wants to explode a dirty bomb, does it not fantasize of cyber attacks? It has recruited smart doctors before. Could it recruit hackers? What could a cyber cold war look like? What about a hot one?

For the most part we are counting on the good people in the information technology sector to stay numerous and to always stay one step ahead of the evil ones. We are counting on the market forces. But when it comes to global law enforcement coordination, we are as ill-prepared as on a host of other global issues. People in finance talk of tax havens. There are hacker havens all over the world. We count on hackers being not smart enough to create and spread the next deadly worm. But they routinely do. We keep building up the immune system, we keep finding cures for diseases, kind of like for the biological types over history.

And safety is not all about technology. It is also about criminals going high tech to commit crimes they were already committing before the internet came along.

Just like for global finance, for global terrorism, for global warming, there is ultimately only a global solution to cyber security. Cyber security has to be approached from many different angles if it is to be meaningfully tackled.

In The News

The Cold War moves to cyberspace CNet shadowy foes that prefer to cloak their identities. the United States is "under cyberattack virtually all the time, every day" ...... The Wall Street Journal reported that cyberspies had breached the DOD's Joint Strike Fighter project and also had penetrated the Air Force's air-traffic-control system. ..... Chinese hackers attacked private and government Web sites in the U.S. in retaliation after NATO accidentally struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo crisis. ....... Russia defines cyberwar as a force multiplier while China views cyber war as a way to get control of an enemy without the need for engaging on a physical field of battle. "It's straight out of Sun Tzu" ........ In March 2007, Estonian Web sites got knocked out after the regime decided to move a Soviet statue from one park to another. Last August, when Russian tanks rolled across the border, Georgia's government ministries also got overwhelmed by a coordinated cyberattack. ....... defenders of Russia attribute the brief cyberwar to nationalists acting independently.
Bill Clinton: Business is the key to climate change
Apple soars during economic gloom
Microsoft opens up its answer to Google AdSense
Would a ratings system improve Craigslist?
IBM puts Oracle to the sword with EnterpriseDB
Report: Kindle 2 costs $185.49 to build
No surprise here: Oprah huge for Twitter
Firefox 3.0.9 targets 12 security vulnerabilities
Security flaw leads Twitter, others to pull OAuth support
Face recognition comes to Flickr
Gates: Cyberattacks a constant threat hackers stole information about $300 billion fighter jet program.
'60 Minutes' video: Cold fusion is hot again

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

That StartUp Mentality

Image via Wikipedia

It is a mindset. It is a personality type. If a tech entrepreneur were not a tech entrepreneur, he/she would be standing at the edge of a cliff, or facing a hurricane on the high seas. There is something innate about risk-taking. Very few attempt it. Very few of those who attempt succeed. That is why the rewards are so astoundingly huge.

But then that startup mentality is being forced upon the rest of the population. The internet and globalization are going to inject the startup mentality into ordinary jobs. There are degrees of risk taking. Ordinary jobs will have low levels, low doses of risk taking, but it will be there. It is there. It is here.

Looks like the worst part of the bad news of a bad economy might be behind us. You can get gloomy about what just happened. Or you can objectively look at it and see capitalism's creative destructions. What will happen next is way more exciting than what was there before. The jobs, companies and industries of tomorrow stand to be created. This is high time for a mega renewal of the human spirit. I am optimistic. I was throughout the past six months of bad news. All hard economic times of the past decades have also been periods of major innovation, of companies launched that went on to do big, bold things. I don't wish a bad economy upon anyone, but you have to wonder why.

You have to stay hungry also during good times, or success will get the better of you. The trick is to stay hungry during good times. What gets your juices flowing? Do you got fire in your belly?

On The Web

AT&T And Verizon's Start-Up Mentality - Forbes.com
Techcrunch takes on Israeli startup mentality | ISRAELITY
Teaching the Startup Mentality
Startup Mentality
European vs US startup mentality | anders.tyckr.com how often would you say that two of your friends start the same business idea - separately - without them knowing about each other ..... reports keep coming in that the mobile social network market is going to be huge. ..... Europeans do not aim big enough, and on the other hand, US startups go super big with sometimes very crazy ideas. But crazy ideas are only crazy and funny if they are done with bad timing. ...... Going too slow might be a problem, and is probably as hard to fix as going too fast. ..... I would not want to miss a minute of the action to come.

In The News

EBay Unveils Skype IPO Plans BusinessWeek Skype sales surged 44%, to $551 million, last year and the company expects them to top $1 billion in 2011. The user base surged 47%, to 405 million, in 2008. ..... Zennstrom and Friis reportedly offered less than $2 billion for Skype. An IPO could fetch $3 billion to $5 billion ...... Skype could find itself in closer competition with such sites as Facebook or Twitter. ..... "I see [Skype] as a Ferrari that's only firing some of its cylinders."
Plus: Skype in Your Pocket
Google's Trademark Tussle
Business Exchange: Search Advertising
Goldman, Give it All Back
Taxing Grandma to Pay Goldman Sachs
Intel Says PC Demand 'Bottomed'
IBM Roars into Business Consulting
Cuba: How Much, How Fast?
Obama Pitches His Economic Plan
China Faces a Water Crisis
Learning from Recession, the Japanese Way
Nokia: Signs of Stabilization?
Can Widgets Save the Television Industry?
How to Make Acquisitions in a Down Economy
Time to Buy TV, Radio, and Internet Ads?
Put a Human Face on Your Presentations
Today's Tip: Sales Strategy for Tough Economic Times
Getting Ready for the Recovery
Preparing Now to Drive Future Growth
Options for MBAs Without Jobs
Getting to Know Yourself
It's Now a Renter's Market

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Skype: Hub

AOL Time Warner could not build the promised synergy. Now looks like eBay and Skype are a repeat history case. Could this perhaps been predicted at the outset? Is a Microsoft going into hardware losing direction? Or is it reinventing itself? Nokia has reinvented itself many, many times over the decades.

eBay and PayPal were synergistic. Skype was stretching it.

But then will the Skype spinoff make enough money for eBay that the original deal will have been worth it? At 405 million, Skype has twice the community size as Facebook. When Skype got bought a lot of people were like, oh no, they overpaid. But looks like not. The founders of Skype would be happy to buy it back. The brand made half a billion last year. The two and a half billion price tag could be recouped in a matter of years.

Skype is a hub, it is a community, it is the iPhone of that big rectangle. And it is capable of doign iPhone like things. Yes, I am talking about applications. I have a feeling Skype will really take off when we enter the ubiquitous wimax era in a few short years. Now is the time to do the homework for the best possible positioning.

Image via CrunchBase

In The News

eBay to launch a Skype IPO in 2010 CNet
Next Office will come in 32-bit, 64-bit versions
Big media leads Webby Awards nominations
OutlookDeck brings Twitter concepts to e-mail
Analyst: Microsoft deal could save Yahoo $1 billion
Just how sexist is nudity in gaming?
Sun Microsystems debuts new x64 servers
Should Sun buy Novell?
Server start-up taps IBM-Intel tech, eyes Web 2.0
Google touts Android 1.5 features to coders
BoostCam does instant two-way video chat
iPhone to become a home systems OpenRemote
Microsoft fills Excel, Windows, Word holes
The final frontier: Solar power from space
Zune phone ad campaign coming?
MC builds up to 3 petabytes of virtual storage

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Competing For the Web 3.0 Definition

There are those who say the semantic web is the Web 3.0. I intend to argue that semantic web just adds to the dynamism of Web 2.0, and so that semantic web is Web 2.1, not Web 3.0.

Conceptually Diligent: Web 5.0 Is Repackaging Hello

There was Windows 95, and Windows 98, and Windows 2000, Windows X, Windows Vista, now they are talking up Windows 7. Those who are pushing the semantic web as the Web 3.0 are Windows slaves who don't seem to realize that Windows was about computing processes, but the Web is about people.

The central premise of my classification system is that the web is about people. Hence the top ranking goes to face time.

Web 5.0: Face Time

The web is not just about the software powering the websites. The web is also the hardware, the web is also, I dare say primarily about connectivity. AOL was an early stage Web 3.0 comany. Cisco has been a 3.0 company. Clearwire is a bold 3.0 company. AOL also was a Web 2.0 company. It popularized email and instant messaging in the US during the early years. It is very possible for one company to inhabit a few different spaces, clearly. Where would you put Intel? Where would you put the sizzling mobile space?

A Web 3.0 Manifesto

I give you that the alternate definition of Web 3.0 seems to be the more mainstream one, but I intend to compete. Those people are making the mistake of thinking the web is only about technology, worse, only about the software behind the websites.

Every additional computer that connects to the internet changes the internet itself. That is even more true about people. Every additional human being that comes online changes the internet itself.

There is no agreement on the definition of Web 3.0 like there is on Web 2.0, and so I intend to compete. There is general, tentative agreement that Web 3.0 is the next thing, beyond that there is no agreement. This is a fluid situation, and I intend to shape it.

Defining Web 4.0

My classification with its five broad elements is comprehensive, but it is early stage. It is earth, fire, water, air, spirit, it is not exactly the Periodic Chart Of Elements yet. But when you talk of the semantic web as Web 2.1, that is the first step towards a Periodic Chart Of Elements. So the semantic web has its place, I am not discounting it. I just intend to show it its proper place in the scheme of things.

On The Web

Web 3.0 - Wikipedia technical and social possibilities identified in this latter term are yet to be fully realized the nature of defining Web 3.0 is highly speculative. In general it refers to aspects of the Internet which, though potentially possible, are not technically or practically feasible at this time.

A List Apart: Articles: Web 3.0
HowStuffWorks "How Web 3.0 Will Work"
Welcome to Web 3.0: Now Your Other Computer is a Data Center a third wave—one that we are calling Web 3.0—and it may prove to be the most significant and disruptive yet to the traditional software industry. ........ not defined by distinct periods of time, but are best seen as overlapping waves of adoption. ....... Web 2.0 is about the next generation of applications on the Internet, featuring user-generated content, collaboration, and community. ...... Participation changes our idea of content itself: content isn’t fixed at the point of publication—it comes alive. Google’s AdSense became an instant business model in particular for bloggers, and video-sharing sites have rewritten the rules of popular culture and viral content. ........ For companies entering the emerging software as a service industry, the massive time and capital requirements remain a substantial barrier to entry. ........ The new rallying cry of Web 3.0 is that anyone can innovate, anywhere. Code is written, collaborated on, debugged, tested, deployed, and run in the cloud. When innovation is untethered from the time and capital constraints of infrastructure, it can truly flourish. ......... For developers, Web 3.0 means that all they need to create their dream app is an idea, a browser, some Red Bull, and a few Hot Pockets. Because every developer around the world can access the same powerful cloud infrastructures, Web 3.0 is a force for global economic empowerment. ....... the move from mainframes to client server was painful for IBM and DEC and created massive wealth for a broad generation of new companies like Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP. Web 3.0 threatens Microsoft’s .net, BEA, and WebSphere. And while I expect companies such as Amazon.com, Facebook, Google, and salesforce.com to do well, I think that even more wealth and further innovation will be created by a new, more broadly distributed class of companies and entrepreneurs that leverage the power of Web 3.0. ...... the stuff of revolution.
Web 2.0 is so over. Welcome to Web 3.0 - Jan. 8, 2009 Twitter has no business model. .... Almost no new game-changing companies have emerged since Twitter burst on the scene in 2007 ....... Yahoo's news site, for example, can charge more than 30 times as much as Facebook for a banner ad. ....... Accel just announced two new funds, totaling a billion dollars, dedicated to investing in early-stage social-media companies. ..... New companies are cropping up to expand the utility of the web, creating location-based services and financial payment systems that can be bolted onto existing sites. Often bootstrapped, they are frequently profitable and may get acquired quickly. Even in today's tough environment, these upstarts are the ones raising money and trying to score a life- or business-altering hit. Welcome to Web 3.0.
Web 3.0 - Features by PC Magazine
Web 3.0, the “official” definition. « The Jason Calacanis Weblog Web 2.0 services like digg and YouTube evolve into Web 3.0 services with an additional layer of individual excellence and focus. ...... Wikipedia, considered a Web 1.5 service, is experiencing the start of the Web 3.0 movement by locking pages down as they reach completion, and (at least in their German version) requiring edits to flow through trusted experts.
Web 3.0 | Facebook
» What to expect from Web 3.0 | Software as Services | ZDNet.com version 2.0 of any product tends to be a shortlived staging post on the way to 3.0, which is where it finally hits the mark. Windows was a classic example. 1.0 was so buggy it was hardly worth using. 2.0 fixed some serious problems but still had a lot of shortcomings. 3.0, launched in May 1990, was an instant success ...... After all, everyone will want to know what role Microsoft might play in Web 3.0.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Enter The Titans: AMD Smacked By Intel

Intel did not see AMD coming, Intel got hit last year. The pendulum has swung. AMD did not see Intel coming in the second round, which is now. This clash of the titans has generated quite some flurry, and is a harbinger of things to come in the larger industry: prices on chips are going down. The consumer wins. The market corrects itself. AMD swung into action. Cost cutting is on the block. The market rewarded AMD for it. Its stock price actually went up on the bad news of lower than projected revenue.

This is the market in action. It is dazzling to watch.

A big company can stay crisp, like Intel has in this case. The small company can be agile, nimble, reflexive, smart, but it serves to be wise. Be ready for the big leagues if you decide to hit. Prepare. Plan. Take the plunge.

This is warfare. This is an ecosystem. Some animals are food.

AMD's cost cutting is not to be in its innovation efforts, so I am sure there will be another round. AMD will swing back perhaps.

If prices on chips go down, you are looking at cheaper PCs. Cheap PCs are a good to great idea.

A Web 3.0 Manifesto
The Next Search Engine

Dell, HP, Apple
Michael Dell
PC

In The News

Intel Introduces New Quad-Core Xeons CIO Today the L5320 and L5310 require as much as 60 percent less power than the company's existing 80-watt and 120-watt quad-core server products. ...... The L5320, at 1.86 GHz, and the L5310, at 1.60 GHz, both feature 8 MB of Level 2 cache and can run over a 1,066-MHz front side bus. ..... greater performance and a "dramatic reduction in power consumption" ...... "power and heat becomes a real infrastructure problem -- not just a problem for the I.T. guys, but for the building managers." ..... the lower-powered Xeons are expected to be available worldwide in new servers from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, Verari, Samsung, Wipro, Acer, HCL, Digital Henge, and IBM, as well as the announced servers from Rackable Systems.
IDC Report: Virtualization Cannibalizes Server Sales IDC predicted that server and component vendors will rally around quad-core technology, then move ahead to octi-core chips.
Blu-ray Promoter Foresees Victory in DVD Format Battle "Within three years it will just be Blu-ray." ... Blu-ray's will completely replace the widely popular current DVD standard by 2010. .... the videotape battle between VHS and Betamax. Sony lost that battle, but is having much greater success with Blu-ray. ..... In mid-February, when the Oscar-winning film "The Departed" was released in both formats, the Blu-ray version sold 20,000 copies to the HD DVD's 13,000.
AMD forced into cutbacks as it falls prey to Intel's cheaper chips Independent
AMD lowers revenue outlook CNNMoney.com
AMD cuts forecast; to slash costs MarketWatch
AMD plans overhaul after disappointing first quarter performance Canada.com, Canada
AMD pays the price for awakening Intel Goliath EETimes.com Advanced Micro Devices is paying the price of moving from the sidelines to front and center on Intel's radar. ..... a two-pronged attack by Intel, including strong products and price cuts ...... lower average selling prices and unit sales ..... no mention of a reduction in research and development ...... Through most of last year, AMD grabbed market share from Intel by selling a higher-performing server chip that took the larger rival off guard. Drawn by its better price-performance ratio, companies couldn't get enough of the Opteron, which was key to AMD soaring to eighth place in the microprocessor market last year from 15th in 2005 ......... "Intel was ignoring AMD for a long time, and they paid the price" ....... Intel came back strong, cutting prices and closing the performance gap with Core 2 Duo chips for desktops and notebooks, and its Xeon 5100 series for servers. ...... should lead to lower prices for servers and PCs. .....AMD has outsourced more manufacturing from Chartered Semiconductors ......... Microsoft's new Windows operating system isn't expected to significantly boost PC sales ...... AMD's plan to integrate graphics and core processors in one chip is expected to simplify notebook motherboards, which should lower the price of the hardware ...... scheduled to ship in 2009 ..... "They were caught a little bit off guard by Intel. I don't think AMD expected them to be as effective as they are." ...... AMD no longer has a technical advantage. ..... "They have to prove that they can take Intel head on, while Intel is looking at them."
AMD Restructuring After 1Q Revenue Miss Houston Chronicle, TX
Advanced Micro's Sales Fall 8%, Less Than Anticipated (Update5) Bloomberg
AMD's Perfect Storm Spooner The first quarter of 2006 represents the high water mark for AMD and ATI’s combined revenue for the last eight quarters ..... Intel is on the upswing with an improved product line that has increased its ability to compete and win business from AMD. ...... AMD’s purchase of ATI has created some uncertainty around its graphics processors and chipsets product line. ..... an overall slowdown in brand-name desktop PC sales ...... competition between Intel and AMD will remain intense throughout 2007. ...... its ability to begin an on-time transition to 45-nanometer production. ..... any delay in its transition to 45nm, which is scheduled to begin at mid-2008, will hurt AMD’s long-term capability to compete with Intel.
AMD Gives Us A Tech Reality Check GigaOm The demand for devices – from PCs to wireless phones to everything is heading south - fast. ..... the demand has been lagging in most high-end volume markets - PC’s, wireless handsets and most categories of consumer electronics. .... The good news is that this is market self correcting itself, and instead of a Bust 2.0, we might have a slow correction in the technology ecosystem.
AMD's Pain, Investors' Gain BusinessWeek Chalk investors' positive reaction up to aggressive cost cutting. .... curtailing its spending to weather a fierce onslaught from giant Intel ..... With less money coming into the company, AMD said it will revise its business model. ..... AMD's stock price has plummeted by about 60% during the past year, a $9 billion drop in market value that has underscored concerns about the company's ability to withstand the pricing pressure from the much-larger Intel. ........ Blogger Om Malik called the AMD announcement a "tech reality check"

AMD sees revenue coming up short, plans overhaul Globe and Mail, Canada AMD's shares gained 3.5 per cent to $13.30 in early trading while larger rival Intel Corp. rose 1.6 per cent to $19.89. .... a bruising price war with Intel that has eroded profits for both companies
AMD to miss market expectations Toronto Star, Canada
AMD will restructure business after earnings drop Computerworld, MA
AMD Sales Battered By Intel Red Herring, CA Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s second-largest maker of personal computer processors, said revenue declined 8 percent in the first quarter amid a pricing battle with larger rival Intel. .... The drop in revenue wasn’t as big as some investors anticipated, sending the shares higher. .... Intel has superior products and it is pricing them “aggressively,” putting pressure on Advanced Micro’s sales and profitability
AMD sees revenue below view, plans overhaul Canada.com, Canada
AMD sees revenue below Wall Street view CNET News.com, CA plans to reduce 2007 capital expenditures by about $500 million, cut discretionary expenses and limit hiring to critical positions.
AMD sees revenue below view, plans overhaul Washington Post, DC evidence that a price war between AMD and Intel is continuing ..... "We expect to see evidence of a decline in prices across the board, and that's likely to hurt both AMD and Intel." ..... hopes that AMD's moves would help reduce excess capacity in the industry .... the second quarter in a row that AMD has shown signs of trouble in the price war that has eroded profits for it and Intel in the $30 billion processor industry.
AMD, Intel shares rise Reuters.uk, UK

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Scott 2.0, MeetUp.com 2.0

Social Networking: Where The Internet Comes Down From The Clouds

When I moved to NYC summer of 2005, one of the people I got to know was Scott. "Man, meeting you is like meeting a movie star!" I was a Deaniac from 2004, and MeetUp.com was all the rage. We clicked just like that, became friends. He invited me over to come see him at his office. I complimented on the color red. My cultural background is primary colors and loud voices. Americans wear drab and talk soft.

I came to NYC to cultivate my business idea but got sucked into the democracy movement in Nepal, best work I ever did. I mean, when your house is on fire, you don't go cultivate a business. But as of past week, I am back. And the place I started was at MeetUp.com. The first event listed was one I had started: NYC Aspiring Entrepreneurs. Someone Jessica was running it now. She turned out to be Jessica Mah, 16. I visited her blog when I went back home. She was complaining how she thought she ought to be made Organizer of the Month but her being 16 was being used against her.

When I met Scott today, I put in word for her. He wrote her name down. And he gets to read this blog entry also. She runs a terrific large group. And she is a Scott in the making herself. I think you are going to hear more of her. She is an entrepreneur. She has it. She dreams of creating "the eBay of services." Way to go.

At Jessica's MeetUp I met Ed, a veteran who has worked for companies like IBM, real tall guy, West Indies background, that accent. He might help me find investors, he said.

And Scott's NY Tech Meetup. This thing has gone so big. Watching the presentations felt like being in a movie theater. It was like having a front seat into the future of the web. The internet started out as a poster. Then it became a little more interactive. Today's slew of presentations blew me away. The interactions are going to a whole new level. Graphic, intuitive stuff are coming along.

Video Of The MeetUp Tonight
This event was covered on CNNMoney.com
Video Of The Event

The first guy allowed you to insert comments into a video clip. One guy Mark, who sat next to me at the exclusive dinner after the event at a Tibetan place (Momo anyone? I am addicted to momo from my days in Kathmandu, I had two servings), allowed you to connect the dots and make pictures, that which you did as a kid on paper. Mind blowing. And he is just doing it on the side, no business plan yet, he talked like he just had to get it out of his system. Another was offering vertical silos of high quality videos. You just can't get that on YouTube. Say you are into snowboarding, you perhaps want many clips of a particular move, high quality ones.

There is never going to be enough of two things on the web: content and search. The possibilities are as limitless as the human mind.

I wish there were a place at the Tech MeetUp page where you could find the links to all the websites that get presented. Mark, add your link in the comments section please. I did not have a pen on me.

http://www.diversionmedia.com
http://www.associatedcontent.com
http://www.daylife.com

The most mindblowing presentation was DayLife. It was out of this world. I got a glimpse of search the way it should be. The human mind does not think in terms of lists of links. It thinks the way of the DayLife presentation.

CEO Upendra. He was at the dinner. MIT guy. Came out of school in 1994. Sold his Firefly to Microsoft. Microsoft Passport is his thing. So Bill Gates bought Hotmail from Sabeer Bhatia and Passport from Upendra, what does he offer of his own? How smart is Bill Gates really? Powerful, yes, but smart? Maybe he started out smart, and just got powerful.

His namesake - Upendra Mahato in Moscow - is the richest Nepali on earth. Mahato just invested into my startup yesterday, a symbolic gesture. I have been flying high since. I emailed a pitch also to this local, Indian Upendra after I got back home. He speaks in the measured tones of someone who grew up in America, as he did.

Vineet Gupta also at DayLife. He is a UP guy. That state in India is like a galaxy. It is such a huge population and the politics is so rumbunctious.

Tips for Scott. MeetUp.com still has this huge edge on social networking sites that exist only online. Noone emphasizes facetime like MeetUp.com. But add more features in the "add friends" section so exchanging business cards becomes a thing of the past. I guess you "steal" more and more select features from places like MySpace and Facebook. Sorry if I sounded fuzzy. In short, MeetUp.com should compete on both facetime and screentime, and not just on facetime, which it already has an edge on.

Got to meet Scott's girlfriend Emily who works at the UN. Small world, go figure. Emily and I figured we both know someone in common, Julie! Julie has made documentaries on Nepal.

And there was this 13 year old daughter of an Assistant Organizer. She is the one who I gave my $5 for the event to. She was at the gate collecting. I kept reminding her about that - the money part - at dinner. "You are the one who took away my money!"

About 500 people at the MeetUp, 10 at the dinner afterwards. Thanks Scott for inviting.

And I am slated to go to this MeetUp Thursday morning: The New York Open Coffee Meetup. Others go to work, I go to a MeetUp. I am hungry for investors right now. Nicholas was the first to sign. I was number two. He just launched this MeetUp.

Parting ways for the evening, I exclaimed to Upendra, "I don't have the slightest clue where I am at right now!" He gave me gentle directions to the Union Square station.

In The News

How to Leave Past Relationships in the Past

Associated Content
Mexico City explores wireless Internet 2:29AM EST BusinessWeek

Visitors

43.	31 March	09:08	Microsoft Corporation, United States
44.	31 March	09:09	Microsoft Corporation, United States

1 April