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Thursday, October 21, 2010

A Facebook Browser? A Facebook Operating System?

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...Image via CrunchBase
TechCrunch: Another Chrome OS Engineer Defects To Facebook In The Build-Up To Launch: 99.99 percent of my working day is currently spent in Chrome ...... a mildly worrisome trend occurring leading up to the launch of Google’s first desktop operating system: defections. Also interesting: what does Facebook want with these guys? ..... the talent continues to pour into Facebook — and much of it from Google

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

TV's Future


Mark Suster: The Future of Television & The Digital Living Room: Video will be inextricably linked to the future of the Internet and consumption between PCs, mobile devices and TVs will merge...... with the introduction of Apple TV, Google TV, the Boxee Box & other initiatives it’s clear that this battle will heat up in 2011
First and foremost it is about bandwidth. There is need for faster broadband at cheaper prices that competition will bring. This is a public policy issue. Then it is about the shocks to the old guard industries that the new technology will bring. Old business models will get toppled. New business models will come into play. Content creation will get vastly democratized. Movie production should not be a Los Angeles or New York thing. Movies should be made where the people are, and they are everywhere.

Big Churns In The VC Industry

Vinod KhoslaImage via Wikipedia
Paul Graham: The New Funding Landscape: After barely changing at all for decades, the startup funding business is now in what could, at least by comparison, be called turmoil..... the previously sharp line between angels and VCs has become hopelessly blurred. .... Super-angels compete with both angels and VCs. .... most of the changes will be for the better.
To those who have been regular readers of the blogs of the major venture capitalists, this churn is not news. The fact that there has been some major churn has been talked about for months. But what people make of the churn, now that's a different story. The best minds have been overall positive with the developments. Looks like entrepreneurs now get to shop around more. There is much more early money available. And that money is not blind money. Early stage investors tend to be more hands on.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Fractals: Mandelbrot

Fractals And Foodspotting
FoodSpotting Is The Next FourSquare
Fractals: Apple, Windows 95, Netscape, Google, Facebook, Twitter


Change The Ratio: Fred Wilson, Rachel Sklar


Hunch
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010
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Tech, Women, Diversity

Fractals And FoodSpotting


I don't know but I am guessing there are a few different players in what I call the specific check in space, but I only know one: FoodSpotting. And if there are others, FoodSpotting sure has the best seat in the house. Checking into a book, or movie or music is not actually checking in. It is not location specific. The Like button by any other name.

Much of the special going out involves eating and drinking for many people. And each such check in place, by definition, is a business. Caching. As opposed to when someone checks into Central Park - and people do - that is hard to monetize. Street vendors: don't count on them.

Steve Jobs: Android Rant


Wow. This guy shows no signs of slowing down. This dude Steve Jobs, CEO of the past decade, dubbed the most remarkable comeback story in the history of business, Larry Ellison's best friend, is just warming up, it looks like.

"There are one or more strategic opportunities in the future," says he. You got to watch out for those. Word is already out he wants to take another crack at the netbook. He could also be thinking in terms of the natural user interface, 3D computing, and gesturing as opposed to touching. Gesturing is cleaner.

Sculley:Scum

Google Search: Skipping Social, Going To Location?



Looks like Marissa Mayer is getting busy already. The social butterfly of the Google corporate world has been setting trends for years. Now she attacks location front and center, looks like. (Marissa Mayer: Location, Local) It was not possible for the Android company to have stayed away from location for too long. (Mashable: Google Puts the Emphasis on Location in Search)

Monday, October 18, 2010

Gladiator




Net Neutrality, Clean Tech And Political Fights

Solúcar PS10 es una planta solar termoeléctric...Image via Wikipedia
Wired: What Solar Needs: Its Own Karl Rove: Eighty percent of Americans rated solar power favorably, compared to 39 percent for nuclear and 32 percent for oil. Seventy-four percent believe that solar is a “long-term solution for the country’s energy needs.” ..... 94 percent of Americans see solar as important and 80 percent want to see subsidies transferred from fossil fuel to solar...... Unfortunately, the public also said solar is too expensive, will remain an intermittent source of power, and can’t really directly compete with coal or natural gas. Only 41 percent thought solar was affordable, and only 34 percent thought it was reliable..... Seventeen percent said solar would “never” be the largest source of new electricity for whole cities. Most of those polled were largely in the dark about the subsidies provided to oil and gas. Just 19 percent correctly estimated that the fossil fuel industry gets more than $10 billion in subsidies.
Freedom is not free. The trucking industry killed trains in this country decades ago, and the country is still reeling from it. The best does not always get done because this is a democracy. The people have to actively make the choice, and if they don't actively opt for the best, they don't get the best. Because this is a democracy.

Net Neutrality Reworded

Rupert Murdoch - World Economic Forum Annual M...Image via Wikipedia
Fred Wilson: A Net Neutrality Case Study: Maybe we shouldn't call it Net Neutrality. Maybe we should call it a bill of rights for consumers on the Internet.
There are still landowners on the internet - like in the early days of America - who feel like they are the only ones who need to be able to vote. That is blasphemy. Fred Wilson is not new to the debate. But I really like his emphasis this time. Maybe net neutrality is a phrase that is not serving us too well. It makes it sound like there are two equally valid viewpoints. No, there are not. People for segregation and people against segregation were not both equally right. The internet is not a company, it is not a commercial venture. The internet is like the airwaves; it belongs to everybody.