Wednesday, October 13, 2010
The 2010s Belong To New York City
In tech, the 2010s belong to New York City, the way the late 1990s belonged to Silicon Valley. New York City has a good start. The 2010s belong to the mobile web, or at least the first half clearly does. And the mobile web - unlike the big screen web, which itself is a pretty global phenomenon - is the most global of phenomena. And New York City is the most global of cities. NYC has a geographical advantage.
Did New York City Just Buy TechCrunch? I Think We Did
Microsoft-Oracle: Unlikely Alliance Against Android
Fred Wilson: A Tale Of Two Cities
That is not me discounting nanotech. Nanotechnology swept the Nobel prizes this year. That should tell you. If you could find the right nano startups to invest in right now, you could be looking at some astronomical returns in a decade, but it is not easy to pick winners. Much activity ends up being froth.
An IP Address For Your Heart
When it comes to web technology, this coming decade I think belongs to New York City.
Image via Wikipedia
The Valley has matured. Let them build hardware and data centers. Let them do search. But then Google is a bi-coastal company. A lot of people don't realize the size of Google's presence in New York City. They have rented out an entire block. Some day I am going to go check it out.
This is not me discounting clean tech. It is my firm belief America could see a second industrial revolution based on clean tech. This is not me discounting biotech either. But then NYC could do nano, clean and bio as good as anyone else too. Thanks to the subway, we already are one of the lower carbon emission cities in the country. And we stand to benefit from Google Wind.
Offshoring The Wind Harvesting: Google Wind
A Sophisticated Like Button
ReadWriteWeb: I Like to Dislike! Facebook Introduces Comment Voting, Threads: now allows users to up- and down-vote other comments ..... comments are not only threaded, meaning each user can reply directly to another user, but more information is shown on each person, including their job and company, or network, and their comment record. The system also allows for up- and down-voting ..... Each comment begins with one point and a vote up or down raises or lowers that rating by a point. .... your comment stays at the top, so you can manage your comment and conversation ..... the move certainly encroaches on the territory of commenting systems like Disqus, Echo and Intense Debate. .... with more active posts rising to the top and negating the usual newest to oldest order. Allowing users to vote on posts and on individual comments could really alter the entire dynamic of Facebook.It was only a matter of time. I knew something like this was bound to happen. The like button was going to be more sophisticated. And it is getting there. The open graph just became more useful. Facebook comments just became more useful. Now it has become more possible to navigate updates that might collect hundreds of comments. This is called scaling.
The Facebook Blog: More Ways to Stay Secure: If you have any concerns about security of the computer you're using while accessing Facebook, we can text you a one-time password to use instead of your regular password. ..... Simply text "otp" to 32665 on your mobile phone (U.S. only), and you'll immediately receive a password that can be used only once and expires in 20 minutes. ..... the ability to sign out of Facebook remotely
Related articles
- I Like to Dislike! Facebook Introduces Comment Voting, Threads (readwriteweb.com)
- Facebook Dials Up Security with Temporary Passwords via Text (mashable.com)
- Facebook Unveils One-Time Passwords Via SMS To Thwart Keyloggers (textually.org)
- Facebook introduces one-time passwords (go.theregister.com)
- Facebook adds one-time password authentication (v3.co.uk)
- Facebook Now Texts Users Temporary One-Time Passwords [News] (makeuseof.com)
- Is Facebook's one-time password system safe? (sophos.com)
- Facebook enhances security with one-time passwords via phone (newstatesman.com)
- Facebook Notches Up Security with One-Time Passwords, Other Features (globalthoughtz.com)
- Facebook adds new security features including remote logouts, one-use mobile passwords, and more (techvibes.com)
Millions And Millions
Image via CrunchBaseSteven Carpenter
TC Teardown: 13 Ways To Get To $10 Million In Revenues (Part I)
"It can be done over and over again," Sam Walton said. He was talking about reinventing retailing, of course.
TC Teardown: 13 Ways To Get To $10 Million In Revenues (Part I)
cheap to start but expensive to achieve scaleTC Teardown: 13 Ways To Get To $10 Million In Revenues (Part II)
media, paid service, and physical commerce ..... search, gaming, social networks, and new media ..... marketplace, video, commerce, retail, subscription, music, lead generation, hardware and payments ..... Video ad rates are typically amongst the highest in online media ($15-$20 CPM) ..... audio ads are not actionable, and display ads often get ignored (music apps tend to stay open in a browser tab in the background). ..... we will see an explosion of innovative hardware companies over the next few yearsSteven Carpenter has done a good job of demystifying here, perhaps too good a job. I think the money is in the mystery. A business is much more than the sum of its parts. And there is that creative part, the human element to the sauce. Each startup really is unique, although it is perfectly plausible for a Steven Carpenter to come along and box them up into a few swift categories.
"It can be done over and over again," Sam Walton said. He was talking about reinventing retailing, of course.
Related articles
- TC Teardown: 13 Ways To Get To $10 Million In Revenues (Part II) (techcrunch.com)
- TC Teardown: 13 Ways To Get To $10 Million In Revenues (Part I) (techcrunch.com)
- Etsy, GroupOn, Zynga (technbiz.blogspot.com)
- Pandora goes after drive-time listeners (sfgate.com)
- TC Teardown: Etsy, It's Crafty (techcrunch.com)
- Ohio man convicted in deadly road-rage wreck (dispatch.com)
- ChannelAdvisor Customer eForCity Surpasses Two Million in eBay Feedback (prweb.com)
- Outdoor revenues grow by 20% (mumbrella.com.au)
- Where It All Began: Chain Retailers' First Locations (huffingtonpost.com)
- If Sam Walton Had an iPad (fool.com)
Offshoring The Wind Harvesting: Google Wind
Image via Wikipedia
Christian Science Monitor: Will Google wind power project harm wildlife? Depends on location.: The mid-Atlantic venture would position wind turbines at least 12 to 15 miles offshore, which means they would not be easily visible from land. ..... 6,000 megawatts .... equivalent to five nuclear power plants .... “It is so much better than each of the wind generators building their own transmission lines all over the seabed.”Nokia did not start out a cellphone company. Nokia as a company has gone through many incarnations, in fact so many that its founders will not be able to recognize the Nokia of today. Google might have started out as a search engine, but these forays far and wide are welcome. This not only makes corporate sense, but this is also Google being a good citizen. This is Google turning Don't Be Evil into an active verb.
Wall Street Journal: Google’s Wind Project Got Lift From Vail Ski Trip: a planned giant wind farm designed to run 350 miles along the Eastern seaboard .... laying undersea cables to connect the wind turbines to electrical grids on land ..... 1,200 to 2,000 wind turbinesGoogle Earth. Google TV. Google Car. Google Wind. I say bring it on.
Google Blog: The wind cries transmission: offers a solid financial return ..... both good business and good for the environment ..... equivalent to 60% of the wind energy that was installed in the entire country last year ..... superhighway for clean energy. .... stronger and steadier winds offshore. .... Mid-Atlantic region ..... offers more than 60,000 MW of offshore wind potential in relatively shallow waters that extend miles out to sea. .....
Related articles
- Statement by Deepwater Wind on Google's Atlantic Wind Connection Project (eon.businesswire.com)
- Google Invests in Offshore Wind Energy Network (dailyfinance.com)
- Google invests in Jersey Shore offshore energy (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
- Google Builds First US Off-Shore Superhighway for Clean Energy! (cleantechnica.com)
- Not Hot Air: Google Investing In Offshore Wind Energy (searchengineland.com)
- Google: Now We're Investing In A Huge Wind Farm Off New Jersey That Will Power 2 Million Homes (businessinsider.com)
- Major Wind Energy Backbone Transmission Project Announced by Trans-Elect; Backed by Good Energies, Google and Marubeni Corp. (eon.businesswire.com)
- By the Numbers: Google's Offshore Wind Investment (gigaom.com)
- Google and friends scheme offshore windmill army (go.theregister.com)
- Google now wants to control the wind (networkworld.com)
Marissa Mayer: Location, Local
Over the years Marissa Mayer has been more visible than Google's two founders. She is a delight. She wears the rare top female engineer hat effortlessly, cheerfully. But this move is not just about one person, however visible, or one company, however big, even as big as Google.
The coming years belong to the smartphone, and there location is the starting point of the experience. And what is location about but local bars and eateries and the like?
Bloomberg: Google Executive Marissa Mayer Takes New Role in Location, Local Services: “Marissa has made an amazing contribution on search over the last decade, and we’re excited about her input in this new area in the decade ahead,” the company said.Location is hot and heavy. Local is hot and heavy. Ends up most people don't travel. The local is important. The here and now is important. Guess what, the here and now is important also to those who do travel.
The coming years belong to the smartphone, and there location is the starting point of the experience. And what is location about but local bars and eateries and the like?
Related articles
- Google Executive Marissa Mayer Takes New Role in Location, Local Services (Brian Womack/Bloomberg) (techmeme.com)
- A New Role at Google for Marissa Mayer: Location, Local Services [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com)
- Google's Marissa Mayer to focus on location and local (venturebeat.com)
- Google's Marissa Mayer To Switch Roles Within Company (searchengineland.com)
- Google's Marissa Mayer Takes Over Location, Local Services (searchenginewatch.com)
- Google's Marissa Mayer to Take Over Geo and Local Services (fastcompany.com)
- Google taps Marissa Mayer for location, local services (intomobile.com)
- Marissa Mayer's New Job: Google's Location and Local Services (mashable.com)
- Google's Marissa Mayer To Leave Search Team, Take Over Location And Local (techcrunch.com)
- Google's New Locations Boss Is Marissa Mayer, And Boy Does She Love Foursquare (GOOG) (businessinsider.com)
Microsoft-Oracle: Unlikely Alliance Against Android
Image by Oracle_Photos_Screenshots via FlickrPutting My Money On Larry Ellison
Microsoft: Android Cry Baby
Larry Ellison never saw the free browser as a threat. The browser allowed people to access his database software directly from the web. The web interface was good. And it is not like he is about to get into the smartphone market, unless he is just trying to help out his best friend Steve Jobs, but that would be taking friendship a little too far. Maybe the smartphone is yet another way for people to access database software. I think that should be the thought.
This is partly Larry Ellison making it loud and clear that he just bought Sun and so Java is now his stuff. But there is so much suing going on, people who stay skeptical of software patents seem to be making much sense right about now. It is so easy to step on each other's feet with software.
Obviously I have not gone to the technical bottom of these legal wranglings but I think at some level it is obvious all the tall companies are not going the innovation and the market forces route. Instead they are suing each other. Maybe that is what consolidation means. But one wishes the word still were innovation.
This mess is not looking good, not good at all. The smartphone needs to explode. It should not be snuffed out. The smartphone is a paradigm shift just like the PC was a paradigm shift. The smartphone is a bigger paradigm shift than the PC was. The big players of the PC era should not think of the smartphone as an afterthought. The smartphone is about to become the center of the computing universe.
I hope all the lawsuits cancel each other out and the companies get back to work.
Google and Oracle talking would be a good idea. Let's jaw, not war.
Microsoft: Android Cry Baby
Larry Ellison never saw the free browser as a threat. The browser allowed people to access his database software directly from the web. The web interface was good. And it is not like he is about to get into the smartphone market, unless he is just trying to help out his best friend Steve Jobs, but that would be taking friendship a little too far. Maybe the smartphone is yet another way for people to access database software. I think that should be the thought.
JavaWorld: Last Google Glassfish Post: defeat Microsoft everywhere, they are reeling .....Android momentum will stall, unless Google engages with Oracle around Java, never has their interests more closely aligned, and the fight over mobile Java is a secondary still to enterprise java, for everyone other than Microsoft, so why fight among family, which is what is going on with the lawsuit around Android, but it can change, and both companies definitely need to reach out to each other, and stop giving Microsoft breathing room to stay aliveHow long before Google and Oracle can no longer stay out of each other's ways? Great Recession fueled cheap money is making it possible for a lot of the behemoths to borrow and buy, looks like.
This is partly Larry Ellison making it loud and clear that he just bought Sun and so Java is now his stuff. But there is so much suing going on, people who stay skeptical of software patents seem to be making much sense right about now. It is so easy to step on each other's feet with software.
Obviously I have not gone to the technical bottom of these legal wranglings but I think at some level it is obvious all the tall companies are not going the innovation and the market forces route. Instead they are suing each other. Maybe that is what consolidation means. But one wishes the word still were innovation.
This mess is not looking good, not good at all. The smartphone needs to explode. It should not be snuffed out. The smartphone is a paradigm shift just like the PC was a paradigm shift. The smartphone is a bigger paradigm shift than the PC was. The big players of the PC era should not think of the smartphone as an afterthought. The smartphone is about to become the center of the computing universe.
I hope all the lawsuits cancel each other out and the companies get back to work.
Google and Oracle talking would be a good idea. Let's jaw, not war.
Good Morning Silicon Valley: Will Android come out black and blue after Oracle deal with Big Blue? Plus more Oracle vs. HP: In the previous episode of the Oracle-Google fight, Google last week had asked a judge to throw out Oracle’s lawsuit, filed in August, which alleges that Android is infringing on patents related to Java. That’s not the case, Google said, as expected, and also called Oracle hypocritical. In the latest related development, Oracle and rival IBM yesterday announced that they had reached an agreement that would shift Big Blue’s Java development from the Apache Harmony platform to OpenJDK, which is Oracle’s platform. Because the Android OS is based on Java built on the Apache platform, InfoWorld says the Oracle-IBM deal could undermine Android and force Google to throw resources at Apache.
Appolicious: The smartphone wars enter the courtroom: Motorola last week shot across Apple’s bow with three patent infringement suits .... the growing patent infringement derby. ..... Motorola has accused Apple of violating 18 patents. Motorola claims that Apple has infringed on its patents with the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and some Mac computers. ..... “revenge time” for Motorola, the inventor of mobile phones, which has taken a drubbing at the hands of latecomer Apple ..... Horacio Gutiérrez, Microsoft’s chief intellectual property lawyer, as saying the spate of actions is a result of the collision of the cellphone and computing worlds. .... “Apple faces a lawsuit from Nokia over its iPhone technology and has taken legal action of its own against the Finnish cellphone maker. Apple is also part of a wider legal challenge to Google’s Android smartphone operating system, having filed a lawsuit against handset maker HTC over its use of the software. That echoes Microsoft’s action against Motorola over its use of Android software and Oracle’s action against Google over the alleged use of its Java technology in Android.” ... the thicket of lawsuits could slow the development of the smartphone business
Windows Phone 7 offers nothing wonderful to consumers: Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 should prove to be about as appealing to consumers as, say, John Deere sports cars.
New York Times: Oracle and I.B.M. Agree to Java Pact: The accord covers the Java software typically used in everything from data centers to Web programs. But it does not extend to the set of smaller Java tools used in cellphones and other mobile devices. .... Oracle’s dispute with Google casts shadows over Java’s future in general. For example, Google, Mr. Lea said, has more people working on OpenJDK projects than Oracle, and the lawsuit restricts communications between the litigating parties. .... “By far the most eyes are still on the Android issue,” Mr. Lea said. “Oracle and Google have to start communicating with each other.”
Related articles
- IBM, Oracle Java pact could impact Android (intomobile.com)
- Google Denies Infringing Oracle Patents (wired.com)
- Calling Oracle Hypocritical, Google Denies Patent Infringement (wired.com)
- Android At War: Google Mounts A Defense Against Oracle, But Can They Win? An Analysis (androidpolice.com)
- Google Just Lost a Potential Ally in its Legal Tussle with Oracle (mashable.com)
- IBM and Oracle vs. Android? Good luck with that (zdnet.com)
- Google wants Oracle Android patent lawsuit dismissed (intomobile.com)
- Oracle-IBM pact cuts Android off at the knees (Josh Fruhlinger/InfoWorld) (techmeme.com)
- Update on Android Lawsuits (techrights.org)
Smart Cars Should Talk To Each Other
Image via WikipediaRobert Scoble's Not Google Car
Self Driving Google Car
Never mind that this might materialize towards the end of the decade and not any time soon, but I had an idea. Cars that drive themselves are not good enough. They should be able to talk to each other. You should be able to set your journey and have your car talk to other cars to form trains along the highway. So if you are programming your car to take you on a 10 hour ride on the freeway, other cars also going the same length and your car should be able to form a train in the middle lane, perhaps 10 cars per train. And of course this would be an intelligent train. It would be seeing the non train cars and keeping watch on them. The train will do what it takes to avoid accidents, up to and including breaking up. And if only all those cars are 100% electric, we will have solved a major, major problem. 100% electric cars by the end of the decade is not that ambitious.
Software just got wheels. Or perhaps it is the other way round.
You know what would be even better? 100% electric bullet trains that move at perhaps 500 miles per hour. Or even 300. Trains are way more efficient than cars. If you could have such train service that connect all major cities, and have metro trains inside all cities, that still leaves room for 100% electric taxi cabs. And rental cars. And even cars. But I think the heavy lifting should be for trains.
How about people work to design smart trains? What would be your idea of a smart train?
Related articles
- Robert Scoble's Not Google Car (technbiz.blogspot.com)
- Robert Scoble: This morning I talked with Andrew Farah, chief engineer for the Chevy Volt, and we talked a lot about the reporting in the press that the Chevy Volt is actually... (scobleizer.com)
- Siemens Building 100-Unit Electric Car Fleet for Employee Use and Testing (greencarcongress.com)
- Electric cars neither as useful nor as green as their proponents claim (economist.com)
- CODA Automotive & Enterprise Rent-A-Car Help Accelerate the Adoption of All-Electric Cars With 100% Electric CODA Sedans (prnewswire.com)
- Alps Electric wants to wire up your car for interactivity (engadget.com)
- CosmicLog: ... But is it really an electric car? (cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com)
- Cure for electric car anxiety: Gas (money.cnn.com)
- Google Testing Self-Driving Cars (shoppingblog.com)
- Best Buy Joins Electric Car Infrastructure, Installs Charging Points (allcarselectric.com)
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