January 2010
“Not only are users’ playlists offline until MySpace Music manages to reconstruct...”
– MySpace Replaces Embedded Imeem Playlists With Ads | Epicenter | Wired.com
“But, what can you do? Americans and Canadians are nice mainly passive-aggressive...”
– thestar.com iPhone : The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother
3 tags
“Anyone who claims that readers can’t and won’t and shouldn’t own their books are...”
– Doctorow, How to Destroy the Book | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Rafer sez: A very dramatic statement, but not one I understand or for which any proof is offered. The inability to LEGALLY loan books to friends won’t kill books or authors any more than the inability to LEGALLY create mix...
“The question we have to ask ourselves is this: If anybody treated us like...”
– A taboo question for Israelis | Columnists | Jerusalem Post
December 2009
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“Just do what makes sense and let someone else connect the dots after the fact.
...”
–
My seatmate on my flight to PHL (via chudson)
Rafer sez: But how does visiting Philly make any sense?
P.S. @chudson the Disqus on your Tumblr is f—-ed up. No can comment there.
“I suppose that’s a major theme of this decade that has just been: the failure of...”
– ck/ck: The Sound Of My Head Banging Against The Wall (via inky) (via pukomuko)
Rafer sez: It might be worse than that. Consumers made it clear that many large companies hadn’t [?ever?] sold them music, voice services, and other goods in a form that they really liked. Open-standards, always-on...
2 tags
“The combination of factors that lead to the skyrocketing success of a site like...”
– Image by James Callan via Flickr
The Challenge of Creating Successful Web Applications | factor[e] design initiative (via hiten)
8 tags
“1. Perpetually Free with a Paid Upgrade Option – Under this model, you build a...”
– Thoughts on Free Powered Business Models and Why Time Beats Features | Charles Hudson’s Weblog
Rafer sez: Content people and commerce people see freemium opportunities in entirely different ways. Both can work great, but Charles’ post made the contrasts more obvious than normal for me.
...
What’s the right amount of seed money to raise?... →
6 tags
“The word was Needham would take a chance on the callow and the cast off, as long...”
– The Man Who Wired Silicon Valley - WSJ.com [Sub. req.]
Rafer sez: The working conditions of my first job out of school. This was i-banking for me. No wonder startups look good.
George was also fond of bonus discussions. “Why is this my bonus?” some poor bastard would ask him....
8 tags
“I want our government to prevent terrorism and to make flights safer. But we are...”
– President Obama, It’s Time To Fire the TSA - Travel - Gizmodo
Rafer sez: I repeat, learn math. Please worry about the carefully designed addictive poisons in industrial “tobacco” products, not almost-exploding jockstraps.
Twilight of the Psychopaths by Dr. Kevin Barret →
ledgergermane:
poortaste:
Civilization, as we know it, is largely the creation of psychopaths. All civilizations, our own included, have been based on slavery and “warfare.” Incidentally, the latter term is a euphemism for mass murder.
The prevailing recipe for civilization is simple:
1) Use lies and brainwashing to create an army of controlled, systematic mass murderers;
2) Use that army...
Cablevision Wi-Fi Cloud Is Getting Easier, Smarter... →
A good pal of mine set up this WiFi cloud and is looking for his next challenge. Ping me if you want ‘im.
“One way that Google exploits this control is by imposing covert “penalties” that...”
– Op-Ed Contributor - Search, but You May Not Find - NYTimes.com
Rafer sez: To be clear, I believe that Google has become an illegal trust who is using their dominance in one market to illegally bundle in other services in unrelated markets.
However, within G’s search index? To the price...
“I mentioned to Gabe that the [Nook’s] LendMe feature didn’t extend...”
– Image by HUS0 via Flickr
Penny Arcade - A Selective Reading
Related articles by Zemanta
ASCAP Seeks Licensing Fees For Guitar Hero Arcade (games.slashdot.org)
“AT&T, the iPhone, and New York City’s Newly Discovered Fraud Epidemic. What Doesn’t Add Up?” and related posts...
Ezra Klein - Encouraging organ donation →
pukomuko:
abbyjean:
In January, Israel will become the first country in the world to give people who sign their organ donor cards points pushing them up the transplant list should they one day need a transplant. Points will also be given to transplant candidates whose first-degree relatives have signed their organ donor cars or whose first-degree relatives were organ donors.
In the case of...
9 tags
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
jakelodwick:
...
“1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;
2)...”
– Douglas Adams in DNA/How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet, explaining how the world works (1999). (via designtumblelog)
“We are so tied up in AppStore mania (one of the great themes of 2009) that we’ve...”
– I Am Tired Of AppStore Mania (via bijan)
6 tags
“When Jon Leibowitz was nominated in 2004 to sit on the Federal Trade Commission,...”
–
FTC chief Leibowitz now watches over firms he once lobbied for - washingtonpost.com
Rafer sez: The fantastical context setting is a perfect example of how the East Coast establishment (Wall Street and the Federal government) completely misunderstands the producers of Internet technology who drive...
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“Watts and Peretti set up a regular mass-market ad buy, running banner ads on...”
–
Is the Tipping Point Toast? — Duncan Watts — Trendsetting | Page 6 | Fast Company
Rafer sez: Watts’ findings reflect my online marketing experience, with a healthy dose of Xobni CEO Jeff Bonforte’s product marketing and MVP thinking.
The seeds of adoption are...
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Is Apple Moving iTunes to a Web Store?
johnsampson:
…
Yesterday in working with the affiliate program and links, I witnessed a significant change in Apple’s iTunes site - a move to a web based store - away from that of installed app.
…
Rafer sez: Another reason to work on ecommerce infrastructure for thousands of separate mobile softgoods sites. Apps and maybe even music metadata may be available via syndication and...
Trust Science →
“I don’t care how a lot of my peers have been doing, so I don’t keep in touch. I...”
– stfu! PINUP., Maybe I am anti-social.
Rafer sez: The pendulum will swing back away from centralization of social metadata. Pretty soon now I suspect.
2 tags
“The third big player, Google, has Latitude, but they may be too far ahead of the...”
– The Great Location Land Rush Of 2010
Rafer sez: I’ve barely ever met the guy, but I’d be surprised if Crowley went down this path — particularly in the next year when he’s still got almost perfect control of Foursquare vis-a-vis his investors.
Google seems to do better in...
9 tags
“Among the criticisms, a handful of online review sites allege that Google is...”
– Image via Wikipedia
Google’s dominance draws interest of regulators
Rafer sez: As I’ve been saying, Semantic Search Provides No Clicks. However, it never occurred to me that one-box results might qualify as bundling from the DOJ’s trust-busting perspective. That’s...
“Decided today that if I ever started a band I would call it The Torrent. Our...”
– Stryker (via nickdouglas)
stryker:
Decided today that if I ever started a band I would call it The Torrent. Our first album would be called Lossless.
Just try finding that leak, you jerks.
2 tags
“Build and invest in relationships before you need something.”
– Image via Wikipedia
(via chudson) (via hiten)
Rafer sez: As a specific example, if you are going down the VC path, ask your targets to coffee a couple months before you’d have to say, “Hi there, my name is Billy, good to meet you, gimme a couple million dollars.” That’s an...
“Netbook and tablet manufacturers are launching app stores for Android devices....”
– Android App Market Splinters - Forbes.com
Rafer sez:
How many mobile gadget e-commerce sites are too many? Thousands? I’m not intending sarcasm. Some markets just don’t naturally consolidate. Hopefully this is one of them.
Like many sectors of commerce, there’s no necessity that economies of...
“We’re an urban people. Eighty percent of us live in metro areas. I don’t buy the...”
– DAVID SIMON - Vice Magazine (via pukomuko)
Rafer sez: The rights of the few (non-metroites) need to be protected from the mob, but the Jeffersonian ideal/stereotype of the independent farmer has to go by the wayside in politics and government as it has in practice. Unless we focus on making our...
“When I meet entrepreneurs with stealth mode startups I always ask why they are...”
– Stealth mode, schmealth mode | The Equity Kicker
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“Netbook and tablet manufacturers are launching app stores for Android devices....”
– Image via Wikipedia
Android App Market Splinters - Forbes.com
Rafer sez: How many mobile gadget e-commerce sites are too many? Thousands? I’m not intending sarcasm. Some markets just don’t naturally consolidate. Hopefully this is one of them.
Like many sectors of commerce,...
1 tag
Yahoo! Will Kill MyBlogLog Next Month →
Views: Soon-to-Be Open Secret - Inside Higher Ed →
Rafer sez: I finally found a case in which I oppose affirmative action.
/via hacker news
“I argued that the future potential of the realtime web is not in the misnomer...”
– Beyond Realtime Search: The Dawning Of Ambient Streams
Rafer sez: Correct, Discovery isn’t Search.
“I argued that the future potential of the realtime web is not in the misnomer...”
– Beyond Realtime Search: The Dawning Of Ambient Streams
Rafer sez: Correct, Discovery isn’t Search.
“The only way to use wireless spectrum better is to have more equipment and more...”
– Barron’s Profile - Michael Lippert, Portfolio Manager, Baron iOpportunity Fund - Barrons.com
Rafer sez: I doubt Lippert knows he’s wrong, but the NAB and similar people do. His statement is true in an analog radio world, a world that died in favor of digital radio ~10 years ago from a...
