March 2012
Foursquare Ditches Google Maps For OpenStreetMaps →
parislemon:
This is interesting because maps are obviously a vital part of location-based services. And while a few have picked Bing Maps over Google Maps, I can’t recall any service as big as Foursquare, which was using Google for so long, ditching them in favor of the open alternative (as they note, several smaller startups have, often due to cost — which was also why Foursquare started...
February 2012
“[JFK], who was soon to become the nation’s first Catholic president, was saying...”
– Santorum vs. JFK | Politics Blog | an SFGate.com blog
“The answer to the contraband stuff is flooding the market with authorized...”
– Bill Patry
Copyright Sage Bill Patry On What Content Owners Should Do Now | paidContent
(via fred-wilson)
“Right this very second, here in the US, we are having an actual, serious, if...”
– Charlie’s Dad fam (Photo credit: Lil-mamma)
Life With and Without Animated Ducks: The Future Is Gender Distributed - Charlie’s Diary (via opit)
Most of an email I just wrote re: VC
[Excerpted to protect the relatively innocent recipient.]
No one seems to notice but I don’t mention [my VC angst] any longer. The market has corrected — at least in the US. The tremendous growth in true early-stage investors have largely addressed my issues. There are still a couple of bad actors/dinosaurs, but that’s true in any industry.
It’s gotten to the point where...
“As with other church-state disputes, the starting point is the text of the First...”
– Back to First Principles on Religious Freedom - NYTimes.com
Rafer sez: I keep coming back to a great, if uselessly academic, argument that I was exposed to a couple of years ago. I ought to have carefully documented the source but did not.
With the freedoms of speech, assembly, and press...
“The Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS...”
– FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling - Digits - WSJ
Rafer sez: @aweissman you were supposed to tell me when you where out here next! #fuckyeahandyweissman
The importance of the iPod Touch (and where is the...
When I look at the stats of some the most popular iOS apps in our portfolio I’m amazed at the importance of the iPod Touch.
The Touch has come a long way since it was first introduced. It’s slimmer, has a camera and battery life is great.
The drawback of course is that it relies on WiFi for connectivity. There ain’t no cellular option on the Touch like the iPad 3G.
But the Touch has put most...
“I wrote the headline in reference to the tone of the column and not to Jeremy...”
– Anthony Federico (via mattlehrer)
Rafer sez: Whoever gives this guy a decent job next is going to have a crazily loyal out-performer.
“Three big gaming companies have turned off Oracle RightNow, the customer service...”
– Marc Benioff Is Thinking Bigger - Forbes
“Numerous factors underlie China’s mounting labor woes. Until now the country has...”
– Chinese Labor, Cheap No More - NYTimes.com
“Today’s sysadmin todo list:
0. Get corporate membership with EFF.
1. Identify...”
– foxylad on hacker news
Today’s sysadmin todo list:0. Get corporate membership with EFF.1. Identify all … | Hacker News
(via fred-wilson)
“We made a solemn vow not to take any job outside of show business. We
borrowed...”
– Brian Brushwood - Bizarre Magic: America’s #1 College Magic Show - News - 14 years ago: the day Teller gave me the secret to my career in magic.
280.vc: Build an Autobahn from SF to LA, Not... →
parislemon:
280vc:
Don’t build high-speed rail from SF to LA - create an American Autobahn instead.
Here’s how it could work:
Build another three lanes of the I-5 from LA to Sacramento, completely separated from the current lanes but within the existing right-of-way. No need for tunnels or extensive bridges to…
Love this thought by Rob Coneybeer. Given that it looks like a high speed train...
Delivr: Delivr Appoints Ed Simnett CEO →
delivr:
Start-Up Experienced Nokia Executive Hired to Scale Business and Build Out Delivr Ecosystem NEW YORK, NY—(Marketwire - Feb 14, 2012) - Delivr, a leading real-world analytics and QR code company, today announced the appointment of Ed Simnett as CEO. Ed will be responsible for scaling the…
“Reiser, having just turned 25 and still doing stand-up, was living in a dead-end...”
– How Barry Levinson’s Diner Changed Cinema, 30 Years Later | Hollywood | Vanity Fair
“Photo-driven pedestrian navigation as a means of promoting landmark discovery...”
– Lumatic mobile map app has pedestrian navigation in mindAppisaurus – Mobile Application Developers
“When our parents sent a letter in the mail, nobody was allowed to open it to...”
– I Don’t Care About The Entertainment Industry’s Profits, And It Enrages Me That You Think I Should - Falkvinge on Infopolicy
“Our present financial ethos no longer even resembles conventional capitalism,...”
– BBC News - Viewpoint: V for Vendetta and the rise of Anonymous
“Google’s Influence Is Slipping, But At A Glacial Pace… – When we looked at the...”
– Citi’s Annual ‘Net Influence Report: Google Continues To Lead As Source Of Traffic To Websites -
[excerpted from an email]
Perpetual War - Digital Pirates and Creators -... →
Rafer sez: They had to stick this on the editorial page as this esteemed member of the NYT editorial board (link to his bio if you think that much of him, geniuses) replaces fact with conjecture and damning with faint praise slightly more than once a paragraph. An appalling waste of space.
“Samsung now sells about half of all “official” Android phones, and...”
– Battle of the smartphones | Technology | The Guardian
Stewart Baker: The SOPA War: Why the GOP is... →
lilly:
Yep. This is a pretty big problem if the left doesn’t get it’s act together and figure out the web.
radiofreeandrew:
Democrats: The race is on. Republicans are increasingly embracing a pro-Internet, pro-innovation, pro-free-speech agenda. They are making a play for the Internet native generations. Don’t cede the future to the GOP.
“I miss the Valley’s golden age of weird moguls. I know that’s a...”
– SarahLacy.com | Welcome to a day in the life of a (Silicon) Valley girl
“The ad unites both the inventors of phone technology, such as Philippe Kahn (the...”
– Best Buy Super Bowl ad puts phone, app makers in one place | Electronista
Rafer sez: Philippe was always an awesome marketing guy. Just like Jobs invented the GUI.
“Sales > R&D. It is somewhat surprising that sales expense is greater than...”
– Why Facebook Clearly Belongs in the 10X Revenue Club « abovethecrowd.com by Bill Gurley
The comment on how Facebook’s ad business isn’t really that self serve is very interesting to me.
(via sawickipedia)
Rafer sez: @sawickipedia really? we knew this.
The 1% →
parislemon:
The good news: In the past month, the spread of Ice Cream Sandwich across Android devices has nearly doubled.
The bad news: “Nearly doubled” means going from 0.6% of devices to 1% of devices.
Three months in, 1%. That’s progress.
Rafer sez: Au contraire. As an Android developer (check it out), 1% is the good news. ICS is much flakier and buggier than Android 2.X. I want as few...
So, are you going after 'Lean Startup' now?
I gave a talk last evening at the JFDI Bootcamp in which I pushed on how people were applying the Lean Startup ethos. Because I’m a known PITA, a couple people asked me if I was attacking the ethos itself. I’m not. Blank’s work (and by extension Ries’s) are great, should be followed at the beginning of most Internet ventures, will save lots of founders years of grief, etc....
Zuckerberg's S-1 Letter →
parislemon:
The most interesting part:
By helping people form these connections, we hope to rewire the way people spread and consume information. We think the world’s information infrastructure should resemble the social graph — a network built from the bottom up or peer-to-peer, rather than the monolithic, top-down structure that has existed to date. We also believe that giving people control...