Kara Swisher over at All Things Digital approvingly quotes NeoAtOgilvy COO Greg Smith: “No one wants a relationship with their mustard.” But, then, why do people buy the mustard they buy? Why do people persist in buying French’s, Gulden’s and Grey Poupon? Not price: store brands are cheaper. Not quality: no more than a tiny […]
One Small Bug; Centuries of Notoriety
Everybody’s blogging about Vanity Fair’s How the Web Was Won. I found it both boring and too short. Probably because I’m old. The best quote was: I’d rather not talk about it—sorry. From Robert Tappan Morris.
Pinch Media Launches
Sometimes things just fall into place. When my friend Greg Yardley gave me a call a couple of months ago and said he had an idea for a new company, Pinch Media, it took me about thirty seconds to make the decision to invest. There’s an old venture capital saying about the things you look […]
Meet Our Self-Replicating Robot Overlords
This is clearly the coolest thing I have seen this month: RepRap. (via Overcoming Bias.)
Social Business
Jeff Dachis announced his new venture on Monday: building and consulting on social software for corporations. I worked with Jeff from the mid-90s to 2001 or so when my firm backed Razorfish as it grew from ten people in a single office to 2,000+ in multiple offices around the world. When Austin Ventures asked me […]
Why did Google Apps choose Django and not TurboGears?
Anyone? I mean, after teaching myself TurboGears. Sigh.
Kids on the Internet
This is completely off-topic, so I’ll keep it short. A friend just sent me a copy of the “Shannon” email that’s been circulating for the last many years. The email talks about the dangers of kids being online, how offering any identifying information at all can make them a target for assault or murder. My […]
I own a lot of cookbooks; A couple I even own for the recipes
The Times has an interesting internet-killed-old-media article, Internet book piracy will drive authors to stop writing. I’m almost old enough to remember when The Times was called The Daily Universal Register, so take it with a grain of salt when I say that these types of articles always strike me as intentionally hyperbolic. The death […]
Ad Spend Numbers
ReveNews links to Jack Myers’ 2006-2009 media spend estimates. Jack’s got a great breakdown of media spend by category. Nothing surprising, but it’s always nice to look at numbers. The big growers in 2009? Mobile ads (120% growth from 2008), videogame ads (60%), satellite radio ads (35%), and branded entertainment/product placement (30%) are the top […]
Handipoints Launches
Viva Chu, a colleague at my last startup, has finally launched Handipoints, his chore tracker/virtual world for kids. He also snagged a nice review in TechCrunch. Handipoints is a site where parents can create printable chore charts and setup an allowance program that is tied to teaching responsible habits. Kids earn points from doing their […]