Clinton. Bocanegra. Budweiser, originally uploaded by pescatello.
Just a great picture. You wouldn’t imaging that Bill would be hanging out in the locker rooms in Brazil.
Clinton. Bocanegra. Budweiser
Author: Mike P. Lewis
Big Day for US Soccer
The score was 0-0. The ref raised the sign indicating 4 min of extra time. The US team has wasted chances all day and all tournament. They played both sloppy defense and potent attacking. But it was all over. The US had blown its chance. It was the easiest group in its history. I could hear all the naysayers talking on ESPN’s PTI and other radio shows. We just suck at soccer. You couldn’t advance ahead of Slovenia – it’s the size of New Jersey!? You couldn’t beat Algeria?. The ref system is stupid, when’s the NFL start?. Tim Howard recalls his though when the 90th minute came, saying:
I just thought the crazy thing is we could be on a plane tomorrow. It didn’t mean anything in the game, but I didn’t want to go home. I was kind of apprehensive about losing.
All the progress US Soccer had made over the past 8 to 20 years with the introduction of an MLS team, a quarterfinal finish in 2002 and the beginning of players playing successfully in Europe would all be for naught with a loss and elimination. It would be the ultimate disappointment and I could tell the American public would once again sour on the sport. I would dredding hearing Chuck Klosterman and Tony Kornheiser talk about how we suck and will forever suck at the world’s game.
But then the exact opposite happens. Three minutes from going home, we score. A fraction from elimination and we become champions setting a record for the fewest total minutes that a World Cup group winner had been leading in its first three games: a grand total of two minutes.
Not only am i happy to watch the US play this Saturday in the 2nd round but i’m happy for soccer in America. For the first time since i can remember am i hearing people talk about what an exciting and fun sport it is. People are beginning to understand why the rest of the world loves it. This game will directly lead to future successes on the pitch in future World Cups. There’s an 8 year old right now who wants to score the next huge goal in 2032 and because of today’s victory he’s much more likely to stick with soccer than go to football or basketball. I couldn’t happier about all of it. As Landon Donvan said after the game,
I used to see this game we play as just a game,” said Donovan, “and I think I’ve realized particularly during this tournament that it’s more than that. It’s an opportunity to inspire. And not only inspire other people but inspire yourself and your teammates. I think tonight is going to do a lot more for me and other people than maybe we’ll realize.
I completely agree. Congrats guys. Good luck on Saturday
Facebook’s Fundamental Problem
I read a great post that opened my eyes to something interesting going on about Facebook’s privacy issue. The issue has to do with how they position themselves in regard to being either a communications platform or a content platform – and how this impacts how they treat privacy. If you look at this chart:
You see there are two sections: Communication and Content. Both are directions that a company can focus on. What’s interesting is the relationship between virality and revenue potential. The more focused an application is on Communication, the easier and more quickly it spreads – but it can’t easily sell ads or monetize. The more Content-centric an application is, the easier it is to monetize (ads are more relevant with higher CTR) but it’s hard to get the app to spread and grow.
Facebook started, of course, as a closed network for college students where they could “connect” and communicate. As the statement above would suggest, this caused it to spread very quickly. And it did. However the site wasn’t making much money. Now, they find themselves with a slew (if you can call 500 million people that) of users and a desire to monetize. It then makes sense for it to move up the scale and become more of a content company. Thus, you see lots of Like buttons all over the place, a payment platform, and an ad platform to make this as effective as possible
The problem is with privacy. Users were led to Facebook thinking it was on the Communication side of the fence. However, it’s ambition is to be more in the middle because that is where it can both spread quickly and make money. The privacy rules of a Communication web application and Facebook now are longer in agreement . You can’t ask people to “Friend” and communicate with work people, parents, and close personal acquaintances and then also ask them to make that information public as if it is Content. That there is a fundamental problem.
Liz Wallace’s Movie Rule
There’s an interesting Rule that’s being discussed in Hollywood these days that has to do with the lack of interaction between women in film. The Rule states that woman are neglected in a film if the film doesn’t satisfy these three Rules:
- There are two women in the film
- These women have names
- These women talk to each other about something other than a man
Some of my favorite films of all time don’t satisfy this rule – such as Big Lebowski and The Dark Knight. This week John August, a screenwriter of major films (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), is saying that now that he knows about this rule, he’s going to try to bring it to every one of his subsequent films. He says in his blog post:
Looking back through my movies, I’m struck by how rarely the female characters actually do talk to each other. In Big Fish, it’s only a brief moment with Sandra and Josephine. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it’s a throwaway moment between Violet and Veruca. Titan A.E. fails the test unless you know that the alien Stith is technically female.
In each of these cases, I had to spend a few minutes just to come up with these (admittedly slight) examples.
Also, I find it fascinating that the Reverse Bechdel Test is almost meaningless. Pretty much every movie made includes two named male characters talking about something other than a woman.
Here’s the original comic strip that invented the rule:
And if you want to see how many films apply, check out this video:
Interesting….
Two Ridiculous Movies
One week, 2 crazy movies. Let me go into depth here….
Last week i saw the movie Crank 2: High Voltage. This movie is totally insane. To illustrate how out there the film is, i’d like to repost comedian Aziz Ansari’s tweets he had while watching the movie where he reports on what’s actually happening on screen:
A dog just bit a cops duck off!
“FULL BODY TOURETTES!”
Chev is having sex on a horse racing track!!!!! (this scene lasted 10x longer than I thought it could!)
Horse race sex scene is easily one of the most dumb/ridiculous things ever in a film. Can’t believe it. Crank 1 is dead to me.
Surely everyone has mentioned this, but Chev Chelios just killed an Asian dude and said “Chicken… and Broccoli.” Speechless.
RT @scottaukerman Here’s a lesson, kids: Tattooing your entire face will get you exactly ONE movie role.
RT @jwoliner The last “blooper” consisted of showing how an extra had shit himself. Going out with class!
Basically, I don’t want to give the impression that its cool to text or Twitter in a theatre, BUT if there is a movie with a character named PoonDong… I think its a unique situation and we were respectful in how we did
That’s right. All of these things happened and more. For instance, there’s a Godzilla scene where Jason Statham becomes a 60 foot giant and fights in an electricity farm – for no major reason. You have Amy Smart, the guy who played “Pedro” from Napolian Dynamite, David Carradine, Corey Haim, Jason Statham, and Ron Jeremy. The horserace scene was so ridiculous that i had to buy the song that was playing during it out of respect. I could go on and on about how absurd this movie is, but i think you should do yourself a favor and get some beers and actually watch it for yourself.
But, my week doesn’t stop there. I also saw the movie Splice on Sunday. That took insanity to a whole other level.
I thought there was going to be a small alien-like thing that was just going to take out the lab and make for cool scenes similar to the movie Alien and Aliens. However, what i was NOT prepared for was the little mutant to grow up to be like a human, have a tail with a stinger, go live with the doctors in their farm, start drawing pictures, have mutant sex with the Adrian Brody, get a pet kitten, grow wings, morph into a man, get buried alive, and then rape the mom. THAT was unexpected and totally insane. If you are looking for a humongous WFT, go check out this movie.
Ok, go about your business. Just had to report on that. Nothing more to see here. Move along
Biggest Rattlesnake Ever
Whoa, i just got sent this. Apparently in south Jacksonville, near the St. Augustine outlet in the new KB Homes subdivsion they found a 15 foot Diamondback rattlesnake. That’s right, 15 foot! Apparently it’s the biggest every caught on record.
Some facts about this snake:
- One bite from a snake this large contains enough venom to kill over 40 full grown men
- The head alone is larger than the hand of a normal sized man.
- A bite from those fangs would equal being penetrated by two 1/4 inch screwdrivers.
- A snake this size could easily swallow a 2 year-old child.
- A snake this size has an approximately 5 and 1/2 foot accurate striking distance. (The distance for an average size Rattlesnake is about 2 feet)
- Judging by the size of the snake, it is estimated to weigh over 170 pounds. How much do you weigh?
Fred’s 10 Golden Web-App Rules
This past weekend i watched this video from Fred Wilson about what are the 10 Golden Principles of a Web application. Fred has been an investor for over 20 years and is on the board of some of this decade’s premier companies such as Twitter, FourSquare, Tumblr, Etsy, Delicous, and more.
The 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps from Carsonified on Vimeo.
- Speed. Fred sees speed more than a feature. Speed is the most important feature and he argues that this is more important with mainstream users an early-adopters who are more forgiving. Everyday users have no tolerance for slugish apps. I heard the same thing from Google when they presented at Techstars. They measure everything and if it’s slow, they fix it. Fred mentioned pingom as something they use to measure every portfolio company.
- Instant Utility. If a user has to spend too long to configure the service – it won’t catch on. YouTube is a great example of how it won by providing instant feedback rather than delaying the gratification.
- Voice. Consumer software is media today. Consumers approach in the same way the approach magazines, tv shows, etc.. Software has to have a personality and if it has no attitude, then it won’t catch on.
- Simplicity. Just one main feature at launch. Fred points to Delicious as a perfect example of this. Make the app super simple and then go from there. There are lots of good posts on how to focus on this.
- Programmability. Make your app accessible from other developers. This means read+write API’s and if’s not “write” it’s not an API and might as well be RSS. Allow other developers to add energy, data and richness. In Fred’s mind this is absolutely essential and he’s hesitant to invest in anything that isn’t programmable.
- Personalizable. You want make your app infused with your user’s energy.
- REST URLs. Make your app easy to navigate – give everything a URL. This also makes is discoverable from Google.
- Discoverable. There are millions of web pages and web applications. This point means SEO but it also means that your app itself should be self-promoting. This means social media and branding.
- Clean. This is UI requirement. You need to be able to come to the page and be able to immediately determine what to do and what’s going on. It has to be inviting and simple.
- Playful. An app should be fun to use and it’s use should encourage future use. Weigh Watchers is a good example as it establishes points and goals and getting the points and acheiving goals is something that should be embedded in each application
There one more interesting point he spits out at the end about the name and brand of a company. He talks about how important it is to him that the company purchases the actual name of the company. For example, Foursquare was playfoursquare.com and they insisted that they change. He also insisted that del.icio.us become delicious.com.
The 10 principles are interesting to think about and a good checklist for any startup to have. I’ve definitely been guilty of ignoring some of these in my past work. Interesting stuff
What People Will Do for Laker Tickets
I have a friend, let’s call him “HotRod” who had tickets for this Thursday’s Laker game. Unfortunately, he couldn’t go. So, he put the tickets up on Craigslist. He was expecting some nice cash offers as it’s game 5 of a big series. Here was his favorite response:
Whoa. You can guess what his response was. Of course we want to see pictures. Hotrod replied,
These are the 205 tickets. Hmmm…I’d need to see pics before deciding. I usually take cash.
to which the guy replied
i understand they’re good tix, but like i said, we’re HUGE fans
And then sent these photos
It is AMAZING what people will do for tickets these days
I’m SO ready for World Cup
Only 3 weeks away from The World Cup and the excitement inside my brain is building. If you’re not feeling it, watch the following video which is Nike’s three-minute World Cup short film which follows a match featuring the brand’s top footballers and shows how one play can lead to a future of success or failure.
The video, called “Write the Future,” premieres on TV in 32 countries during the UEFA Champions League final on Saturday, but was posted early by Nike on NikeFootball.com. The ad features Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney, Landon Donovan, Thiago Silva and Ronaldinho (even though he didn’t make Brazil’s World Cup roster), plus cameos by Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant and Homer Simpson.
Alejandro González Iñárritu directed the Nike short and cast his “Amores perros” star Gael García Bernal as Ronaldo. Incredible work overall by the swoosh.
In case that video didn’t get you excited, here’s another short little commercial:
Only 21 days till kick off!
The Daily Beast Recognizes Dartmouth as a Top Producer of Tech Talent
This month, The Daily Beast pointed out in “Tech’s 29 Most Powerful Colleges” and it had Dartmouth at the top. As The Beast says,
Our goal was to identify which colleges, compared student-for-student, have turned out the most undergraduates destined for high-tech greatness. While our results included many prestigious names, the rankings produced surprises as well. At the top of the list is a spot nearly 3,000 miles away from Silicon Valley.
That right baby! These results don’t surprise me. Making my way through the tech entrepreneurial world, I’ve encountered lots of Dartmouth alums as both entrepreneurs and VC’s. Dartmouth also has a long history in pioneering technology. Some key notes:
- In 1956, a Dartmouth math professor coined the phrase “artificial intelligence” and “AI” (link)
- In the 60’s, The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System, was the first large-scale time-sharing system to be implemented successfully – setting the stage for the large server farms we see today at large companies such as Google.
- 1964, Dartmouth created the BASIC programming language which became a extremely popular language in the 70’s and 80’s. In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed a version of BASIC as their initial plan for Microsoft and today’s MS Visual Basic is still a derivative of that initial creation.
- Since 1991, computers have been mandatory for all students and in 1988 had campus-wide email working (before AOL!)
- In 1999, Wired magazine named Dartmouth the #1 most wired College in the country and in 2001, it became the first school in the country to be completely wireless (link)
It’s clear the Dartmouth is doing something right. It’s nice to get the recognition.