Google's Shot Across the Bow

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It’s been a while since there’s been a major power play by someone in Silicon Valley.  A big “take over the world” type of action.  I think Google’s latest Chrome is that – reminiscent of the old days of Netscape, Sun and others who were all trying to take over the world.  

Fred Wilson does a good job of describing how their 3 latest projects: Chrome, Android, and Cloud/Gears are positioning them to be the OS of the future.  Saying: 

 

 

  1. They are building a modern browser, Chrome, that resembles an operating system as much as a browser.  It’s not that Google wants to build a better version of Internet Explorer or Firefox. They want to build a better environment for running web apps.
  2. They are building a mobile operating system, Android, that is also designed for running web apps in a mobile environment. I think in time, Google’s Android will be to the iPhone what Windows was to the Mac. The iPhone laid out many of the killer mobile device innovations, but its a closed device, a closed carrier relationship, and even a closed application store. Android will take all of those good ideas and put them on every device, with every carrier, and in partnership with every app developer. 
  3. Google is all about the cloud. They have developed all of their apps in what goes for the cloud these days. They’ve build a great cloud computing platform in App Engine. 
These three things ensure that Google will be a major player.  With other launches of OpenSocial and such don’t display the raw power of Google but here it is.  I love it and believe they will be the biggest and most powerful company standing – over facebook, Microsoft and others – when the dust settles. 

Welcome to the Jungle….

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As Axl Rose purportedly makes final preparations to put out Chinese Democracy any minute now (we hope!), Stephen Davis, the rock biographer behind 1985’s classic Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga, is releasing his long-awaited Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N’ Roses. In it, Davis traces GN’R’s illustrious history all the way back to Rose’s origins as a disaffected Indiana kid named Bill Bailey. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s introduction:

Some think the legend of Guns N’ Roses began in the nighttime Los Angeles of 1985, a distant echo of West Hollywood’s neon-lit Sunset Strip. Others think it should begin ten years earlier, at the confluence of two Indiana rivers, the Wabash and the Tippecanoe, in the 1970s. But in this telling, the GN’R saga begins in gritty New York, in upper Manhattan, on a sweltering, run-down street in the late afternoon of a summer day in 1980

Continue reading “Welcome to the Jungle….” →

World Peace? We're Closer than we think

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During my trip to Maui, i brought along the book “The Post-American World” by Fareed Zakaria. It’s a good read (not done yet). One part i really liked at the begging was when he was talking about how war and organized violence have declined substantially over the past 60 years – and dramatically over the last two decades. This was news to me. He writes:
The general magnitude of global warfare has decreased by over 60% [since the mid-1980’s], falling by the end of 2004 to its lowest level since the late 1950’s. Violence increased steadily throughout the Cold War – increasing sixfold between the 1950’s and early 1990’s – but the trend peaked just before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the extent of warfare among and within states lessened by nearly half in the first decade after the Cold War.
To that Harvard’s professor Steven Pinker argues, “That today we are probably living int he most peaceful time in our species’ existence.”
This seems so contrary to what i feel everyday due to the constant news of terrorism, bombings, airline accidents, etc. Zakaria addresses this saying:
One reason for the mismatch between reality and our sense of it might be that, over these same decades, we have experienced a revolution in information technology that now brings us news from around the world instantly, vividly, and continuiously…. Every weather disturbance is “the story of the century”. Every bomb that explodes is BREAKING NEWS. It is difficult to put this all in context because the information revolution is so new. We didn’t get daily footage on the ~2 million who died in the killing fields of Cambodia in the 1970’s or the million who perished in teh sands of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1908’s
But now the deaths of ten, because they are seen up close, make the world seem more and more dangerous. When, in fact, the opposite is true.

Swimming Destiny

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The relay was incredible and it happened again – another nail-biting, miraculous finish.  This time by Phelps.  This race i just watched of the 100 was incredible (here).  It almost seems as if it’s just Phelps’ destiny to win every gold.  Everything is bouncing his way right now.

I do wonder how he would a view a silver medal – he’d probably be so upset.

Check out this finish:

With zero room to spare Phelps manages to touch first
With zero room to spare Phelps manages to touch first
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The Isolation of Marriage?

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I read a good article in the NY Time this week called Too Close for Comfort, and got to thinking more about how society treats marriage these days.

The article begins with stats from latest census bureau surveys which show that married-couple households are now a minority. The typical reaction to this was: What is happening to our relationships? This is a bad thing! But the article goes in the other direction, asking instead “is this really such a bad trend?” ….

It has only been in the last century that Americans have put all their emotional eggs in the basket of coupled love. Because of this change, many of us have found joys in marriage our great-great-grandparents never did. But we have also neglected our other relationships, placing too many burdens on a fragile institution and making social life poorer in the process.

There are some interesting facts pulled out of the study:

  • From 1985 to 2004 Americans reported a marked decline in the number of people with whom they discussed meaningful matters
  • People reported fewer close relationships with co-workers, extended family members, neighbors and friends (only close relationship where more people said they discussed important matters in 2004 than in 1985 was marriage)
  • The number of people who depended totally on a spouse for important conversations almost doubled, to 9.4 percent from 5 percent. Not surprisingly, the number of people saying they didn’t have anyone in whom they confided nearly tripled.

What is going on with the world? Apparently marriage is the only place where people can have close relationships. What a screw for the rest of us non-married folks. When discussing this with Toby, he raised a good point in that this is due to the lack of community. We no longer are in constant contact with others so it’s no wonder we don’t have strong connections with them. Without building these connections between brothers, sisters, parents and friends people are lost without good friends and confidants.

There’s one good place where we have strong community, where we are constantly surrounded by friends and live with them day to day. It’s called College and it’s no wonder that people look back on it as the best times of their lives.

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Top 20 Albums of All Time

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No, i’m not expressing my opinion but rather i want to post a clever algorithm done by Robert The Radish on Y! blog. Robert comes up with a mathematical way to determine the top albums of all time. The list is based on the American market and “Greatest Hits” albums and live albums were not eligible. Here’s how he did it:

“Album Staying Power Value + Sales Value + Critical Rating Value + Grammy Award Value”

  • Sales Value = Sales Multiplier * Staying Power Value
  • Staying Power Value (SPV) is: used CD sales data: In the secondary market you can expect to pay around $9.50 for a copy of Rumours (19 mm sold) by Fleetwood Mac, but you would only pay $1.38 for a copy of Cracked Rear View by Hootie (16 mm sold)
  • Critical acclaim: multiple reviews for each album from a diverse cross section of music magazines, newspapers and music review websites to come up with the average review number. Ratings Value = Sales Value * Rating Multiplier
  • Grammy Award Value and it simply looks at how many Grammy Awards each album has won. This is the least important of the components in our formula

So here’s the list of top 20 albums:

#20. Faith – George Michael
Year: 1987 Units Sold: 10 Million
SPV: $9.19 Rating (Stars): 4 Grammys Won: 1
Calculated value per unit based on the formula: $9.79

#19. Appetite For Destruction – Guns N’ Roses
Year: 1987 Units Sold: 15 Million
SPV: $8.81 Rating (Stars): 4 Grammys Won: 0
Calculated value per unit based on the formula: $9.81
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Men's Relay – Watch It

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The best Olympic event i’ve ever seen. If you haven’t seen it, click here or below to check it out

Some Quotes

From Lezac:

“I don’t know how I was able to take it back that fast because I’ve never been able to come anywhere near that for the last 50,” he said. “I can’t even explain it. It was unreal.

From German Coach:

“The whole thing was remarkable,” said Orjan Madsen, the German head coach. “It was one of those moments where you just sit back and say, ‘Jesus Christ.’ If I wouldn’t have seen [Lezak overtaking Bernard] with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

American Coach:

“There’s never been [an anchor swim like that] in my memory,” American head coach Eddie Reese said. “Not running down somebody who holds the world record, who’s on their game. That was incredible. … It has to be in the unbelievable category. That’s the biggest word I know.”

From Lezac:

“It’s happened to me all my career that people would get on my lane line and suck off me,” Lezak said, “so I figured this was one opportunity in all my career to do that. … I’m not going to lie. When I flipped at the 50, it really crossed my mind for a split second that there was no way. Then I changed. And I said, ‘You know what, that’s ridiculous at the Olympics. I’m here for the United States of America. I don’t care how bad it hurts or whatever.’ … Honestly in five seconds I was thinking all these things. I got like a supercharge and took it from there.”

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VC Economics

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This is an article/blog post by Fred Wilson who, in my mind, is one of the best VC’s out there. He’s invested in Feedburner, Tacoda, Twitter and others and i’ve found that his opinions are usually on the money.

He wrote a good post today about how his firm manages their funds and in that he shows the assumptions they have for size of investments, length, carry, etc.. During my pitching process, I found that almost all VC’s operate somewhat like this – with bigger funds having bigger investment sizes. This is great information and would have been helpful a few years ago as knowing how you fit into a VC firm’s plans helps you figure out on how best to pitch to them.

Anyway, i was amazed he’d share this info on a blog and thought it was interesting. Post is here: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/08/venture-fund–1.html

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Tropic Thunder is a Three Amigos Remake?

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The first time i heard about the upcoming movie Tropic Thunder i immediately thought it was a Three Amigos’s remake.  I mean, a group of actors going on what they believe is a shoot only it isn’t a shoot, it’s actually real.  It’s the exact same.  Anyone else with me?

Iron Man's Not So Happy Ending

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(if you haven’t seen the film, this could ruin it for you)

I saw Iron Man again last night and came away with some new thoughts:

The ending SUCKS. Ok, maybe “sucks” is a bit strong, but it is not up to the standard of the rest of the movie. Let’s look at it: Here’s a movie where the main character is one of the smartest people on the planet (or ever) and is so smart that he’s been able to develop a suit based on an energy source that nobody else can get working – not even the best scientists. So now there’s another bad-version of Iron Man in a bigger suit who apparently can do all the same things that the good one can. How does this epic battle end up? How does this super-genius who throughout the movie was able to be clever and outsmart the villian? It ends with two Iron Men who can’t get hurt punching each other in the face and slamming each other into walls. Sometimes this apparently hurts. Other times, they get right up. Nobody knows why. Then to kill the bad guy, Iron Man tells Pepper to blow up the building and just hope he survives. Now that’s a good idea.

Some movies are great because of their endings:

  • The Sting
  • The Sixth Sense
  • The Usual Suspects
  • Rocky

Some movies are great through and through and have endings that match their great stories:

  • The Shawshank Redemption
  • Se7en
  • Hoosiers

For a movie that is good throughout, the ending is not up to snuff for the rest of the film.

Also, i have issues with the bad Iron Man. For instance, how does bad Iron Man survive the icing? One minute he’s falling to the earth covered in ice, the next he’s recovered. How can the bad Iron Man move so well? He’s not in a suit like Robert DJ but rather he’s sitting in a seat with levers. I don’t think you could conduct hand to hand combat easily in that. Also, much of the movie showed Robert DJ practicing how to fly and move and tinkering the suit. Jeff Bridges did zero of that. He just plugged the arc reactor in and knew how to do everything immediately.

All in all, the ending let down the rest of the movie for me. It was all so buttoned-up with the exception of that duel. I’ve heard people say that Iron Man is a great movie. Not in my book.

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