NotesYou see, for a long time weâve chanted this refrain wherever we could: If youâre not paying for it, youâre not the customer; youâre the product being sold. We point to Facebook and Delicious and ad-supported sites and lament the fact that weâre all just a set of eyeballs being sold to advertisers. So we came up with a solution. We decided that we donât want to be free users any more. We decided that we want to pay independent developers directly so that they can have sustainable businesses and happy lives.FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes Last fall, we moved all the editorial in our apps, including the magazine, into a simple RSS feed in a river of news. We dumped the digital replica. Now we're redesigning Technologyreview.com, which we made entirely free for use, and we'll follow the Financial Times in using HTML5, so that a reader will see Web pages optimized for any device, whether a desktop or laptop computer, a tablet, or a smart phone. Then we'll kill our apps, too. Unfurl
NotesWhen people write critically about Facebook, they often say that âyou are the product being sold,â but I think that by now we all get that. The digital substance of our friendships belongs to these companies, and they are loath to share it with others. So we build our little content farms within, friending and upthumbing, learning to accept that our new landlords are people who grew up on Power Rangers. This is, after all, the way of our new product-based civilization â in order to participate as a citizen of the social web, you must yourself manufacture content. Progress requires that forms must be filled. Thus it is a critical choice of any adult as to where they will perform their free labor. Tens of millions of people made a decision to spend their time with the simple, mobile photo-sharing application that was not Facebook because they liked its subtle interface and little filters. And so Facebook bought the thing that is hardest to fake. It bought sincerity.Unfurl
NotesThe federal government has been paying lip service to the idea that it wants to encourage new businesses and startups in the US. And this is truly important to the economy, as studies have shown that almost all of the net job growth in this country is coming from internet startups. Thankfully some politicians recognize this, but the federal government seems to be going in the other direction. With the JotForm situation unfolding, where the US government shut down an entire website with no notice or explanation, people are beginning to recognize that the US is not safe for internet startups. FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesThese projects are all very different, but the dynamic is the same. Someone builds a cool, free product, it gets popular, and that popularity attracts a buyer. The new owner shuts the product down and the founders issue a glowing press release about how excited they are about synergies going forward. They are never heard from again.
Whether or not this is done in good faith, in practice this kind of 'exit event' is a pump-and-dump scheme. The very popularity that attracts a buyer also makes the project financially unsustainable. The owners cash out, the acquirer gets some good engineers, and the users get screwed. Unfurl
NotesHe's telling you the story of, "If you bust your ass and don't sleep, you'll get rich" because the only way that people in his line of work get richer is if young, poorly-socialized, naive geniuses believe that story! Without those coat-tails to ride, VCs might have to work for a living. Once that kid burns out, they'll just slot a new one in.FeedUnfurl
NotesShould we open source Grit or keep it proprietary?
Keeping it private would provide a higher hurdle for competing Ruby-based Git hosting sites, giving us an advantage. Open sourcing it would mean thousands of people worldwide could use it to build interesting Git tools, creating an even more vibrant Git ecosystem.
After a small amount of debate we decided to open source Grit. I don't recall the specifics of the conversation but that decision nearly four years ago has led to what I think is one of our most important core values: open source (almost) everything.FeedUnfurl
NotesIf Google wants to win the hearts and minds of these developers, it has to get more systematic and clear about roadmaps, has to be more circumspect about changing things without notice, and be precise about how apps that run on Google infrastructure now will or wonât run on other infrastructure in the future. The problem is, itâs not all that clear that Google itself is serious about this market. And if it isnât, why should anyone else take the plunge?Unfurl
NotesAnd for its part, the McRib makes a mockery of this whole terribly labor-intensive system of barbecue, turning it into a capital-intensive one. The patty is assembled by machinery probably babysat by some lone sadsack, and it is shipped to distribution centers by black-beauty-addicted truckers, to be shipped again to franchises by different truckers, to be assembled at the point of sale by someone who McDonaldâs corporate hopes can soon be replaced by a robot, and paid for using some form of electronic payment that will eventually render the cashier obsolete.Unfurl
NotesIn order to determine which employees would be asked to give stock back, Pincus and his executives tried to pinpoint workers whose contributions to Zynga--in the execs' eyes--didn't necessarily justify the potential cash windfall they could receive when the company went public, the Journal claims. One Journal source said that Zynga executives were especially concerned with not creating a "Google chef" scenario.FeedUnfurl
NotesHere's a story that touches on a few different issues of importance around these parts. We'll get to the details of the legal ruling in a bit, but the background is really the key part. At the beginning of 2009, a company in Valencia, California, called L&M Optical Disc West, received an order from an authorized partner of the producers of the film Milk to manufacture the DVDs of the film. They began doing exactly that. On February 2nd, as part of a supposedly unrelated police raid, police saw those DVDs and found them "suspicious." They rang up the MPAA who sent over an "investigator," who falsely declared that the DVDs were unauthorized, leading the police to seize them (though, oddly, allowing the private investigation firm to hold them) and to declare to the press that they had found "pirated" DVDs of Milk. This happened despite multiple attempts by L&M staff to explain that they had a legitimate order, even offering to show the "investigator" the details of the order. FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes"In the summer of 1980, MIT graduates Donald Faber and Peter Haberle moved into an empty two-car garage and started work building their first ever personal home computer. Almost 30 years later, what began as a humble two-man operation has since grown into an even more humble, even more cramped computer company, based out of an even smaller single-car garage."Unfurl
Notes"Your employees will love it ... You can hire great people wherever you find them ... You will use better communication tools ... You can still be social ... Your offices will be more fun"Unfurl
Notes"37signals is now a $100 billion dollar company, according to a group of investors who have agreed to purchase 0.000000001% of the company in exchange for $1."Unfurl
Notes"John Schnatter sold the gold-and-black 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 for $2,800 in 1983. The money helped save his father's tavern in Jeffersonville, Ind., and he used the rest to start what would become a worldwide pizza business.
But he still missed his beloved Camaro and spent years searching for it. He created a website on the search, held promotional appearances and eventually offered $250,000 to whoever found it."Unfurl
Notes"When you're operating on the maker's schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting. That's no problem for someone on the manager's schedule. There's always something coming on the next hour; the only question is what. But when someone on the maker's schedule has a meeting, they have to think about it."Unfurl
Notes"However, one of the world's biggest hardware vendors - whose name every single reader will be familiar with, and whose hardware a good share of you will be using right now - apparently didn't do their homework. When Opera's sysadmin booted up the server to test its web-based administration interface, they came across a single JavaScript statement that managed to piss off everyone up to and including the CTO."Unfurl
Notes"the reality is that nowadays, one can choose between a game costing ÂŁ40 that will last weeks, or a ÂŁ10 CD with two great tracks and eight dud ones. I think a lot of people are choosing the game - and downloading the two tracks. That's real discretion in spending. It's hurting the music industry, sure. But let's not cloud the argument with false claims about downloads."Unfurl
Notes"I just nearly burst my appendix laughing at Chris Applegateâs 20 signs you donât want that social media project. I am thus inspired to write my own list of tips that, perhaps, one doesnât really want that internal social media project after all."Unfurl
Notes"In short, my view is that if GM canât figure out ways to get their managers and executives to understand the experience of owning a car for the average person, if they canât get rid of those jets, and if they canât reduce the number of brands, and if they canât make a host of other changes required to make them competitive, than my answer is âno, you canât have our money.â "Unfurl
NotesYikes. This is really making me hope that Android or Palm linux phones grow up fast. "It seems that the engineers at Opera developed a version of Opera Mini that would run on the iPhone (and the iPod touch), but this browser will never see light of day because Apple rejected it from the App Store."Unfurl
Notes"Southeast Michigan's creative business community will get a boost as a result of Governor Granholm's signature on a series of bills that would make creative businesses eligible for state MEGA tax credits."Unfurl
Notes"Even though our financials were immaculate they just didn't 'get' what a comic shop was and so they wouldn't rent to us. We tried to rent the Wizzywig location near State Street (now closed) but they told us they didn't want 'our kind of business.'"FeedUnfurl
Notes"Even though our financials were immaculate they just didn't 'get' what a comic shop was and so they wouldn't rent to us. We tried to rent the Wizzywig location near State Street (now closed) but they told us they didn't want 'our kind of business.'"FeedUnfurl
Notes"Ideas on their own are just not that important. Itâs incredibly rare that someone comes up with an idea so unique, so protectable that the success story writes itself. Most ideas are nothing without execution."Unfurl
Notes"But in general, the nerds with minimal social lives like me are well down in the Valley, and the cool kids with the trendy glasses and Prada shoes who like to go to parties are in San Francisco"Unfurl
Notes"many such accomplished and ambitious members of the digital elite still do not think of themselves as particularly fortunate, in part because they are surrounded by people with more wealth"Unfurl
Notes"Pleasant Ridge-based ePrize today launched its Caffeine Promotions Platform -- a product that allows small businesses to jump into the world of big-time Internet contest and promotions."Unfurl
Notes"no matter whether they are barbarian lords, deranged wizards, mad scientists, or alien invaders, they always seem to make the same basic mistakes every single time."Unfurl
Notes"Paul Graham has a theory. He believes that, given $10,000 and 3-6 months, two or three entrepreneurs can create a start up worth investing in, and ultimately (within a few years), worth buying for at least $1,000,000."Unfurl
Notes"In reality, a good software developer should be able to do just that â deliver a disposable, short lived product that addresses only the pressing needs of the moment, and then simply disappears."Unfurl
Notes"When the door to a new business opportunity opens, some fortunate people seem to step through it easily and pick up a new life on the other side."Unfurl
Notes"Having enough money to keep your company in business long enough to get noticed is probably the biggest factor in a successful ISV (except maybe the quality of the product, maybe)."Unfurl
Notes"Exchange is the key. It is the fundamental activity of any business, especially a micro-business where you are self-employed. Many people have it backward."Unfurl
Notes"I can easily see the day coming when a new graduate chooses a career as a salaried employee only because he or she hasn't got the necessary confidence and skill to start their own business."Unfurl
The real reason weâre upset about Sparrowâs acquisition
Facebook and Instagram: When Your Favorite App Sells Out -- Daily Intel
Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US | Techdirt
Watch a VC use my name to sell a con. | jwz
Open Source (Almost) Everything
Zynga to employees: Give back our stock or you'll be fired | The Digital Home - CNET News
MASTERMIND: Curtis Sullivan