News Archives

September 11, 2008

The big Peek review: New York Times

Well, Pogue writes about the Peek:

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/technology/personaltech/11pogue.html?8dpc

Video on CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=851472191&play=1

Even echoed on NY1 TV about 75% into the clip http://www.ny1news.com/content/features/in_the_papers/85727/in-the-papers-09-11-08/Default.aspx

By DAVID POGUE
Published: September 10, 2008

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don’t.

That old cliché is more true than ever. Red state/blue state. Pro-choice/pro-life. Mac/Windows.

And, in consumer technology: feature-listers/elegance-appreciators.

Feature-listers judge a product by one criterion: how many features it has, no matter how clunky the design. A music player with FM radio must be better than one without. A phone that downloads music is superior to one that doesn’t. More megapixels — well, you get the idea.

Elegance-appreciators, on the other hand, prefer something that does less, but does it better. Fortunately, this group has been on the rise lately. The iPod has achieved world domination despite having no built-in radio or Wi-Fi. The Flip camcorder, with only three buttons and no zoom, now commands 13 percent of the camcorder market.

Make way for another elegant one-trick pony: a pocket-size doodad called the Peek, which sends and receives e-mail. It arrives in Target stores (and getpeek.com) next week, whereupon it will follow the usual cycle of simple, elegant tech products: 1) universal scorn by feature-listers online; 2) quiet, gradual popular acceptance by normal people; 3) bafflement on the part of the feature-listers, who still don’t get that there are two kinds of people in the world.

At first, you might not see how the Peek is any different from the BlackBerry, whose design it shamelessly rips off. It’s a plastic slab (4 by 2.7 by 0.4 inches), in dark gray, aqua or dark red, with a screen and thumb keyboard on the face. On the right edge is a thumbwheel, which scrolls through lists and menus (you click inward on that wheel to select a menu command). Below the wheel is a Back/Cancel button. On top is the power button.

So far, so BlackBerry.

In its mission, however, the Peek is totally different. It has no ambitions to appeal to corporate America or to the kind of person who already carries a smartphone. Instead, it’s aimed at the world’s nontechnical population.

The entire concept is to eliminate cost and complexity by stripping away everything but e-mail. For example, since the Peek is not a phone, it can afford to shed a microphone, speaker and several buttons — not to mention a credit check, a contract and a bunch of taxes and fees.

It costs $100, and $20 a month for unlimited e-mail service that, behind the scenes, is delivered by T-Mobile’s cellular network. That’s nothing like the $60 or $70 you’d pay for a smartphone each month, but it still feels about $5 too high.

Since the Peek is not a Web browser, it sheds all the complexity of plug-ins, bookmarks, downloads and so on.

And since the Peek is not a business tool, it does without things like a calendar, alarm clock, games, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and anything else that would make it complicated. There are essentially only three screens: the list of messages, the open message itself and a Preferences page.

If you get lost on this machine, heaven help your encounters with an A.T.M.

The first time you turn on the Peek, you’re asked for your e-mail address and password. If it’s a Web-based account like Hotmail, Gmail or AOL, that’s all there is to it. The Peek automatically checks for new messages every 5 to 15 minutes, and notifies you with a little chime, a little vibrating buzz and a blinking blue light in the corner. (You can also check on demand.)

If you have a traditional e-mail account — one provided by your Internet company, for example (a so-called POP or IMAP account), the setup usually involves a call to Peek technical support; you can’t input server settings yourself. The Peek handles three e-mail accounts, max.

The color screen (240 x 320 pixels) is bright and clear, even in sunlight. The thumb keyboard feels satisfyingly clicky, and the keys are brightly illuminated. Nor will your jeans list to one side; the Peek weighs only 3.8 ounces.

Each charge of the removable battery lasts two to five days, depending on how much e-mail you get. The power cord ends in a micro U.S.B. connector, alas, you can’t recharge the Peek from a computer, as you can with a BlackBerry or an iPod. We’re not yet in the era of universal power-cord compatibility, where we won’t need a different black power brick for every single gadget.

In other words, the company saw to it that the hardware, which can’t easily be changed after the sale, was done right. But the software has room for improvement.

For example, the Peek displays no formatting whatsoever — no embedded graphics, no stationery, not even bold or italic. Paragraphs sometimes break in funny places. All file attachments except JPEG photo files are stripped away, and even those take several clicks to open.

There’s no spelling checker, no ingenious BlackBerryish shortcuts (like R for Reply, or hitting Space twice at the end of a sentence to make a period, space and a capitalized next word). You can’t even get from one open message to the next without returning to the Inbox, which gets old fast.

Those over 40 should note, too, that the standard Peek typeface appears to be 2-point Helvetica. It’s darned tiny.

You can’t create folders for filing your mail; Inbox, Saved, Drafts and Trash folders are all you get. There’s no synchronizing — if you send a reply from the Peek, you won’t find it in your Sent Mail folder on your PC — but at least downloading mail on the Peek doesn’t prevent your computer from downloading the same messages later. (There’s nothing worse than the “two-mailbox” problem, where you can’t figure out which machine contains a certain message.)

Oh, and the Peek works only in the United States at the moment.

Are you getting the idea, perhaps, that the Peek truly is an extremely simple, single-purpose machine?

Now, it’s one thing to eliminate superfluous features. But lots of these limitations would be easy to address without adding complexity or cost.

Fortunately, the company intends to address the Peek’s rough edges with free software updates; in particular, it says that it’s considering adding a larger font-size option, some navigation keystrokes, Next Message and Previous Message commands, an auto-BCC option that sends your computer a copy of each outgoing message, international roaming, compatibility with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes, and perhaps the ability to view Word and PDF attachments.

But now I’m starting to sound like a feature-lister. Truth is, the Peek, even in its current condition, elicits “oh, I want that!” from many a nontechie.

Not everyone wants or needs a smartphone; plenty of people would rather talk on a comfortably compact cellphone instead of holding what looks like a JuicyJuice box up to their heads. For them, having a sweet, thin Peek in the purse or the pocket, just for e-mail, makes a lot of sense.

All the usual benefits of carrying separate, nonconverged gadgets apply here, too: losing or breaking one doesn’t mean that you’re completely up the creek. The screen and keyboard for each device is ideal for its purpose. (Sure, many regular cellphones can download e-mail, but carrying on correspondence using a keyhole of a screen and a number keypad is an exercise in futility.)

So go ahead and scoff, feature-listers; a wonderful world waits for you at blackberry.com, iphone.com, windowsmobile.com and palm.com/treo. It shouldn’t affect you one whit that there’s now an easy, cheap way for the other kind of people to keep in e-mail contact wherever they go.

Posted by amol at September 11, 2008 12:33 AM

September 7, 2008

Contact me

Want to reach me? Use the link on the left, or use this:

Your Name :
Your Email :
Subject :
Message :
Image (case-sensitive):

Posted by amol at September 7, 2008 2:51 PM

September 6, 2008

Chetan is the next Tyson

We are all very proud of this handsome devil. I knew the look would catch someone's eye eventually.

Posted by amol at September 6, 2008 4:23 PM

September 2, 2008

Peek Peek in the news

Wired
Because the Peek is limited to a basic function, using it is a breeze. Even without operating instructions, this Cro-Magnon was able to figure out how it worked with only a minor assist from the Gadget Lab. ("Push the scroll wheel in, Tony.")

Bottom line: If you're a Luddite at heart but still have reason to fiddle with e-mail from time to time, or if you believe that simplicity in all things is the key to life, the Peek is for you. If dining a la carte at the tech buffet is not your idea of a square meal, then skip it.

And:

Fortune

Mobodojo

Posted by amol at September 2, 2008 4:40 PM

September 1, 2008

Peek in the wild

Posted by amol at September 1, 2008 11:06 PM

August 26, 2008

Digg Peek again

Peek covered by LAPTOP Magazine -- Digg it!

Posted by amol at August 26, 2008 4:14 PM

August 23, 2008

Your company's computer guy

We've been talking to an exceptional quantity of nerds lately, though they have majorly upgraded in status from the mid-1990s. Back then, they were like "Nick Burns" from the very funny SNL skits of the era (check out the latest Peek post below for some embedded videos of that -- I love the "AOL doesn't even have javascript!!" one).

Now, however, the typical "tech blog" reader has a supercool looking phone in their pocket, a slick mp3 player, a high-design laptop. Not as bad as that Windows NT database admin you used to know...but still a whiff of unpleasant snobby, you know?

A bunch of snippets from the ~100 messages we got from emails and comments this week

Hilarious SNL guy who reminds me QUITE a bit of the “average” gizmodo reader….

Posted by amol at August 23, 2008 2:12 AM

August 11, 2008

My picture 'server'

When http://home.drownout.com is down, try 71.167.7.201. If you really want...

Posted by amol at August 11, 2008 7:48 PM

August 2, 2008

Manhattan prices

A Glut of One-Bedroom Apartments - NYTimes.com

The mind boggles, but in 2007 the price for apartments in Manhattan was UP 21% and for one-bedrooms "only" 7%. While prices are freefalling everywhere else...

Posted by amol at August 2, 2008 8:47 AM

July 29, 2008

The internet is a series of tubes

Alaska Senator Is Charged With Failing to Disclose Gifts - NYTimes.com

This is the guy getting indicted

Posted by amol at July 29, 2008 7:09 PM

July 20, 2008

iPhone 3G costs you more, not less, than the old one

State of the Art - For iPhone, the ‘New’ Is Relative - NYTimes.com

But the iPhone 3G is not really, as Apple’s Web site puts it, “half the price.” The basic AT&T plan — unlimited Internet and 450 minutes of calling — now costs $70 a month instead of $60 (plus taxes and fees), and comes with no text messages instead of 200. (Adding text messaging costs at least $5 a month more.)

True, iPhone 3G service now matches the plans for AT&T’s other 3G phones; still, by the end of your two-year contract, the iPhone 3G will have cost you more than the old iPhone, not less.

Posted by amol at July 20, 2008 2:53 PM

July 13, 2008

We're in the ground!

Construction is on its way for the last few weeks on Jackson Ave.

Posted by amol at July 13, 2008 7:17 PM

June 27, 2008

Who reads these things, the paths of influence

It was very lovely to hear from a friend and former colleague that he actually reads this thing. And it reminded me of running into another former colleague who said "thanks for encouraging me to take that apartment". Something I totally forgot. It's very interesting to hear people play back what they remember of you.

Well, it is for me, at least. I somehow forget everything. And everyone else tells me about it.

What do you remember?

Posted by amol at June 27, 2008 9:43 PM

June 23, 2008

Conferenceware

I had the pleasure of participating in a panel at the Personal Democracy Forum conference today. Kind of a politics + online event. Crawling with such people.

I noticed that this is pretty much the one place and time in life that Twitter is of any interest. Wow! Now that it's over, still pretty dull. I guess I just don't get the future :(

Posted by amol at June 23, 2008 10:40 PM

May 27, 2008

The iPhone unsensation

Well, it's great and everybody loves it. But they haven't sold that many.

After almost a year of strong sales that have made it one of the dominant smartphones in the United States, the iPhone has settled down to a less-than-spectacular pace: roughly 600,000 units a month, according to the company.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., had shipped about 5.5 million phones by the end of March, the most recent figures it has released. It sold just 1.7 million phones in the first three months of this year, meaning it must sell more than 8 million phones to reach Mr. Jobs’s publicly stated goal of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008.

“They’re going to have a difficult time” hitting that number, said Edward Snyder, an analyst at Charter Equity Research. He said that Nokia, the world’s largest maker of cellphones, sells more phones every week than Apple has sold since the iPhone’s introduction.

Posted by amol at May 27, 2008 10:54 PM

May 26, 2008

Ferrari cherry

I drove a very nice Italian car for the first time yesterday...

Posted by amol at May 26, 2008 7:49 PM

May 17, 2008

Movable Type shortcut

I used MT to edit my blog but often forget the address so here it is for my reference only.... mt.drownout.com

Posted by amol at May 17, 2008 2:41 PM

May 12, 2008

Tom Sanford at Leo Koenig

Tom Sanford's show is currently up at Leo Koenig. It's an impressive chunk of work!

Posted by amol at May 12, 2008 11:11 PM

May 8, 2008

Apple is black

Slowly the all white Apple (simple, friendly, for all) is becoming all black Apple (elegant, elite, prestige).

Posted by amol at May 8, 2008 10:10 PM

April 26, 2008

Lifecast

This is a live stream via web of our living room.

Posted by amol at April 26, 2008 1:27 PM

April 20, 2008

This summer

This year we are finally doing it! Booking a house in Fayence in Provence

Details and map:

View Larger Map

Posted by amol at April 20, 2008 6:56 PM

April 19, 2008

Chocolate chip cookies

I have been experimenting with chocolate chip cookies.

After 8 tries, I achieved my first success: the Platonic form of the chocolate chip cookie, based on Nestle Toll House. It's a light color, slightly brown bottom, crisp on the outside, evenly chocolate chipped cookie with a bit of softness inside.

Now I am in search of some other varieties. I believe I have the tools to make
- the giant soft cookie (e.g., Michael's)
- the little hard cookie (e.g., Famous Amos)
- the French restaurant cookie (hard as a biscotti, smooth, and crisp)

However I am most keen to create: the dense, chewy, thick cookie. Tonight I experiemented with dark brown sugar and molasses as the only sweeteners. I hit the rocks though -- too liquid and too warm a mixture. Big, thin cookies with clear elements of chewiness. But not what I want.

Some references:
- A hacker's recipe
- Discussion on Cooking for Engineers is very useful

Posted by amol at April 19, 2008 9:19 PM

April 15, 2008

GSM Phoneresource

When you want to unlock your phone there are many unsavory characters out there. One of the sleazy ones is gsmphoneresource.com (there is a guy named Adam at GSM Phoneresource who has the online practices that would get him zero stars on paypal).

Posted by amol at April 15, 2008 8:21 AM

April 5, 2008

Our new place

We moved recently. This is the way into our new building.

Posted by amol at April 5, 2008 7:25 PM

March 30, 2008

Recent citations

The auction is over and folks are writing about some of the interesting consequences.

Here is a Forbes story by Brian Caulfield mentioning me (and Peek) Forbes

And one by the AP AP story

Posted by amol at March 30, 2008 8:43 PM

March 21, 2008

Spectrum auction over. Where is Google?

Apparently Google flaked on the whole "open" thing. Nowhere to be seen. In fact, Verizon won everything.

Auction outcome

Posted by amol at March 21, 2008 11:07 AM

February 5, 2008

Apple //c Unboxing

It's amazing how long Apple's packaging has looked exactly as it does.

Apple //c Unboxing on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Posted by amol at February 5, 2008 4:15 PM

January 28, 2008

My year in politics

I was reminded at lunch today that last year was an amazing year in some ways. These three things happened:
- C-SPAN

- Senate
- Wireless Founders Coalition in the press

Not to mention many other professional and certainly personal things.

Posted by amol at January 28, 2008 4:23 PM

January 27, 2008

Outsourcing dogfood

The Indian Consulate has outsourced their visa process. And it is a singularly amazing and efficient process! Check it out.

Posted by amol at January 27, 2008 9:25 PM

January 7, 2008

Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation

Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation has a new website -- wfc.txtbl.com

Posted by amol at January 7, 2008 10:04 AM

December 9, 2007

Sidebar: Countdown widget

Posted by amol at December 9, 2007 2:55 PM

December 7, 2007

Txtbl hiring plan

New headcount

Geographic distribution

Posted by amol at December 7, 2007 8:18 AM

December 6, 2007

Txtbl is hiring. Join us

Finance VP
-Lead overall finance policies, operations, accounting, budgeting, and planning
-Direct future capital raising
-Oversee corporate functions (HR, legal, admin)
-Experience: Previous leadership of finance function of an early stage company; accounting/CPA background preferred
-Location: New York, NY

Device project engineer
-Manages the planning, development, and testing of wireless mobile devices through offshore deign and manufacturing partners (ODM)
-Acts as primary point of contact on all product development matters between Txtbl, ODM partner, and any other third party developers
-Responsible to assure products of high quality, performance, and reliability are developed and ready for production in a timely and cost effective manner.
-Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Software manager
-Develop email synchronization software and integration with webmail providers
-Develop email client software for the handset
-Manage implementation/vendors
-Location: San Francisco Bay Area or New York, NY

Communications director
-Oversee the company’s branding, positioning, and messaging activities
-Define and lead the marketing communications, including PR, traditional and non-traditional marketing initiatives
-Manage third-party marketing communications agencies
-Coordinate the product trial and market research programs
-Oversee product launches, including sales training, presentations, sales tools, and general sales support.
-Experience: 5-7 years in a consumer oriented services; non-traditional marketing strategies and tactics; traditional PR, media placements, product placements
-Location: San Francisco Bay Area preferred or New York, NY

Product director
-Develop and implement and manage the product value proposition – including the device, device user interface, subscription service, product features, acquisition pricing and service pricing
-Develop market and competitive analysis and market/audience segmentation; track trends
-Develop and manage relationships with email service providers
-Develop product enhancements and long term road map
-Experience: 7-10 years consumer-oriented, subscription wireless services and products; device and systems development; consumer email service providers; negotiating complicated deals with third-parties
-Location: San Francisco Bay Area preferred or New York, NY

Marketing manager
-Support product development, marketing communications, retail development, and product trial administration
-Experience: 2-5 years of high quality consulting or marketing experience; possibly with an MBA
-Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Posted by amol at December 6, 2007 11:10 PM

December 3, 2007

The press this year

Now that my phone rings whenver there is spectrum or open access news, I am finding myself in the pattern of repeating the same bold predictions over and over for reporters. Most often, the reporter is someone walking in cold to a topic and wanting to get informed and get some good lines to quickly meet a deadline. :( Other times, it is one of the reliable watchers of the topic looking for my "take" as news breaks.

But it's a pattern that keeps repeating and making me wonder: should I participate? This week for example I was quoted in the and

Am I helping the world by providing these quotable lines? After all, if it wasn't me, it would be some evil minion of the telcos...!

Posted by amol at December 3, 2007 10:40 PM

December 1, 2007

Party

This year's holiday party was the best ever. We had a great time. I wish I had taken some pictures I could post! If you didn't make it...next year.

Posted by amol at December 1, 2007 10:02 PM

November 28, 2007

VZ Day

Looks like it is VZ Day. Victory over Verizon for the allied forces of openness and good!

As I say in this Washington Post quote, though, it doesn't mean Verizon's suddenly become a good guy though.

Posted by amol at November 28, 2007 2:15 AM

November 15, 2007

Our holiday party

You are invited, maybe.

Please join us for our annual holiday party.

We think 2007 topped 2005 by a long way, and this will be the event to prove it.

Plus, appearing for the first time: Pascale Sarva.

8-11pm
At Brooks 1890, around the corner from our house near Court Square in Long Island City (map)

Come early, stay late.

Tyke friendly.

Posted by amol at November 15, 2007 10:48 PM

November 11, 2007

Openid

I am starting to see more and more of OpenId. I have used it exactly twice. When I signed up for one at Myopenid 6 months and 2 weeks ago, and today when I signed back in.

Posted by amol at November 11, 2007 11:15 PM

Did you know? I have a sideblog

You may be reading this blog via rss reader. Or maybe you visit ye olde "website". Or maybe even you have your secretary print it out once a week and put it in a clear plastic sheet for your weekend reading. Whatever. But did you know....

that I have a sideblog? It's over there on the right, down a little. It's clippings and articles I recommend to you. Very rarely will I post directly about something I "read" right here on the main blog. Instead, that happens over on the sideblog.

You can subscribe to it by rss too, by the way. Or read it directly where it lives on Y! 360. Or have your secretary...etc.

Posted by amol at November 11, 2007 6:55 PM

November 10, 2007

Aero aero coffee

My favorite way to make coffee is the Aeropress. Here is a video of it being recommended by Fraunfelder from Boing Boing!

Posted by amol at November 10, 2007 4:42 PM

November 5, 2007

Gyawn

Google's big consortium announcement is the yawner of the year. No Gphone, no spectrum...just some guys who are willing to work with them on a new linux-based mobile OS. Err....Palm? Mot? Many have passed this way before ye!

Posted by amol at November 5, 2007 11:59 AM

November 2, 2007

Video from the C-SPAN thing

A few months ago I was on C-SPAN, but since YouTube limits the length of uploads, it's not on there. I recently posted it onto Google Video though.

Posted by amol at November 2, 2007 10:34 PM

October 31, 2007

At VON

I gave a keynote at VON today -- "use wireless open access to change the world". More on that when I get the video etc.

Posted by amol at October 31, 2007 6:41 PM

October 10, 2007

Jeff Black, for the Wireless Founders Coalition, on the Hill

Posted by amol at October 10, 2007 8:50 PM

Superteam

Personally, I like the suggestion that I am Green Lantern.

Frontline Assembles Open Access Super Team

Posted by amol at October 10, 2007 10:04 AM

October 9, 2007

Flickr widget

Posted by amol at October 9, 2007 10:05 AM

Google Docs...killer

This app is so great.

Google docs killer

Posted by amol at October 9, 2007 10:04 AM

October 1, 2007

An American Announcement

Time for a fresh start, after a season of cynicism.

Posted by amol at October 1, 2007 10:34 AM

September 25, 2007

Amazon mp3 is great

Bossa N Roses

I just tried it. Worked well. No DRM.

Easy to buy since Amazon knows me already.

And the "2 million independent label and EMI" catalog is actually really amazing -- it seems that many of the bands I actually listen to now are "indie" by that definition. Who cares about the back catalog....

Plus no Apple means no DRM and its easy to take my music around with me easily. That is the huge annoying hassle of both the Apple and MSFT regimes.

Because this is Amazon (not Emusic) the preference/recommendation engine is WAY more useful. It is instantly showing me that there is lots of relevant and interesting stuff on there.

And it's $0.89 per song. Cheaper.

I recommend the Bossa N X series. I really liked Bossa N Marley. Not so sure about the Bossa "Sweet Child O Mine" that I just listened to.

Posted by amol at September 25, 2007 11:32 AM

Dictators at Columbia

I think it's great that Columbia had the Iranian president speak. In fact, I think the public debate over it is unbelievable -- he spoke at the Press Club and at the UN. Is one of the world's leading universities somehow less fitting a place for controversial politics?

While I think it's a bit impolite to ridicule an invited speaker the way Bollinger did, I think the circumstances made it appropriate.

Go Lions! (If only we could win at football...)

Posted by amol at September 25, 2007 10:35 AM

September 13, 2007

Verizon trying to block open access?

Silicon Alley Insider: Verizon Wireless (VZ, VOD) Sues FCC To Keep Airwaves Closed

AlleyInsider has a good catch on a lawsuit Verizon Wireless filed a few days ago. It's intended to block open access in the court. But it's real intent is to put a cloud over the auction and supress bidding, and thereby make it more likely that the auction will fail to meet the reserve prices. And -- guess what? -- get the open access rule withdrawn.

Posted by amol at September 13, 2007 5:26 PM

Read this blog as an email subscription

One of the best things about mobile email is that you can read it when you are not connected (in the train) or in the little bits of time when establishing a connection/browsing around is not convenient. So I subscribe to a bunch of stuff (or email myself stuff) that I can read on my train ride, for example.

Well, get this blog that way and do the same!

Email:

Posted by amol at September 13, 2007 10:23 AM

September 12, 2007

Headline from the Subtle-use-of-'s Dept

Earth Might Survive Sun's Explosion - New York Times

Posted by amol at September 12, 2007 6:11 PM

September 10, 2007

Apple in the auction...?

Business Week has a story about a rumor that Apple might be looking at the wireless auction.

Burrows quotes me on what I think -- that it makes no sense -- but then speculates rather liberally on how Apple could make it happen. It's clearly false that they could build a network for less than a billion dollars; it would be more like $10 billion. Sprint's Wimax network, which doesn't even cover most of the US, will be at least $5 billion (their current budget number).

It is interesting how much excitement there seems to be in Silicon Valley, when just a few months ago it was hard to get many of these guys to say anything out loud about how important the open access proposals are.

Posted by amol at September 10, 2007 9:36 AM

September 7, 2007

Silly telecom rules

My friend David Jones sent me this clipping from ESPN Magazine -- quoting me on college sports recruiting tactics!

Posted by amol at September 7, 2007 12:31 PM

Sidebar: Google blog news widget

It's a world of widgets

...though it's not working.

Posted by amol at September 7, 2007 12:17 PM

Sidebar: GrandCentral widget

Here's the other (more famous, better?) one from GC which Google bought. These guys even give you a phone number, pipe it through Asterisk-y functionality and dump it back into one of your old school phones (mobile, fixed, whatever -- but no skype/gtalk yet?)

Posted by amol at September 7, 2007 10:30 AM

Sidebar: Jaxtr widget

This is a widget from one of the many phone phreak startups out there these days. I'm not sure how I would use it...except on craigslist or ebay or somewhere I don't want to post my phone number.

Get jaxtr | Login

Posted by amol at September 7, 2007 10:27 AM

August 27, 2007

Handy bookmarklet

Here is a handy bookmarklet that Chetan made. When you on a page and you click it, it takes the URL, runs it through a URL shortener, and then opens an email with that link in it.

Just right-click the below link and make it into a new bookmark.

Snip to.

Posted by amol at August 27, 2007 2:10 PM

August 26, 2007

Tom and Alex get married

Tom and Alex got married this weekend. The NYT announcement.

Posted by amol at August 26, 2007 10:08 PM

August 21, 2007

Sidebar: Subscribe

Get the email subscription to this blog

Enter your email address:

Posted by amol at August 21, 2007 12:45 AM

Goodbye, loser used car dealer

Our car lot is clear. The used car dealer is gone. Victory!

Posted by amol at August 21, 2007 12:22 AM

August 20, 2007

Time Warner RoadRunner sucks

Time Warner and in particular RoadRunner internet service suck. For all the usual reasons, so I will not bother elaborating here. I'm just hoping this silent rage against the unmovable monopolist does more than just cursing into their IVR music.

Posted by amol at August 20, 2007 9:16 PM

August 13, 2007

Daily link posting - annoying!

I have turned off the del.icio.us daily link posting. Man it was too frequent. I don't post actual content to the blog every day so the daily links were overwhelming my blog, and by the way I don't even bookmark very much every day so a post with 1-2 links is lame.

So, del.icio.us, please add the following features to your link posting
- weekly, monthly
- daily "if there are X new links to post"
- ad hoc post all new

Thanks.

Posted by amol at August 13, 2007 11:27 PM

links for 2007-08-14

• Postful
  (tags: mail writing post)
• ONLINE BUSINESS TOOLBOX: 230+ Tools for Running a Business Online
  (tags: office business smallbusiness healthcare humanresources hr)

Posted by amol at August 13, 2007 9:28 PM

August 11, 2007

links for 2007-08-12

• High Scalability | Building bigger, faster, more reliable websites.
  (tags: distributed performance scaling server optimization architecture)

Posted by amol at August 11, 2007 9:25 PM

Sidebar: My mugshot on the web

I have been thinking there needs to be an uber-rss aggregator widget that knows everything you are doing and shares it back. They made it.

Visit my Mugshot page

Posted by amol at August 11, 2007 4:49 PM

August 10, 2007

links for 2007-08-11

• Mugshot
  (tags: aggregator social community opensource identity web web2.0)

Posted by amol at August 10, 2007 9:31 PM

August 9, 2007

links for 2007-08-10

• Zonbu - Gobi is back! - Personal Technology - WSJ.com
  Return of the FreePC. Kind of.
  (tags: pc advertising)

Posted by amol at August 9, 2007 9:29 PM

August 8, 2007

links for 2007-08-09

• NXP Semiconductors 5210
  Mid-tier chipset
  (tags: mobile)
• Cozy getaway with majestic waterview
  greenport area
  (tags: longisland northfork north fork)
• Veer: Ideas: Wallpaper
  (tags: wallpapers wallpaper design desktop)

Posted by amol at August 8, 2007 9:37 PM

August 7, 2007

links for 2007-08-08

• GREENPORT NY - Greenport - Greenport Long Island - Greenport Village, New York
  (tags: northfork north fork)
• Charming 1 bdrm cottage 5 min walk to Sound beach 8/5-9/16/07
  150 per day
  (tags: northfork north fork)

Posted by amol at August 7, 2007 9:28 PM

August 6, 2007

links for 2007-08-07

• OXO's Favorite Mistakes
  (tags: design women marketing products)
• Silicon Alley Insider: Sanford Dickert
  (tags: office startup)

Posted by amol at August 6, 2007 9:32 PM

August 5, 2007

links for 2007-08-06

• 'Why Should I Hire You?' and Other Favorite Interview Questions
  (tags: interview hr)

Posted by amol at August 5, 2007 9:26 PM

August 4, 2007

links for 2007-08-05

• ultrafunk / portfolio
  (tags: design web)
• WPS1 Art Radio - Home
  (tags: radio ps1 art)
• Amarillo.com :: Photo Details
  (tags: pascale baby)

Posted by amol at August 4, 2007 9:30 PM

August 3, 2007

links for 2007-08-04

• Google Talking to Cell Phone Operators, Makers: WSJ
• Flash Sucks - I’m Mike
  (tags: web2.0)
• Seven Startup Lessons from Intuit
  (tags: entrepreneurship startup startups technology tips)
• About nextNY in NextNY
  (tags: meetup startup tech ny)
• Office Snapshots » Blog Archive » SoonR HQ
  Soonr office sync s/w has only 250Kish downloads in 1-2 years
  (tags: mobile email)
• 1100 architect
  Nice house
  (tags: architecture house brownstone)
• Amazon.com: Amazon FPS, Amazon Flexible Payment Service: Amazon Web Services
  Amazon's payments platform, laid bare for you to integrate into your applications or businesses! Amazing. It's going to change the industry.
  (tags: architecture web2.0 webservices aws)
• Welcome to Hadoop!
  (tags: web tools data distributed mapreduce hadoop lucene filesystem search)
• Cheskin's People | Cheskin
  Chris Ireland. Principal at this ethnography firm
• THE PORTABLE EFFECTS (PFX) HOME PAGE
  Rachel Strickland. What do people carry in their bags? And what does it say about them?
  (tags: design ethnography culture mobile technology)
• Solar Juice Bag Tote
  (tags: mobile women green)
• Helio Ocean vs. iPhone
  (tags: mobile women email iphone helio)
• Luxe Link keeps your purse from touching ground
  Alex Lima's invention/import
  (tags: women accessories)
• Blackle - Energy Saving Search
  "Green" searching actually means using a black background
  (tags: search web)
• E-mail Addiction: Battle of the Sexes! - Switched: Gadgets, Tech, Digital Stuff for the Rest of Us
  Women check email more often and spend more total time doing email than men
  (tags: email aol women)

Posted by amol at August 3, 2007 9:29 PM

August 2, 2007

links for 2007-08-03

• Warren Buffett MBA Talk
  (tags: Buffet video)
• 'Deja vu: Helio weighs down Earthlink earnings'
  (tags: mobile mvno)
• Most downloaded mobile app: 15mm globally (0.75% pen) -- Breaking Down Walled Gardens: iPhone Not The Only Solution
  Nobody downloads mobile apps!
  (tags: mobile)
• Sprint Pulls Out Of Wireless Spectrum JV With Cable Operators
  (tags: mobile)
• Berggi - fewer than 1mm downloads after 9 months
  (tags: mobile)
• Dana Blankenhorn: The Lie Of Proprietary Spectrum
  (tags: mobile 700mhz openaccess)
• Newser - Faster, Smarter News
  (tags: news web2.0)
• Service Outages Still Plague BlackBerry, AT&T
  Blackberry doofuses can't keep their service up. Vulnerability?
  (tags: mobile email blackberry)
• Apple iPhone Getting Pwn3d in Wired's Greatest Gadget Tourney
  (tags: gadgets mobile devices)

Posted by amol at August 2, 2007 9:29 PM

Forbes piece on spectrum rules

Forbes on the wireless rules including a great quote at the bottom from St. Augustine.

Posted by amol at August 2, 2007 6:27 PM

Drink tap water

It has become topical to advocate drinking tap water all of a sudden -- in a flurry of articles from Fast Company to various blogs to this New York Times editorial:

Here are the hard, dry facts: Yes, drinking water is a good thing, far better than buying soft drinks, or liquid candy, as nutritionists like to call it. And almost all municipal water in America is so good that nobody needs to import a single bottle from Italy or France or the Fiji Islands. Meanwhile, if you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents.

Next, there’s the environment. Water bottles, like other containers, are made from natural gas and petroleum. The Earth Policy Institute in Washington has estimated that it takes about 1.5 million barrels of oil to make the water bottles Americans use each year. That could fuel 100,000 cars a year instead. And, only about 23 percent of those bottles are recycled, in part because water bottles are often not included in local redemption plans that accept beer and soda cans. Add in the substantial amount of fuel used in transporting water, which is extremely heavy, and the impact on the environment is anything but refreshing.

Posted by amol at August 2, 2007 2:32 PM

August 1, 2007

links for 2007-08-02

• Clinton Widens Poll Lead By Using Experience Card - WSJ.com
  Obamarama fading
  (tags: politics election)
• Airline tickets, Discount Airfare, Helping you find Cheap Flights At FareCompare
  (tags: travel flights deals airline)
• How a Patent Ruling Is Changing Court Cases - WSJ.com
  (tags: patent mobile email ntp ksr supremecourt)

Posted by amol at August 1, 2007 9:34 PM

July 31, 2007

links for 2007-08-01

• The 10 Worst-Selling Handhelds of All Time Feature on GamePro.com
  (tags: mobile)
• How a Patent Ruling Is Changing Court Cases - WSJ.com
  (tags: patent mobile ntp visto ksr supremecourt)
• chumby
  (tags: mobile device wifi handheld gadgets linux)
• Crunch Time for Wireless Innovation
  The FCC has a chance to unleash the entrepreneurial creativity consumers deserve and the U.S. needs to compete globally. Here's how not to blow it
  (tags: mobile fcc spectrum)
• FCC sets 700MHz auction rules: limited open access, no wholesale requirement
  (tags: mobile spectrum 700mhz auction technology wireless)

Posted by amol at July 31, 2007 9:29 PM

Business Week opinion piece on spectrum

Business Week "Crunch Time for Open Spectrum"

Today is meant to be a big milestone in the ruling process. Watch it live.

Posted by amol at July 31, 2007 9:02 AM

July 30, 2007

links for 2007-07-31

• Manhattan User's Guide > Archives > Long Island Wines
  (tags: northfork north fork)
• Manhattan User's Guide > Archives > Outdoor Dining
  (tags: food restaurants outdoor)
• Kids: 10 ways to entertain young children for $1 or less (without the TV) - Lifehacker
  (tags: kids entertainment baby)
• How to Photograph a Child’s Birthday Party
  (tags: kids photography tips)
• .: Zwaggle :.
  (tags: kids trading market share)

Posted by amol at July 30, 2007 9:32 PM

NPR story about open access

Here is a snippet from me in today's Morning Edition story about wireless access -- NPR Morning Edition on 700 Mhz.

Posted by amol at July 30, 2007 5:46 PM

July 29, 2007

links for 2007-07-30

• Gilt - A Taste Of The Unexepected - New York, NY
  (tags: food nyc restaurants)
• North Fork - Bucolic Delights of ‘Not Hampton’ on Long Island - New York Times
  (tags: northfork north fork)

Posted by amol at July 29, 2007 9:25 PM

July 28, 2007

links for 2007-07-29

• TJ's Weblog: The Netflix Story - an insight perspective
  (tags: entrepreneurship netflix startups)
• Exceptional Performance
  (tags: web2.0 yahoo performance optimization programming)
• Hadoop - OS for commodity hardware
• Feeding Your 4- to 7-Month-Old
  (tags: baby food)
• How to pull out of Iraq and have peace - Three States - NYT
  (tags: iraq)

Posted by amol at July 28, 2007 9:29 PM

July 27, 2007

links for 2007-07-28

• Txtbl: Mobile Email For The Masses?
  (tags: mobile)
• Netflix, Inc. -- Company History
  (tags: casestudy)
• How do you write a "terms of use" for a website?
  (tags: legal startup)

Posted by amol at July 27, 2007 9:32 PM

July 26, 2007

links for 2007-07-27

• Helio charges $10/month to sync to Outlook Exchange
  (tags: mobile email)
• Which content is most popular for mobile: weather, news, sports
  aphics, or music; access email or instant messaging via their browser; and those that access adult content or gambling sites.
• What's eating Qualcomm?
  (tags: mobile qualcomm)
• Not Very Competitive Mobile Market In US: FCC
  (tags: mobile)
• Mobile web page formatting - Novarra | Company
  (tags: mobile)
• Buy the K-Byte Zipit™ Wireless Messenger (ZIPITCHARCOAL) and other Toys & Kids Electronics at circuitcity.com
  (tags: mobile email im circuitcity)
• New Luxury Fakes - Portfolio.com
  (tags: marketing)
• Crisis P.R. Firms - Business Intelligence - Portfolio.com
  (tags: pr)
• Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Business Book Summaries - Portfolio.com
  (tags: leadership)
• BEV Capital
  (tags: vc consumer)
• ZVUE Players by HandHeld Entertainment
  (tags: video handheld mobile)

Posted by amol at July 26, 2007 9:34 PM

July 25, 2007

Oceanic consequences

I dropped my phone -- during entirely normal usage behavior -- into the ocean.

According to the collective wisdom of my cellular friends, the phone is dead. But I am currently trying the following: remove battery (almost right after the event), re-dunk in clean water, dry in a cup of rice. It has been 36 hours. Tomorrow I will try to power up.

One added indignity is that Verizon apparently wants me to pay for the whole month and to pay for a termination fee --- even if I just cancel service now. So here is what I did: I took them up on their offer of a free phone replacement, will sell it brand-new on Ebay for $130, and will cancel anyway.

Posted by amol at July 25, 2007 10:57 PM

links for 2007-07-26

• The Nine Best Story Lines for Marketing
  (tags: marketing press storytelling pr tips)
• We Create Things
  (tags: developers designer design LOGOS web2.0)
• Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less - New York Times
  (tags: ideas food cooking recipe)
• PocketMod: The Free Disposable Personal Organizer
  (tags: lifehacks mobile tools productivity organizer)

Posted by amol at July 25, 2007 9:31 PM

July 18, 2007

Explosion near Grand Central

Not sure what yet.

Posted by amol at July 18, 2007 6:20 PM

June 23, 2007

How it works with Mossberg

I remember this review that Mossberg wrote on the Sprint Upstage. Behind the scenes with the NYer:
I wondered why these visitors hoped for a Mossberg endorsement. He has called the telephone companies “the new Soviet Ministries,” because of their insistence on controlling their customers, and he has written disparagingly about many of their products. (When, last August, a music phone called the Chocolate was introduced by Verizon, Mossberg informed readers that it was “burdened by a ham-handed user interface and other failings that would get its designers fired at Apple.”) And why were P.R. people rather than product designers making the pitch? As Mossberg inspected the phone, he asked his visitors when the phone was to launch. April 1st, he was told.

I certainly agree with the Soviet Ministries line!

Rest of the story (PS the NYer has a refreshed website. It's better!)

Posted by amol at June 23, 2007 8:57 PM

June 18, 2007

Open access coverage, week 3

Third week of coverage of the open access stuff and the letter to the FCC

Boston Globe

The Hill

One worrying pattern is that reporters keep slightly mangling the titles/"epithets" for folks. In my case, in this BG article, they are publishing a correction. The Hill, however, just gets some of the actual proposal elements wrong. Oh well.

Posted by amol at June 18, 2007 10:10 PM

World's richest man

It may have already happened, but I think the news will soon appear that Carlos Slim is the world's richest man -- a Mexican telecom heir, not a US software entrepreneur. His biggest holding, AMX, is up 30% in the last 3 months and MSFT is only up <10%.

Posted by amol at June 18, 2007 11:49 AM

June 17, 2007

C-SPAN's The Communicators

Here I am talking about open access on C-SPAN's show The Communicators. A lot of people have contacted me after seeing that show -- I guess lots of people watch!

Watch the show in RealPlayer

Posted by amol at June 17, 2007 11:27 PM

June 14, 2007

Senate hearing on 700 MHz and coverage

I testified at the Commerce Committee hearing today. Here is the video. (around the 2 hour mark)

I'm going to be on a C-SPAN show called "The Communicators" as well -- the program will be viewable online.

Coverage of today's hearing and the seemingly shifting winds in favor of open access:
USA Today/CNET
Huffington Post
RCR News
Dow Jones

Posted by amol at June 14, 2007 6:45 PM

June 12, 2007

Senate hearings

I am appearing at the Commerce Committee. Senate schedule permalink

Posted by amol at June 12, 2007 9:29 AM

June 10, 2007

Richard Rorty

Richard Rorty has died, I was sorry to read today. He had a tremendous influence on young philosophers in the 1990s in particular I think as he explored the pragmatism themes in American philosophy and how they connect to Continental writers like Derrida and Foucault.

Like everyone quoted in the obituaries, the folks I went to graduate school with eventually concluded that the stuff was off the mark. But I certainly remember spending lots of time thinking about the ideas and debating them. NYT

Posted by amol at June 10, 2007 9:44 PM

June 8, 2007

Second wave of coverage on Open Access

Following on the Wall Street Journal story on Thursday, a few other publications are mentioning the letter by the Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation.

FierceWireless permalink

RCR Wireless permalink

Forbes permalink

Moconews

Bloomberg

Some errors in this coverage though -- nobody is signing on behalf of their companies. These are personal signatures by peole who founded or helped create various services.

Posted by amol at June 8, 2007 4:08 PM

Senate

The Senate is having hearings on the spectrum auctions next week.

Commerce Committee hearing on 700 Mhz spectrum

Posted by amol at June 8, 2007 11:14 AM

June 7, 2007

Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation

We filed our letter to the FCC today.

WSJ article from June 7. (permalink)

Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation homepage with links to the filing and press release.

Posted by amol at June 7, 2007 6:39 PM

June 5, 2007

Ampd blowup

Most writing on the Ampd topic is poorly informed about wireless and MVNOs in general. Here are some bits from Business Week today, getting spinned on some of the core facts about Ampd.

Fake customers
Collecting payments from these subscribers proved to be a challenge, however. "Approximately 90% of the debtor's customers were on 18-month service contracts," according to the filing. "The debtor began to find a host of credit and collections problems (that) contributed ultimately to a liquidity crisis." By May, the number of nonpaying customers reached 80,000. That's nearly half of Amp'd's current customer base of 175,000 subscribers.

Tough partners
The company says its creditors claim more than $100 million in debts. One road could lead Amp'd directly into the arms of its largest creditor, Verizon Wireless, whose network Amp'd uses to serve its customers. Verizon, owed $33 million in unpaid bills, effectively forced the Chapter 11, Amp'd says. "Further compounding the liquidity crisis at the debtor was the fact that Verizon" had given Amp'd 10 days to make a $4.5 million payment, according to court documents. Then, last week, Verizon prematurely send Amp'd a note saying that its wholesale agreement with the upstart was terminated effective immediately, the filing says.

More successful examples: Virgin
The filing could affect the planned initial public offering of Virgin Mobile USA, an elder statesman of the virtual operator segment, with 4.9 million users, that also targets the youth segment. Even before the Amp'd bankruptcy, investors, who've sent some wireless stocks on a double-digit rally in the past few months, have worried about Virgin's red ink. Still, Virgin's losses have narrowed over the years, with revenues rising 11%, to $1.1 billion, in 2006. With Amp'd's filing, "I don't think it's going to be something that derails a deal," says Tom Taulli, an IPO expert. "[The companies are] not an apples-to-apples comparison." But now it may be more likely that Virgin's IPO could get pushed back to fall, he says.

Others
Differentiation through applications and services has served others well. Tracfone, the U.S.'s largest virtual wireless operator, offers the same flat per-minute rates for long-distance and international calling—an offering that appeals to many immigrants. Perhaps the most shining example is Movida Cellular, which focuses on the Hispanic community. "They are doing everything right," says Besen. "They know their market segment." Clearly, he says, Amp'd does not. "Maybe they will change their business model and come back," Besen says. With half of its users not paying, that may be a struggle.

Posted by amol at June 5, 2007 7:09 PM

June 4, 2007

Hawkins

Palm founder Jeff Hawkins will be giving a lot of interviews the next few weeks, I think, as the Foleo gets pitched. I think it's a brilliant product and I want to get one, by the way.

Here he is on market research from the Palm days -- very insightful and a point he is making again now about how you create innovative products. Consumers don't necessarily know they want it until it's out there in their hands.

Posted by amol at June 4, 2007 9:11 AM

June 2, 2007

Controlling mosquitos

It's BBQ season and we are out on la terrasse quite a bit more. Mosquitos once the puddles accumulate on neighboring roofs and Ultra-droppings-related flies will be an issue. This year -- I will solve it.

I studied a range of approaches
- ultrasonic or magnetic emissions - seem to be more "roach" or "mice" oriented than mozzies
- fry traps - kind of gross
- air trap ("DynaTrap") which emits a black light, a bit of heat and some CO2, then sucks bugs into a holding chamber till they die - my choice, though it requires electricity
- chemicals that repel them - possibly harmful to the dog and requires refilling

I'm ordering option 3 from Amazon now

I learned this information by clicking around Amazon and reading reviews, and by reading some Yahoo! Answers. What a strange way to learn the right thing -- I did not read blogs or magazines or any particular expert advice.

Posted by amol at June 2, 2007 8:07 PM

May 31, 2007

An Internet of Widgets

Everything is widgetized these days.

Update: Kopelman on the widget economy. A point he misses: Myspace has always been freewheeling. That's how it got big. Still freewheeling in widgetland.

Posted by amol at May 31, 2007 9:31 PM

May 30, 2007

Palm's new less device

Palm Foleo Does More by Doing Less

I love this new device. It does less than a laptop -- but it also costs less, weighs less, takes less power, and crashes less.

It changes how I think about computers. I could just "keep one around the house" which you would never do with a real laptop.

Or just keep one in my bag all the time and never take my laptop out of the office.

Or...who knows what else. With all my data on the network or otherwise in my email box, I rarely need an obscure file from my hard drive. With Soonr or Foldershare or some similar app, I can get it via the web.

The Web and Email are 90% of what I do with a laptop. Hmm!

This device also shows the some divisive nature of "simple" devices -- the geeks at Gizmadget think "hey, I want either a better phone or a better laptop! Not this other thing!!"

Posted by amol at May 30, 2007 6:03 PM

May 18, 2007

Castries Peanut Rum Creme

Castries Peanut Rum Creme $30.

Hung out with David and his creme tonight. Looks like it is going well.

Posted by amol at May 18, 2007 12:36 AM

May 1, 2007

Mybloglog recent readers

Posted by amol at May 1, 2007 10:05 PM

April 27, 2007

Photostream

I'm trying out an alternative to Flickr for posting pictures here. If it's cool, maybe I'll stick it on the right side of this page.

Posted by amol at April 27, 2007 7:31 PM

April 17, 2007

My accountant

Every year, this time of year, I feel such warm feelings for my accountant and even warmer feelings for our tax laws. I am seriously amazed at what a thoughtful and expert tax strategy can achieve. Seriously!

Posted by amol at April 17, 2007 11:04 PM

April 15, 2007

Clumping

Looks like lots of my friends are getting into the babies wave now. It's actually overlapping with the tail end of the weddings wave.

Posted by amol at April 15, 2007 1:57 AM

March 18, 2007

Blog fashions

One small source of frustration in my idle blogging is how few are in my cohort. There are zero people I know that have maintained blogs for any appreciable stretch of the nearly 7 years I have had this Drownout News or Drwn News blog going. What happens to you all, lazy guys?

Posted by amol at March 18, 2007 9:04 PM

March 3, 2007

Buying art

The NYT has a piece about a bubbly nouveau riche art collector from Florida making the rounds during the Armory and other shows last week.

It's a terrific insight into the extremely luxury goods market that is art. The best part is the "ride along" where we hear her narrative over her purchasing decisions. It's like listening to me talk about my stock investment decisions...borderline nonsense. Emotion is part of every transaction and it rarely sounds reasonable when you have to say it out loud.

There is this terrific feature to the ultra high end luxury goods market -- it is all "investment" talk, not consumption. Nobody "spends" 200K on art, they "invest" it and therefore don't have to imagine what else they might have done with that money (like given it away to needier people...)

First stop: Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, which is based in Paris and represents the Japanese artist Aya Takano. Ms. Hancock has been collecting Ms. Takano’s paintings, cartoonish and colorful, for two years.

“Cameron Diaz and Megan Mullally collect her, supposedly,” she said. Last fall, she traveled to Lyon, France, for the day to see her newest work in a museum show, and she had already committed to purchasing one large painting.

The piece, “Stuffed Animal Room,” cost $70,000. “I’m in love with all of her paintings, but there were a lot in that show that were very sexually explicit, and I have a bunch of nieces who come to visit,” Ms. Hancock said. “The stuffed animals are a lot safer.”

Next up: Bortolami-Dayan gallery, where Ms. Hancock purchased a sculpture by Gary Webb for $60,000. It resembled a giant painter’s palette.

“You can put your head through it,” she said.

Ms. Hancock doubled back to buy a third piece. It was a painting of a man falling off a bicycle, by a young artist she’d never heard of, Edgar Bryan. It cost $40,000. This was at the urging of one of her consultants.

The fourth piece Ms. Hancock bought was a painting by a Chinese artist, Ya Pei-Ming, that a director of the Milanese gallery Massimo De Carlo was holding for her in a back room. It cost $60,000 and depicted a red skull.

“It just really moved me when I saw it,” Ms. Hancock said. “It’s hard to describe, but it fit my sensibility. It’s not political, it’s not outdoor sculpture. And the artist had a huge book published about him, and I’d looked up his auction prices.”

At 1 p.m., Ms. Hancock sat down for coffee with a couple of fellow collectors. She was $230,000 lighter but thrilled with the morning’s haul.

“Everything good will be gone by 2 p.m. anyway,” she said.

Posted by amol at March 3, 2007 6:02 PM

February 27, 2007

Milestones

I am now 500+ on Linkedin. I am part of the club. Time to stop caring about it.

Posted by amol at February 27, 2007 5:36 PM

Bait

I have seen cops pull this from time to time. Get on the train acting drunk, have lots of bags, pass out pretty prominently, wait for a snatcher.



This kid seems more genuine though. Riding back from Jamaica Center on the E maybe?



Anyway, Pascale and I are protecting him from our perch over here.

Posted by amol at February 27, 2007 10:17 AM

February 24, 2007

Stanford in the money ranks

In large part because of the rainmaking efforts of Hennessy (for whom my old department chair Etch is the provost - in Condi Rice's old job), Stanford's war chest has been growing fast. Faster than any university anywhere.

In Mr. Hennessy's six years as president, Stanford received $3.45 billion in gifts, narrowly edging out Harvard for the No. 1 spot in that period, the education council says. Stanford's endowment, previously ranked No. 5 in the U.S., has jumped to No. 3, and at $14 billion lags only Harvard's $28.9 billion and Yale's $18 billion.

Posted by amol at February 24, 2007 11:28 PM

February 20, 2007

Barcelona

I recently had a wonderful trip to Spain -- the two Spains, Barcelona and Madrid.

Spain is two peoples, really. The quasi-hippies with facial hair, loose clothes, and guitarras near the Med (in Barcelona) and the uptight, pony-tail aristrocrats in sweater sets of Madrid. (And the Portugese, if you judge them by their horrible airlines like Air Comet, are unlucky folks indeed.)

Check out the pictures.

Posted by amol at February 20, 2007 6:57 PM

February 13, 2007

Chetan is a nutty guy

As a rare treat, Chetan and I are both in Europe today. Chetan was clearly blown away by the news. His blog.

Posted by amol at February 13, 2007 5:58 PM

February 6, 2007

Blog add-on champ

I officially declare Snap's blog add-on to be a winner. It is so widely available and handy that it's clearly made it. Now to plug ads into it...

For example, mouseover this link

Posted by amol at February 6, 2007 4:11 PM

February 2, 2007

Old logos web 2.0ified

Flickr Photo Download: Corporate World Meet Web2.0

Funny!

Posted by amol at February 2, 2007 5:46 PM

January 17, 2007

Chetan's travels

Great pictures from Chetan's travels

Posted by amol at January 17, 2007 11:38 PM

January 14, 2007

Spiritual foods

Christianity is on an uptick here in the USA, and marketers are supposedly on the case. Even in the snack case.

Posted by amol at January 14, 2007 2:21 PM

January 12, 2007

How many iPhones can they sell?

The iPhone is fantastic and now that the speculation is over, the remaining question is "how will it do?"

Apple apparently expect to be able to do 10mm in year 2. That's about 1% of the global mobile phone market of 1bn units per year, and at a sticker price of $500-600 it will certainly be in the top 1% of phones sold.

The iPod was way way more expensive than all the other mp3 players when it emerged, and Apple computers have always been more costly than all their Wintel brethren. iPods are 70%+ of their market (which they essentially created) and even the beaten down Mac is 4ish% of its market.

In other industries, the premium products have big positions too. Mercedes is 2ish percent of the global car market (link). Bose is 20ish percent of the US speaker market (link).

And of course all those flat screen TVs people bought this year were pure luxury -- every one was an upgrade over some perfectly decent device and they mostly cost $1,000-6,000. So share of wallet seems available when a sexy technology product turns up.

And if you are looking for closer benchmarks -- the Treo 600 sold 1mm units in the year after its introduction in Sept 2003 link, and the RAZR sold 10mm units in its first year (link.

Why can't Apple get 1% of the phone market?

Distribution is kind of easy -- 1 operator in each market. Let them market away as they always do, plus use the Apple elite distribution.

Marketing is easy -- Apple's already doing it in the big noisy music player and PC markets. Do more.

The consumer segment is very similar to the buyers of iPods and Macs.

If the only problem is "man this phone is expensive", well, that's not enough of a problem on its own.

The phone is way better than every other phone out there and actually merits a premium. The only compromise appears to be that the phone is a bit taller than others. It's not much thicker, not ugly, not anything bad really. If you can put up with a GSM network (and in the US, about 30% of the users put up with Cingular), then you can have your iPhone. The lovely RAZR launched with a substantial price premiums ($500 vs. the free-$100 standard fare) and really offered zero functionality/usability premium.

So, they may very well sell 1-2mm iPhones in the US between June 2006 and June 2007. Let's see if they do it!

Posted by amol at January 12, 2007 8:44 PM

December 26, 2006

iTunes remote

Don't waste your money on Salling Clicker or some silly iTunes remote control. The killer is this -- a simple set of changes to provide you with a easy web page that manages you iTunes. Connect to it from anything -- your PDA, your phone, your other laptops, whatever. It makes all that bluetooth stuff seem silly.

iTunes Web Based Remote Control

Basic Idea...

1) Modify your Apache Config
2) Create the php file
3) Call the php file to control iTunes

Posted by amol at December 26, 2006 5:17 PM

December 23, 2006

Sidebar: What am I doing?

Check out my Gcal free/busy

Posted by amol at December 23, 2006 7:38 PM

December 20, 2006

Sidebar: Twitter

what I'm doing right now:

Posted by amol at December 20, 2006 8:23 PM

December 18, 2006

Incredible coffee

I just made a cup of coffee using a new device - an Aerobie Aeropress. It was an incredible experience. And the coffee is amazing too! I learned a few things:
- the water should not be too hot. Too hot makes the coffee uneven and less smooth. A classic problem I have had for years with my French press Bodum is that grinds seem to be floating around in the coffee. Too hot! It should be about 70-80 degrees C, so that means well below boiling.
- it's better to make espresso and add water -- i.e., an Americano -- than to make a straight drip style. The reason is, the more water you push through the beans, the more you will pick up the undesirable elements of the coffee flavor towards the end. Just make a powerful espresso with the good part of the bean's flavor, then drop in some hot water.
- the very same beans and grind can produce massively different results. This coffee I am having today is totally different -- darker, less acid, smoother, more flavorful -- than any I have made with the previous methods (Italian press or French press).
- the whole process can in fact be faster and simpler than the messy process of the alternatives. And the whole assembly can be small and portable.

This Aerobie is pretty great.

Posted by amol at December 18, 2006 11:38 AM

December 17, 2006

Tom Sanford painting, in nature

Here in the NYT, I saw a Tom Sanford painting waiting to happen.

The composition sort of made me think of this painting by David...

combined with this one by Gericault

Posted by amol at December 17, 2006 12:17 AM

December 14, 2006

New features here and there

I have been monkeying with two things for many hours today and yesterday.

1. Drownout.com. Scroll down to the bottom -- see the clippings from this blog right there on the front page? No easy feat. See it.

2. LICNYC.com. The forums -- the whole way phpbb is written is so idiotic and clunky and non-streamlined. I tried to fix it, especially the login/logout/registration bits. See it.

Please email me if you think there are things I could do better.

Posted by amol at December 14, 2006 9:50 PM

Chetan in Switzerland

Chetan is in Europe, which is a bizarre state of affairs a priori. But he's there. Taking pictures. Blogging. Check it out!

Posted by amol at December 14, 2006 7:58 PM

December 10, 2006

Mmm...indo-fast food

Mmm...indo-fast food

Hampton Chutney Co a block east of Prince and Broadway. Man. Curry chicken dosa wrap and an iced chai from the fountain.



Yum!
Posted by amol at December 10, 2006 6:08 PM

December 1, 2006

Transitional seasons

Transitional seasons
Originally uploaded by amolsarva.

For me, the great thing about starting companies is waking up late and staying up late in the early days. The worst part is when routine and the bureaucrats arrive -- the far more boring daily stuff.

There are people for such things, but not me. And so I am appreciative that the world moves in ways that make it easy to come and go.

It's autumn and we are switching gears in my latest project. I am very excited about it, despite all the turmoil of the change for many people.

In part it is because my latest project yields to a later project -- shiny, new and exciting.
Posted by amol at December 1, 2006 10:45 PM

Castries, my friend's concoction

Castries peanut creme liquer. My friend's tasty concoction -- it's great for winter!

Posted by amol at December 1, 2006 10:25 PM

November 12, 2006

The NEW Drwn News

Welcome back to my blog - Drwn News.

Several years ago, I started a "web log" using Blogger.com and shortly thereafter migrated it to Movable Type. I spent a bunch of time setting up the silly little thing. And here it is -- pretty and organized, an easy place to post my stuff.

Recently, my hosting environment collapsed and I had to salvage what I could. Part of this is the Drwn News Archives which is going to start drifting into the past. So it joins Drownout France as one of my archival blogs.

And the other part of this collapse is the new new but old Drwn News - this blog, which is running on a spiffy SQL database and will travel into the future in continual upgrades.

Well, it seems a minor point but it explains the hiatus and some of the slightly screwy navigation. Thanks for visiting!

Posted by amol at November 12, 2006 5:41 PM

November 11, 2006

Amol Sarva calendar

Posted by amol at November 11, 2006 5:09 PM