Corn subsidies per year
About $5 billion per year in the US goes from the federal government to corn. Amazing what an impact that flow has on all food in the whole system. The power of subsidies!
Posted by amol -->Shooting live mobile video (Woody Allen edition)
I did it. I took a Droid for a spin with its VZW broadband, Android OS, halfway OK camera, and the Ustream.tv app -- I streamed about 1 hour of Woody Allen's set at the Carlyle tonight.
(Clearly I needed some kind of tripod.)
How amazing that you can literally shoot and broadcast real-time.
Ustream is not the "killer app" for this, I don't think. Ustream is terrific for setting up a laptop or other semi-fixed situation and broadcasting your show, your podcast thing, a sports game.
This on-the-spot streaming-from-my-mobile video thing is not for planned events. It's for Twitpic occasions whereas Ustream seems to be for Flickr occasions. Hmmm.
Will think on it. Meanwhile check out Woody. He can blow!
Posted by amol -->Yahoo kills their mobile group. Finally!
The single most frustrating thing about trying to deal with Yahoo in mobile this last couple of years has been...the cold war between their Mobile strategy ("we are #1") and the rest of their units ("we are trying to nimble and respond aggressively to massive threats from every direction").
Yahoo Disbands Mobile Group As Part Of Reorganization
The changes, which involves breaking up the mobile group and redeploying those employees across the company’s individual product groups, is the result of a review by CEO Carol Bartz, who has been an advocate of having fewer silos in the company. The reorganization has led to the departures of a number of senior mobile executives
Posted by amol -->Evite sucks! Use Google Calendar or pingg instead!
"Huge disappointment" after the first days of iPod, iPhone
AT&T said it signed up 146,000 iPhone customers, well below analyst estimates, which ran as high as 500,000 units. Shares of Apple fell more than 6 percent, closing at $134.89, down $8.81 on the day. AT&T’s shares were off less than 1 percent, closing at $39.68, a decline of 35 cents.Posted by amol -->AT&T has an exclusive deal with Apple to provide wireless service for the iPhone, the combination digital music player, cellular phone and Internet device. The phone went on sale on June 29, two days before the quarter ended, amid fanfare surpassed only by the release of the final “Harry Potter” book last week.
The number could also reflect the difficulty many iPhone customers reported experiencing when they tried to activate their phones during the first few days, analysts said.
Richard G. Lindner, AT&T’s chief financial officer, described demand for the iPhone as “strong,” and said that iPhone subscribers tend to buy more expensive rate plans than other wireless customers.
Eugene Munster, an Apple analyst with Piper Jaffray, said iPhone sales were largely in line with analysts’ earliest targets, but as public excitement grew so did investor expectations. “Our belief all along has been that there is a surge of demand coming for the iPhone, but it is hard to predict when that surge will hit,” he said.
Mr. Munster compared the iPhone launch to that of the iPod, which was viewed a huge disappointment at the end of its first quarter on the market. Apple sold 4.6 million units during the last quarter of 2004, while Wall Street had expected 8 million. Mr. Munster said the iPhone would probably show a similar gradual ramp up, surging in 2009.
Roundup of surprises from the telco and wireless industry today
- Qualcomm down 15% today! They think revenue is going to be way down this year
- Nokia up sharply. They blew away expectations and have increased market share globally this past year -- up from 37 to 39%. While, we've been writing their obituary, they have been killing Mot, LG, Samsung globally. Just not in the US
- AT&T added a ton of Amazon Kindle 2s. 1 MM.
- Verizon added a TON of Tracfone customers -- at least 1MM -- in Q4. Half of all their adds
- iPhone sold 3MM new accounts to AT&T users. But since AT&T's net growth was only about 1MM postpaid subs, this is mostly not net growth
- Verizon has about 3 MM TV subscribers on FiOS and AT&T has about 2 MM. They are becoming big cable companies. In another 2-3 years, that number will be 8-10 MM each at this rate. Considering that Comcast is 30ish and DirecTV is 15ish, that is very significant.
Posted by amol -->How did people react to iPhone in January 2007?
There has never been a Macworld Expo keynote speech quite like the one Steve Jobs just gave, one that was devoted entirely to a single product. Nothing about Macs, nothing about new iPods, not even a word about the iLife software suite or Mac OS X “Leopard.”But you can see why; there was enough to show and tell about the iPhone to fill the full 2.5 hours—and to justify the standing ovation the crazed Applephiles gave it.
It’s quite a device.
More Pogue:
Now, there will be plenty of people who will pass on the iPhone: people who have no Cingular service where they live (that’s the exclusive carrier); who are disappointed that, as a GSM phone, the cellular Internet service is slow; who find the iPhone too big (though incredibly tiny for what it does, it’s big for a phone); who would prefer typing e-mail with a dedicated thumb keyboard than hunting and pecking with one finger on the iPhone’s on-screen keys; and who consider $500 too much for a phone.Everyone else, however, will be beating a path to the iPhone’s door. The iPod showed us how breathtaking beauty and effortless simplicity can trump any number of practical quibbles in the real-world marketplace.
This thing will go through the roof, exactly according to Apple’s master plan. Prepare for a replay of the iPod lifecycle: other cellphone companies will rush out phones that match the iPhone’s feature list, but will fail to appreciate the importance of elegant, effortless, magical-feeling software.
Still more:
Wow. Predictably, the torrent — and I do mean torrent — of iPhone commentary from the citizens of the Web is practically outflooding spam this week. Most of it comes from people whose shirt fronts are practically drenched in drool. Plenty is negative and bitter.
The big news…Apple is finally announcing the iPhone (images are actual device) after 2.5 years in development. Name is confirmed. The device has a large, wide touchscreen with a virtual keyboard and runs OSX. The device has a 3.5 inch touchscreen, 8 GB of storage, a 2 megapixel camera and one button. Also wifi enabled. Cingular is the carrier. This thing will run desktop style applications. Get Google maps via the browser. Check email like the desktop. There are two models. The 4 GB is $499. The 5 GB is $599. They won’t be available until June. Oh. Great.I’m clearly switching to Cingular. In June.
The stock, per Techcrunch:
Once again, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wowed the crowds like no one else can. In his 9 am keynote at MacWorld in San Francisco this morning, Jobs announced the new iPhone cell phone. From the description in appears to be a game changing device, and the public markets seem to agree. As of the time of this writing, Apple stock is up over 7% for the day. Competitor Research in Motion (Blackberry) is down over 6%, wiping $2 billion dollars in market cap off the table. Palm, maker of the Treo, is also down, nearly 6%.Posted by amol -->The iPhone is an impressive, and expensive, device. It comes in 4 GB and 8 GB models and costs $499 and $599, respectively.
Mytether for Palm Pre
Makes your Pre a hotspot for free
You need to put your Pre into developer mode after installing the Mojo SDK (or the Novacom packages)
Posted by amol -->The new Apple, by Roland Barthes
Consider the below essay by the all-time #1 literary critic and idol to college students, Roland Barthes.
Just search and replace car with gadget and Citroen with Apple. Deesse with iPhone. English first, then in French for the studs among us.
--
The New Citroen
extract from MYTHOLOGIES by Roland Barthes 1957
I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.
It is obvious that the new Citroen has fallen from the sky inasmuch as it appears at first sight as a superlative object .. We must not forget that an object is the best messenger of a world above that of nature: one can easily see in an object at once a perfection and an absence of origin, a closure and a brilliance, a transformation of life into matter (matter is much more magical than life), and in a word a silence which belongs to the realm of fairy-tales. The D.S. - the "Goddess" - has all the features (or at least the public is unanimous in attributing them to it at first sight) of one of those objects from another universe which have supplied fuel for the neomania of the eighteenth century and that of our own science-fiction: the Deesse is first and foremost a new Nautilus.
This is why it excites interest less by its substance than by the junction of its components. It is well known that smoothness is always an attribute of perfection because its opposite reveals a technical and typically human operation of assembling: Christ's robe was seamless, just as the airships of science-fiction are made of unbroken metal. The DS 19 has no pretensions About being as smooth as cake-icing, although its general shape is very rounded; yet it is the dove-tailing of its sections which interest the public most: one keenly fingers the edges of the windows, one feels along the wide rubber grooves which link the back window to its metal surround. There are in the D.S. the beginnings of a new phenomenology of assembling, as if one progressed from a world where elements are welded to a world where they are juxtaposed and hold together by sole virtue of their wondrous shape, which of course is meant to prepare one for the idea of a more benign Nature.
As for the material itself, it is certain that it promotes a taste for lightness in its magical sense. There is a return to a certain degree of streamlining, new, however, since it is less bulky, less incisive, more relaxed than that which one found in the first periods of this fashion. Speed here is expressed by less aggressive, less athletic signs, as if it were evolving from a primitive to a classical form. This spiritualization can be seen in the extent, the quality and the material of the glass-work. The Deesse is obviously the exaltation of glass, and pressed metal is only a support for it. Here, the glass surfaces are not windows, openings pierced in a dark shell; they are vast walls of air and space, with the curvature, the spread and the brilliance of soap-bubbles, the hard thinness of a substance more entomological than mineral (the Citroen emblem with its arrows, has in fact become a winged emblem, as if one was proceeding from the category of propulsion to that of spontaneous motion, from that of the engine to that of the organism).
We are therefore dealing here with a humanized art, and it is possible that the Deesse marks a change in the mythology of cars. Until now, the ultimate in cars belonged rather to the bestiary of power; here it becomes At once more spiritual and more object-like, and despite some concessions to neomania (such as the empty steering wheel), it is now more homely , more attuned to this sublimation of the utensil which one also finds in the design of contemporary household equipment.
The dashboard looks more like the working surface of a modern kitchen than the control room of a factory; the slim panes of matt fluted metal, the small levers topped by a white ball, the very simple dials, the very discreetness of the nickel-work, all this signifies a kind of control exercised over motion rather than performance. One is obviously turning form an alchemy of speed to a relish in driving.
The public, it seems, has admirably divined the novelty of the themes which are suggested to it. Responding at first to the neologism (a whole publicity campaign had kept it on the alert for years), it tries very quickly to fall back on a behaviour which indicates adjustment and a readiness to use ("You've got to get used to it "). In the exhibition halls, the car on show is explored with an intense, amorous studiousness: it is the great tactile phase of discovery, the moment when visual wonder is about to receive the reasoned assault of touch (for touch is the most demystifying of all senses, unlike sight, which is the most magical). The bodywork, the lines of union are touched, the upholstery palpated, the seats tried, the doors caressed, the cushions fondled; before the wheel, one pretends to drive with one's whole body. The object here is totally prostituted, appropriated: originating from the heaven of Metropolis , the Goddess is in a quarter of an hour mediatized, actualizing through this exorcism the very essence of petit-bourgeois advancement.
If you're having trouble with Posterous and Movable Type
Two key things you need to know.
1. Your 'password' in posterous is actually your Web Services Password for the user in MT. Not necessarily the username's password
2. The header below needs to be in the index.html and the rsd.xml file needs to point to the right thing. E.g., my error that was pointed out to me.
Posted by amol -->
going to http://www.licnyc.com/rsd.xml shows this:
but http://www.licnyc.com/mt4/mt-xmlrpc.cgi
this doesn't exist
RIP ID Magazine. Peek on the tombstone
Sorry to hear today that ID Magazine is shutting down. Glad Peek made it to fame and infamy on the cover of their Annual Design Review this year, just in the nick of time. And sorry to Droid, Nexus One, etc. You won't get a chance!
Gadget of the Year, 2009
Congratulations to Motorola's Droid, this year's #1. And to 2007's, which continues to sell well: the iPhone. (Don't forget 2008's #1 Gadget: Peek)
Top 10 Gadgets
Motorola Droid - worthy
The Nook - surprising choice
Dyson Air Multiplier
iPhone 3GS - falling!
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Dell Adamo XPS
FinePix Real 3D W1
Casio G-Shock GW7900B-1
Beats Solo by Dr. Dre
Panasonic G10 Series Plasma HDTVs
Mobile payment - try it!
Buy Pronto via SMS in the Venmo Mobile Marketplace.
Posted by amol -->Peek for Life
Peek for Life -- exclusively from Amazon.
Posted by amol -->Lack of sleep = get sick
Really? - The Claim - Lack of Sleep Increases the Risk of Catching a Cold. - Question - NYTimes.com
Studies have demonstrated that poor sleep and susceptibility to colds go hand in hand, and scientists think it could be a reflection of the role sleep plays in maintaining the body’s defenses.
In a recent study for The Archives of Internal Medicine, scientists followed 153 men and women for two weeks, keeping track of their quality and duration of sleep. Then, during a five-day period, they quarantined the subjects and exposed them to cold viruses. Those who slept an average of fewer than seven hours a night, it turned out, were three times as likely to get sick as those who averaged at least eight hours.
Sleep and immunity, it seems, are tightly linked.
Posted by amol -->My favorite entrepreneur-blogger is...
Used to be Marc Andreessen till he took down his blog.
Now I'm digging Chris Dixon!
Posted by amol -->Khaaan!
Posted by amol -->The future of iPod
iPod as a music machine is maxed out and declining -- units sales are down and revenue is down even more. But the new lineup is a great answer to that problem -- gaming, fitness, video... Make the iPod a computer. It might work...though I fear it lacks the crispness of vision that the "rock out on your iPod" storyline used to have.
Steve Jobs May Be Fine, But The iPod Isn't - Forbes.com
Without a growth story, however, the iPod won't get that kind of press, and without that free publicity, iPod sales will continue to stagnate. Net sales are already down 11% to $1.5 billion for the quarter ended June from $1.7 billion during the year-ago period. Unit sales are down 7% to 10.2 million from 11.0 million over that same period. Net sales per iPod unit sales are down 4% to $146 to $152.
Posted by amol -->Smartphones next year
Keypad phones are dying -- from 60% of smartphones to 10% in a year
Keyboard phones are flat -- they have a role
Touchscreens of course -- growing like crazy
Apple looks like they could pass RIM for Q2 2010. That was fast!
A few more years till they can catch Nokia -- Nokia is still 2x RIM, RIM is 1.5x Apple
The smartphone market is relatively small -- Asia + EMEA + US was about 35mm in Q2. Call it 150mm for the full year. That's around 12% of all phones sold.
Assume that the features in smartphones will permeate 50% of phones in a few years -- that's a lot more doubling ahead for each of these players.
Twitter to pass Facebook by year-end
Are there more Facebook status updates or Twitter tweets? ｫ Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog
The analysis here says Twittter tweets are about 1/3 as many per day as Facebook status updates. But with far fewer users -- 250mm Fbookers and say 70mm Twitter users. If you forecast forward the growth rate of the last 6 months, then Facebook may be 50% bigger and Twitter 7x bigger. Which would put them way, way higher. Haircut that and it's still much bigger.
The Tweetosphere is speeding toward supremacy.
Thanks hkanji.com
Posted by amol -->Get screwed when you buy an iPhone
cdixon.org / One more reason AT&T sucks
Posted by amol -->Decline of the WSJ
I was genuinely surprised by the editorial angle on this story -- mentions Jimmy Carter in the first few grafs as a peril of micromanaging -- but doesn't mention Bill Clinton as an ace *or* W as a classic write-with-a-Sharpie-grasp-no-details-end-the-meeting-on-time type of simp.
A President as Micromanager: How Much Detail Is Enough? - WSJ.com
Posted by amol -->Even-handed scorecard on health care reform...sounds like Obama's talking points. Maybe that means Obama folks are straight?
A Primer on the Details of Health Care Reform - NYTimes.com
Posted by amol -->Time and motion
I very much doubt these are the first time and motion studies ever done at Starbucks. Part of what made them great was exactly that their folks worked like clockwork, not like a bunch of confused drifters who meandered behind the counter while people waited.
Latest Starbucks Buzzword: 'Lean' Japanese Techniques - WSJ.com
Mr. Heydon says reducing waste will free up time for baristas -- or "partners," as the company calls them -- to interact with customers and improve the Starbucks experience. "Motion and work are two different things. Thirty percent of the partners' time is motion; the walking, reaching, bending," he says. He wants to lower that.
Posted by amol -->Dad's birthday
Posted by amol -->Dow 9,000
What next? NASDAQ 2,000?
Business News, Finance News, World, Political & Sports News from The Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com
Dow Surges,
Crossing 9000
Good news about profits and housing sparked a broad-based stock rally, with the Dow industrials rising 200 points and crossing 9000 for the first time since January.
Posted by amol -->Talking on the phone is bad for you
It's like driving drunk. Even with a handsfree.
Dismissing the Risks of a Deadly Habit - Multitasking on the Road - NYTimes.com
Extensive research shows the dangers of distracted driving. Studies say that drivers using phones are four times as likely to cause a crash as other drivers, and the likelihood that they will crash is equal to that of someone with a .08 percent blood alcohol level, the point at which drivers are generally considered intoxicated. Research also shows that hands-free devices do not eliminate the risks, and may worsen them by suggesting that the behavior is safe.
Posted by amol -->East of East placeholder site
East of East is coming soon. The construction has certainly developed fast!
East of East on Jackson Ave.
Posted by amol -->Views from the top of East of East
There are going to be some great views.
Dell headed for #3?
The PC Guessing Game: How Healthy Are Sales? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
Hewlett-Packard remained the top seller with 19.6 percent of the market, gaining 1.5 points of share during the period. As expected, Dell and Acer ended up in a virtual tie for second place with 13.6 and 13.5 percent of the market, respectively. Acer gained 4 points of market share, leading all PC makers, while Dell lost 2 points of share. Lenovo and Toshiba rounded out the top five.
Posted by amol -->Tom Sanford in the SLC Examiner
ASSASSINATION: Tom Sanford, Artist Represented by Leo Koenig, Inc.
Interview of my buddy Tom Sanford.
MSFT vs. GOOG -- Stalemate
Op-Ed Contributor - Chrome vs. Bing vs. You and Me - NYTimes.com
Something like the world wars of 1984.
Posted by amol -->Bing vs. Goog
I've been keeping score and mainly using Bing. Here is a search today for which I had to resort to Google though, and Google did a better job. But neither got me what I really want - the latin definition of the terms.
Posted by amol -->Flickr for pros
Peek in the Daily News
Friendfeed by email
You can post and watch friendfeed entirely by email. Just email share@ friendfeed.com.
Posted by amol -->Trying out Remember the Milk
Posted by amol -->Companies will get taxed for smartphones
From the WSJ: IRS is going to tax you if you have a company-issued mobile phone (by the way, Peek is not a phone)
By MARTIN VAUGHAN and AMOL SHARMA
The use of company-issued mobile phones could trigger new federal income taxes on millions of Americans as a "fringe benefit."
The Internal Revenue Service proposed employers assign 25% of an employee's annual phone expenses as a taxable benefit. Under that scenario, a worker in the 28% tax bracket, whose wireless device costs the company $1,500 a year, could see $105 in additional federal income tax.
The IRS, in a notice issued this week, said employees could avoid tax liability if they showed proof they used personal cellphones for nonbusiness calls during work hours. The agency also could decide on a set number of phone minutes as "minimal personal use" that would be untaxed.
Posted by amol -->The Oprah Effect
Check it out - the Oprah effect in a BusinessWeek article.
Posted by amol -->Throwback: Zoomer
Fascinating glimpse of the early life of Palm, and then it's future as 3com and even Handspring. It's clearly a bummer they didn't have freedom to run independently. They could have been Apple!
I just finished reading Piloting Palm, and it's just amazing how close they zagged to disaster and how widely they searched for the 'right answer' along the way.
Tweeting is about following
Median # of tweets = 1 ｫ Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog
Posted by amol -->NY Times reader app for my PC. I like it.
Posted by amol -->Favorable first impressions of Bing
I am liking first impressions of Bing.
- It's fast. Faster than google?
- Mouseover the result to see more. Nice!
- Enhanced view pages -- definitely nifty to structure the web
- Really quick and zippy images/videos/other searches
- I like the dynamic category types on the left hand side. Jumps up and down, let's you "drill in and out" easily....
Stupid logo and name!
Cairo, NY
Posted by amol -->"Man, I like Heineken."
"You like Heineken? ... King of beers."
Film locations for Blue Velvet
Posted by amol -->Wolfram Alpha
cryptograms amolsarva - Wolfram|Alpha
Posted by amol -->Kate Kelly's new book on Bear Sterns
Inside the Fall of Bear Stearns - WSJ.com
Go out and get my college friend Kate Kelly's book on the fall of Bear.
Posted by amol -->Beware of reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
From the great one.
Mark Twain Motivational Posters | Sloshspot Blog
Another good one: All you need in life are ignorance and confidence. Then success is sure.
Thinking of buying this laptop
Posted by amol -->
Back from Oz!
We are back from Australia.
1. They no longer have Passiona on the market that I could find
2. Meat pies are still excellent (beef + mutton for the secret flavor)
3. Autumn is a nice season, and even nicer in Sydney
4. The flight is long and awful. Man! Though a day stopover in LA is the way to do it.
5. Qantas flies direct from all cities to LA or SF. United only pretends they do.
6. Aussie-rules football is actually pretty fun to watch
7. Sports is such a big deal that 30 minutes of nightly news is dedicated to it; on a Monday about 10 minutes of that is injuries alone (legs broken, ACLs ripped -- and they say the whole anterior cruciate blah blah)
8. The time difference is really killer this time of year. 14 hours to NYC. Can't do anything
Joe the Biden comes through
U.S. Senator Switches Parties - WSJ.com
As the final vote neared, the administration appeared to have gotten only one, Ms. Snowe. Mr. Specter told the vice president he was not going to be the 60th vote to put the bill over the top in the Senate, and without him, Sen. Collins wasn't coming along. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel stuck his head into Mr. Biden's office: "You need to call Arlen one more time," he said, according to a senior administration official.
Mr. Biden's final call to Mr. Specter was a personal appeal lasting more than 30 tense minutes, according to an aide familiar with the pitch. When the vice president emerged from his office, he gave his waiting chief of staff a smile and walked into the Oval Office to tell the president: "Arlen's there."
Posted by amol -->Recession or depression?
This is the best argument I've read for what to call it.
How to Understand the Disaster - The New York Review of Books
I am going to stick with "recession." Posner thinks this is a euphemism in aid of denial. No: we are in a long and serious recession. When it is over we will be able to estimate roughly how much production was lost in the course of it. But I want to avoid the suggestion that something qualitative happened at the end of 2007 or sometime in 2008, over and above the combination of recession and the financial breakdown, or that we are on our way to the 1930s, which is grossly unlikely. What is important is the interaction of the "real" recession and the financial crisis. I mentioned at the beginning that they are reciprocally cause and effect, and that is what I want to clarify, at least broadly.
Posted by amol -->Peek Pronto unboxing
Peek Pronto unboxing - a set on Flickr
Posted by amol -->Speaking at Columbia
Check me out at Columbia Business School tonight.
Posted by amol -->Peek Pronto is shipping!
Peek Pronto is shipping. Order now
Posted by amol -->Paraag in the NYT
Mayor Trusts Youngest Deputy to Run the City - NYTimes.com
See the guy almost entirely obscured by the Deputy Mayor? That's my brother.
Wittgenstein and infinite fun
Anecdotes about Wittgenstein are endlessly amusing. "If the lion could speak, it would not understand itself."
Indeed!
Wittgenstein’s Powdered Eggs: The Book Bench: Online Only: The New Yorker
Posted by amol -->Steel! Day 3 morning
Jackson is on it's way up.
Posted by amol -->Steel! Steel! Day 2
Steel!
Steel is up on Jackson Ave!
Posted by amol -->A book I long did think fondly of
You ask why I say it, do you? An inquiry that I can talk to tomorrow. April 1.
Posted by amol -->GM
Finally - somebody had the balls to fire Wagoner. The guy was a bungler. Look at the stock chart -- from the highest value ever in history for GM at 2000 to a value 70% lower than the value of GM in the entire history of the stock.
CEO Finally Ran Out of Options - WSJ.com
Posted by amol -->Good Enough vs. iPhone, catching up
(Kudos to FromeDome.)
How Much Will 'Good Enough' iPhone Rivals Hurt Apple? (AAPL)
This week's Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona birthed a slew of new smartphones, from HTC's new Google-powered 'Magic' to new Nokia (NOK) and Samsung devices. Common thread: Many look (or try to look) like Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, which is still the gadget to beat in the mobile industry.
None of them, from what we've seen, is as good as the iPhone. But they're getting closer. And for many consumers, they could easily be good enough. Especially for people who want to use mobile carriers that Apple doesn't work with, or for people want phones with slide-out keypads.
At the very least, this means a more competitive market when Apple announces whatever new iPhones it's going to release this year, RBC analyst Mike Abramsky says in a note today. At worst, it could mean "downshifts" to Apple's growth or margins, he says.
Posted by amol -->Recession milestone
Economy Raises Tentative Hopes a Trough Is Finally in Sight - WSJ.com
Posted by amol -->Mozzer 'Years of Refusal'
People know the smiths rarities. But it's a bit soon to know every track on this new one. "I Keep Mine Hidden". Check. "I Don't Need You". Coming soon.
Sent on the go from my Peek
Posted from my Peek through email
Posted by amol -->Moz. At Carnegie Hall.
"You can tell by the way, I sleep all day"
Sent on the go from my Peek
Posted from my Peek through email
Posted by amol -->Moz. "Let me kiss you." Shirtless
Even bigger -- the kid!!! Sebastien!!
Sent on the go from my Peek
Posted from my Peek through email
Posted by amol -->2 smiths, 2 refusal so far
Sent on the go from my Peek
Posted from my Peek through email
Posted by amol -->He's coming out
Sent on the go from my Peek
Posted from my Peek through email
Posted by amol -->Overheard at Moz
"I gotta give props man. I was going to bring my six year old. He sings Smiths songs in the car! Maybe next year if he's back. Hi there little guy. You look very nice."
Sent on the go from my Peek
Posted from my Peek through email
Posted by amol -->Morrissey! Carnegie Hall. 2009.
I am standing in the lobby of the most famous music hall in the world, waiting to meet Ursula, to see The Immortal Mozzer. Or, as I like to think I first discovered:177 0 12 12 1 5 5 3 4. Spell it baby. On a 1990s Motorola pager.
Sent on the go from my Peek
Posted from my Peek through email
Posted by amol -->Columbia to Midtown is quicker than I remember
If you were at the panel tonight and are reading this, please email me. amol at drwn.
Sent on the go from my Peek
Posted from my Peek through email
Posted by amol -->New profile pic
Soon to be my official profile pic.
Posted by amol -->At the MoMA opening
The highlight of the first 1 minute: folded up cuffs on jeans. First spotted in Philly last month.
New media marketing; one influencer at a time.
I just got an email from the publisher of Nelson George's new book. Apparently I'm a top blogger about his old book -- Hip Hop America. In fact, I'm the 2nd search result on "nelson george hip hop america". Higher than Barnes and Noble (though lower than Amazon). Of course...I have little interest in his new book :(
Posted by amol -->McD's is best coffee
Coffee taste test: McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts
They might be right. Though I don't love the lid...
Posted by amol -->Peek location services
Check this out... a Peek on the map!
Posted by amol -->Economic geography, post-crash
How the Crash Will Reshape America - The Atlantic (March 2009)
As homeownership rates have risen, our society has become less nimble: in the 1950s and 1960s, Americans were nearly twice as likely to move in a given year as they are today. Last year fewer Americans moved, as a percentage of the population, than in any year since the Census Bureau started tracking address changes, in the late 1940s. This sort of creeping rigidity in the labor market is a bad sign for the economy, particularly in a time when businesses, industries, and regions are rising and falling quickly.
Posted by amol -->Watch me on Amazon
Yep, that's me on Amazon's Peek page! Check out the video.
Posted by amol -->Ohhhh boy. It was worse than you thought.
Zero Hedge: How The World Almost Came To An End At 2PM On September 18
On Thursday (Sept 18), at 11am the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the U.S., to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped a $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there.
If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2pm that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.
We are no better off today than we were 3 months ago because we have a decrease in the equity positions of banks because other assets are going sour by the moment.
Posted by amol -->Goodbye Gallery, I have hated you long
I really hate Gallery, the open source package for hosting images on your server. It's complicated -- installation, maintenance, upgrade, plugins, everything about it is complicated.
Every six months, I end up spending a weekend fixing something that went haywire on Gallery.
Storage...corrupt DB...not enough PHP memory allocation. I mean, come on!
The worst part is the uniformly smartass support people in their forums. They are a bunch of jerks in tone, even though they are doing us all a favor (never forget!) in providing any assistance at all.
And the fundamental design, I mean, that's what really pisses me off. They can't find a way to include or even link to all the needed binaries. They can't, for some reason, create an installer that goes and downloads the relevant binaries for your installation (GD...ImageMagick...whatever).
After all these years, their installer app is still just a MS Wizard a la Windows 95 -- fragile and easily thwarted.
And if getting it up and going once was good enough, I wouldn't be complaining right now. The problem is that it dies every once in a while. Look at this thread: blank screen, I did nothing.
"It worked hours ago". Well, that happened to me too.
Bizarrely, I am not simply moving to Picasa or Flickr etc etc.
Because I kind of LIKE certain aspects of complexity and control, I am actually trying out Zenphoto -- a much much simpler alternative to the Gallery experience, apparently.
We'll find out!
The new gallery will be at http://home.drownout.com:81/~amol/pics
The old one is at /~amol/g/
The one that died... is at /~amol/gallery2/ (that's right...I couldn't fix it. I just re-installed gallery in another folder and dragged my pics over).
The same thing happened recently on LICNYC.com, woe be unto it. I decided to migrate that situation to a hosted Gallery install on Dreamhost. Maybe that will keep the relevant background PHP/memory/etc current...
Posted by amol -->Peek in Star Magazine! Hello celebs!
White House Farmer
Looks like Margaret made it to #3! The list:
1. Claire Strader, Troy Community Farm, Madison, WI
2. Carrie Anne Little, Mother Earth Farm, Puyallup, WA
3. Margaret Lloyd, Home Farming, Davis, CA
Posted by amol -->Finally, I figured out my chumby after a year
Advancing widget, step 1
Do you have the email address?
Notice that nobody is texting Obama.
New Symbol of Elite Access - E-Mail to the Chief - NYTimes.com
Those select few who have Mr. Obama’s e-mail address, say people informed about the matter, include Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff; David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, both senior advisers; and Robert Gibbs, the press secretary. But cabinet members like the interior secretary, Ken Salazar, said they did not have it. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is a frequent BlackBerry user, but a spokesman said he did not know whether she had the president’s address.
Posted by amol -->Coffee and dementia
Coffee Linked to Lower Dementia Risk - NYTimes.com
Drinking coffee may do more than just keep you awake. A new study suggests an intriguing potential link to mental health later in life, as well.
Posted by amol -->Turning around a PR wreck
Green-Light Specials, Now at Wal-Mart - NYTimes.com
A confidential 2004 report, prepared by McKinsey & Company for Wal-Mart, found that 2 percent to 8 percent of Wal-Mart consumers surveyed had ceased shopping at the chain because of “negative press they have heard.” Wal-Mart executives and Wall Street analysts began referring to the problem as “headline risk.”
So the company, known for bitterly rebutting critics or simply ignoring them, began working closely with activists to improve its labor, health care and environmental records.
It is hard to measure the financial return of a good image. But no one at Wal-Mart talks about headline risk anymore because the headlines have become largely positive.
Posted by amol -->Wal-Mart - Democracy and Capitalism
Green-Light Specials, Now at Wal-Mart - NYTimes.com
Under Mr. Scott, who is retiring this month at the age of 59, the company that democratized consumption in the United States — enabling working-class families to buy former luxuries like inexpensive flat-screen televisions, down comforters and porterhouse steaks — has begun to democratize environmental sustainability.
For decades, many consumers felt that going green was a luxury, too, reserved primarily for those with enough money — and time on their hands — to buy groceries at natural food stores and organic clothing from specialty retailers.
Posted by amol -->Obama's big day
Roar Lions Roar!
Keith Haring at Deitch
Finally saw the Deitch Projects show in LIC. In March...Bjork.
Sent on the go from my Peek
(blank email? sorry - in test mode)
Tweetstream
Posted by amol -->Checking in at Sand Hill Road
Every 45 days or so, one finds oneself in the old but nice Sharon Heights shopping center. My favorite italian sandwich place has my favorite kettle chips: honey mustard!
Sent on the go from the Gadget of the Year.
Buffett: Wall St is the only place people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from people who take the subway
Sent on the go from the Gadget of the Year.
Posted by amol -->Heading into SF
Tonight I will get some sleep. Been a busy week in Vegas, NY, Oakland. But first a run on the SF waterfront. Be jealous.
Sent on the go from the Gadget of the Year.
Go pointy heads
Here’s hoping those McKinsey pointy-heads can help turn America’s fiscal mess into one of the firm’s famed “solutions”.
Hello McKinsey, good bye Goldman
Posted by amol -->I can haz...
My time management, lately
Posted by amol -->Au revoir #ces . a great show for us. why? you'll have wait a bit for the public announcements.
Sent on the go from the Gadget of the Year.
Posted by amol -->Back to the big show. Enough hanging around hotels! Let's get into the action. Who won Best of CES??
Sent on the go from the Gadget of the Year.
Posted by amol -->And now
Across the street to meet my chums from Flip. Those guys are so great. Sent from a non-Peek handheld. Ooh, the un-Peekiness of it all.
Posted by amol -->Just saw...
Peter Semmelhack from buglabs! #ces Man the best stuff is here at the sands 'new tech' areaSent on the go from the Gadget of the Year.
Posted by amol -->Morning in Vegas
Always a quiet time. Heading to the Paris to meet a business partner. But what to with our mid-morning dead time? Read Engadget!! #cesSent on the go from the Gadget of the Year.
Posted by amol -->Home at last
Last party done. Now to turn in. Tomorrow, big time wheeling and dealing. Sent from a non-Peek handheld. Ooh, the un-Peekiness of it all.
Posted by amol -->GRE by discipline
grelarge.jpg (JPEG Image, 570x539 pixels)
Note that Philosophers get the highest overall verbal score of any discipline. Though that damn GRE is awfully light on aphorisms or allegories. Unfair.
Call me an optimist, 3
Some Economists Find Reasons to Be Optimistic - NYTimes.com
In the midst of the deepest recession in the experience of most Americans, many professional forecasters are optimistically heading into the new year declaring that the worst may soon be over.
For this rosy scenario to play out, they are counting on the Obama administration and Congress to come through with a substantial public stimulus package, up to $1 trillion over two years. They say that will get the economy moving again in the face of persistently weak spending by consumers and businesses, not to mention banks that are reluctant to extend credit.
If the dominoes fall the right way, the economy should bottom out and start growing again in small steps by July, according to the December survey of 50 professional forecasters by Blue Chip Economic Indicators. Investors seemed to be in a similarly optimistic mood on Friday, bidding up stocks by about 3 percent.
Posted by amol -->How low can IE go?
Microsoft Web Browser Loses Ground - WSJ.com
According to data from research firm Net Applications, Microsoft's Internet
Explorer browser registered a 68% market share in December, compared with a
nearly 74% share as recently as May. Microsoft representatives were not immediately available for comment.
While the decrease is relatively slight, it is nonetheless significant for a
technology that has enjoyed an extended period of dominance. Microsoft first
zeroed in on browser technology in the 1990s as a means to fend off and
ultimately crush upstart rival Netscape Communications Corp.
More recently, Microsoft has seen a three-pronged assault on its market
dominance. That's due to the increasing use of Apple Inc.'s Mac computers using the company's Safari browser, the growing popularity of the open-source Firefox browser offered by the Mozilla Foundation and Google Inc.'s release earlier this year of its own browser, called Chrome.
Firefox captured a 21% market share in December, compared with 18% in May, according to Net Applications, while Apple's Safari captured a nearly 8% share in December, compared with a 6% share in May.
Google's Chrome, which was released in September, rose from a 0.7% share in October to just over 1% in December, according to the data.
Posted by amol -->Happy New Year!
As my friend Tom put into art last night, F*** 2008
Posted by amol -->Frustrating gadgets
Basics - There’s Lots of Tech Help, Yes, on the Internet - NYTimes.com
THIS week, I bought a shiny new BlackBerry. This made me very happy. Then I went home and found that my new BlackBerry was inundating my in-box with copies of my sent e-mail messages. This made me very frustrated.
Posted by amol -->Mortgages up
This reads like good news to me. The houses started it all. More mortgage lending is going to put us on the path.
Mortgage Applications Jump - WSJ.com
With mortgage rates approaching record lows, the volume of applications filed for mortgages jumped a seasonally adjusted 48% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey.
Posted by amol -->Rumor anatomy: Walmart, iPhone, $99
In mid-November, we started to hear there might be an iPhone in Wal-Mart. Plausible - WMT has the T-Mobile G1 and they are a huge store, also it's a tough year and adding channels drives volume.
In late-November, people started saying "4GB, $99". Plausible - fits the Nano idea and the Wal-Mart bargain idea.
Now, in mid-Dec, the rumor is "after Christmas, no $99".
The couple of flaws in all this are:
- adding a big product to Wal-Mart in the rush before Xmas is a non-starter
- even after Xmas seems odd. There is a lot going on in WMT stores through Jan 1
- nobody has mentioned how the T-Mobile G1 is selling at Wal-Mart. Probably not well, as most contract phones and complex products don't sell there
- nobody has noted that Wal-Mart sells the G1 for the same price as elsewhere -- $179. A few accounts this week mention that
- why would Apple give Wal-Mart the exclusive on a low price model? Why not sell that themselves?
- could Wal-Mart afford to subsidize a device by $50-100? No way - they don't earn that much on a customer visit. With margins in the 5-10% range, they'd have to expect the customer to spend $1,000 on OTHER stuff just to earn back that subsidy
Anyway, let's see if the iPhone appears post Xmas, but the price seems likely to be "in line" with other outlets.
Posted by amol -->Where is the bailout going?
Best table I have seen all month. In the NYT Dealbook. Who got what.
And, my thoughts on Pandit were similar to Mr. PR's thoughts below, though McKinsey friends at the holiday party did rightly point out a) the guys that talked are dead now (Erin Callan from Lehman, I suppose), b) the guys that did not have fared better (Blankfein at GS or Mack at MS or, well, Pandit at Citi who did get his bailout).
Still, going forward...how to avoid termination by using the internal execution-oriented realist style into one that works in a heavily scrutinized context. You don't have to become something you're not.
Posted by amol -->In these uncertain times
Peek on the Today Show
Posted by amol -->Sending email
When you have a lot of emails to send...
Malware
Thieves Winning Online War, Maybe in Your PC - NYTimes.com
This article in the Times today, and another one that topped Digg about DNS Hijackers, hit home.
This last week I've been slowly picking out every little nit from a slathering of malware on my laptop.
The last and hardest one to remove was a registry entry and associated file that made Firefox funnel my Google searches through a little translator, and then randomly redirected some of my search results to spam pages using a server called Goored.com. Apart from landing me on coupon sites every once in a while, it was harmless. But there are literally FOUR references to "goored" on the Internet. I was extremely fortunate to extract myself.
I blame Microsoft! As always. How can you make a system so vulnerable to insanely complex hijack, rootkitting, registry manipulation etc etc? Users and their administrative rights; the Windows shell and your powers in it; the vast incoherence of the Registry; the massive folders of filenames that make no sense. How can a naive user dig out?
And no it is not sufficient to say "don't run programs from sources you don't trust". For one, sometimes you are wrong about who you trust. And for two, why should any single application you download have such omnipotence over your system? A web page can't make Firefox delete your cookies. Why can any windows app do ANYTHING?
Here is how I fixed goored: remove the bizarre folders in Local Settings for each user and remove the registry sections mentioned in this link
Pictures from Mumbai
Posted by amol -->Cookies
Some lovely chocolate chipping this holiday.
Blackberry's disastrous Storm
It obviously wasn't ready -- delayed and delayed to days before Black Friday. Smells bad. Like fear. And then....these reviews have been really ruff.
State of the Art - No Keyboard? And You Call This a BlackBerry? - NYTimes.com
My favorite: When I try to enter my Gmail address, the Storm’s camera starts up unexpectedly, turning the screen into a viewfinder — even though the keyboard still fills half the screen. (R.I.M. executives steadfastly refused to acknowledge any bugs. I even sent them videos of the Storm’s goofball glitches, but they offered only stony phone silence.)
Posted by amol -->Testing popover
Drownout referred by me
Posted by amol -->In the tank?
Brooks raving. (Almost as much as Wired for Peek...:)
Op-Ed Columnist - The Insider’s Crusade - NYTimes.com
Believe me, I’m trying not to join in the vast, heaving O-phoria now sweeping the coastal haute bourgeoisie. But the personnel decisions have been superb. The events of the past two weeks should be reassuring to anybody who feared that Obama would veer to the left or would suffer self-inflicted wounds because of his inexperience. He’s off to a start that nearly justifies the hype.
Posted by amol -->Peek on Live! With Regis and Kelly
YouTube - Peek email on Live with Regis and Kelly show
Posted by amol -->Content over the phone
I love how low tech and high availability this product is. Call it. And listen to the radio program of your choice.
DVD sales down. Consumers vanishing!
Where are those consumer?
DVDs, Hollywood’s Profit Source, Are Sagging - NYTimes.com
The independent tracking service Nielsen VideoScan paints a bleaker picture, reporting a 9 percent drop in overall DVD sales during the third quarter alone and a 22 percent decline in sales of higher-priced new titles
Posted by amol -->Volume on the Apple App Store
Safe from the Losing Fight ｻ Can you make a living off an iPhone app?
Posted by amol -->Weekly Youtube address??
This is unbelievable. ChangeDotGov "the brand" is publishing weekly youtube addresses from Obama. It's really amazing and makes total sense; but I thought it was a total fake when I first saw it.
Your Weekly Address from the President-elect | Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team
Posted by amol -->Cool sounding selections for FCC
Utilities! Welcome your regulators.
techPresident – Obama Puts Well-Known Internet Advocate in Charge of FCC Review
[I]n a final statement that's likely to send shivers down the spines of telecom company executives, she [Crawford] said that she believes internet access is a "utility."
Posted by amol -->USA Today: Peek is easier to use than iPhone
Tech gadgets fall into two categories: "Because-we-can" gizmos loaded with a battalion of features, or dirt-simple ones that do just one or two things well.
The Peek e-mail device I've been testing marches in the latter camp. It's refreshingly uncomplicated.
Peek is aimed at consumers who want to read e-mail or write new ones using a tiny Qwerty-style keyboard from anywhere, but who have stayed away from smartphones because they're too complicated or costly....
Posted by amol -->Peek on Oprah's list
The O List - Gifts Under 100 Dollars
Posted by amol -->Games on phones
Some key numbers missing in this article, like: how much revenue to date for games on iPhone?
Overall, very little apparently -- $10 million maybe?
But only 3% growth in iPod revenues last quarter, a more efficient distribution channel for game makers (faster, cheaper), and a community of makers that are focusing only on the iPhone...suggests opportunity.
Of course, PCs didn't kill consoles, and portables didn't kill either of those. But games can be a category on any platform.
Apple's iPhone Faces Off With the Game Champs - WSJ.com
Posted by amol -->The end of the southern strategy
The Republicans are headed for "Southern Democrat" status.
For South, a Waning Hold on Politics - NYTimes.com
Less than a third of Southern whites voted for Mr. Obama, compared with 43 percent of whites nationally. By leaving the mainstream so decisively, the Deep South and Appalachia will no longer be able to dictate that winning Democrats have Southern accents or adhere to conservative policies on issues like welfare and tax policy, experts say.
That could spell the end of the so-called Southern strategy, the doctrine that took shape under President Richard M. Nixon in which national elections were won by co-opting Southern whites on racial issues. And the Southernization of American politics — which reached its apogee in the 1990s when many Congressional leaders and President Bill Clinton were from the South — appears to have ended.
“I think that’s absolutely over,” said Thomas Schaller, a political scientist who argued prophetically that the Democrats could win national elections without the South.
The Republicans, meanwhile, have “become a Southernized party,” said Mr. Schaller, who teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “They have completely marginalized themselves to a mostly regional party,” he said, pointing out that nearly half of the current Republican House delegation is now Southern.
Posted by amol -->Mac vs Windows
By age segment, is the battle so lopsided?
boxee blog ｻ why we launched boxee for Mac before Windows
Posted by amol -->Horrifying Android Bug
Posted by amol -->Follow me on Twitter
Posted by amol -->Peek sale at Target. This week only
Time's Gadget of the Year
Peek. Vote for it!
Medical gadgets
Health Blog : Medtronic Exec: Medical Devices 'Finished'
Would-be medical-device entrepreneurs got a sobering message Wednesday at a Boston conference of academic researchers and medical-device companies.
“You can’t keep stuffing gizmos into people to treat end-stage disease,” the keynote speaker said. “When biotechnology gets right, we’re finished. Because it’s restorative, not palliative as devices are.”
The seemingly pessimistic speaker? Device giant Medtronic’s senior vice president for medicine and technology, Stephen Oesterle (pictured).
Posted by amol -->Peek in 49 seconds
Posted by amol -->CSM dies. But print can't.
Christian Science Paper to End Daily Print Edition - NYTimes.com
Still, said Ken Doctor, a newspaper analyst at Outsell Inc., most newspapers cannot give up paper. Print editions still bring in 92 percent of the overall revenue, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
Posted by amol -->Goodbye, Senator Stevens
I can truly say I met the man. Or at least, was questioned by him. On arcane topics of rural cellular spectrum allocation. He's far more famous for his explanation of the Internet ("series of tubes") than asking me if spectrum should be big blocks or small blocks. Wasn't nice about it though, was he?
Alaska Senator Is Convicted of Ethics Breach in Gift Scheme - NYTimes.com
Mr. Stevens has long been tied to the rough-and-tumble history of his home state and wields outsized influence over federal spending....
Posted by amol -->Credit immobilier
The line below is about as close to a smoking gun as anybody needs.
Talking Business - So When Will Banks Give Loans? - NYTimes.com
We would think that loan volume will continue to go down as we continue to tighten credit to fully reflect the high cost of pricing on the loan side.
Posted by amol -->These are tough times.
New York Times (NYT) Running On Fumes
This story is very sad to read. The carmakers, the banks, Yahoo, even the New York Times on the ropes. It's really a shame all this carnage.
Posted by amol -->The uncool kid
As my friend Tom observed, McCain just can't win. Anything he does blows back in his face. Joe the Plumber. Palin on SNL. Whatever. He's the uncool kid in school that everyone laughs at. He can't zag his way out.
Posted by amol -->Louis Menand: Peek to beat sms
Thumbspeak: Books: The New Yorker
Posted by amol -->Profiles in unhappiness 2
The Lightning Rod - The Atlantic (November 2008)
Michelle Rhee is always on message and always on call. If she’s not speaking, she’s thumbing away on her BlackBerry, or working a cell phone, or flipping open a laptop. When I met with her recently, she sat at her desk clasping a BlackBerry and a cell phone in her right hand; in front of her was a sleek Sony Vaio laptop, which she monitored incessantly during our conversation, while off to her right was yet another computer, a desktop PC. Apparently there is a second BlackBerry somewhere. And it’s not for show. “Every e-mail a parent sends me, I answer,” she said, a boast that even her critics grudgingly concede.
Michelle Rhee
BlackBerry-wielding type-A personalities out to shake up the system are a common sight in Washington. Until recently, their habitat consisted almost exclusively of the halls of Congress and the K Street corridor—the think tanks, lobby shops, and congressional staffs most of us talk about when we talk about the capital.
Posted by amol -->Profiles in unhappiness
Hedge Fund Manager: Goodbye and F---- You - News Blog - Daily Brief - Portfolio.com
Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.
Posted by amol -->Fellow Stuyvesant alum Bram Cohen
BitTorrent's Bram Cohen Isn't Limited by Asperger's - BusinessWeek
Apparently a "nerd". Hmm, there might have been others at Stuy...
Posted by amol -->SNL vs. the candidates
Catching up tonight on the SNL from this week. I have to say the Al Smith dinner roasts are way funnier.
Posted by amol -->How Would Jesus Vote?
I think the answer is....a revelation
Posted by amol -->Picwing pics
Nifty super-easy "post pictures by email" service. I love the world of email!
Watching the election odds
The only way to watch this thing!
Not Ironic
From a friend...
notironic.com - Things that are not ironic.
It would be ironic if the racecar driver got pulled over for driving too slowly.
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 -->Contact me
Want to reach me? Use the link on the left, or use this:
Posted by amol -->Chetan is the next Tyson
We are all very proud of this handsome devil. I knew the look would catch someone's eye eventually.
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:
Posted by amol -->Peek in the wild
Digg Peek again
Peek covered by LAPTOP Magazine -- Digg it!
Posted by amol -->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….
My picture 'server'
When http://home.drownout.com is down, try 71.167.7.201. If you really want...
Posted by amol -->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...
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 -->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 -->We're in the ground!
Construction is on its way for the last few weeks on Jackson Ave.
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 -->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 -->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.Posted by amol -->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.
Ferrari cherry
I drove a very nice Italian car for the first time yesterday...
Posted by amol -->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 -->Tom Sanford at Leo Koenig
Tom Sanford's show is currently up at Leo Koenig. It's an impressive chunk of work!
Apple is black
Slowly the all white Apple (simple, friendly, for all) is becoming all black Apple (elegant, elite, prestige).
Lifecast
This is a live stream via web of our living room.
Posted by amol -->This summer
This year we are finally doing it! Booking a house in Fayence in Provence
Details and map:
Posted by amol -->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
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).
Our new place
We moved recently. This is the way into our new building.
Posted by amol -->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 -->Spectrum auction over. Where is Google?
Apparently Google flaked on the whole "open" thing. Nowhere to be seen. In fact, Verizon won everything.
Posted by amol -->Apple //c Unboxing
It's amazing how long Apple's packaging has looked exactly as it does.
Apple //c Unboxing on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
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 -->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 -->Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation
Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation has a new website -- wfc.txtbl.com
Posted by amol -->Sidebar: Countdown widget
Posted by amol -->
Txtbl hiring plan
New headcount
Geographic distribution
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 -->
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 -->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 -->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 -->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 -->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 -->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 -->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 -->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 -->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 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 -->Jeff Black, for the Wireless Founders Coalition, on the Hill
Posted by amol -->Superteam
Personally, I like the suggestion that I am Green Lantern.
Frontline Assembles Open Access Super Team
Posted by amol -->Flickr widget
Google Docs...killer
This app is so great.
Posted by amol -->An American Announcement
Time for a fresh start, after a season of cynicism.
Posted by amol -->Amazon mp3 is great
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 -->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 -->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 -->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!
Headline from the Subtle-use-of-'s Dept
Earth Might Survive Sun's Explosion - New York Times
Posted by amol -->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 -->Silly telecom rules
My friend David Jones sent me this clipping from ESPN Magazine -- quoting me on college sports recruiting tactics!
Sidebar: Google blog news widget
It's a world of widgets
...though it's not working.
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 -->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.
Posted by amol -->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.
Posted by amol -->Tom and Alex get married
Tom and Alex got married this weekend. The NYT announcement.
Posted by amol -->Sidebar: Subscribe
Get the email subscription to this blog
Posted by amol -->Goodbye, loser used car dealer
Our car lot is clear. The used car dealer is gone. Victory!
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 -->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 -->links for 2007-08-14
links for 2007-08-12
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.
links for 2007-08-11
links for 2007-08-10
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Return of the FreePC. Kind of.
links for 2007-08-09
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Mid-tier chipset
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greenport area
links for 2007-08-08
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150 per day
links for 2007-08-07
links for 2007-08-06
links for 2007-08-05
links for 2007-08-04
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Soonr office sync s/w has only 250Kish downloads in 1-2 years
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Nice house
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Amazon's payments platform, laid bare for you to integrate into your applications or businesses! Amazing. It's going to change the industry.
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Chris Ireland. Principal at this ethnography firm
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Rachel Strickland. What do people carry in their bags? And what does it say about them?
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Alex Lima's invention/import
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"Green" searching actually means using a black background
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Women check email more often and spend more total time doing email than men
links for 2007-08-03
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Nobody downloads mobile apps!
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Blackberry doofuses can't keep their service up. Vulnerability?
Forbes piece on spectrum rules
Forbes on the wireless rules including a great quote at the bottom from St. Augustine.
Posted by amol -->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 -->links for 2007-08-02
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Obamarama fading
links for 2007-08-01
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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
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 -->links for 2007-07-31
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 -->links for 2007-07-30
links for 2007-07-29
links for 2007-07-28
links for 2007-07-27
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aphics, or music; access email or instant messaging via their browser; and those that access adult content or gambling sites.
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 -->links for 2007-07-26
Explosion near Grand Central
Not sure what yet.
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 -->Open access coverage, week 3
Third week of coverage of the open access stuff and the letter to the FCC
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 -->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 -->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!
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
Senate hearings
I am appearing at the Commerce Committee. Senate schedule permalink
Posted by amol -->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 -->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.
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 -->Senate
The Senate is having hearings on the spectrum auctions next week.
Commerce Committee hearing on 700 Mhz spectrum
Posted by amol -->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 -->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.
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 -->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.
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 -->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 -->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 -->Mybloglog recent readers
Posted by amol -->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 -->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 -->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 -->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 -->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 -->Milestones
I am now 500+ on Linkedin. I am part of the club. Time to stop caring about it.
Posted by amol -->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.
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 -->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.)
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 -->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 -->Old logos web 2.0ified
Flickr Photo Download: Corporate World Meet Web2.0
Funny!
Posted by amol -->Chetan's travels
Great pictures from Chetan's travels
Posted by amol -->Spiritual foods
Christianity is on an uptick here in the USA, and marketers are supposedly on the case. Even in the snack case.
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 -->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
Sidebar: What am I doing?
Check out my Gcal free/busy
Sidebar: Twitter
what I'm doing right now:
Posted by amol -->
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 -->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
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 -->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!
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 -->
Transitional seasons
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 -->
Castries, my friend's concoction
Castries peanut creme liquer. My friend's tasty concoction -- it's great for winter!
Posted by amol -->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 -->Amol Sarva calendar
Posted by amol -->
