Things about management and business on a smaller scale, and economics on a larger one.
Very impressive flash Ad from Apple.
The ad is just a regular until you click for sound and then the ad really starts up. The reason: Two independent SWF files that sync actions across themselves. Both ads have to be delivered at the same time. Clever use of shape and placement of those ads to tell a funny story.
“Please tell me you guys aren’t getting in bed with Google. I actually find myself rooting for annoying-ass Fuckerberg because of this Open Syphilis shit.”
—e-mail from a friend
I’ve had a number of people who know what I do as a day job ask me what I think about Google’s OpenSocial initiative. Maybe it’s because they know I’m so opinionated and they just want to hear me go off.
What’s strange is how few of those actually involved with the project have asked me what I thought (Answer: none of them). They know that I’m not a photographer, or a socialite, or “they guy who does Lunch 2.0” and yet they’ve been strangely silent before, during, and after the announcement. It turned out I only found out about this at all, because of people who know me only as a photographer, socialite (laugh!), and “the guy who does Lunch 2.0.”
Now I won’t go out to state my opinion about OpenSocial beyond the question: You parlayed my friendship for this? I guess you can guess what I think about OpenSocial from that.
Chalk this up to another incessant reminder of why I hate the high school antics of the Valley. Had any of them bothered to ask me about this, here is a tip I could have given them: when you make a list, there are much bigger companies in the Valley than Facebook that are going to be disappointed they weren’t invited to the party.
Slick move, ace!
I alluded to this bitterly in a previous post, but to further highlight the absurdity of the who was and wasn’t invited to the “Open”(laugh!)Social, I was talking to another friend:
“They leaked this well in advance to the ‘largest social network in Holland.’ In Holland??? Can you believe?”
D—: “Haha. I sort of like the Dutch. They sort of sound like Germans but act nicer.”
“The only thing I know about the Dutch is that they’re awfully tall.”
D—: “Maybe it’s to keep their heads above sea level.”
Ahh, trust my friends to put everything in perspective.
(After that conversation he sent me this to cheer me up.)
People are all in a huff about Ballmer being, as far as I can tell, Ballmer.
“I think these things [social networks] are going to have some legs, and yet there’s a faddishness, a faddish nature about anything that basically appeals to younger people.”
—Steve Ballmer, Times Online
Now, I think Ballmer is an idiot as much as any man (or, at least, Mac fanboi)…
But am I wrong in thinking the whole idea of him saying this is so that they can purchase Facebook at a price that’s not astronomical, especially now that Yahoo! has dropped out of the running? Whether social networking is a fad or not, it’s seems good business to claim it is when you hold the money but not a product. Shit, isn’t that the first thing a VC does when they talk to a startup—try to make you and your business feel like shit? Sounds to me the same thing on a much bigger playing field.
Also is it really that bad of a quote?
“The Internet? We are not interested in it”
—Bill Gates, 1993
(For reference, this was said a year after I called home and said, “Dad, I want to quit Caltech. You know this thing Mom and I use called the Internet? It’s going to be big!” So, basically, any of the “younger people” who wasn’t a complete moron at the time had figured out that the Internet is definitely something a company like Microsoft should be interested in.)
Marc Andreessen points out, the true beauty of the Ballmer quote is it applies to nearly everything. In fact, I think I’ll be saying that as an reverse “not into pokémon”. Any time someone dismisses something I’m really into, I’ll say:
I.
Love.
This.
Quote.
I don’t think I could be screaming monkey Ballmer very well, but this, this I can do.
(By the way, if any of you are wondering why I’m behind on my photography, read Jim Goldstein’s post on digital photography: “Digital Photography: So Good, It’s Bad.” So true! Applies also to blogging about photography.)
[Thanks and thoughts.]Continue reading
For those of you who asked after this appeared, my first AT&T wireless bill was only 66 pages long (33 double sided pages).
Thanks, Justine Ezarik, for reminding me that I’m still as unpopular as I was in high school.
Oh well, I better sign up for online billing.
The Steve and the Al would be happy.
[My iPhone scam after the jump]Continue reading
I’ve been achingly close to reaching that fabled “500+” in LinkedIn for a while now—that icon reserved only for a select few recruiters (13), marcom/sales peeps (5), product/program managers (5), founders/CEO (3), professional networkers(3), VC (2), and Adam Glickman (dude, I see you at Lunch 2.0 all the time, but still haven’t figured out what you do).
So on Friday, I guessed that it was time for another of my infamous LinkedIn Haiku blast to more of peeps who have had the misfortune of find themselves in my address book.
Now, I’m officially a LinkedIn whore!
[More observations after the jump.]Continue reading
Just got back from crashing the Xobni party.
Xobni is a Y Combinator company which has managed to reach the point of external funding. I have no clue what Xobni does other than make a Facebook app that tells people to e-mail you instead of send a message—I installed it in my profile just before heading out so I could not be totally full of shit.
Basically what Y Combinator does is give people a tiny amount of seed money to create a company, because WTF, it’s super cheap to create a Web 2.0 company. That’s a pretty good low risk, high beta idea, I suppose, but you’d have to be pretty young to be a Y Combinator company since anyone old can just jet over to the ATM and withdraw that amount.
(As you can imagine, I was one of the oldest people there. My bank statement I picked up as I staggered up to my apartment says I could start two Y Combinators from my checking account alone and I’m pretty much the poorest, most financially irresponsible techie in the Bay Area.)
[My party observations after the jump.]Continue reading
A funny rumor appeared on TechCrunch about the company I work for.
I won’t comment about the rumor. (To be honest, I’m so bad with numbers I wouldn’t be able to get the number right even if I did.) Instead I’d like to point out Comment 26:
“15M can hire the BEST engineers and product team in the bay area, word on the streets is that they already have 3 of the hottest sh*t php engineers, and a famous architect boot. I would watch out for them in the near future.”
Famous architect? Moi?
Pshawww!
P.S. Tagged is hiring. I don’t know about the others but I’m looking for some young, hot sh*t PHP engineers who don’t mind working with a “famous architect” for a profitable, growing, hot startup with tons of money. (The beauty here is you don’t work for me. I’m like the color commentator of your code.)
We’ll see who can kick out more product. As long as you kids don’t keep stealing my hearing aid, I’ll give you a run, I promise. 😀
Contact Mark Jen and Terry Chay (especially Mark, I’m just an engineer… but apparently a “hot sh*t” one. :-D).
I know everyone thinks that I have the hate on Ruby, but “some of my best friends use Rails.” 🙂
Actually, I used to work with the CEO and CTO of BrightRoll and they have a killer product. BrightRoll is a preroll and postroll advertising platform with customers such as CBS, ABC, Fox News, Comcast, and ESPN. (Note to BrightRoll: The RealMedia full episode ads don’t deliver on CBS Mac Safari. Your problem?) Think of all of that revenue and product traction with only 10 employees! They currently work out of the Financial District in San Francisco right near Chinatown (good food) and very easy access to the BART. Sometimes we have lunch and shoot the shit.
(And yes, they use Ruby on Rails. Dru has put a lot of thought into his platform choice, including a lot of discussions with me. When I grow up, I want to be Dru.)
You can read about the job openings here, but here is a quick summary:
The most important features they are looking for are:
So either look them up and/or pop me an e-mail explaining why I should refer you. Disclaimer: I get $5k if I refer you so it’s probably better you have someone else who knows them refer you, since it’ll just go into my “piss on Rails” piggy bank.
As I like to say, in Web 2.0 there are basically only two products out there: search and social networking. And both of them are powered by advertising. No matter what happens with the internet video thing, one thing is certain, it’s going to be powered by advertising. And Brightroll will be there to ensure that deliverability.
Terrence,
Good morning! I’m writing in the hopes that you can help point me in the right direction with respect to my search for a Sr. Web Developer an/or QA Tester who has expertise with PHP 5, Zend, Ajax, LAMP, Web 2.0 technologies, and the like.
I will certainly pay a referral fee upon successful hire for anyone whom you can recommend, and would welcome any input you may have. Please contact me via email or at any of the numbers listed below for additional information.
Thanks, and have a great day!
contact: andrewp [at] this site
[I don’t realize how over-the-top I am until I sober up. Here is a random snippet of conversation.]
Me: “You know how I am. I went to that g—d—n school. I think they’re all idiots who are divorced from reality. I said that to you when they bought out Overture.”
K—: “They’re eggheads. That’s true anywhere, not just Caltech. It’s not Burbank anymore, the new people in Sunnyvale are like that too. You talk to them and think they’re smart, but all the do is draw boxes.”
Me: “Boxes? You mean like UML?”
K—: “No, that would imply code being written. I mean boxes.”
[More random stuff after the jump]Continue reading