One Day..... You will be Mine.... Oh Yes... You WILL be Mine!

Wannabe Forum Cops like this guy @Beckland on Quora.... I love tech nerds who secretly want to be cops!

Look at this d-bag :  Quora (if you're not using it already)  is a neat little social media app where questions get answered and voted up by the community... kinda twitter meets digg I guess. 

Anyway...  there's a bunch of great stuff on their re: Startups.  One of which is a story about the beginnings of Instagram... really neat.  You can check it out here.  

So...  I make a comment :  "I'm going to more bbq's" (you'll get it when you read the story)  

Anyway this complete forum nazi d-bag geek Jeremy Beckland (is this over the top? yes but the guy has pissed me off!)  removes my comment and says.... "ahhh you should really make your answers pertain to the question asked."

Oh... like the million other F'ing comments on there that say "Nice Story"  or "Wow... really inspiring"  or "I love Instagram"  somehow answer the question better than my comment?  

I wasn't even trying to answer the f'ing question... D-BAG... just commenting ....... so are you not allowed to do that or are you such a freak...  that you have nothing better to do on a Sunday than to be a forum police troll cop and make sure everyone's following the rules? 

D-BAG.... 

And I saw your comment about why Quora doesn't use mechanical turk to monitor comments.... maybe 'cause they want to see the community interact without d-bags like you monitoring it...  JACKASS! 

@vons super stoked on my delivery but what am I gonna do with this? No bags?

Classic @Verizon iPhone Cartoon from The @Oatmeal - Matthew Inman on the 3rd it's on!

 

 

Wonder if Sergy, Brin and Zuck just realized they've been compared to Thomas Edison and The Wright Brothers respectively!

Dramatic? Perhaps.... Overstated? ....Perhaps  Wrong?  Definitely not!  

Obama's State of the Union Address where he compares Edison and The Wright Brothers to Google and Facebook may not be far fetched!

All six figures are by far some of the most revolutionary folks of their time without a doubt.  I suppose the former however had the advantage

of time on their hands.....  meaning : the world was a whole lot less developed when they were around so their contributions perhaps seem more meaningful.

Plus add in that fact that the final comparison, The Wright Brothers to Facebook, is mired in, what seems to be, a never ending legal battle between the "idea" guys

(Winklevoss Twins) and the "executor" (Zuckerberg) perhaps the comparison is a bit overzealous.  Interesting in hindsight that the generation before them (Gates and Jobs) 

went unmentioned.  My, oh my ......how time fly's! (Still looking forward to my iPhone on Verizon, Steve.... so don't get all bent outta shape!) 

Well... whether dramatic or not,  I think the latter's contributions are just as significant.  Hell...  if you Jump the Shark and make the Edison to Facebook comparison

you could even go as far to say :  "Well Thomas Edison gave light to the world"...... well  ....... "Zuck allowed 1 in 4 people in the world to connect with the outside world" 

I have "friends"  (albeit loosely defined) in Sweden, Brazil, UK and New Zealand that I've never met.   

But I suppose one could argue that light and flight not only created companies and commerce,  they created industry....  which is true.

But then..... didn't Google and Facebook?  Google was search... they we're video... but they bought YouTube which is an industry in and of itself.  Hell,  I just

saw a blog post the other day (forget where)  that there were 10 average everyday Joe's that we're gonna make over $100K a year on YouTube!  That's industry! 

And Facebook?  Have they created industry?...  One needs to look no further than Zynga... and those god awful Mafia War requests right?

I came into this post thinking.....  it was his statement was spot on, than I fell for the dramatization factor.... but now I think I've gone back to the fact that 

this was pretty legit and not far fetched.  We're living in the presence of current day Edison's and Wright Brother's!  G'Damn ! It's a good time to be alive! 

Wife rockin RiverFarm today! Who knew she was so hip!

Ten Bullet Comments on Last Night's Crunchie Awards #crunchies @techcrunch, @arrington

The Crunchies = Tech Award Show for StartUps.  To see the list of nominees go here:  TC 2010 Nominees

Commentary = 

1. Great show overall,  but the tech weenies @ the show need to applaud more... too many awkward silences
2. Paul Carr and Sarah Lacy did a great job, their wisecrack bashing was funny.... but whoever was in charge of  a) cue cards for nominees and categories and b) trying to arrange the photos of the winners and presenters ought to be canned !
3. Andrew Mason proves that nerdy cerebral people can be unbelievably hilarious
4. Aaron Patzer's presentation of nominees for Best Social App while funny.... was so uncomfortable you wondered if there wasn't a bit of truth behind the jokes....  but Andrew Mason saved the day when he replied, "We stole it from China you asshole"  to Patzer's comment that GroupOn stole the idea for it's application from the Japanese. 
5. Elew... opening the show was insane!  I've never heard of the guy before... but he can play a mean piano.  You've never heard Pearl Jam on a piano like this dude can do it! 
6. Was happy to see TechCrunch show coordinators throw in land bmx dude and break dancing crew to break it up a little.  There was one guy in the break dance crew that I swear had 100% cartilage in his body,  no actual bones!
7. Thought it was odd that Microsoft (sponsor of the show)  had to endear themselves a little to the by giving away 10 Xboxes and 10 Kinects 
8. The dude who presented with the founder from TransferBigFiles.com  absolutely bashed him by saying,  "I'm not sure why TransferBigFiles.com is a sponsor of this award,  I don't get it" Wow!
9. Ustream connection was flawless !
10. It's no wonder Tristan Walker is FourSquare's Head of Biz Dev,  he probably had the smoothest, least awkward acceptance speech.  But Tristan stop itching your nose! 

My caloric intake from Tuesday's breakfast is rather ominous!

Company Longevity: Are you Built to Flip or Built to Last? @NewsCorp Seeks Buyer for @MySpace

Man...  the story from Mashable on MySpace earlier this week really got me thinking. Then, when I Googled "What is Tom Anderson doing now?"  It came back with this Quora result where the former VP of IT OPs for MySpace came back and said "He's watching a lot of baseball and enjoying life, I hope!" 

Two random un-related thoughts:

1) Is this necessarily bad? I'm blanking on the term that describes this philosophy,  but isn't this (NewsCorp's sale of MySpace) a little like chopping off a cancer infested leg to save the body?  Sorry... to be gross but you get the idea.  Isn't there a word for that?  Anyway, I'm sure that the folks who were in the latest round of MySpace layoffs have a different opinion, but at some point you gotta shed the dead weight right?  If you try and try and try again, but you just can't zap the cancer once and for all,  isn't is better to lop that appendage off if it significantly increases your chance of survival?  Damn... what the term/word for this scenario? 

and 

2) Is it me.....or are company life spans getting shorter?  The start-up world is littered with products and companies that have been bought, integrated, and then summarily killed.  Or is there a new class of todays Zuckerbergs' that want to be tomorrow's Jobs'?  Does Zuck wanna look back on his life and say, "I was a game changer?"  In my eyes.... the guy already is!!  He was Time Mag's person of the year for christ sakes. How many people can claim that?  Will his profile be raised in my eyes or that of the public's if he goes on to win the Nobel Peace Prize? Perhaps, but for what? Look at Steve Jobs,  the guy is on his second leave of absence due to his ailing health.  The guy is no doubt an icon of our time,  but at what cost?  Are people going to like him more when he's dead?  

I think I'm definitely in the flip camp.  Keep your Time Magazine Man of the Year, keep your Nobel Peace Prize.  Let me be a part of something special that creates value, then let's flip it and get outta the game.....  or better yet,  let's go watch one! 

Nice @LinkedIn... this might be one of the raddest things you've done in a while!

This is killer to get an annual snap shot of your colleauges, business associates, clients and friends to see where there at in one snap shot....   We truly live in a 140 character driven world now!  

• Don't give me the business plan... give me the 10 slide deck
• Don't give me the 10 page whitepaper,  show me a 2 minute video
• Don't leave a voicemail.... send a text or three.sentences inspired email

Gets me back to my New Years resolution : Brevity !  Gotta practice that in 2011 ! 

Awww yeah @google & @googlevoice you guys improve my life a little everyday!

So I thought the big threat to AT&T and their horrific support of decent iPhone coverage was coming from the newly announced Verizon CDMA iPhone (Order yours on Feb 3rd!).

But alas..... google voice announced today that they are rolling out the ability to port your cell phone number to your Google Voice number so that it's you main number!  All for only $20 stones !!! 

I'm gonna break my contract with AT&T anyway in Feb when I order the verizon iPhone.... but hey... if I can be making calls and getting my VM for free thru Google and cut down on my per minute plan w/ Verizon.... I'm In !!  Tell me where to Sign!! 

Now....  just hoping my plea's w/ Google work,  and they actually light my Google Voice account up! 

Here's the story from CNET!

 

Tech Story of David vs. Goliath starring : @binarystarrap @ScottWilsonID @Griffintech @kickstarter

Gonna get a little abstract here... but hopefully you'll follow along.  

So I was listening to a song from Binary Star (if you enjoy hip hop check them out)   and this chorus for whatever reason made me think of this random post.

Here's the chorus:

All we need is beats, and rhymes and go and spark it
As long as we got the underground, yo, we got a market
I don't need an agent to tell me how to run it
Cause my goal's to win the Indy 500

Here's why: In case you have your head under a rock apple has made yet another kick ass, well designed product in the iPod Nano, which can easily serve as a watch.   So some very creative folks over at Minimal Studios created the LunaTik and TickTock thru funding from KickStarter... another group of talented and creative folks.  KickStarter, if you head isn't buried, but your're not a techno weenie like me, is a website that funds "creative" projects in a very unique, all or nothing, way.  You should check it out too! 

 

Anyway... here's where I get a little abstract.  This chorus is about underground hip hop and their struggle to make it without the "big labels" or majors is what I think they call them.

Hold on now.... here's where we get a little weird...

So Scott @ Minimal is a super creative dude that saw a mouse trap and decided to make it better.   He's a little guy, but was smart and got his project off the ground thru KickStarter (in fact to date, his project is the most successful in terms of dollars raised)

So on to Griffin:  Griffin's been in the iPod accesory game since, well, there were iPods.  So I'm not taking any cred from them.  But when I saw them release the "Slap", a Nano watch holder, @ CES (for $24.99 no less)  I thought...."Well there you go..... Goliath has come to play"  

I looked up when Griffin announced their product (11/16/10) and looked at the funding for Lunatik (12/16/10) so who's to say who came first.  

But I really hope that Griffin doesn't come in and just oblierate Scott or the dudes @ MNML 'cause this type of "underground" innovation and creativity is what fuels dreams and passions.  Griffin could afford to stop making the slap tommorow and never skip a beat,  however, this could be Scott's victory lap @ the Indy 500. 

 

I forgot what a bad ass Al Pacino is in Heat...

See and download the full gallery on posterous

poaching is a science!

Article: Twins’ Facebook Fight Rages On - Kerry A. Dolan - Shades of Green

Twins’ Facebook Fight Rages On - Kerry A. Dolan - Shades of Green
http://blogs.forbes.com/kerryadolan/2010/12/31/twins-facebook-fight-rages-on/

(Sent from Flipboard)

sincerely,

john haden

714.501.4221

johnhaden.com

@johnhaden

Mobile Payments is the new Black! Nice coverage from @Alltop & @Good re: Square @jack, @sqsupport !

The credit card processing industry rakes in over $40 billion each year a few pennies per swipe. As plastic payments become more ubiquitous, especially with growing online sales, cash is starting to seem obsolete, sadly. Transaction services are safe bet for a growth sector. So it's no wonder a new entrant to the game is bringing the action to mobile phones. And this one might actually help the little guy.

Square is an smartphone app–and a little white square (pictured below)–that lets anyone who downloads the free app process credit card payments right on their phone. All you need is a U.S. bank account, a social security number, and a street address. Oh, and a smartphone with an internet connection. The company will send you the smallest credit card swipe machine you've ever seen. It inserts into the headphone jack of your phone, but you don't even need that to process payments, it's just way more fun. The Wired pop-up store was even giving them away to anyone who stopped by.

Once you download the app and set up your account you can start collecting all manner of old debts, inappropriate door charges to dinner parties or, more likely, conveniently make a few extra sales in your small business. This seems like a tool we could include in our tips for becoming a carft show superstar.

Mobile credit card processing machines aren't revolutionary, and it's always been relatively easy in most places to point a customer to a computer and ask them to make an online payment if there wasn't a processing machine connected to a phone line nearby. So Square is no game changer for small business. But the elegant interface might just facilitate a few extra entrepreneurs in getting out and setting up (a small) shop. Or getting your little brother to finally pay you back that $20 he never carries in cash.

PSFK has plenty of pics of Square in use if you want to see what a signature on an iPhone looks like.

Thought this was pretty funny!