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Omar Vasquez Lima › Likes
Listening to my mom & uncle talk about how different Los Gatos used to be. Same conversation I've heard for the last 400 Xmases.
Mo Kargas, Omar Vasquez Lima, J. Abdul-Qahhar and 7 other people liked this
400 Xmases? You don't sparkle when you go out into sunlight do you?
- Johnny Worthington
(PS, Sarah sparkles all the time... *swoon*)
- Johnny Worthington
Speak up and say "Los Gatos would be great if it wasn't for all the Vampires" and turn and walk away :-)
- John D Reasor
400? Sarah don't no more then 20 xmases!
- Fee501st
Fee, are you saying she was in too much of a drunken haze to remember the other 380? :)
- Thomas
Well i mean she don't look older then 20 xmases! heh
- Fee501st
Silver spoon.
- Dave Friedel
from Android
Dave- is that directed toward me? Cause I do eat from a silver spoon. Sure it's tarnished. But it's silver.
- Sarah Lane
Let's just say there was quite a bit of contrast between your car and Marty's in the TWiF behind the scenes video. http://bit.ly/8GUIJh
- Dave Friedel
from Android
That was last twif Marty's car worked :(
- Fee501st
Did it really stop working or did it burn down when he tried to light a fire on a cold SF evening...
- Thomas
from FreshFeed
Pop Quiz: U.S. federal building in Washington DC or Los Gatos High? http://bit.ly/78yXWZ ;)
- Dave Friedel
Pop Quiz Bonus: Battleship or Marty's car? (Take your time) http://bit.ly/4qSiRC
- Dave Friedel
That's my alma mater, Dave. It's one of the things that haven't changed in 400 years.
- Linelle Lane
The whole family is against me! ;)
- Dave Friedel
from Android
Low Resolution (one clever halloween costume…) - http://www.zee.me/blog...
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Vedrana Janković, Ivan Zuzak, attila erbilir and 18 other people liked this
nisam verovao da cu videti mesto gde je ovo prikladan komentar: http://xkcd.com/598/ :)
- Marko Đorđevic
like to Ђорђевиц
- Ej Dragana Dragana
She is totally a dream girl of the nerds
- Ozkan Altuner
What is a good Atom to RSS converter? I tried a few but none work! I want to take my friendfeed Atom feed and make it into an RSS feed!
Kol Tregaskes and Omar Vasquez Lima liked this
Isn't Atom just as usable as RSS? Anyway, try Yahoo Pipes, the default output seems to be RSS.
- Ignacio Rodriguez de R,
I used Yahoo Pipes but after about a day of it working it just stopped. And yes its just as useful but the program / code I am using it with needs it to be RSS.
- Dakota O'Neill
Try this, this is very old and I dont know if it would still work or not: http://www.2rss.com/atom2rs... followed by the url of the atom feed. Details here: http://www.2rss.com/softwar...
- TrafficBug
You could just whack it into FeedBurner, it will then output it in whatever format the client requests it as with the SmartBurner feature. or you can specify it directly using the Convert Format feature
- Glenn Slaven
Hi,
- pannaree nil
from email
agree with Glenn about FeedBurner
- Mike Chelen
Dental Service with a smile. :)
veruska s, zeroinfluencer, bnoise and 48 other people liked this
GAH!!!!
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Hah. This again!
- Rochelle
CREEPY!
- AJ Batac
Yeah, creepy, like some psycho-dentist...
- अभिषेक(Abhishek) Das
oh my dear friggin god.....no....just no
- Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
I don't want to see that at the dentist.
- Christopher Harley
CREEPY. But I still want one. Just for my own amusement.
- Penguin It's Cold Outside
That mask and a dental drill are the last thing I want to see coming towards me. Ack!
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
Feels like a diabolical 'Joker' act.
- Mahendra (SkepticGeek)
Only this one's freakier....
- अभिषेक(Abhishek) Das
Those would have me finding new dentists. Fucking freaky. D:
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
FUCKNING NIGHRETMEARE!!!!!@111!
- Joe Silence is Dr. Teeth!
FAIL...
- Harold - Happy 2010
Creepy? What? I'd love to see this on my dentists :P
- David Myers
You amaze me, David.... :)
- अभिषेक(Abhishek) Das
That's creepy.
- Beau Liening
from iPhone
believe you have to;) They're scary and they're for real!
- अभिषेक(Abhishek) Das
Run AWAY!!
- Ubqtous
I'm laughing on the safety of my couch but I'd be crying in the dentist's chair.
- Kathy
Oh hell no.
- Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕
That girl is swallowing Mickey Mouse!!!!!!
- Ton Zijp
Oh Yeah, That helps!
- Kevin J Hatton
do not like!
- Imabug
creepy!
- Jenny Morman
RUN AWAAAAYYYYY!!!!!
- Ladybug Heather
I think my dentist would love this!
- Nathalie, Dreamer of FF
This is insane. And scary. I wonder if kids would enjoy it, though...
- Sed Non Satiata
Ah, no.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
This still looks as freaky as it did last night.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
I would keep my eyes closed
- Randy Allen Bishop
NOOOOOOOO. I don't need crazy clown dentists in my mouth.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
need a "joker's" smile
- Francisco Espinoza
from BuddyFeed
I would seriously punch out my dentist if he wore one of these.
- CannonGod
The Joker*
- Billy Warhol
Android’s are getting more real than ever. Are you ready? - http://thenextweb.com/2009...
Bluesun 2600, Jeff P. Henderson, Mark Krynsky and 14 other people liked this
These things are deep in The Uncanny Valley... Creepy.
- Martin Bryant
from iPhone
Still. No. Jetpacks.
- Slappy Line
Want.
- l0ckergn0me
Thought that was Cali Lewis for a second...
- Chris Luckhardt
from iPhone
Hello Kitty, the preferred mascot of androids!
- Miss Elle
she's looking manly
- Eric Nakagawa
2 words - Carpool Lane
- Morgan Haley
I saw the the ones on the right at the Wired Nextfest a few years ago. Pretty amazing.
- Mark Krynsky
Best quote from the article "It’s also the potential for where these androids are likely to see most uptake. I hesitate to say it, but the sex industry is the first to come to mind. Like with most new technology, if there’s any way it can be put to use by pornographers and sex toy manufacturers…it will be…and that creeps me out."
- Jeff P. Henderson
Open source's double standard on government bias | The Open Road - CNET News - http://news.cnet.com/8301-13...
David Ziembicki, Gladstone and Omar Vasquez Lima liked this
"when a country's leaders are seen to be supporting a particular vendor, even a vendor of open source and open standards, that strikes me as just the sort of favoritism that we disparage when the beneficiary is Microsoft. Just because it's bias in our favor doesn't make it right."
- LANjackal
from Bookmarklet
I've reworked the Laughing Squid link blog, using Delicious & Tumblr, cross-posting to FriendFeed & @ls_links http://laughingsquid.com/laughin...
Omar Vasquez Lima liked this
Microsoft's announcement of Bing today shows they are magnitudes of order behind Google. Google moves one step towards knowing the user much better. Microsoft just improves search of "things", not people. The future is people, people! Microsoft I'm not sure gets that yet. Either that or they're way behind.
Matthew Blaisdell, Andrew Terry, Nicholas James and 30 other people liked this
Microsoft's announcement was simply a "our architecture is bad and we're fixing it" announcement. I fail to see the innovation.
- Jesse Stay
Soylent Wave Is Made Out of PEOPLE!
- Louis Gray
It'd be much more interesting to use have the live "feeds" be rolled up into searches, although I'm sure this is a much more difficult problem to solve. Streams from twitter, friendfeed, facebook etc should all be readily accessible through search. I think the content that people create is still probably more important than the person themselves...
- Chris Reichow
Chris, but to access *all* the content, and have less data to index, you want the people. The people own the content. It should be indexed by the people, not the content itself. A person owns content, not the other way around.
- Jesse Stay
Interesting note: "A person owns content" I'd certainly like to think this was true, but in today's world I think ownership is significantly diminished. Plus, who said anything about having less data to index, next-gen search needs to increase the available data and timeliness of that data exponentially. It's a tough problem
- Chris Reichow
Chris, with Wave you truly have the ability to own your content. Wave is a technology and protocol anyone can install on their own server, and it's open source. That which you want to stay on your own servers stays on your own servers - you have full control and Google never sees the data. Regarding next-gen search, it's much easier to index a lot more data when you have already indexed the people that own that data vs. indexing just the data.
- Jesse Stay
from email
Both announcements are important, I think, and they're too different to be considered together. Wave isn't about search. (Based on the short videos I've seen), Bing brings *context* and order to search; something that Google's search results appear to be lacking at the moment, and something that people will respond to if Bing lives up to the promise.
- Andrew Terry
Here's another reason not to dismiss Bing so quickly: http://friendfeed.com/media-n...
- Andrew Terry
Chipmunk: Klantenservice | Everything you want to know about your Mac, based on its serial number. - http://www.chipmunk.nl/klanten...
ianf ⌘, zsafwan , Robert DeBord and 4 other people liked this
I want - http://fit-pc2.com/wiki...
OnuRC, Jessica, Tyler Ham and 163 other people liked this
"Introducing fit-PC2 CompuLab introduces fit-PC2 – the smallest, most power-efficient Intel Atom PC to date. fit-PC2 architecture is what sets it apart from other nettop PCs - fit-PC2 is designed around the Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz and the ultra low power Intel US15W system controller hub, rather than the Atom N270 and 945G used in other nettop-PCs, thereby reducing power consumption by more than two thirds. US15W incorporates hardware video acceleration. This allows fit-PC2 to run Windows XP or Ubuntu Linux at just 6W and to play full HD 1080p H.264 video using less than 7W."
- Leo Laporte
from Bookmarklet
some limitations of the fit2pc: no n wifi, only 1gb ram & is soldered, reader is not sdhc, no wol, hdmi still needs sep audio line. if it could remedy those, then it would be more awesome than i originally thought it was. still cool idea. (edited to add: forums say hdmi does not support hdcp. boy, lots of surprises in what it *can't* do. almost a parody of an 'efficient' device.)
- sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq
Got error when clicked the link. Actually I thought I could show the screenshot, but ff can not add images to comments.
- Nitin Nanivadekar
Where and when can we buy this ??
- Qbat
Very nice
- Amit Morson
as sweet as a purring kitten
- Willem (@wim66) ☠
awesome. when do they start production?
- Chris Rutili
from BuddyFeed
And here I was waiting for netbooks to get better performance and instead we see the same low performance spreading from the mobile world, where it made sense, to our desks. Crud. It's nice that it's got low power requirements, but that seems to be it.
- Henrik
When do they start building the computer into the keyboard?
- Brian Sieker
I need a small, very low power consumption system with two ethernet ports to replace a home server. The fit-PC2 is so tantalizingly close; I'd have to add a USB ethernet dongle, and those are teh suck.
- DGentry
"Want" is a serious understatement. I could do some evil, evil things with that!
- ax0n
Very sexy! I can imagine having three or four of these with SSDs around my house.
- Barry Biddlecomb
from twhirl
With more HDMI ports and built-in blu-ray this would be an excellent choice for HTPC. Here's a better link to the data sheet http://www.compulab.co.il/fitpc2...
- jcunwired
For the right (low) price, even with it's flaws it could be a great little media server. And here I was wishing upon an eee-box-star.
- thepete
sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq: Thanks for those helpful pieces of info. Please consider using punctuation and capitalization in the future. I know it's not cool, but it serves a purpose (e.g. it helps knowledge transfer, the supposed reason for commenting in the first place) :P.
- coldbrew
I want this as well.
- Doug Slater
they should sell them in multipacks
- Matthew Snape
I doubt that 1080p H.264. is watchable. Need some proof. It would be a key factor for me.
- Dmitriy B
I want one of these.
- Robert Gregory Browne
The newer boards use a dual-core Atom and NVidia 9400M chipset. Even has CUDA support. I believe it could decode 1080p. http://mini-itx.com/2009...
- Rodfather
Looks great. I want also. I'll wait for Windows 7.
- Scott Kraatz
Smaller than a MacMini. I'll wait for Windows 7 too.
- Randy Caldwell
I'd love to attach this to the back of a monitor and hang it on a wall
- Camden
Brian Sieker: Asus already started stuffing the whole pc inside a (nice looking) keyboard, take a look at the Eee Keyboard http://gizmodo.com/5124985...
- Rui Pires
Amazing!
- Eren ÖĞRÜL
I wonder how well this will run Boxee.. Is it the perfect boxee box?
- raf
I'm always skeptical about the 1080P claims for nettops.
- Ryan Whitwam
@jordimirobruix Maldicioooooooooon me muero de la risa con la última frase del artículo de Wikipedia. JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA.
Omar Vasquez Lima liked this
En el hotel donde estoy llegaron las chicas Polar, algo bueno debo haber hecho en la vida ;-)
Omar Vasquez Lima liked this
Super Soaker 50 20th Anniversary Edition - http://www.uncrate.com/men...
Kol Tregaskes, Nation Hahn, Lisa L. Seifert and 33 other people liked this
"Has it really been 20 years already? Relive your neighborhood water brawls with the Super Soaker 50 20th Anniversary Edition ($15). Nearly identical to the neon water blaster that started it all, the updated version holds up to 25 ounces of water, shoots up to 35 feet, and gives you a marvelous yesteryear vibe."
- Derrick
from Bookmarklet
aahh, memories.
- Jack Lhasa
I still have Supesoakers.
- Admiral Anika
I always give a pair of these for wedding presents. Yeah, I'm cheap.......but I know how to have fun.
- suzanne
I remember filling the backpack Supersoaker with vodka at a party once. That's about all I remember though...
- tinypants - Hagitha of FF
today's black history month fact: the super soaker was invented by lonnie Johnson, a black american engineer and inventor. if the iPod touch had copy and paste, I would post a link.
- tiffany
this takes me back. I think I had one exactly like this!!
- Zach Landes
I want....big time
- Toby Graham
You know, I never had one the first time around...
- Wirehead
Ahhhh!! The best summers were spent on a slip n' slide with Super Soakers.
- Katie is Frittering
Safari140: A quick way to post to twitter - http://smokingapples.com/softwar...
Новый альбом уже в сети!, Африки, Outsanity and 9 other people liked this
"A little plugin for Safari. "What does it do? Post to Twitter. You can access it from the File » Post to Twitter menu or just hit the Ctrl+T shortcut. Doing that will grab your page title, and shorten the url ready for posting. The first time you try this you will get a sign in form, but after that it’s just a two step process.""
- Jonathan Kong
Photo: A young man smokes a giant marijuana cigar during a march. http://discuss.flickrfan.org/2009...
Omar Vasquez Lima, Anthony K. Valley © and martha liked this
A really nice story about web CMSes by Brent Simmons, who I had the honor of working with at UserLand many years ago. http://inessential.com/2009...
Omar Vasquez Lima and Paolo Valdemarin liked this
Recetas de cocina para torpes - http://recetasdecocinaparatorp...
Omar Vasquez Lima liked this
Blog para los torpes en la cocina
- Hugo Londono
Yes, it's true - I'm now the Tech Expert for CNN.com. :) http://www.cnn.com/2009... - I should find a better photo...
david beckwith, jswi_jim, Gavin and 113 other people liked this
Chris that brilliant! The gig, that is. You are right about the pic....:)
- WorldofHiglet
Congrats!
- Admiral Anika
Awesome news. Congrats man!
- Thomas Hawk
Fantastic.
- Russellreno
Cool, big time! Keep them from going left wing on tech reporting.
- Douglas Hopkins
Congrats! I disagree with that article, but hey congrats anyway!! :) Yeah, that photo... yeah... it's ok..but...yeah..you can do better :)
- Bwana ☠
Congratulations, Chris!!!
- Lindsay is in 20-ten
Congratulations!
- Karoli
Congrats!
- Hutch Carpenter
Congratulations
- Kreg Steppe
Excellent!! Congratulations Chris!
- Tracy Lee Carroll
And you thought I wasn't participating in FF as frequently because I didn't like you... :)
- l0ckergn0me
@Norwood - I'm actually a registered Republican. :)
- l0ckergn0me
Congrats Chris =) Perhaps we'll be seeing CNN on FF sometime n the future?
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Cha ching? You deserve it, bro. Go get 'em.
- Josh Haley
that should help that MASSIVE new monthly expense eh?
- andy brudtkuhl
wow, cool - congrats
- Peter Efland
gratz Chris!
- timepilot
Chris, that's awesome! Congrats!!
- David Finch
Congrats!
- Dan Morrill AKA Techwag
Fantastic, congratulations!
- Ginger Kenney
well done
- Mattb4rd
How cool is that? Congrats Chris
- Charlie Anzman
Nice!
- Jennifer Leggio
Chris had to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Miles O'brien to secure this position.
- Tad
you have come a long way my friend :)
- mike "glemak" dunn
Good job!
- RAPatton
Does it pay anything? If not, turn it down:-)
- Francine Hardaway
from twhirl
Congrats Chris, I can think of no one better
- Aaron Krug
Congrats Chris - that's great to hear, and you're perfect for the job.
- Jesse Stay
Congrats! nice!
- mikepk
Yeah!!!!! CONGRATS Chris!! that is soooo cooool!
- Susan Beebe
Awesome Chris ... great news .. your famous
- johnpiercy
Awesome to hear!
- Helen Sventitsky
A better photo? Like this one? http://img185.imageshack.us/img185... (sorry, had to. go ahead and delete this comment)
- Josh Haley
OMG! BAD JOSH! I much preferred the one with Palin, didn't know that one was out there :(
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
Congratulations on the gig and the article, both excellent.
- Rubin Sfadj
Congratulations! Looks like they found the best!
- Cheryl Allin
from twhirl
Congrats! :D
- Ron
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
- Phil G
Congrats!
- Igor Poltavskiy
well deserved, congratulations!
- Rajiv Doshi
Awesome. Us geeks are taking over.
- Mark Krynsky
gratz!
- Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
Article on FriendFeed forthcoming, we'll assume. Yes, and congrats are in order. Nice one, Chris!
- Pete Delucchi
Congratilations!
- Nia
Make that money and make us proud...in that order :)
- Anthony Farrior
I sure hope they don't make you wear a suit and a serious face!
- Glenn Batuyong
Congrats, Chris! I want to see you duet with Andrerson Cooper sometime!
- susan mernit
Great! It will be great to see you there! ;-)
- Erhan
Why Santa Cruz is known for surfing (photo and discussion): - http://www.flickr.com/photos...
Bill Romanos, Michael Nielsen, Keith Harrison and 27 other people liked this
There are lots of places in the world that are better to surf at, I'm sure, but Santa Cruz has built a brand around surfing that's known world wide. Why? Here's why. Any normal idiot photographer can take photos like this of surfers. I'm using a 100mm lens. Nothing special. No big ass huge 600mm F4.0 that you need to get good surfing shots at other spots (Half Moon Bay's Mavericks, for instance, has a lot bigger surf and a famous contest every year, but you can't take good photos of it with a 100mm lens). I'm standing on dry ground just a few feet away from the surfing action right by a pretty cute lighthouse. As they say, location, location, location. Hang 10 dude!
- Robert Scoble
from Bookmarklet
I have been to the Santa Cruz beaches many upon many a times. The surfers are amazing, and the waves are awesome.
- Bryan Garcia
I was wondering why you didn't share any pictures of Mavericks, considering you live in Half Moon Bay, but I didn't consider the fact that you would need such a long lens. The waves must break a half mile out there.
- Michael Fidler
So this could be extrapolated to marketing, in that you need to make it easy for others to spread your message.
- Alistair (alpinefolk)
Michael: yeah, they do break quite a ways off shore. The best photos are done from jet skis or helicopters.
- Robert Scoble
Alistair: exactly!
- Robert Scoble
I went to santa cruz this summer to try surfing for the first time and the one day we chose was completely flat.
- Daniel Zarick
Daniel: It wasn't flat today. Many of the waves were 10 feet or higher.
- Robert Scoble
Hi Daniel: the key word is "summer." Go back sometime this winter.
- Jean Shirk
I grew up in Huntington Beach aka Surf City and I've traveled CA a bunch, especially surf towns all along PCH like Newport, Laguna, Seal, Ventura, and Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is *unique* in it's PEOPLE. They have a very laid back nature, and the beaches are quite good for real surfing...no cheesy 3 foot waves like Santa Barbara LOL
- Susan Beebe
Which break is this? It's a lovely wave (sigh)...
- Jean Shirk
Jean: it's right by the lighthouse. I am not sure what the actual name is called, but I heard people calling it lighthouse. Not sure if that's accurate, though.
- Robert Scoble
Most likely it is the Steamer Lane (see: http://www.santacruzsurfers.com/Pages...). Sometimes you can get even closer shots from that spot: http://www.pbase.com/jacekw... (if you climb over a barrier ;)
- jacek
Jacek: that's very possible! I stayed behind the barrier. I should have played Thomas Hawk and gone over the barrier! :-)
- Robert Scoble
And then we'd have to read your post about getting in trouble for taking photos where you're not supposed to!
- James D Kirk
Check out Leica pictures -- really nice http://www.flickr.com/cameras...
- Michael Krigsman
This is why I like Huntington Beach - the Pier there is an awesome place for surfing pics.
- Jesse Stay
awesome
- Jasmine
Dabbleboard - Interactive whiteboard for drawing & team collaboration - http://www.dabbleboard.com/
gmarketer, Lu Tao, Dave Donohue and 8 other people liked this
"Dabbleboard is a powerful interactive whiteboard that's actually easy and fun to use. With a revolutionary new interface, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw."
- Steve Rubel
from Bookmarklet
yeah great tool - a little buggy at times but definitely one of the best out there.
- Zee.
I have been looking for this application. Thanks Steve
- Bob Stemen
from twhirl
Have you looked at Papershow? http://tinyurl.com/5txtvo Out in US in January, UK next month. (I'm slightly biased on this one!)
- Jane Rowe
Very strange. A TSA agent recognized me from the picture on my blog. That is sorta weird.
Mike Reynolds, DGentry, Charlie Anzman and 30 other people liked this
'Grats! You're famous now!
- Candace
No-Fly List? :)
- Glenn Batuyong
from twhirl
Secondary screening? :)
- Holger Eilhard
So TSA agents had to be trained to recognize a MacBook Air as a computer, but can recognize Robert Scoble. Fascinating.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
TSA agents know everybody...hehehe!
- Susan Beebe
Now that you know TSA guys read your blog, do some influencin'.
- Hutch Carpenter
Got waved right through.
- Robert Scoble
robert - they are humans and a percentage are geeks - why act like "who knew?" - agree it's funny though
- mike "glemak" dunn
That's crazy.
- Alex Scoble
Were you carrying a huge tripod, pointing at someone, and smiling at the time?
- Rodfather
But did it help you get through security faster?
- Bill Sanders
Bill didn't hurt or help.
- Robert Scoble
That TSA agent is clearly overqualified.
- Louis Gray
Geeks. They're everywhere
- Mattb4rd
were you carrying the tripod and grinning maniacally lol?
- john conroy
Mattb4rd wins an internets.
- mjc
No tripod, that gets checked but I did have a camera bag.
- Robert Scoble
I got an odd look the last time I took a tripod with a pistol-grip mount through security. I suppose it did look a bit ominous. But had no trouble.
- Mila (Jake Stetser)
Was this before or after you were put behind bars?
- Jim Goldstein
Well, that's a good sign... Maybe if there are more guys like that there will be less confiscations of our gadgets because agents haven't ever seen them before.
- Lindsay is in 20-ten
that's because you're on the list :)
- Jeff Quinton
Uhmm... Robert, you do have a memorable look ;-) Perhaps it's your cheshire grin ;-)
- Ken Stewart | ChangeForge
I guess you are now beyond internet famous.
- gfurry
Dang - one more celebrity myth busted! ;-)
- Bill Sanders
New form of identity is emerging...
- Jesse Stay
doesn't sound weird, he recognized the guy from a picture, isn't that his job after all?
- xavier vespa
"The Clash’s obsession with Reggae went beyond music as well. In aligning themselves with..." - http://fredwilson.vc/post...
Omar Vasquez Lima liked this
OBAMA PORN - http://obamaporn.tumblr.com/post...
Carmen - Happy 2010!, Morgan, David Young and 19 other people liked this
lol
- Yolanda
:D hee.
- edythe
hubba hubba :p
- Anna Haro
He looks like he still has that "I can't believe this is happening to me" thing going through his head
- Michael W. May
I am still a fan boy with some Internet "known" people.
- Phillip Jeffrey
The Silicon Valley VC Disease - http://scobleizer.com/2008...
Casey, Franklin Pettit, Piaw Na and 64 other people liked this
I actually read the title as "The Silicon Valley VD Disease" ..and nearly jumped out of my seat !! :)-
- Peter Dawson
I think the bigger issue is the fact that startups want to scale quickly. What happened to starting slow and small and letting the product naturally develop, grow a natural user base, before getting VC and super expanding? I guess it's not as sexy...
- Johan
Johan: startups have this attitude forced on them by the VC's. The VC's only give you enough money to go a year or two. If you don't build a business by then you either have to convince more VCs to give you another two years of cash, or you have to have a business up and running and generating more revenues than expenses by then. And the VCs don't like it if you just sit on the cash. They are hoping you come up with some dramatic business success.
- Robert Scoble
I hope it's not contagious
- paul mooney
Good post - my phone is not used to connect to the web but to text message. I can't get a handle on the iPhone yet, though. My daughter loves it and that's good enough for me.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
The other term for this: Short-sightedness.
- Eric Florenzano
ok I jumped off the seat and now back w/beer. :)_ yeah but if you have the right product and appliations , you dot need to shop for VC funds in the first place. The issue is that too many startups are in the markets and nothing really is getting innovated. VS are in to make money. Show me the money and I'll show you my term sheet. Simple investment talk. DOnt waste our time
- Peter Dawson
+1 for Peter's "Silicon Valley VD Disease" .... LOL
- Mitchell Tsai
Unfortunately VCs are not the best investors. Most are running scared. Even with their efforts, 85% of their investments fail (50% for the top firms). Creates a me-too mentality evident also in the Pharmaceutical industry. Real break-throughs may have less than 1% success rate. That is too scary for most VCs and pharma companies.
- Mitchell Tsai
And you can only imagine how frustrating this is for biotech (and explains the lack of funding). Takes 10 years to see some results, 3-5 if you are providing services)
- Deepak Singh
Thanks for writing this post, Robert. You're saying better than a lot of us what I'm sure some of us are thinking. It's unfortunate that this kind of thinking can actually prevent innovation and seems counter to the original American entrepreneurial spirit. We all lose when a good idea doesn't get funded to grow as well or as quickly as it could.
- Cathryn Hrudicka
There's also the ROI and IRR disease in the VCs. Typical businesses have maybe a 50% success rate (where success is not the VC - 5X my money in 5 years, but includes I-just-want-to-pay-my-salary companies). The VC pressure to provide decent returns pushes many companies to failure. Rule of thumb: If you aren't willing to take out a loan at 40% annual interest (because your company's opportunity is so big & needs fast speed), don't ask VCs and smart angels. "Inexperienced" angels is ok.
- Mitchell Tsai
P.S. I'm sitting on a lot of worthless pre-public stock. It's tough to be an investor too.
- Mitchell Tsai
basically VC are getting funding via the global Hedge Funds bowl, w/multi legged swap options. so they (VC's) need ROI's to ensure that they can pay back what they took and make a profit at the same time. They win some and lose some, its a gamble.. Follow the money trail for dynamics of this landscape
- Peter Dawson
VCs want companies to make money so they can recoup their investment and it's called a disease? The sickness is that many of the companies that get funded get funded when there is no hint of a business/revenue plan in place or even on the horizon. If more VCs had a strategy to invest in companies destined to actually make money of course there would be less SV whiny minor millionaires and more real business.
- Brian Sullivan
VC/Angel is the "lottery for the rich": (A) ~15-20% annual returns (B) lottery chance to make $25 million on your $25,000 if you hit a Netscape, Yahoo, or Google. Most mathematicians who make a profit at Vegas gambling move on to stock markets, futures/commodity trading, financial derivatives, hedge funds, etc...
- Mitchell Tsai
+1 for Brian: In the VC biz, that's called "pressure to invest". Not enough good ideas & teams to invest in. Conservative VCs won't find enough investments, thus the "pack" disease of VCs all funding hard drives at the same time. Much more fun chasing pictures on the internet. :-)
- Mitchell Tsai
Brian: the companies that get funded that have no obvious business model (PodTech and Twitter, for example) are part of the VC Disease of go for a home run. They were hoping that PodTech would turn into the next YouTube and that Twitter turns into the next Google. Remember, Google didn't make money for the first four years of its existence, and, in fact, were almost shut down because they weren't paying their bills at Exodus.
- Robert Scoble
Liking mostly because you say not to listen to Dave Hornik. I think I might actually be starting to like you, Robert.
- Cyndy
Echoing Robert: Google burned through $26 million before finding profitability with Bill Gross's (IdeaLab) http://idealab.com/about_i... sliding-scale ad fees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... I would have been too chicken to put that much money into Google. The sliding-scale ad idea of Goto.com wasn't a "proven" revenue model either. "In November 2001 Gross defaulted on a $50 million personal loan he had taken from the Bank of America to invest in Idealab".
- Mitchell Tsai
Using Google as an example of a company that didn't have a business plan but ended up a big success is getting tired as an argument for support of investment of clueless "businesses" and their founders. Investors in Google and the founders won the lottery -- that doesn't justify investing in the lottery as business strategy. Investing in Iphone apps in my mind would also be a waste of...
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- Brian Sullivan
VCs have to see a deal in this way: 3-5 years to get to 10X return. They can't wait 10 years for a payback, their fund is usually only 10 years as far as I know. So they can't fund things that are too far out. Although it seems clear that the iPhone can create opportunities that fit in this framework of 3-5 years to 10X return, so not sure why Hornick was down on it. Nice, controversial post to get us thinking... I think the disease is more like "groupthink" than it is "lack of long-term vision"
- Elliott Ng
+1 Brian
- Cyndy
Interesting post Robert. May be what Dave is saying is that when a company has proven their concept on the iphone is ready to scale to other platform, then the time is right to actually go after a bigger VC round. I think that both people like Jeff and Dave are key to the entrepreneurship ecosystem: they just target different stages of the company lifecycle. Another way to prove that is...
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- Edwin Khodabakchian
Brian: when I went to Israel a high percentage of developers there proudly showed me their iPhones. And there's not even an Apple store in the country. I HAVE GONE outside the country. Tons of the best iPhone apps are from outside of SV. I also totally disagree about iPhone not being the winner in mobile computing sweepstakes. At least not as the market is today. But I hear Nokia is coming out with something cool in January, so we'll see. And Microsoft told me they are bringing out something cool next year.
- Robert Scoble
Brian, maybe the iPhone will wind up like the Atari, who knows. And I would add that many times investments are at least as much due to the people than to the initial technology. However, the iPhone is a game changer. I find that I'm using it more and more to read news, check the weather, etc--some which is new behavior for me, but also some of which I used to do on my notebook. The iPhone is winning out. Is it perfect yet? No. I want more, but there's a systemic change going on here.
- Loren Heiny
Loren: the problem with people who don't own iPhones is they just don't see how big a game changer it is. I wish I could get Brian to carry around the four phones I currently have to see how bad these things all are compared to iPhone. The iPhone isn't perfect, either, but it's years ahead of the others. Of course, back in 1989 the Macintosh was years ahead of everything too and see what happened...
- Robert Scoble
Deepak: Agreed, look at Amgen and Genentech as classic Biotech examples
- Sally Church
Scobles , are yo sure that iPhones are just not hype ?
- Peter Dawson
Mr. Scoble - I'll tell you... this disease causes Myopia too. There are SO many fine business opportunities being pitched right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Wichita... Sevin Rosen Funds has a guy here in Tulsa. EARLY stage oriented. Pre-money oriented. Why KPCB or Charles River (or whoever) doesn't grab some initiative and park a good couple of partners in middle-America and work some new land is beyond me.
- Gerald Buckley
You'll get little disagreement from me on this one, Robert. But it's not just VCs, it's inertia. OTOH, Brian Sullivan a few comments up makes a great comparison...iPhone (and Facebook for that matter) are heading the way of BetaMax and MiniDisc, and MemoryStick. I may not use MySpace, but they're the VHS of the Social Network game right now. What we need is for someone to invent the DVD.
- Andrew Feinberg
Robert: I have absolutely no need for the Iphone (or any "smart" phone) and certainly would not pay the ridiculous prices some people are paying to use them. These products and their supporters are making a couple of fundamental assumptions that I think are flawed: that most normal people are like California geeks that feel the need to be connected at all times and that people will...
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- Brian Sullivan
Peter D. define "hype"? I can't be sure that iPhone will "win" the mobile space (I seriously doubt it given current pricing). But they're bound to be closing in on their 10 million units worldwide goal, and especially given the price, that doesn't strike me as hype.
- Robert Seidman
I completely respect yet disagree with this post. Most designers are not businessmen, VCs help in other ways than a chequebook. You bring the skills and the idea, they teach you how to squeeze money and create revenue. Great ideas change the world but they're not always profitable. VCs are there strictly for the money and you have to respect that.
- Steven Cains
What's wrong with investing in Facebook apps, if you get the exposure it's like advertising on Taxi wheels (I've seen this one). As for the iPhone, it has changed the way people are surfing on mobiles and this advertising market is just at the beginning so i see many companies getting inside. The only question i ask myself is either the company can generate money within 3-5 years or not and should i put my money in as if it was after the bubble burst.
- Nir Ben Yona
Brian, here are a couple non-California uses of an Internet connected device like the iPhone. Imagine you're in Nebraska in the spring. A storm rolls in. Tornado sirens blare. If you've got your iPhone with you in the closet or basement or wherever in anticipation of a tornado, you've potentially got access to an Internet radio, weather radar maps, 911, etc in your iPhone. Another...
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- Loren Heiny
Great post. I see no excitement surrounding any other phone. People I know who use Windows Mobile phones have to in order to have access to corporate email. Maybe that will change with Apple licensing AciveSync.
- Brett Nordquist
Peter: I'm absolutely convinced that iPhones are not hype. Brian: mobile didn't get hot in California first. You really need to visit Europe or Japan or Korea. There we look pretty stupid in our usage of mobile. As for "needing" stuff, you probably 10 years ago would have told me you don't "need" a cell phone, but today I can't name a single person that I know who doesn't have one, except my baby. You need to travel more and watch what people do when a plane touches down. Everyone starts up their mobiles.
- Robert Scoble
Has anyone decided if Apple's implememntation of ActiveSync is any good?
- Andrew Feinberg
I guess I'm glad I can have whatever phone I choose, and no need to worry about syncing anything, as I'm not tied to a corporate and all the associated bloatware that goes with it...
- Ian May
"First, our society’s most valuable audiences are getting iPhones." Really our most valuable audiences? Archeticts are these type of people? What about doctors, nurses, firemen, policemen, etc. They are way more valuable then any single architect in LA. Get over yourself.... That comment alone made me snort my coffee. I know 4 people who iPhones, neither of them would be somoen who i would define as society's most valuable audiences.
- Jonathan Jesse
@Loren Heiny I have a co-worker who used his Windows Mobile device in a Tornado to upload video of the tornado, let people know about that he was safe via email all w/o an iPhone. and from the hotel's bathtub which was the safest place.
- Jonathan Jesse
@Loren Heiny: when my son was born i used my windows mobile phone to take pictures and email those pictures to everyone i know from one device.... from a windows mobile phone
- Jonathan Jesse
@Brian Sullivan: I completly agree.. I have a Windows Smartphone from work, it is also the only cell phone I have. try taking a vacation when you get constantly reminded that work needs you through emails. I am amazed about how rude it is for people to interupt converstations and text/sms/email/twitter whatever instead of talking with the person face to face in front of them. this is something that i am strugeling with as my phone is always "buzzing" with someething new.
- Jonathan Jesse
Ok its not hype.. but with over 715Million users of Mobile technology in China alone. What does a 10M unit sold slice in terms of market penetration to these segments ? Just asking.. So you can see how thin of a slice that iPhone really has in terms of market share. A prodcut may have all the bells and whistles on it, but if major user base is not buying into it. then it could be some real issues.
- Peter Dawson
I think the whole VC model is broken. We don't need millions of dollars for our startups anymore, we need $25k or $50k. When I hear about companies getting millions of dollars, I always think, what the hell are they doing with it!?
- Dawn
To add scale to the 10M figure, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... roughly 70% of those will be changing their phone within 5 years. ChinaMobile signs up almost 10M subscribers per month!
- Steven Cains
I'll offer this, just me speculating. I'm not sure that the price point of the iPhone is the biggest factor these days. I think we're more bottled by the thought of paying ridiculous prices for sub-par mobile web. I mean seriously, what the heck is with the current rates for cell phone plans. Also, the thought of paying for SMS in 2008 is just silly. It should be included in all plans. Not for the purpose of cutting profits from our providers but rather for American's to catch on to the technology.
- Ben Pettit
@ben I vaguely recall Mr. Scoble interviewing someone (was it the FCC commissioner conversation maybe) that had the US basically foregoing SMS and being off & onto the next big thing. SMS won't really stand a chance against what's coming is what I heard. Robert...? Care to put that in better context for us?
- Gerald Buckley
Dawn: $25K, $50K, $100K These are the lower-price points for qualified angel investors, who work the lower levels below the first tier of $500K-$3M VCs. One VC person can maybe manage 10-20 investments, so you can divide the size of fund by the number of active partners (x10-20) and figure out what size investments are in a VC-fund's sweet spot. Complicating the issue are some micro-VC funds, angel-type funds, and $5-20K Y-combinator-type-groups.
- Mitchell Tsai
Scoble: Great post. Hornik is a very smart guy, but he is hamstrung by the current VC model. VCs need a huge upside because the model dictates that they need to put in a ton of cash on the front end. Most of today's web startups don't require the kind of cash that VCs are used to putting in. That's why Hornik doesn't want to invest in iPhone apps. He wants to invest in companies with hundreds of millions in near-term valuation, not tens on millions. Imho, that is the VC disease -- in SV or out.
- Christian Anderson
from fftogo
Robert, I left a long comment on the post with my thoughts. I appreciate that some investors don't have the patience to bet early and let an idea run its course. That said, I don't think I am a good poster-child for that problem. August Capital has a long history of betting early and supporting our companies for as long as it takes to create an interesting business.
- David Hornik
@cyndy Curious what I said or did to deserve your comment?
- David Hornik
David: thanks, I just wrote a new post about this new world where people like you help us arrive at the truth by participating. Appreciate that a lot.
- Robert Scoble
Gerald: SMS is seeing some pickup here, but, really, look at Twitter, which is what my son is using now increasingly, or Facebook. If you have an iPhone both of those are a lot better than SMS. Also, my phone is increasingly getting SMS spam, which will really piss people off and keep them from adopting that system.
- Robert Scoble
This is not too dissimilar from the Innovator's Dilemma concept by Christensen. The "right" business decision ("right" as in profit-maximizing) would be to invest in big, rich markets: that's precisely why there is an opportunity for disruptors to enter the market.
- Tito Costa
+1 for Michael Sheehan.
- Mitchell Tsai
None of this seems like rocket science. Valley VCs want big returns in short amount of time. Asking them to invest in small slower-growing but sustainable markets is like going to Ford Motor headquarters and asking to buy a windshield wiper. It isn't the scale that they're working at.
- Michael
While you make some valid points, Robert, I don't it is fair to call it a disease. Looking for investments with a short-term return potential is certainly a legitimate investment strategy. I can't fault them for opting for perferring lower risk, quicker payoff investments, rather than longer-term (and thus higher risk) investment that *may* payoff huge in 10 years. That said, there are other types of investment strategies out there -- I think your post highlights a void that needs to be filled.
- Mark Carey
from Moopz
I still think, after reading the post, the follow up and this thread, that a VC is perfectly entitiled to pick and choose investments based on the return. And I'm sure there will be a few start-ups that have a Walmart business plan - take two asprin and call me in ten years. Because thats the way it is in technology (not just SV). The issue here is that we don't hear form these companies. We may well get the next Google, Microsoft, Sun, HP, etc from there.
- Roberto Bonini
I thing this disease is more of a symptom of greed and ego vs. making a difference in the tech world. But then again, isn't that what business is about? It is very hard for traditional business to grasp this concept, and is why real innovation wont be found there.
- Venson Kuchipudi
The problem with VC's is not that they have a disease but that there is no quality control. I am sure the good ones are very good but most of us never get to work with the good ones. On the other hand, I believe many Entrepreneurs (in the Silicon Valley) are in fact infected with a disease which is that they think the only way to start companies and generate net worth is with VC money. VC's are like "former" mother-in-laws. They cease to be a problem when you stop sleeping with their daughters.
- Denny K Miu
Ahoy! MobileMe Fail Whale, Me Hardees! - http://news.cnet.com/8301-13...
میکرودامپ, Lisa McMillan, mhmazidi and 28 other people liked this
Good to see Thomas of PopURLS here :-)
- AJ Batac
Agree .. Thomas is a pioneer in his own right (and apparently a pretty good business man ... hello Intel?)
- Charlie Anzman
Hilarious
- Nicholas Kreidberg
twitter pictures are getting on my nerves. it isn't cute anymore. twitter is the bad guy
- Noah David Simon
The FriendFeed Whiteboard - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Jon West, Simplicio Gamboa III, Marc Vermut and 35 other people liked this
Wow, some serious drawing skills!
- Gavin
Looks like fake :-) drawing to me. Paul? Be honest...
- Nenad Nikolic
from twhirl
Looks like the board was pre "printed", and the two artists progressively erased everything, and then showed the video backwards. Still a neat trick.
- Pierre-Philippe Martin
from twhirl
This gonna be your first TV ad, Paul?
- Roberto Bonini
Identical twins marry, give birth to identical twins - Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news...
Lon Harris, Atul Arora, Omar Vasquez Lima and 6 other people liked this
"When identical twin sisters Diane and Darlene Nettemeier met identical twin brothers Craig and Mark Sanders a decade ago, they could never have guessed just how much of their lives would be based around perfect sets of two."
- Alejandro
from Bookmarklet
By the headline, I thought the twins married each other!
- Bwana ☠
Creepy!
- Andrew
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