“Every audience is a community waiting to happen. We’re talking with The Times as they have discussions about moving to the paywall.” Does that mean the paper will charge for social or commenting features? “That hasn’t been decided yet.” Himoff goes on: “The British Medical Journal is using a set of tools on Doc2Doc, a professional community made for 53,000 registered GPs in this country, and we power Which?, which came up with the notion of member-generated content - to see the members reviews, you have to pay.”
- Paul Bradshaw
“Every audience is a community waiting to happen. We’re talking with The Times as they have discussions about moving to the paywall.” Does that mean the paper will charge for social or commenting features? “That hasn’t been decided yet.” Himoff goes on: “The British Medical Journal is using a set of tools on Doc2Doc, a professional community made for 53,000 registered GPs in this...
more...
- Paul Bradshaw
Tim Luckhurst: "Today a newspaper innovation is launched that can help the free world's news industry to recover the prosperity it first achieved under Queen Victoria. Johnston Press, Britain's most prolific newspaper publisher with 286 titles, will place the online content of six of its local titles behind paywalls." Seriously?
- martinstabe
"The Volkswagen Microbus is a classic - even to those of us born after its time. Arguably unlike the newly remade Beetle, this remake of a VW classic is remarkably true to the original on the outside - but on the inside it is a bio-diesel hybrid stuffed full of high tech gadgetry and eco-friendly innovations."
- Kol Tregaskes
from Bookmarklet
Super cool VW Bus making a comeback...
- Walt Ruppar
First of all, I'll cop to wanting one of these. That being said, Jason is right. This is for rich hippies (who probably aren't hippies at all). The VW microbus became the darling of the Flower Power crowd because it was cheap, easy to repair, and big. You could camp in it. Is there a car today that fits this bill?
- Chris Baskind
wow, you can buy an awful lot of pot with $129,000.
- Thomas Hawk
I don't know a self-respecting hippie that would prefer this over a really nice indoor greenhouse. ;-)
- Chris Baskind
@Chris, Most cars today aren't as simple, but with the wealth of knowledge online, it just takes more time. The minivan/SUV can become a camper van with a few mods. They'll never take the place of the VW, but they're an updated version of the 70s panelvan conversions (hopefully without shag carpeting & a disco-ball).
- Steven Cains
Nope: there will never be anything that simple again. That's not all bad: I can't imagine a 1960s VW Minibus would satisfy *any* federal safety standard these days. You're right. A used minivan might be the closest thing.
- Chris Baskind
Very Cool. You can't drive your house but, you can sleep in your Van !!!
- Eric Logan
Very intriguing. How much steel is in that thing? Chris, that would be my next question after fuel consumption: how safe is this thing? And I agree, when we can go back to making transportation that costs less than a small home, we may have achieved something amazing. ;)
- Melanie Reed
However, I have heard (and I'm not remembering where at the moment) that there has been a movement growing of people seeking alternative housing and substituting things like this as the new "mobile" home.
- Melanie Reed
Everyone is loving this! We should have an FF one and use it to travel to all the FFers around the World (like Pea seems to be doing ;-)). Hehe. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
cool idea, kol. the ff-stream of this tour would be alltheawe. just imagine the photos.
- esther ♥ ♫
I've owned 5 VWs, two of which were split window vans. I'd love to have another, this is awesome!
- Rick Bucich
from twhirl
I have had more VWs than other cars...starting with a 71 Superbeetle, and a Split Window Microbus. I would LOVE to have something like this.
- Kreg Steppe
Good for grandparents to visit grandchildren and children through the European continent (or another one as well)...nomadism-revival!
- Isabelle Ayel
wow i posted this a while back and now can't seem to find it for some reason. friendfeed's search function really sucks!
- Cee Bee
So after reading this article yesterday, I found myself this evening in front of a local place that specializes in reconditioning old VWs. It was closed, but there's an awesome red and white microbus out front with a For Sale sign on it. Ugly, underpowered -- and probably dangerous, by modern standards. Want. ;-)
- Chris Baskind
Cee, really? I find FF search is pretty good.
- Kol Tregaskes
I love this Mobile...owned a few Vdubs, lived in a VW camper, but this is off the hook..I would become a true nomad with this...
- bcultral
I'd like to have something like this, something small. What do you really need? A bed, perhaps a TV and room for your computer. Then you can live anywhere you like, in theory.
- Kol Tregaskes
Who is this Canadian designer Alexandre Verdier? Seems like he is on Facebook, Linked In but I can't seem to find anything else about him.
- Brian Sullivan
We had a wesvalia built Micro when I was a kid. I loved that thing. It was a little flimsily built; but boy it was perfect for my family of campers and road-tripping warriors. Too bad this one is so pricey
- Bill Rawlinson
What can I say. Getting sick of people not anticipating success. I mean, you're at TC50, you're (apparently) launching a geek's wet dream, so, yeah, of course you don't need a lot of servers. So Twitter-like for now, I stopped caring.
- Vlad Bobleanta
Tough choice for my future communication service... Google Wave or Threadsy???
- Philippe
Signed up for it and filled the survey which is a nice way of extracting information from people that are eager to try it out.
- Usman Bashir
What's the deal in the survey where we promise not to blog about it?
- raphaeL
Too early to tell what it's like Zee as it's just a request for an invite. Is the promise not to blog a clever marketing ploy I wonder? One thing - it always frustrates me that when I fill out my UK address on most sites it still insists on my filling out a state (or I can't register). We don't have 'states' in the UK so why try and appeal internationally and then limit it to US subscribers - unless we make up an address as I just have!
- PaulJohnson
I just put UK when it asks for my state, most forms dont seem to bother checking its really valid as long as you put something in :)
- Simon Wicks
Seems like Threadsy sits between FriendFeed & Google Wave. Frankly I'm not willing to invest in another product till after trying Wave with others.
- CannonGod
CannonGod: but how long will it be until Wave is accessible by the general public? I thought it was gonna be a while like a year or more.
- Bryan Lee
I'm with CannonGod on this one if it sits between FF and Wave - seems better to just invest in Wave
- Wang Yip
@Bryan: Google Wave is expected for release by the end of September. Threadsy might have known this and decided to release just before to get some coverage.
- CannonGod
I sent in email and survey some hours ago. Still nothing.
- Manuel Mas
Just got my invite and started playing with Threadsy. So far I like the AJAX-y inbound box. Can't test the unbound box too much because overall my friends are not into social sites. Bummer!
- Philippe
Is there anyone out there with a better video demonstration of the product?
- Manuel Mas
Had my invite but suddenly lost access to the site. When I tried to log in one day after first successfully accessing the site, I got this error message: "couldn't log you in with that information". :(
- Philippe
I tried to reset my password and I get this message: "success! we just sent an email to you at". I did not leave my email address out of this message, this is exactly what I get on my screen and one day later I am still awaiting my password reset. I have a bad feeling about this one... :(
- Philippe
Trying it out now but cant seem to add facebook or any other services expect gmail & twitter.
- Usman Bashir
Whoa! This comment stream escaped my notice. We're trying to get threadsy invites out as quickly as possible to everyone who requests one. Thanks for your patience!
- scott
trying it, wish there was a way to filter the twitter stream
- Kim Landwehr
NO DAMN WAY!! FF is the best the greatest ever.. no real alternative
- FFTornado
Got my invite on Friday night but I haven't tried it yet. The lack of OAuth etc for the various accounts makes me a little worried about putting in my details. For Gmail you just enter your username and password. There's no 'getting permission from Google' stage. It's a shame because I really want to try it...
- Martin Bryant
Martin Bryant: Thats the exact issue i have with it, i did try it out but giving it login details to so many important accounts is the wrong way forward they should look in to other methods of solving this issue like the OAuth, Facebook Connect & etc.
- Usman Bashir
It's great for Facebook and Twitter, but it lacks the features of a full email client. This is a good trend in computing, where people can choose apps independent of the protocol.
- raphaeL
From New Scientist: "Is smart sexy? Our knee-jerk reaction – reinforced by cultural stereotypes of Star Trek-convention attending geeks and a seeming obsession with ditzy, pretty starlets – would argue otherwise. Nerds are, well, nerds. But consider Peter Orszag. As director of the US Office of Management and Budget, he is the nation's most powerful pencil-pusher. Yet Orszag was recently named one of the hunks of Washington DC . "He's made nerdy sexy," Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said of the 40-year-old, glasses-wearing son of a maths professor. They may be onto something."
- Mark Trapp
"Given the uncertainty of ad spending, the tremendous dollars going into digital media, the increasingly competitive landscape and the jittery global financial markets, I have added a few criteria to my check-list: * Initially sells to the enterprise for branding, credibility, awareness and early revenues * Can get to revenues within 6 months, tops * Is sold on the basis of ROI, e.g., helps generate revenues or reduce headcount/costs * Integrates easily with existing platforms and/or programs * Either leverages existing open source programs or can itself become partially or fully open source * Has multiple revenue streams, e.g., software, maintenance, services, etc."
- Andrew Badera
from Bookmarklet
couple stretch items on his list but nice of him to share
- mike "glemak" dunn
I was wondering which ones seem a stretch? I was reading this and it describes a startup I am working with to a "T".
- David Muir
12.5-25x seems a stretch to me ... that's grand slam territory. not unachievable, but not by any means "common".
- Andrew Badera
I tend to agree. But I read through and was trying to glean when the exit for the VC would be; after how many years? According to my calculations, asset value growth of over 30% per year still means a 13 year wait on an initial investment of $1 million to walk away with $25 million.
- David Muir
VC is almost always in terms of a ~5 year exit strategy I thought ...
- Andrew Badera
VC is evil. Smart CEOs do everything they can to avoid this route.
- Geoff Livingston
Everyone would love to bootstrap Geoff, but it's not a matter of "smart" vs. "dumb" it's a matter of practicality and pragmatism.
- Andrew Badera
25x return selling into enterprise space which tends to see rapid fast followers and commoditization is one stretch david... not all vc's are evil geoff but certainly some are - expect it's probably same ratio as general life ;) a huge percentage of today's businesses have leveraged vc funding when in proof of concept phase so they (we) serve a purpose... andrew's pragmatic statement is right on...
- mike "glemak" dunn
here's a few more stretches now that i'm on a laptop & not my iphone - 1) revenue in 6 months along w/ selling into enterprise is a challenge since enterprise sales cycles are notoriously long for any company let alone an unproven startup 2) integrates easily in an enterprise space is an oxymoron - again, its a good post and not all things stated are stretches (plus it is his fund so his call)...
- mike "glemak" dunn
sorry one more, the positive: "intersection of web services, network performance and cloud computing. More and more enterprises will shift portions of their processing, services and storage to the cloud, as the imperatives of cost reduction, scalability and flexibility take hold." - i think this is right on and valid, i'm seeing the same sorts of companies approach me and can't fault their biz models...
- mike "glemak" dunn
Andrew/Gregory, I actually clarified this in another comment thread. What I mean is that it takes no more than $1-$2 million to know if you've got a $25-$50 million business. I take lots of risk. I just want to make sure the business doesn't require loads of capital to know whether or not it is likely to get the traction required to be successful. It may well make sense to raise an additional $2-$3 million in a Series A to help the company execute its growth plan, and I'm ok with that.
- Roger
ha3rvey, as a woman, I'm definitely going to have to block you for this comment. Palin is a role model for all American women and someone we all aspire to be one day.
- Trish R
Trish. I'm so disappointed in you. I'm going to unsub, resub, block, unblock, unsub, and then resub you just for that.
- ha3rvey (wants confit)
Wow! Trish is getting a lot of "action" from ha3rvey!
- Katy S
There's a bug in there. Where's the if statement immediately inside the if still_not_Crashed condition that checks "If(bootLog.BootsSinceLastCrash >2), throw new BSOD();".
- Kamath (नमः)
funny - but i've never had a problem with Vista - in fact I'm a Mac owner who LOVES vista. take that
- andy brudtkuhl