Category: Uncategorized

Why is it so hard to create something new?

I last wrote about how somebody needs to buy Palm because they created an impressive and independent smartphone OS, and that can anchor their future smartphone strategy.   That also got me thinking about why it’s so difficult to create something new and innovative.   If you think the idea of there being nothing new is new,… Continue reading Why is it so hard to create something new?

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Somebody Please Buy Palm (cough, cough Nokia) The Dawn of Smartphones (the iPhone) Throughout all of this smartphone revolution of the past 3 years (starting with the iPhone, as smartphone before then were just pretenders), it has been interesting to see the battleground.  Once might players like Microsoft and Palm were relegated to the bench… Continue reading Untitled

Why don’t people care about important issues?

It’s March Madness right now, which is dominating the mainstream news as well as people’s mindshare.  It’s overshadowing massively important issues like the biggest health care reform since Medicare and two costly and important wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And that got me thinking about why people don’t care about important issues. Patrick Kennedy had a well outlined rational about… Continue reading Why don’t people care about important issues?

Email – the original killer app and still a loyal dog

Email was the first killer app of the Internet age.  It is the single most commonly used online application (slightly edging out Search). It is the center of most people’s work and social lives. Yet it is continually under-appreciated, and out-shined by new applications from Facebook to Twitter to dedicated Web 2.0 apps. But it… Continue reading Email – the original killer app and still a loyal dog

Productivity is a corner stone of an ambitious life

There are several key traits to live an ambitious life.  One of them is productivity. You need to DO a lot to ACCOMPLISH a lot.  You can’t accomplish a lot without being productive.  You can’t be productive without being organized and disciplined.   There are many productivity ideas out there, from the formal and established Getting… Continue reading Productivity is a corner stone of an ambitious life

The Devious Nature of Artificial Sweeteners

I hate artificial sweeteners, all of them.  I hate the taste.  I worry about the long term health implications.  I hate how prominent they’ve become, where you have to read the ingredients because many labels do not explicitly call out that they contain fake sugar. I find fake sugar incredibly insidious and devious, promising something for… Continue reading The Devious Nature of Artificial Sweeteners

Revisiting Augmented Reality – The Potential Downsides

Revisiting Augmented Reality – The Potential Downsides I recently came across an interesting post about the case against augmented reality.  I couldn’t help but think about my previous post about augmented reality and post-reality. I tend to be an unabashed fan of technology and the benefits it has, which leads to occasionally overlooking some of the downsides.  As for… Continue reading Revisiting Augmented Reality – The Potential Downsides

Thoughts on the upcoming Tablet or iSlate

In light of Apple’s finally confirmed event next week about their “new creation”, I wanted to capture my expectations. I got a little carried away on the details, but the headers will give you a good idea of what I’m thinking. Aiming to Redefine Portable Computing In general, I agree with John Gruber’s thoughtful post… Continue reading Thoughts on the upcoming Tablet or iSlate

Innovation Near and Far . . . Really Far

Earlier today I read an interesting post from Venture Hacks about how disruptive innovation will continue in the near term. Their analogy was about how computers are evolving and accelerating. We all know the evolution from mainframes to personal computers to laptops. This is common knowledge. The technically adept also are very well aware about… Continue reading Innovation Near and Far . . . Really Far

Twitter and Facebook

There has been a lot of buzz recently about Twitter. Just a few months ago, it was a techie network that was difficult to explain to an existing user, let alone anyone that had never heard of it. Not, it’s a mainstream phenomenon that everyone is talking about. This came to head with all the… Continue reading Twitter and Facebook

The Irony of the Move to Paid Web Services

Web 2.0 companies often focus on growing very aggressively, ignoring short term revenue. Part of this is due to the face that many Web 2.0 models offer free to use, ad-supported products, which inherently needs to get to an incredible scale before generating meaningful ad revenue. However with the current economic environment, companies are being… Continue reading The Irony of the Move to Paid Web Services

YouCastr: New and Improved

This week we launched a completely new website, including a complete redesign, a range of new features, and improved overall usability. Our development team has been working extremely hard on this update for the past 2 months, culminating in a final, all-night 30 hour homestretch to get the site live. Their dedication and hard work… Continue reading YouCastr: New and Improved

MassTLC UnConference

Today I went to the MassTLC unConference. It was an interesting structure for a conference, where the entire agenda is created by the audience on the day of the actual conference. It brought together a great mix of entrepreneurs, investors, and technologists for a day of interaction. The structure (or rather unstructure) allowed anyone to… Continue reading MassTLC UnConference

RIM is the next Palm

I have been meaning to post this for a while, got sidetracked, then ended up holding off as my prediction seemed to be coming through. Yet given RIMM’s recent resurgence, I feel my window has reopened. Let’s look back a bit to understand the Palm parallel. Shortly after its IPO, Palm went on to have… Continue reading RIM is the next Palm

FSTA Conference in Chicago

I just wrote on the The Fantasy Sports Forum. We had some good clean fun at the game and after at the bars in Wrigleyville. We also were able to compare notes about our various funding, startup, sports, and marketing experiences. Even brief informal conversations provide a great opportunity to get a feel for what… Continue reading FSTA Conference in Chicago

Why Startups Fail – Agreement among contrarian points

About a week ago there were a couple of very interesting blog posts about why startups fail, taking different view points: Why Startups Fail: David Feinlab, Mohr Davidow Ventures vs. How “Why Startups Fail” Fails: 37 Signals Both are very interesting reads, and I won’t go through point by point to comment on them. I’ll… Continue reading Why Startups Fail – Agreement among contrarian points