May 2009
81 posts
“Sometimes, according to actor Armie Hammer, the great-grandson of oil tycoon...”
– Fortune’s Children
My buddy Mike introduced this band to me and I...
Recovering Journalist: The Future is ChicagoNow →
Interesting to see how Sam Zell will play his hand with the Chicago Tribune. I’m not well versed in the economics of his deal, but something tells me that if he is going to recover his investment, he’ll do it through innovation. He has the money to incubate and an outsiders point of view, my guess is something instructive, if not immensely profitable, will emerge in Chicago.
To my...
Half way through a rather busy day, that...
WatchLoving the process of creating iPhone art.
Intersecting Sphere's of Influence
“Nielsen research shows that nearly 34% of Gawker readers have their own blogs, a key influencer statistic. Gawker readers, it turns out, have their own audience.”
This was from a recent AdAge interview of Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media. This is really important stuff. While the phenomena is isolated to a savvy niche currently, it points to a future where media buys...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-5-24) →
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-5-24) →
wepostmusic:
Ratatat — Wildcat
I like Ratatat,...
This is “Donde Esta La Playa” from The...
Marginal Revolution: This paragraph has an idea I... →
An argument for global financial regulation? or for the atomization of the banking sector? How to manage this risk.
Memo to Krugman and DeLong: Start a Little... →
This is a must read simplification of how financial booms and busts work, with larger business implications. I mean this is how all things work, signalling builds credibility and certitude which leads to more trust and success.
The interesting thing is that the Internet is compressing the distance between signalling and reality. With information velocity increasing you must match the signal to...
So I think the new Wilco album is good, not a...
“In the new order, innovation is more important than price because price is a...”
– Kevin Kelly
I’ve been craving Interpol lately and...
In Praise of Dullness →
My father-in-law shot me an early email this morning mentioning the high quality Brooks op-ed, so I immediately clicked over. As I read the piece I couldn’t help but be impressed with the insights and the facts that Brooks laid out around the success of results-driven dullards as CEO’s.
However, one passage troubled me and continues to trouble me as the morning wears on. Here it...
“When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as...”
– Chuck Prince - Former CEO of Citibank
Rising Generation in Pakistan Sees Social Change... →
Whether or not this holds up over time I can’t say, but this is inspiring. I tend to think that this kind of behavior is a function of our interconnected society, as these type of good citizen behaviors while local in execution, have a global implications as most young people, myself included struggle to understand what our future looks like without this kind of natural social philanthropy....
“News is not like an iTunes song; it’s perishable. Today’s front page is...”
– Marshall W. Van Alstyne - Associate Professor Information Systems:Boston University
Plumage: FineFlickrFeathers →
More data generated art (I’m loving this data visualization research I’m doing). In this example, the service queries Flickr for a keyword, e.g. “bright”. When it finds a picture with that keyword it reads the dominant colors used in the image and constructs a feather that reflects the color scheme.
Am I dorking out, yes, but the future of data generated art is a bright...
“Whereas a corporate data center may have one person for every 50 servers, the...”
– Ted Schadler - Forrester Analyst
The Dizzying Economics of Cloud Computing →
Food for thought from a smart thinker on Cloud Computing. I particularly like the line about entrepreneurs probing for comparative advantage. The truth is the usual plug and play biz models don’t exist and the business model experimentation going on right now is pretty fascinating.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-5-17) →
Newspaper Twitterers Will Ruin Everything! →
Since there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of value in slowing information’s flow, I tend to think that Bill Keller is missing it here. What he needs to do is probably just let it be an information free for all coming out of that beautiful Renzo Piano building. If he does not he’s going to lose control of the whole thing.
Would not want to be a paper now. That said, having...
Blackboard Swallows Its Competitors, Tossing Open... →
Interesting to see how Blackboard is strategically positioning itself. My take is that inertia of openness and cost is going to crush this company.
Do Web Entrepreneurs Still Need Venture... →
Interesting POV. It’s certainly a rather stomach churning choice, but it’s remarkable how cheaply you can build out ideas.
That said, the launching pad that is USV and Betaworks right now is kind of stunning to see.
This is “Freddie and the Trojan Horse”...
Frank wants broad limits on exec. pay for all... →
Barney is really sticking his nose into places it doesn’t belong. I’m not sure this is anymore than populist rhetoric with little intention behind it, but if it is more it is certainly concerning.
The pay gap between senior leadership and the working class beneath them has grown hugely and is unsustainable in the face of real wages not growing. Leaders will recognize this and high-end...
Power Problem - CJR →
Just a seven page reminder that while the press is on Capitol Hill stating their case for a newspaper bailout, the facts that abut this request are weak. Look the press sells stuff and guess what the business press had no idea this Great Recession was coming, they were just happy to lionize those individuals who by dint of luck and hard work had been able to ride a mega-economic wave to great...
Thinking about innovation and business models →
Thought provoking stuff from JP Rangaswami regarding innovating for progress rather than for profit. Poses some interesting questions that flow out of the question of why the mythic “polypill” has not been created to help fend off heart disease.
His end conclusion is that the “polypill” is a combination of off patent drugs that would not allow for competitive advantage to...
This is Yppah singing “Gumball Machine...
This is “Get Over It” by Solid Gold....
