Married? Here is a free tip.
September 24, 2005
Work all of the time? Forget dates that are important to your wife? Get this service. Thanks to Evan Williams for pointing this one out. (my wife does not read my blog)
BitTorrent = Disruptive Technology
September 23, 2005
Dixon Doll lead an $8.75 million Series A investment in BitTorrent. Think of BitTorrent as the answer to the bandwidth problems thousands of telecom startups tried to resolve with more bandwidth in the 90s. Om Malik calls Bit Torrent the Cisco of the digital content revolution. This investment is a SURE THING!
BitTorrent has been downloaded 45 million times!
Here is the description of the service from the website (expect this text to change):
BitTorrent gives you the same freedom to publish previously enjoyed by only a select few with special equipment and lots of money. ("Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one" — journalist A.J. Liebling.)
You have something terrific to publish — a large music or video file, software, a game or anything else that many people would like to have. But the more popular your file becomes, the more you are punished by soaring bandwidth costs. If your file becomes phenomenally successful and a flash crowd of hundreds or thousands try to get it at once, your server simply crashes and no one gets it.
There is a solution to this vicious cycle. BitTorrent, the result of over two years of intensive development, is a simple and free software product that addresses all of these problems.
The key to scaleable and robust distribution is cooperation. With BitTorrent, those who get your file tap into their upload capacity to give the file to others at the same time. Those that provide the most to others get the best treatment in return. ("Give and ye shall receive!")
Cooperative distribution can grow almost without limit, because each new participant brings not only demand, but also supply. Instead of a vicious cycle, popularity creates a virtuous circle. And because each new participant brings new resources to the distribution, you get limitless scalability for a nearly fixed cost.
BitTorrent is not just a concept, but has an easy-to-use implementation capable of swarming downloads across unreliable networks. BitTorrent has been embraced by numerous publishers to distribute to millions of users.
With BitTorrent free speech no longer has a high price.
Web 2.0 Meme Map
September 23, 2005
Twodecode Update
September 21, 2005
Previously I profiled a company called Twodecode. They recently completed the development thier beta phone client in Symbian C++. Their earlier development with J2ME clients was stopped due to terrible J2ME-support for high-res scans. They are working on a couple of ideas to circumvent this issue; however, additional development under Java/J2ME has received a lower priority.
They are eating their own dog feed and are tracking their own time use with the phone client and codes in the office. They have completed over 300 test scans of different codes (size 1.5 inch x 1.5 inch) on a number of different phones and about 90% of all scans have been successful. Strangly they have found problems in recognizing the codes when the code is printed on high gloss materials or when dark shadows are displayed in the image (mostly shadow of the user standing in front of the code). Nightmare!
They have completed the development of a "pilot" site in Ruby on Rails, with limited functionality, that is going to be used to showcase to potential users and/or partners. They have not (yet) included features for detailed time tracking, budgeted vs worked hours, pay roll export to pay roll service providers etc. But in true Web 2.0 fashion they already have three cleaning/maintenance companies using the basic application in pilot field trials.
Rita fills planes headed out of Houston
September 21, 2005
Rita is now Category 5. I just got off the phone with my Dad. The company he is consulting for relocated their primary operations from New Orleans to Houston right after Katrina. He decided to head back to Dallas ahead of Rita. Turns out there are no flights available out of Houston. I suspect it is going to get more difficult to leave as Rita approaches. My advice, get out of town. Sadly I was right the last time.
The U.S. is being invaded by Canada…
September 21, 2005
Have you noticed a growing number of Canadians in your midst? Perhaps Michael Moore had it right in Canadian Bacon, that the Canadians are the new threat to the United States. What is my evidence? Well, Paul Kedrosky decided to move to San Diego from Vancouver so that I would send him an iPod. Do you need more evidence? Oh, and Paul, the iPod is on its way.
Did you ever see Canadian Bacon? Funny movie, here are a couple of lines from the movie:
RCMP Officer: I don’t know what you’re talking aboot, eh?
Kabral: Aboot! It’s ABOUT! And what’s with this ‘eh’ business?
Roy Boy: [pointing a gun] We have ways of making you pronounce the letter O, pal.
Are you really an entrepreneur?
September 21, 2005
Reading a post from a couple of weeks ago called, "The Top 6 Mistakes of Committed Young Entrepreneurs" I was compelled to comment. The post was by Michael Simmons and can be found here. He suggests that the first two mistakes are:
- Not getting started
- Not keeping with it
His post is not without merit and he makes some good points, but I have to take issues with these first two ‘mistakes’. If you do not get started you are not an entrepreneur. If you do not keep with it you are not committed. So by definition you cannot be a committed entrepreneur if you never get started or fail to keep with it. Am I off base here?
The iron curtain of commerce between America and Canada
September 21, 2005
Last week Paul Kedrosky emailed me regarding my iPod poll. He explained that he was an iPod-outlier - i.e. he did not own an iPod. I decided it would be fun to send him one so he could get ‘in the game’ and I attemped to order one from Amazon. Quickly it became apparent that I could not ship to Paul’s Vancouver address via Amazon. Next I tried the online Apple store, it did not work either. I then called Apple and they explained that I would need to go to their Canadian online store. I moseyed over to the Canadian store, eh!, and tried to order Paul’s new iPod. My billing address needs to be in Canada to order from the Canadian Apple store. Sorry Paul I tried…
So I tried to learn more about this country to our north - evidently behind an iron curtain of commerce - what about that NAFTA deal? Here is what I learned:
Almost two-thirds (60%) of English-speaking Canadians say “Eh!” is the most uniquely Canadian word or expression. Though in a very distant second place, 3 per cent of Canadians may have beer on their minds as they recite the popular slogan: “I am Canadian”.
- Western Canada was most likely (64%) to site the word eh! as a unique Canadian expression; while Atlantic Canadians (41%) were less likely.
- Although the playoff season has come to a close, 2 per cent of Canadians believe that hockey or Go Leafs! are unique Canadian expressions.
- Cover your ears! When the same question was asked of Quebecers, almost one-quarter (23%) volunteered various profanities as uniquely Canadian expressions!
I can chat with our designer in Argentina via Skype while laying in bed. I can work with a comic artist in Manila on my son’s birthday present. But I can’t order an iPod to be shipped to Canada for Paul? Seems like the World is still 1.0. Ug…
[via]
Skype & Asterisk: Can they play together?
September 21, 2005
We have used hosted VoIP services for more than three years. Our employees around the world have nice Cisco VoIP phones and we have had mixed results with the quality. On the other hand, I have marveled at the quality of calls made with Skype.
We recently installed our own open source Asterisk VoIP PBX switch and I have been asking our technical folks if we could connect Skype clients to our switch. Asterisk is open, but they explain Skype is closed. They suggest Gizmo since it is an open platform; however, Skype has the istalled user base so I was hopeful we could connect the two. This evening I found this post on Skype Journal (I will reblog here for my techs - please read and figure out how we can do this):
Can Skype be a gateway to a PBX? Skype 2 PBX?
Here is a scenario posed to me by a Canadian company.
A company has four offices each with a local PBX. These PBXs are interconnected via SIP. (Of course the PBXs could have been interconnected with Skype, but that would be a boring story.)
This company would like to have any remote Skype Client have access to the corporate telephone infrastructure and as well, have any phone connected on any PBX access the Skype infrastructure, i.e. receive SkypeIn calls, place SkypeOut calls and place calls to any Skype Client. As well, all voice mail would handled by the PBX. When the remote client (e.g. a remote employee in San Diego) is unattended, all incoming calls are to be Call Forwarded so as to terminate at the PBX.
Here is a possible solution-
I find this offers exciting opportunities to decrease costs and increase value particularly for companies connecting internationally. Think small travel agencies needing to compete with Expedia. Think of Hotel’s who might want offer lower costs to their guests to call home while making a buck at the same time.
The technology driving Skype 2 PBX was covered here.
When evaluating USB devices that connects your Skype Client to your landline for interconnecting Skype 2 PBX check out this technical pdf.
I tested this Skype 2 PBX out a couple of weeks ago. I am in Western Canada. The PBX and Gateway in Taiwan.
Using Skype I called the Skype Gateway, my call was answered by the IVR Automated Attendant. I used the Dial Pad in Skype to select the individual I wanted to connect with. I also requested to be transferred to another individual. It all worked seamlessly.
Next, I had the manufacturer of the device acquire a SkypeIn number in the US (area code 415). I used SkypeOut at 2 cents per minute and again connected to the PBX with the Automated Attendant in Taiwan. Perfect.
Next I asked him to set his PBX to Call Forward his local analog phone to his mobile device and I called again. Worked like a charm.
LinkedIn Responds - Foot in Mouth!
September 20, 2005
Earlier this month I blogged about an email I recieved from Robert Leathern from LinkedIn. I characterized the email as SPAM. Robert responded with this comment:
"Alex — I actually sent this email out to a few contacts of mine. If you don’t recall, you and I spoke several times regarding your LinkedIn success story which was featured in Entrepreneur magazine.
My definition for SPAM is something quite different from this .. sending emails to people you’ve spoken with and emailed with several times, is certainly not something I would consider spam. And I did blog about this, by the way as well.
But I guess it’s fun sometimes to reprint someone’s email and make sensational claims about it being spam."
I actually didn’t recall talking to Robert about the Entrepreneur magazine article (now, of course, I do). I will have to retract the SPAM claim - sorry Robert. Next time if you address the message directly to me (instead of to yourself with a bcc to me) I would not assume it was SPAM. Again, sorry for the quick draw post (I will update it: check here).
Rumored Sequoia $200MM China Fund
September 19, 2005
Rumors are swirling that Sequoia is taking an about face by raising a $200MM China fund. The former head of Sequoia publically dismissed China as being in the midst of a huge bubble. The rumor orginates from the SiliconBeat.
Sharilyn Horne Business Concept Blog
September 19, 2005
I stumbled upon Sharilyn Horne’s Business Concept Blog today. Sharilyn is a former Dallasite residing in Northern California. She is involved in design and writing. Check her blog out here: http://www.sharilynhorne.com/blog.html
The SuperNova Report by Kevin Werbach
September 19, 2005
Periodically I recieve The SuperNova Report from Kevin Werbach. Earlier this year I attended the conference and found it very interesting. You can subscribe by clicking here).
What is your VC listening to on his iPod?
September 18, 2005
Evidently I wonder and as a result I polled a number of prominent VCs. I received responses from Brad Feld, managing director of Mobius Venture Capital, Babak Nivi, consultant at Atlas Ventures, Paul Kedrosky, venture fellow with Ventures West, Seth Levine, principal at Mobius Venture Capital, and Jeff Clavier of SoftTech Venture Consulting.
The results? (from my limited sample)
- Percentage of VC who own iPods: 80%
- Number of Podcasts on iPod: 5 (Jeff was out of the norm with 100)
- Top six songs on their iPods: eminem - lose yourself, mc solaar - hasta las vista mi amor, sting - a thousand years, 50 cent - wanksta, 50 cent - in da club, tupac - ambitions az a ridah and Abba’s Hit Collection.
- 0% of VCs will admit to doing anything strange with their iPod (very fishy)
The highlights?
Brad Feld owns several iPods (shuffle, 40GB, 20GB, 10GB and an old 5GB - he is getting a Nano soon as a gift). His iPod(s) are his primary jogging companions and he listens to about a dozen podcasts regularly (he has no idea what the top three songs on his iPod are).
Babak Nivi owns a 40GB iPod. He listens to movie snippets on his iPod (a first for a VC). He listens to three to five podcasts and is a fan of 50 cent and Tupac. (He requested link love so visit his blog: http://www.nivi.com/blog)
Paul Kedrosky is an "iPod-outlier" - i.e. he does not own an iPod making him one of the 20% of VCs who don’t.
Seth Levine owns an iPod mini that he bought about 18 months ago. He used his iPod as an external hard drive one week. He has around 12 podcasts on his iPod and subscribes to five on a regular basis. Seth listens to Eminem, MC Solaar, and Sting.
Jeff Clavier stole his wife’s iPod (40GB fourth generation). He listens to podcasts on his phone primarily, but has a 100 podcasts on his wife’s iPod. Jeff’s daughter listens to Abba on the iPod.
So what did we learn? We need to send Paul an Nano - I will do that tonight…
Update: Seth suggested that each reader should comment with their own answers, here are the questions:
1. Do you own an iPod, if so which one, 2. What is the strangest thing you have done or have listened to on your iPod, 3. How many Podcasts do you have on your iPod?, and 4. What are the top three most played songs on your iPod?
What is Ajax? No really, what is it?
September 18, 2005
My previous post on Ajax generated several emails from friends and strangers alike. Most were something like, "huh?" I found this pointer to a great Ajax primer on Goldberg’s Occam Razor Blog. Jesse James Garrett with Adaptive Path’s primer titled, Ajax, A New Approach to Web Applications is a bit dated (February of this year), but useful and perhaps enlightening.
Ajax isn’t a technology. It’s really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. Ajax incorporates:
- standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
- dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
- data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT;
- asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest;
- and JavaScript binding everything together.
Jesse indicates that, "Google is making a huge investment in developing the Ajax approach. All of the major products Google has introduced over the last year — Orkut, Gmail, the latest beta version of Google Groups, Google Suggest, and Google Maps — are Ajax applications. (For more on the technical nuts and bolts of these Ajax implementations, check out these excellent analyses of Gmail, Google Suggest, and Google Maps.) Others are following suit: many of the features that people love in Flickr depend on Ajax, and Amazon’s A9.com search engine applies similar techniques."
Here is an interesting Q & A from the article:
Q. Did Adaptive Path invent Ajax? Did Google? Did Adaptive Path help build Google’s Ajax applications?
A. Neither Adaptive Path nor Google invented Ajax. Google’s recent products are simply the highest-profile examples of Ajax applications. Adaptive Path was not involved in the development of Google’s Ajax applications, but we have been doing Ajax work for some of our other clients.
Q. Is Adaptive Path selling Ajax components or trademarking the name? Where can I download it?
A. Ajax isn’t something you can download. It’s an approach — a way of thinking about the architecture of web applications using certain technologies. Neither the Ajax name nor the approach are proprietary to Adaptive Path.
Q. Is Ajax just another name for XMLHttpRequest?
A. No. XMLHttpRequest is only part of the Ajax equation. XMLHttpRequest is the technical component that makes the asynchronous server communication possible; Ajax is our name for the overall approach described in the article, which relies not only on XMLHttpRequest, but on CSS, DOM, and other technologies.
Q. Why did you feel the need to give this a name?
A. I needed something shorter than “Asynchronous JavaScript+CSS+DOM+XMLHttpRequest” to use when discussing this approach with clients.
Q. Techniques for asynchronous server communication have been around for years. What makes Ajax a “new” approach?
A. What’s new is the prominent use of these techniques in real-world applications to change the fundamental interaction model of the Web. Ajax is taking hold now because these technologies and the industry’s understanding of how to deploy them most effectively have taken time to develop.
Q. Is Ajax a technology platform or is it an architectural style?
A. It’s both. Ajax is a set of technologies being used together in a particular way.
Q. What kinds of applications is Ajax best suited for?
A. We don’t know yet. Because this is a relatively new approach, our understanding of where Ajax can best be applied is still in its infancy. Sometimes the traditional web application model is the most appropriate solution to a problem.
Q. Does this mean Adaptive Path is anti-Flash?
A. Not at all. Macromedia is an Adaptive Path client, and we’ve long been supporters of Flash technology. As Ajax matures, we expect that sometimes Ajax will be the better solution to a particular problem, and sometimes Flash will be the better solution. We’re also interested in exploring ways the technologies can be mixed (as in the case of Flickr, which uses both).
Q. Does Ajax have significant accessibility or browser compatibility limitations? Do Ajax applications break the back button? Is Ajax compatible with REST? Are there security considerations with Ajax development? Can Ajax applications be made to work for users who have JavaScript turned off?
A. The answer to all of these questions is “maybe”. Many developers are already working on ways to address these concerns. We think there’s more work to be done to determine all the limitations of Ajax, and we expect the Ajax development community to uncover more issues like these along the way.
Q. Some of the Google examples you cite don’t use XML at all. Do I have to use XML and/or XSLT in an Ajax application?
A. No. XML is the most fully-developed means of getting data in and out of an Ajax client, but there’s no reason you couldn’t accomplish the same effects using a technology like JavaScript Object Notation or any similar means of structuring data for interchange.
Q. Are Ajax applications easier to develop than traditional web applications?
A. Not necessarily. Ajax applications inevitably involve running complex JavaScript code on the client. Making that complex code efficient and bug-free is not a task to be taken lightly, and better development tools and frameworks will be needed to help us meet that challenge.
Q. Do Ajax applications always deliver a better experience than traditional web applications?
A. Not necessarily. Ajax gives interaction designers more flexibility. However, the more power we have, the more caution we must use in exercising it. We must be careful to use Ajax to enhance the user experience of our applications, not degrade it.
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