links, random thoughts, various opinions
I wish I could write more about what being an entrepreneur is like. One day maybe…especially lately with so much going on in our business. I know I’ve been accused many times of being too optimistic, and admittedly the truth is somewhere in between, but for me it always came down to the […]
Dave links to a great site with the The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs.
Google’s Office add-on
“Google, as it has itself said repeatedly, is not interested in fighting old wars. Microsoft won the war for spreadsheet applications. Google’s fighting a new war, a war that’s barely begun. It’s the war for web services. And it knows that, for the foreseeable future, these services will not displace desktop applications but […]
Don’t Stop - Start
“If you want to change something in your life, it’s common to try to stop the behaviors you don’t like. While this certainly seems logical, it seldom works. The reason is simple - it unintentionally creates a vacuum where the old behaviors used to be. And since nature hates a vacuum it […]
Scan This Book
“Scanning technology has been around for decades, but digitized books didn’t make much sense until recently, when search engines like Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN came along. When millions of books have been scanned and their texts are made available in a single database, search technology will enable us to grab and read […]
I’ve started to read the Vancouver Housing Market Blog. It’s a good read on the (over)-exuberance of the market in Vancouver. Being in London these days I found the recent post (and link to Globe article on London) particularly accurate.
He writes…
“We have occasionally heard comparisons of Vancouver to London or New York as […]
I’ll be in Veracruz, Mexico on Tuesday for a conference. I was there about six years ago… I’m hoping this trip is as productive business wise as last time… but a little less eventful.
Traveling with these casts is going to be a challenge… that said I can at least hold a fork […]
Today’s Dilbert is just too good not to link to.
So we moved offices this week. Finally. It’s been a long and amazing five years. Our new office is great (and probably much nicer than I’m used to or expected). It will be great for us as a company, and for our customers … I think we’ll be more productive (really). […]
Extreme Jobs
“But even Friedman concedes that among the folks who live to work — the ones he calls “happy workaholics” — such strategies are irrelevant. And don’t try telling them that long hours and high stress will ultimately make them sick. “There are studies that look at the impact of weekly work hours on health, […]
Blame Bettman
“No more. Yesterday NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who had locked out the players in September just before the start of the 2004-2005 season, cancelled the remaining games as well as the Stanley Cup playoffs because he and Bob Goodenow, executive director of the players union, could not come to terms on a new collective […]
Weblications
“I’m still stuck on the notion that in less than two years Google will have a million-node computer operating as a single, optimized operating system for web-based applications. Google gets it. Most professional developers look at web-based applications and all they see is “the lameness of web pages as a UI”, as Paul Graham called […]
Camels and Rubber Duckies
“Notice the gap? There’s no software priced between $1000 and $75,000. I’ll tell you why. The minute you charge more than $1000 you need to get serious corporate signoffs. You need a line item in their budget. You need purchasing managers and CEO approval and competitive bids and paperwork. So you need […]
Interview With The Benefactor
“I’m always sufficiently scared of failing that I make sure I’ve reduced my risk through preparation. Most people think money is the key to reducing risk. Preparation is. There is an old saying that when you sit at the business table, you look for the fool. If you don’t see a fool, […]
Phil Tears Into Japanese MSN Blogs
“Again, how do you get customers? By building something that people will talk about — in the new world where word-of-mouth networks are extremely efficient you need to build best-of-breed-tools or you won’t get market share.”
While we don’t make blogging software (thankfully), I’ve no doubt that clean, good design generates […]
The Real Terms Of The Google Deal
“This insulation from shareholder pressure has been criticized as arrogant and anti-democratic, but it is also prudent, I’m sad to say, since Google intends to run its business with an eye to risky, creative experiments that are poorly understood or tolerated by the public markets.”
“Hi,” he said, “my name is Dave Neeleman, and I’m the CEO of JetBlue. I’m here to serve you this evening, and I’m looking forward to meeting each of you before we land.”
“Among the many hazards of business success is this one: The bigger your company gets, the less contact you have with some of […]
The Curse of the Hundred Bagger
“That’s because every startup — EVERY STARTUP — faces a crisis early-on and changes dramatically what it intends to do.”
Should I Just Give You The Company?
“I love reviewing standard form contracts from vendors and service providers because they can exbihit sublime creativity in favouring the provider over the buyer, often completely out of whack with the commercial realities of the deal. This one-sided drafting approach must be somewhat successful because I suspect (actually, I […]
Lego returning to core market
“Lego is apparently expecting a pre-tax loss of over 200 million dollars this year — the worst it’s ever been for them. The good news is the company has decided to stop selling electronics and movie tie-ins and return to its core business of making some of the best toys for […]