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January 30 2012
DreamHost’s Unhappy January Continues: First, A Database Breach, Now An Outage
dreamhost
DreamHost has been having a rough couple weeks. The low-cost hosting provider and domain name registrar found some unauthorized activity in its databases back on January 20th, which they later admitted were a series of attacks that may have led to the theft of some of their customers' FTP passwords. The company required mandatory password resets for all their Shell/FTP accounts -- you can read our coverage here. DreamHost's bad dream continued today, as they've been reporting outage problems, as Web, SSH, and FTP services were down for many of the company's virtual private servers, shared, and dedicated machines. The outage was first reported at 4am PST on Sunday, and has continued throughout the course of the day, with the company offering updates on its blog.
dreamhost
DreamHost has been having a rough couple weeks. The low-cost hosting provider and domain name registrar found some unauthorized activity in its databases back on January 20th, which they later admitted were a series of attacks that may have led to the theft of some of their customers' FTP passwords. The company required mandatory password resets for all their Shell/FTP accounts -- you can read our coverage here. DreamHost's bad dream continued today, as they've been reporting outage problems, as Web, SSH, and FTP services were down for many of the company's virtual private servers, shared, and dedicated machines. The outage was first reported at 4am PST on Sunday, and has continued throughout the course of the day, with the company offering updates on its blog.
Sony Rolls Out A Trio Of New Cyber-Shot Point And Shoots
DSC-TX200_Red_Right
In the market for a new point and shoot? Didn't think so. Why don't you take a gander at the new Sony shooters anyway?
DSC-TX200_Red_Right
In the market for a new point and shoot? Didn't think so. Why don't you take a gander at the new Sony shooters anyway?
Turning Two: FoundersCard Pulls Back The Curtain On Its Membership Community For Entrepreneurs
FoundersCard
The top executives in today's largest corporations not only travel in style, but they have access to an absurd array of perks while they travel, from awards and complimentary products to discounts on just about everything. On the IPO "road show" for his company VarsityBooks (now part of eFollet.com), serial entrepreneur Eric Kuhn remembers being "amazed" by witnessing firsthand "the rates and privileges that top executives at the underwriting investment banks received." After leading VarsityBooks to be twice-listed as a public company on NASDAQ (the only company I'm aware of to do so), Kuhn got out in 2006 and started FoundersCard in 2009 -- determined to bring the same rewards and opportunities to entrepreneurs and founders -- "the true risk-takers and value-creators," he says.
FoundersCard
The top executives in today's largest corporations not only travel in style, but they have access to an absurd array of perks while they travel, from awards and complimentary products to discounts on just about everything. On the IPO "road show" for his company VarsityBooks (now part of eFollet.com), serial entrepreneur Eric Kuhn remembers being "amazed" by witnessing firsthand "the rates and privileges that top executives at the underwriting investment banks received." After leading VarsityBooks to be twice-listed as a public company on NASDAQ (the only company I'm aware of to do so), Kuhn got out in 2006 and started FoundersCard in 2009 -- determined to bring the same rewards and opportunities to entrepreneurs and founders -- "the true risk-takers and value-creators," he says.
January 29 2012
How Browserling Works [art]
Art by James Halliday.
1. We run the browsers on our servers.
2. You use the browsers from the graphical web console.
3. If the servers are full, you wait in the queue.
Twitter, Democracy, and Internet Freedom
1620349_pic_1299261234
Twitter has taken fire in recent days from activists and bloggers who fear that the company’s new censorship policies will muffle online freedom. News reports recall the ways in which protestors have had made use of Twitter to oppose dictatorships, and dissidents express concern that their ability to communicate will be harmed. The more immediate issue, however, may lie elsewhere. Twitter’s new policies demonstrate vividly the complicated relationship between Internet freedom and democratic government.
1620349_pic_1299261234
Twitter has taken fire in recent days from activists and bloggers who fear that the company’s new censorship policies will muffle online freedom. News reports recall the ways in which protestors have had made use of Twitter to oppose dictatorships, and dissidents express concern that their ability to communicate will be harmed. The more immediate issue, however, may lie elsewhere. Twitter’s new policies demonstrate vividly the complicated relationship between Internet freedom and democratic government.
The Emergence Of The Content Creation Class
online-content-creation
The content creation class shall inherit the Internet. Richard Florida coined the expression the Creative Class, his belief being that these 30 to 40 million would be the driving force for economic development in a postindustrial world. Instead of driving the macro economy the Content Creation Class refers to the group of people who drive content on the internet those that write blogs, those that upload video to YouTube, and those that upload pictures to share with the world.
online-content-creation
The content creation class shall inherit the Internet. Richard Florida coined the expression the Creative Class, his belief being that these 30 to 40 million would be the driving force for economic development in a postindustrial world. Instead of driving the macro economy the Content Creation Class refers to the group of people who drive content on the internet those that write blogs, those that upload video to YouTube, and those that upload pictures to share with the world.
7 Reasons Why Pinterest Isn’t Yet Ready for Tech Brands
Pinterest_logo
Managing a tech brand means you always need to be on the lookout for innovative and creative ways to engage your community. Lately, the rise of Pinterest, a social content curation platform, has been making headlines. As early adopters and community managers, we naturally jumped on board right from the start. So far, our overall experience with Pinterest has been a positive one, and we realize its potential. But we've also found that it's not yet ready for most tech brands – especially those that have no visual products. In other words, Pinterest seems to expect brands to adapt their content to fit Pinterest’s platform, rather than Pinterest optimizing their platform for brands.
Pinterest_logo
Managing a tech brand means you always need to be on the lookout for innovative and creative ways to engage your community. Lately, the rise of Pinterest, a social content curation platform, has been making headlines. As early adopters and community managers, we naturally jumped on board right from the start. So far, our overall experience with Pinterest has been a positive one, and we realize its potential. But we've also found that it's not yet ready for most tech brands – especially those that have no visual products. In other words, Pinterest seems to expect brands to adapt their content to fit Pinterest’s platform, rather than Pinterest optimizing their platform for brands.
How Google+ Can Win: Make Publishing Universal
Google-Plus-Logo
Larry Page recently announced that he is quite thrilled with Google+’s explosive growth -- with 90 million registered accounts and 80% of the people engaging on a weekly basis across all Google properties. The problem, of course, is that very few of these 90M users are actively publishing on Google+. The Google+ strategy of fine-grained sharing of personal content using Circles has not been very effective. It takes a lot of effort to create and maintain circles, and Facebook has proven that most users seem to be comfortable sharing personal content such as family albums and baby pictures with their complete social graph.
Google-Plus-Logo
Larry Page recently announced that he is quite thrilled with Google+’s explosive growth -- with 90 million registered accounts and 80% of the people engaging on a weekly basis across all Google properties. The problem, of course, is that very few of these 90M users are actively publishing on Google+. The Google+ strategy of fine-grained sharing of personal content using Circles has not been very effective. It takes a lot of effort to create and maintain circles, and Facebook has proven that most users seem to be comfortable sharing personal content such as family albums and baby pictures with their complete social graph.
(Founder Stories) Jeff Clavier: On Getting Your Product In Front Of A VC (And Keeping It There)
JC FS Video 4 Advice.mov-1
Because every VC's inbox is overflowing with pitches, and because VC's don't take meetings with just anyone, SoftTech VC's Jeff Clavier, (who just raised $55 million for his third fund) offers advice to founders who hope to cut through the clutter, schedule a meeting, and score some financing from prominent investors.
JC FS Video 4 Advice.mov-1
Because every VC's inbox is overflowing with pitches, and because VC's don't take meetings with just anyone, SoftTech VC's Jeff Clavier, (who just raised $55 million for his third fund) offers advice to founders who hope to cut through the clutter, schedule a meeting, and score some financing from prominent investors.
Games Decreasing In Popularity On Android, Entertainment Apps On The Rise
games-ios-android2
The mobile app ecosystem is growing so quickly - exponentially, even - that sometimes it's hard to see the larger trends occurring in the space. To really gain insight, it helps to look back over a longer period of time, like a year for example, in order to take stock of the changes taking place. To that end, I reached out to mobile app search company Chomp, who kindly obligated my curiousity by packaging together its first ever annual app search analytics report. The report digs into the data from Chomp's 1 million app searches per month, to reveal trends in app prices, category share, top apps and more.
games-ios-android2
The mobile app ecosystem is growing so quickly - exponentially, even - that sometimes it's hard to see the larger trends occurring in the space. To really gain insight, it helps to look back over a longer period of time, like a year for example, in order to take stock of the changes taking place. To that end, I reached out to mobile app search company Chomp, who kindly obligated my curiousity by packaging together its first ever annual app search analytics report. The report digs into the data from Chomp's 1 million app searches per month, to reveal trends in app prices, category share, top apps and more.
10 Ways to Leverage Facebook for Startups: Part II, On-Site
ryan_dogpatch_reasonably_small-121
Yesterday I discussed how to improve user acquisition, activation and activity by building Facebook directly into your web experience. There is of course another half to the equation: leveraging Facebook.com to expand your reach and engage your users. On-Facebook success is less product-heavy than success off-Facebook, although they both ultimately aim for the same outcome: engagement. While it is as much an art as a science, if you optimize for engagement and continually test your way across Facebook’s myriad of products – you may well find yourself sitting alongside The Rock (Facebook’s best personality?) and Spotify (terrific example of being a platform first-mover).
ryan_dogpatch_reasonably_small-121
Yesterday I discussed how to improve user acquisition, activation and activity by building Facebook directly into your web experience. There is of course another half to the equation: leveraging Facebook.com to expand your reach and engage your users. On-Facebook success is less product-heavy than success off-Facebook, although they both ultimately aim for the same outcome: engagement. While it is as much an art as a science, if you optimize for engagement and continually test your way across Facebook’s myriad of products – you may well find yourself sitting alongside The Rock (Facebook’s best personality?) and Spotify (terrific example of being a platform first-mover).
The Ecommerce Revolution Is All About You
Amazon
Personal recommendations have always been a part of ecommerce, but there has been little innovation since Amazon introduced retail and product personalization 10 years ago. But with the increasing mountains of data at digital retailers' fingertips, ecommerce is about to get even more personal. The fact is that right now there is little iteration from personalized ecommerce beyond what is taking place on Amazon. So you'll see suggestions of what other shoppers who bought a certain item also purchased, or recommendations to similar items to what you have purchased, but there is a whole world of social data, and even more-in-depth purchase data that can be mined by retailers to help increase sales.
Amazon
Personal recommendations have always been a part of ecommerce, but there has been little innovation since Amazon introduced retail and product personalization 10 years ago. But with the increasing mountains of data at digital retailers' fingertips, ecommerce is about to get even more personal. The fact is that right now there is little iteration from personalized ecommerce beyond what is taking place on Amazon. So you'll see suggestions of what other shoppers who bought a certain item also purchased, or recommendations to similar items to what you have purchased, but there is a whole world of social data, and even more-in-depth purchase data that can be mined by retailers to help increase sales.
Google, Facebook, Privacy — And You
google privacy policy
Like millions of other people, I got an email from Google this morning. It was entitled “Changes to Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service”. The first sentence describes the intent of the changes as shortening 60 policies into one, and improving their readability.
google privacy policy
Like millions of other people, I got an email from Google this morning. It was entitled “Changes to Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service”. The first sentence describes the intent of the changes as shortening 60 policies into one, and improving their readability.
Curebit Apologizes for Copying 37Signals: “Stupid, Lazy, and Disrespectful”
curebit logo
That's awkward: Just as it was announcing a $1.2 million round of funding, online referral startup Curebit was caught lifting designs and code from 37Signals, the company behind popular collaboration tools Basecamp, Highrise, and others. The copying was called out on Twitter by 37Signals partner David Heinemeier Hansson, who, after an exchange with Curebit co-founder Allan Grant, called the Curebit team "fucking scumbags." It probably didn't help that Grant's initial responses didn't seem particularly contrite — he defended the copying as a "quick test" and at one point told Heinemeier Hansson, "Chill dude :)" (VentureBeat has a great blow-by-blow account of the initial controversy.)
curebit logo
That's awkward: Just as it was announcing a $1.2 million round of funding, online referral startup Curebit was caught lifting designs and code from 37Signals, the company behind popular collaboration tools Basecamp, Highrise, and others. The copying was called out on Twitter by 37Signals partner David Heinemeier Hansson, who, after an exchange with Curebit co-founder Allan Grant, called the Curebit team "fucking scumbags." It probably didn't help that Grant's initial responses didn't seem particularly contrite — he defended the copying as a "quick test" and at one point told Heinemeier Hansson, "Chill dude :)" (VentureBeat has a great blow-by-blow account of the initial controversy.)
January 28 2012
Apple Buy Hollywood? That’s A Terrible Idea
hollywood fire
Apple should not use its $100 billion in cash to buy, or buy into Hollywood. While it would most assuredly (ahem, cough) disrupt the system, it would not spur the kind of creative chaos and innovation that would lead to the Emerald City of any show, on demand, for free, to rent, or buy, or subscribe, and organized by taste or popularity, or you! In fact, Apple buying into Hollywood, would actually kill Hollywood. Here’s why:
hollywood fire
Apple should not use its $100 billion in cash to buy, or buy into Hollywood. While it would most assuredly (ahem, cough) disrupt the system, it would not spur the kind of creative chaos and innovation that would lead to the Emerald City of any show, on demand, for free, to rent, or buy, or subscribe, and organized by taste or popularity, or you! In fact, Apple buying into Hollywood, would actually kill Hollywood. Here’s why:
Founder Soup: Stanford and Andreessen’s New Startup Generator
founder soup logo 4
A single entrepreneur alone is vulnerable to shortsightedness, to fatigue. But with a team comes diverse perspective, encouragement, and the wherewithal to push through problems. That's why a group of Stanford computer science and business students started the Andreessen Horowitz-backed Founder Soup program. It's designed to give entrepreneurs with an idea or a fledgling company a chance to pitch, not to raise funding but to recruit co-founders. At its first full-scale event on Thursday night I saw an effective model for fostering startups, and several brilliant ideas in health tech, energy, and data that could turn into successful companies.
founder soup logo 4
A single entrepreneur alone is vulnerable to shortsightedness, to fatigue. But with a team comes diverse perspective, encouragement, and the wherewithal to push through problems. That's why a group of Stanford computer science and business students started the Andreessen Horowitz-backed Founder Soup program. It's designed to give entrepreneurs with an idea or a fledgling company a chance to pitch, not to raise funding but to recruit co-founders. At its first full-scale event on Thursday night I saw an effective model for fostering startups, and several brilliant ideas in health tech, energy, and data that could turn into successful companies.
Kindle Sales Growing Faster Than The Nook’s
kindle fire
Barnes & Noble may be challenging Amazon's dominance of the e-book world, but the Kindle sales are still growing faster than the Nook's — at least if you connect the dots between some of the numbers included in a recently-published article by The New York Times.
kindle fire
Barnes & Noble may be challenging Amazon's dominance of the e-book world, but the Kindle sales are still growing faster than the Nook's — at least if you connect the dots between some of the numbers included in a recently-published article by The New York Times.
Apple’s Off-The-Charts iPhone And iPad Sales
Apple Quarter Asymco
Sometimes you have to see things to truly appreciate their magnitude. Apple's latest quarter was so massive that MG had to write two posts about it: $46 billion in revenues, 37 million iPhones sold, 15 million iPads. The chart above, which comes from Asymco (see a fully interactive version here), shows how unusual this quarter was for Apple.
Apple Quarter Asymco
Sometimes you have to see things to truly appreciate their magnitude. Apple's latest quarter was so massive that MG had to write two posts about it: $46 billion in revenues, 37 million iPhones sold, 15 million iPads. The chart above, which comes from Asymco (see a fully interactive version here), shows how unusual this quarter was for Apple.
Let’s Get Personalized: Moving Beyond Recommendations
name tag
Hank Nothhaft is the co-founder and chief product officer of Trapit, a personalized content discovery platform currently in beta. Trapit was incubated at SRI and the CALO project. eBay’s recent acquisition of the recommendation service Hunch was an important score for the online retailer, giving it a way to mine the ever-mounting mounds of structured and unstructured data for more relevant and accurate consumer recommendations.
name tag
Hank Nothhaft is the co-founder and chief product officer of Trapit, a personalized content discovery platform currently in beta. Trapit was incubated at SRI and the CALO project. eBay’s recent acquisition of the recommendation service Hunch was an important score for the online retailer, giving it a way to mine the ever-mounting mounds of structured and unstructured data for more relevant and accurate consumer recommendations.
Gillmor Gang 01.28.12 (TCTV)
Gillmore Gang test pattern
The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Danny Sullivan, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — debut the latest Google catchphrase to replace Do No Evil: We Really Don't Care! @stevegillmor, @dsearls, @dannysullivan, @jtaschek, @kevinmarks, @tinagillmor
Gillmore Gang test pattern
The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Danny Sullivan, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — debut the latest Google catchphrase to replace Do No Evil: We Really Don't Care! @stevegillmor, @dsearls, @dannysullivan, @jtaschek, @kevinmarks, @tinagillmor
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