Anyone else?
Awake.
Tech Sector, Slow to Hire, Unlikely to Lead Recovery
Uh, every startup I know is dying to recruit engineering talent. It’s the safe, boring, 9-5 engineering work that is in danger..
Sony has launched a new music and video download service as it gears up to challenge Apple’s iTunes…
The cloud-based service will be available on PlayStation 3s, Bravia TVs, Blu-Ray players and Sony’s personal computers.
Initially it will offer movies. Music will be added at the end of the year.
Sony’s online services platform Qriocity has offered video-on-demand in the US since April this year but will now be available in Europe.
The Music Unlimited service, due at the end of the year, will give users access to millions of songs.
—
Sony rolls out rival to iTunes (via ryking)
Sony always seems to build in some DRM that cripples whatever technology they develop. Apple does too, but they have such a huge market share they’re able to get away with it.
Blu-Ray is a total bust. Playstation is, in the grand scheme of things, a niche market, and Sony has barely made a dent in the PC market.
I think they used to make some of the best designed products in the technology and gadget space but Apple has run laps around them for the better part of the last decade.
The music and movie service is a nice added value for Sony products but not enough to make me want to swap my Mac Book for a VAIO.
This is a move out of necessity. We are seeing every device we own that can play media plugging into some source of content from the cloud. Our computers have had them long ago, our gaming platforms have had them since the invention of XBMC, and with the invention of the iPod and iPhone, our mobile devices are portable media devices pulling media from the cloud.
Sony is way behind, they’re not innovating, they’re simply catching up.
Qriocity is about the worst name for a platform ever.
(via soupsoup)
evangotlib:codeit:jerfrey:-girlinterrupted:ohmeoflittlefaith:irishwristwatches:octopuscanfly:tik-tok-on-my-clock:be-your-teenage-dream-tonight:(via withlovefromsandra, oliverstrange)
yeah, right?
Yeah, but that would require Tumblr to admit that the fundamental inspiration for reblogging — that comment threads are broken UX — is flawed.
ltcm’s collapse in 1998 was triggered by the Russian default: A country with thousands of nuclear weapons and immense oil resources going bankrupt was an unimaginable apocalyptic scenario that was not supposed to happen or be allowed to happen. But in the endgame of the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98, with stretched lenders and oil prices cut in half, this unimagined scenario became real. The failure of the imagination then swung to the other extreme as the panicked, coordinated rate cuts of central banks kicked off the final stage of the 1990s technology bubble, with even so-called “macro” funds (like Soros or Tiger) failing to grasp the extent to which the marshaling of liquidity forces would overwhelm the micro facts of poor business models, incompetent management, and expensive valuations.
—
The Optimistic Thought Experiment | Hoover Institution
There is thinking big, and then there is this article. Holy shit. If you’ve got an hour, go read this. I’ll probably need to read it 2 or 3 more times before it all sinks in, but every sentence proves that there are some people who simply think on a higher plane than the rest of us. “Macro” isn’t for kids.
On the other side, however, there exists one decisive problem. Virtually no Web 2.0 companies have sold stock to the public through ipos. If one desired to deploy substantial capital into the next wave of internet businesses, this would prove almost impossible to do. Even with respect to venture capital and angel investing, the extreme distribution of outcomes imposes a severe challenge on any positive expected returns.
—
The Optimistic Thought Experiment | Hoover Institution
The recent glut of angel and superangel money has made people forget this fact: IPOs are only for the irrationally brilliant few, and likely acquisition scenarios are blocked by investors chasing illusionary 10X returns.
Until entrepreneurs can raise $5-10M and have 20-75M exits without being called “failures” by the investment community, the next decade is going to look just as bad as the previous for venture capital.
The 10 biggest advertisers account for less than 5% of Google’s June ad dollars.
—
Here’s How Much Big Companies Spend Advertising On Google Search
Wow.
(via pegobry)
Given how AdWords prices continue to rise, I question how sustainable the distribution is. Already, most very small businesses can’t afford AdWords.
Random Programming Notes: This is a screenshot from Firebug’s timer for AJAX calls. Each call is calling an internal PHP page that pulls an API from one of three different services (Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr). Notice two are almost identical in response time (this happens nearly every time).
The one call that is different of the three (responding over 9 seconds after the call is originally made) is Tumblr.
I’m glad Tumblr has an API at all, but it’s really quite lackluster. I know they could do better if they wanted to. Which brings up an interesting point: when you introduce an API, you are deciding to create a second type of customer - the developer. And that customer should be treated with equal respect as any other customer, even if there are fewer of them. Too often companies will release an API because they can or because they should, and then leave it to rot. If you’re going to do it, do it all the way.
Ube and Cookies & Cream sundae with hot fudge and crushed peanut butter cups.
Sometimes it’s nice to get away.
(View from the backyard of J’s parents’ house in CT)
