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November 29, 2003
The real Kill Bill
I was talking to my friend Chris McQuarrie
and I were talking about Kill Bill. I liked it. He hasn't seen it, but did see the trailer. He says it is a DIRECT ripoff of a favorite movie of his childhood, Avenging Eagle. Here are a bunch of links I found on the movie. Looks like he is right. I am going to try to get a copy, but is is out of print (luck for Quentin eh?)
Cool, lots of reviews and people who want to take your money for an out of print movie.
http://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/avengingeagle.htm
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.1698/aid.006336/qx/details.htm
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1803242408&cf=info&intl=us
Amazon claims to have it and they have some used ones http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005UQ76/qid=1070172435/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_4/103-0776325-9351828?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846
Posted by Martin at 10:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
DDos attacks cause two anti-spammers to throw in the towel
For quite some time, the anti-spam fight has been waged by volunteers. People who hate spam so much, they take their own personal time and maintian Black Lists or gather stats that "out" the spammer's ISP locations and tricks. I found an article on two of them that were recently forced to pull down their lists because the spammers sent targeted DDos attacks that shut down their servers. They used the same servers for their regular business and had to pull back from their volunteer anti-spam work. Ed Foster's Gripelog || Attacks on Anti-spam Sites Show Unresponsiveness of Legal System This is yet another failure of the volunteer system of anti-spam control. We need as many resources on the fighting side as there are on the spamming side (or more). Go Cloudmark.
Posted by Martin at 9:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The "Can-SPAM" act of 2003
Last week, just before Thanksgiving, I downloaded the text of the law that Congress passed just before the break on SPAM. I found a guy who has already read it and thinks it was written by the direct marketers. The Gripe Line Weblog by Ed Foster: The Can-SPAM law of 2003 I will post my own analysis soon.
Posted by Martin at 8:53 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Convert your car to a Vegitarian!
You can turn any diesel car into a Grease Car. This is something I have been looking for. An aftermarket kit that is environmentally friendly. Not there is still the problem of where to get a steady supply of the stuff from you fat fryer. And the smell is bad. But there are solutions to that as well. There is a guy in seattle who collects and distributes the vegitable oil.
Haven't found a solution for the smell though. And this is just for diesel cars. The real win would be a bolt-on for a gas guzzler SUV. Still looking for that one..
Posted by Martin at 8:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Now here is a gift that fits into this year's budget
The Stupid Store: Iraqi Most Wanted Playing Cards
Posted by Martin at 7:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Something I should get for our house
Given Alex's love of handwashing, this one is perfect! The Stupid Store: Talking Toilet Soap Dispenser
Posted by Martin at 7:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 22, 2003
The best web merchants for geek christmas shopping
Ok, here is the list of places with the coolest stuff for your favorite geek. (including me!)
ThinkGeek :: Stuff for Smart Masses
Stupid.com (thanks Glen).
Sotheby's for the finer things in life.
Paul Smith for the non jeans and teeshirt days.
The Ultimate Gadget site
Everything outdoor
Hip art stuff
If you can't figure out what you want yourself, try GeekBoy Services.
Your total geek.
there were a couple others I can't seem to find right now. Look for postings later.
Posted by Martin at 5:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Restraint this Christmas Season
Ok, so Alex and I have put a cap on it. This year's Christmas budget for each other is: TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS. Not out of squalor, rather out of desire to not add a bunch of more crap to our lives. But that won't keep me from listing up here the objects of desire that all of YOU should buy for each other.
Posted by Martin at 5:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 20, 2003
HP buys Persist, one that we passed on
Venture Capital is a funny long term thing. You invest and you don't know for a couple years if you are right or not. You see alot of plans and you don't know if you missed something big until later. Last week H-P to acquire Persist Technologies - 2003-11-11 - San Francisco Business Times. We looked at them about a year and a half ago as an investment. At the time they were focused on exchange/mail storage. Looks like they morphed to an enterprise data store, much more attractive to HP. Wonder what the valuation was and if the investors made any money...
Posted by Martin at 4:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The ultimate home computer monitor and HDTV
I bought the 22 inch version for our bedroom. Now they don't make that one anymore, only the larger 32 inch. I need to get rid of my 200 pound Hitachi 21 inch tube display. It takes up half my desk! SAMSUNG's Digital World - FLAT PANEL TV LCD | LTN325W Priority 2
Posted by Martin at 3:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
And then there is the new Roadster
Alex and I saw this in Vegas a couple months ago. eBay item 2672416620 (Ends Nov-21-03 17:25:00 PST) - NEW CARTIER ROADSTER CHRONO BOX WARRANTY Cheaper up on e-bay. We didn't win enough that time to buy it so I will probably have to wait for the next big surge in the stock market! Priority 2
Posted by Martin at 3:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New Gortex jacket
There is a black ski jacket by Prada at Barneys that I have been drooling over. I am not much of a Prada guy actually, but this one has a zip out liner and can be worn around town as a casual jacket. The rain is really starting to fall here in Seattle and this year it is COLD as well. All my existing jackets are shells without liners. Number one priority is to stay warm this year. Hummm I wonder if Santa shops at Barney's...
Posted by Martin at 3:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Graham Chronofighter
Wow, a watch chrono with a quick start on-off lever...Contemporary Graham Watches - Wingates Quality Watches This is a priority two item since it is so expensive...
Posted by Martin at 2:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New location for Waste
Totally anonymous P2P. WASTE Mirrors If you run a Waste network, lemmie know and we can hook up.
Posted by Martin at 11:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Irony lives
What happens when the fox watches the hen house? You can guess. Follow this thread at Slashdot. Slashdot | SpamCop To Be Sold To IronPort?. Ironport is playing both sides of SPAM, producer and defender. You can't play that too long. Not to mention how dishonest it is.
Posted by Martin at 10:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 19, 2003
The Pro version of MP3 radio
Now if you have more like 3 grand to throw around go with this: Windows XP Pro powers digital radio broadcasting device All the features of a professional radio jockey in a box. And you can stream it out to the world or just to your own lan.
Posted by Martin at 4:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New Squeezebox
Here is something for the christmas list. Slim Devices : Free Your Music! A home media player for your MP3s that uses 802.11. Very cool. But I can do the same with my TIVO which I already have.
Posted by Martin at 4:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Close this Exchange hole to SPAM!
If you are running Exchange 5.5 or 2000, you must close this hole described here: Mail server flaw opens Exchange to spam | CNET News.com You could be unwittingly relaying spam.
Posted by Martin at 4:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Spammer's ISP
So there are ISPs who specialize in hosting Spammers. .....::: Stealth Hosting:::..... Interesting business model. I hope it is not successful.
Posted by Martin at 4:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Longhorn info site
Went to a Microsoft strategy briefing this morning. All your questions about Longhorn can be answered here: LonghornBlogs.com This is not an official ms site. It is a discussion board basically for comments, industry prognostications, and more. Quite useful actually.
Posted by Martin at 4:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 18, 2003
Here is how you join the Dell Affiliates program
This is not easy to find off the Dell homepage. Dell Business Affiliates Program
Posted by Martin at 1:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
How to manage a sales force in the new Millennium
When I started Loudeye I hired a VP of sales and said "set up a tracking system for our pipeline". What I got was an excel spreadsheet. There was a column for customer name, deal details, deal size, percent probability, and stage in the sales process (we had a seven stage process). The goal was to see opportunities growing and moving along through the process to Purchase Orders. But for some reason, things never turned out the way the spreadsheet said. Customers really weren't qualified. Sales people didn't follow up. Senior executives weren't looped in at the right time. The deal size changed. There was no coorelation or communication trail to map back actual sales force activities to the spreadsheet. For example, e-mail or phone trail.
These kinds of sales automation systems (currently called Customer Relationship Management - CRM) were expensive and difficult to deploy enterprise software. They required lots of integration and training. Lots of unnatural acts to get access to these things on the road too (where sales people are most of the time). This application was ripe for change and perfect for the ASP model. Along came Salesforce.com. They convinced people that the model could work.
Now along comes Entellium. They are cheaper and better than Salesforce.com. Are sales people loyal? This is a cost center for them. Will they switch? maybe. Will Start-ups prefer a cheaper solution? You bet.
Posted by Martin at 1:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wow, software vendors are desparate to protect their security
Wow, companies are sueing white hat hackers who find flaws in their products. Get Up to Speed on Enterprise Security | CNET News.com Sueing under the anti-reverse engineering protections of the DMCA. This is totally weird. I know that no software vendor really wants their dirty laundry hung out in public, but hey, this is free bug finding! Leverage it.
Posted by Martin at 10:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Qwest to offer VOIP in Minnesota
Well the bells are caving. Qwest to offer Internet phone service | CNET News.com. Their first assault on VOIP was a page right out of the music industry's playbook: the lawsuit. Cheap phone service has got to be illegal! Look at all these federal mandates the traditional phone companies have to support, of course these upstart internet guys can offer cheaper service because they don't have to support all the crap the Feds make us do. Like number portability, rural access, 911 and so-on. Well a judge in Minnesota just decided that the VOIP guys don't have to pay those fees. So devoid of their legal argument, Qwest had to enter the fray. Expect them to position the other guys as unreliable.
This is getting interesting
Posted by Martin at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Affiliate marketing programs
Ok, so I just signed up for a bunch of affiliate programs for our foundation. Last year during the holidays we did all our shopping through our amazon.com affiliate link with the commissions going to our foundation. This year I decided to expand the list of affiliates.
I discovered an interesting thing. There are aggregators and managers of affiliate programs. Like Be Free Partner Gateway
and LinkShare
. I thought all these guys were just banner ad aggregators. Looks like they have extended their businesses. It makes alot of sense to aggregate the smaller merchants. The thing I was surprised at though was that some of the larger merchants like Walmart and BestBuy were using these aggregators.
Every day is a learning experience here...
Posted by Martin at 10:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 17, 2003
Packet8 does firmware upgrade
Apparently Packet8 has done a firmware upgrade and added a bunch of good features. Here is what Mark says about that:
Packet8 just released a new firmware for their hardware with a bunch of
new features. I think they are now closer to delivering the same
services as Vonage. New features include caller ID, 3 way calling,
caller ID blocking. The firmware upgrader worked really well. They
sent me an email, I clicked on it, an applet launched in my browser that
found my VoIP phone unit on the local LAN and automatically upgraded it.
I have not bought any of them yet. When I do, I will review here. I am waiting till I move maybe.
Posted by Martin at 9:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The next thing is transmition bicycles
I used a couple of mountain bike transmitions over time. The earliest is of course the three speed internal geared rear hub that my old Schwin had. About 10 years ago, there was one that had a section of the large front chain ring that moved during shifting to move the chain. It was too heavy and got dirty. Now comes an internal transmition in the bottom bracket. Apparently there is a standards organization and at least one manufacturer with a product out. wow. Slashdot | Bicycle Tech Drivetrain Advances Showcased
Posted by Martin at 1:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2003
The problem with portable computing is batteries
The issue is now being covered by Newsweek. The Energy Crisis on Your Lap Maybe we will get some consumer pressure to bring innovations from the lab out to the market. I know these problems have been solved and the problem is a business model one. There is a good overview of the technical issues here.
Posted by Martin at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wireless electricity
Tesla - Free Energy - Nikola Tesla - Alternative Energy - Wireless Electricity
A 30,000 ft flyby article, good overview. I have seen a couple of wireless electricty deals lately. Most were short range and basically came across as expensive power cords. The environmental impacts are the real big issue. Talk about EMF! The other thing is that you usually need to re-engineer the device to accept the wireless energy. And provide "energy ports" in desks and other places near devices. Talk about an embedded strategy problem!
But the Tesla coil is different. It can light existing bulbs without heat. And transmit energy over long distances. I wonder if anyone has taken the ideas with current technology and materials.
Posted by Martin at 10:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wow, the battery is 2000 years old instead of 200
Most people think the battery was developed in 1800, but in fact it there is one that dates from about 245 BCE: History of Iran: Parthian Battery: Ancient Iranians, The Inventors of Battery
The basic design hasn't changed. It needs to.
Posted by Martin at 10:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hard drive prices continue down
I have been keeping track of hard drive prices per gig since 1999. Frys has a 160 gig hard drive on sale for 89.99, setting a new standard for low price: $.56! It is going below a double nickel. 
. I should do the projection out over time.
Posted by Martin at 2:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 13, 2003
More music industry bumbling
So here is a classic poor customer service/bad distribution channel story. So a couple weeks ago I went to see Kill Bill. Loved it. As usual, Quentin did a GREAT job on the soundtrack. So next day I go to Tower with money in hand. Out of stock. Barnes and Noble, out of stock. Silver platters, out of stock. Amazon, week wait (maybe longer).
So I fire up Kazaa. All there for free. I call a friend who offers to download it and burn a CD for free. Being the law abiding citizen that I am, of course I don't do that. But that doesn't solve my problem. I saw the movie. I loved the soundtrack. I want to buy the soundtrack. I can't.
The music industry is screwed.
Posted by Martin at 9:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New CSO council of heavyweights
Looks like some serious companies are getting together to pow-wow about security. New CSO Council A good place for start-ups to go a'call'n.
Posted by Martin at 8:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Song give-away!
So you can become a song billionaire instead of a money billionaire? McDonalds one-ups Pepsi
Posted by Martin at 4:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Recent paper on analysing P2P networks
Here is an HTML version of a recent P2P paper published at the U of Washington. Measuring and analyzing the characteristics of Napster and Gnutella hosts The authors are focusing on tools for measuring the performance and architecture of these networks. I wonder if those tools could be products? Interactive Group is working on some products with similar tools.
Posted by Martin at 4:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Great summary of current SPAM legislation
Posted by Martin at 3:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
An Iraq blog without politics
blogs are everywhere now... Nabil's Blog
Posted by Martin at 3:32 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Now here is a heavy handed, stupid idea that may get done
Everyone is struggling with how to pay for digital content. There are two basic ways. Either you can set up some systems that guarantee payment on a per use basis for each content type across all possible devices (and allow very deep penetration into people's useage patterns of said content), or you could impose some arbitrary tax on the devices and pathways to those devices used to consume digital media. The later is the approach favored by this guy: John Palfrey : Alternative Compensation Systems for Digital Media
The idea of taxing a thing that may or may not be used for content consumption and distributing those taxes among probably owners who may or may not have suffered any loss is not new. It was done with audio cassettes and video tapes in both the US and abroad. The reason these systems catch on is that they are enforceable. There is a physical thing that can be taxed. There is a system to collect taxes. There is enforcement.
Much cleaner than micropayment systems, cross platform payments, DRM and all that other stuff. I predict that and compulsary licensing is the solution we end up with.
Posted by Martin at 3:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Harvard pontificates on alternate compensation system for digital media
Very interesting. Harvard has summarized some thinking from a summit they had on creating legal alternative compensation system for digital media within current legal bounds.
Posted by Martin at 1:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
MS to stop pop-ups
As many of you know, I have said many times that the major threat to most start-up technology companies is not other start-ups. It is a line extension of an existing product. Now it looks like all those who have tried to make a business out of pop-up ad blocking are set to be Netscapeized...Internet Explorer to stomp pop-ups | CNET News.com. Companies like PanicWare are in trouble. But then again, they just launched a SPAM product. Something Microsoft is addressing in the new version of Outlook, but not very well. I just bought the PanicWare SPAM washer product at Office Depot yesterday so I will write a review soon.
Posted by Martin at 10:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 11, 2003
Selling a Rolex
Well, I have about 30 watches. Time to lighten up. Here is one I am selling: eBay item 2669737564 (Ends Nov-11-03 12:58:28 PST) - ROLEX Submariner 18K/SS RARE BLUE NO RES!!!
Posted by Martin at 11:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 10, 2003
The Triumph of Jobs
Well Steve Jobs domination of the next big thing in big media is nearly complete. TIME Magazine: Coolest Inventions 2003, Apple Music Store Time has officially crowned him king. Man that guy can market.
Apple has one strategic product. the iPod. (stolen from Brad today in our partner meeting)
Posted by Martin at 9:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 4, 2003
OOps MIT service not so Kosher
I was all stoked when the MIT system for delivering music securely over the cable system seemed to be going. And Loudeye was helping to power it! But apparently not all ducks were in a row as MSNBC reports: MIT shuts down alternative file-swapping services That is one of the major problems with the labels. They give someone (in this case Loudeye), the rights to digitally distribute and relicense their music. Then when they get a customer, the label wades in and says, "no, now you have to deal with us". And makes the deal un-economic. Damn children is what they are.
Posted by Martin at 1:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 3, 2003
A revolution in vaporization
So I just bought a new camp stove. Camp stoves have had the same basic technology for decades. So has the aerosol can. One of the basic subsystems of all these things is some sort of mechanical device that converts liquid fuel to a vapor mixed with air that can burn. These guys Vapore have come up with a new method of vaporizing fuel which is way smaller and way more effecient. They even got some Wired coverage: Wired 11.11: START Not the kind of investment Igniton would make, but I love these kinds of basic material science inventions that could fundamentally change alot of products. The challenge is how to go to market and get paid a meaningful amount to replace those subassembly sockets that are currently inhabited by other technologies (that have been fully depreciated).
Posted by Martin at 8:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Blog Spam
Rich and I were talking about SPAM for blogs the other day and what do you know, Slashdot is talking about it now...Slashdot | Spam Rapidly Increasing In Weblog Comments. Cloudmark is doing the best job of e-mail anti SPAM and looking for ways to expand the business. Blog SPAM could be an interesting. People don't today pay for BLOG publishing tools, so getting them to pay for anti-spam could be even more problematic. Probably too early. In the end the right BLOG comment spam solution probably ties into the authorization or registration process of commentors. Maybe someone like Technorati who has enough bloggers registered may be able to do something.
Posted by Martin at 7:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack