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October 29, 2004

Bush wins student election in Washington

Washington State - Student Mock Elections Bush wins 48.61% to Kerry's 46.26%. Now if parents would only listen to their children. I do.

Posted by Martin at 7:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Biodiesel from Algae

portland imc - 2004.05.25 - Widescale Biodiesel Production from Algae Interesting stuff. What if you could power the country from algae? It can be done.

Posted by Martin at 3:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Why the missing video iPod?

Michael Gartenberg: Why there's no video iPod - THE REAL REASON conjecture is that Jobs is actually worried about video copywrite. I doubt it. He does need content, but he launched iPod without many content deals. He could launch iPod video just with QT content and there is quite a bit of that (although not really movies). I am sure Mika over at AtomFilms would do a deal with him! I think the real reason is just the old Apple arrogance.

Posted by Martin at 12:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Online media deals picking up

Q3 online media M&A deals report just came out from Jordan Edmiston. Number and size of deals up. Good sign for start-ups looking ot sell.

Posted by Martin at 12:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More Kerry distortions exposed by Factcheck.org

It's not Bush's plan, and it wouldn't cut benefits.

Summary

A Kerry ad claims "Bush has a plan to cut Social Security benefits by 30 to 45 percent." That's false. Bush has proposed no such plan, and the proposal Kerry refers to would only slow down the growth of benefits, and only for future retirees. It was one of three possible "reform models" detailed by a bipartisan commission in 2001.

The ad also says nothing about what Kerry would do to address the troubled state of Social Security finances. Unless taxes are increased, the system's trustees say currently scheduled benefits would have to be cut 32%

Click the link below for the full article:

Posted by Martin at 12:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 28, 2004

The Apprentice 2: The no Brainer

(i screwed up this previous post by editing it, so I am reposting it)

OK, I have been out of my head on narcotics after sinus surgery Tuesday, so I wasn't sure if I would be on my game tonight. luckily I didn't need to have all my marbles, the course was set from the get-go when Elizabeth got the nod as project manager. Some may remember that I had thought of her as an early favorite, but after her melt-down last time, there was no where to go but down. So here I am faced with Andy and Elizabeth as project managers, both people I pick to be fired sooner rather than later. This is going to be a no-brainer.

Staying with his over the top style, The Donald calls in this task on videophone from his jet flying to Buenas Aries for Miss Universe (give me a break). The task this time is to create a recruiting commercial for the NYPD and pitch it to Donnie Deutsch (from last year's Apprentice). This could be a bit of a brand tie-in as Dcorralut of the room when he came back from the boardroom last time, no-one expected him to live another day (but of course I did). Maria the advertising executive immediately tries to start riding herd on poor old Andy, but to his credit, he doesn't allow her too much room. This is his task as PM and he is going to run it. After a little too much planning, they have a shot list and Andy starts driving the troops (literally) against impending storm clouds. Maria wants more sex appeal. That seems to be her solution to everything. I am still distracted by those earrings! After shooting, Andy has a little tussle with Kelly over who makes the pitch to Deutsch, but does the right thing by letting Kelly pitch since Kelly has a personal story around service. During the whole filming of Mosaic's campaign, the producers never tell us the team message or their ad theme. That would have made it too easy. In the pitch to Deutsch, Andy and Kelly get Donnie (wow, they could be a 70s rock band) nodding which is a good thing. Their whole campaign is tied together with the question "when was the last time you..." Very cohesive and "to the heart" just as Donnie had suggested. Winner, Winner, chicken Dinner. Donnie says "it was not even close".

For Apex, Elizabeth gets the nod. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Unfortunately Elizabeth just doesn't have any strength of conviction and it becomes obvious from minute one. The team is throwing out all sorts of ideas for campaign themes and Elizabeth is just listening, repeating them and then moving on. She is doing nothing to corral the process. Nothing to lead the group through some process toward a solution. She even goes so far as to act like she likes one idea, gets the team half pregnant, then drops it. Finally Raj pushes a heavy military idea through. He went a little Stacey J. (whacko) on us for a minute there, but got things back under control. Elizabeth didn't like the military theme and wanted something "softer", but didn't have the where with all to convince the team and submitted to their will (the only option on the table actually). So they do all their shots with this military idea and Kevin and Elizabeth are in the conference room at 11:30 when she confesses she just can't go with the military idea. Kevin pitches in and works on ideas until they have one they like by 2:00am. In the morning Elizabeth pitches the total 180 to the team and the barf on it (of course). So what does she do? Back down! Start over! Now the team is in full on revolt. I think they should fire her right there and take over the team themselves. A coup is in order. For some reason it doesn't happen though and they let Liz finish the editing of a military campaign that she hates. At the pitch it shows that she doesn't really like what she is selling. Deutsch and his lieutenants cringe during the whole thing. He says "Now NYC is a police state?" Just doesn't make any sense.

The Boardroom. I predict Liz, Liz and Liz. There is really no-one else who deserves to go. Maybe Liz will try to blame Raj and Chris for the military idea, but The Donald should be smarter than that. Of course he is. He doesn't even let her choose people to bring back to the boardroom! He fires her immediately to "save time". "You let your team change your mind? Stupid." The Donald is 100% right. Another one of my predictions came to pass.

So I am 5 for 7 , batting .714. (thanks to Tom for correcting my baseball stats) Up this week!

Ivana, Chris, or Andy should be one of the next to go (although Andy got a free ride this week).

My choices for top finalists are still:

Raj
Jennifer

My choices for most likely to go sooner rather than later are:

Andy - On Donald's shit list and will mess up again.
Chris - He is a boisterous blowhard.

Moving up on my scale:

Kevin - he really did his team a solid trying to help the struggling Elizabeth. Showed great strength.
Kelly - Solid organized guy with passion.

Posted by Martin at 9:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A reader knows Raj

A reader (Chris) sent this along...

I thought I’d read through your blog before I wrote you this time, and see that you’re a huge Apprentice fan. I actually know Raj – he was good friends with my sister in college. On the first day of college (they went to BC) he had a Napoleon poster above his bed and said he wanted to be President. Since then, he’s been bouncing around doing all sorts of odd jobs and trying to start various companies and is (was?) working the front desk at the Holiday Inn in Vail. Thought you’d like the additional background on him.

Thanks!
m

Posted by Martin at 3:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Eliyon is better than Google for people

In times of extreeme boredom I have been known to Google my own name. Come on admit it, so have you. What you get is pretty disorganized. Now what if a search engine was optimized to find people and organize their lives into search results? That would be: Eliyon People Finder. Great for background searches, sales leads, etc. All of this information is gleaned from public sources by a robot. This kind of service has the potential to really disrupt the high value database business run by Lexus/Nexus and the like.

Posted by Martin at 3:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Everybody gets 15 minutes

Even the pathetic candidates on The Apprentice: Stacy Rotner now has a site where you can go invite her to come give a motivational speech to your group. Is this for real? And check out the model photographs. Can you say airbrush? Unbelievable.

Posted by Martin at 12:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 27, 2004

Weekly alternative fuel price index

From around the country. Here is last weeks. afi09-23-04.pdf. Looks like Biodiesel is trending up. But these prices should change radically with the subsidy passed by Bush last week. B20 should be about the same price as #2 Diesel.

Posted by Martin at 9:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More Energy Life Cycle Model

Props again to GreenCarcongress for A Lifecycle Emissions Model (LEM): Lifecycle Emissions from Transportation Fuels, Motor Vehicles, Transportation Modes, Electricity Use, Heating and Cooking Fuels, and MaterialsDeluchhi, Mark A. ITS-Davis December 2003. Table 58 has a pretty good summary of his emissions findings.

If you have time to read 444 pages, you will learn more than you ever wanted about lifecycle modeling of different fuel sources. This lifecycle modeling is actually the key to sustainability. How much energy does it take to deliver the WHOLE system? from product production to fuel production to delivery, to consumption, to effeciency, to end of life. Not all systems are created equal.

Posted by Martin at 8:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Can I say you I toldja so that IETF won't solve SPAM?

Internet Week > Anti-Spam > IETF Disbands Anti-Spam Working Group > September 23, 2004. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Too multifaceted problem. Just install Cloudmark.

Posted by Martin at 7:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How do I comment on DGC?

I have found a work-around if you want to keep using IE and are having problems signing on to comments. The problem which I posted about before is how IE handles third party cookies. I call it a bug. Msft calls it a "Feature". Six Apart says "use Firefox".

Well if you want to stay with IE, go to Tools/InternetOptions/Privacy and click on the Sites tab. Add these sites:
martinandalex.com
nwventurevoice.com
typekey.com
typepad.com

Your IE should handle third party cookies just fine for my site (and maybe others).

Posted by Martin at 7:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

More alternative auto life cycle analysis

Thanks to Michael over at GreenCarCongress for these pointers to auto life cycle costs.

MIT has done quite a bit (John Heywood at MIT: Sloan Automotive Lab and Lab for Energy and the Environment. Three papers from there in particular:

1.“On the Road in 2020: A life-cycle analysis of new automobile technologies,” M.A. Weiss, J.B. Heywood, E.M. Drake, A. Schafer, and F. AuYeung, MIT Energy Lab. Report, MIT EL 00-003, October 2000. http://lfee.mit.edu/publications/PDF/el00-003.pdf.

2.“Comparative Assessment of Fuel Cell Cars,” M.A. Weiss, J.B. Heywood, A. Schafer, and V.K. Natarajan, MIT Lab. For Energy and Env. Report, MIT LFEE 2003-001 RP, http://lfee.mit.edu/publications/PDF/LFEE_2003-001_RP.pdf.

3.“Coordinated Policy Measures for Reducing the Fuel Consumption of the U.S. Light-Duty Vehicle Fleet,”

A.P. Bandivadekar, and J.B. Hewood, MIT LFEE 2004-001 RP, http://lfee.mit.edu/publications/PDF/LFEE_2004-001_RP.pdf.

There were some new paper on biodiesel that came out of the recent DEER conference (Diesel Engine Emissions Reduction) – it’s a DOE conference. I attended, but just haven’t had a chance to work through the volume yet.

The research done in support of California’s AB1496 (the Pavley CO2 emissions bill) also turned up some interesting results on well-wheel and lifecycle analysis for alternative fuels and combinations of different more standard technologies from a variety of research institutes, consultancies, etc.

Posted by Martin at 6:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yet another biodiesel refinery manufacturer

Biodiesel Industries With these guys all over the place, it is hard to figure out who really has the goods and what strategy will be the winner over the long term. But I am trying.

Posted by Martin at 6:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Large biodiesel facility in Moscow TN

Green Car Congress: Biodiesel Plant in Moscow, TN

Greencarcongress does a great job keeping up on these announcements. The article publishes how much the annual payroll of the plant will be ($2M) but not the cost to build it.
hummm

Posted by Martin at 6:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Check out GoFish integrated with Search

My friends at GoFish have been aggregating all the paid-for digital media outlets on the web. Now they have integrated their search results with a traditional search engine results (google). Very cool how you can find songs, ringtones and videos in addition to fan pages.

Posted by Martin at 3:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ameritrade another site broken by Firefox

Ameritrade requires IE or Netscape to run it's Streamer application. Probably due to requiring a signed browser. Bummer for Firefox. I guess I gotta keep IE around.

Posted by Martin at 2:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

NYT puts it's foot in it again about "lost" 380 tons of explosives

The Belmont Club continues to do some of the best analysis in the world about the Iraq situation. Today he goes through an exhaustive analysis showing how the RDX problem resolved itself. Basically the NYT interviewed the wrong commander and ignored other commanders and the UN itself. They make the sweeping assumption that the 380 tons were at one time (in fact "as recently as Sunday") under US control. The facts don't bear that out and the very next day the NYT started backtracking.

And Kerry today was still trying to use this as an issue against Bush. Do you really want a commander and chief who gets his "facts" from the NYT alone?

Posted by Martin at 1:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The world at 10 mph

Thanks to Alex for pointer to American Dream :: Segway across America at 10 MPH. I had heard about these guys and that they were making a movie. Cool site. My Segway is currently broken. I can't boot it. I was told by the local dealer that I have to remove the batteries. That is on the list for this week.

Posted by Martin at 9:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Another gadget to lust for

XM has finally gone portable: TWICE- Delphi, XM Launch MyFi The MyFi is a handheld portable player with 5 yours storage time for your XM broadcasts. And it comes with car and home antennas and earbuds and an FM modulator. So now, instead of having to get a different system for home or car and have nothing inbetween (running, the gym, etc.) you can take XM with you. Now if only I could put regular MP3s on it and use it for an FM receiver. That would be useful!

Posted by Martin at 9:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ipod Photo

Ok, so Apple now has an Apple - iPod Photo. But do you care? And the U2 version that is more expensive because it is black? Is this their big holiday announcement? We have to wait till next Christmas for iPod Video? That is what we all want and I don't want to wait. Apple's hubris is showing. They are probably going to punt their lead here again.

Posted by Martin at 9:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mary Meeker on Blogs and RSS

Mary Meeker update from Digital World Covers RSS, Yahoo's RSS embrace and Blogs. Pretty meaty and tasty.

Posted by Martin at 9:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

President Bush sends some pork to alternative fuels

While many in DC are down on Bush as a texas oilman, they neglect many of the facts. I have been saying for quite some time that investment in alternative energy sources to reduce our dependence on foreign oil would be a huge economic and national security driver. Well the most recent "American Jobs Creation Acto of 2004" has many incentives to do just that. The skeptic would call it election year pork. The pragmatist (me) would say it is the right start.

This from the National Renewable Energy group today:

President Bush Signs New Energy Tax Incentives Into Law

President Bush signed H.R. 4520, the "American Jobs Creation Act of
2004," into law on Friday. The new law creates and extends a number of
energy-related tax credits, including an expansion of the renewable
energy production tax credit. This credit formerly applied only to
wind energy and some biomass energy projects, but Section 710 of the
law now expands the credit to a wide range of biomass, geothermal, and
solar energy projects, as well as hydropower produced from small
irrigation projects. The tax credit applies to facilities placed in
service before the end of next year.

The bill's Title III also extends the tax credit for ethanol through
2010 and creates a new tax credit for biodiesel, effective through
2006. It also removes a disincentive for ethanol and biodiesel
production by eliminating any impact on the Highway Trust Fund caused
by the tax credits.

Section 701 of the law places the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in charge of a demonstration program to provide up to
$2 billion in tax-exempt financing to green building and sustainable
design projects on so-called "brownfields"—abandoned industrial
sites. The EPA's aggregate goal for the program will be to reduce
electric consumption from traditional sources by 150 megawatts, reduce
daily U.S. sulfur dioxide emissions by 10 tons, expand the domestic
solar photovoltaic market by 75 percent (compared to the market growth
from 2001 to 2002), and generate at least 25 megawatts of power from
fuel cells. The projects must be partly supported by state or local
governments and must be nominated by state or local governments within
the next six months.

See the White House announcement on the bill signing, or go directly to the full text of the law. The new law was greeted with enthusiasm by the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition; the Renewable Fuels Association, which issued press releases on October 10th and October 22; and the National
Biodiesel Board, which issued press releases on October 11th (PDF 35 KB) and October 22nd (PDF 35 KB). Download Acrobat Reader.

Posted by Martin at 9:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Google site search beats MT

Ok, I am testing Google site search against the standard search that comes with Movable Type. There is a reason Google is worth billions.

I tried the query "you perform" (without quotes), looking for the software product of that name. The MT Search Results picked up 23 entries. 21 of them had nothing to do with "you perform" the software program. They didn't even have "you perform" as a string together. The entries did have the word "you" AND the word "perform" somewhere in them. But in many entries, "perform" was actually a part of "performance".

Now if you are a search junkie and think about it, you can put quotes around "you perform" and get two entries back - the right two!

But Google is more accurate right out of the box. They show four entries, two of which are for the software I am looking for. They also include a helpful hint about how they tried to make the results the most relevant:
"In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 4 already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included."

Of course with Google, if you fully qualify your search with quotes "you perform" you also get only the two you are looking for.

Looks like I will probably be ditching the MT search and going with Google only because the relevance out of the box is so much better (and I can get paid for click-throughs).

Posted by Martin at 8:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Uninstalling You Perform (again)

I tried a beta version of: You Perform - Make Outlook better, faster, and easier for You. Then the company was nice enough to give me a full license version to try out. I have been using it for about two months (on and off). Last week I installed the update that allowed YouPerform to recognize WORD as my Outlook editor and stop showing an annoying message. But it didn't solve the annoying message problem. And the de-dupe feature in contacts is still too rudimentary to be useful. Outlook performance has also remained noticably affected. I am looking forward to the enterprise version of the software that can do things like enforce enterprise wide standards for signatures, etc. But for now as a single end-user tool the software is not ready for prime time.

Posted by Martin at 8:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Funny behavior on Google Adsense Search

Ok, got it working now. Initially I put in my site address as www.deepgreencrystals.com as the local site to search. But that is a re-direct to www.martinandalex.com/blog, so the Google indexes weren't finding any pages with deepgreencrystals in them. The search found no results. So at first I just hacked the javascript on my index page to have www.martinandalex.com/blog. Still no results. That is because google indexes only have the root domain. Updated the JS to be www.martinandalex.com and bob's your uncle. Search results just fineo.... now to get a logo working on the results page....

Posted by Martin at 8:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Results of alternative fuel poll

For you to adopt an alternative fuel vehicle, what is the most important factor?
Convenience of refueling 30 % (12 votes)
Cost of the fuel 10 % (4 votes)
Range of the vehicle 17 % (7 votes)
Features of vehicle (SUV, compact, luxury, etc.) 17 % (7 votes)
Cost of the vehicle 12 % (5 votes)
Emissions 7 % (3 votes)
Insurance costs 0 % (0 votes)
Tax incentives 2 % (1 votes)

Total votes 39

Looks like it is a convenience of refueling thing along with range and features. This lines up with one of my overarching investment thesis: Americans are convenience driven! To get a new thing adopted, it has to slip easilly into daily life. This leads me to hybrids and biodiesel....

Posted by Martin at 7:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Adding Google Adsense for Search

Been playing around with more ways for small publishers to monitize their sites. The latest method is Google Adsense for Search. I have implemented it here and look forward to your feedback. Initially I wanted to replace the Movable Type site search with Google (since they do local site search too), but Google doesn't have the ability to resize the search box very well yet. It is default of 255 px long. My left link column is 200px, so the box hung over and was covered by the entries. So for now I am putting it up in the upper right of the banner. You need to use the
< div style="float:right;"> tag to get it over there.

For now I am leaving the MT search there as well so I can compare the experiences and results. Will letcha know.

Posted by Martin at 7:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More personal biodiesel systems

These guys are buying Google Adwords and showing up on my posts! Google is a GREAT channel for niche products like this. At some point, someone should do a review of all these home systems. Don't know if there is one already, I will keep looking:
Biodiesel Solutions - Start Making Your Own Biodiesel Today Selling a $2,995 kit.

Biodiesel Warehouse I noted earlier is selling a $999 kit.

Posted by Martin at 6:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 24, 2004

Great blog hosting spot

Thanks to Rich for the link to Mark's new service: Tong Family Blog: Hosting Your Blog I have been hosting with Mark for two years and he is ALWAYS great.

Posted by Martin at 11:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Apprentice 2: Trump silences the Whiner!

The Apprentice 2, Trump silences the Whiner!

OK, I have been in India for the last two weeks, so I am WAY behind on Apprentice, I will catch up next week when I am bedridden after surgery. Tivo will be my best friend. Went to the launch party for The Marketing Playbook last night but made it home in time to watch the show. The Donald and his producers are obviously becoming enamored with staging some drama into the process. This time he called the teams just after the last board meeting and told everyone to come down to the board room. There with half the people in business attire (fresh from the boardroom) and half in sweats (got a comment) he made each team immediately choose a leader. Then he made the leader of each team "fire" over to the other team his three worst performers. Thus new team mix. He needed to do this since the Men were killing the women. Now teams are mixed. The sending over of the lowest performers was an unusual way to balance the teams. Usually you would start from the top down. Those who had been "fired" got fired up to prove their former teams wrong. Good for overall morale. A better system actually than top down. It is always a total bummer to be the last person chosen (as I often was for basketball). The task this time was to take $1000 and start a pet business for one day. No obvious brand tie-in. And of course both started dog washing services (LAME!), not much else you can do with just one day. This task is measured on gross profits (finally!) instead of gross sales. Oh, and there was no obvious set-up in the start of the show as to what the firing criteria would be this time. I like it better that way. More of a challenge.

OK, so Mosaic Wes as a project manager. He fired Raj (mistake), Chris and Kevin. So Wes gets stuck with Stacey who immediately starts being her annoying self which prompts Wes to groan (to the camera) "Why won't she just shut the **** up?" (my feelings exactly). Stacey is totally overlawyering and overthinking it. It is a DOG WASHING BUSINESS you silly git! The team decides they need some kind of angle to get people to buy their service so they fall back on the old stand-by a portion of profits to charity. This is LAME and never works. First of all, you never know if your contribution to charity may be the few dollars that make you loose (there have been some TOO close ones here). Second, customers don't really care about the charity. They care about the service or product. Unless you are a girl scout with big weepy eyes, you ain't gettin' my money out of sympathy. Three people waste hours trying to get the NYFD to take charity but they have their procedures. So little orphan Andy lines up a CAT charity (but this is a dog wash folks!) and promptly after closing the deal, he drops his cell phone in the cab which drives off. That half of the team is now stranded without communication. I see disaster ahead. Even if they win, this tactical error could be fatal in the boardroom. So after alot of wasted time, the team gets to their location in Central Park AFTER the lunch rush (1:00). Silly, silly, silly. They also price their wash at $15, $5 below the other team, but I am getting ahead of myself. Stacey has a stupid idea about doggie photos which Wes rightly vetoes as too expensive in COGS (more wasted time looking at doggie costumes). Team does mostly washes. Stacey doesn't touch a dog or do much of anything but scowl. They end with $122.12 in profits. Pathetic!

For Apex, Jennifer gets the nod (great!). I have been saying Jennifer is a sleeper with finalist potential. She fires Sandy, Maria and Stacey, all the right people to let go (although I would have fired Stacey first rather than last). Immediately she organizes the process, sets on a dog washing service with some service extension and sets wash price at $20 (told you she was a smart cookie). They set up BEFORE lunch but it starts slow as many dogs don't want a wash. Less than 30% of the dogs want a wash (duh!). That immediately leads Jennifer to start pushing other services like dog massages, nail clippings, etc....) to capture some of those wary dogs. Chris starts whining that dog washing is too degrading for him and his Rolex Presidential. Shut the ***** up Chris. You are on a TV show that is built on humiliation. Grace under pressure and humiliation is one characteristic of a great leader. Complaining that you are too good for the task is not. Ivana continues to make stupid random comments (I swear she is not really a VC). With sales slow, the team wants to open a second location and after some thinking, Jennifer agrees, good decision. They walk away with $307.41.

The Boardroom. I predict Wes will take Stacey and Andy (Maria was no peach, but she has a bye from last week). Right, 100%. Wow, I am getting good. I get ready for Stacey to start with her "it was the project manager's fault" tactic that she has used the last umpteen times in the boardroom. Never has taken any blame at all. Acts surprised she is even there. Trump starts out aghast that Andy lost the cell phone, "Andy has been a disaster". Trump thinks the cat charity was "stupid" (told ya orphan Andy). Stacey starts her "Wes made me do nothing" tirade. Trump asks why she can't keep quiet. Unless Trump takes out his frustrations on Andy for inexperience and incompetence on prior tasks (on this one he sold 45% of the revenue actually), he should still fire Stacey. Carolyn asks Stacey what she did since it looked to her like nothing. Stacey says "I was promoting". Carolyn "four feet from Maria?" "You didn't do anything." Trump piles on too asking Stacey why all she does is complain. Out they go. Both advisors say Stacey. Trump fires Stacey. She tries to act surprised. She is so unbelievably un-selfaware. Self awareness is a key characteristic of any good entrepreneur or leader. Stacey didn't know that she was annoying and didn't change anything.

Wow, this is so easy. Trump did the right thing. Stacey wasn't even entertaining in her complaining. Bye Bye birdie.

So I am 4 for 6 (excluding last week), batting 666%. Up this week!

Andy, Ivana, or Elizabeth should be one of the next to go.

My choices for top finalists are still:

Raj
Jennifer

My choices for most likely to go sooner rather than later are:

Kevin - Still haven't seen anything great.
Andy - On Donald's shit list and will mess up again.
Chris - He is a boisterous blowhard.

Posted by Martin at 10:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The definitive Biodiesel/Petrodiesel lifecycle report (1998)

this report is apparently the latest. Its conclusions are pretty good though:

According to a comparative life-cycle study by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, biodiesel requires only 0.31 units of fossil energy to make 1 unit of fuel.

"By contrast, it takes 1.2 units of fossil resources to produce 1 unit of petroleum diesel," the study says.

We wonder what the energy efficiency figures for biodiesel would be if fossil fuels were eliminated from the equation and the entire production process powered by biofuels, from planting the seeds to filling the tank?

Posted by Martin at 9:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Another local biodiesel mfgr rebel

LocalB100

Seems like there is quite a home brew community. Like my father used to make Mead (a form of beer) at home. I wonder how many more of him there would have been in the 70s if there were the internet.

Posted by Martin at 9:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Make Biodiesel in your garage

BiodieselWarehouse.com

Don't know if I believe it. This is a very basic system and doesn't really scale. But I may get one anyway just for giggles.

Posted by Martin at 9:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Initial thoughts on Blackberry 7100T

Got the Blackberry 7100T about three weeks ago in San Francisco. Had to go down there because they were sold out in Seattle. Here are my first impressions:

Good:

1. Super price! $199 after rebate. When all the other blackberry products are almost $400, this is truly a consumer price point and I think it will drive Blackberry to a much larger market.
2. Worked with my existing Blackberry server out of the box. I was upgrading from the Blackberry 6230 I just plugged it into the USB cable that I used for the old blackberry, and up popped a window "new device, want to generate new code?" I said yes and it synced right up. Mail started being forwarded immediately from my enterprise server.
3. Form factor is Awesome! It is traditional phone size (slightly larger). While I didn't mind the old blackberry formfactor and LOVED the real keyboard, it was a bit bulky and heavy.
4. The predictive text works GREAT! My greatest fear was loosing my speed typing with a real keyboard. I never could get good at typing text on a standard 9 key cell phone, even with T9 helper. What blackberry did was cleaverly add one more row of buttons on each side of the standard 9 button cell phone layout. This allows them to put one or at most two letters per key (versus the 3-4 on standard phone). Since the possible combinations are fewer, the prediction works an order of magnitude easier. The keys are also wide and I find in about the same place as the old ones if I am not looking. So I just type without looking and it feels like the old Blackberry.
5. Can you say Quad band! I found out that with my Nokia 6230 tri band phone, I was missing half the coverage area of ATTWS. Now I have the whole world!
6. TMobile world coverage. I signed up for world roaming one day before leaving for India. On the way we landed in Scotland (data and voice fine, downloaded mail TMobile network), Amsterdam (voice fine TMobile, no data), Bombay (voice fine, no data) and Goa (voice fine, no data). It costs $3.99 per minute, but when someone called my number, it rang whereever I was (even in the middle of the night!). Voicemail even worked by just pressing and holding #1 (no redial). I could have saved some money with a local SIM, but wouldn't have had the number (or I could have but I didn't want to figure that out).
7. Bluetooth! Finally in a Blackberry. I use the headset and transfer files to my PC. I hate wired headsets! Another fun trick at a recent conference I went to was to turn on discovery and see how many devices were out there. I counted over 50. Tried to connect to a couple, but didn't have the authorization code (since I had no idea who they were).
8. Real HTML browser! Forget WAP. Full color screen. Runs all Java plugins. Every site renders (sometimes slow) in a readable way.
9. Speaker phone. Really amazingly good. I use it most of the time when I don't have my bluetooth headset. Who needs a car adapter when you can just put on the speaker phone and put the phone down? I have even done international conference calls.
10. AOL, Yahoo and ICQ IM clients. And good clients too. The WAP AOL client on the last one was pathetic. I found out that you can also use SMS messages to shortcodes as an IM interface. I bet that is what is under the hood of these other Java clients. Pretty slick.
11. Backlit screen and keyboard. Necessary for those late nights. I have even used the screen as a flashlight to find a dropped pen in a dark club.
12. USB sync and power. I can power the thing anywhere without special adapters.

Wish were better:
1. The speed of predictive text. I can type way faster than it can predict. Maybe it is the java overhead. And the key buffer is not that big, maybe 10 stokes, so if you get too far ahead it stops taking keys.
2. I wish it could show pictures and slideshows and store photos on it.
3. Data speed. I wish it were Edge. GPRS blows.
4. MSN IM client.
5. FM radio.
6. Play MP3 files. Come on guys, business people want to have fun too!
7. A 2MP camera. Since I got a 1MP in my Nokia 6230 the number of pictures and short videos I take has gone up by an order of magnitude. It is just so convenient. I am loath to do without it now.
8. The JAVA implementation. Not all the java apps I have tried to download have worked. Something is fishy.
9. When I landed in Amsterdam and stepped off the plane the first thing I saw was a large banner for the Vodafone Blackberry 7100V! Damn! Not even a week with the device and there is already a newer, cooler, smaller, sleeker one. I have put in my order with Vodafone.

Summary: I am hooked. I am probably going to switch my number over to it and try carrying it as one device. I will miss the FM, music and picture features of Nokia 6230, but may carry that in addition just for fun.

Posted by Martin at 4:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 22, 2004

SeattlePlasma local flat retailer

This guy advertises in the local classified ads: Seattle Plasma - Plasma TV, Plasma Displays, LCD Flat Panel Monitors. Call him and he will beat any local price (much better than on the web site).

Posted by Martin at 11:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

NPF releases IPSec benchmark

Well back to the hardcore tech stuff. Last week the Network Processor Forum released an IPSEC benchmark:CommsDesign - Tutorial on NPF's IPsec Forwarding Benchmark. One of the main issues with figuring out the true performance of NPU chips and application frameworks ontop of them has been the lack of standard benchmarks. This is a good step forward. Now if they could come up with a benchmark for something a little more difficult...

Posted by Martin at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 21, 2004

Musings about India

Just posted some musings on India and how it may affect venture capital in the northwest over at : NW Venture Voice: Musing about India

Posted by Martin at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 20, 2004

Review: "Inside the Kingdom" by Carmen Bin Laden

Can you tell I just got back from a week of traveling? Two eight hour flights, two nine and a half hour flights, two hour and a half flights. Alot of reading.

On the way back from Bombay to Amsterdam I finished Sleeping With The Devil, and just had to read more about how the Saudi's worked and what was at stake. Carmen Bin Laden's book is first and foremost a book by a mother about her personal struggles as a foreigner in a conservative religious state and her efforts to escape with her children. As you read it, you can hear her lawyers telling her to be nice to the husband because the divorce is not final. I am giving the book next to Alex to read. A couple of things really jumped out at me:

- Saudi Arabia is still run by the aging sons of the original king who united the vast wasteland of desert under fundamentalist teachings of a seventeenth century cleric who founded the Wahhabi movement.
- Wahhabi is the most fundamental interpretation of Islam and is applied in part because Saudi Arabia is "keeper" of the two holiest sites in the faith, Mecca and Medina.
- All wealthy Saudi's live two totally opposite lives. One inside strict Saudi Arabia, and another over seas where all the pent-up desires overflow with a vengeance.
- The Saudi royal family was terrified to see what happened to the Shah of Iran and immediately started placating the Wahhabi with money and power to prevent a repeat.
- bin Laden family members were most likely complicit in the fundamentalist take-over of Mecca since company trucks were used to get the fighters in there and the bin Laden organization had the only detailed maps of the place.
- The family clan unit (all the sons and daughters of one powerful father) is an ironclad bond when faced with threats from outsiders. By virtue of this, despite public statements, the bin Laden family has NOT disowned Osama.
- Osama bin Laden is an overwhelming hero in Saudi Arabia. If an election were held today, he would probably win.
- Saudi family life (at the high end) is totally disfunctional in a western sense. The sexes have separate houses. Men can be married to up to four wives at once and any number over a life time. To divorce a woman a man must simply recite "I divorce thee" three times and it is done. A woman has virtually no rights at all. Children are raised almost exclusively by servants. The appearance of devotion to religion is more important than anything else.
- While Carmen and her husband kept the equivalent of $50,000 around the house for "emergencies", her husband's office was a bare wooden desk with bare walls except for a picture of his father and the king.

Overall, 3 of 5. Good for background on the Mid East, but short on facts and long on emotion and personal trials/tribulations. It is a bit of a tweener. Not a great emotional story, not a heavy kiss and tell factual saga. But interesting reading nonetheless.

Posted by Martin at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Review: "Sleeping with the Devil" by Robert Baer

When an ex-CIA station chief writes a book about the region he worked in for decades you better read it. This is a truly scary and terrifying read. The depth and breadth of our dependency on crude oil and the extent of Saudi control of that market is explicitly laid out. Baer also gives very detailed accounts of how and why we should all be worried about Saudi Arabia's ability to keep the oil flowing. With less than $100,000 in explosives and provisions, a coordinated car/boat bomb attack in three locations could send the world economy into a depression many times worse than The Great Depression. An attack like this would take less resources and less coordination and planning than the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center. Osama Bin Laden has already said he wants to bring down the House of Saud. He has the desire and resources to do it. It may only be a matter of time.

What I didn't realize until reading this book was how screwed up Saudi Arabia is and how totally dependent the American economy and political machine is on the country. Saudi Arabia is run by the Saud family that treats the oil money as it's own personal treasury. It was just desert with a bunch of bedouin's until 1932 when oil was discovered. They had slavery there till the 60s. With multiple wives, the King has a clan of over 15,000 princes and princesses today, growing to probably 50,000 in a decade. While the royal family has grown rich, the average Saudi has actually seen a drop in income over the last 20 years. There is not enough money from oil to feed all these mouths so corruption is rife. On one $5.5B defense deal, a prince walked away with a $900M skim off the top. A prince has the right to expropriate any property he desires for his own use. No middle class has been able to form, because any time a business starts to become successful, a prince comes along and buys it for pennies exercising his "privilege". The country is basically run by a depraved, scared band of nomadic thieves. The royal family saw what happened to the Shah of Iran in 1979 and decided to cut off the fundamentalists at the pass. They started funding all manner of Wahhabi (the most backward, fundamental branch of Islam in the world) causes to encourage their attention outside the country (basically to pay them off to not overthrow the king). The Wahhabi's control the schools, mosques, religious police, and many overseas "charities" that funded Osama Bin Laden's terror training camps in Afghanistan, the Chechen muslims who killed 300 school children, the Muslim Brotherhood bent on overthrowing various middle eastern states, and countless others. The Saudi spend 50% of their GDP on defense (mostly to American defense contractors) and have never been in a war. This is ALL for defense of the monachary against their own people. And a great way to skim billions in bribes.

The Saud are the Taliban with money.

The extent of American complicity and ignorance of the true threat is astounding. Baer details the numerous times the Saudi have bailed out America. He points out the fact that every major politician has a hand in the Saudi cookie jar in one way or another. And the revolving door between politics and Saudi funded positions is astounding. The Saudi Ambassador has better access to the White House than most of the cabinet. Kissinger designed the oil for guns framework that basically recycles American petro dollars through Saudi Arabia and back into American defense companies (with a large percentage going to the princes of course). Baer details the numerous ways our CIA human intelligence is non-existent in the Arab world. We have ZERO agents in Saudi Arabia. That means we have ZERO visibility into what is really going on and how fragile the situation may be. Before the first Gulf war we has ZERO human agents in Iraq. Baer describes an incident when the CIA was trying to figure out if Sadam was moving tanks closer to Kuwait and the only intelligence they had was a phone call to a guy with binoculars in a guard post on the border. If it weren't so scary and such a colossal failure it would almost be funny.

Some truly stunning revelations from the book include:

- Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia has transferred half a billion dollars to al Queda and at least $100 million to the Taliban.
- With America's complicity, the Saudis have provided aid, shelter, and material comfort to the Muslim Brotherhood.
- A single jumbo jet with a suicide bomber at the controls could bring the world's oil-addicted economies to their knees by crashing into one major Saudi oil field.

5 out of 5. Every American should read this book immediately. And go by a Prius or a biodiesel car. NOW!

Posted by Martin at 9:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Inside the Muslim Brotherhood in America

Just found this excellent in depth article: Chicago Tribune | A rare look at secretive Brotherhood in America

Just a snippet:
"While separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of American democracy, the international Brotherhood preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic. The group also champions martyrdom and jihad, or holy war, as a means of self-defense and has provided the philosophical underpinnings for Muslim militants worldwide."

Still think fundamentalist of any sort are people you can sit down and have tea and talk things out with? This problem is going to get bigger over the next decade and our ability to tolerate it will be tested over and over again. Unfortunately I am affraid we are going to have to move the needle on some of our personal freedoms to ensure we can maintain the vast majority of them against a foe that will not compromise.

Posted by Martin at 9:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Review: "The Matrix Warrior" by Jake Horsley

Finished this book about two months ago, but just now catching up on reviews. Since I loved the basic thesis behind The Matrix that what we know as reality is just a computer program, I wanted to understand about the history behind this thesis. The Matrix Warrior does a good job at that. Horsley draws connections between the world of the movie and our own world and shows how the characters in the movie transcend the false reality the matrix imposes on humanity. Combining an in-depth examination of the film with philosophical inquiry and the teachings of Castandeda, Jake Horsley has produced in Matrix Warrior a profound yet witty analysis-and all readers need to get "unplugged." It is a VERY entertaining read if you are at all interested in the idea that there may be alternate realities.

Horsley shows how "the One" is a concept in many faiths around the world. Anyone can be "the One" with enough enlightenment. The more important thing though, is to take the path of the matrix warrior. To search for reality. To be conscious of what you are "plugged" into and consciously "unplug" from the things you don't like. Too many of coast through life taking what comes. Being "the One" in large part involves asking the right questions, seeking answers, and deciding for yourself what your reality should be. Good advice for all of us, not just fanatics of the movie series.

Posted by Martin at 8:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Review of "Catch a Fish, Throw a Ball, Fly a Kite" by Jeffrey Lee

I have a 4 year old. My father never spent much time with us doing stuff. Only around holidays. I learned to ride a bike by falling down. This guy actually found out there is a good way to teach kids to ride in one day! And he breaks down how to teach a scared kid how to throw a ball into managable steps. A MUST have for every parent. Most of the activities are suited for 5-8 year olds though, so my daughter is still a bit young. But I keep it near the front door for reference on the outside activity days. I will let you all know how the bike riding training goes.

I rate this a 5 out of 5. Very useful, easy to read, and a good reference that I will pick up again and again.

Posted by Martin at 8:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Review of "What's the matter with Kansas?" by Thomas Frank

Have been reading this on and off for the last month. Mostly off because the crap was getting quite thick. On politics, I will read all sides of the debate and make my own mind up. This book has received reviews that make it sound like a witty yet thoughtful expose of some grand conspiracy of Republicans against the "average man". Like this from the LA times:

"A brilliant analysis—and funny to boot—What’s the Matter with Kansas? presents a critical assessment of who we are, while telling a remarkable story of how a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs came to convince a nation that they spoke on behalf of the People."

I wonder if that reviewer actually read the book or just cribbed the notes from the DNC. First of all, the book is not funny at all. It flirts with irony at times, but not funny. I guess it would be funny in a black comedy sort of way to someone who has hearts and minds of the heartland (like a Washington policy wonk). I can't understand the left's penchant for finding vast conspiracies under every rock. Iraq is somehow the personal war of the Bush family to preserve their oil interests. The Florida election was rigged by insiders. And now Kansas and the rest of the heartland has been duped into some sort of self destructive haze by the bastard love child of social conservatives and Wall Street CEOs. Frank calls this "the backlash". Backlash against government intervention in life, against liberals, against "progressive" social policies, against the media and the Ivy League intellectual class. The real truth of the matter comes out in chapter seven. It is Frank who has the backlash. He is from Kansas but was left out of it's prosperity and change so "I left." Frank rails against the Kansas Republicans (the cons) like a shunned kid on a playground. He didn't get invited to play the fun games so he turned sour. The families around him got rich and his didn't. Must be a conspiracy. Obviously it has nothing to do with my own family's abilities or choice of careers. Frank places most of the blame for the conversion to Republicans on the "bitter self-made men." Back to the angry white male stereotype. Forget the fact that Howard Dean showed us what a REAL angry white man was all about.

Here is the reality. The Democrats were the party of the working class when the poor stayed poor and were kept that way by government subsidies. When workers started getting stock options, owning stocks themselves, paying less taxes, controlling their lives some more, starting their own businesses and becoming successful, they realized that what they really valued was freedom from government. The Great Society didn't work. Years and years of government hand-outs didn't improve any worker's ability to make a life for him/herself. Lower taxes, smaller government did. The Democrats have stuck with policies that have failed and the people know better now. They know now that it is not the job of government to redistribute wealth, it is to allow it to be created by every man, woman and child.

I am glad I read the book, but wouldn't recommend it as any kind of factual telling of what has gone on in heartland politics over the last 30 years. These are the rantings of a spoiled looser in a battle he doesn't even understand.

Some choice quotes:

"...the social conservatives who raise their voices in praise of Jesus but cast their votes to exalt Ceasar." Really?

"...he [the worker] labors night and day so that others might enjoy their capital gains and never have to work at all. Humility in the service of its exact opposite; is there not something Christlike about it all?" How many people live off capital gains alone? Over the last 30 years stock ownership has broadened across all social and economic classes. Even the lowest worker benefits from the capital gains in stocks through their retirement or 401K which is probably in a mutual fund.

"And culture - that infinitely malleable malefactor, upon which any evil design can be projected - is the only plausible oppressor left." Frank claims that the right suddenly pulled liberal culture out of a hat as the bogey man since Clinton embraced capitalism and took it off the table as a partisan issue. Does this guy want to go back to the class warfare of the last century? Worker against management? Has liberal culture caused no damage at all? Frank must not be tracking the divorce rate, rise in single parents, growth of drug use, or any number of degenerative trendlines that have gone up in the last 30 years since "everything became relative."

"Liberalism is not a product of social forces, blacklashers believe, it is a social force, a juggernaut moving according to a logic all its own, as rigid and mechanical as anything dreamed up by the Stalinists of yesterday." If you believe Liberalism is NOT a social force itself, I have some swampland in Florida I want to sell you.

Posted by Martin at 8:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A book I gotta read

Th new one from Hugh Hewitt. Blog Beach He points out how the Democratic party on a national level is only interested in winning and will do anything to make it happen. I saw on the news today that they have 10,000 lawyers and a $3M fund already set up to contest the election. Why do the flip-flops of Kerry matter? Because they show that he will change his position on a whim to follow the polling. This is not what we need now.

Posted by Martin at 7:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Trackback Spam

Just when you thought it was safe to blog with the new MT version and registered commentors, the bastards have gotten smarter. I am now receiving five to seven track-back spam's a day. It is actually a pretty cleaver form of spam. They use track-back to link their site to your entries. The comment filters don't work for track-backs. Looks like MT has more work to do....

Posted by Martin at 4:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Meta consumer review site...

Product Reviews and Reports by Consumer Search - ConsumerSearch.com. Thanks KK for this link! They make their money by putting LOTS of Google ads on the pages. I didn't find my product reviews from my blog. It looks like they just aggregate some of the more structured review sites. Will be good when they can extract reviews from blogs where much of that content is going anyway.

Posted by Martin at 3:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fun new game for your phone!

PICK THE PREZ

Posted by Martin at 3:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

McAfee gets into hosted e-mail market

With the success of Postini and other outsourced e-mail filtering companies, the big guys are getting in. McAfee unveils new email spam filtering service. I expect Symentac to join soon. And I expect these services to be successful.

Posted by Martin at 2:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

back from India

Been in India for the last week. Not much connectivity in Goa. I will catch up on things this afternoon.

Posted by Martin at 9:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 8, 2004

The power of combo media

Received this e-mail from factcheck.org today:
The site received 5X the normal traffic right after Cheney mentioned it (incorrectly) during the debate. In the room I was watching it, maybe half the people were on their laptops while watching. Truly powerful merged media!

FactCheck Upgrades Service

10.08.2004

Well, we never expected that to happen!

As nearly everybody now knows, Vice President Cheney's reference to "factcheck.com" at the debate Oct. 5 touched off an avalanche of publicity and new visitors to our site. Our University of Pennsylvania server was overwhelmed. The number of visitors during the 24 hours after the debate reached five times our previous peak volume, and we have no idea how many tried to get on the site and failed.

We have now contracted with Boot Networks, a California company, to handle the hosting of FactCheck.org. The switchover began Thursday, Oct. 7. The content of the site will of course remain under the control of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, as always.

Visitors should notice that pages now load much more quickly. We are assured that visitors should be able to reach the site even at times of unusually high volume.

However, some features will be unavailable for a time. The "search" function is temporarily disabled, as is the "e-mail to a friend" feature. Streaming video of TV ads is not available. We are working to restore all these features as quickly as possible. In the meantime, our core content should be fully available.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and we thank you for your patience as we work through these "growing pains."

--Brooks Jackson

Director, FactCheck.org

Posted by Martin at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mr. Kerry's Diplomacy

The WSJ had an interesting piece on the Editorial page yesterday:

Still believe Mr. Kerry will be better defending this country and stopping nuclear proliferation? Without the stick, the carrot doesn't work. Without completing the work with the stick, the carrot won't work either.

Posted by Martin at 9:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 7, 2004

Web 2.0 VOIP panel

Watching the VOIP panel at Web 2.0. Vonage, AT&T, Covad

Vonage CEO was immediately on the defensive having to defend their recent price reduction in reaction to AT&T. He suggested that they already had it in the pipeline as a part of "simplification" of their plans and only moved up their announcement. But he didn't really address the price war topic. He suggested that they will have lots of features to support price (followme phone numbers, easy install, etc.). I don't believe it.

AT&T says they understand price wars. They understand how to make EBITDA during a price war. A not so subtle dig at Vonage not being there yet. Also noted that they use SIP not VOIP, "Services over IP". AT&T will be the leader in delivering Services over IP, that includes many data services, voice services, etc. Their vision is much greater than just phone over IP. They haven't had a good history of execution (can you say ATTWS), but this may be strategic enough that they get it right. All AT&T comments were basically "we can do this, believe me". It sounded quite desparate. Pointing to alot of PAST AT&T inventions (Linux, telco switches, etc.) he tried to convince the audience that "AT&T has the key components to deliver the new services". Yea right. But you have screwed up more assets than any company in history. They divested themselves of many of the assets that may be valuable (cable, Wireless, local lines, Lucent, etc.) Vonage pointed this out. Gesse this is almost as scathing as the Cheney/Edwards debate!

Covad guy said "we are just an integrator". We don't compete with anybody. We focus on small to medium business. I don't believe it. They are struggling. No-one has ever made alot of money scaling an integration truck rolling business. Good luck. Roadkil.

Posted by Martin at 9:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Seven digital disruptions

Nice list over at A VC A VC: The Seven Digital Disruptions

MPEG/MP3 - Disrupts the music and movie business
PVRs - Disrupts the TV ad business
Broadband Entertainment - Disrupts the TV business
Digital Cameras and JPEGS - Disrupts the film business
Linux - Disrupts the operating system business
Network Computers - disrupts the PC hardware/software business
Wireless Networks - disrupts the wire line phone business
VOIP - disrupts the entire phone business

I will muse on my own list and maybe specify it for the NW and post on NWVentureVoice.com

Posted by Martin at 9:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The ultimate geek DIY magazine

OReilly is launching a new magazine. Make Home Page It is Martha Stewart for geeks. What Popular Mechanics used to be. How to do home projects that are hacks. Can't wait for this.

Posted by Martin at 9:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Deleting more software

I have been a big proponent of Zone Labs Zone Alarm Pro. I bought the product and a subscription to their service. Unfortunately as I had predicted, Microsoft in XP SP2 has put enough firewall function for free that I no longer need Zone Alarm Pro. Also about the same time that I installed SP2, my subscription for Zone Alarm Pro ran out. I like subscription models for software. But they need to have a graceful degredation at the end of the subscription. What I expect is that all the features and functions that I had during the time I was paying I keep. What I don't get is the updates. That is not what happens at the end of Zone Alarm. Key features like program authorizations for internet connections stop working. This pissed me off. I would have uninstalled it on that principal alone. Looks like they sold out just in time.

Posted by Martin at 8:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Write your congress to vote against teh Induce Act

The media companies are at it again. Tech firms rally against copyright bill | CNET News.com Trying to legislate their way into a continued monopoly by moving the liability bar for infringement WAY up the stack to anyone who enables any part of copywrite infringement. Here is the relevant test:

(g)(1) In this subsection, the term `intentionally induces' means intentionally aids, abets, induces, or procures, and intent may be shown by acts from which a reasonable person would find intent to induce infringement based upon all relevant information about such acts then reasonably available to the actor, including whether the activity relies on infringement for its commercial viability.

`(2) Whoever intentionally induces any violation identified in subsection (a) shall be liable as an infringer.

The act would create a whole new category of "infringers". Basically ANY technology company that touches anything. This is bad for the venture capital, bad for innovation and bad for the economy in general. The tech business is driving economic growth, not the media business. Why shut off growth to protect a legacy monopoly? Bad policy.

I hope Kerry comes out with his "wrong bill at the wrong time" speech as forcefully as he has been talking about the Iraq war. The Induce Act actually has as much potential to impact the future economic growth prospects of this country as the war in Iraq. It is that important.

Write your congressmen. Oppose this act.

Posted by Martin at 8:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mary Meeker's China Report

Here is the direct link to the pdf file. China_Internet_Report0404.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Posted by Martin at 8:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Initial thoughts on Web 2.0

Have been at Web 2.0 for the last couple of days. Lots of very interesting people here and great ideas being thrown around. I won't try to summarize all the announcements and significant events as they are all around the net and blogsphere (check out the MyStack results below).

Here is what I think are the most important ideas coming out of this so far:

1. The web as a platform. This is the basic contention of web 2.0. If web 1.0 was about making the web safe for people, web 2.0 is about making it safe for computers. The next generation of web applications will leverage the shared infrastructure of the web 1.0 companies like EBay, Paypal, Google, Amazon, and Yahoo, not just the "bare bones transit" infrastructure that was there when we started all those companies in the late 90s (UUNet, Exodus, doubleclick,, etc.). This fact is fundamental to the next generation of entrepreneurs thinking about companies today.

2. Search is going to see major innovation over the next 12 months. Just when you thought Google had it all tied up, here comes the next generation. Some are calling it personalization, some local search, whatever you call it, you can think about it like this: The mass of web links was tamed and organized into a card catalog by Yahoo but it was still too hard to find relevant stuff, so Google reduced the process to one box with superior results. Having simplified the massively complex web to one box, we are not aching for more control, more customization, etc. Next generation search will go away from simplification into personalization and user control of the search results. Check out the relaunched Snap.com and the "official" A9.

3. China is the most important country in the internet's future. Mary Meeker summarized what is going on in china in 12 minutes. Very impressive feat. Basically if you are not paying attention to the China internet market you are not watching the future of the internet.

4. There are many people ready and willing to run up the hill again. After the meltdown of 2000-2003, I had some serious concerns about who would be stupid enough to run up the innovation hill again after such a bloodbath. Luckilly, the spirit of entrepreneurship is very resilient and the successful are coming back (as well as a new crop). There is no lack of entrepreneurs in the halls wanting to pitch me on their idea to capitalize on web 2.0. Very good sign.

Posted by Martin at 8:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

HPF, the verdict

I have been posting about HPF the Hangover Prevention Formula found on-line. Last night I had the chance to try it out. While it is only B vitamins (with some other misc stuff), it does in fact work. Three martini's later, I was up and at the surf break at 6:30 this morning without a hint of headache, drymouth, or that feeling of "drain". Haven't done a controlled double blind study against the much cheaper multi-vitamin (and I doubt I will), but it is interesting to know that HPF does in fact work. It is hard to find the additional benefit to justify the cost though. Conclusion: Stay with the multivitamin.

Posted by Martin at 7:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 5, 2004

Major Cheney goof!

Cheney in the debate tonight said that www.factcheck.com has the "truth" about some of the Haliburton issues. Unfortunately he is unwitingly sending people to: GeorgeSoros.com
George has factcheck.com. The site Cheney meant to send people to is Factcheck.ORG!!
oops.

Posted by Martin at 8:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cheney/Edwards debate

This is one reason I truly detest politics as a necessary evil. Today the process is so well scripted and so contrived that you never see anything REAL. Cheney's job tonight was to stay on message about Kerry/Edwards flip flopping, poor leadership and inexperience. He did that. Edwards job was to clarify Kerry's cake and eat it too language around Iraq/terrorism and try to score some points on domestic issues. He did his best. Edwards was the more personable, although Cheney didn't come across as stern and elderly as he has at times. Edwards showed he is the more engaging speaker (great close, good eye contact, surpurb pandering to the pocketbook self interest of the voter), Cheney showed his greater command for the larger picture and the history behind issues. Cheney talked with his hands folded under his chin alot (which covered his mic - bad) and Edwards borrowed Kerry's fist with pointing thumb alot (I hear they were seated to keep Edwards from wandering around alot). The first part of the questions were around foreign policy (Iraq) and then they were supposed to move on to domestic. But Domestic was all about terrorism and kept leaking back to Iraq. Come on guys, talk about something else!

There I was in a conference room of the Hotel Niko in San Francisco (Web 2.0 conference). I am sure the only Bush voter in the room. I was totally amazed how the captains of the tech industry around me were falling all over themselves in praise of Edwards. The people in the room were entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Edwards is a trial lawyer who makes his living suing the guys in the room, raising the cost of doing business in America. When Edwards advocated restrictions on outsourcing I thought I would get a couple of negative reactions, but not a one. Can you imagine a tech company today without an overseas (India/China) strategy for some development or test? The net has enabled much of this outsourcing. What is the #1 downard pressure on international telephone rates? VOIP. Anyway, after the "debate" a guy asked for a show of hands on who Won, Edwards, Cheney, or draw. It was about 50/50 for a draw or an Edwards win. I was on the Draw side. This won't make any difference. No "knock-out" punch was thrown.

Wait for the next Kerry/Bush meeting. I think you will see a different Bush.

Posted by Martin at 8:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 4, 2004

What is in HPF?

As I posted earlier, I had to buy the touted Hangover Prevention Formula (HPF) just for the name. My experience has been that the B vitamins are the most important. And the makers of this concoction agree. Here is what is in there:

Thiamin 3mg (200%)
Riboflavin 3.4mg (200%)
Niacin 40mg (200%)
Vitamin B6 4mg (200%)
Pantothenic acid 20mg (200%)

and a "patented, standardized, cactus fruit extract" of 800 IU which probably doesn't do anything.

Haven't tried it yet (will letcha know), but it looks like a good multivitamin would be cheaper and just as effective.

Posted by Martin at 8:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Now here is a happy hacker: PBS | I, Cringely . Archived Column Disintermediated the cable company, and phone company and became his own micro ISP. Very cool. The future of geekdom I predict. I plan to do something similar in my new house. Pull down TV stations (pay for them), record them on a HUGE PVR, use VOIP only (with cell backup), and serve bandwith to my neighbors.

Posted by Martin at 7:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 1, 2004

Installing BlueBeat player

A friend of mine, Gerd Leonard is consulting to a nifty little company down in LA that runs BlueBeat. The core technology of the company is the X1 player that secures music from ANY recording device on the computer. It is a well known flaw in ALL DRM systems that once the music is unlocked and playing over the computer, you can use any number of recorders to intercept the digital signal and make perfect digital copies. There are even recorders that will chop up an MP3 stream into it's component songs for you. So these guys intercept all the channels and disable these products. Just like some of the OS technologies that prevent debuggers to being attached to programs.

Because BlueBeat uses this higher level of protection, they can stream VERY high quality digital streams over the net to you. They stream 320k! No commercials! All you have to do is be willing to not steal it. I can live with that. Just sign up for an account and download the player, then reboot. I am having problems running it on two computers, I bet they lock it to one CPU. But the quality is great!

Posted by Martin at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Uninstalling some more products...

My home desktop was starting to sag badly under the weight of all the crap I have installed, so I went through somewhat of a cleanup process today (in preparation for more no doubt).

I deleted PixPo, a file sharing service. It sets up a server and runs a couple of backround processes. You also have to encourage your friends to install the same software for the system to work. I was going to go through that braindamage, but then decided not to. If I am going to share photos, I want it to leverage some of the existing standard features of Windows (like .NET and messanger and the VPN client) so that it is VERY light weight for other members to join. Like maybe I have to run the server software, but everyone else can participate at some level with just a browser. I had so many servers running that performance was pathetic. Bye Bye PixPo.,

Deleted the Tivo Desktop. It too runs a server and takes up lots of memory. I like its feature set, but I am not currently using it all that much. I just was testing it. In the future, I will set up a dedicated server to run stuff like that. For now though that server is running Linux Suse 9.1 and Tivo only runs on XP..... Bye Bye Tivo desktop.

Deleted FeedDemon. I have decided to standardize on NewsGator inside of Outlook.

Posted by Martin at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Exodus from Real continues

The PI reports today that Martin Phaehn is leaving. A shake-up in RealNetworks' executive staff. This on the heals of Sean Ryan who ran Rhapsody (not mentioned in this story). And at the same time I am getting calls from friends thinking of going to work there. My friend Michael Schutzler just went ther to run ad sales.

It seems that the door is revolving faster over there lately. Not a good sign.

Posted by Martin at 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack