Software, Digital Content, Geopolitics, Economics & More from of a Libertarian Serial Expat and Entrepreneur
Cory Doctorow: "The next generation of Internet entrepreneurs will [...] be working to provide unreliable services that work in concert with other unreliable services to provide a service that works on average, but not predictably at any given moment. They’ll challenge the received wisdom that customers are hothouse flowers, expensive to acquire and prone to [...]
In: web apps
20 Dec 2001Backflip status: "In September, Backflip was acquired by a small group of individuals dedicated to preserving the Backflip website. When Backflip’s parent company realigned its business objectives, rather than shut it down or sell to a competitor, they gave us the opportunity to take over the service. We couldn’t be more pleased. Who are we? [...]
In: software
20 Dec 2001JavaLobby’s Rick Ross: "In conclusion, the .Net platform is huge, and we will all probably encounter it in one form or another. It seems to me that ignorance about .Net within the Java community is much more dangerous than informed awareness. I realize that it’s only natural for Java developers to consider Microsoft’s offerings to [...]
NYT: "AT&T agreed yesterday to sell its cable television business, the nation’s largest, to the Comcast Corporation for about $47 billion in stock. The deal would create a cable giant with more than 22 million subscribers, almost twice the size of the next-biggest cable operator, AOL Time Warner (news/quote), which was a losing bidder in [...]
DVD service delivers online: "The simple formula has caught on with consumers. NetFlix now has more than 400,000 customers nationwide, partly because of the skyrocketing demand for films on DVD. [...] DVD players are the most quickly adopted consumer electronic product in history, eclipsing adoption rates for VCRs, televisions and radios. In addition, about 24 [...]
In: web services
19 Dec 2001DM News: "Chicago-based Bank One will use Microsoft’s MSN Advantage Marketing program to promote the jointly developed products. It also will use Microsoft’s .Net Alerts technology to offer services that may include delivering account billing or investment data to customers over a variety of devices." 12/20/01 update: .NET At The Last Minute.
The McKinsey Quarterly: "Many myths have been laid to rest since the Internet bubble burst, but a cherished if previously untested principle
Last month, Random House closed AtRandom, while MightyWords (a FatBrain spinoff/B&N subsidiary) will stop by next month, and AOL Time Warner packs up [iPublish] e-book unit.
In: search engines
18 Dec 2001Two months after launch, Google’s zeitgeist shows there are as much queries coming from Windows XP systems as from Macs. And for a console many people said was doomed to fail, the Xbox at the very least generated a lot of interest. We’ll have to wait for sales-out data to know how it’s really doing [...]
In: web services
14 Dec 2001ZD Net: "In a notice posted on the Zone home page, Microsoft informed users that they must sign up for the Passport online identification service, a controversial element of the company’s .Net online services push. "The Zone is now a Microsoft .Net Passport site!" the notice read. "Your existing Zone account still works, but you [...]
I'm CEO of an online trade publishing firm in the marketing and defense verticals. We try to make news and data digestible and useful in an environment that is more noisy each day. This personal blog mixes my thoughts and interests on politics, business, software, and more, based on my business and personal experiences. Over the years I have posted items that turned out spectacularly wrong, and a few posts that stood the test of times better. Personal views only.