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Re: The Harvard Crimson :: Arts :: Idle Chatter

jquaglia — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:02:49 -0000

I think you have some good points man. I have no idea how you dug out my wishbone comment from a year ago, but props to you for finding it. Maybe it is narcissism, but it's what I was thinking at the moment and maybe it sounds stupid in retrospect. But what is editorial? It is your opinion, your expression, your voice. Meaning that you (an editorial writer) and me (a twitter user) are in the same boat, my friend. The difference is that I have only 140 characters to project my ego, while you have an unlimited space. No hard feelings, all is fair on the internet. So maybe we all just need to manage what we post and be smart about it.

But I think you are missing the point about Twitter. You're taking extreme examples of misuse and not talking at all about the community building and information sharing benefits it can provide. I've made friends and business contacts I never would have made without Twitter. As a sociology major, maybe you should take a close look at that.

Re: Bonuses

jquaglia — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:00:52 -0000

Fred,

Really enjoyed your perspective on this.

I'm curious of people's thoughts on AIG's compensation structure in the free markets. Some will inevitably say that AIG is a perfect example of free markets and the "greed is good" philosophy failing. It seems that short term personal interest outweighed long term interests of a healthy and prosperous company and service (for many companies involved in this mess, as a matter of fact).

So how have compensation structures like AIG's wound up in our "free markets?" What is capitalist about a "guaranteed bonus?" Nothing.

As you've mentioned, everybody's really got to take a long, hard thought about the word "bonus" really means.

Re: How to Lose 30 Pounds in 24 Hours: The Definitive Guide to Cutting Weight

jquaglia — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:58:13 -0000

Wow, Tim. This is amazing.

Couple of questions: Does it significantly affect your energy level (both mental and physical) during competition? I would equate it to going on an all day bender and then waking up the next day and trying to sober up. I understand it's much more scientific and thought out, but just wondering how you feel when you step into the ring after going through this 24 hours before.

Secondly, why don't these competitions change their policies to a weigh in right before the match? Seems like that would prevent people from putting themselves through such routines in order to make weight.

Re: How to Buy Domain Names Like a Pro: 10 Tips from the Founder of PhoneTag.com

jquaglia — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:33:35 -0000

A good way to mask yourself when purchasing is to just pay a friend (or buy him a beer) who has no "Googlability" to do the negotiation.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

jquaglia — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:56:24 -0000

Lloyd. I meant to respond to your comment with my comment below. Not sure why Disqus didn't link it up. Hoping this one will

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

jquaglia — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:46:47 -0000

I graduated with a liberal arts degree about 4 years ago and currently find myself asking "what the hell do I REALLY want to do," and "what am I good at." Similar to Lloyd, I would have never read Machiavelli or, say, Jack Kerouac, if I had not gone to a liberal arts school. But I do, without a doubt, lack plenty of career direction. While I believe I am far from a "one trick pony" as I see in many of my colleagues, I do feel like I am lacking some of their hard skills.

The liberal arts education is supposed to teach you how to "learn" and "ask the right questions"--and I really think it has done this in my case. But did it teach me specific skills that set me apart from my peers? Absolutely not. While my ultimate dream is to be a successful entrepreneur, I know that I need some more specific skills in order to add value--may they be tech, finance, marketing, what have you. I think that the entrepreneur needs to be able to add value where others cannot. In many cases, a more focused degree will facilitate that. In my case, however, I wouldn't trade my liberal arts degree for anything, but I hope to eventually find a way to add meaningful and unique value to an entrepreneurial opportunity. If someone can do that without a college degree, then fantastic. But they might be missing out on some of the other benefits--non career or economic related--that a college degree can afford.

Thanks for the post Fred. And thanks Lloyd for the comment about some of the other learning opps in college.

Re: Does Apple Have A Blind Spot About Flash?

jquaglia — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:50:28 -0000

Agreed. It just seems like they are leaving the door open for someone to swoop in and easily create a better mobile web experience because they have flash available. And, as more sites adopt flash, this will become even more of an advantage. I've also heard reports of iPhones crashing/freezing when they try to enter a flash site.

Re: Truth

jquaglia — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:57:41 -0000

Such an epic post and discussion on so many levels. I have always found my own truth to be what is necessary for my own survival and progress. I wouldn't eat if I didn't believe that food would give me energy. I wouldn't go to work if I didn't believe that I would make money. And I wouldn't vote for a political candidate if I didn't believe he or she would improve the country. It's no different for a religious person. A Muslim wouldn't pray towards Mecca if it didn't represent a relative truth to the believer--in this life or afterlife. And you wouldn't make an investment in a new technology if you didn't think it could change the world, make money, or meet some other objective you had in mind.

These relative truths lead to progress. We are human beings, without omniscience, but we must each believe in something if we are to move forward.

Re: Twitter Files for an IPO….‘TWEET’ as the Ticker Symbol?

jquaglia — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:48:52 -0000

What would they do with the influx of IPO capital? They sure haven't done much more than their basic platform even as funding has increased. A couple acquisitions, big deal.

Re: Profile Pictures and Online Identity

jquaglia — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:26:57 -0000

Would it be a good idea (or possible) for commenting platforms, like Disqus, to make it impossible to "save image as" and steal users avatars?

Re: Living In Public Doesn't Have To Be Destructive

jquaglia — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:01:01 -0000

Couldn't agree more with your closing point that you don't see things getting worse.

I have sort of seen a maturation in myself including blogging/commenting etiquette, restraint, and mediation. I think it took me a while to fully get a grasp on the fact that what I do online is, in fact, an extension of my real life and that the people on the other end of things are, in fact, real people. I didn't instinctively process it like that at first, but "growing-up" on the internet is a lot like "growing-up" in life. So I don't think it will get worse. The key is people understanding that online actions and communications have real world implications. A little online maturation is all that has to take place. Ultimately, I think the web facilitates understanding WAY more than it facilitates inhumanness.

Re: When Talking About Business Models, Remember That Profits Equal Revenues Minus Costs

jquaglia — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:09:03 -0000

I really enjoyed your perspective in this post. I have been wondering what the financier's opinion of open source should be. It doesn't make much capitalist sense to me to offer all these services to the user for free and just count on ad revenues. As Chris Andersen alludes to, it seems like the huge acquisitions of internet companies over the past decade has created a foreign and unorthodox economic model for the creation of these new media companies.

Re: Thoughts on Google and Apple's Earnings

jquaglia — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:10:14 -0000

Most people don't have time to do much quantitative analysis on individual stocks day in and day out. If you're not going to do so, mutual funds probably make the most sense for individual investors. But that's no fun and I appreciate the back of the envelope valuation to justify the position I have taken in both companies even if Fred's understandably sketched out about Apple management.

Re: Thoughts on Google and Apple's Earnings

jquaglia — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:49:40 -0000

I remember you mentioning that a few weeks ago. That's a really easy way to explain valuation to the layman (or my mother). If only I had the cash.

It seems now that Apple PR (I'm sure it was Jobs' decision) has botched this entire situation, and wrecked a level of trust with serious investors. It seems likely that the stock will now always be weighted down until Steve is out altogether. But I don't think anyone really wants that. So at this point, an element of Jobs bolsters the stock while an element weighs it down...the latter is currently on the winning side of this tug-of-war.

Hopefully people will get comfortable with Tim Cook and the stock price will not continue to fluctuate so much every time Jobs has so much as a dentist appointment. This would be better for investors and probably for Steve's level of personal stress.

Re: Thoughts on Google and Apple's Earnings

jquaglia — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:08:49 -0000

With people like you on the Apple sidelines, I am wondering the extent to which the company's lack of transparency is already priced in or overstated.

Re: Lost On Boxee

jquaglia — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:50:34 -0000

Don't forget about the Windows Boxee which I finally was able to sign up for today! Good stuff :)

Re: Scale Economics

jquaglia — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:57:34 -0000

Great perspective Fred. Then what is the future for such publishers? Will it become all but impossible to generate any profit by publishing? How profitable are popular publishers like Huffington Post?

Always makes me wonder if Web 2.0 will improve the quality of information that gets filtered to the mainstream reader, or if this economic model will drive too many crappy publishers out there.

Re: My focus group of one

jquaglia — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:49:33 -0000

Sure. Good point. I just wanted to point out that NYC residents are probably moving to online faster than everyone else. Maybe not though.

Re: My focus group of one

jquaglia — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:46:40 -0000

I think your comment that "the mainstream newspaper reader is just making this transition to intraday news consumption now" may be even too big an assumption.

In New York, yes probably. But in Topeka, KS, Omaha, NE, or Luverne, MN, (trying to pick three random towns, sorry to offend anyone) most working folks are probably still reading the daily press over coffee, donut, and cigarette.

Re: I will not be visiting ESPN.com ever again

jquaglia — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:51:19 -0000

You're crazy. I think the new site design is beautiful. And I don't understand how you cannot separate the ads from the content. "Note to self: Don't click on pictures of trucks." Seems simple enough.

Re: Digital Cribs: Homes with Practical (and Impractical) Technologies (Plus: Victorinox Winner)

jquaglia — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:09:46 -0000

Cool house! Very Feng Shui. Props to Cisco on a job well done.

Re: Startup Ideas, $0.00833333333 each

jquaglia — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:22:43 -0000

Did you read Seth Godin yesterday? Like thoughts to yours, especially number 2.

VCs fund people, not ideas

http://sethgodin.typepad.co...

Re: Is The Nasdaq The New Dow?

jquaglia — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:50:49 -0000

This is something that crossed my mind after I read your post from last week. After all, why are we so obsessed with the "Dow Industrials" when our economy has greatly lost and abandoned out industrial and manufacturing base. But when you say "is the Nasdaq the new Dow?" I think the answer depends on the regard in which you held the Dow in the first place. Did we see it as reflective of the US economy as a whole? Reflective of simply our industrial powers? Or did we (and still do) care so much because that's where so much of our money was held? I think that most people flip on CNBC and legitimately take the Dow to be THE most significant index representative of our economic health-much as economist might make the same analysis with GDP numbers. Has the Nasdaq replaced that? Not yet for most people.

Re: A Lost Decade - But Not For Everyone

jquaglia — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:07:53 -0000

To your comment about the Internet facilitating commerce. I have always wondered if the Internet has created more value in simply the companies built directly off of it, or in the efficiencies it's created for virtually every company in the world.

Re: A Lost Decade - But Not For Everyone

jquaglia — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:25:31 -0000

Fred. This is just a really great post. Makes me look at the market--and particularly the Dow--in a completely different way.

The thing that has concerned me about relying on the "information age" to get us through this though are the revenue models of many Internet companies. I feel that companies with revenue models built on advertising will not be strong enough to pull us out of this mess. I'm also not sure that Internet companies will continue to see signoficant employment growth. Our most useful tools, Google for example, can be built by a relative few people compared to our manufacturing giants of the past.