Disqus - Friends of markherrmann

Re: [bijan sabet] the personal tumblelog of Bijan Sabet

sweller — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:06:42 -0000

Ok... way, way out there is this article...

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/...

A few years ago I attended a conference at MITRE on managing large software development projects. One of the speakers started discussing complex systems and ultimately implied that the Internet could be perceived as a global extension of the human nervous system. At the time I thought it was a way-out-there discussion, but in retrospect, very cool. He displayed measurable changes in Internet traffic in relation to major world events.

The best thing about Twitter as a social news platform is that it has the ability to provide real time micro-local visibility and semantics to events that would normally have fairly superficial coverage. Add advanced geo-locational tools and semantic keyword search to that and I think it could evolve to be very powerful.

Re: Mark Herrmann's Blog - Should You Pay Twice as Much for a Mac?

sweller — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:21:26 -0000

Yes and you should also opt in for the voluntary increased income tax.

Re: sweller blog

sweller — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:24:15 -0000

Interesting indeed.

Re: [bijan sabet] the personal tumblelog of Bijan Sabet

sweller — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:06:54 -0000

Bleh. Newspaper articles are soooooo 1902.

;)

Re: http://markherrmann.tumblr.com/post/45311876

sweller — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:45:22 -0000

http://translate.google.com...

" An expert from the National Autonomous University of Mexico predicted that in about ten years the Earth will enter a "little ice age" which will last from 60 to 80 years and may be caused by the decrease in solar activity. "

Re: Google Chrome's EULA

sweller — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:56:12 -0000

Possibly... I think of the most recent fervor over NubuAd's attempt to help IPSs capitalize on their traffic by analyzing request and building consumer profiles was somewhat warranted. I would think that type of profiling would be possible with Chrome as well.

Modern EULAs prove that free software is not always "free". I just want to understand my rights when it comes to the data that they intend to collect in the future.

Scott

Re: Think there are hard times ahead? You're a douche.

sweller — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:46:17 -0000

No, I do agree that we have become a nation of whiners, or, as Senator Phil Gramm put it, in a "mental" recession.

I do believe that what has happened is significant, the impacts immeasurable at this point.

This post was spur-of-the-moment emotional for me, based on a conversation I had with a friend. But, my point is that we -- you, me, everyone -- can use history to gain some perspective from the fear mongering. We need re-invigorate what this country is known to be; inventive. Let's get ahead of this problem.

Reactionary spending and anti-free-market control measures may do more harm than good. This is where I believe some historical perspective helps.

Scott

Re: Think there are hard times ahead? You're a douche.

sweller — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:35:17 -0000

I mean, I do *not* agree that we have become a nation of whiners.

Re: sweller blog

sweller — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:23:14 -0000

From the article... (click on the image)

"You’d think this would be big news. Perhaps the embarrassment of not having an ice free north pole in 2008, which was sparked by press comments made by Dr. Mark Serreze there and speculation on their own website, has made them unresponsive in this case."

I think it's positive to see data that indicates sea ice in the North Pole is rallying. This could be an anomaly in an otherwise declining system, but interesting non the less.

Re: The Power of Open Source

sweller — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:48:33 -0000

Open source energy generation, management and distribution.

If you're good at generating energy, how do you share it? How do you distribute it? How do you interface it with legacy systems?

If a neighborhood decides to invest in a community thermal well, how does that interface with the energy needs of each home.

This could be way out there, but I think the same concept that BugLabs is applying to consumer electronics could be applied to energy generation, management and distribution. Once these tools are in place, then allow the masses to share designs and implementations.

Re: The Power of Open Source

sweller — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:51:49 -0000

great point.

Re: Twitter wishlist: throttle mega-tweeters

sweller — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:51:29 -0000

I am so glad I am not the only person who feels this way. I would love to be able to click "throttle", then have all their tweets wrapped under one header. Maybe with some breadcrumbs under the header to give a summary as to what they are spamming about. ;)

sweller

Re: How To Encourage Boston Students

sweller — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:33:22 -0000

What abount competitions?

Local VCs have the ability and opportunity to cultivate and create a positive competitive environment.

Smart students love to compete. I think local VCs could create the stage for this.

For example, "iPhone App Weekend" competition, where students can register for a weekend long competition to develop an iPhone app, VCs can fund the prize (maybe it's the chance to pitch your company).

This is just he tip of the iceberg. I think VCs can do plenty to spur creative growth from students.

Re: The Twitter API

sweller — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:11:43 -0000

A bit off topic, but is the Bold worth the upgrade from the Pearl?

Re: 40.

sweller — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:00:42 -0000

Congrats. Have a great birthday.

Scott

Re: The need for better charts

sweller — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:58:51 -0000

Visible Certainty: Galileo

"What was observed by us is the nature or matter of the Milky Way itself, which, with the aid of the spyglass, may be observed so well that all the disputes that for so many generations have vexed philosophers are destroyed by visible certainty, and we are liberated from wordy arguments."

Re: The portfolio entrepreneur

sweller — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:45:26 -0000

Tinkering is important for any entrepreneur -- keeps them up to date with current trends, especially if they are tinkering in relation to their current endeavor. Daren's comments are right on the money here.

I agree with Steve's comment as well -- it takes focus^2 to do something well.

Along with focus, I think commitment to the initiative at hand is massively important. In most startups, there will be months of all nighters, there will be roadblocks and unforeseen challenges that will take a group of highly committed individuals to overcome. A startup is more than a prototype. There's not only a functional product to develop, but also the development of sales strategy, channels, strategic relationships, etc. All of these things take committed individuals to drive the team to success.

If I was a VC I would be vary wary of the entrepreneur who starts multiple businesses.

Re: Wanting more after the concert

sweller — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:30:28 -0000

A bit complicated, but I think it would be cool to build something like this around a Twitter integrated iPhone app. I am not up to date on how accurate the iPhone geolocation is, but...

1. For everyone running the app, a server recognizes when there is a congress of people within a specific proxcimity.
2. Via self-reporting, people tag the location -- ie: why is there a congress of people within that proximity? ie: Ben Kweller Concert.
3. For other people in that proximity, the app asks them "are you participating in X" where X could be "Ben Kweller concert"
4. A social space on the web is created for what has been tagged, where users can interact during and after the event has taken place.

Re: Thinking about stealth vs anti-stealth companies

sweller — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:32:07 -0000

I think it has everything to do with first mover advantage, barrier to entry, user adoption and how competitive the space is.

I think in Boxee's case, they have some first mover advantage, the barrier to entry is fairly high.

In Tumblr's case, as soon as they release a feature, their competition can be right there, copy-cat. So, I think they need to be a bit more stealth.

Adoption is key in all cases, so your point about the user being first is right on.

Re: So you believe my Hyperinfaltion theory - what do you do with your money? (Option 1)

sweller — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:55:11 -0000

http://www.creditwritedowns...

A good friend of mine believes that inflation and home values are good old friends that must reunite. So, we either have to take the hit, or get comfortable with the idea what we will be paying $20 for a hamburger.

Re: bijansabet.com | a tumblelog by Bijan Sabet | “Like Google, [Twitter is] finding new data to...

sweller — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:22:23 -0000

I always thought Twitter's model had great potential for search. This is so interesting to me and have some thoughts about how this could work. Because of the small character set and other data, there are so many useful search possibilities -- interesting ways to look at relevancy, etc.

I am excited to see how this evolves.

Re: bijansabet.com | a tumblelog by Bijan Sabet | “Like Google, [Twitter is] finding new data to...

sweller — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:13:08 -0000

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it."
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson

Re: Congrats to Steve Perlman & OnLive

sweller — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:55:43 -0000

I'm am interested in seeing this in action, we were doing a hybrid of this in the early days at Revahertz. We often had discussions about how we could move more and more processing requirements away to the set top box and onto the server. Because the set top was so limiting, we ended up with a hybrid of mpeg streams generated off of the server with interactive overlays on the set top (decoding and rendering streamed video was what the set top did best).

There could be many useful applications of this outside of gaming, where high-end rendering and processing is required. Medical visualization comes to mind.

Cool stuff.

Re: My advice to a friend thinking about joining a startup - you better love it

sweller — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:48:53 -0000

Great points. You have to be passionate about what you are doing and insanely committed to results.

Also, if you're in a committed relationship, you also need to make sure your significant other is on board. If you're about to dive-into start-up lala land you need to make sure that they understand the level of commitment and passion required for the endeavor to succeed.

The unyielding support and understanding of my wife is the only reason I have been able to be committed to working in start-ups over the past 12 years. Jessica, you rock, I love you. ;)

Re: Decided to make my kids photos private by default

sweller — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:05:21 -0000

I think when it comes to your family, there are some things that should be left private.

My wife and I have a rule about this, I think you made a smart move.

Scott