DISQUS

R2P == responsibility to protect?

Thanks for the tip. I like it, but I wish the replies were expanded on demand instead of always shown by default. Some @replies are a lot less interesting than others.

Hey are you in Geneva?

Michele and I are sad to be missing LIFT, we're hosting a LIFT themed fondue party in Toronto tonight...

Cool! RAA rock. One of my top picks from 2008 as well.

Now you have to go to the show ;)

Because home electronics makers are batshit stupid?

Why every single hometheatre amplifier doesn't have a wifi card built in and a simple web-based admin screen, as easy to use (and cheap to engineer) as any wifi router has had for 10 years now, is absolutely beyond me. Instead, no wireless connectivity, unfathomable remotes and cryptic blinking lights and buttons.

utter stupidity.

It's like the question about why the auto industry has yet to clue in to the existence of the ipod (helo where have you guys been this decade?) and far too many of them can't figure out to put in a $0.50 aux-in jack on your car stereo. but i digress/rant

t.

for your problem, I have often looked at complicated and expensive solutions (and best buy actually does sell a wireless "rocket fish" rear speaker kit for home theatres) while I have found that a "really long wire" from computer to stereo in another room actually works really well, really reliably (no wireless interference or dropped signals), and costs about $12 at active surplus on queen st..

Gmail aggressively optimizes for speed.

Microsoft? sluggish user interfaces is microsoft's middle name.

Vista anyone?

Why does it take seconds of latency to open a volume slider in any version of windows? I have no idea.

Ha I've got you beat, my enabling web2.0 collaboration via FAX startup is long in production, closing on major financing... any minute now... :)

Inspired by, from the archives: http://tinyurl.com/57ovbc

as a hosted social faxing service that would be blogging + fax = flaxtr.net or floggr.com ?

now how would the details work, you can upmod any inbound fax by writing +1! on in thick pen and faxing it back to an 800 number?

Ha I've got you beat, my enabling web2.0 collaboration via FAX startup is long in production, closing on major financing... any minute now... :)

Inspired by, from the archives: http://tinyurl.com/57ovbc

as a hosted social faxing service that would be blogging + fax = flaxtr.net or floggr.com ?

now how would the details work, you can upmod any inbound fax by writing +1! on in thick pen and faxing it back to an 800 number?

Great post Craig. So here's the question, on convertables what are the typical numbers for interest rate and discount percentage?

For a tech startup raising their first angel round of a few hundred k, what range would be reasonable or typical?

Great post Craig. So here's the question, on convertables what are the typical numbers for interest rate and discount percentage?

For a tech startup raising their first angel round of a few hundred k, what range would be reasonable or typical?

Sorry to hear you didn't make it in, would have liked to say hi.

Actually, the cupcakes at the flickr party were fantastic. Don't slag the flickr food.

Though hardly dinner. We also went for sushi later.

Ha is that Johannes in that picture?

sigh for snowy Toronto. sxsw sounds like a blast this year.

I wrote a post on this on tuesday and the related/supposed exodus of facebook users to twitter in which is partly an excuse to work in a phrase like "...as though seized by a grand mal craptileptic fit in spam factory" into a sentence (as describing this same facebook problem as it happens)

http://www.thomaspurves.com/2008/02/12/facebook...

But it looks like facebook understands the problem and is making (some) progress to put "some of the bad bits of the toothpaste back in the tube"

There's also the PATRIOT act problem for global companies hosting customer data on US soil. That data, when it pertains to non-U.S. citizens is exposed to the risk of seizure by the US government with recourse, notice or judicial oversight. This exposes global companies to either violate US law or the Laws of protection of privacy / consumer data of the countries where their customers are resident.

Amazon should host some data in centers outside the U.S. Canada would be a good choice.

Flavio Quaranta writes StartupNorth:

"You might have missed it but Holistis that you mentioned on your last article and that was presented at The Lift Conference tonight, was mainly developed in New Brunswick, Canada. Holistis is a spin off of IC-Agency that was co-founded in Geneva in 2000. I moved to Canada in July 2005 in order to set up our R&D dept. and make this great idea we had years ago happen. You can proudly claim that Holistis is a Swiss-Canadian project!

Holistis already won an important prize in Paris, France, last December at LeWeb 3 and has been noticed by ITpro UK as one of top 5 companies to watch in 2008."

cool!

Flavio Quaranta writes StartupNorth:

"You might have missed it but Holistis that you mentioned on your last article and that was presented at The Lift Conference tonight, was mainly developed in New Brunswick, Canada. Holistis is a spin off of IC-Agency that was co-founded in Geneva in 2000. I moved to Canada in July 2005 in order to set up our R&D dept. and make this great idea we had years ago happen. You can proudly claim that Holistis is a Swiss-Canadian project!

Holistis already won an important prize in Paris, France, last December at LeWeb 3 and has been noticed by ITpro UK as one of top 5 companies to watch in 2008."

cool!

Sounds like a wonderfully inspiring event. Keep up the blogging and coverage Robert. Looking forward to hearing your stories when you get to Geneva.

See you at Lift!

cheers,
Thomas Purves

Michele just blogged about a great example of a idea/project we could and should be importing to Canada. What a great way to sponsor and develop targetted early-stage innovation (whether it be public broadcasting or any other industry)

http://shotfromthehip.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/...

Michele just blogged about a great example of a idea/project we could and should be importing to Canada. What a great way to sponsor and develop targetted early-stage innovation (whether it be public broadcasting or any other industry)

http://shotfromthehip.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/...

No, you are right Jevon, DD is the face of entrepreneurship in Canada ... in exactly the same way that American Idol is the face of modern music:

It's appalling cringeworthy, completely disconnected from every new venture/artist that is meaningfully important, it's "entertaining" like a car accident ... and it's exactly the first thing that springs to mind for any of millions of Canadians when you say "I am an entrepreneur".

Maybe together we could start to try and change that.

No, you are right Jevon, DD is the face of entrepreneurship in Canada ... in exactly the same way that American Idol is the face of modern music:

It's appalling cringeworthy, completely disconnected from every new venture/artist that is meaningfully important, it's "entertaining" like a car accident ... and it's exactly the first thing that springs to mind for any of millions of Canadians when you say "I am an entrepreneur".

Maybe together we could start to try and change that.

I've had my number posted on my blog for years, and while I don't have the huge traffic Scobble has, it's still funny to me how rarely anyone thinks to call.

On the occasion someone does call however, it does have a tendency to be something actually worthwhile like a request for a press interview etc.

Hooray, this is good news. Could IE8 be the first really good MS browser since IE4/5?

would be about time.

Now if someone at MS would just fix Windows Media Player...

Congrats and best of luck Stephanie!

there's the catch, it would make sense if they also win the US spectrum. Would be pointless if they don't.

In the U.K., google has claimed they aren't interested in spectrum.

Certainly there are risks that any new entrant may behave no differently than their predecessors. A competitor like Quebecor does have their own entrenched media interests to look out for as well before they get too disruptive.

Notheless, I don't think we've heard the last of who will be bidding on the spectrum. As well, a little game theory suggests any new entrant has a lot less to lose in terms cannibalizing revenues from an existing install base, and lot to gain from attempting to differentiate themselves from the entrenched incumbents.

Lastly, tacit price collusion is harder to maintain with a larger number of players than fewer which is hopeful (not that the big Canadian banks haven't generally succeeded in this amongst the 5 of them).

We didn't get anything like Google's 4 principles of open services, networks, devices etc. but what we did get, at least should be interesting.

And it represents a show of strength by the government that they are willing to step in if they don't perceive the market as behaving in the best interest of Canadians. Sometimes just the credible threat of greater regulation is as good as the real thing in terms of keeping a market operating orderly.

Anyway I am optimistically optimistic at this moment in history. The possibility space for the wireless industry in Canada just got a lot bigger. It's back to a newly opened market now to see what happens next.

My biggest fear is that a regional carrier may buy up the spectrum but under-utilize it outside of a narrow geography. Looking at Quebecor's balance sheet lately, this could be a genuine concern.