Disqus - Latest Comments for Jon Gales

Re: News Corp scores $900M from Google, a coup

Jon Gales — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 07:08:48 -0000

'It depends on whether MySpace users decide to use the search bar to buy things. Our hunch is they probably are only searching for friends, because that's all we've used the MySpace search for.'

I'm sure the Google execs took a look at the current search volume and ad clicks... Currently it's powered by Overture. This is a minimum revenue guarantee too, so it's likely the real amount will be more (especially if MySpace keeps up some growth). Murdoch is looking really smart right now. Making all his money back in a few years.

Re: Venture capital roundup: The MySpace “touch”, True Ventures and Maven’s web woes

Jon Gales — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:36:49 -0000

I think the MySpace Co-Founder label is coming from Greenspan--it showed up in a Red Herring article. They actually went one step further and called him Founder. Not even sharing the glory with the people who actually founded it... I complained to the author but the story has not been corrected.

http://www.redherring.com/article.aspx?a=18120

Here's what I emailed Scott Martin about his story:

Where did you get the idea that Brad Greenspan founded MySpace? He may
be the self-described founder, but that doesn't make it true.

MySpace was founded by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe. They met while
working at XDrive and left to form their own company called
ResponseBase. They did email list brokering (spam in business
language). Brad Greenspun was heading up eUniverse (that company was
later renamed Intermix Media, which is what News Corp. bought), a
company that did online advertising in the form of spyware. He bought
ResponseBase to invest in Anderson and DeWolfe but was out of the
picture in an ugly downfall less than a year later. Even after all the
fighting he came out of the Intermix buyout with a cool $47 million,
reportedly more than Tom and Chris.

Greenspan's involvement was an investment, that allowed Anderson and
DeWolfe to work on the site. Yu don't call the investor who provided
seed capital the founder. You call the founders founders. Otherwise
you end up with the crazy idea that YouTube was founded by Sequoia
Capital, Google founded by Stanford, etc.

Re: http://laughingsquid.com/kyocera-kr1-mobile-ev-do-router/

Jon Gales — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 02:21:34 -0000

If you want to save a few bucks on hardware, you can share your EV-DO internet connection through a laptop (have it create the WiFi network for other devices to connect to). I've done it several times with my PowerBook when more than one computer needed online and EV-DO was the only connection available.

Re: Wireless, Security, and Liability

Jon Gales — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 19:16:12 -0000

MikeT, the way the US legal system works the burden of proof is on the accuser. It's up to me to prove that it was you. If anyone within a 250ft radius of an area could have done something and you have no more information, you simply can't go after whoever owns the property at the center of the circle.

Re: Journalistic Integrity

Jon Gales — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 03:37:24 -0000

It happens! With patent stuff though, it's not exactly a huge scoop. Just whoever ends up reading a given filing first. I have you in the RSS queue first, so that's why you got my link back.

The real interesting part is that Motorola is serious about electric shock technology. Sounded like an April fools joke.

Re: Tattooed RAZRs

Jon Gales — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:03:19 -0000

Every time a new RAZR scheme comes out I am reminded of when everyone was all about faceplates. Back in the day you bought a Nokia and then could have thousands of different faceplates and even change them fairly easily when your tastes changed. We've moved years into the future and now you have to buy a whole new phone to get a new style. Progress!

Re: Crime Found Me

Jon Gales — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 22:39:46 -0000

So sorry to hear about this Brad. I regularly (every couple of days) mirror my whole system to a backup drive, but this got me thinking... I'm safe in case of fire (it's in a fireproof box) but getting robbed is more likely than a devastating fire in a modern building. I have insurance, but as I'm sure you're aware that doesn't help me get my data back (which is what's truly valuable). I just ordered another backup drive and will switch the drives out in an offsite secure location, probably a safety deposit box.

The bright side is you now can't feel guilty about getting a bunch of new gadgets.

Re: Gadgets That Self-Destruct: "Active Disassembly"

Jon Gales — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:58:15 -0000

This is a reallllly old case study from Nokia. Check the bottom:

'The study report is published in the proceedings of International Electronics Recycling Congress, January 9-11, 2002, Davos, Switzerland.'

Since nothing has happened in the 4.5 years since, this technology is going no where fast.