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Daily Crunch: Zen

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

Here are some recent stories on TechCrunch Gadgets: The Zen Table Practices Mindfulness So You Don’t Have To The Wheel: What Is The Foxconn Debate Really About? iModela Adds CNC Milling To Your Home 3D Printing Arsenal

Which Service Has The Best Welcome Message? (Hint: Pin Carefully!)

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

Two days ago, I received an invite to Pinterest. (I know, I'm late.) After signing up, I pretty much ignored the welcome message, just as I do with most services. But last night I decided to get myself caught up after the Crunchies, and started reading through all my unread emails (even the ones from Nigerian royal's relatives) and found myself actually reading through the Pinterest welcome email, too. It's wonderful, and the reason it's wonderful comes down to just one bullet point:

Pin carefully! As one of the first members of Pinterest, your pins will help set the tone for the whole community. Use big images, write thoughtful descriptions, and pin things you really love. Also, no nudity :)

Mark Zuckerberg’s 6 Ingredients For Success

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

Leadership guru Warren Bennis asked whether leaders are born or made. When asked if Wall Street would accept a young Mark Zuckerberg in his early 20s as CEO, Facebook investor Peter Thiel said: “Well, we’ll wait until he’s over 25 to file”. Wise move, considering that Mark’s title on his business cards read “I’m CEO, bitch”. This week Facebook filed its S-1 to go public. Mark is 27. How Mark managed to launch a social networking site after Friendster had crashed during MySpace’s zenith has been widely chronicled. What’s been less discussed is how Mark mastered the six requirements to succeed, namely Ambition, Vision, Determination, Execution, Luck and Timing.

Sh#t VCs Say: “Have You Ever Tried Kiteboarding?”

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

Following in the tradition of "Shit Silicon Valley Says" and other Shit ______ Says memes, August Capital's David Hornick has made "Shit VCs Say." There are some gems in here, including:

Algorithms/Data vs. Analysts/Reports: Fight!

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

Quick, what's the second most traded commodity in the world, after oil? Sorry, no: it's not coffee. In fact, while hard data is scant, it may well be -- of all things -- carbon. No, really. According to the World Bank (PDF) , the global carbon market was worth a whopping 1.42 Facebooks US$142 billion in 2010. Mind you, it's not like container ships weighed down to the gills with graphite are crossing and recrossing the Pacific every week. What we're actually talking about here is the trade in carbon offsets, ie, the absence of carbon. Very Zen, no? Anyway, techies should be comfortable with this notion; I seem to recall spending less time studying electrons than I did "holes," ie their absence, while acquiring my EE degree. Anyway, where there's a $twelve-figures market, there are startups fighting for a share. In particular, there's a bit of a war on to see who will be the primary aggregator of carbon-market data. On one side, dominating the market, I give you the Goliaths Point Carbon, a tentacle of the Thomson Reuters kraken, providing "independent news, analysis and consulting services for European and global power, gas and carbon markets," and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, doing much the same. On the other, I give you plucky little David eCO2Market, a Paris-based startup with an algorithmic sling.

Gillmor Gang 02.04.12 (TCTV)

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor — trembled in the face of Facebook's IPO and all-out war on the open Web, also known as Google. Me, I go back to Bill Gates during the DOJ deposition when he basically said we don't need no steenkin' breakup when Google will come along and be invented. @kevinmarks makes a good college (fitting) try of defending the open schmopen set, while none of us seem to notice Social Spring just keeps on rolling over conventional wisdom. Me, I'm pretty jacked up waiting for what this means for Twitter. Go Giants!

An Arab Spring For IT

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

Change in the air. It’s palpable. Those of us in the technology world are witnessing a transformation: a buyer-led revolution in how information technology is both produced and consumed. Smartphones and tablets are upsetting the PC order; social applications are impinging on traditional “workforce productivity” and communications applications.

Facebook – Run from the Bulls?

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

Much ink has been spilled these past few days on the Facebook IPO filing. Much of it analyses the details revealed in the S1 initial document. Some of it has focused on revenue and growth; some of it on control and corporate governance, some on valuation and how reasonable or not it is likely to be, and a little on whether or not the IPO represents the end of Facebook’s growth cycle. So, should you be a bull, and buy? Or should you run as fast as you can away from the bulls?

The Future of Peer Review

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

This guest post was written by Richard Price, founder and CEO of Academia.edu — an online community that revolves around researchers and their work. Instant distribution Many academics are excited about the future of instant distribution of research. Right now the time lag between finishing a paper, and the relevant worldwide research community seeing it, is between 6 months and 2 years. This is because during that time, the paper is being peer reviewed, and peer review takes an incredibly long time. 2 years is roughly how long it used to take to send a letter abroad 300 years ago.

Bang!

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:42 +0000

The Artist parades its conceit at every turn of its familiar romance. We're doing this no sound thing for you because it's good for you. Things will work out fine. The dog needs no dialogue. The music tells you what to feel. It's already half over, and besides, it's already better than the last five movies you've seen. Google Search + parades its conceit at every turn. It's free, so we can improve it any way we want. We're already reading everything you write in Gmail, so now we're blurring the metadata into one big data pool so we can better read your mind and sell the results back to marketers. It's OK because Facebook already does this. We'd add all the other networks if they would just let us have their data too. And besides, we're doing this.