Khosla At Disrupt

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Early In: Welcome Pando Daily

Sarah Lacy: Why I Started Pando Daily

Mike Arrington, Race, And HTML5

Image via WikipediaTalking about race is not negativity any more than talking about HTML5 is positivity. It is just plain objectivity. Group dynamics is more cutting edge a thing than anything we have seen in tech so far. (My Web Diagram) And race and gender are some of the most cutting edge topics in group dynamics, gender even more so.

Race, Gender, Tech
Race, Gender, Tech (2)
Tech, Women, Diversity
Mike Arrington Is A Sexist Pig: Say PeeeeG!

But right now the controversy is race. Months back it was gender, thanks to the same character Mike Arrington.

Mike Arrington: Idiot

Is Mike Arrington a racist? He is a character, that's for sure. As for if he is a racist, that question assumes the label racist is an easy one to pin. I don't think Mike Arrington is capable of hate crimes. But that does not mean he is not a racist. Racist behavior is a spectrum. Racist thinking is a spectrum. There is a relationship between the seemingly benign racist joke and hate crimes. And race is not a matter of individual opinion any more than medical research is a matter of individual opinion. Mitch Kapor touches upon that.

In this debate Mike Arrington comes across as clueless and defensive.

Online Dating Newsflash: Race And Religion Matter
The Need For A Race Gender Coalition
Black Cop Shot Down In Harlem By White Cops: The Race Angle
Race, A Few Different Angles

And then there is this old media, new media tension in this debate, but there Mike Arrington is no holy cow. As a former blogger he has been guilty of all that he now accuses of: sensationalism, playing gotcha, etc.

Mike Arrington: Idiot

Mike Arrington: "I don't know a single black entrepreneur ... There aren't any .... Silicon Valley is a meritocracy. Success here depends solely on your brain size and how you use it."

CNN: War of words breaks out over Silicon Valley diversity debate

Mike Arrington is an absolute, total motherfucker. There is no other adjective for this guy. This guy is like, okay, noone is talking about me anymore. The AOL thing, well, people have already moved past that. I no long write for TechCrunch. So I don't have any comments to read. What do people think? That I have disappeared? I have not. Here, let me make a blatantly racist comment and get back in the news. And so it goes.



Arrington, Calm The F____ Down
Tech, Women, Diversity
Race, Gender, Tech (2)
Race, Gender, Tech

Mike Arrington: Movie Star

I have known Mike Arrington to be a heat seeking missile that constantly goes after controversies. Half the time when he hits the target he realizes he is the one who created the controversy in the first place.

His now having crossed the line to become a full fledged investor - CrunchFund - to me has felt like the most natural thing. Many VCs blog. When a blogger invests what seems to be the problem?

This guy wanted to be an entrepreneur. I'd say he did become one. TechCrunch I view as a startup. I never thought of it as a magazine. It is an online community he has created.

He is super well connected. He is insightful. It is to be seen if he can also do well to spot those hot new startups that make you a lot of money. I have a feeling he might be able to pull it off.

Arrington, Calm The F____ Down
Sonar: How Whales Roll: Mike Arrington My Sonar Friend
Mike Arrington Liked My Comment
Mike Arrington And I: Close

Arrington, Calm The F____ Down

Yesterday I saw it on TechMeme. There was a link to a blog post by Caterina Fake. I admire her enough that I might have clicked over no matter what she was talking about. This was the first time I was seeing her featured on TechMeme.

I promptly read the post, left a comment, and tweeted it out. Okay, so, Caterina Fake is starting a company. Not surprising at all. I knew she no longer played an active role at Hunch, but I did not realize that meant she had "left," and I am the least interested in the details of that. I'd rather learn about her new company, details of which have not come out yet. I'm sure they will. Over time. I am in no hurry. Like someone said, "the news will find me."

New Startup! http://t.co/ke9FDaHless than a minute ago via Tweet Button Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
paramendra

And that was that. I tweeted the blog post and the news was behind me. But no.

Gizmodo: I Call This Blackmail

Glass Half Full Phase

Image via Wikipedia

Fred Wilson: The Word Bubble: There will come a time when the environment we are in will be in the rear view mirror. And entrepreneurs should be crystal clear about that. This is a time to raise money and sock it away for a rainy day. Because it will rain. ...... deals are actually companies and most venture investments are held for five to seven years. I've likened them to marriages over the years. Don't let the lust for the deal lead to a bad marriage that you have to be in for the next decade. ...... we are in the glass is half full part of the cycle. Investors are focusing on the upside and ignoring the downside. That part of the investment cycle lasts for a while and then things change and investors focus on the downside and ignore the upside. Markets are defined by greed and fear. We are in the greed mode right now

I will have to agree. A lot of people sat on a lot of money for about two years. But money does not want to sit still. Money wants to grow. And right now it feels like the basketball that was held at the bottom of the pool was let go. It is not going to end at the surface. It will eventually. But first it will go into the air a little. We are in the air a little phase.

But this is no bubble. I don't see an imminent industry wide collapse. Going out of business also happens in the restaurant business, all the time, but that does not mean the restaurant business is going through a bubble.

Mike Arrington And I: Close

Did not realize we were this close.

Mike Arrington Liked My Comment
Mike Arrington's Big Day

Mike Arrington Liked My Comment

Image via Wikipedia

On a big blog like - say TechCrunch - it might not make news that Mike Arrington liked your comment. But this blog is small enough that liking my comment makes Mike Arrington a big fish in a small pond.

First Time Entrepreneurs Getting Screwed

Mike Arrington: "That first company I started made a lot of money for the venture capitalists – nearly $30 million – but next to nothing for the founders."

I have heard this story from someone else I know. His first company got sold for a lot of money - multiples more than Mike's - but he made only a tiny bit of money in the process. In other words, he got screwed.

Mike Arrington's Big Day

Tim Armstrong: We Got TechCrunch
Mike Arrington: Why We Sold TechCrunch To AOL, And Where We Go From Here

Image via WikipediaMike Arrington was recently in news for days for what was termed Angelgate. Now he is in news for selling TechCrunch to AOL. Arrington turned TechCrunch into the leading tech blog in the world. That is no small achievement. He has personally remained controversial. He makes it sound like that is the nature of the job. I still don't know how much TechCrunch was sold for, but it might be close to $40 million. Looks like Arrington finally, finally became a dot com millionaire. Quoting from this article below might be relevant at this point.

Inc: The Way I Work: Michael Arrington of TechCrunch: started as a hobby .... was researching Silicon Valley start-ups and decided to post his findings online ..... 9.2 million visitors a month and boasts annual revenue of about $10 million ..... 25 full-time employees ..... still spends much of his time reporting and writing. On most days, he works remotely from his home near Seattle, in a cavelike home office. From morning until night, Arrington sits in darkness in front of his computer—blasting music, working his contacts, and focusing on what he loves best: breaking big stories. ....... We break more big stories than everyone else combined in tech ...... I’d work until I passed out, and wake up eight or nine hours later, which might be 4 p.m. or 3 a.m. Then I’d work again until I passed out. That was my life for four years ...... Negotiating with companies over how news breaks is a big part of what we do. ...... I usually spend about half my day talking to sources, either on the phone or on IM. ..... There are very few people in Silicon Valley—or in tech, in general—whom I don’t know pretty well. Chasing down stories is my favorite part of my job. ....... I truly love entrepreneurs. They’re my rock stars. I’ve always been fascinated by entrepreneurs. ...... . Most of them could go out and get a perfectly reasonable job as an accountant or a lawyer. Instead, they risk everything for almost certain failure. ...... I also use Skype a lot. The video quality is great. When you go full screen, it’s like the other person is in the room. ...... I don’t want to chitchat about your family, because I don’t know you. ...... When I first started TechCrunch, I would post several times a day. ...... By the third day of writing, I got my first comment from somebody who wasn’t my mom. ...... people started subscribing to my RSS feed. Every day, that number would go up—10, 13, 100. That constant feedback is my reward. I still scan for comments on my posts. ....... an event every month ..... I wrote a blog post inviting people to a party—10 people came. I made hamburgers. We drank beer and stayed up until 4 a.m. drinking Scotch by the fire. Two weeks later, I had another party, and 20 people showed up. About 100 people came to the next one, then 200. ....... because I’m introverted—I like being alone— ....... In 2008, somebody spit on me at a conference in Germany. Before that, I had a death-threat incident—I had to hire private security 24/7 to protect me and my parents. ...... I have never been very good at managing. I want to be writing, and it’s hard to be a coach and a player at the same time. Plus, I’m moody. .... We have never had an executive meeting. Instead, we use this program called Yammer to make sure everyone at TechCrunch is on the same page. ...... After dinner, I’m usually back at the computer. That’s when I do thought and opinion pieces. I’ll spend two or three hours on one post. ..... I like working late at night. There are no interruptions. I usually listen to music when I write. I like hard music that is not happy music—Metallica, Eminem, Rage Against the Machine.

You can see the vultures now circling Mashable.

Arrington is a former lawyer. His parents were happier when he was a lawyer than when he quit lawyering and became a blogger. Blogger what? Today there are more bloggers than lawyers and software programmers in America. Blogging can make you money. Ask Arrington. It has made him a millionaire.

9.2 million visitors, wow. This blog - Netizen - gets 30,000 plus visitors monthly. Used to be worse. The best day has been 3,000 visits. On good days I will get 1500 these days. Those numbers are known to go up over time.

Daily Blog Tips: AOL Just Acquired TechCrunch
Scoble: TechCrunch to keep independent voice, Arrington says
The Huffington Post: AOL Buys TechCrunch
Scripting.com: Congrats to TechCrunch and Mike (Natural Born Blogger)
AllThingsD: AOL-TechCrunch Deal: Pros and Cons
Forbes: How AOL/Techcrunch Can Scale From Here
VentureBeat: Confirmed: AOL acquires TechCrunch, founder Arrington to stay at least 3 years
Wall Street Journal: Exactly What is TechCrunch Worth?
NYConvergence: AOL Acquires TechCrunch
Traffick: So Much for Techcrunch can we expect the most vibrant, obsessively-followed Silicon Valley blog imaginable, to neuter its culture and gradually fade into respectability?
VillageVoice: AOL TechCrunch Deal Is Done, So What Does This Mean for Everyone Else? Arrington's always been a cantankerous guy who isn't one to be kept on a short leash..... larger corporations are finally catching on to the need to Let Bloggers Be Bloggers instead of faceless drones who have to have their publish buttons babysat ..... he built influence by covering every startup that would talk to him
NYMag: Jason Calcanis Celebrates the AOL-TechCrunch Deal by Calling Arrington ‘a Trainwreck’
TechEye: AOL to buy Techcrunch - Needs it TechCrunch is a big and successful website with a loyal fanbase. AOL is trying to expand itself but has had no luck building such sites itself....AOL in the past had acquired Weblogs, the blogging company behind Engadget, and it has been those that have helped AOL compensate for steep loss of traffic.
Arpit Shah: Breaking: AOL to acquire TechCrunch
Geek With Laptop: AOL Buy TechCrunch Blog in $25 Million Purchase “You are going to get more page views out of a TechCrunch user than you would out of an average user of the Internet.” .... is third behind Engadget – another AOL blog, and Gizmodo, which is owned by Gawker Media. With ownership of two out of three, it seems AOL is putting a lot of energy into controlling the tech end of the blogosphere. ..... Arrington has said “It was time for us either to start investing a lot more money in things like technology and marketing – which probably meant raising a venture round – or to simply sell and partner with somebody who could do that,” adding “AOL has a very robust, large blog network that shows they have the software side nailed. So it solves a real problem for us from the technology side.”
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Angelgate Rolls On

Image via Wikipedia

TechCrunch: Ron Conway Drops A Nuclear Bomb On The Super Angels [Email]:The world of startups would be a better place if you spent less time complaining about deal structures, terms, vc’s, and valuations etc and the cars you drive, and just helped entrepenuers build their companies..... These startups are binary …they succeed or fail so why waste time on deal structures, terms, vc’s, and valuations etc and just help entrepenuers build their companies..... I am tired of seeing you and engaging in idle chit chat and not sharing my true feelings. ..... .where no one was there to speak up for the interests of the entrepenuers.

Mike Arrington's mischievous post on super angels apparently has been gathering momentum. The first few VCs to speak up said Arrington was merely selling newspapers. Ron Conway, on the other hand, is blowing wind Arrington's way. Stop colluding, he says. This might just be a warm-fuzz thrown Arrington's way since the dude has been profuse in his past praises of Conway, deserved for the most part. Or perhaps the conversation is not over. More people will chime in over the next few days.

My take home word from Conway's email: binary.

Super Angels, The Churning VC Game, And Catch Up Tech

In The News

Bloomberg: ARM Rises as Oracle’s Ellison Says Company May Buy a Chipmaker:Ellison, 66, said at Oracle’s annual meeting in San Francisco yesterday that “you’re going to see us buying chip companies” to add to its resources in computer hardware.

TechCrunch: “WiFi On Steroids” Is A Go. Now Google (Or Someone) Just Has To Build It. Please Do. Fast.:the FCC’s 700Mhz spectrum auction .... “white space” ..... White space is the name given to the vacant airwaves between television channels, airwaves which are increasingly open as people move to cable and other methods of getting television. These airwaves have the potential to carry wireless data at speeds and distances that would make today’s WiFi seem antiquated. That’s why the white space has earned the nickname “WiFi 2.0″ or “WiFi on steroids”. ...... gives technology companies a way to innovate outside of the realm of wireless carriers or broadband providers ..... white space WiFi blankets cities and people can use WiFi phones instead of the the ones tied to carriers.

Google Public Policy Blog: FCC vote on white spaces lays promising foundation for “Wi-Fi on steroids”: y sets the stage for the next generation of wireless technologies to emerge .... will put better and faster wireless broadband connections in the hands of the public. ...... the beginning, and not the end, of crafting forward-looking spectrum policy
Nature: Relativity comes down to Earth: time speeds up if you climb just one rung up a ladder, and slows down if you travel at just 36 kilometres per hour

Time: Feeling Alone Together: How Loneliness Spreads: For some people, feelings of isolation are sharpest during times that are in fact defined by togetherness — celebrations or the holidays .... or perhaps especially in a crowd — it's possible to feel unbearably alone...... happiness, obesity and quitting smoking — can propagate like a wave throughout a network of people..... The effect was strongest among those in close relationships ..... one lonely person could influence whether his friend's friend's friend felt lonely. ..... it really is a fundamental human motivational state very much like hunger, thirst or pain." ..... loneliness is more like an indicator of the social health of our species on the whole — a temperature reading, if you will, of how well- or not so well-integrated we are as a population....... we are, by nature, a social species; we feed off our interactions with one another and thrive when we are inspired, challenged and supported by one another ....... passed on through feelings of mistrust and negativity..... lonely individuals think negatively about other people People may be spreading their negative feelings simply by frowning or making other unpleasant facial expressions, making hurtful remarks or even adopting uninviting body postures. . ... Over time, lonely people find themselves banished to the periphery of their social networks ...... It's not necessarily the number of connections people have that matters but the quality of them. Communities that encourage regular interaction among its members

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Super Angels, The Churning VC Game, And Catch Up Tech

Image via WikipediaThere's web services - aka dot coms - and then there's clean tech, bio tech, nano. Dot coms have become much less pricey. Anyone can rent server space with Amazon. Pretty much anyone can write code.

"You can learn the basics of Ruby in two days," a techie told me a few days back. "And it is all on Google, all the material is free."

Clean tech, bio tech and nano are still capital intensive.

But the biggest returns are in what I am going to call catch up tech. This is the world of microfinance and global infrastructure projects. An annual 10% return is the floor when it comes to these opportunities. If the wise guys - and they were guys - on Wall Street had known to pump excess capital a few years back into catch up tech rather than housing, we might have skipped the pain of the past few years. You pump up housing value, and you sell mortgage based securities to each other. That was like setting the house on fire starting from the basement.

Mike Arrington, TechCrunch: So A Blogger Walks Into A Bar…
Master Of 500 Hats: Fire in The Valley, Fire in My Belly... and Yes, Mike, I Have Stopped Beating My Wife.
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Silicon Alley Insider: Hooray For Mike Arrington

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An Apologetic Mike Arrington

Image via Wikipedia

TechCrunch: Mike Arrington: Blogging And Mass Psychomanipulation: how perfect blogging is, with its constant feedback loop, as a training ground for mass psychology and manipulation ..... any blogger worth her salt could start, say, an extremely successful militant religious cult ...... Any blogger will tell you how frustrating the early days are. Getting someone, anyone, to link to you. Your first comment! etc. ..... If there is something nasty that can be said, someone will say it. Over and over ..... Bloggers have a direct line to the collective mind. .... I imagine priests and rabbis and career politicians have much the same experience. Speaking publicly so frequently they learn exactly how to manipulate the audience, or the camera, to get the reaction they want. It doesn’t work on every individual, but the masses as a group are easy to manipulate. and your audience tends to self reinforce over time, meaning the people who buy what you’re selling tend to come back for more, and others wander away.

Mike Arrington wrote this defensive blog post because he is not all too happy with the reaction his earlier post on women in tech seems to have gotten. I was one of those who did not take kindly to what Arrington had written. (Mike Arrington Is A Sexist Pig: Say PeeeeG!)

Kudos to Mike for at least bringing up the topic. Most men treat gender as a taboo topic. You just don't talk about gender. Most men have at ready knee jerk reactions. He obviously has had the courage to stick his neck out.

But that still does not take away from the fact that he sounded like he was defending the status quo in tech. The status quo marginalizes women. It is indefensible. And Mike Arrington does not have a clue.

To say there is a problem would be a good starting point. And Arrington is not there. This is not about blaming men. This is about identifying a malaise and then thinking up solutions as to how we can make things better. The world of tech has to be turned into true meritocracies.
Someone like Mike Arrington who has a big megaphone has the option to play a constructive role.

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Aliza Sherman Takes Mike Arrington To Task

When a blogger links to one of my blog posts, I get a Google Alert in my inbox. This morning I have an alert for Aliza Sherman.

Aliza Sherman: Too Few Women In Tech? We Aren't Blaming Men: I helped pioneer the Web for women back in the early to mid-90s and founded the first woman-owned Internet company - Cybergrrl, Inc. - and the first organization to help women gain a foothold in the budding Internet and new media industries - Webgrrls International...... I'm a doer. I'm an instigator. I'm an innovator. I'm a leader. I create things, build things, write things. Make things happen...... we are STILL having the EXACT SAME CONVERSATIONS today as we were in 1995 ....... . In 2005, I was selected by NEWSWEEK Magazine as one of the Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet ..... it is still so damn hard for women to get bank loans and venture capital ..... unless you are male and can then be considered a "gray hair" which is actually a great position to be in because regardless of your credentials, your gray hair demonstrates wisdom and seasoning. For women, gray hair signifies old, haggard, sloppy, too lazy to dye your hair, too feminazi to care about hair dye, you name it ....... Male venture capitalists tend to fund male-helmed companies. I've been told by many VC's that they funded a young man because "he reminded me of me when I was his age." ....... " "women own 50% or more of some 10.4 million businesses, about 41% of all privately held companies in the U.S." but only 3% to 5% of those companies receive venture capital funding" ....... You are part of the problem, Michael Arrington ... Not many of you have taken positive actions to make positive changes in the system to create more opportunity for ANYONE who is not white and male. ..... You just don't know how to find them, how to approach them, and how to remove the barriers for their entry even once they receive an invitation from you. You have NO IDEA..... Women get such a paltry number of venture dollars, it isn't even criminal, it is insane how little venture capital we get. And the media is dying to write about women? Open any business magazine, any tech magazine, and count the number of stories about women versus men. ....... You are right, Michael Arrington. You cannot speak intelligently on this matter. But you can help those of us who can and those of us who have ideas or projects that can change the fundamental landscape ....... Oh and while you’re at it please work on race, age, and other biases in TechCrunch and your other enterprises

When Mike Arrington says stop blaming men, this guy is assuming he speaks for men. Worse, he is assuming he is the leader of men. I am a man. Mike Arrington does not speak for me. He is not my leader. He most certainly does not speak for me on gender issues. This guy is out and out a sexist.

Complaining about sexism is not whining. I actually feel not enough women complain enough. Because if they did, things would be better for the next generation of women.

Some define positivity as not bringing up sexism as a topic of conversation. Be thankful for what you already have. Why bother bringing about knee jerk defensive reactions among men? Let things be. Focus on the good things. Smell the roses.

If he wants to help make progress on gender, the first thing Mike Arrington needs to do is stop acting defensive.

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Facebook IPO Promise And The Brain Gain That Brings

You can always expect Mike Arrington to write a snarky little blog post like this one.

TechCrunch: Google Making Extraordinary Counteroffers To Stop Flow Of Employees To Facebook: Out of control growth in users and revenue and a nearly certain IPO run in the near future. That’s when employee growth expands at the greatest rate for a company as it grows from hundreds to thousands and then tens of thousands of employees..... Facebook is quietly telling people, never in writing, that there’s no reason their stock won’t hit $100 billion in total valuation over the next couple of years. No guarantees, yadda yadda, but hey if you get 1/10 of 1%, that’s $100 million in stock. Now it’s a party

I think Facebook is waiting for the recession to truly be over before it goes for an IPO. Otherwise it is ready. It has been ready for an IPO for a while.

The IPO gold rush can be heady stuff. There is at least one obvious, big billionaire waiting in the wings, one they made a movie about. But Facebook is big enough that there will be a whole new crowd of super rich people.

And to think I once proposed a rapid fire Twitter IPO to end the recession. (Twitter Should Go For A Netscape-Like IPO)

Facebook Doing Location Is Like Google Doing Social, Almost

TechCrunch

Google Making Extraordinary Counteroffers To Stop Flow Of Employees To Facebook
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Apple Announces The New iPod Touch: Dual Cameras, Retina Screen

Mike Arrington Is A Sexist Pig: Say PeeeeG!

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe father of Quantum Mechanics Max Planck said once, people don't change their ideas, they die with them. When I think of Mike Arrington of TechCrunch and gender relations, I get reminded of that Max Planck quote. This guy will never "get" it. That's the impression I get. Like Hillary says in her autobiography, how her father was still homophobic all the way to his deathbed. Gays are just wrong. I feel sorry for Mike Arrington. This guy is missing the forest, he is missing the trees. Those who manage to cross over get to experience the richness that women bring to work and to organizations and to excellence that the sexist pigs miss out on. It is like they are color blind or something. They just can't see. It is almost biological. It is as if Mike Arrington was born with a tail and there is no surgery for it.

When Mike Arrington humiliated the female CEO of Yahoo on a public stage in New York City a few months back, I literally cringed. Sexism is the only word that describes the experience. The Yahoo CEO is older, much more accomplished, she is a role model to women. There are so few women CEOs out there that you become a role model whether or not you want to, and Carol Bartz strikes me as someone who really does not want to. But what you gonna do? You are a woman. So put on the pin. You are a role model now.

Months before that Mike Arrington hounded Anu Shukla who has been a trailblazer. Some of her cutting edge company's work is equivalent to the ongoing click fraud with Google's AdWords, but that does not change the fact that Google's money minting machine is a revolutionary product. (Anu Shukla Has Found The New Frontier In Advertising)

Mike Arrington is dripping with sexism.

And I actually like the fact that the guy is the founder of the top tech blog in the world. That tells me the only reason at least half of the excellent work done out there has not been done by women is sexism. I dig it that this dude's product is so very visible. On a non sexist planet, the founder of TechCrunch would have been some Maya Arrington.

Sexism is like communism, it is like Islamofascism, it is an ideology, it is a worldview. And Mike Arrington is dripping with it.

Tech, Women, Diversity
Mike Arrington: Too Few Women In Tech? Stop Blaming The Men.
Fred Wilson: Women In Tech and Women Entrepreneurs Discussion

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• Women In Tech and Women Entrepreneurs Discussion (avc.com)

A Soft Spot For Mike Arrington

I have a soft spot for Mike Arrington. I think it is because we put down the same first four letters when naming our blogs: tech. Michael seems to think technology is a four letter word.

http://techcrunch.com
http://technbiz.blogspot.com

Kevin Rose once said on TV that Mike Arrington was a "d____." Sometimes he is, but I would not make such a blanket statement. At the end of the day he is a great guy with a great blog.

Location! Location! Location!
Anu Shukla Has Found The New Frontier In Advertising
I Just Became Friends With Anu Shukla

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Andreessen, Conway, Hornik

Farmville Farmer's Market: My Idea

A few days back the image above started showing up when I loaded Farmville for me. And I am like, yes! I suggested this directly to Mark Pincus. He said he liked the idea, but that was a while back. Looks like finally he has gotten around to doing it.

I came to Farmville late. I have not been much of a gamer. But Farmville was talked about so much in the blogosphere. And the TechCrunch dude Mike Arrington had just given the game quite a beating. Some of my friends were on the game. What had most got me interested was there were reports Farmville was using the Facebook platform to beat Facebook itself in the monetization game. That piqued my interest. It also helped that I grew up in a farming family. Have you watched the milking of the cow/buffalo - by hand - the milk that you drank an hour later? I have.

So I got onto the game and was hooked. So hooked I went on to become the richest farmer in my neighborhood, bought a million dollar villa, and so on.

My Facebook Photo Album: Farmville

Note, Anu Shukla is one of my neighbors. She just might be my very best neighbor. And, by now, she has the most beautiful farm in my entire neighborhood. She has really taken to farming these past few weeks. There is something to be said of people who sell their companies for hundreds of millions of dollars. When they take to farming, they really take to farming.

Anu Shukla Has Found The New Frontier In Advertising
I Just Became Friends With Anu Shukla

I have said several times in Fred Wilson's comments sections, (Fred Wilson's Insight) and I will say it again, Farmville is the media savior, it is not the iPad. Look at the Farmville business model, 99% of the users do not pay anything, and Mark Pincus is not up in arms about it. In fact, Farmville has been teaching Facebook how to make money. Trying to walk away from the browser is not a good idea. Trying to create artificial scarcities and artificially high prices is not a good idea.

And, while you are at it, call the firefighter.



This is from Social Media Week in early February. (Social Media Week: The Best NY Tech MeetUp Ever)