Immigration Mess/Humiliation And Window Shopped Tech Entrepreneurship

Image via WikipediaOnly a few months back I got out of my immigration mess/humiliation. The immigration laws in this country are insane. They are racist. They make no logical, economic sense. They make no globalization sense. They make no internet sense. They make no 21st century sense.

I am not even fully out of it yet. But now I got a little bit of a legroom in these United fucking States. This fucking country. Thank God for the internet, or there would be no breathing room.

For a few years now I have gone from tech event to tech event like some guy whose startup never really took off. It has been humiliating to say the least. I know that is not who I am. I am as good as they come.

Normal People Easy To Get Along With

Image via Wikipedia

Fred Wilson: Difficult Is Good: He then said, "sometimes we make money with brilliant people who are easy to get along with, most often we make money with brilliant people who are hard to get along with, but we rarely make money with normal people who are easy to get along with."

I am so not a VC. I am on the other side. Fred Wilson's best MBA Monday post - according to me - is one where he got an entrepreneur - Charlie - to relate his story.

This quote from Dan Valentine makes total sense to me. And I understand it 100%.

The best entrepreneurs tackle the biggest problems. Those problems are, by definition, badass. Others have not touched them because they are big and bad. But we operate in paradigms. You already know what a McDonald's burger looks like. That is a paradigm. That gives you peace of mind. You know.

Person Of The Social Media Week: Oleg Voss

I attended my final event of the Social Media Week yesterday at Edelman, a Zagat event, and there I spotted the Person Of The Week, food truck owner Oleg Voss.

February 15: EatUp?

Image via WikipediaJanuary 15 was the first ever World FoodSpotting Day, and I made a point to go over to Philadelphia to celebrate. It was an amazing experience. I later tweeted saying I had never had so much fun eating with perfect strangers before.

But once a year is not enough. The 15th of each month needs to be an EatUp day.

My First Smartphone Is Going To Be A Nexus S

Image via WikipediaIf Google ships me a Chrome Notebook for free, as is likely, I am going to buy me a Nexus S phone. I am a Google fanboy. I adore Steve Jobs, he is a living legend. But I have never bought an Apple product. I would like to stay with the masses. I am more of a Dell, Walmart, dollar pizza kind of guy.

Nexus S: The Best Phone Out There
Nexus S Is Da Bomb
The iPhone, Nexus One, Or Droid?

I am going to think I paid for the laptop - I do need a new laptop, I have needed one for months now, this machine has been feeling slow, it's a Toshiba Satellite from years ago - and I got the phone for free. I have to think that way because in the order of things the laptop is the one I can not do without, absolutely not.

The Chrome Notebook Needs No Anti Virus B.S.

Image via CrunchBaseChrome Notebook Pilot User?

There's nothing to infect. What are you going to infect? There is no desktop. It is like every time you start your machine, you are loading the operating system afresh.

That is such relief. The anti virus business has always felt like a scam to me. I have always felt like that annual 45 bucks ought to go to Microsoft instead and Windows ought to be free.

I told them. They did not listen. And now the Chrome OS is going to kill Windows.

Chrome Notebook Pilot User?

This morning I logged into my Gmail account and my first reaction was, oh no, my Gmail account got hacked. My inbox was flooded with emails from just one address. Looked like someone had taken over.

eRockit: Super Bike

Validation From Fred Wilson: Froth

Image via WikipediaWatch the first video here. Fred has come around to using my word: froth.

But then I have also inched a little in Fred's direction. I recently used the phrase mini bubble burst.

I think we are both still blind men trying to figure out the elephant. But at least we are trying to figure out. Most others are simply making wild jumps.

Some real wealth creation is taking place. But every new emerging sector will necessarily be accompanied by froth. That is the nature of the beast.

There will be a slew of sob stories in a few years but I don't see any imminent collapse. We are in the first year of a boom decade.

Related articles

• Wait, Did They Say Froth? (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Bubble Talk Goes On: It's An Overshoot (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Did Not Meet Fred Wilson, But Met Mazy Dar (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Fred, How About Some Money? (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Bubble, Boom Or Froth (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Froth or famine? (businessinsider.com)
• As For Quora: Blogging Still Rules (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Event At Hunch: Gender Talk (4) (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Union Square Ventures: A Real Choice (technbiz.blogspot.com)

Fred Wilson, Soraya Darabi: Both Crazy About Music

Image via CrunchBaseFred Wilson
Soraya Darabi

Fred Wilson is the most talked about VC at this blog, and Soraya Darabi is probably the most talked about tech entrepreneur at this blog. It just happened to be that way.

Both are crazy about music.

Both are avid New Yorkers. You have to be one to know one.

Arab Focus, Microfinance Focus

Image via WikipediaWhat is happening in Egypt gives me immense hope. It feels like the Arab world is about to have its Berlin moment. If the misguided people in DC don't mess up, we will see Arab dictator after Arab dictator wiped out.

Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

Mubarak's fall is not about Egypt, it is about the Arab world at large. Gaddafi has to go. The Saudi king has to go. The king in Jordan has to go. The dictator president of Syria has to go. I don't even know the names of all sorts of small league motherfuckers who rule the smaller countries in the region like those countries were family property. All of them have to go. Just leave.

I am needed. I have done this before, though the scale of what is happening now is much larger than what I did in 2006. I have decided to slow down a little in terms of the running commentaries on all things tech I am used to delivering at this blog. I am going to pour more time into my other blog, Barackface. That's my politics blog.