The impending Age Of Abundance was prophecied in the scriptures thousands of years ago.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Republic Wireless, Galaxy Nexus And Tardiness
I have a laptop I bought a few months back for 330 dollars after the rebate. I think I want a $79 Kindle to borrow books from the New York Public Library. And I think I have decided on Republic Wireless to be my first smartphone. And that is it. That will be enough gadgets. I am a Dell, Walmart kind of guy.
They said they will be out. But then you go to their website and they say sorry, get in line, we will email you when we have more. So no soup for you this year.
No Republic Wireless phone in sight. $19 a month is cheaper than even the prepaid basic phones. For me it is the wifi part that gets me. A smartphone is a small computer. It needs to be running on wifi. What I would have really liked is a Galaxy Nexus on the Republic Wireless network. But if it is between the phone and the network I am going for the network. Only the line is so long. Take that iPhone.
Why don't they just manufacture more phones? I mean, if they are making money when they sell phones. Why not just make more of them and make more money?
Galaxy Nexus Has Competition
They said they will be out. But then you go to their website and they say sorry, get in line, we will email you when we have more. So no soup for you this year.
No Republic Wireless phone in sight. $19 a month is cheaper than even the prepaid basic phones. For me it is the wifi part that gets me. A smartphone is a small computer. It needs to be running on wifi. What I would have really liked is a Galaxy Nexus on the Republic Wireless network. But if it is between the phone and the network I am going for the network. Only the line is so long. Take that iPhone.
Why don't they just manufacture more phones? I mean, if they are making money when they sell phones. Why not just make more of them and make more money?
Galaxy Nexus Has Competition
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Paperless Post Iterations
Image via WikipediaEvite Cries Y(h)elp! Copies Paperless Post Pixel By PixelOnly now is Paperless Post thinking in terms of the freemium model, and I believe they have been profitable for a year now. That is curious. Most others start with the freemium model. They build the user base, and monetize later.
With Paperless post you get to send out invitations to important events in your life. The paper is gone, but the beauty is preserved, perhaps even enhanced.
And it is not just about digital. It is not just that you used to send paper versions, and now you send digital versions. The digital medium allows for the collection of data as to how the invitation card travels around as people open up the cards, RSVP and so on. That feedback loop was not possible with the paper incarnations of the cards.
Other than sending more and more beautiful cards to more and more people for more and more events what are some of the directions Paperless Post could go on to?
One obvious thing that emerges is that special social graph of people you invite to the special events in your life, people who show up for those special moments. Culling that social graph could lead Paperless Post into unforeseen directions. Amazon started out selling books. The Amazon Web Services was built for internal use, and now is a major Amazon offering.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Evite Cries Y(h)elp! Copies Paperless Post Pixel By Pixel
Mike Arrington still has that thing that made him build the top tech blog in the world. Now no longer with TechCrunch, look at what this dude has dug out!
Mike Arrington: Uncrunched: Embattled Evite Clones Startup Paperless Post In Quest For Survival: For the last few years, though, a small startup called Paperless Post has emerged that lets people create beautiful event invitations online. Paperless Post isn’t free. In fact, that seems to be part of the attraction....... There’s been very little tech press about Paperless Post ...... The company has sent some 50 million invitations, has raised $6.3 million in funding and is break even with 35 employees in New York and San Francisco. Marissa Mayer uses Paperless Post for her events. Metropolitan Museum of Art, The White House executive branch, The National Gallery and even The Prince of Wales have all used the premium invitation service. ...... It’s a fascinating case study against the notion that people will always choose free over for pay online services. ..... an outright rip off of Paperless Post’s business. Evite’s Postmark hasn’t officially launched yet, but they promote it on the evite home page and people have noticed it. ...... “Evite’s Postmark looks like someone hired a programmer and told them to copy every aspect of Paperless Post,” says the person who pointed it out to me. And that’s true. The business model is identical – charge for every invitation sent, plus optional fees for specialized designs and other customizations. The pricing is nearly identical. ...... Evite has also copied the exact look and feel of a number of the Paperless Post invitations as well. ...... I particularly like the line they use at the bottom of the Postmark website – “The comfort from knowing that Evite Postmark is as reliable, effective and innovative as Evite.” .... Innovative, indeed....... And I certainly don’t weep for Paperless Post. In fact, this is great for their business. As much as Postmark has retreated from the stain of the evite brand on its website, most people will still understand where this service came from and remember the years of horror using the evite service.What is happening to Paperless Post now has happened to FourSquare several times over, and they are stronger than ever before. Paperless Post knows this space, and Evite is just imitating. It feels like a total copy and paste. When you did that with term papers at college, you got into trouble.
In elementary school the guy sitting next to me in an exam copied everything I wrote down without my realizing he was doing so, including my name! That is how he got caught! Hello Mohan! You want to know how Evite got caught? Check out this video.
I agree with Mike Arrington's conclusion.
My guess is Postmark will just raise awareness of Paperless Post, and even more people will flock to the service when they want to send a premium event invitation.The day Facebook Places was launched FourSquare had its best day ever. That's there, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth. Somebody explain why! Mikie?
Evite is Plaxo, no disrespect for Sean Parker intended. This stunt will not save them. I think this episode, at the end of the day, will go down in history as someone else having launched a PR campaign on behalf of Paperless Post.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Meeting David Karp
Paramendra Bhagat@davidkarp It was good to meet you in the 1 train on the Upper West Side a few hours ago. I am glad you liked my hat. :-)
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David Karp "90% of the mail I get is positive and encouraging, and only 10% is death threats." - Jimmy Justice on... http://t.co/3wqGeNRv
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David Karp "I know Nick Gray!" - If I had a dollar… http://t.co/c2nXvsAQ
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David Karp "I don’t want to hang out with other programmers. I want to hang out with Jay Z. I want people to be..." http://t.co/kDSBRhax
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David Karp: Tumblr Or Hipstr
Tumblr: Ease Of Use?
The Music Tag On Tumblr
Meeting Kevin Slavin: Tumblr's Brilliance
My Tumblr Just Got An Upgrade
So Proud Of My New Tumblr Theme
Tumblr Explore
Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn
Why Raissa Nebie Loves Tumblr
My Tumblr Style
Tumblr Down, Tumblr Up
How To Monetize Tumblr?
Tumblr: Casey, Nina, David, Fred
I was wearing my hat which is not the fanciest hat around.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Did Zynga Go IPO?
@davetischDavid Tisch Wonder what's under @fredwilson jacket... #raisecachehttp://t.co/amMUwweN
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davetischDavid Tisch
@paramendraParamendra Bhagat@davetisch I've never seen @fredwilson so razmatazz, in person or in picture. Did Zynga go IPO? $$$$$ http://t.co/prk9WD2q
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The Wilsons Were In Cairo Recently
Breakfast With Albert (Wenger)
Friday, November 18, 2011
Relationships
Image via WikipediaRecently I read this article. I think it could inspire conversations. The Atlantic: All The Single Ladies
Some observations I made:
(1) Having a job and paying her own bills is still such a big deal for this woman. This is 2011. You'd think having a job by now would be something to take for granted for women.
(2) There is no one right lifestyle. True. But a lot of people end up with default lifestyles rather than the one they would actively pick for themselves. If you are to stay single, make sure it is an active, conscious choice.
My favorite part of the article was this one:
In her new book, Unhitched, Judith Stacey, a sociologist at NYU, surveys a variety of unconventional arrangements, from gay parenthood to polygamy to—in a mesmerizing case study—the Mosuo people of southwest China, who eschew marriage and visit their lovers only under cover of night. “The sooner and better our society comes to terms with the inescapable variety of intimacy and kinship in the modern world, the fewer unhappy families it will generate,” she writes.This is exotic, don't you think?
The matrilineal Mosuo are worth pausing on, as a reminder of how complex family systems can be, and how rigid ours are—and also as an example of women’s innate libidinousness, which is routinely squelched by patriarchal systems, as Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá point out in their own analysis of the Mosuo in their 2010 book, Sex at Dawn. For centuries, the Mosuo have lived in households that revolve around the women: the mothers preside over their children and grandchildren, and brothers take paternal responsibility for their sisters’ offspring.
Sexual relations are kept separate from family. At night, a Mosuo woman invites her lover to visit her babahuago (flower room); the assignation is called sese (walking). If she’d prefer he not sleep over, he’ll retire to an outer building (never home to his sisters). She can take another lover that night, or a different one the next, or sleep every single night with the same man for the rest of her life—there are no expectations or rules. As Cai Hua, a Chinese anthropologist, explains, these relationships, which are known as açia, are founded on each individual’s autonomy, and last only as long as each person is in the other’s company. Every goodbye is taken to be the end of the açia relationship, even if it resumes the following night. “There is no concept of açia that applies to the future,” Hua says.
The Censorship Bill Is About The Nation State
Image via WikipediaIn a few swift decades, faster than most realize, the Internet is going to be literally the first country most people on the planet belong to. The Internet is beginning to challenge nothing less than the very concept of the nation state itself. And that is what the censorship bill on Capitol Hill is primarily about. Look how both parties are in agreement! And this goes way beyond old media companies buying out politicians. No. This is the politicians themselves feeling threatened. They can feel the ground shift, and it is not China knocking on the doors. There are those who play this countdown game of where China has become the number one country. Does that happen in this decade? Two decades from now? Or in 2050? The entire paradigm of that debate is foolish. In 2050 there will be no China, not the China we know today.
The political class feels threatened. Because they are wed to the nation state. A future where the nation state framework recedes to the background makes them feel irrelevant. And they would like to fight back to keep the status quo for as long as they can. They know they are fighting a losing fight. They are fighting a tsunami with a spoon. But they will not be the first batch of people in history to take a last stand.
Old America is Britain. The pioneers of the Internet are like America's Founding Fathers. The battles can not be avoided. I am glad it will be a war of words.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Amit Gupta Favorited My Tweet
Paramendra Bhagat Sent this out to 600 plus Nepalis in NYC, 9,000 Nepais globally http://t.co/MFV2RrGO@nickgray@superamit@tonybgoode#4amit
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The Global Outpouring For Amit Gupta: This Is Touching
Super Amit, Super Swabbed
Mike Bloomberg, Amit Gupta
The Global Outpouring For Amit Gupta: This Is Touching
@TrendsBangaloreTrendsmap Bangalore#4amit is now trending in #Bangalorehttp://t.co/DpMCGlFD
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@paramendraParamendra Bhagat Sent this out to 600 plus Nepali email addresses: http://t.co/MFV2RrGO@nickgray@superamit@tonybgoode#4amit
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412 Broadway, Floor 2
New York, 10013-3594
Friday, November 18, 2011 at 6:00 PM (ET)
Super Amit, Super Swabbed
Mike Bloomberg, Amit Gupta
@paramendraParamendra Bhagat Sent this out to 600 plus Nepalis in NYC, 9,000 Nepais globally http://t.co/MFV2RrGO@nickgray@superamit@tonybgoode#4amit
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@paramendraParamendra Bhagat@tonybgoode@nickgray Saw stacks of @superamit flyers at a grocery store in Jackson Heights. 11/5 event, Flushing, Ganesh Temple #grassroots
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