July 1 Digital Dumbo: Do Not Miss

I discovered Digital Dumbo a few months back after signing up for Charlie (@ceonyc) O'Donnell's events mailing list, the best thing Charlie ever did.

I have hinted at it before, but today I am going to spell it out. Digital Dumbo is the best tech party in town. There, I said it. And Dumbo is the only locale of its kind in town. New York City is too big, there is too much happening, there are too many big, established industries - there is finance, there is media, there is Queens ... okay, so Queens is not an industry, Africa is not a country - for all of this city to turn into some kind of a tech haven. But Dumbo has carved it out. Dumbo is tech Mecca. And it is an amazing location. You see the bridge, the belly of the bridge nonetheless, the water, and you see Manhattan. That is too many good things at once. It feels urban, it feels tech. Dumbo is the go to place in town if you are a techie or someone obsessed with tech.

I was a little blase about Internet Week, I figured I got a little too excited about Social Media Week back in February, so I would take this one a little easy. But I might have missed out. And the July 1 Digital Dumbo might let me do some catching up. The July 1 Digital Dumbo is presenting itself as the wrap up party for Internet Week. That right there tells most of the movers and shakers of Internet Week are camped out in Dumbo.

Digital DUMBO #17 IWNY Wrap Up
Thursday, July 01, 2010 from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM (ET)
Galapagos Art Space
16 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Did you miss out on Internet Week NY? Or maybe you had so much fun networking and crashing parties that you want to re-live it all over again?

Join us for a summary & wrap party Digital DUMBO style where we will showcase some of the work done for the event by Dumbo's finest. We're heading back to Galapagos and we hope to see you there to toast to another Internet Week NY event gone by!

LiveStream: Internet Week NY

Yes, I did miss out. I was able to go to only four events during Internet Week, and I missed the biggest one: IgniteNYC, after having given word to the chief organizer, emcee person Tikva Morawati only the evening before that I will be there. Ugh. (Ignite, Set It On Fire) Something came up that had me tied.

Social Media Week: The Best NY Tech MeetUp Ever

But I have not missed out on the World Cup, and I am going to show up wearing a shirt that screams ARGENTINA! So help me God. (Walking On The Moon)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Digital Dumbo: Here I Come (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Dumbo Gentrification Spawns a Single: A musician priced out of Dumbo... (ny.curbed.com)
• Linkage: The Value of a View in Dumbo; Weird Egyptian Apartment Sells (ny.curbed.com)
• Dumbo Park Behind Bars: Some Dumbo residents are angry about... (ny.curbed.com)
• The FourSquare Appeal For Me (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Operation Dumbo Drop Kick [Snap Judgment] (jezebel.com)
• The Dumbo Loft Digital Dumbo (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• MTA Finally Accepts Dumbo: Our little Dumbo has made it... (ny.curbed.com)
• Dumbo's P.S. Bookshop moves to a bigger location (timeoutny.com)
• Indaba Music: NY Tech Talks MeetUp (technbiz.blogspot.com)

Walking On The Moon

Image via Wikipedia

Germany has been a soccer superpower just like Brazil and Argentina. I have been taking Germany seriously. This morning Germany made England look like it were North Korea.

France, Italy, England: three former soccer heavyweight countries are by the wayside now.

You got to watch Ozil. That dude can give one killer pass and tilt the game. Ask England.

Argentina had a field day today against Mexico. I was hoping for a 3-0 victory, but that was not to be.

I went ahead and bought myself a soccer ball afterwards, and went to a park nearby. I was able to touch the ball 38 times before it hit the ground. I guess I am in decent soccer shape.

Brazil's defense is like a castle, Argentina's like a whip.

When Messi dribbles it is like the entire field is mud. The ball is stuck until he commands it to move. And he likes to give short, quick commands.

Now Argentina meets Germany next. I am just a little nervous. I want Argentina to win, but I know the German team is in decent shape. I think it will be a close call, but Argentina will prevail. It will squeak by to meet Portugal in the semi-finals.

The scenario I am seeing is one where my two favorite teams - Brazil and Argentina - meet in the finals. It will be hard to pick the one to root for, but Diego might win me over. I might end up rooting for Argentina.

But I do want to have to make that call.

FIFA World Cup 2010

• FIFA World Cup 2010 Group B: Argentina vs Nigeria
  
• FIFA World Cup 2010 Group G : Brazil vs Korea
  
• FIFA World Cup Group B: Greece vs Argentina
  

Lionel Messi (2)
Lionel Messi
Young Folks
Walk In The Park
Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches
Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor
The Eyes Of Truth
Hey Now, Hey Now
Tomorrow
Samuel Eto'o

Related articles by Zemanta

• Argentina coach Diego Maradona says it's time for critics to apologize (usatoday.com)
• Why Lionel Messi will never be as revered as Maradona (footballfancast.com)
• Maradona To Suit Up One More Time In Match Against Mexico (Satire) (bleacherreport.com)
• Lionel Messi - the best player in the world skills and goals great video! (worldcup2010southafrica.co.cc)
• Walk In The Park (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Argentina score first goal from a very offside position (g.sports.yahoo.com)
• Argentina scores first goal from a very offside position (g.sports.yahoo.com)
• Argentina Held 0-0 by Mexico After 15 Minutes (abcnews.go.com)
• World Cup 2010: Lionel Messi's crack of the whip spells magical skill | Sean Ingle (guardian.co.uk)
• Argentina 3-1 Mexico (guardian.co.uk)
• World Cup post-game: Argentina 3, Mexico 1 (cbc.ca)
• Chicharito is the fastest player in the World Cup (g.sports.yahoo.com)
• Argentina Steals Mexico's Sombrero - Final Score, 3:1 (pamil-visions.net)
• 2010 FIFA World Cup: Illegal Argentina Goal Sinks Mexico (bleacherreport.com)

The Al Qaeda, Internet, Globalization

Image via Wikipedia

When a comment I leave at Fred Wilson's blog gets too long, to me that is indication I need to be writing a reply blog post, like just happened.

Fred Wilson: Nations And Networks

This post totally speaks to me. I think of the number 1.25 billion out of 6.7 billion people online the way Fred perhaps thinks about web services, his domain expertise. As someone who grew up in the Global South, I think of Internet Access - Internet as in broadband with full size keyboard - as the voting right for this century. This is the Internet Century.

Fred Wilson's Gift To Me

When I started reading this post, I was thinking of Brad's post (that I read when it came out) before I had finished the first sentence.

The Al Qaeda is not a state, it is not even an organization any more. The Al Qaeda embodies two big trends - the Internet and Globalization - the way not even Kiva does. Bush went after Saddam instead of Bin Laden because, well, if the medicine I have is for cough (the nation state as an enemy), I am going after cough viruses, the facts be damned, don't tell me the diagnosis is for AIDS.

Fred and I might not be the best people to talk of security issues, but there are plenty of cyber security issues. Maybe that is worth a post. For all its promises, the Internet is just the newest platform for the age old fight between good and evil.

Brad Burnham: Web Services As Governments
Scott Shane, New York Times: Wars Fought And Wars Googled

On the War On Terror, I do have very clear thoughts, unlike Fred. One, it is the same scale as the Cold War. Two, it will only conclude once all Arab countries have been turned into democracies. Three, there's the swamp part, and there is the mosquitoes part. I am not going to argue let the mosquitoes be, but I think draining the swamp is the real battle. The best way to introduce democracy to a country is the way we did it in Nepal in April 2006, through a mass movement. People who are not worried the mullahs in Iran might get pissed off if you impose sanctions talk like they are worried the mullahs might get pissed off if they give total support to the protesters in Iran. Beats me.

Iran: The World Has Wasted A Year

This tussle also reminds me of the capitalism-communism tussle, and you have to go all the way back to Lenin. When that dude did his 1917 thing, America had not seen FDR yet. FDR had to reinvent both democracy and capitalism to prepare the country for a fight with communism. A pre-FDR America could not have beat communism. Some synthesis happened.

Similarly the War On Terror will conclude through two types of transformations. One, all Arab countries end up being democracies. Two, America ends up a non-racist country. I know that is a loaded term for many people, but I am using it on purpose. A country where calling someone - Obama - a Muslim is passed on as calling him a name like happened in 2008 is still a racist country. If four Muslim young men in New Jersey were to talk violence in the privacy of their apartment, they are a cell, and will be thoroughly dealt with, but the Republican nominee competing against Harry Reid in Nevada is openly calling for violence, and I don't see law enforcement people getting excited about that. Is that a double standard or is that a double standard?

Time: Why Harry Reid's Chances Are Improving in Nevada

She has a permit to carry a concealed .44 Magnum and brags about bringing it to campaign events. But her passion also leads her to make troublesome statements: "The nation is arming," she said last month. "What are they arming for if it isn't that they are so distrustful of their government? They're afraid they'll have to fight for their liberty in more Second Amendment kinds of ways. That's why I look at this as almost an imperative. If we don't win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?"

I have lost count of how many times I have been subjected to a dirty look or an outright dirty Q&A by some law enforcement officer this past decade, and I am not even Arab. The day 9/11 happened, I was in a small town in Kentucky. The locals called the cops on ME!

Timothy McVeigh was a motherfucker before he was a terrorist. That makes you a motherfucker. That is the angle I like to come from. So much for racial profiling.



America had its 9/11, India had its 11/9. But that 11/9 would be 9/11 because in India they put the number for the month second. The Islamists' tussle is with democracy itself, and India is the biggest pot.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Panetta: Afghan war has 'serious problems,' but progress being made (cnn.com)
• Panetta explains what 'winning' looks like (washingtonmonthly.com)
• Afghan war 'hard and slow' - CIA (news.bbc.co.uk)
• CIA Had Last 'Precise Information' on bin Laden in 'Early 2000s' (blogs.abcnews.com)
• Eliminating Al Qaeda's No. 3, Again (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Number three (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Well this guy didn't catch bin Laden either... (pinkbananaworld.com)
• CIA: At most, 50-100 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan (blogs.abcnews.com)
• Al Qaeda Recruiters Target Algeria's Young Jobless (huffingtonpost.com)
• Rachel Maddow Asks Her MSNBC Audience: 'Is It OK' to Ridicule al Qaeda? (newsbusters.org)
• We Spend $1 Billion/Year Fighting Each al Qaeda Member in Afghanistan (emptywheel.firedoglake.com)
• Panetta: We have well and truly kicked the asses of Al Qaeda (hotair.com)
• Pakistan Receives F-16s That May Give Advantage Over Insurgents (businessweek.com)
• Fred Wilson on Diversification (kennykellogg.com)
• Leon Panetta: There May Be Less Than 50 Al Qaeda Fighters In Afghanistan (huffingtonpost.com)
• Nations And Networks (avc.com)
• Al Qaeda threatens to kidnap Saudi royals: TV (reuters.com)
• Wars Fought and Wars Googled (nytimes.com)
• New F-16s May Give Pakistan Advantage Over Insurgents (businessweek.com)