timezonein: January 2011

Friday, January 28, 2011

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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

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Sleep Makes The Memory - Science News

Napping while reliving memories stabilizes people's ability to recall them later.

Asian Cup: Bad News for Japan, and Dortmund - NYTimes.com

Japan's Shinji Kagawa will miss Saturday's Asian Cup final in Qatar, and could be lost to first-place Borussia Dortmund of the German Bundesliga for the rest of the season.

Z on TV: Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings - TV show critic ...

Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings. zzz Fox News was far and away the most watched cable news network during and immediately after Tuesday night's State of the Union speech. Here are the ratings from Nielsen Media Research. ...

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Sleep Makes The Memory - Science News

Napping while reliving memories stabilizes people's ability to recall them later.

Asian Cup: Bad News for Japan, and Dortmund - NYTimes.com

Japan's Shinji Kagawa will miss Saturday's Asian Cup final in Qatar, and could be lost to first-place Borussia Dortmund of the German Bundesliga for the rest of the season.

Z on TV: Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings - TV show critic ...

ZtzfsP

Sleep Makes The Memory - Science News

Napping while reliving memories stabilizes people's ability to recall them later.

Asian Cup: Bad News for Japan, and Dortmund - NYTimes.com

Japan's Shinji Kagawa will miss Saturday's Asian Cup final in Qatar, and could be lost to first-place Borussia Dortmund of the German Bundesliga for the rest of the season.

Z on TV: Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings - TV show critic ...

IACnqz

Sleep Makes The Memory - Science News

Napping while reliving memories stabilizes people's ability to recall them later.

Asian Cup: Bad News for Japan, and Dortmund - NYTimes.com

Japan's Shinji Kagawa will miss Saturday's Asian Cup final in Qatar, and could be lost to first-place Borussia Dortmund of the German Bundesliga for the rest of the season.

Z on TV: Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings - TV show critic ...

LhKPjV

Sleep Makes The Memory - Science News

Napping while reliving memories stabilizes people's ability to recall them later.

Asian Cup: Bad News for Japan, and Dortmund - NYTimes.com

Japan's Shinji Kagawa will miss Saturday's Asian Cup final in Qatar, and could be lost to first-place Borussia Dortmund of the German Bundesliga for the rest of the season.

Z on TV: Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings - TV show critic ...

YxWfU

Sleep Makes The Memory - Science News

Napping while reliving memories stabilizes people's ability to recall them later.

Asian Cup: Bad News for Japan, and Dortmund - NYTimes.com

Japan's Shinji Kagawa will miss Saturday's Asian Cup final in Qatar, and could be lost to first-place Borussia Dortmund of the German Bundesliga for the rest of the season.

Z on TV: Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings - TV show critic ...

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BEEkNcTz

Sleep Makes The Memory - Science News

Napping while reliving memories stabilizes people's ability to recall them later.

Asian Cup: Bad News for Japan, and Dortmund - NYTimes.com

Japan's Shinji Kagawa will miss Saturday's Asian Cup final in Qatar, and could be lost to first-place Borussia Dortmund of the German Bundesliga for the rest of the season.

Z on TV: Fox News dominates in SOTU cable ratings - TV show critic ...

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News Corp. chief James Murdoch wants to toss the newspaper onto ...

James Murdoch is the chairman and chief executive of News Corp. And he's the son of Rupert Murdoch, the mogul who created the far-flung media empire that includes everything from Fox Broadcasting to the Wall Street Journal. ...

News Corp's The Daily iPad Newspaper Will Cost $1 a Week

Bludgeoned with delays and rumors of its demise before it even launched, The Daily's set to launch in two weeks according to News Corp's son-of-Rupert, James Murdoch. The app, which Steve Jobs supposedly helped develop, will cost 99c ...

PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The News

KUSF In The News. Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors yesterday condemned the sale of KUSF's 90.3 fm frequency to an out-of-town broadcaster. The SF Weekly covers the story at some length here. ...

eric seiger

News Corp. chief James Murdoch wants to toss the newspaper onto ...

News Corp's The Daily iPad Newspaper Will Cost $1 a Week

PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The News

eric seiger

News Corp. chief James Murdoch wants to toss the newspaper onto ...

News Corp's The Daily iPad Newspaper Will Cost $1 a Week

PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The News

eric seiger

News Corp. chief James Murdoch wants to toss the newspaper onto ...

News Corp's The Daily iPad Newspaper Will Cost $1 a Week

PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The News

eric seiger

News Corp. chief James Murdoch wants to toss the newspaper onto ...

News Corp's The Daily iPad Newspaper Will Cost $1 a Week

PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The News

eric seiger

News Corp. chief James Murdoch wants to toss the newspaper onto ...

News Corp's The Daily iPad Newspaper Will Cost $1 a Week

PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The News

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eric seiger

News Corp. chief James Murdoch wants to toss the newspaper onto ...

News Corp's The Daily iPad Newspaper Will Cost $1 a Week

PROFESSOR OF POP: KUSF In The News

Monday, January 24, 2011

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Making Money From the Internet

"I've never made out with him," Lauren Leto told me last week, between puffs of a Parliament Light. The 24-year old brunette, rocking a little black dress and flat boots, was debunking my suspicions that she might be romancing her notoriously cute business partner, Patrick Moberg, the talented artist perhaps best known for making the website NewYorkGirlofMyDreams.com in 2008.

Leto and Moberg recently launched the well-funded start-up BNTER, a site that stores the best conversations between users and their friends. BNTER comes on the heels of Leto's big Internet hit, TextsFromLastNight.com, the website that earned her two book contracts, a TV deal, and, reportedly, lots of money. But back to girl talk: "It's the same with [Texts co-founder] Ben [Bator]," she explained. "I picked such attractive co-founders, people assume we must all be dating. But, no, no, no. We're co-employees! And the thing people don't understand is that when you're, like, writing checks with someone — when money is involved — you become so sexually unattractive to that person." She exhaled. "This is why I can never get married."

Leto was smoking outside an East Village apartment playing host to the Silicon Alley version of a singles mixer — a meet-up for users of HowAboutWe.com, the dating website Brian Schechter co-founded on Valentine's Day in 2010. Users suggest date ideas or contact people whose ideas they like. "How about we go to an underground supper club?" was among the site's most popular date ideas during its first year, so Andy and Ashley — a couple who met on How About We — decided to throw the soiree, and Apt. No. 4, a traveling group of foodie friends, worked the kitchen, supplying lobster bisque and teriyaki char and drinks. Leto was a featured single on How About We this month: She answered every question with a quote from the Kelis song "Bossy"; she said she was at the party to support Schechter and not necessarily to find a man.

Nick Gray, the quick-witted Williamsburg party boy, would have it otherwise, though. "Lauren and I haven't dated yet, but I'm trying," he told us. When Leto offered no reply, Gray joked, "Awkward ..."

How About We's Schechter, meanwhile, admitted that online dating might always carry a stigma: "People say [the stigma's] decreasing, and soon there won't be any," he told us. "But when you go onto an online dating site, in some way you're confessing, 'I don't have what I want,' which is not necessarily an attractive thing. People tend to find someone attractive who has what they want. So I wonder if it's actually a psychological or cultural or almost biological thing: 'I want the one who doesn't need.'" He added: "I do think it will become increasingly normal. It's efficient. And a site that's about having fun and not confessing, necessarily, that you don't have something you want, is more likely to attract people. You're just saying, 'I want to try new restaurants!' Etcetera." Schechter has a girlfriend who he didn't meet over the Internet, but he said he still gets several e-mails a day with the subject line "How about we ...?"

Gray is one fan of the site who hasn't had much success on it yet: "I think my date ideas are intimidating to some people," he told us. "I used to think that I was a real catch, and now I've only had three people who wanted to go on my dates. Some people write, 'How about we get high and eat pizza?' and they get, like, one hundred people interested. And I write, 'Let's go to Rio for New Year's Eve!' Or, 'Let's go to Greece and open a falafel stand!' And people are like, 'Eh. Weirdo.'"

Leto claims she doesn't send many late-night texts of her own anymore because she gets up at six every morning, "so nervous" that something might have happened overnight. Telling us she still "lives poorly," she admitted she recently got an apartment of her own in Brooklyn. "I bought furniture, and I'm an adult," she added. But of dating in New York, Leto lamented: "Everyone wants something from you."

What she wanted from me, at least half-seriously, was less attention. At one point, she pretended to have stolen my tape recorder so that I couldn't report on her any further. And when I asked too many questions, she said: "This is going to seem like navel-gazing for myself. No navel-gazing allowed!" But she's just so good at all this, I informed her, as at least half the men at the party tracked her across the room. On cue, with a seemingly legitimate confusion, she asked, "Good at what?"

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

For the past few months, HBO has been talking to Aaron Sorkin about his long-gestating drama set behind the scenes at a nightly cable news show. However, with him busy on the awards circuit with his latest film, The Social Network, ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

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Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news: Liverpool step up pursuit of Ajax star Luis Suarez ...

Liverpool step up Suarez pursuit, Real Madrid eye Benzema swap deal for Drogba and Sunderland plot bid for West Ham striker.

Aaron Sorkin's Cable News Network Project Awaits Greenlight At HBO ...

Keith Olbermann: Possibly trading news for scripted TV gig with ...

The dust has barely settled on Keith Olbermann's empty chair at MSNBC, but a few serious rumors are already swirling about the anchor's next move.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Making Money Fast

Convenience is the general theme that our society has been speeding towards, getting things fast and easy, that’s the way we like to roll. We can see this through the popularity of services like Netflix; instant movies, and iTunes; instant music. Credit cards in essence, are fast money, but not fast enough.

Services for taking payments on your iPhone is relatively new. A company called Square released an app and dongle last May that would allow users to accept credit cards from their iPhone, it has since caught on and many variants including card readers are hitting the streets. Enabling small vendors, artists, even used item hockers, to charge their customers via the seamless instant swipe of plastic.

In the last two days two companies have begun offering credit card reader swipers free to new customers. Intuit Inc. is one of them, makers of the ever popular Tax accounting software. They want to give the little guy a small boost by offering its GoPayment mobile payment service, which will include a free credit card reader and zero monthly service fees, for business owners that sign up by mid-February.

GoPayment is a system that utilizes mobile handsets, like the iPhone, and uses them as a cost-effective method of processing credit transactions. Since its launch almost two years ago GoPayment has enabled small businesses to process $80 million in mobile transactions using a mobile handset and the GoPayment system, and the market is still expecting significant growth in the coming years. GoPayment is compatible with more than 40 handsets and a large range of traditional credit card readers, this includes the popular credit card reader from ROAM Data, which is used with a variety of iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices, making it more accessible for a new start-up business owner to start accepting mobile transactions.

“By offering a free card reader and no monthly service fees, we want to give more small businesses a head start in the New Year by enabling them to take mobile payments without any upfront investment,” said Chris Hylen, general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division. “And this is just the beginning. We’ll introduce new ways all year long to help more small businesses get paid quickly and inexpensively using their favorite mobile devices.”

GoPayment offers a selection of different rates and pricing plans to accommodate any business’s needs. There are no long-term contracts, or any hidden cancellation or setup fees, and one account allows up to 50 users. Their app is called the Intuit GoPayment Credit Card Terminal and is free from iTunes. Below is a brief highlight of the general pricing plans for the service.

For lower or intermittent credit card processing volume:

No monthly service fee for businesses that sign up before mid-February

Discount rates: 2.7 percent for card swiped; 3.7 percent for both key entered and non-qualified transactions; $0.15 per transaction.

For higher credit card processing volume:

$12.95 monthly service fee

Discount rates: 1.7 percent for card swiped; 2.7 percent for key entered; and 3.7 percent for non-qualified transactions, such as corporate cards; $0.30 per transaction.

The second is from App Ninjas, developers of Swipe Credit Card Terminal for iPhone, today have decided to give away the Apple-approved Credit Card Swiper for iPhone 4 and iPod touch hardware free to all new users who sign up by January 15th. Their app that works with the swiper is available on iTunes for 99 cents and is called iSwipe Global Credit Card Terminal.

Their fees are as follows:

1.74% VISA/MasterCard Qualified Discount Rate

2.29% VISA/MasterCard Mid-Qualified Rate

3.79% VISA/MasterCard Non-Qualified Rate

$0.24 per Transaction

$24.95 per month (Includes Authorize.Net Fee)

“Providing iPhone 4 and iPod touch users with a swipe accessory allows any mobile merchant to quickly process transactions, saving them money and time,” said John Waldron, CEO of App Ninjas. “Swipe’s features help manage credit card transactions with virtual terminal access, online reporting, real-time authorizations, and premium customer support, including access to a customer support rep assigned to their account, from the moment they download Swipe.”

Depending on your business, how many transactions you expect to do, and the payment gateway you are dealing with either solution could be good for you. We haven’t had any hands-on time with either products, so we’re unsure of the reliability and ease of use between both products.

A front page story in today’s Wall Street Journal (“Hedge Funds’ Behavior Magnifies Swings in Market,” January 14, 2011) highlighted the relative performance of so-called “crowded” hedge fund trades versus the broad market. The premise of the article is that hedge fund ownership magnifies the beta of particular stocks and reduces the importance of company fundamentals in determining share performance.

We long ago concluded that money flow is important to the performance of stocks and that it made sense to follow the proverbial “smart money.” We have analyzed more than 7,000 individual stock and ETF positions of roughly 600-800 hedge funds every 90 days for the past decade. Five years ago we started publishing our quarterly Hedge Fund Trend Monitor to track the hedge fund money flow into and out of individual stocks and hedge fund sector tilts on both a long and net basis.

1. Time horizon is vital to understanding how hedge fund ownership data should be incorporated into the portfolio management process. On a daily or even weekly basis, hedge fund positioning is noisy in terms of explaining relative excess return. However, on a quarterly basis the hit rate of outperformance of hedge fund positions is notable.

For example, our basket of stocks with the “most concentrated” hedge fund ownership (Bloomberg ticker: <GSTHHFHI>) has a 71% hit rate of quarterly outperformance versus the S&P 500 since May 2001 with an average quarterly excess return of 296 bp. Our basket of “stocks that matter most” to hedge funds (<GSTHHVIP>) has outperformed the S&P 500 on a quarterly basis 66% of the time since 2001 by an average of 74 bp. [and here we get the all important footnote from Goldman: "Note: The ability to trade these baskets will depend upon market conditions, including liquidity and borrow constraints at the time of the trade." in other words everyone can get in, but when everyone has to get out, nobody will. Enjoy.]

2. Our analysis shows hedge fund holdings generally outperform during equity market rallies and lag during corrections. We recommend investors use our hedge fund holdings baskets to generate alpha during “risk-on” rallies and as a tool for risk reduction during periods of elevated market uncertainty (see Exhibits 1-3).

For example, our “most concentrated” hedge fund basket has outperformed the S&P 500 by an average of 868 bp (745 on median basis) during the six rallies since the market low in March 2009 and underperformed the S&P 500 by an average of 322 bp (385 bp on median basis) during market corrections.

The reverse is also true! Our basket of “least concentrated” hedge fund positions (Bloomberg ticker: <GSTHHFSL>) lagged the S&P 500 during market rallies by average and median of 69 bp but outperformed the broad market by an average of 99 bp (37 bp on median basis) during corrections.

Our hedge fund VIP list (Bloomberg: <GSTHHVIP>) consists of stocks in which fundamentally-driven hedge funds have a large stake. We define stocks that “matter most” to hedge funds as the positions that appear most frequently among the top ten holdings within hedge fund portfolios. For this analysis, we limit our hedge fund universe to funds with 10 to 200 distinct equity positions in an attempt to isolate fundamentally-driven investors from quantitative funds or funds that mirror private equity investments. Hedge funds own between 1% and 38% of the equity cap of the stocks in the basket with an average of 9%, almost twice the 5% average for the S&P 500.

By construction, our VIP list identifies the 50 stocks whose performance will largely influence the long side of many fundamentally driven hedge funds. The VIP basket lagged the S&P 500 by 822 bp during 2008 (-45% vs. -37%). It reversed in 2009, outperforming S&P 500 by 1,391 bp (40% vs. 27%). In 2010, the basket outperformed S&P 500 by 443 bp (19% vs. 15%).

Our VIP basket has a large-cap bias with a median market capitalization of $49 billion compared with $11 billion for the S&P 500. The VIP basket overweights the Information Technology sector (24%) and underweights Industrials (2%). Turnover for the VIP basket since 2001 averages 34% quarterly (52% annually) with 17 stocks typically entering the basket. The next re-balancing will take place after February 15, 2011.

Current constituents of our hedge fund VIP basket scheduled to report 4Q 2010 results next week include the following. Tuesday: C, AAPL, IBM. Wednesday: WFC and USB. Thursday: GOOG and FCX. Friday: SLB and BAC. Exhibit 52 contains the complete list of constituents for all three baskets.

We define “concentration” as the share of market capitalization owned in aggregate by hedge funds. The stocks in the “most concentrated” basket tend to be mid-caps (at the lower end of the S&P 500 capitalization distribution). Hedge funds own between 17% and 48% of the equity cap of the stocks in the basket with an average of 24% vs. 5% for the S&P 500. Stocks with the “most concentrated” hedge fund ownership outperformed the S&P 500 in 2010 by 84 bp (16% vs. 15%).

In contrast, hedge funds own between 0.2% and 0.6% of the equity cap of the stocks in our “least concentrated” hedge fund basket with an average of 0.5% vs. 5% for the S&P 500. The basket outperformed the S&P 500 in 2010 by 255 bp (18% vs. 15%).

Translation: ignore the voice of reason which argues that if everyone else is on the same side of the trade, then you are the guaranteed sucker on the table, and instead follow the Siren song promising untold riches... until such time as there is an actual downtick in the market (better known as the 100 or so shares that make up 50% of market volume) and where no matter how hard you try to get out, you are stuck. For reference: see the first time Goldman butchered the Greeks...

And some pretty charts: ignore the fact that the least concentrated stocks are solidly outperforming their most widely held cousins...

Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

Arnold Schwarzenegger set to make Hollywood comeback as a nice ...

Look out, Hollywood. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a warning for.

Major earthquake strikes southwestern Pakistan – This Just In ...

[Updated at 4:47 p.m. ET] An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 struck Wednesday morning in a remote area of southwestern Pakistan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The earthquake occurred at 1:23 a.m. (3:23 p.m. ...

Casting News: Anne Hathaway to Guest on 'Glee,' Marissa Jaret ...

Anne Hathaway must've made a good impression on 'Glee' creator Ryan Murphy at the Golden Globes this weekend, because he's already confirmed she will.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Making Money Now

I recently watched the movie Exit Through the Gift Shop from well-known artist Banksy. I got a kick out of this film for multiple reasons having liked Banksy's artwork for years now.

What most amused me though is how well it goes about making you question what celebrity is and how much you can achieve by becoming famous. The key point for me is questioning whether you really need to be creative and innovative above and beyond being famous.

Then Mike Butcher over at Techcrunch went and posted something this morning about startup teams trumping celebrity tech entrepreneurs. In summary, he too is making the point that execution far outweighs celebrity.

Basically, what I'm getting at, is all the parallels you're starting to see between the startup world and the movie business. I am definitely not an expert on the movie business and can only imagine what it's truly like from afar. Yet, we've all seen enough of it to realize a bit how things work in Hollywood. You basically have a couple large companies or studios as they're usually called. There you have management at the top who are the power-brokers in the industry. They back films which are used as vehicles to market actors who either succeed or not. If they do succeed, they are cast in further films and a ton of marketing is thrown at these films, regardless of whether these actors have talent or not.

Ultimately, the goal is to make as much money as possible and if you're the one making all this money, keep other people out so you can continue to make as much money as possible. Sure, there are some stand-out actors, managers and studios who go against the grain but basically it's an industry optimized to make money. Simplified by me immensely but I believe you understand what I am saying.

Now let's switch over to the startup world. It's no longer Hollywood and we're now a bit north in Silicon Valley. You have a couple firms who call all the shots and are known as Tier 1 VC's (with some major players like Google, Apple, and Facebook thrown in for good measure).

These VC's fund firms instead of films run by entrepreneurs instead of actors. Some of these entrepreneurs are successful and some are not. Those who are get funded further by these Tier 1 firms. Lots of companies are started and sold since these power brokers in the Valley sit on each other's boards and pass deals back and forth. The power brokers continue to make money and those entrepreneurs who don't lead to successful exits get weeded out (where's the reality TV version of "out to pasture" for entrepreneurs?)

Ultimately, as in the movie business, you make as much money as possible and keep out the riff-raff who would keep you from making tons of money as long as possible.

Now don't get me wrong. I am in no way arguing about whether the movie or startup business is right or wrong or skewed in someone's favor or not. I'm also probably simplifying it too much as well. But the point I am making is that we are in a world where it's about making money. Sure, you can get your touchy-feely on and say you're changing the world but ultimately you wouldn't "work" if it wasn't about making some money.

Hence, my advice to any entrepreneur is to take advantage of whatever you have if you ultimately want to be successful. If you are naturally good looking, get your face out there. Be on TV and in the press. If it helps you make money, go for it.

At the same time, if media attention doesn't help you make more money, don't focus on it. Get your pretty head down to business and execute like hell to innovate, optimize and sell your product. Or have the best of both worlds. Be a CEO focussed on getting your brand or product out there and have a number two (great blog post by Ben Horowitz) who takes care of business. What you need to focus on is making money and being the scrappy entrepreneur that you are, you'll optimize wherever you can to achieve your goal.

In the end it's never about who was most popular that determines success. Just think back to all those football players and cheerleaders in high school. (I've seen some of them from my high school....thank you Facebook.....and had a good laugh!) So often there are people you never hear about making tons of cash since they don't need to focus on media.

On the other hand, if Twitter/Foursquare/Zynga/Groupon hadn't received so much media attention, you think they'd be where they are now? I highly doubt it and I guarantee you that they had a clear strategy in place to use media (and position their founders) from the start. Hence, don't waste time focussed on the wrong things. If you're a celebrity entrepreneur who's counting his millions hats off to you. If you've become a media darling and are broke, well tough luck kid. Try something new.

By the way, here's what Exit Through the Gift Shop is about cut and pasted from Wikipedia. Think what you will about whether it's a real story or not but reast assured the dollars earned by "Mr Brainwash" were real!!

Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film is a Gonzo Documentary which tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles, and his obsession with street art. It is presented as a documentary, but reviewers have questioned its factuality. The film charts Guetta's constant documenting of his every moment on film, to his chance contact with his cousin, the artist Invader, and his documenting of a host of street artists with focus on Shepard Fairey, and also Banksy though the latter's face is never shown, and his voice is distorted to preserve his anonymity

Bump Technologies makes an app that lets people bump their phones together to exchange things like business cards, photos and even money.

On Tuesday, Bump will announce that it has raised $16.5 million in venture capital. The firm Andreessen Horowitz is Bump’s newest investor, and its previous investors, including Sequoia Capital and Ron Conway, also contributed.

Bump started in 2008 as a way for people to exchange contact information without trading old-fashioned paper business cards. But in its newest incarnation, the start-up wants to become a mobile social network for exchanging photos and messages with family and friends.

Now, in addition to contact information, people with iPhones or Android phones can share photos, music, calendar appointments and location, and can also become friends on social networks and send messages to one another. Other apps also use the technology. PayPal, for instance, lets people exchange money by bumping their phones, and two apps trade sexual compatibility information.

The company is changing direction because people started using Bump more for social interactions than business ones, said two of its founders, David Lieb and Jake Mintz. For example, each day people now share about 40,000 contacts but almost a million photos.

“Bump just opens up a whole new landscape of social interactions and interpersonal functions and uses and photo-sharing and transactions, all based on physical proximity,” said Marc Andreessen, the Andreessen Horowitz partner who will join Bump’s board.

There are many other social networks that people already use on their phones to share photos, location and status updates, like Facebook, Foursquare and Instagram.

Bump is different, the founders said, because it enables private exchanges between two people, unlike others that are for publishing messages or photos to wider groups or the public.

“It’s a proximity-based social network, for people and things you’re actually physically interacting with,” Mr. Lieb said.

Bump is one of a group of mobile apps that give people a way to use Internet-connected cellphones to bridge the virtual and physical worlds.

That could become a way to make money, the founders said. For example, people could someday bump their phones to get information or coupons from businesses or brands. “That could be valuable to merchants,” Mr. Mintz said.

Other apps, like Shopkick, offer similar ways for businesses to reach customers. Bump is not making money yet, beyond a bit from other companies that license its technology.

Bump works by gathering several signals from phones, including location and motion detection. Those signals are sent to Bump’s servers, where Bump figures out if another phone in the same place just experienced a bump, then matches the two phones. It all takes place immediately.

Andreessen Horowitz has been busy. On Monday, the firm also announced that it invested in Groupon’s $950 million round of fund-raising. The firm invests in very small Web companies and very big ones, and the Bump and Groupon investments exemplify both ends of the spectrum.

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Dyane Jean François: Breaking News: The President Has Feelings?

It seems safe to say that as a political leader Barack Obama probably had an agenda to hit with his speech in Arizona. But what was in his heart? Well, we will never know .

Fruit Flies Teach Computers A Lesson - Science News

Insect's nerve cells are model of network efficiency.

Bad News, About Virgin Mi-Fi and Verizon Upgrades - NYTimes.com

Two announcements this week. Two big bummers. Two good things gone.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

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SilverRock is one of the online reputation management by mail newest and best public courses in the Palm Springs area. Long been known as the "Golf Capital of the World," Palm Springs and the neighboring cities of La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells and Palm Desert boast over 160 golf courses.
Set against the backdrop of the Santa Rosa and Coral mountains, the SilverRock resort is a challenging desert course sprawling over 200 acres with massive native bunkers and stunning water features on no less than eight holes.The online reputation management online without prescription Clubhouse, situated in the rocky outcroppings, is a charming renovation of the former working-ranch hacienda, built by the founder of Home Savings and Loan, Howard Ahmanson.Some of the more demanding holes are the par three 8th and 17th, as well as the par four 10th and 15th all of which have water hazards.
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There is also water on the second, sixth and eighteenth that require well placed approach and fairway shots.
The PGA recently inked a deal with SilverRock making it one of the host courses for the annual Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. So not only is the course, scenic and challenging while playing you can imagine yourself teeing it with Tiger and Phil.

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

Giffords' Eye Opening News - Political Punch

President Obama's dramatic news at last night's memorial service in Tucson that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' has just minutes before opened her left eye for the first time since the shooting has created some confusion ...

Visualize This: Where the public gets its news

Perhaps the label should be something like “Percentage of respondents.” (The folks who collected the data allowed respondents to cite two “main” sources of news, which confused me.) I'll make the change. Thanks! ...

Monday, January 10, 2011

Making Money Advertising

Job description? I make videos on YouTube, full time.

If there’s one thing I’m hearing over and over again here at CES it’s content, content, content . Weather it’s Apple, Google or Yahoo, TV is going to be social; a mix of traditional and user generated content where viewers interact in real-time. And now users’ who generate content are becoming just as influential as corporate media providers and the money is their to prove it.

Making videos on YouTube is increasing becoming a viable career choice for videobloggers who not only get paid a percentage of the advertising revenue through Google’s Partner Program, but also make money from sponsorship and advertising. Brands are now jumping on the band wagon and paying a fraction of the costs partnering with YouTubers who are getting the same amounts of hits as a cable network.

I bumped into a couple of YouTube’s most popular videobloggers who told me how making YouTube videos is a full time career.

In 1995 I remember waiting in lines to buy Windows 95. It effectively ended the design lead Apple had for 11 years in personal computers.

From then on Microsoft had both the thought leadership and the market share. Apple ended up with less than 10% market share. Microsoft had most of the rest.

Lots of people think that Apple could repeat 1995 in 2011. This time with iOS instead of Macintosh OS and with Google in the place of Microsoft.

We forget one little thing: 1995 was different.

Here’s how.

In 1995 Microsoft had a HUGE marketshare lead with DOS. That meant it had a huge army of developers who didn’t want to switch over to Apple’s system, which they saw as very closed and inflexible. I remember developers coming into the consumer electronics store I helped run in the 1980s and they’d complain bitterly about Apple’s policies (Apple was far less flexible back then than it is today and forced developers to fit into a “look and feel” set of guidelines).

But I look at who is making money. Back in 1995 developers were mostly making money from DOS. Remember, this caused WordPerfect and Borland to make bad bets. They bet on DOS for too long, while Bill Gates went and built some of the first and best Macintosh apps. The lesson, though, doesn’t pass from 1995 to 2011. Today where are most of the developers making their money? iOS (according to Sephora, Starbucks, OpenTable, eBay, and many other developers). So, Android has to convince developers to switch, or do both platforms at same time. That’s quite different.

Plus, back in 1995, who owned the best distribution and supply chains? Microsoft did. Today? Apple does. Apple didn’t have stores back in 1995 which will ensure its products get seen in the marketplace. Back then Microsoft could outspend Apple for shelf space at Frys and other retailers. Plus, Microsoft’s model of having many OEMs building hardware for its OS was far superior to Apple’s approach. Today that’s not really true, because the OEMs aren’t really able to bring that much value to the table and Apple has the best supply chains in China locked up (I visited one of them about two years ago and keep in touch with the folks there and that’s still the case). So, it’s not very likely that a Google phone will ship with better screens or better materials. At least not in volume. That is a huge difference from 1995 to today.

Other differences? Apple has outspent Microsoft on Advertising around the world. Look at this picture. It’s in Paris subway. Apple bought every square inch of advertising space (it bought the entire subway system’s advertising space, it seemed, iPad ads were plastered down the entire trackway). Google isn’t able to get its message there. That didn’t happen in 1995. Remember how dominant Microsoft’s advertising was back then? Microsoft even convinced the Empire State Building to change its colors that evening.

Let’s go back to how closed Apple is. Most apps this month got approved in less than a week. Some even got approved in less than four days. During the Christmas rush. Is this as good as Android’s (you can ship in minutes) policy? No. But, on the other hand, there are quality controls which consumers appreciate. The apps — overall — ARE better on iOS than on Android. Just check out TweetDeck. It crashes every few minutes on my Android phone. Twitter isn’t nearly as nice. Facebook isn’t as nice. And most apps aren’t as well designed, nor crash resistant, as on iOS.

I am sensing a switch, though. Fred Wilson is leading the charge. But other developers are grumbling about Apple and want there to be an alternative and they are all comparing notes with each other. “How’s Angry Birds doing with its advertising-only Android apps?” they ask. Very well, the answer comes back. So that means more developers will take the bet on Android, but so far I haven’t seen many go “Android only.” Why not? Because they know most of the PR comes from journalists who use mostly iOS devices and most of the best users are on iOS devices too (Sephora’s lead mobile developer told me 80% of the users who pull out a mobile phone in her stores are using iOS, that is echoed by nearly every developer I talk with). Even Swype, which has been kept from delivering their keyboard on iOS devices showed me a prototype of it running on an iPad and the inventor whispered “if Steve Jobs wants to talk, we’d love to ship this on iOS.”

So, when someone says that Apple is repeating the mistakes of 1995 (yes, I’ve been guilty of saying that in the past couple of years too) you should tell them that 2011 is not even close to the same set of conditions as 1995 has.

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