ATM skimmers: now with SMS notification built right in
October 10, 2008 on 4:35 pm |Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Aw, how convenient! Now, when you purchase your next ATM skimmer, you don't even have to risk being arrested when you wander out to retrieve it. For those outside of the know, an ATM skimmer sits on credit / debit card machines and swipes information as unsuspecting civilians pass their cards through. In the days of old, scammers would have to physically retrieve the skimmer in order to acquire all that precious information; now, models with built-in SMS notification are becoming available, meaning that numbers, expiration dates and that easy-to-forget three digit code on the back can be shot out instantly after the data is snatched. Word on the street has these devices going for $8,500 a pop, and they can dish out around 2,000 texts. Just another zany hack to be aware of in the wide world of ATM shenanigans.[Via Hack-A-Day]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Amazing Dolphin Rescue Attempt Caught on Video
October 10, 2008 on 4:22 pm | The Institute of Cetacean Research caught this amazing scene on film while doing research on whales in the Sea of Japan. At the risk of anthropomorphizing, it is difficult not to share the pain of this pod of dolphins as they seek in va...More quotes by Michael Braungart: We are not too many, just stupid.
October 10, 2008 on 4:18 pm |
Yesterday we posted about the Global Eco-Forum, an event about responsibility, sustainability and eco-innovation, held this week in Barcelona, Spain, organised by the local group Eco-Union. The conference held interesting debates by Gunter Pauli from the Zeri Foundation, Francesco Tonucci from The City of Children project, sustainable architect Livia Tirone and many others you can read about in Zoho Mail Gets Offline Support via Google Gears - Ahead of Gmail
October 10, 2008 on 4:13 pm |
Innovative Web Office startup Zoho has beaten Google to the punch again, announcing offline support for the newly public Zoho Mail tonight. Ironically Zoho is using Google Gears to enable offline functionality in Zoho Mail - see the video below by the Google Developer team. Zoho also beat Google to offline support in online word processing, again using Gears, by launching that functionality in November 2007. Google followed up with offline support for Google Docs at the end of March 2008.
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We wrote in July about speculation that Google will start rolling out offline support for both Gmail and Google Calendar through Google Gears within the next six weeks. Didn't happen.
However Yahoo Mail did come up with offline functionality in July - it gave offline access to all free and paid Yahoo Mail users through the Yahoo Zimbra Desktop. Earlier this week Yahoo announced further Zimbra integration, this time with its Calendar app.
So Google is well and truly behind the times with offline support for web mail. However the Google white coats are having a fine old time tinkering with mail stuff in their labs - tonight Google Labs announced Advanced IMAP Controls, which lets you "fine-tune your Gmail IMAP experience."
To be fair, Google probably isn't worried about Zoho coming out with offline functionality in its mail product before Gmail has. For one thing Google is so big it can afford to wait until it's good and ready, despite Gmail fans yearning for offline support! But also Google probably sees Zoho less as a competitor at this point (even though Zoho does compete directly against Google Apps) and more as an evangelist for its technology - such as Google Gears.
To access mail offline in Zoho Mail, you'll need Google Gears installed on your browser - at this point IE and Firefox are supported. Chrome and Safari support is coming. According to Zoho's blog, you can also download images and attachments in offline mode. Another cool feature is that Zoho Mail automatically detects your connectivity and switches to online/offline modes.
Here is the video, also available on Google Code blog:
DiscussBlackBerry Curve 8900 get early video praise, T-Mobile Germany says November
October 10, 2008 on 3:28 pm |Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
In fact, T-Mobile Germany is saying that it'll have the 8900 next month -- a claim we actually believe, since Germany is from the future. The trackball shown on its version of the handset is distinctly different than CrackBerry's, so it's looking like the claim of a redesign might hold water.
[Thanks, Alex]
Read - CrackBerry's Curve 8900 hands-on video
Read - T-Mobile Germany's Curve 8900 product pagePermalink | Email this | Comments
DEOS offers up $60,000 diamond-encrusted iPod earphone covers
October 10, 2008 on 2:41 pm |Filed under: Portable Audio
[Via musicradar.com]
5 Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss
October 10, 2008 on 2:00 pm |
I recently outlined why I'm sick of the 'ROI in web 2.0' discussion. To be specific, the debate as to whether there is one at all.
In that post, I gave examples of how naysayers reacted to social media tools in the past - and how they were left in the dust of those who experimented with these web 2.0 tools. So, where do these naysayers come from? Why is there a resistance to web 2.0? In this post I'll explain how to sell social media to those people and/or your boss!
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This is a guest post by DJ Francis, founder and author of OnlineMarketerBlog.com
Your Responsibility
Seth Godin says it's not because your boss is stupid. It's not that your boss is ignorant of Facebook, but that they know the 30-second spot. Seth says that the best way of changing the world is to open the close-minded and you do that by presenting more data in a palatable way. It's your job to teach your boss about web 2.0 tools.
Here are some suggestions for ways other companies have used social media tools. Consider how these could apply to your business. Be creative and don't think about what you could do - think about what your customers want. Then determine which social media tools can help you deliver what they want.
Ways To Sell Social Media Tools To Your Boss
1. Keeping Up With The Joneses
Your boss doesn't want to get left behind and it's getting more likely that s/he's seen some of this fancy social media stuff at work. Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson report that familiarity with and usage of social media within the business world (the Inc. 500 in this particular study) has nearly doubled in the past 12 months.
This means that your boss is likely primed for a conversation about using social media in your business. You just need to fit a web 2.0 tactics to your current business objectives. Your boss might just be looking for someone to lead the charge.
Barnes and Mattson report that "When queried on the importance of social media, 26% of the respondents [Inc. 500 members] in 2007 felt social media is 'very important' to their business and marketing strategy. That figure rose to 44% in approximately one year."
2. Listening (Customer/Market Research)
Social media offers infinite market research, branding, and listening opportunities. I dare you to search for "[Your brand] sucks" and see what you find. Listening - a simple yet often over-looked aspect of human life - may be the Web 2.0 killer app and smart companies are catching on.
TNS/Cymfony found that "Revolutionaries" - companies that focused on listening rather than selling - "have a more sophisticated approach to creating strong relationships with consumers and as a result are gaining a competitive edge," said Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Jim Nail. (Bill Green at MakeTheLogoBigger concurs that social media leads to listening that eventually leads to monetization.)
When I heard AOL had bought Bebo earlier this year I cringed just thinking about the energetic startup in the clutches of a Web 1.0 holdover. From The Economist: "The non sequitur is to assume that the new service will be a revenue-generating business in its own right." But the service could be amazingly valuable if marketers used it as a listening mechanism.
3. Responding
Social media gives marketers the chance to give quick feedback and break down unnecessary walls. Businesses are using Twitter to personalize a brand (@Zappos), quickly solve customer's problems (@ComcastCares), and create more immersive interactive media experiences (@_S_A_R_A_H_ from the Sci Fi Channel's Eureka).
And these comprise only one social media tool. Response ideas are endless considering the vast array of tools at your disposal.
And speaking of response, the best way to get that is...
Walmart has a change of heart, decides to maintain DRM servers
October 10, 2008 on 1:59 pm |Filed under: Portable Audio
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading Walmart has a change of heart, decides to maintain DRM servers
Permalink | Email this | CommentsBenchmark Capital Advises Startups To Conserve Capital, Look For Opportunities
October 10, 2008 on 1:01 pm |
Yesterday Sequoia Capital and Ron Conway communicated with their portfolio companies to guide them through troubled times. Today Benchmark Capital joins the fray, with what a source says is an email from General Partner Bill Gurley to their portfolio companies (See our interview with Gurley and new partner Matt Cohler from earlier this year).
Like the advice being given by Conway and Sequoia Capital, Gurley is urging his companies to remain calm, but get tight control of their finances, starting now.
Gurley also says for companies to expect “across-the-board reductions” in valuations, and a tough market for raising money - “Basically, the cost of capital is going way up.” Hedge funds are probably out of the picture for startup financings, he says, and corporate, strategic and angel money will decline.
Gurley also notes that major opportunities will become available to those who “play the game frugally.” He says “The real key is to have a keen understanding of the game on the field and to be the one that adjests swiftly, rather than the one that moves after it’s become blatantly obvious to everyone else it’s time to move.”
The full memo is below.
The recent downturn in the public markets (now known affectionately as “the U.S.
Financial Crisis”) is obviously on everyone’s mind. Some of the entrepreneurs and
executives with which we are privileged to work have reached out and asked what
this means for private companies, the VC world, and Benchmark. As such, I thought
t might be a good idea to send you our thoughts on the current situation, and
ispecifically what it means for venture backed companies.
From a high level, this downturn is different from the Internet bubble of 1999. First,
the last downturn started in our backyard. We were the speculators; this time it is
someone else. This means that the “crash on the beach” wont be nearly as severe.
In the Internet crash, many times the customer was actually another VC?backed
company and as such, there was a strong negative spiral. That said, while this
downturn might be shallower than last; it could last longer in terms of absolute
time. The American consumer is super?leveraged which wasn’t true before the
1930’s or the 1970’s. The overall economy will have trouble gaining momentum
ith this debt anchor, and my best guess is the contraction is not finished yet. As
wsuch, it might take a long, long time before we see glory days again.
Like every major shift in the environment, this one will offer opportunities as well as
risks. JP Morgan was able to buy two great assets as substanti al discounts with
government assurances, precisely because they played the game f rugally while
others were more risk seeking. The real key is to have a keen understanding of the
game on the field and to be the one that adjusts swiftly, rather than the one that
moves after it’s become blatantly obvious to everyone else it’s time to move. Many
companies that thrived post 2001?2003 were simply “Last Man Standing” in their
ndustry. It doesn’t sound all that glamorous, but it was the exact right strategy to
ideploy at the time.
It terms of defining our current situation, let’s start with the impact on the actual
capital in “venture capital”. The institutions (limited partners) that typically invest
with Benchmark and other venture funds are not the ones on the cover of the
financial news everyday. In fact, these limited partners are typically quite
conservative and have a very long?term perspective. Certainly, new precedents are
being set every day, so it’s hard to say the word “never” in this environment. Still,
e are unaware of any situation where capital availability for us or any other VC
wfirm is in question.
With that said, I think access to other forms of capital that have recently been
available to venture backed companies may be dramatically impacted. As an
example, one would naturally assume that the hedge?fund rounds of late?2007 and
early?2008 are no longer available. Additionally, we would expect that
strategic/corporate investments, venture debt facilities, and even angel financings
could all contract considerably. In all previous economic downturns, this was
certainly the case.
One would also expect across?the?board reductions in follow?on financing
valuations. As financial markets deteriorate three things happen. First, investors
get nervous. As such, they tend to “choke up on the bat” and be more conservative.
We have already witnessed skittishness on behalf of follow?on funders, as well as a
lengthening of the time it takes to complete a fundraising. The second reason
valuations will fall is that the public market comparable valuations have fallen
materially. This will have a direct impact on exit prices, be they an eventual I.P.O., or
M&A. In fact, I was recently at a gathering of corporate development execs, and
their number one concern was that private company executives have not realized
that the scoring system was just reset (expectations too high). Lastly, investors are
more concerned that a protracted economic downturn will negatively impact each
private company’s specific results, increasing the likelihood of a revenue or cash
flow miss.
If we leave you with one message it would be this: financings as we know it just got
a whole lot tougher. Basically, the cost of capital is going way up. This is, of course,
a sweeping generalization. Some of you have tons of cash, and some of you are
profitable, so the immediate impact will obviously be less. That said, if you do need
to go to the market for capital in the foreseeable future, you should consider that the
environment will be much less hospitable than it has been for the past 3?4 years
which have actually been pretty benign), and that this less hospitable environment
(could persist for time measured in years not quarters.
Another obvious strategy is to extend the runway. Hopefully, everyone is aware of
exactly how many “months of cash” they have at their current cash level and burn
rate. If you have a method for increasing this runway, we think you should do it, and
quickly. . This serves two purposes. First, it gives you the opportunity to outlast
the competition, and second, it puts more time between now and when you are
forced to re?enter the capital markets. One could argue you should draw down your
bank lines right now. Why? When you need the money, the fundi ng source may just
say no (they did last time). What are you going to do? Sue them? Take away their
warrant coverage? So what. If they get cold feet – you won’t see the cash, I don’t
are what the term sheet says. The bottom line is that you should watch “months of
cash” as your most important variable.
Be calm, but pragmatic. The purpose of this letter isn’t to send everyone off in a
panic. It’s simply to convey that the rules of the game have changed. One key
problem is that during these market downturns, most people don’t adjust quickly
enough. As an example, not hiring heads that were previous TBH isn’t really a
reduction in expenses. Also, 10% cuts rarely lead to anything other than multiple
rounds of cuts, which have a harrowing affect on culture. It’s easy to mentally
nderstand this is the right thing to do. It is ten times harder to make the actual
udecisions to affect change. These are extremely hard decisions.
You may know that I am involved with Zillow. They did a survey of their users to
ask what they thought was the current impact on home prices across America. The
average answer was that homes in America were down 20?30% in value. The
survey then asked what the user thought had happened to the value of their own
home. Miraculously they thought their own home had retained value against the
odds! Surprised? It is human nature. As most of you read thi s, you will be thinking
in the back of your mind why your company is different than the average company
like these homeowners) and why you are the exception that doesn’t need to take
(action right now. This could be a rationalization.
Recently, I spoke with an entrepreneur who as a CEO during the dot?com crash and
oversaw a headcount reduction from 130 to 28 (through two major layoffs), and
eventually back to profitability and an IPO. If you think a 10% layoff is tough,
imagine laying?off 78% of your employees. It is one of the hardest things I have ever
seen anyone do. I recently asked him how that experience has shaped the way he
ould advise people on running a startup. He had a list at the tip of his tongue
(included now):
1. You don’t realize how fast things spin out of control. There are self?
reinforcing negative affects in a downturn.
2. Don’t spend money until you have to
a. Don’t move out of your office until you are sitting on top of one
another
b. Don’t hire any incremental employee until you just can’t stand it
c. Don’t get more capacity in your data center until your site is going down
3. Better to be “late to the party” than to be early and run out of money
4. Line item review of the budget every month (legal, accounting, everything)
5. Not just a CEO mindset, but a company mindset
a. Everyone must buy into the process
b. But in a calm way - not run for the hills
6. Create 2 or 3 different burn scenarios - know at any point in time how many months of cash is left.
I include this mainly because it highlights a “very high bar” in terms of frugality.
It’s one thing to say you don’t “waste money” and another to live as lean as you
possibly can. As mentioned before, in market downturns, frugality is not only a
virtue, but also it could be the difference between survival and failure.
Many great companies emerged from the 2001?2002 time?frame. Companies
built during tough times typically have incredible focus, great cultures, and a
true desire to compete and win in all environments. For many, this downturn
period could be opportunistic: a real chance to differentiate yourselves from the
other players in the market. However, it is imperative to understand that the
environment has just shifted to one where differentiation will likely be defined
not by aggressiveness, but rather by adaptability.
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Ask Engadget: What’s the best e-book reader?
October 10, 2008 on 12:28 pm |Filed under: Ask Engadget, Displays
Tim from Australia sent in a question via our super-sophisticated submission method (that'd be e-mailing one in to ask at engadget dawt com) regarding e-readers, and given that Sony just pushed out a new one of its own, we found this one particularly timely: "I'm starting a PhD next year and I'm looking to get an e-book reader so I can read PDFs of journal articles on the bus. It would have to be readable in direct sunlight and have a display large enough to read pages of about 400 to 500 words. Stylishness would also be nice. I don't know the going rate for decent e-readers but I'd be prepared to spend up to $500."
So, intellects -- what's the best piece of kit to snag for visually inhaling those scholarly articles in PDF form? Will it handle the occasional FCC user manual, too? Because that's really important, you know.Permalink | Email this | Comments
OpenID Gets SaaS-y: JanRain Works to Ease OpenID Adoption
October 10, 2008 on 12:09 pm |
OpenID adoption has been lopsided. Getting sites to offer OpenIDs has been relatively popular. Google, Yahoo!, MySpace, and countless others provide OpenID addresses for their users. Even AOL users have an OpenID. Far less popular? Allowing users to access their accounts on those services with an OpenID.
But JanRain is hoping to change that with the release of RPX, a new subscription-based service that simplifies implementing OpenID. RPX promises to result in more OpenID login opportunities on the Web - and a revenue stream for JanRain.
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JanRain has been involved in OpenID development since 2005. During that time, it has received a wealth feedback on OpenID implementations.
Earlier this year, that feedback motivated JanRain to simplify the usability of OpenID logins for users. Now, they're turning that same "ease of use" attention to the sites that want to implement OpenID. The result of that effort? RPX, which provides plug-and-play OpenID logins for any site, delivered via a software as a service (SaaS) model.
"We've heard loud and clear that companies want to simplify the registration and sign-in process," said Tore Steen, VP of Business Development at JanRain. "They definitely see the value of accepting OpenIDs, but there hasn't been a clear path for adopting OpenID and other open authentication standards. With RPX, JanRain is providing that path with a simple SaaS implementation."
According to JanRain, RPX makes accepting OpenID logins (and OAuth requests) as simple as subscribing and making a few code changes:
If your website can make HTTPS calls and can parse either XML or JSON, then it can use RPX. You can get RPX up and running in under a day.
For JanRain's customers, RPX carries the benefits of lowering implementation and maintenance costs. Companies gain access to the technology they want while the onus of staying up-to-date on the latest code changes and dealing with other maintenance issues resides with JanRain.
For JanRain, however, the product solves a completely different issue: producing revenue. Offering OpenID services as SaaS, JanRain gains the ability to charge customers a subscription fee based on the number of OpenID logins in play. If the service takes off, so could JanRain.
To date, lack of use cases and general confusion about OpenID implementation techniques have been effective deterrents to more widespread OpenID adoption. It will be interesting to see if the introduction of JanRain's solution - combining ease-of-use with a subscription model that companies understand - breaks that logjam.
DiscussStack Overflow Podcast #25
October 10, 2008 on 12:00 pm |
This week's Stack Overflow Podcast features special guest star and programming blogger superhero Steve Yegge. It's a terrific conversation about working at Google, marketing your ideas, and programming languages... one of the most interesting podcasts yet.
In the spirit of Steve's extremely long blog posts, we ran about 15 minutes long this week.
In the past, Jeff and I have had some audio problems using Skype to record the podcast--mainly, dropouts when we talk over each other. I set up a bunch of new gear which seems to have finally fixed this problem. Here's a description of the new podcasting setup.
Not loving your job? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.
Wallet Feeling A Little Light? Check Out The Expense Tracker
October 10, 2008 on 11:26 am |
With the economy slipping closer to rock bottom every day now, many of us are going to have to start cutting back on our day-to-day expenditures. Cue Voice2Insight’s The Expense Tracker, an online expense tracking system that makes entering every transaction as easy as calling a phone number and saying a few words.
Most expense trackers require users to input their daily transactions from their computers, which is time consuming and requires an impressive memory (or very organized receipts). Voice2Insight’s system allows users to call a designated number, where they’re prompted by an automated system to state the amount they’ve just spent and what category the transaction would fall under (for example, I might say “Groceries, $50″). And if you forget to leave one of the voice messages, you can manage your account from the computer as you would with a traditional system.
The service costs $15 a month ($10 if you buy six months at a time), which may be too steep for some people. I think The Expense Tracker would probably be better off adopting a model similar to Mint, offering ads for targeted financial products based on spending habits. Then again, paying for the service may make users feel obligated to use it religiously (some people swear by expensive gym memberships for this reason).
Other companies in the expense tracking space include Expensify and ShoeBoxed.
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Yahoo Shareholder Asks Microsoft To Re-Bid At $22. Good Luck With That.
October 10, 2008 on 11:10 am |
Private equity fund Mithras Capital, which holds 1.9 million shares of Yahoo (about 0.14%), will propose to Microsoft that they buy Yahoo at $22 per share, Reuters reports. Microsoft would then unload Yahoo’s Asian assets adn non-search businesses, take $3 billion worth of cost savings and some tax benefits, and end up with Yahoo’s search business for $10.3 billion.
Microsoft is obviously thrilled to see this kind of corporate chaos at Yahoo, although they are unlikely to even respond to the proposal. Yahoo, as usual, looks like amateur hour as their shareholders conduct (or try to conduct) negotiations behind their back.
Mithras Capital partner Mark Nelson said he will send a letter proposing the deal to Microsoft and Yahoo this evening.
Meanwhile, Yahoo was down another 8.1% today, to $12.65, from yesterday’s close of $13.76.
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Nokia’s N85 films rooftop unboxing of another N85
October 10, 2008 on 11:01 am |Filed under: Cellphones
Continue reading Nokia's N85 films rooftop unboxing of another N85
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsBlurb - Doesn’t Need VC Lectures
October 10, 2008 on 10:30 am |
In our search for that rare beast - the profitable VC backed venture - I interviewed Eileen Gittins, the CEO of Blurb. Blurb does Print On Demand publishing for both consumer and professional markets. They compete with Lulu, which announced today that it is "laying off 24 workers at its North Carolina plant because of the slowing economy". That is 25% of their workforce and includes their President. Eileen and I both had the same reaction: "you mean you only just learned that hard times are coming?!".
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Where Were The Alarm Bells When We Needed Them?
Seeing the Blogosphere afire with tales of crisis in start-up land, with emails going from the wise investors to their portfolio companies, makes me think: no duh! Driving with your eye only on the rear view mirror is not smart. I hate to say "I told you so" but some times I cannot help myself. We have been banging this drum for a year. Not that it took a genius to see that a downturn was coming, it was bleeding obvious! We followed up with perspective here and here. When the sky started to fall a few weeks ago we started to look on the positive side.
Of course companies should keep their costs as low as possible. That has been the obvious for centuries. So last week the advice was "spend like drunken sailors?". Seriously, this kind of boom one day, gloom the next reminds me of the crazy behavior that got us into this mess and which, if you want a good laugh, you can watch here or embedded below. By the way, that video was from a year ago!
Blurb Is Just An Old Fashioned Story
The key points that came from Eileen Gittins don't sound terribly interesting, except that in today's world they are so unusual:
1. A "seasoned" management team. Like somebody at the helm who has sailed through a storm before.
2. Aligned with their VC. Some VCs push the "shoot for the moon at all costs" approach. Blurb's backer, Canaan Partners, was aligned with the push to profitability before that was fashionable.
3. Willingness to make trade offs. Sure we all want profits asap. But in the real world there are decisions and trade-offs. These may involve deferring features, leaving a market until later, being more niche than generalist. It is almost always a growth vs profit trade-off ("revenues are vanity, profits are sanity"). The Blurb story is full of those. Now Blurb are in a position to do the things they delayed earlier, while their competition is retrenching.
4. Being contrarian to some degree. Blurb got funded in 2005. They had nothing to do with advertising and you would have to be a spinmeister to call Blurb "Web 2.0". Blurb uses Internet technology (er, who doesn't) to deliver a different value proposition to satisfy a demand that has not changed since Gutenberg. Canaan was clearly ready to be Real VC and back an unfashionable concept.
And, What About The Impact Of The Financial Crisis?
We ask that question to everybody. Eileen Gittins said "we watch the economy like a hawk, because that is what we have always done, it is in our DNA". But so far, so good, they grew in September and the last quarter looks very strong. At least they don't need to go to (more) VCs, who are spending all their time with their problem companies, to ask for more capital. With all the talk of revenue vs profits trade-offs, Blurb grew revenues this year around 3x - not shabby.
DiscussCool photoblog: elders with style
October 10, 2008 on 10:11 am |
Ari Cohen says: "We have started a blog of our own that documents street style and fashion of the mature and wizened. Our aim is to take photos of elders with a unique sense of personal style that has developed with age. We noticed so many amazingly dressed older people in New York and are having a great time getting to know them, hearing their stories and capturing a bit of their style to share with others." Advanced Style
Mitsubishi’s 65-inch LaserVue L65-A90 gets evaluated
October 10, 2008 on 9:56 am |Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
At home with a Flaming Lip
October 10, 2008 on 9:47 am | In today's New York Times "Home & Garden" section, a visit to the Oklahoma City compound of Wayne Coyne, singer and guitarist for the amazing psychedelic pop band The Flaming Lips. His residence consists of four adjacent houses, one for living, one for storage, and two guest houses. From the New York Times (photo by Paul Hellstern):At Home With Wayne Coyne“It’s our firewall,” Mr. Coyne said, standing under a pecan tree in the fenced-in courtyard surrounded by the houses. “It staves off the crack dealers..."
Seen from the street, it resembles a do-it-yourself version of a Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie House; inside it feels mazelike and eccentric, qualities the couple have tried to enhance with color. (J. Michelle) Martin-Coyne painted an upstairs bedroom “breathless blue,” she said, after a sky blue shade of nail polish, and her art studio across the hallway has a pink rubber floor.
She was showing off the contents of her studio, including a collection of vintage children’s lunchboxes and an old jukebox she got from her grandfather, when Mr. Coyne reappeared. Glancing around, he said, “We’re maximalists; Michelle and I both have the junk gene...."
The house is less a quiet sanctuary than a full-time Flaming Lips headquarters: a place where band members crashed in the early days; where rehearsals still take place in a cramped back room; and where Mr. Coyne can work up visual elements for concerts (like the mirrored disco balls sitting in an open-sided shed in the yard). On this particular day, the band’s roadies were in a workshop behind the house building a “500-pound human brain,” a Halloween display designed by Mr. Coyne (and actually made of lightweight foam). “There are still kids who think we showed off a dead guy,” Mr. Coyne said, referring to the year he put a bloody, life-size rubber man on the porch.
Tim Biskup show in Paris, Oct. 11
October 10, 2008 on 9:35 am |
Tim Biskup has a new show in Paris and the paintings (and packaging!) look terrific.
O/S (Operating System)
New Paintings, Sculptures & Prints
October 11th - November 16th
Addict Galerie
14/16 rue de Thorigny
75003 Paris - France.
T: +33(0)1 48 87 05 04
T: +33(0) 971 41 45 39
info@addictgalerie.com
www.addictgalerie.com Opening reception: Saturday, October 11th (open to the public)With Tim Biskup's new collection of sculpture/painting combination pieces he presents the duality of his recent work in a neatly organized fashion. Each of the twelve pieces in the exhibition are self contained units which include an original painting packed into it's own shipping crate along with an elaborate pedestal that can be assembled using parts that come inside the crate as well as the crate itself. These "systems", as the artist calls them, constitute a fusion of Biskup's aesthetic style and his conceptual theories. The pieces are intended to represent the interconnection between art itself and the peripheral elements that allow it to exist. As a metaphor, the "systems" ask the question of weather the peripheral elements actually add to or distract from the the artwork being presented.
Also included in the exhibition is a large scale serigraph, "Tree Of Life". This 30-color print depicts the artist's familiar Cyclops character, known as "Helper", perched among the branches of a lush tree, surrounded by flora and fauna and wielding an ax. Biskup has said that the character is a symbol of mankind corrupted by his own sense of spiritual knowledge. The image was originally created as the cover of "American Cyclops" a catalog of artwork from an exhibition of the same name that took place at Iguapop Gallery in Barcelona in July of 2006.
AIG cancels post-bailout party in California, says it will have no more.
October 10, 2008 on 9:10 am |Earlier this week, the House Oversight Committee revealed that just one week receiving an $85 billion bailout, AIG executives went on a retreat to a luxury resort, spending nearly $500,000 on manicures, facials, pedicures, and massages, among other things. After being ridiculed for the vacation, AIG announced today that the parties are over. From an announcement they issued this afternoon:
Earlier today, AIG announced an important policy change - one that we wanted to be sure you knew about. A short time ago, our Chairman and CEO Ed Liddy said that he has ordered the immediate cancellation of all outside meetings, conferences, and recognition events across AIG, except those that are required by law or that are deemed absolutely critical to sustain our ongoing business needs.
Today, AIG canceled a specific party, originally scheduled for next week at the Ritz-Carlton in California’s Half Moon Bay, “after a re- evaluation of the costs under the new circumstances,” according to spokesman Joe Norton.
MicroPlace: Getting Something Back from MicroFinance Loans
October 10, 2008 on 9:10 am |
Image source: MicroPlace
Interested in using your investments to directly help low-income folks develop sustainable income, possibly even in your local community? MicroPlace, launched in 2007, offers microfinance loans, but with a twist for investors. What makes MicroPlace different from other microfinance options? Investors get a return on their investment, which they can use to reinvest in future projects, thus making the money go further....
Ecopolis Plans Future Green Cities
October 10, 2008 on 9:00 am |
Image source: The Science Channel
What will future cities look like? How will we feed the estimated 75% of the global population that will be living in cities by 2050? How will we transport and house and clothe all of those people living in a finite space? Nobel-Prize winning Dr. Daniel Kammen, host of Ecopolis, thinks he might have a few answers....
Shave Keystrokes Off Your Day With UrlbarExt
October 10, 2008 on 8:55 am |
Shortcuts for commonly performed functions are beautiful things and we just found a great Firefox extension that's going to save us a lot of time. It's called UrlbarExt and it puts six little gray icons on the right side of your address bar. What do those buttons do? They perform in one click some common functions that would otherwise take several keystrokes.
Adam Pash over at Lifehacker unearthed this extension for a post about three as-yet unapproved ("experimental") Firefox plug-ins. We didn't find the other two Pash highlighted especially inspiring, but UrlbarExt rocks. Here's what it does.
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- Copy the URL you're on to the clip board. A whole lot faster than click, drag to highlight, right click, select "copy link to clipboard." A lot faster.
- Create an instant TinyURL link in the address bar. Super fast and smooth. We do wish this button used our favorite URL shortening service, the semantic-web lovin' Bit.ly. We also wish we didn't have to click on the copy link to keyboard button after creating the TinyURL - what else are we going to do with that shortcut if not paste it somewhere?
- Perform a Google site: search inside the domain you're on. Awesome, we do this all day long and this is a big time saver.
- Go up one level in a page's URL, or double click to go to the root URL. How often do you find a page on a site through search or a link and want to visit the home page? You can usually click on the logo or a home link, but why mess around looking when you can just double click? We're not sure how much we'll use this one, but we'll see.
- Add a tag. Ads tags to the local bookmarking in your browser. Seems kinda silly.
- Anonymous surfing. Reloads a page you're on and subsequent pages, through a proxy server. Pretty cool idea. We'd like to know more details about which service this is using before we trust it too much.
We're not able to access any settings options for this browser extension but the plug-in page indicates that future iterations will include more user control. It's a simple tool, but simple is good and this will make many of the things we do every day on the web faster and easier - meaning that we can focus on something else.
You'll have to create a Mozilla account in order to access UrlbarExt, because it's still in the "experimental" section of the plug-in site - but we think it's well worth it to do so.
DiscussNew Zealand’s copyright minister starts screaming when asked whether it’s fair to cut people off from the Internet on the basis of three unsubstantiated accusations of copyright infringement
October 10, 2008 on 8:36 am | Mark sez, "Colin Jackson is a well-known IT consultant in New Zealand and former President of InternetNZ. Colin attended a meeting with the Minister in charge of copyright on Monday to talk about a proposal to kick people off the internet on the basis of three unsubstantiated accusations of copyright infringement, and she lost her temper and yelled at them."The meeting was set down for 45 minutes from 3:45. When it opened, Judith Tizard spent 30 minutes telling us why the change had to be made. She began by strongly expressing her anger that we had complained to her at this stage in the proceedings. None of us, she said, had been to see her before this on this topic. When we protested that we had worked with the Select Committee, which had removed this provision - and balanced it with one which made licence holders liable for false accusations - she said that this was completely inappropriate of the Select Committee, because Cabinet had already decided this was going ahead. We should not have been surprised, we were told, that this provision was reinserted by the government at the last minute before the bill was passed. (It’s worth noting here that Judith has been to the two New Zealand Foo Camps and was engaged roundly on copyright both times.)Of all the unreasonable and awful proposals to come out of the entertainment industry, none is so bad as the three-strikes rule, a rule that would leave everyday people vulnerable to having the connection that brings them freedom of speech, of assembly and the press, the link that connects them to family, school, work and government, terminated because someone, somewhere made three accusations of copyright infringement, without having to offer a shred of evidence.She set forth strong views about how the launch of Sione’s Wedding had been ruined, about how studios in Auckland were running out of work, and about how artists were mortgaging their homes to make films and music and were not making any returns on their investments, all, she said, because of Internet piracy...
When we suggested that natural justice would imply that it was unreasonable to withdraw Internet access based on an accusation, she reiterated her position that something had to be done and that ISPs had to do it. ISPs, she said, need to negotiate with the licence holders to put in a regime to prevent copyright infringements. The licence holders’ associations had assured her that they would not be unreasonable.
In response to being told that it is technically impossible for ISPs to tell what people are doing, Judith said that it had been done for child pornography and that ISPs need to apply the same standards. It was pointed out that the state defines objectionable material, possession of which is a crime, but there’s no equivalent definition for copyright, infringement of which is a civil matter to be determined by courts.
I think there's an easy answer to this: a three-strikes rule that cuts both ways: so yes, we'll cut off anyone who's thrice-accused of copyright infringement, but we should also permanently terminate Internet access for any corporation that makes three improper or incorrect accusations: once Sony or Warners or what-have-you make three bogus accusations, they have to do all their sales, marketing, production and communication by phone and fax. Forever.
Ministers: why we changed the Copyright Act
(Thanks, Mark!)
Dopod looking to slap its name on G1 for China next year
October 10, 2008 on 8:35 am |Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
We were sorta hoping HTC was going to get straight to work on its next batch of Android handsets post haste after getting the G1 out of the door -- you know, just to close the fashion gap with its WinMo line, if nothing else -- but the word on the street is that it'd like to spread the first-gen love just a little further and wider by hooking up its Dopod subsidiary in China. According to an unnamed Dopod source, the current plan has the G1 going to the Far East "possibly" in the first quarter of '09, featuring radios better suited for China's airwaves -- possibly TD-SCDMA, possibly just EDGE. For what it's worth, Dopod's corporate logo will up the G1's rugged good looks by a factor of ten -- seriously, isn't it awesome? [Warning: Subscription required][Via Talk Android]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Nathan Robinson: Yet Another Reason to Fear a McCain Supreme Court
October 10, 2008 on 8:30 am |Punks need socks in Indiana
October 10, 2008 on 8:23 am | D. T. Friedman of the nonprofit OxenFree in Indiana writes:Help with sock donations (Thanks, Mary!)I’m the Resource Coordinator for a non-profit organization that works with homeless and indigent teenagers, as well as teens who are in bad home situations. OxenFree is a really fantastic program that engages at-risk teens through punk rock music, and provides support in a drug-free and alcohol-free environment.
The reason I’m invading blogs today? My job with OxenFree is to receive requests from the phenomenal people who run the program, and to figure out a way to fill them. My current assignment is…SOCKS. And I have to admit, I’m a bit at a loss. Socks are not a large-volume item at clothing centers (people usually just wear them out instead of donating them), and they’re surprisingly expensive. Homeless teenagers, especially hitchhikers, go through socks like you wouldn’t believe. My friend Margie can no longer afford to keep stocking her “free socks” drawer by herself, and asked me if I could try working my magic.
So, would you be willing to help me sock my punks?
Chris Goldberg: Palin Proves She’s “Country Last”
October 10, 2008 on 8:21 am |Michael Shaw: Reading The Pictures: Not Till You’ve Walked In My Shoes
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