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KNPC close to $900 mln gas plant deal with DaelimKUWAIT, June 6 (Reuters) - Kuwait's state-run refining arm KNPC is close to signing a 260 million Kuwaiti dinars ($892.8 million) with South Korea's Daelim Industrial Co for a gas facility and pipeline,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 3:15 am Australian police to probe Google over privacy (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 6 Jun 2010 | 3:11 am Hands-on With the Ulysse Nardin Chairman Android Phone How much would you pay for an Android phone? $99? $199? Maybe $299 with contract?
How about $50,000. As you recall, the Ulysse Nardin Chairman is a freaking $50,000 phone. It's only in beta right now, but it will run Android 2.1 and come in multiple styles including a model covered with diamonds. The box, as you'll see in the video, is nutso too. It's basically a dock with speakers and a USB port.
The phone is made for the ultrarich. As the charming young lady who showed it to us explained, it's for folks who can't bring their Ferraris into the club and need something equally ostentatious. 
Source: TechCrunch | 6 Jun 2010 | 1:46 am Music CitySource: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 1:42 am Hands on with the Ulysse Nardin Chairman Android phoneHow much would you pay for an Android phone? $99? $199? Maybe $299 with contract? How about $50,000. As you recall, the Ulysse Nardin Chairman is a freaking $50,000 phone. It’s only in beta right now, but it will run Android 2.1 and come in multiple styles including a model covered with diamonds. The box, as you’ll see in the video, is nutso too. It’s basically a dock with speakers and a USB port. The phone is made for the ultrarich. As the charming young lady who showed it to us explained, it’s for folks who can’t bring their Ferraris into the club and need something equally ostentatious.
I have a few decidedly grumpy things to say about the phone here but seeing it in person – and basically understanding the ludicrousness of the idea – have made me a believer. Sadly, the phone will not be carrier subsidized but it will work on most GSM frequencies. If you’re confused by that last thing, just have your manservant put your SIM card in for you and have another mimosa. I’ll have more video and pictures from JCK, a watch show here in Las Vegas. Until then, enjoy the opulence. Music by Pregnant.
Source: CrunchGear | 6 Jun 2010 | 1:41 am Qualcomm Ships Dual-Core Snapdragon Chipsetsrrossman2 writes "Qualcomm has released a press release revealing they have started shipping their new dual-core Snapdragon chipsets. These chipsets run each core at up to 1.2GHz, include a GPU which supports 2D/3D acceleration engines for Open GLES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1, 1080p video encode/decode, dedicated low-power audio engine, integrated low power GPS, and support for 24-bit WXGA 1280x800 resolution displays. These chipsets come in two variants, the MSM8260 for HSPA+ and the MSM8660 for multi-mode HSPA+/CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev B. The press release also lists QSD8672 as a third-gen chipset like the two mentioned, but doesn't go into any detail of what its role is. With this announcement that they are shipping, how long until HTC makes a super smart phone?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 6 Jun 2010 | 1:32 am CLSA China JV aims to close $1.5 bln fund in SeptSHANGHAI, June 6 (Reuters) - Brokerage CLSA's China asset management joint venture plans to close a 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) new energy- and new materials-focused fund and begin investing around...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 1:28 am Can Indonesia’s Ciputra Prove that Great Entrepreneurs Are Made, not Born?
What about those who say they never intended to start a company but circumstances lead them to success? I’d argue that they may not have always realized they were entrepreneurs, but if you asked their friends, parents and siblings, they would describe them as having always been the kid with the lemonade stand, the kid working an angle, the kid creating something where there was nothing. Like a cylon, something just switched it on later. Seeing an idea through to become something huge is too hard. You simply have it or you don’t. One person has made me question this—a bit. I met him in Indonesia and like Madonna, he’s mostly known by one name—Ciputra. That name is on Ciputra is an architect who describes his aesthetic as “grand.” Most of his properties have huge statues of horses, caught mid-air in granite galloping wildly with all their might, nostrils flaring. That, or statues of buxom women who look a bit like the painting at the beginning of “Good Times.” He started his first company—a development consultancy—in architecture school but he was frustrated not controlling a project from start-to-finish. Soon after he started developing buildings himself, he grew weary of that as well, moving onto developing whole streets. But that still wasn’t enough. He started developing cities within cities. Now,he has 50 under his belt, spanning several continents and some 25,000 hectares. Since his 70th birthday, Ciputra has been thinking even bigger. He wants to redesign the country. And he wants to do it by creating thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs. Right now, his team has estimated that Indonesia—a country of nearly 250 million people—has just 400,000 entrepreneurs who build scalable, innovative companies. That’s less than 1% of the population. Compare that to 13% for the United States and 7% for nearby Singapore. Ciputra isn’t greedy; he figures his plan could change the country if he could help encourage, create and mentor 4 million entrepreneurs or 2% of the country’s population. How do you do that? Not with venture capital, but by changing the country’s mindset, Ciputra says. Here’s where the born v. made debate comes in: Ciputra says in Indonesia universities don’t train entrepreneurs—they train people to be employees. He wants to train people to create jobs, not apply for them. He thinks a change in a university’s mindset can change who comes out of it. He started by opening up a university for entrepreneurship in Surabaya called Universitas Ciputra. The university follows the national accreditation guidelines, but every Wednesday the curriculum is all about how to start high-growth, innovative companies. It was a $10 million dollar investment, and he says he’s already ready to open a second one. He calls this the best kind of philanthropy for a country like Indonesia that was held down under colonial rule for a whopping 350 years. The University has some nods to Silicon Valley, with role models like The school can influence several hundred new students a year, but that’s not enough for Mr. C. That’s why he partnered with the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation to help train the people who train entrepreneurs. (More on the collaboration here. Disclosure: Kauffman also partially funded the book I’m writing.) Those trainers train other trainers and suddenly the country has thousands of people teaching kids how to be Western-style, high-growth entrepreneurs. This year, he convinced the government of Indonesia to send about a dozen university teachers from colleges outside his purview to Kauffman’s six-month training course that entails trips to Boston, Silicon Valley and other American entrepreneurial hot spots. I visited the university in Surabaya during my trip to Indonesia a week But back to this question of whether entrepreneurs are born or made. As Ciputra told me about his grandkids and his friends’ kids who started mango stands and cake stands in Indonesia, I asked him whether he thought most kids were naturally entrepreneurial and whether a societal fear of failure—which is more pronounced in some places than others—somehow beats it out of us. He nodded. But he added that if that were true, kids need either a parent, a society or a school to encourage that feeling. Because all universities in Indonesia require government accreditation, school is the one of the three that can be centrally fixed, by fixing the curriculum and the teachers. “Ah ha!” I said, having read that Ciputra grew up in a poor, remote Indonesian village. “If that’s true, what explains your success?” Ciputra says his father—a shopkeeper—instilled the entrepreneurial spirit in him when he was young before he was captured by the Japanese during the country’s occupation of Indonesia. But he adds he wished he’d had more encouragement. “Who knows? If I’d gotten it from school, I might be 10 times bigger today,” he says. “The richest Indonesians have maybe $5 billion. Bill Gates has $50 billion.” In a country of 17,000 islands and 240 million people this is hardly a small job. But Ciputra clearly feels this is his legacy. He’s got the money, determination and influence that few others in the country have—or would be willing to spend– on this vision. It’s a project only a man bored with building cities could dream up.      
Source: TechCrunch | 6 Jun 2010 | 1:23 am Bangladesh lifts Facebook ban (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 6 Jun 2010 | 1:14 am NBA Finals Fashion - UNDFTD 'You Can't Beat LA' Collection Shows Love to the Lakers (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) I've been rocking Lakers purple and gold since I was born, and I'm dying to add these pieces from the UNDFTD 'You Can't Beat LA' collection to my closet for the 2010 NBA Finals. The...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 12:57 am Tetris Billboard, Boing Boing styleInspired by yesterday's post about everyday Tetris, Sciurus remixed jesuspresley's billboard pic with a Happy Mutant motif. boingboing by ~Aerik-Khalid (Thanks, Sciurus!)...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 12:55 am Tetris Billboard, Boing Boing style Inspired by yesterday's post about everyday Tetris, Sciurus remixed jesuspresley's billboard pic with a Happy Mutant motif.
boingboing by ~Aerik-Khalid
(Thanks, Sciurus!) Modern Muscle Cars - The 633-HP 2011 Hennessey Venom GT is One Mean Machine (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) I've been dying to get my mitts on a Hennessey Camaro since they were announced, but this 633-horsepower 2011 Hennessey Venom GT is making me second-guess myself. This prototype is...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 12:37 am Asterisk Watches - 'Ora' Watch by Alexandros Stasinopoulos Looks Like a Tape Measure (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) I love timepieces that do their job and make a statement while doing so, and the 'Ora' watch by Alexandros Stasinopoulos is a perfect example. The watch face replaces the standard dial...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 12:37 am WWDC 2010 PredictionsThe theme for WWDC is all about the iPhone. When Steve takes the stage, we can expect to hear a lot about the next release of iPhone OS and the next generation hardware. But what else can we expect to...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 12:30 am Suntech to add 1GW Shanghai capacity as demand jumpsSHANGHAI, June 6 (Reuters) - Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd , China's largest solar panel marker, plans to invest 2.68 billion yuan ($393 million) to build 1 gigawatt in additional production capacity in...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 12:25 am iPad imitators hope to bite into Apple's lead (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 6 Jun 2010 | 12:23 am Apple's Jobs expected to reveal new iPhone (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 6 Jun 2010 | 12:11 am Sun-Cooled Buildings - Warehouse in Dubai Gets Eco-Friendly With Solar-Powered Air-Conditioning (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) A new warehouse facility in Dubai is set to earn a LEED Platinum rating largely because of its solar-powered air conditioning. The new ESAB Middle East Office and Warehouse Facility...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 6 Jun 2010 | 12:05 am Climate change a growing humanitarian challenge: UNWeather-related catastrophes brought about by climate change are increasing, the top UN humanitarian official said Sunday as he warned of the possibility of "mega-disasters". John...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 11:54 pm Safari 5 Rumored to Make an Appearance at WWDC - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 5 Jun 2010 | 11:46 pm Ripped & Torn Editorials - 'Poster Boy' in So Chic Magazine Features Collage-Style Editing (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) 'Poster Boy' in So Chic magazine features model Ned Shatzer in a color-popping array of summer fashions. Photographer GL Wood and stylist Laurent Dombrowicz are the creative team behind...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 11:44 pm Loitering Photography - 'Waiting Times' by Dani Shimoni Depicts Idle Transit Periods (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) 'Waiting Times' by Dani Shimoni reminds me of sitting at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Although this particular shoot takes place in New York, the feeling of waiting and people-watching...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 11:24 pm Heart-Powered Medical Devices - Nanowire Generators Could Let Patients' Hearts Run Implants(TrendHunter.com) Georgia Tech professor of materials science and engineering Zhong Lin Wang is leading studies that may lead to heart-powered medical devices. If materials problems can be worked out,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 11:04 pm Mysterious Radio Station UVB-76 Goes Offlineleathered writes "Tinfoil hatters around the world are abuzz that UVB-76, the Russian shortwave radio station that has been broadcasting its monotonous tone almost uninterrupted since 1982, has suddenly gone offline. Of course no one knows what the significance of this is, but best brush up on your drills just in case."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 5 Jun 2010 | 10:21 pm What we need to hear from Microsoft at TechEd about the cloud - NetworkWorld.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 5 Jun 2010 | 9:29 pm Facebook, Steve Jobs, And Dog Day Afternoon
Calacanis has asked for a response to his thoughts, so I figured I’d write it out just as I did to respond to his “The Case Against Apple-in Five Parts” rant last Summer. To be clear, many of Facebook’s recent privacy issues are very real. And Facebook, as usual, has done a poor job addressing many of them and managing the backlash. That said, the overall implication Calacanis keeps making that Facebook (or Zuckerberg in particular) is in some way an evil force out to screw us all is silly. Calacanis brings up Serpico, but this actually reminds me of another Lumet/Pacino pairing: Dog Day Afternoon. In that film at one point, Pacino’s bank robbing character, Sonny, starts screaming “Attica! Attica!” over and over again, invoking the Attica Prison riots in order to get the people to rise up against the police. So is Calacanis Frank Serpico? Or is he Sonny Wortzik? The five points: 1. Add an export key Okay, this seems like a fair idea at a high level, but the key to this is the details. Calacanis wants a button that a user can click and get returned all of their data in some kind of file format (similar to the tools most blogging software offer, for example). “In the case of Facebook you could do this by having the ability for users to export all their photos, contacts and–gasp–their social graph!,” he writes. Okay, contacts is simple enough, but their social graph? What exactly does that mean? The connections you have with everyone else on Facebook? How exactly do you export that? And even if you do, where else do you import that to? If it’s an XML file showing who you’re connected to, how would another service be able to use that? They’d have to be able to match names to names — assuming that those people were also on their service in the first place. And if it’s not for import into another service, what use would this be to the user? Just peace of mind? Further, the picture export is interesting. For a long time, the major critique against Facebook was that it was a completely closed garden. What’s funny now is that in some regard, we’re hearing almost the exact opposite complaint. Pictures is a good example of this because you can (finally) allow other service to import your pictures (and more importantly, keep them for more than 24 hours) through the new Open Graph Protocol. Sure, this isn’t exactly a user-friendly export — but I’d actually argue that no user-export feature is user-friendly. All pump out XML files (or the like) that 99.9% of users have no idea what to do with. Better would be if a third-party service built this exporter tool (which Calacanis does sort of allude to). But that again would bring up privacy issues. What data about your social graph should this tool be allowed to access and export? Your data is the obvious answer, but the social graph means grabbing at least some data from others as well. Calacanis does note that “no more than 1% of users would ever use this feature” — that’s undoubtedly true — so it’s important to note just how complicated it would likely be for Facebook to offer this sort of export. Aside from pictures and contacts (again, simple enough), you have status updates, social game data, wall posts, videos, etc, etc, etc. And you have all of this for connections between the nearly 500 million Facebook users. If we think the Privacy settings are a nightmare (and they are), I can’t even begin to imagine what the export settings would look like. And how much work would this require Facebook to put in for a feature that basically no one would use? It’s a nice thought, but I’m not sure how much more trustworthy this would make Facebook seem to the average user. 2. Support a common ‘Like’ standard Okay, this obviously isn’t a new idea — in fact, it sprung up at the same time that Facebook’s Like button did. Here’s the problem with this: it sounds great in theory, but would it be great in practice? And further, while it may be nice if Facebook supported something like this, they are still a company with their own goals, so what’s the benefit of supporting it from their perspective? Calacanis’ stance is obviously that the benefit of Facebook supporting this would be as a gesture of good will towards both the open community and the larger web community that they (according to him) have screwed over again and again. Okay, again, that’s a nice thought, but I’m not sure it outweighs the benefits of Facebook having its own product. As I see it, there are two key benefits to this: 1) Facebook gets all of the “like” data. This is the core of why a lot of critics hate the Like button, but it’s also the core of why Facebook is doing it. This information is valuable both because it helps Facebook’s stated goal to make the web “more connected”, and it allows Facebook to be the service that can be the best at doing that. And it’s also undoubtedly valuable from a monetization perspective. Facebook won’t yet say how such data will be used to serve up ads, but it likely will be in the same way that Google searches are. No one calls Google evil for doing this (or at least, that has died down over the years), so why can’t Facebook do it? Newly instated CTO, Bret Taylor, recently told VentureBeat the following about the Like button:
2) Facebook can control the experience. If the Like button was an open standard, Facebook would have to wait for whatever standard body is overseeing it to make changes. Chris Saad had a great guest post on Mashable the other day about some of these issues. In it, he writes, “Facebook’s challenge, however, is that they are pioneering many of these interactions and can’t necessarily wait for standards to emerge or crystallize before acting.” While he doesn’t specifically mention the Like button, Saad undoubtedly wants to see Facebook adopt an open version — but he also wisely acknowledges that it may not be in their best interest to do so in the short term. And he points out that Facebook leading the way in new areas gives ideas for new open standards, such as OpenLike. Calacanis goes on to say that Facebook should support the Like standard rather than “steal everyone’s ideas and incorporate them into your product and then make them closed,” but I’ll get to that in a second.
3. Do not require folks to use your currency I’m not sure this would actually make Facebook “more trustworthy” at all. Calacanis says the service should allow “100 different currencies inside of Facebook“, but wouldn’t it seem more trustworthy to users if they had the one simple option that Facebook vouched for? Calacanis uses a good portion of his post to heap praise on Apple CEO Steve Jobs, saying that Zuckerberg could learn a lot from him — but this one payment system rule is the exact same system Jobs has in place in the iTunes/iPhone/iPad ecosystem. In fact, I have no doubt that this movement to Facebook Credits is Zuckerberg learning from Jobs. Some techies bitch about Apple’s system being “closed” in this regard, but customers don’t. They like the simplicity. Can you imagine if developers were allowed to offer 100 different ways to pay for things through iTunes? Would that make the system more trustworthy? No, it would make it a lot less trustworthy. I just don’t get this argument at all. This might make Facebook more trustworthy to third-party payment systems, but not really to anyone else. And further, the praise of Jobs in this post seems to directly go against much of the criticism against him in the post from last Summer that I responded to. 4. Remind users of their privacy setting This idea Calacanis did pull directly from Steve Jobs. At the D Conference, Calacanis quotes Jobs as saying, “Privacy means people know what they are signing up for in plain English. Some people want to share more data. Ask them. Ask them every time. Let them know precisely what you are going to do with their data.” Calacanis takes that and says that Facebook should: “Require a dialogue box every 10 days or so that reminds users of the default status of their updates before posting them, and allow them to set their standard privacy setting in that dialogue box.” Setting aside the fact that this would annoy a huge percentage of those 500 million users to no end, that’s not exactly what Jobs was talking about. Sure, Jobs played up Apple’s respect of user privacy in broad terms, but what he was actually referring to there was the sharing of location data. When you load up a new iPhone app, it prompts you if it’s going to use your location data (which you have to opt-in to). But for native apps, this setting is remembered (not brought up again every 10 days). Meanwhile, in Safari, each time you load an app that wants to use location data, there’s a prompt each time — and let me tell you, it’s annoying as hell to have to hit “Okay” each time. Google is actually better than Apple at letting users know what each app does. Every time you install an app on Android, you’re alerted what it needs access to in order to fully function. Sure, you could argue that Android needs to do this since it doesn’t have the same locked-down App Store approval policies as Apple does, but it’s still worth noting that Apple isn’t quite as strong here and you may believe. And why not? Again, some of it is because of the App Store policies, but some of it is also because such prompts take away from the user experience. Also, one application that does prompt you about your sharing of information every so often is Google’s Latitude. Because it’s running all the time in the background, every so often they send you an email to let you know it’s on, and to see if you’d like to turn it off. It’s a pretty good way of handling a controversial feature — but they key there is “feature” — it would be overkill for Facebook to do that for all of its privacy settings. It’s also important to note that both of these Google and Apple “prompt” examples are about location. Facebook does not yet have a location feature. And you can be sure that the recent privacy flare-up is one of the reason they haven’t released anything yet.
5. Stop stealing every idea out there and partner! This is an interesting point because (like point 3) it has absolutely nothing to do with the users. Users don’t care if Facebook is copying ideas from other startups. Most of them would have no idea. So I guess this is for Facebook to be more “trustworthy” within the startup community. But Calcanis’ argument breaks down quickly here. In terms of stealing other features — Facebook absolutely has done this in the past. But to bring up Calacanis’ newfound hero again, Steve Jobs has a favorite Picasso quote on this. To which he adds, “we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” Calacanis notes: “The proper protocol in the valley is to at least try and partner, or purchase, the startups who have innovated in a space you’re going into. It’s clear you have no intention of doing that, and hey, that’s your right!“ In my very first post for TechCrunch, I noted that Facebook was more or less copying FriendFeed, and that the Facebook you’d be using in the future would look exactly like it. What ended up happening? 4 months later, Facebook purchased FriendFeed. Twitter is another company that Facebook has clearly been emulating. You may recall that Facebook tried very hard to buy them, but Twitter (probably wisely) wouldn’t sell. In terms of partnering up with other startups, Facebook does seem to do this quite a bit. With video events, for example, they often use Ustream. For their own events, rather than selling their own tickets, they use Eventbrite. So I’m just not sure about Facebook having “no intention” of partnering with or buying (even if only attempting to buy) other startups. “That being said, no one trusts you any more after you screwed app developers and lifted Twitter, FourSquare, Quora and countless other startups’ innovations,” Calacanis writes. Twitter was already addressed, but Foursquare is an interesting one to bring up since, again, Facebook’s location features haven’t launched yet. That said, the indications are that Facebook will actually team up with services like Foursquare in some way to federate their check-ins. This again, is hardly smashing the competition. As for Quora, it’s a product being built by ex-Facebook executives (not just your average new startup). And Facebook has already said (on Quora, no less) that it’s not trying to compete with Quora. Attica! Attica! Attica! Again, does Facebook have some privacy issues? Of course. But the real question we need to be asking ourselves is: why? Is it because the company and its CEO is evil and/or doesn’t give a shit about the users? I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: if you honestly believe that, quit Facebook immediately. Don’t blog about it, don’t tweet that you’re thinking of doing it, just do it and never look back. Personally, I have a hard time believing that. I do not believe we’re in some old-school James Bond movie where villains do evil things just to be evil. Nor do I believe this some new-school James Bond movie where villains do evil things for money. Is Facebook trying to make money? Of course. But they’d have to be the dumbest company run by some of the smartest minds in the world to start doing evil things on purpose to make money and believe that is a long-term business strategy. Everyone would follow my advice above and the company would go under. Some people (like Calacanis) think we’re seeing that now. But the fact of the matter is that despite a lot of hubbub in the tech media, most users don’t seem to be fleeing – just as they didn’t after the last flare up, and just as they didn’t the time before that. I wouldn’t be surprised if more people joined Facebook on Quit Facebook Day than actually quit. Instead, Facebook continues to grow at an expanding rate. The limiting factor there seems more likely to be the number of people on Earth rather than privacy concerns. So if the company isn’t evil and/or does actually give a shit about its users, then why are we seeing these very real privacy issues? Because they’re trying to do something very difficult. Facebook is trying to move from a service where most of the data is some level of private (which again, many people used to bitch about), to a service where much of the data is shared. If you believe them, they’re doing it because this will be the future of the web. Twitter has had this stance since their inception, so for them, there is no controversy. But considering Facebook’s more private history, the transition is rough (to say the least). This is a big, ballsy bet for them. But that’s how Facebook got to where it is today — by making big, ballsy bets. And again, I don’t think it’s in the name of screwing over the users — remember: most have signed up in the past year and don’t have the same notions of privacy on the service as some of us long-time users may. And I also don’t think this bet is entirely about making money (though some of it is). I think that many people at Facebook actually believe the steps they’re taking to make the larger web more social will lead to a better web. (If they didn’t believe that, wouldn’t we see a lot of them quitting?) And we can all take comfort in the fact that if they’re wrong, history will shove them aside. But I actually think history is on their side here. Calacanis can build cases against Apple and Facebook all he wants (and then later make a case for Apple against Facebook, or something), but the fact of the matter is that the masses aren’t with him here. Why? Either A: they clearly don’t think Apple or Facebook are evil or they wouldn’t support them the way that they are. Or B: they simply don’t give a shit. Or C: both. I’m tempted to go with C, but I’m going to go with A here. And if that’s the case, screaming “Attica!” over and over again isn’t going to work. It’s just going to make you lose your voice. Also, Lakers in 6.
[images: Warner Brothers]      
Source: TechCrunch | 5 Jun 2010 | 9:26 pm Protect Your PCs Against Adobe Security Flaws - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 5 Jun 2010 | 9:17 pm Protect Your PCs Against Adobe Security Flaws (PC World)PC World - Adobe has been very successful at establishing its products as cross-platform, operating system agnostic tools for delivering content. Unfortunately, those same attributes are also attractive reasons to attack Adobe products, and Adobe has been a little less successful at ensuring those products are secure. IT administrators need to exercise increased diligence to protect against Adobe software flaws and malicious PDF files.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Jun 2010 | 9:16 pm BP to pay legitimate claims 'for as long as it takes'BP has paid out 46 million dollars in claims since the start of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and will continue to compensate all those who have been damaged "for as long as it takes," a...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:50 pm TC Teardown: Chegg Is A Money Machine
Editor’s note: Book rental startup Chegg is making money hand over fist. Guest author Steven Carpenter does a teardown of its business model and estimates its revenues will reach $130 million this year. Carpenter was the founder and CEO of Cake Financial, which was sold to E*Trade earlier this year. Previously, he’s written TC Teardowns on Groupon and Zynga. Chegg may very well be the fastest-growing, most successful, second-generation e-commerce startup that you hardly ever hear about,except maybe for the fact that it’s raised more than $140 million. Chegg is the “Netflix for textbooks.” It lets students across 6,400 college campuses rent from a virtual bookstore containing 4.2 million books. Based on my analysis (which I get into more detail below), the company is on track to generate $130 million in revenues in 2010, up from $25 million in 2009, and $10 million in 2008. During the January, 2010 semester, I estimate the company made close to $1 million in revenue a day, up fivefold from $200,000/day the previous January, and it should double that this coming September. My analysis suggests Chegg will do close to $50 million in revenue this September alone. It is underappreciated, to say the least. Chegg is disintermediating the $5B+ college textbook market by providing a low-cost, short-term, nationwide rental alternative to the high-priced university bookstore. This disruptive model will likely shrink industry revenues by half in the coming years, with Chegg in a leadership position to command 80%+ market share. The key questions, of course, are: 1) Is this a winner-take-all market, 2) What can Chegg do to fend off the likes of the major bookstore owners, Barnes & Noble and Follet, as well as Amazon and Apple, and 3) Is Chegg a harbinger of a new age of startup rental services? Old School Not Just Extra Beer Money
While college tuition costs have far outstripped inflation, having grown at an average rate of 7.74% per year since 1978, guess what constitutes the second highest educational expense for college students? Textbooks.
And those costs have grown at an average annual rate of 6.9% over the same time period, more than the growth of medical care expenses, causing real hardship to students who can already barely afford to put themselves through school. The issue of textbook affordability is so acute that in 2005 Congress asked the Department of Education to conduct a study on the matter and then released a plan in May, 2007 to make textbooks more affordable. BMOC: Big Monopolist on Campus According to the National Association of College Stores, students have historically been paying nearly identical prices for both new and used textbooks. Last year, the average list price for a “new textbook” was $64 compared to $57 for a “used textbook.” When you consider that bookstores are making significantly higher margins on used vs. new books (35.7% to 22.3%) as a result of taking advantage of students by buying back (for very little money) the very books they just sold them last semester, its is clear that bookstores have little incentive to change. Students, on the other hand, are more than ready for a more economical solution that treats them like customers.
“Hi, I’m Chegg” Chegg launched its rental service in 2007 and it quickly gained traction with students. Highly dependent on the fall and spring semesters when the majority of textbook-buying occurs, Chegg saw a nearly 2X increase in traffic to its website from Fall, 2009 to Winter, 2010. In January, it drew 1.3 million unique visitors, according to Compete. This was 10 times more than its closest startup competitor, Bookrenter. Based on its current growth pattern, I expect to see another 2X – 2.5X increase in traffic to the website this fall.
How Fast is Chegg Growing? Sometime in 2008, Chegg began publishing on its homepage a real-time tally of the total dollars the company was saving its customers. Thanks to screenshot captures and Google image search, I was able to put together the following chart, which shows the explosive growth the company has experienced since the beginning of 2010. The company passed the $100 million savings mark on January 11, 2010 after two years of operation and needed just an additional three months to cross $200 million in May.
Financial Report Card Jim Safka, the former Chegg CEO, said in an interview that the company generated $10 million in revenues in 2008. According to a company press release, Chegg saved students just over $16 million in 2008. That means the company is saving students 63% off the list price of books and making 37% in revenue. Using this ratio, I estimate the company did close to $1 million in revenue per day during the winter semester 2009-2010, an increase of four to five times its daily average of $200,000 a day during “off peak” business days.
Based on this ratio, I estimate Chegg generated $25 million in 2009 and will do $130 million in revenues in 2010, accounting for increased traffic and awareness, almost half of which ($50 million) will come in September alone.
Based on my analysis, Chegg is likely operating at breakeven or at a slight loss each month, making the bulk of its profits in September and January. The reason for this is the complex and expensive warehouse and customer service operations required for this business. Chegg hires three different tiers of employees: full-time engineering and marketing, warehouse, and customer service. Chegg needs to preserve as much flexibility as possible with its customer service and warehouse teams, so that they can be ramped up or down depending on the time of the year. When things are slow, the company still needs to carry the costs of its warehouse. With a strong affiliate program that costs the company 8% of revenues, and its textbook buyback program, Chegg’s profitability comes down to how effectively they manage three aspects of the business: 1) textbook wholesale cost, 2) warehouse efficiency, and 3) customer service operations. These are three competencies that are very difficult to learn and mimic, creating strong barriers to entry.
Chegg is clearly planning for continued future growth. In February, the company announced plans for a brand-new warehouse facility in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, which will cost the company $27 million and employ another 100 full-time and 1,200 seasonal employees. Based on my analysis, Chegg will likely have to double its monthly revenue run rate to $10 million in order to cover these additional expenses. Chegg had previously raised $55 million in debt in November, 2009 to invest in this area. Is This A Winner-Take-All Market? The nascent textbook rental market is looking a lot like the early days of the online DVD rental business. Online-only startup, Netflix, managed to out-innovate, out-operationalize, and outlast its deeper pocketed rivals—mainly Blockbuster—that had the added advantages of a local physical storefront and customers who already rented movies! The potential challenges for Chegg look a lot like those facing Netflix a few years ago (and a key one that does not):
But here is what Chegg does better than anybody else, which makes it difficult to compete against and win:
Based on my financial analysis above, operating a physical bookstore and running an online rental service require different core competencies. I believe this is a winner-take-all business and that Chegg should control 80%+ market share over time. Strategic Plan In order to further ensure its position as market leader, I believe Chegg should position itself as the “Amazon for College Students” and cater to their unique university needs. The company should also go deep into expanding its classroom offerings, such as class notes and digital goods. Here are some other things it could do
The big question for Chegg down the line is how do they counter the cyclicality of the textbook business with more steady streams of revenue. I’d rent a novel for $5 if there was an easy way to return it. Wouldn’t you?      
Source: TechCrunch | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:44 pm BP captures 6000 barrels of oil from leaking well - Los Angeles Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:42 pm Leaked Images: Motorola branded handset with Android 2.1 for Metro PCSSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile  It looks like MetroPCS is going to be launching a pre-paid Android offering in the form of a Motorola Cliq-like handset. The device, which is clearly a Motorola is still unnamed. That said it will be coming available with Metro PCS, though the actual availability timeframe is still unknown. In terms of details, the Cliq-like device will have be running Android 2.1 with MOTOBLUR and feature a 600MHz processor and 3 megapixel camera. Otherwise the details are pretty limited, but you can see the 4-row hardware QWERTY in the images along with the home button that appears as if it will be doubling as a navigation trackpad.Finally, and this last bit is just a guestimate, but it would appear to be a 3.1 inch display, and as you can most likely guess—its probably safe to assume that its also touchscreen. Finally, once available this should take up a position as a $50 per month all-you-can-use phone. And while its not the highest spec’d Android phone expected to arrive, for $50 a month it could be an interesting alternative to some higher priced contracts. Read [AndroidGuys]  Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:30 pm Disney to enter new talks for Miramax sale-reportLOS ANGELES, June 5 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co will enter into exclusive talks on Monday to sell its Miramax film unit to Los Angeles construction magnate Ron Tutor and film financier partner David Bergstein,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:12 pm E3 2010: Video Games Live performing in LA during E3 weekFROM GAMERTELL - Video Games Live will be in LA during E3 2010. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:00 pm Calif. mom finds missing children using Facebook (AP)AP - A Southern California mother whose two children were reported missing 15 years ago has tracked them down in Florida using Facebook.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Jun 2010 | 7:55 pm Quantifying, and Dealing With, the Deepwater SpillGooseygoose writes with a link to this analysis by Boston University professor Cutler Cleveland "Some reports in the media attempt to downplay the significance of the release of oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident by arguing that natural oil seeps release large volumes of oil to the ocean, so why worry? Let's look at the numbers." Read on for a few more stories on the topic of the Deepwater Horizon spill.
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Source: Slashdot | 5 Jun 2010 | 7:24 pm Mom finds her kidnapped kids via Facebook - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 5 Jun 2010 | 7:00 pm Notion Ink Adam delayed until November
What will be going on in November to thwart the poor Adam? Well, Chrome OS will be coming out, the new iPhone will be in stores, half those new tablets will be shipping, HP will likely have announced its webOS tablet, and who knows what else. It’s too bad, but with a serious delay like this it just doesn’t seem like the Adam will have any kind of pull on the consumer mind around that time. Alas! The reason for the delay is manifold: hardware scarcity, Flash compatibility troubles, and shareholder meddling are all fingered as partly responsible. Otherwise we might have seen it as early as July — not a possibility now, I’m afraid.
Source: CrunchGear | 5 Jun 2010 | 6:57 pm How to Make a Bigger Black Hole JetAstronomers from NASA and MIT think they have found a way to explain the vast zoo of jets blasting from black holes in some active galaxies.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 5 Jun 2010 | 6:33 pm Join The Cult! Facebook Hoodie With Mysterious Insignia Found On eBay
Tweets abound about Facebook’s Illuminati-like status. The folks at SFWeekly managed to recreate the diagram and did a thorough analysis on what it might mean. The Next Web thought it was creepy. And back at Facebook HQ, three goats were sacrificed in an attempt to ward off yet another wave of bad press. Now, one Facebook employee has apparently tired of leading a life shrouded in secrecy — they’ve put their hoodie up for sale on eBay. It’s described as “the exact same” as the one Mark Zuckerberg wore to the conference. And while it’s unclear whether the hoodie alone is enough to gain official entrance into Facebook’s cult (you may have to go through an interview or two), it’s probably enough to blend in at the weekly midnight bonfires. Don’t be surprised if other enterprising cult members decide to sell off their hoodies in the near future to capitalize on the public’s increased awareness. Oh, and 15% of the proceeds of this sale are apparently being donated to the EFF. Here’s the description:
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:31 pm Sony Reader availability to expand internationally later this yearSection: Gadgets / Other, ebooks  It seems as if Sony will have their Reader available on an international basis later in the year. According to some details posted over on the Sony Insider blog;
As of now, Sony has not announced any pricing or specific availability dates. Its also unknown as to what plans they have in regards to the ebook store that goes along with the Sony Reader (at least here in the US market). Read [Sony Insider] Via [CrunchGear]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:30 pm UPDATE 1-Bristol drug extends survival in deadly skin cancer* 10-month median survival; 4 months longer than vaccineSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:30 pm The Apple Broadcast NetworkHodejo1 writes "In 1959 5,749,000 television sets were sold in the US, bringing the cumulative total of sets sold since 1950 to 63,542,128 units. This number supported, through advertising, three national television networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS (a fourth, Dumont, folded in 1956) and numerous local independent stations. Now here are another set of numbers. As of April this year Apple sold 75 million iPhone and iPod touch units, devices capable of delivering video via Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Add to that figure 2 million iPads and counting. By the end of the year Apple should have about 90 million smart mobile devices in the wild. That makes a proprietary amalgam greater than what the TV networks had in 1959 and one that easily serves as a foundation for a pending broadcast network that will be delivered not through tall radio towers, but through small wireless hubs and the Internet. Call it the Apple Broadcast Network. iAd is how Apple plans to pay for it."
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Source: Slashdot | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:30 pm UPDATE 1-Sprycel tops Gleevec in newly diagnosed CML-study* Novartis drug Tasigna tops Gleevec in similar study (Recasts, updates with quote from meeting)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:14 pm Video Games Live performance to air July 2010 on PBSFROM GAMERTELL - Video Games Live won’t be so live in this upcoming PBS special which will coincide with CD, DVD and Blu-ray releases of the event… Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:00 pm Pharmacyclics lymphoma drug shows continued promiseCHICAGO, June 5 (Reuters) - The latest results from a small, early stage trial of Pharmacyclics Inc's experimental drug for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma showed about 49 percent of patients responded to it,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 4:44 pm Google to provide data to European authorities (Reuters)Reuters - Google Inc said on Saturday it would hand over data it collected through wireless networks to French, German and Spanish authorities as it faces mounting legal issues concerning its data collection.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Jun 2010 | 4:41 pm Google to provide data to European authoritiesLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Google Inc said on Saturday it would hand over data it collected through wireless networks to French, German and Spanish authorities as it faces mounting legal...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2010 | 4:41 pm Microsoft Cancels Bing Cash-Back Programpjfontillas writes "Yusuf Mehdi, Senior Vice President of Microsoft's Online Audience Business Group, has recently announced: 'One of the principles we have here at Bing is to constantly experiment and learn. We do this to ensure we are keeping pace with new social and technology trends, and can continue to deliver great value for our customers and advertisers. As part of this "test-and-learn" mentality, we will be retiring the Bing cashback feature, which means that the last day you can earn cashback will be July 30, 2010.' From the look of the comments, Microsoft has at least 35 saddened users. eWeek does a follow-up attempting to explain the situation in more detail."
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Source: Slashdot | 5 Jun 2010 | 4:27 pm Democratizing Talent: Guy Oseary, Greyson Chance, NowMov, IndieGoGo and the Future of Talent
I get home after a long day and there’s an email from the founders of Nowmov waiting for me in my inbox. I had recently invested in the angel round in Nowmov along with Ron Conway, Ashton Kutcher and others. Ashton had helped seed the idea of Nowmov and introduced me to the team. Their vision: to use the collective intelligence of the masses to watch the most popular videos and content on the Internet in real-time. When I met the incredible team behind them (YCombinator and former Apple engineers) I wrote the check on the spot. The idea of creating customizable channels programmed by the hearts and souls of humanity moved me. Little did I know, just how moved I would be until that little email was sitting in my inbox waiting for me to click on it. The email was a link to Posterous where the Nowmov founders had created a forum for the investors to get updated and get feedback. I remember thinking ‘this is really neat.’ I saw a comment from another awesome angel, Andrea Zurek, a good friend and early googler who now is part of XG angels (ex-googlers). I responded right after saying,”I wish all startups communicated this way with their investors and advisors!” Then I clicked on Nowmov to help give further feedback to the founders. Immediately, the NowMov channels highest ranking video popped up showing me what video humanity was most loving that very second. The video was titled “Paparazzi” and in it is a kid sitting at a grand piano on stage that looks like a school auditorium. My first thought was, ‘heh, he looks a lot like my son, Cyrus, who’s 12. On the piano he is playing the cords to the widely popular song Paparazzi. Behind him on the raised stage is a bunch of teenage girls about the same age of the piano player. They all look kind of bored in the beginning. After about 30 seconds, I am thinking, ‘heh, nice piano playing but I’ve seen better.” The girls in the background look like they are thinking the same thing. But then at :33 seconds this boy opened his mouth. And out flowed a voice that immediately hits your heart. You can see the ripple effect across the faces of the girls. Theirs eyes widen. They turn to each other in shock and smile. You can see as he continues to flex his vocal skills they continue to be shocked and smile in wonderment. In their faces you see reflected the reactions of the whole word. A superstar is born before our very eyes. This boy has the potential to be his generation’s Elton John or Billy Joel. His name is Greyson Chance. It’s a name we will all know. I immediately shoot an email to my friend, Guy Oseary, the superstar manager to Madonna and many more top stars. The title of the email said, “You must sign him today!!! He’s a superstar!!” Sixty seconds later my iPhone rings and it’s Guy. “I just met with him!”, Guy said. Guy was already on top of it and meeting with him and his mother all day. Meanwhile, over 40 other competing agents were trying to get to them. But when you could have Guy Oseary as your manager why would go anywhere else? The video quickly to over 4 million views in one day, after Ellen then featured it, and has now crossed 20 million views. The next day he performed on Ellen live! (Note: Guy and Greyson just announced that they have officially joined forces!) I’ve watching this video many times. It’s playing as I write these words and tears of inspiration flow as I watch the transformation in the audience from boredom to wonderment in 30 seconds. The video captures a moment in time where this boy transforms before our eyes like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. One minute he was an unknown somewhere in the world practicing in his living room countless hours to an audience of none and the next he is performing for the entire world. The more access the world can have to resources to develop their natural talents the better. At the same time we must develop ever more channels for that talent to shine and be discoverable. Platforms like IndieGoGo and Kickstarter are now helping fund independent talent through crowdsourcing funding. My son Cyrus is about to fund his trip to train at the Shaolin Temple and my daughter Darya is going to raise funding for her iPillow invention using IndieGoGo! They are so excited! The Bake Sales of the past are now digital. And once the talent is developed and trained we have new services like NowMov to discover them and share our discoveries on Facebook and Twitter. As an angel investor, I have learned that investing in people always trumps everything else. So a future where people and talent are ever more discoverable is exciting time to be alive. There are countless others in so many fields who are waiting to be discovered. He might be coding away in a tiny apartment in Moscow. She might be writing the next great novel in Buenos Aires. He’s composing the next great classical sonata in Karachi. He might be designing the next great wave of architecture in Tehran. She might be painting her way to the next Picasso. He’s discovering a cure for a cancer in Kenya. We are the crowd
     
Source: TechCrunch | 5 Jun 2010 | 4:19 pm MorphOS 2.5 Released, Supports More Old MacsAn anonymous reader writes "The MorphOS Team has released version 2.5 of its PPC computer-only operating system. The new version extends its support of the PPC Mac range to include the eMac, which was the 2002-2006 Mac model consisting of a CRT monitor and computer in a single housing. MorphOS previously and continues to support the PPC Mac mini, as well as the Pegasos and Efika niche computers (all discontinued but available second-hand). MorphOS includes a web-browser and TCP/IP stack and a few traditional baseline OS-associated apps among its features. Further software is available from a range of online repositories. MorphOS 2.5 comes on a bootable 30-minute demo LiveCD ISO which may also be installed. The ISO is available for free download by anyone. The 30 minute limit is removed by online purchase of registration/key-file which is available for a limited period for the sum of 111 euros to celebrate the launch of this version."
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Source: Slashdot | 5 Jun 2010 | 3:25 pm Motorola Droid Xtreme shows up with more leaked imagesSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile  The Motorola Xtreme, which has also been called the Motorola Shadow and the Motorola Droid 2 is like the BlackBerry Bold 9800 Slider in two ways—first they are both smartphones and second they both like to turn up in leaked in-the-wild-style images. That said, here we have two more images of the Motorola Droid Xtreme, which as you can see, pretty clearly show off the front and backsides of the device. We had previously learned that the Xtreme would have an 8 megapixel camera (similar to the Droid Incredible) however it seems to also have dual-LED flash. This device looks like it may offer some competition for the current top dog, the EVO 4G. And the Android battle will continue, this time between Sprint and Verizon. Funny, at this point it seems hard to remember that Android really kicked off with T-Mobile and the G1. Read [Droid-Life.com]  Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 2:30 pm SpaceX's Falcon 9 Appears As UFO In AustraliaRobHart writes "ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Commission) has reported extensively on a bright spiraling light that was seen in Eastern Australia just before dawn. They have just broadcast a report from an Australian astronomer who has suggested that the light was probably the successful Falcon 9 launch, which would have been over Australia at that time on its launch trajectory." Update: 06/05 22:20 GMT by T : Setting aside the literal exhaust fumes, reader FleaPlus says It's "interesting to look at the reactions from those in Congress who control the purse-strings for NASA (one of SpaceX's biggest customers). The successful launch was congratulated by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL and former astronaut) and Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL), both praised and criticized by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) due to the successful launch being a year later than previously predicted, and blasted by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) for merely replicating what 'NASA accomplished in 1964,' who added that the company's success 'must not be confused with progress for our nation's human spaceflight program.'"
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Source: Slashdot | 5 Jun 2010 | 2:21 pm Free apps roundup for June 4th, 2010FROM APPLETELL - This week is sure to make foodies, FourSquarers and more very happy, as Betty Crocker, Cirque du Soleil, Iron Man and LOLCats all make appearances. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 2:00 pm Apple guru Andy Ihnatko on the iPhone, iPad and why WWDC is all about apps (Appolicious)Appolicious - The new iPhone will finally be unveiled at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference on Monday. Before getting to know the new iPhone, we checked in with Apple aficionado Andy Ihnatko about the impact to date of Apple's last major announcement - the iPad.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Jun 2010 | 1:56 pm Malfunction Costs Couple $11 Million Slot Machine Jackpotainandil writes "Engineering mistakes, while frustrating, seldom definitively alter the end user's life. Not so in Cripple Creek Colorado — MaryAnn and Jim McMahon thought their money troubles were over when they hit an $11 million jackpot at a casino Tuesday. Before paying the jackpot, the Wildwood Casino turned the machine over to the Colorado Gaming Division for inspection. A glitch was found, aha! The Wildwood Casino blamed a slot machine malfunction for the $11 million jackpot. Total actually won by the McMahons? $1627.82."
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Source: Slashdot | 5 Jun 2010 | 1:19 pm Why Privacy Failures Are In Facebook’s DNA
Elias Bizannes is the chairperson and executive director of the DataPortability Project; founder of the Startup Bus; creator of the Silicon Beach community; and manages the finance function at search engine startup Vast.com. He previously was at PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia, where he rolled out a CEO-sponsored social media program using to change collaboration practices at the firm and make it more “open”. In this guest post, he tackles the cultural roots of Facebook’s ongoing privacy problems and suggests a solution in the form of a clear data portability policy. Facebook’s technological prowess is tarnishing its image, which could damage its long-term corporate success. What worked for Facebook when innovating as a startup with a superior service, will not work when the technology manipulates the personal information of its community—without its perceived permission—especially once Facebook starts to monetize that information. If Facebook really wants to change the world, then it should start at home and not expect the world adapt to it. The Facebook Culture: Do Now, Fix Later The hacker mentality extends to Facebook’s practices with member privacy. When Robert Scoble posted a private exchange with Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg expressed this culture with these words:
This is the kind of statement a good entrepreneur would make at most startups in Silicon Valley. It is not what the CEO of a globally significant company should espouse. Because when you already matter to the world, when you have built a community nearly 500-million strong, your existence is dictated more so by your environment. Facebook is no longer a startup; it’s a company with a vast community, levying an impact so large that US senators bother to take the time to ask questions about company practices. Entrepreneurs might prefer a do-now, talk-later culture; but when you build a company on the philosophy of community and that has a global impact, you must engage members in a continuous dialog that demonstrates authentic concern for their needs and expectations. “Stakeholder management” Stakeholder management isn’t just about listening, it’s about managing expectations and honoring relationships. Companies have stakeholders who are not just their shareholders; they are their employees, the local communities, and their customers (to name a few). These stakeholders might not have the traditional power of executive management or investors, but their vote matters just as much and sometimes more. Facebook’s users may not be their customers, but they are its stakeholders. Because of Facebook’s hacker culture, the company can’t recognize the problem: even if they incorporate every pixel of feedback, they still are not going to succeed because stakeholder management is less about logic and more about emotion. It’s giving people a sense of control over an outcome that affects them and their data. Zuck: Take a lesson from the marketplace. (The real one.) Disclosing your expectations and having your stakeholders informed can determine how companies on stock exchanges survive. In this vein, Facebook needs to recognize that it is no longer good enough to rely on its hacker culture to charm its community. Hacking works for product development, it doesn’t work for privacy—and while Facebook is not (yet) a public company, it needs to start practicing better stakeholder management with its community if it hopes to play with the big boys. That’s not to say stakeholder management will make Facebook boring and predictable. Look at Apple. Apple is now one of the largest companies in the world and it’s anything but boring. And as its CEO Steve Jobs said on stage this week, the company still operates like a startup. It’s not an easy thing to do, but done right, magic can happen (like the complete reinvention of a company, an industry, and a person as has happened with the Apple story). What’s Next: The Portability Policy We started with the observation that the current ToS and EULA model—those hundred page legal documents you are forced to agree to in order to use a service—are often ignored by consumers and hence they are surprised when they get a service enforcing its terms. We believed a simpler way is needed to communicate what a service does with respect to a person’s data and what rights they have over it. Later this month, we will be formally announcing our initiative which we call the “Portability Policy”. This will be a set of questions a company can answer (with no right or wrong answers) that discloses what people can do with their data. The goal of this initiative is to create better communication in the marketplace between service providers and end-users. With better communications, we also hope this will give better clarity to what users can come to expect. And while this might not solve all of Facebook’s problems, it could be a tool that Facebook and other hacker-culture startups could use to better manage their stakeholder relationships and give users a sense of control. This is so they can iterate their technology in parallel, to innovate their products and pursue profitability. The real challenge with data portability isn’t technical so much as cultural. As Chris Saad, who coined the term and helped found the movement, correctly pointed out in a post last week, Facebook’s vision was not clearly documented in its social contract. We want to help fix that. The Portability Policy will be released soon and we look forward to launching a discussion about it. In the mean time, you can sign up and be among the first to adopt this new framework for communication and give feedback. For more, visit http://PortabilityPolicy.org/. Photo credit: Flickr/Massimo Barbieri.      
Source: TechCrunch | 5 Jun 2010 | 12:50 pm Porn Sites Pop Up In Chinacrimeandpunishment writes "It may only be a temporary glitch, but it's one that's providing some pleasure for internet users in China. Previously blocked websites, including ones with pornography, are suddenly accessible in China. The country has a long history of cracking down on online pornography. One analyst says it's far more likely that this is a glitch, not a change in internet censorship policy."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 5 Jun 2010 | 12:20 pm Bloosky Is Out, Original Founders Win Back Tracking202
In his blog post this morning, Mahler did not fully explain why the Blooksy, Tracking202 deal fell apart, but he talked about returning Tracking202 Mahler did not divulge his grand plan for Tracking202′s makeover, but he did hint at “fairly large changes” and the discontinuation of Tracking 202 Pro. Tracking 202 Pro was the company’s paid version of its tracking software, which differed from the free model by offering higher integration with the major pay per click networks and more sophisticated cost tracking analysis. There’s a lot of unanswered questions here: why did the Bloosky deal disintegrate so quickly (and how ugly was this break-up), how did the founders broker this re-acquisition (also, how much), and what will become of Tracking202? We have an e-mail in to the founders. Full announcement below:
     
Source: TechCrunch | 5 Jun 2010 | 11:41 am BlackBerry 6 (on a Blackberry 9800) gets a 16 minute video walkthroughSection: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile Here we have a nice 16 minute and 45 second video showing off BlackBerry 6 in action. The good news here is that you get a really good look at BlackBerry 6, plus its shown running on a BlackBerry Bold 9800. The bad news is that its not in English. But hey, if you are not fluent in Chinese you can always hit mute for a few minutes. Either way, with or without sound its still an interesting video. Watch [youku.com] Via [BerryScoop] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 11:30 am Does the Internet Make Humanity Smarter Or Dumber?Nemilar writes "The Wall Street Journal is running a pair of articles asking whether the internet is making humanity smarter or dumber. The argument for 'smarter' is that the internet is simply a change in the rules of publishing, and that the bad material is thrown away; the second story critiques the 'information overload' aspect of the internet, claiming that we have traded depth of knowledge for velocity and span. What do you think? Does the internet make you stupid?"
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Source: Slashdot | 5 Jun 2010 | 11:17 am Appletell reviews the LA robe iPad sleeveFROM APPLETELL - This is just a sleeve. Nothing more. It’s well designed and constructed, fashionable, but do you want your iPad case to be this simple? Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 11:00 am Quick tips to foil Mac break-in attempts (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - As Mac users, many of us donât spend as much time worrying about security as our counterparts on other platforms. While itâs true that Macs donât encounter as much malware as Windows, though, it hardly means weâre immune from security risks, as I discovered myself this week.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Jun 2010 | 10:00 am HTC Evo 4G - black (Sprint) - New York Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 5 Jun 2010 | 9:10 am Can Apple's Winning Streak Continue With The Next iPhone?SAN FRANCISCO - Apple's next-generation iPhone, which CEO Steve Jobs is widely expected to unveil Monday, will have to really set new standards in multimedia content and function to wow Wall Street and consumers.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:49 am BlackBerry Bold 9800 Slider surfaces with a series of glamour shotsSection: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile  With little surprise at this point, we have yet another series of BlackBerry Bold 9800 images that have hit the interwebs. Though, this latest does appear more like glamour shots as compared to the regular spy shot style. Either way we are given a pretty good look at the front, back, top, keyboard and even the SIM and microSD card slots. Overall, not much new was really learned, but it was mentioned again that the 9800 slider is not a SurePress BlackBerry. Otherwise, enjoy the images below… Read [BlackBerryTimes] Via [CrackBerry]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:30 am EA, Playfish take to the pitch with FIFA Superstars for FacebookFROM GAMERTELL - With soccer mania running wild due to the World Cup tourney, EA and Playfish have hit Facebook with their first collaboration called FIFA Superstars… Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:00 am Startups: Poverty is Underrated. Be Glad That You’re Not Rich
First, the CEO will feel pressure from investors to upgrade the management team and bring in “grown up” supervision. This doesn’t always work out as planned. Seasoned managers want bigger salaries and larger chunks of equity. VCs usually expect a portfolio company to use a preferred headhunter to find the rockstar VP of sales. Naturally, the headhunter also wants an equity stake, on top of a finder’s fee in the neighborhood of six figures. When the rockstar manager arrives, often coming from a big company, he/she may expect rockstar perks—a secretary, first-class travel, a limo to the airport, etc. These factors can serve to disrupt what must be the core focus of any startup—pulling in revenues as quickly as possible to forestall death. When employees see their bosses spending freely, they too stop worrying about keeping costs down and don’t care as much if a sales cycle stretched out longer. This attitude can kill a company. Second, outside money usually brings expectations of very rapid growth and a de-emphasis on profitability. VCs wants a home run, not a single or a double. And they want the home run within five years or less. Founders, not VCs, know the proper pace of growth for a company. And a founder is far more likely to drive a company toward profitability if he’s is about to lose his life’s savings. A founder in this position turns every person in the company into a salesperson, and that’s the best model for a scrappy startup. In the end, this creates a company DNA emphasizing profitability above all else. That’s critical for success. This happened in both of my startups. When my company accepted outside money, I immediately saw in board meetings and in company decisions that the focus was on growing revenues quickly but not necessarily sustainably. It was harder to maintain customer relationships built on trust when we also faced expectations to sell as much product as possible as quickly as possible, regardless of customer needs. Yes, sales guys should be hungry. But they should also have a long-term view on customer relationships and focus on profits rather than on top-line growth. Third, outside money means that management itself spends less time thinking about customers and more time thinking about keeping the board of directors happy. Founding management is invariably far closer to the customers than the board is. And the more time and focus management can direct toward customers, the better. The outside money blurs the perception of who pays the bills. In the short run, that may actually be the VCs who have just sunk a chunk into the company. But in the long run, it’s always the customers. This was exactly my experience as a startup CEO. As soon as venture money came in, I began spending significant amounts of time worrying about justifying my actions or framing my decisions to gain the support of the board. Pleasing board members became an unnecessary priority. That made it harder for me to focus on pleasing my customers. Academic research also shows that undercapitalization isn’t necessarily a bad thing for startups. Professors David Townsend of NC State University and Lowell Busenitz of University of Oklahoma studied 79 companies that were funded during a 10-year period. They found, not surprisingly, that the combination of strong management teams with strong technologies correlated with success. But moderate levels of undercapitalization—even capitalization ratios as low as 20% of the venture’s initial goals—are not statistically related to a venture’s probability of surviving. So, are rockstar management teams, boards, and VCs bad? By no means am I suggesting this. They can all be huge assets and major contributors to your success. And sometimes big capital is required for fast growth. In startups that actually need to produce a physical good, a huge capital ramp is usually necessary to get the factories rolling, even if they are on a contract basis. Bringing in rockstar management can make it easier to raise capital, for example, when the company is truly running on fumes and is almost out of options. The point is that money by itself won’t make you successful; it may well cause you to fail. I will take an inexperienced, hungry, cash-strapped startup team over a well-oiled team of Google or Microsoft veterans any day. Hungry companies figure out ways to keep eating because they don’t know whether there will ever be another meal. Veterans and serialists worry less about failure and are therefore more likely to fail. This, in a nutshell, is why it’s so hard to find examples of people who have grown more than one company to considerable size. And this is also why less money means more chances for success at most startups. Capital starvation leads to innovation. Slim bank accounts are the best way to motivate sales people. So don’t worry if you think you don’t have enough capital. Instead, be grateful for your sense of urgency. Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa      
Source: TechCrunch | 5 Jun 2010 | 8:00 am Petition To Enable Paid Android Apps In More Countries Draws Thousands
Today, supported locations for merchants now also include Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands and Spain. People living in a handful of other countries, like Switzerland and Japan, also have the opportunity to purchase applications, but developers can’t sell their apps there either. As for the rest of the world – incl. Belgium (lol), where I live – tough luck. While users and developers in most countries are free to buy and sell apps through third-party marketplaces such as SlideME, priced application support for Android Market is inexistent. And this irks plenty of Android developers and users all over the globe tremendously. Swedish mobile app developer Mobisle Apps has been particularly vocal about the slow international roll-out of priced application support. They’ve considered setting up a business in the UK for the sole reason of being able to make money off their apps at some point, and more recently the small startup set up an online petition while saying they are getting so tired of the situation that they’re considering moving to other platforms altogether (cough iPhone OS cough). The petition has so far collected more than 3,600 signatures in a matter of ten days, nearly 1,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook and hundreds of tweets. While many of the people who signed the petition live in Sweden or neighbor countries and are not necessarily affected by the lack of more international support for paid Android apps in Market, likely hundreds of those come from frustrated developers. Meanwhile, Google claims it is “working hard” for more support, but can’t provide any guidance on timing whatsoever. Frankly, I’m not really sure what is taking Google so long to roll out paid app support in more countries, and developers don’t seem to understand either. Technically, it must have something to do with the Google Checkout merchant service and infrastructure. I’m sure they have their reasons for the delay, but it’s kind of insane that Android Market will soon be two years old and they’re still being sluggish about this. We all know how important the success of Android is to Google, and worldwide sales of Android-powered handsets are booming. What’s up with holding back international monetization efforts at scale for Android Market (which would benefit users, developers but also Google)? Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 5 Jun 2010 | 6:07 am The Good Food Guide For CockroachesEver wondered how cockroaches seem to know the best place to grab a meal? New research at Queen Mary, University of London suggests that, just like humans, they share their local knowledge of the best food sources and follow 'recommendations' from others.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:50 am Will The Apple Conference Yield New iPhone Model?After several leaks of prototypes, it is quite certain that Apple will unleash a new version of its popular iPhone during its annual software developers conference that opens in San Francisco on Monday.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:40 am New Sony Collar Allows Your Cat To TweetSony has developed the purr-fect device for your frisky feline -- a cat collar that will trigger tweets based on your cat’s actions, such as eating, jumping, running and sleeping. Sony’s Computer Science Lab recently demonstrated a prototype of Cat@Log.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:30 am Feeling Blue? Your Clothes Can HelpPeople could soon have smart clothing that will offer emotional support and help them with modern-day stresses. The sample garments, created as part of an artistic project called Wearable Absence, monitor physiological changes including heart rate and temperature.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:21 am Google privacy issues, HP layoffs, a look ahead - BusinessWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 5 Jun 2010 | 5:05 am The deVere Group Offers New Online Trading Service, Reinforcing Its Position as Online Market LeaderBIRKIRKARA, Malta, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The deVere Group is pleased to announce the launch of deVere Group Online Trading, an online service which offers spread trading and Contracts for Difference trading to its clients worldwide.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2010 | 4:18 am Guestbook from the Merril Collection, Toronto's science fiction reference library More scenes from a book-tour: last night I wrapped up this leg of the tour (I'll be back in the US at the end of June for American Library Association and Copynight in DC, as well as an appearance at Red Emma's, co-sponsored by Baltimore Node). The final stop was my hometown, Toronto, at the Merril Collection, the largest public science fiction reference collection in the world (it was stupendous, with a huge crowd of friends old and new). Which brings me to this photo. The Merril has a beautiful guestbook with signatures from the members of the public and the science fiction luminaries who visited over the years. When we visited it as a class in 1983 (a transformational event in my life), we all signed the guestbook. Last night, I had a long peruse through the book (lingering over the signatures from the likes of Theodore Sturgeon!) and found this page, with the names of all my school-chums from grade 7. Also note the signature from "Timmy" Wu, who now goes by Tim Wu, and is the excellent writer and thinker who (among other things), came up with the term "Net Neutrality." The guestbook is nearly full after several decades, and about to be replaced with a new, equally lovely hand-made number. If you're in Toronto, be sure to visit the Merril and ask to see it (as well as the rest of the wonderful collection). They also archive all my manuscripts (along with many other writers'), along with lots of other really fascinating material.
Merril Collection guestbook page, my 1983 visit, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.JPG
Inadvertent Tetris in everyday life "Tetris Tetris everywhere" is a Flickr set by L-Plate Big Cheese, documenting everyday objects that appear to be caught in the midst of a heavy round of tetrising. Tetris Tetris everywhere (via Kottke) (Image: Tetris Billboard | Vietnam, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from jesuspresley's photostream)
 Source: Boing Boing | 5 Jun 2010 | 3:17 am World's tiniest open source violin Inspired by this XKCD strip, MaskedRetriever created a model for "the world's tinest open source violin," which you can use to offer mock sympathy to people who didn't listen when you warned them of the dangers of proprietary software and who've now been bitten on the ass by it. Erik fabbed it and it's playing even now. Speaking of which: recently, a librarian friend was telling me that her collection had gotten an extra staffer that they'd been begging for for more than 20 years, but that they weren't allowed to teach this new person anything about cataloguing. That's because their site license for their proprietary cataloging software requires that they pay for another seat for every person in the department who is qualified to catalog, and they can't afford another seat.
Tiny Open Violin by Erik
(via Make)
Everyone on TV reads the same newspaper Everybody on TV and in movies reads the same newspaper, it seems. And they've been reading that standard newspaper prop for decades. At a guess: paranoid studio lawyers don't want to use real newspapers because they think that they might get a copyright complaint from the paper (despite this incidental use being clearly fair use), so they insist that set-dressers all use the same prop that's fully rights-cleared.
Katus Crossoverek (újság)
(via Waxy)
Fish oil and snake oilWriting in The Guardian, Ben "Bad Science" Goldacre debunks a story published in sister paper The Observer about the supposed benefits of fish oil. Not only were the study and its results badly misreported (it wasn't even a study on fish-oil, but rather on Omega-3 fatty acids), but it constitutes part of a larger pattern of bad reporting that ultimately benefits dietary supplement vendors who make insane, unsubstantiated claims about their products' benefits.Fish oil in the Observer: the return of a $2bn friend (Image: Fish oil caps, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from spcummings's photostream)
Source: Boing Boing | 5 Jun 2010 | 3:00 am
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In his most recent email blast-turned-
This guest post was written by 
Less than a year ago, affiliate ad network 
Raising millions of dollars from VCs is still the tech entrepreneurs’ dream. Entrepreneurs believe that a hoard of cash in the bank will give them the luxury of developing better products, marketing the heck out of them, and reaping the rewards with big sales and an eventual IPO. But more often than not, the money is a curse. When a company is running on a tight budget, it will usually perform far better than a company that is well capitalized. In my experience, having too much money always leads to bad habits.
Next August, it will be 2 years since Google 
If this had been a trial to detect whether omega-3 improves performance, it would be laughably small: a dozen children in each group. While small studies aren't entirely useless, as amateurs often claim, you do have a very small number of observations to work from, so your study is much more prone to error from the simple play of chance. A study with 11 children in each arm could conceivably detect an effect, but only if the fish oil caused a gigantic and unambiguous improvement in all the children who got it, and none on placebo improved.