Clever Advertising – Darth Vader TomTom Voice
May 31, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
I must have slept through marketing/advertising when I was in business school. Either that or it was mind-numbingly boring. This is a perfect example of an advertisement that’s worth watching. Sadly, it worked on me and I’ll probably be buying Darth Vader to boss me around in my car. Nice job TomTom.
New Post on BiP Blog – Facebook’s New Privacy Settings
May 31, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Close, but no cigar on Facebook’s new privacy settings. Check out this post on the Business is Pleasure blog.
http://bip.softwarejewel.com/technology/facebook-gets-a-bit-of-privacy-religion-4056/
Google has it’s own trading floor now?
May 31, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Quite by accident, while looking for something else, I stumbled across this Bloomberg Business Week post about Google hiring traders to build up it’s own trading floor. The idea is to be more active in managing Google’s considerable war-chest of cash and other investments.
From the Bloomberg Story
Those are some very deep pockets. I recall from reading The Google Story that Google broke years of Wall Street tradition with how they conducted their IPO. Somehow they bent Wall Street to their will with an extremely egalitarian approach to the IPO. I wonder how Wall Street feels about the Google behemoth building up it’s own trading floor? With this, lots of money, and their considerable expertise in algorithms I picture a huge room full of quants and Google powered servers conducting high frequency trades making Google richer and richer…
I also wonder how such a huge, cash rich, public company can stay on the “Don’t be Evil” wagon.
Check out the full Bloomberg BW story here:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_23/b4181033582670.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5
Philly Starter Stories – Paul Wright of Mediavix
May 30, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Another engaging entrepreneur from Philadelphia Startup Leaders Startup Stories interview series. Mediavix has a complicated mission…measuring and managing brand relationships.
Great Moments in Software Suck – Daily WTF
May 30, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
I was doing some research to figure out if my growing frustration with Rails was just a character flaw on my part (probably…I might not be cool enough to use it properly) when I discovered the completely awesome Daily WTF. There I found this and many other gems of software ineptitude. Definitely worth a daily visit to put things into perspective.
Cool Web Application: Dribbble
May 29, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · 1 Comment
No, it’s not mispelled. Check out Dribbble (dribbble.com). This site is done in Ruby on Rails by two developers in Salem, MA…Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett. I listened to a recent interview with them on the Ruby on Rails Podcast and swung by the site to check it out. I was mesmerized and lost about an hour of my life staring at it.
The site allows designers to showcase snippets of their work. I’m sure I haven’t grasped all of the applications for the site, but it looks like a great place to get feedback on your projects, UI’s, site designs, etc. as well as possibly to collaborate with clients. Hope these guys are successful…looks great and is a very creative concept. Good luck!
Wired Magazine iPad App
May 28, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
The Wired app for iPad is flying of the iTune’s store’s virtual shelves. I plan to download it this afternoon and have it entertain me through the Memorial Day weekend here in the US. We’re starting to work on iPhone/iPad development and I’m having trouble making peace with Objective-C (more on that later). My issues with the technology aside, this is becoming a remarkably active space for cool applications. This video has me wondering if I’ll ever read a print magazine again.
Unlearn Your MBA – Talk by David Heinemeier Hansson at Stanford
May 24, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Stanford has an awesome set of talks available online or via iTunes as part of their Technology Ventures Program. This particular one is a riot from the creator of Ruby on Rails. It’s long, but worth watching. Sadly, to get all of the profanity (I admit it was the ‘Explicit’ tag in iTunes that drew me to this one) you’ll have to go to the iTunes feed…they’ve bleeped them out in this video.
My favorite part, if you don’t have time to sit through it all, starts at 7:41…check it out. Hilarious and unfortunately very true.
Android Powered Google TV
May 20, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Google TV was announced today at the Google I/O conference. See the video below for the marketing propaganda. More interesting is the announcement on the Sony Site about android development tools for Google TV. This could be some very cool stuff…
Failure
May 17, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
As someone who’s failed completely, and often, although you shouldn’t plan for it you can always learn from it.