SiliconBeat: Wilson Sonsini: VCs going to China & India at unprecedented rate

Is it a bubble or is it not? That seems to be a very good question as more and more people pile money into different parts of the world.

My gut feeling is that China may be a bubble whereas India is not. I have no experience in making such calls so feel free to ridicule me. My logic? India's growth is based on (somewhat) more sound economic principles whereas China feels to me like a house of cards being built up by the government and well-connected industries.

I've also been reading about funds heading into Israel and parts of eastern Europe. If things settle in the Middle East, I can see a lot of excitement in that area as well.
SiliconBeat: Wilson Sonsini: VCs going to China & India at unprecedented rate

Bona tempora volvantur--by Guy Kawasaki: The Art of Sucking Down

As a fairly insignificant clog in the greater Cisco machine (ok, a TOTALLY insignificant clog in the greater Cisco machine) I really appreciated Guy Kawasaki's thoughts on sucking down.

Bona tempora volvantur--by Guy Kawasaki: The Art of Sucking Down

Free Donald Trump Tickets

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Everyone’s favorite boss is speaking next weekend in San Francisco and he will share his knowledge on how to get rich! Rich! RICH!!!


Normally, tickets to attend this once-in-a-lifetime event can go for several hundred dollars a piece. But through my EXCLUSIVE agreement with the Trump empire, I am able to offer four pairs ABSOLUTELY FREE (some conditions apply).

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In the comic “Bloom County”, the brain of Donald Trump is removed from his body and transplanted in which character:

A) Opus the Penguin
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C) Milo

Good luck!
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Plugged In: Global warming could melt your portfolio - Mar. 21, 2006

Nice to see where business is succeeding where governments (especially here in the US), again, for the unteenth million time, have so miserably miserably failed.

It used to be if you were an environmentally-conscious company it was (falsely) assumed you were losing money. Finally the tables have turned and it becoming apparent that it is the environmentally-damaging companies that are really at risk of losing the bottom and top lines.

Global warming is happening, there is not doubt about it. And like anytime in history when an organism fails to adapt to the new climate, they die (think dinosaurs... which seem to have a lot in common with some companies.)

Now think about it, if you were an investor during the late Cretaceous period, would you have placed a bet on dinosaurs?

Fast Forward: Facing reality about climate change - Feb. 24, 2006

Oh well, better late than never I suppose....

The secret behind Web 2.0

So I've just spent a couple of hours of a sunny California Saturday afternoon indoors surfing blogs checking out photos and watching goofy videos on YouTube.

I have it all figured out...

Web 2.0 is all about doing sweet F-A with your time.

HD DVD and Blu-ray get launch dates - vnunet.com

"Both formats ready to rumble" says the article.

Wow... HD DVD vs. Blu-ray....sounds now like such an anachronistic match-up; all the drama of, say, Celebrity Deathmatch with none of the contemporary relevance.

Yes, I suppose for a few years it will matter which format you are able to play at home, and then it won't. You'll just download your favorite HD Hollywood movie (same crappy plot and characters, better picture quality) and leave the format bickering to the manufacturers.



HD DVD and Blu-ray get launch dates - vnunet.com

Fast Forward: The new Net boom - Mar. 17, 2006

David Kirkpatrick of Fortune says that the current excitement in tech is a boom, not a bubble, and is therefore built on more sustainable foundations.

I'm not smart enough to comment either way, but taking David's word for it, then what the future holds will be mass consolidation of these many new disparate Net companies. Some will get acquired by larger companies and some will go out-of-business, but if it is indeed a sustainable innovation boom that we are witnessing, then those companies that remain will have to merge or gobble-up smaller companies in order to grow and become more competitive.

That would be interesting....


Fast Forward: The new Net boom - Mar. 17, 2006

TeH_ShoW

I think these guys are awesome and highlight some of the real power behind such online video services a YouTube.

Two guys, a camera, and some pretty nifty tech insights. This show has some good review of wireless products including our very own Linksys gear.

I fear that sites like YouTube may see their fortunes wane as they undoubtedly come under attack from various copyright holders and as some of the novelty wears off from both viewers (like me) and producers (like “TeH_ShoW” team). But in the meantime, I’m enjoying the certain unpredictable and of such sites.

I’ll continue to tune into “TeH-ShoW”

Metro WiFi

There are some things you love as a concept, but just don’t see how they can work in reality. For me, Metro WiFi is one of those concepts. I absolutely think that cities should provide cheap (or free) wireless access for people to access on their PDAs and other hand-held devices. As someone who gets lost walking to the corner store, the time I save wondering aimlessly through streets and back-alleys alone is worth my tax dollars. Plus it would be a boon for local retailers and other local small businesses that could target and attract customers in the neighborhood.

But considering how complex these networks are, I just don’t see how a city can properly manage them. These networks are finicky devices and the technology is improving so rapidly, you will need a committed and highly trained SP to ensure the municipal network is properly maintained and upgraded, and I’m not convinced that a city has the resources to be that sort of SP.

Knight Ridder and the fate of MSM

Despite what media doomsayers say, I don’t think the sale of Knight Ridder heralds the end of the MSM. The media, like every other industry, is going through and evolution, but not necessarily and extinction. I love the wild, somewhat democratic feel of YouTube and the gobs of blogs that are out there, but few have the authority or reliability of the MSM. Blogs et al. are good for exploring ideas, rumors and opinions, but they are not so hot for really getting facts and information (with some very notable exceptions, of course).

Note that many of the bloggers who actually do provide valuable primary information are really MSM journalists in real life.

Also, the MSM is a primary source for information which bloggers use as fodder to provide comment and endlessly debate minute topic of interest.

Another thing is that bloggers do not provide more voices, but rather serve to further amplify existing voices… hence the “echo chamber” phenomena, which I think is the blogosphere’s dirty little secret.

The role of the MSM is to try to break down the walls of this echo chamber. It is this function that will save the MSM and keep it relevant to society.

I guess I don't agree with Bill Gates or Craig Barrett

Craig Barrett doesn't like MIT's $100 laptop, and neither, it seems, does Bill Gates. Unfortunately, Gates has to incur the wrath of the blogosphere for his opinion.

I actually like the $100 laptop. I think it is a great idea and can do a lot of good in developing countries. The very valid question is, if you're dying of disease and malnutrition, why do you need a laptop? These are excellent questions to which I reply a laptop is of course not a panacea to save the developing world, but access to such technology, and more important the Internet, can help improve the overall economy of developing countries and raise the overall standard of living (computers haven’t done much for the rural poor in India, but they have helped raise the country overall into one of the world’s most dynamic economies.)

A device for developing countries, be it MIT’s $100 laptop or anything else, needs to be simple and resilient. My vision is that they are used as wind-up kiosks to help villages access government services. With a direct line to these services, villages will be spared dealing with corrupt local bureaucrats who are, IMHO, a chief obstacle to development (and I speak with some experience here).

The “one-laptop-per-child” is a loft goal, but I agree, I’m not sure the MIT $100 laptop does the trick… but you never know.


Gates and PR: He still doesn't get it | News.blog | CNET News.com

i heart youtube

Why advertise when we can get Cisco fans to advertise for us (nice use of classic Simpsons footage here.)

I’m only a recent discoverer of YouTube and am fascinated by it. It is so inventive. I used to be a pretty frequent visitor to iFilm byt YouTube is a lot more fresh and funny.

I have a TV, but I only use it to watch NetFlix. So we don’t have cable and no over-the-air reception so whatever TV I get, I either get it at a friend’s house (like I did with the Oscars) or I download clips from the Internet (mainly Daily Show excepts.) I suppose I could get a video iPod and start downloading clips from iTunes, which I may begin to do. But at the moment that seems like too much trouble. I mean, I only want to watch a few minutes of TV on my laptop, I don’t think I could take watching an entire show on a small 2 inch screen… I’d probably go blind or something.

As Internet TV Aims at Niche Audiences, the Slivercast Is Born - New York Times

I think what people don't realize is the role Cisco played in this trend. I don't mean to be all "rah-rah... my company is the best" and all (although I am in PR... so it is a bit of a reflex action) but if it wasn't for broadband and the increasing presence of the Internet in our lives, Slivercast wouldn't be possible (nor would YouTube... which is awesome IMHO).

I'm probably not going to tune into Sail.TV because sailboats make me throw-up, but I think it is great that people who want all sailboats all the time now have a place they can log onto and get virtually seasick.

And all this is because of the Internet... yay Internet.

As Internet TV Aims at Niche Audiences, the Slivercast Is Born - New York Times

News @ Cisco: Mark Chandler, Cisco SVP and General Counsel, Talks About Censorship in China

This is an issue that has been dogging Cisco for a while and it is one many people rightly have concerns about.

I think it is important to clear the air about several misconceptions about what it is Cisco does in China....

There are still allegations that you have altered your equipment for the purposes of censorship. Why do you think that is?

Mark Chandler: I think the allegations likely stem from a misunderstanding of thefunctionality of our equipment and, unfortunately, inaccurate claims made about Cisco's actions in China. Cisco has not and does not design products for the purpose of political censorship.

The equipment we sell in China is the same equipment we sell worldwide. We have not designed, marketed or altered equipment for the Chinese government. The filtering capabilities of all Internet routing equipment, necessary for protection against viruses, spam and denial of service attacks, can be used to block access to sites for political reasons, anywhere in the world.

What are your views with regards to political censorship?

Mark Chandler: Cisco strongly supports free expression on the Internet.

News @ Cisco: Mark Chandler, Cisco SVP and General Counsel, Talks About Censorship in China

Origami on YouTube

With all the hype around MSFT's Origami ask yourself this, is this video on YouTube a mistake? An unfortunate leak? Or part of they hype?

(OK, honestly, it is probably a leak... but what if it wasn't?)

Plugged in: Out with old media; in with... what? - Jan. 19, 2006

Nice look at where we are going in media land. I love blogs, blogging and the independent nature of the whole thing. The theory is that with so many different voices out there, people have the opportunity to access many different points-of-view.

Well, they may have the opportunity but they don't do it. The decay of the MSM is I fear leading to a balkanization of thought on the net.

Here is the money quote... ready both paragraphs:

But it [loss of MSM] can also mean a loss of shared experience, of common reference points for a society. This has to be part of the explanation for the increasingly polarized state of political discourse in the United States: Partisans of both left and right are now able to assemble media diets that almost never contradict their preconceived views.

This is not an unprecedented state of affairs -- big American cities used to have lots of different newspapers, each with pronounced political leanings and articles explicitly shaded to reinforce those leanings. There is nothing natural or inherently superior about the monolithic media institutions of the mid-to-late 20th century.



Plugged in: Out with old media; in with... what? - Jan. 19, 2006

Moksha: Belated goodbye

With Cisco investing in MovieBeam, acquiring Scientific Atlanta and making other pretty exciting moves into the world of networked home entertainment, I think it is appropriate to take a momeent and not talk about video as a "market" or a "technology", but actually as what is is, an art.

The missus says farewell to Nam June Paik, an influential video artist who recently passed away. I've seen Paik's work at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (a surprisingly good modern art gallery considering it is in the mid-west) and have been fascinated by video art since I took a course on it at college. (FYI--SF MOMA has two fantastic pieces on display now … run, don’t walk)

So why do I bring this all up now? As amazing as all the new technology surrounding video, IP TV and home networking is, we can't lose sight that these are all transport mechanisms and while they enhance the viewing experience, they are not the experience itself.

The experience is what we watch, not how we watch it.

Valley smarts to stop pollution

I've yabbered-on yabbered-on about how the sense of innovation in Silicon Valley can play a key role in reducing the threat that humanity faces from global warming. It doesn't need to be a big idea, but it needs to be a good one that can inspire people to pollute a little less, and even to come up with their own novel "green" idea.

Here's an idea that I love and I think highlights how a simple business model can do something about complex issues as global warming.

The idea is TerraPass and basically it is a voluntary fee you pay on your car to offset your car's greenhouse emissions. The money collected then goes into funding various greenhouse reducing initiatives

Internet and development

Looks like Nicholas Negroponte has left the MIT Media Lab to concentrate on his One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative.

I've been following the story of OLPC's $100 laptop and while I'm not 100% convinced that the $100 laptop is all it is cracked up to be (can't really picture kids in school hand-cranking these things all day) I think the project is interesting because it opens up the debate on what sort of tools are needed to bring the benefits of networking technology to developing countries.

Mobile phone companies are a leading voice in this debate as they have been rolling out low-cost versions of their products with great success. But mobile phones are just one part of the equation. In terms of basic communication and some functions, they are fine, but for more complex applications, I feel you need some sort of PC device just because the interface is easier. Even if the PC-like device is completely dumb and reliant on the network, the fact that is have a bigger screen and a more easy to manage keyboard makes it the right format for uses such as education and information kiosks set up in villages.

But the common refrain is, when people are dying of diseases and don’t have access to clean drinking water, why on earth do they need the Internet? That is a totally valid question and the answer is that like food and water, communication is a basic human need. I spoke the other day to Cisco’s Jim Forster who is currently working on a project to help people learn to set up wireless networks in in developing countries and he highlighted that people in these countries often walk for days from one village to the next just to inquire about family members or find out what has happened to friends and relatives. Social and family bonds are important and people with very little in the world often pay a premium in time and effort just to maintain those bonds. If the Internet could save people from making a day’s trek just o find out simple information, and they could then use that gained day to find another way to better their lot, then it seems to me that the Internet has a key role to play in development.