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New York, 6:56 AM
Fri Nov 27
11 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/23/09
It seems the good times are back (at least in the valley)
09/23/09
The absolute class of the new Lance Henriksen-built real estate projects. Much better than associating with the riff-raff that lives in Pumpkinhead Estates
09/18/09
I believe the 2nd 'net bubble was averted by the bigger and more destructive real state bubble that almost kills us all, so what we are seeing now is a small floppy baloon getting some air for the first time in almost a year.
Will it explode this time?
09/18/09
It's nice to have armies of Chinese and Indians, but the depth only goes 1" deep.
If you're a geek, who wants to be a herder? Most of the geeks I know are retiring, esp the Boomers. Cashing out. "Leaving their good jobs."
Apple had a little discussion with Google, the main geek poacher about those practices. Apple's probably getting very light and desperate right now. They have a viable platform and too few geeks of any depth.
So it makes sense that corps with devaluing dollar revenue wanna do the Costco thing, with local talent, buy in bulk. Supplies are limited, buy now!
The problem is that a lot of the tech talent that DID get laid off has retooled/retired and is not coming back to SV let alone California. It's like the Defense Industry.
The other problem is the youngs are not stupid. A 3-5 year 'career' in tech competing with the bottom to pay off 10 years of college debt does not pencil.
Of course, these geeks are going.. to.. government jobs.
So it's consolidation time with what's left.
If Apple's heading there, Adobe's already there. They've followed the pattern above, pretty much cooled things off with Apple after the Flash snub, snubbed them back with CS3 + Snow Leopard, and now they're getting into .. Analytics? WTF?
I call bullshit. They're doing what they did last time, buying technical depth, because they have too many overseas peons and a shrinking war chest via the falling dollar. The founders are gone, the 1 wave of MBAs are gone, etc etc etc. Only with Apple has the old crazy sweater guy come back.
So this isn't prosperity, it's the emperor having no clothes. Apple's headed there because they could have *technical* solutions to lighten the load on their AppStore, but they're too sales and marketing heavy.
The people they have now are NOT DEVELOPERS. They don't even know how to treat developers any more, even tho' Mac devs = iPhone devs.
Nobody HAS to learn Objective C let alone Cocoa. It's limited to the Mac and isn't all that transferable. All the iPhone Devs are Mac Devs, pretty much.
When you have Phil Schiller approving apps that's pretty damning that Apple is also light on technical resources and is losing clue.
Google & Yahoo have tightened their purse strings because they have all the horsepower they need to serve the platforms they have, and their conservative behavior tells me that they are in the black with no need to panic. Facebook too, otherwise they'd be poaching more.
The only companies that are going for broke are the ones who have no choice.
09/17/09
So I guess to see if your city is confident, just see how many employed people are moonlighting teaching Twitter 101 or whatever, vs how many are moving to startups.
09/17/09
09/17/09
05/05/09
05/06/09
05/05/09
IIRC one of California's suspiciously successful hedge fund managers (an edgy hedgie) was famous for his love of the noxious weed.
05/05/09
05/05/09
03/31/09
He was probably the only one of those who can button up his shirt.
03/31/09
02/14/09
And $35M? what did you guys do with the $20M? seriouly, I can't think of any logic explanation aside from a company party with hookers and blow.
02/14/09
02/14/09
Word, zuck could be almost a billionaire now if he had sold FB to Y! back in 2006.
But he wanted be a legend...
02/13/09
Let's face it, $500 million for a stuffed animal/website that's all the rage at the moment seems irresistible.
One of the characteristics of a "fad" is that everyone always mistakenly delude themselves it's going to be "car" or "computer". Do we drive Furbies? Do we twitter from a Pokedex? Does facebook/twitter/etc. honestly act as a replacement for true socializing? All of these are good questions for execs to answer.
The truth is, no brand alone can encumber every aspect of a person's life. It's the dream, but it's technically impossible.
Honestly, if you're at the helm of one of these businesses, you deserve to be mocked and scoffed. These people don't want money, they want power and control.
02/13/09
If you break 15-25M you've got something potentially game changing (digg, twitter, Gawker, Weblogs, Inc), and if you reach 30m+ you've got a good chance of building a legendary brand (Facebook).
As such, I suggest we leave the snark for those folks currently under 10m. :-)
02/14/09
02/13/09