tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-106245712024-03-07T10:25:45.926-08:00Got Ads?John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comBlogger573125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-36669483217417800222009-03-23T14:59:00.000-07:002009-03-23T15:32:23.568-07:00Tim Geithner Separated at Birth<p>
Here's someone - actor Tony Goldwyn - who's not an investment banker or Bank CEO who's actually gonna make money from the Geithner plan.
<p>
<table cols="2">
<tr>
<td>
<img src="http://photos.upi.com/story/t/d7586b99f5ca86310c87793907afb277/Personality_Spotlight_Timothy_Geithner.jpg" alt="Tim Geithner"/>
</td>
<td>
<img src="http://www.myceleb.net/pic/Tony_Goldwyn_0014.jpg" width="300" alt="Tony Goldwyn">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Tim Geithner
</td>
<td>
Tony Goldwyn
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>
He's gonna make a killing when the inevitable movies about Geithner are made. <p>
But Goldwyn is already richer than Timmy. He's been a successful actor / director and he's the grandson of Hollywood studio pioneer Sam Goldwyn. You might remember him as the bad guy in Ghost, or - a bit more recently (and relevantly), a smarmy presidential aide in "The Pelican Brief"
</p>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-33089611400486663852009-01-01T23:30:00.001-08:002009-01-01T23:43:51.228-08:00Hacking the Internet with your Playstation Cluster<p>
Security researchers have created a <a href="http://www.win.tue.nl/hashclash/rogue-ca/">rogue certificate</a> that would allow them (if they were malicious) to perform man in the middle attacks on any website. I.e. They could easily pretend to be your bank and steal your login info, amongst other things.
<p>
If this seems shocking to you, it's regular stuff for security on the web. Don't read security alert news if you like to blithely use the internet, is my advice.
<p>
Anyways, the key to this vulnerability is that some Certificate providers were still using MD5 as a cryptographic tool when creating certificates. MD5 is vulnerable and these guys have now proved it. Cool.
<p>
But the fun thing is - <b>they use a cluster of 200 Playstation 3 gaming consoles</b> to do their computation. That's just so cool. Maybe we can all harness Xbox Live next week to break SHA-1?
<p>
Can you picture criminals now deciding to turn your network attached Playstations and Xboxes into zombies so they can launch cryptographic attacks from the cloud?
<p>
<blockquote>
<b>Question. How much did your proof of concept research cost?<br/>
Answer. </b>It took a few months to design and implement our method, based on a lot of knowledge and skills that we have developed over the last two years. We spent about USD 700 on purchasing test certificates from a CA. The computations needed for our work were done on a cluster of about 200 PlayStation 3 game consoles in the cryptanalytic lab at EPFL.
<p>
<b>Question. Why were game consoles used? What other hardware is suitable?<br/>
Answer.</b> Game consoles use hardware specialized for the computational needs of the detailed 3D graphics in games. This hardware is also very suited for the basic arithmetic used in cryptographic algorithms and greatly outperforms general purpose computers on brute-force computations. We have found that one PlayStation 3 game console is equivalent to about 40 modern single core processors. The most computationally intensive part of our method required about 3 days of work with over 200 game consoles, which is equivalent to 32 years of computing on a typical desktop computer. Common graphic cards have been used by some for MD5 cryptanalysis as well.
</blockquote>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-29147894516970542192008-12-16T22:42:00.000-08:002008-12-16T22:46:46.478-08:00Christmas Gift Idea<p>
Need a gift idea for a 30-something techie who has everything?
<p>
How about this: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DESTGO/?tag=guides5-20">Mio Knight Rider GPS</a>?
<p>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DESTGO/?tag=guides5-20">
This GPS device</a> talks like the car on the original 1982 edition of the show "Knight Rider." It will even address you as "Michael," or you can switch the device to another name.
<p>
I think that "address you as Michael" in KITT's voice part pretty much overcomes any rational objections anyone could have...John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-74425784998329182192008-12-06T00:17:00.000-08:002008-12-06T00:20:15.821-08:00Who Knew?<p>
Apparently Free Credit Reports aren't REALLY free?!?
<p>
The people at <a href="http://www.smartmoney.com/Spending/Rip-offs/FreeCreditReportcom-Not-So-Free-Still/">SmartMoney clue us in</a>.
<p>
Who could have known that something delivering zero-cost digital goods driven by tons of ad spending could be a rip-off?!
<p><em>
"Despite the consumer complaints and the ongoing investigation in Florida, the company and its clever marketing campaign march forward."</em>
<p>
Thank god for clever marketing campaigns.John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-71016176162133771612008-11-30T18:55:00.000-08:002008-11-30T19:03:08.967-08:00Google Server Secrets Revealed<p>
An unexpected side benefit of industries need to be seen as "green": Google has put up a bunch of pages <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/datacenters/step1.html">detailing their datacenter infrastructure.</a>
<p>
A long time ago on this blog I speculated about various things in Google's infrastructure:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-many-servers-does-google-have.html">How many servers does google have?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2005/12/googles-global-super-structure.html">Google's global infrastructure advantage</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
Now, in the name of Green-ness, Google is telling you a lot about how their infrastructure works, how much power their data centers consume, how they build servers.
<p>
I think Microsoft and Yahoo and Amazon EC2 have all contributed to a lessening of the advantage that Google has in infrastructure, but something tells me that if Google is putting this info out now, they have other advances that they are not telling us about.
<p>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-75322362881484424702008-09-05T11:44:00.000-07:002008-09-05T12:06:55.366-07:00NFL Games of Week 1 on DirecTV Sunday Ticket<p>
This year, I bit the bullet and got DirecTV Sunday Ticket, which allows you to watch ANY NFL game you choose on Sunday. They show them all.
<p>
I also got an HD DVR with the subscription, so I can record up to 2 games at a time. This is nice, because I don't actually get to watch any full game... too busy most Sundays, but this will allow me to catch the best parts.
<p>
Here's the problem: I have to plan in advance and set my DVR for the games that might be good.
<p>
So as part of my preparation, I'm planning to blog every Friday, and make a note of the 4 best games on the DirectTV Sunday Ticket <a href="http:///">schedule</a>. Now only if my HD DVR had an API...
<p>
Anyways, here's what I want to record this Sunday:
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<th>
Game</th><th>Time (PST)</th><th>Channel</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jets v Dolphins</td><td>10am </td><td>705-1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Texans v Steelers</td><td>10am</td><td>707-1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cowboys v Browns</td><td> 1pm</td><td> 713-1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bears v Colts</td><td>5:15pm</td><td> NBCHD</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Vikings v Packers</td><td>Mon 4pm</td><td> 73</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>
BTW, this post is an example of one of the main benefits of blogging - writing things down so I don't forget them later...John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-91031670495380160392008-09-04T22:23:00.000-07:002008-09-04T22:34:24.202-07:00Behavioral Targeting Ad Networks Hit By Politics<p>
Reportedly, NebuAd's and Phorm's ISP customers are slowing trials of their ad systems based on deep packet inspection. This is where devices are installed at the ISP which can track everything a user does when connected to the internet. The resulting data is analyzed and used to serve more targeted ads.
<p>
Except now that Congress and the privacy watchdogs are starting to awaken, apparently the ISPs are <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-09-02-web-tracking_N.htm">scuttling trials</a> or at least slowing them down.
<p>
I think that it's likely that these companies will be the proverbial pioneers with arrows in their backs (a bit like DoubleClick, circa 1999). But this technology will eventually be adopted when people aren't so vigilant.
<p>
In fact, what company is the big winner if the ISPs can't monetize their packets so easily?
<p>
HINT: It starts with a "G" and ends with "ogle".
<p>
They have the data that the ISPs have for the most part, and they also have the technology to exploit it, and the marketplace.
<p>
So far, for the most part, they've decided they don't need to use that data, and NebuAds and Phorm's political travails mean that Google can defer exploiting ALL of their data for as long as they want to. Or they can deploy so slowly that people don't notice. Either way, they win.John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-35891372148112784652008-08-31T23:54:00.000-07:002008-08-31T23:56:54.557-07:00Recession 2008<p>
Here's what the "recession" looks like on a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Apple store in Palo Alto.
<p>
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/2814965807_64db0ea365.jpg" width="500" height="375"/>
<p>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-14356883177328270972008-08-02T22:34:00.000-07:002008-08-02T22:45:45.495-07:00Insane Bandwidth<p>
I had to move from my old DSL enabled office, and I rented a new place which had just installed wiring for Comcast cable.
<p>
The cable guy comes to install the internet, and tells me I'm one of 3 guys using the system in the building, and that comcast just put it in, and it's really nice - "really just an extension of the plant - it's like your sitting on the head end". (That's cable-guy talk for <b>INSANE BANDWIDTH</b>).
<p>
Now I just watch HD videos all day and run speed tests. My best so far is 20Mbits. Usaully it's 18 or 19Mbits/sec. Crazy.
<p>
Now I also understand why sites like sports.yahoo.com are littered with images, and videos - it's because the web teams at Yahoo (and ESPN and CNN) all have crazy fast connetions to the internet, and they think everyone else does to. Now that I have insane bandwidth, those pages are actually usuable.
<p>
The internet is a whole new ballgame, a <em>really fast</em> whole new ballgame.
<p>
Here's a tip, in case you have a slow connection and are jealous: just browse the web with lynx all day, and pages will load really fast for you too.John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-36535989225647784482008-07-28T21:36:00.000-07:002008-07-28T21:40:22.738-07:00Chatfield Reveals the Key Secret of AdWords<p>
Jeremy C. has a <a href="http://blog.merjis.com/2008/07/29/exploring-paid-search-auctions/">post about ad auctions</a>. At the end he says something that you may have heard before, but never as clearly or succinctly put:
<p>
<blockquote>
Let me give you a disturbing vision… <b>Google is actually operating a CPM bidding system.</b> Yup. Your bid position is a consequence of the value you give to Google, per thousand impressions - but quantised to a penny per click.
</blockquote>
<p>
It's pretty important to grok this if you want to understand AdWords...John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-88105726080030629312008-07-11T13:41:00.000-07:002008-07-11T15:30:01.115-07:00Congresswoman Speier says: Lower Speed LimitJackie Speier (D-CA) introduces a bill to lower the speed limit from 65 to 60, claiming it will save fuel.
<p>
She's a new congresswoman, yet she upholds the traditional inability of elected officials to do math.
<p>
<a href="http://speier.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca12_speier/60mph.shtml">Press Release here details her bogus rationale.</a>
<p>
<blockquote>
She cites figures from the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, www.fueleconomy.gov, that say gas mileage decreases rapidly after 60 mph. “<b>If you drive a Ford Taurus or Toyota Camry, which averages 25 miles per gallon on the highway, the difference between driving 60 mph and 70 mph results in a yearly savings of over $250.</b> For pickup truck drivers, that increases to $470 and if you own a full-size SUV like a Toyota Landcruiser, we’re talking about a savings in excess of $750.” These figures are based on national averages of 12,000 total miles per year, of which 45% are highway miles.
</blockquote>
<p>
Jackie says that if we go from averaging 70mph (which is above the current speed limit in most places?) to averaging 60mph, we'd save over $250 / year in our Camry.
<p>
Let's go to Google calculator:
<p>
<tt>12,000 mi / yr * 45% hwy mi = 5400mi/yr on the highway.</tt>
<p>
<tt>At 25mpg at our supposed 70mph max, that's 216 gallons.</tt>
<p>
<tt>With regular gas at $4/gallon, it's $864/year.</tt>
<p>
Now if we save <em>over</em> $250, we'd spend $613/yr in gas. And that means we would have improved our gas usage by just over 29%! AMAZING!
<p>
Of course later in the press release <b>we see this is impossible</b>:
<p>
<blockquote>
The EPA’s numbers show that fuel consumption rises dramatically at speeds faster than sixty miles per hour. The website claims: “While each vehicle reaches its optimal fuel economy at a different speed, gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds over 60 mph. You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional 30 cents per gallon for gas.”
<p>
An April 2008 article in the San Francisco Chronicle cited Patricia Monahan of the Union of Concerned Scientists: “For every mile per hour over 60 mph, she said, fuel economy drops by an average of around 1 percent.”
</blockquote>
<p>
Those two quotes both don't jibe with anything close to 29% savings. The top quote from the EPA site equates to about a 15% savings going from 70mph to 60mph.
<p>
Applying that bottom rule linearly would give us a maximum of 10% total savings (and actually, the current law is 65mph, so it *might* mean 5%.)
<p>
Of course, no one would actually drive 60mph, and fuel consumption in real world conditions wouldn't really be affected by more than 2-3% But hey, who am I to question Congressional ability to screw up simple math?
<p>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-77642844715744268052008-07-07T22:57:00.000-07:002008-07-07T23:01:12.324-07:00Prediction: This will actually happen.<p>
Funniest South Park bit since the World of Warcraft parodies.
<p>
<div style="text-align:center">
<embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:southparkstudios.com:166182::" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" width="480" height="360" allowFullscreen="true" scriptAccess="always"></embed>
</div>
<p>
Apparently the southpark guys now have their own video distribution, as well.John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-80221505293387084402008-06-20T10:20:00.000-07:002008-06-20T10:20:52.624-07:00Internet Nutballs Explained by Jay Leno<p>
The internet naturally gives rise to nutballs - people who are so obsessed with some random hobby. This article sums up the personalities behind internet nutball-ism, even though it's about cars. And it's by Jay Leno.
<p>
<a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/4269043.html?series=19">Car Guys and Auto Fans</a>:
<p>
<blockquote>
You expect people to collect Duesenberg and Ferrari parts, because there's a lot of money in them. But the guys who fascinate me are the ones who collect parts for Cushman Scooters, Nash Metropolitans and Ford Model Ts. No matter what you're into, there's someone out there who's into it so much more than you are it's not even close.
</blockquote>
<p>
Reminds of a great <a href="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2007/08/lego-star-wars-internet-geek-heaven.html">Homer Simpson quote</a> which I've used <a href="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2006/12/nerdiest-comment-ever.html">twice</a> in relationship to internet nutballs.John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-84989057996526103722008-06-19T09:40:00.000-07:002008-06-19T09:52:52.395-07:00Yahoo and Kafka: Separated at Birth?<p>
Another insane Kafka-esque email from the Yahoo Search Marketing API team. I get about two of these a week (<a href="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2008/06/yahoos-main-problem-its-bureaucracy.html">another example</a>), and they remind me of Orwell or Kafka in their impenetrable bureacrat-ese.
<p>
<blockquote>
Dear <span style="font-weight:bold;">Valued Client</span>,
<p>
We have <span style="font-weight:bold;">encountered unforeseen circumstances</span> from the maintenance on end-point https://ews11.marketing.ews.yahooapis.com/ Currently, we do not have an estimated <span style="font-weight:bold;">time of resolution for the residual system slowness</span> and <span style="font-weight:bold;">delay in books closed time</span> for Keyword/Ad reports. However, our technical teams are working around the clock to resolve this as soon as possible and we will continue to <span style="font-weight:bold;">update you on the status of this delay constantly</span>. We greatly apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.
</blockquote>
<p>
<span style="font-size:small"><em>[emphasis mine - on the stuff that's just pure obfuscation].</em></span>
<div style="float:right;margin:10px">
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=bestbabyguide-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=020530902X&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</div>
<p>
Yes, Yahoo search marketing (i.e. Panama), does have an API. But with <a href="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-many-pooches-can-yahoo-screw.html">Yahoo giving up in search</a>, it's probably not worth your time to use it, and have to parse these maintenance emails.
<p>
At this point, what Yahoo search marketing needs most is a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/020530902X?ie=UTF8&tag=bestbabyguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=020530902X">copy of Strunk & White</a>.John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-36842631119807746272008-06-12T22:32:00.000-07:002008-06-12T22:50:55.008-07:00How Many Pooches Can Yahoo Screw?<p>
Ugh. Sometimes the end does come with a bang and whimper at the same time.
<p>
Yahoo is <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/our-agreement-to-provide-ad-technology.html">giving up</a> in search.
<p>
The stock lost 10% today, and will continue to descend to it's proper level of about $15 / sh. Until someone picks up the pieces for about half of what Yang was holding out for.
<p>
It's not just the shareholders - the search customers and Yahoo's regular users are all losers here. Not to mention the employees. It's not that fun watching a CFIT (controlled flight into terrain), which is what Yahoo! has been on ever since they hired Terry Semel.
<p>
Meanwhile, Google is up, and feeling good about the monopoly it has!
<p>
As <a href="http://watchmojo.com/web/blog/index.php/2008/06/12/yang-gets-last-laugh-now-investors-to-wait-until-2024/">Ash writes</a>:
<blockquote>
Microsoft offered $44.6B to acquire all of Yahoo! in early February.
<p>
Yahoo! Chief Yahoo spent 4 months trying to make that go away… today he settled for $800M in top line incremental revenue.
<p>
That means in some 50+ years (44.6B/$800M), investors will be indifferent. So net-net, “Jer”gets what he wants today, investors can go pound sand and come back in 2024.
<p>
Way to go, Jer.
</blockquote>
<p>
I dumped my YHOO at $24.68 after MSFT pulled out. And I rolled it into GOOG. So I guess I can be thankful for that.
<p>
This is sad on so many levels. Back in 1995, I was the first employee of an ad serving company whose first customer was Yahoo!. It's sad to see Yahoo capitulate and march towards nothingness.
<p>
Oh, and did I mention <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/010336.html">that Jeremy Zawodny is leaving too</a>. Need any more proof?
<p>
Maybe Yang and Decker can treat the remaining team to a premiere of "The Happening". Cause that seems depressingly similar to the nightmare Yahoo has committed against itself.John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-42005185506133493782008-06-05T12:52:00.000-07:002008-06-05T13:15:47.378-07:00Sad Proof that Vista is a Failure<p>
Windows Vista was officially released (after over 11months of delay) on Jan 30, 2007.
<p>
It was critically panned (by <a href="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2007/01/allchin-vista-is-pig.html">me</a> for <a href="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-bad-will-windows-vista-be.html">example</a>). Now that I've seen it and tried it, <b>the main result has been for me to switch to Mac and Linux</b> machines for my daily use.
<p>
<h2>You Can Still Get an XP Laptop from Dell</h2>
<p>
But here's what's so sad about this. Dell, one of Microsoft's biggest distribution partners is still promoting the fact that <em>you can STILL GET XP.</em> Yes, even though Dell "recommends Windows Vista® Business", you have until June 18 to buy a Dell laptop with XP on it.
<p>
This is the back page from a Dell catalog I just received. Man that's some cheap laptop!
<p>
<div style="margin:10px;">
<img src="http://riverofguns.com/images/dell_xp_ad.jpg" alt="dell promoting windows XP over a year after Vista release" height="271" width="329">
<br/>
</div>
<p>
And then there's this: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208402056">Microsoft's Ballmer Touts Vista-To-XP Downgrade Program</a>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-85817378785614680772008-06-05T09:34:00.000-07:002008-06-05T09:58:14.809-07:00Google's Downfall: Building a New Campus<p>
<p><b>Uh-oh.</b> The surest sign that the decline of a tech-power is nigh:
<p>
<b>Google is going to build a new HQ.</b>
<p>
Or at least they are going to do a <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9959772-7.html">massive expansion at NASA</a> in Mountain View, on land next to their current HQ.
<div style="float:right;margin:10px;">
<img src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20080604/Picture_9_540x411.PNG" alt="Land around Google's HQ" width="270" height="205"><br><tt>The land near Google HQ in Mt. View, CA.</tt>
</div>
<p>
This is an old Silicon Valley saw - when companies build giant new facilities, they tend to go downhill soon thereafter. <b>It's a classic "market-top" signal.</b> The litany of examples includes: Apple, Cisco, Intel, 3Com, BEA, Sun, SGI and many others.
<p>
And it makes sense - the companies that do this are generally getting too big and prospering in their mid-life. They plan a massive expansion and something happens - maybe the economy slows down, or maybe they lose focus. In any case, building the new HQ is usually done at the peak, and often portends bad times ahead.
<p>
Now I'm still <a href="http://gotads.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-q1-2008-results-why-bears-were.html">bullish on Google</a>, but planning for expansion like this worries more a lot more than anything Microsoft would do.John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-67218265412215275692008-06-03T12:09:00.000-07:002008-06-03T12:38:36.048-07:00Yahoo's Main Problem: It's a Bureaucracy<p>
After the saga of Yahoo is over, many people will find reasons as to why Yahoo failed. I know the real reason: it's a boring, impersonal, faceless bureaucracy. Although Yang and Filo try to keep it culturally cool (free soda and coffee for all employees!), they have utterly failed.
<p>
<b>The Yahoo brand has no identifiable or consistent "voice". </b>
<p>
The amazing thing to me is that someone hasn't renamed Yahoo to:<br/> <div style="text-align:center">Yahoo! Internet Service End-Points!</div>
<p>
Here's all the proof you'll ever need - an email from the people that run Panama (aka "Yahoo! Search Marketing".)
<p>
<blockquote>
<pre>
YSM-Tier2Support to me
Dear Valued Client,
We will be performing a routine system maintenance during the following time frames on Friday, June 6, 2008:
6:00AM PST to 11:00AM PST
7:00PM PST to Saturday June 7 2:00AM PST
The following end-points will be unavailable during maintenance:
https://ews11.marketing.ews.yahooapis.com/
https://ews12.marketing.ews.yahooapis.com/
https://ews13.marketing.ews.yahooapis.com/
https://ews41.marketing.ews.yahooapis.com/
Should you have any questions regarding this matter, <br/> please contact your account manager directly or technical services at ews-help@yahoo-inc.com.
Thank you for choosing Yahoo! Search Marketing!
Sincerely,
Technical Services
Yahoo! Search Marketing
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>
Note how there's not a real person's name in the whole email - including mine. <b>FYI, my actual name is <em>not</em> "Valued Client".</b>
<p>
Look at the <b>4 deep subdomains</b> that Yahoo forces on it's services. <tt>https://ews12.marketing.ews.yahooapis.com/</tt>. There's two ews's in there! No wonder I can never remember that URL to login to my account. Compare to say: <a href="http://adwords.google.com">http://adwords.google.com</a>, or even <a href="http://adwords.com">adwords.com</a>.
<p>
And WTF is a "end-point"?!?
<p>
Even the email addresses they use are robotic. Apparently, it's not a real Yahoo email unless there is a dash in it somewhere: ews-help@yahoo-inc.com
<p>
But luckily, they recover from this unbranded, un-personal, techno blather form-letter email with the friendly closing:
<p>
<b>Thank you for choosing Yahoo! Search Marketing!
</b>
<p>
Yay!John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-51799486344074979292008-05-21T13:30:00.000-07:002008-05-21T13:33:53.492-07:00Windows is Not Cloudy<p>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=201590011">Amazon EC2</a> is a hyped technology that is actually exceeding it's expectations. It's cloud computing, and when Amazon added <a href="http://blog.rightscale.com/2008/04/13/amazon-takes-ec2-to-the-next-level-with-persistent-storage-volumes/">recent features</a> to enable datacenter level fail-over and cluster tools, it became the best way to scale any large internet service.
<p>It now has over 60,000 customers, some using thousands of instances of virtual hardware. Combined, they use <a href="http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2008/05/lots-of-bits.html">more bandwidth</a> than all of Amazon.com. Companies like <a href="http://rightscale.com">RightScale</a> are examples of a blossoming 3rd party support and service eco-system growing around EC2.
<p>
Google is attempting to do something similar with <a href="http://code.google.com/appengine/">Google App Engine</a>, and Sun and IBM have cloud models as well.
<p>
<b>But Amazon EC2 doesn't do Windows.</b> You can't run the Windows stack on it (at least in <a href="http://www.howtoforge.com/amazon_elastic_compute_cloud_qemu">any real way</a>). You can run Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and almost any other Unix you can name. But no Windows. Windows is gonna fall further behind as the internet infrastructure shifts to cloud models.
<p>
Windows isn't Cloudy.
<p>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-21064496405870713872008-05-18T23:41:00.001-07:002008-05-19T00:04:00.817-07:00Google: "Facebook You Ignorant Slut"<p>
<span style="font-weight:bold;">Corporate blog cat fight:</span> <a href="http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-google-friend-connect-works.html">Google Code spells out in excessive detail</a> why Facebook is lying about their justification for blocking <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/friend-connected-web.html">Google Friend Connect</a> on Facebook.
<p>
Background:
<ol>
<li>Google introduces Friend Connect, which basically is a container for managing authentication.</li>
<li>Facebook announces they are blocking Friend Connect from being used on Facebook apps, ostensibly <em>due to privacy concerns</em>. Zuckerberg and Facebook claim to be worried that Google could pass your Facebook data around.</li>
<li>Google Code Blog <a href="http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-google-friend-connect-works.html">details</a> in terms any 3rd grader could understand just what Friend Connect is doing with Facebook data.
<li>Zuckerberg says <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146044/facebook_ceo_wants_to_talk_with_google_on_friend_connect.html">maybe we should talk</a> to Google and work something out.
</ol>
<p>
In short Google shows that it's not doing anything to justify Facebook's holier-than-thou attitude. (Ever see how Facebook collects you Gmail contacts if you let it, or perhaps you recall <a href="http://gigaom.com/2007/11/06/facebook-beacon-privacy-issues/">Facebook Beacon</a> on initial launch?).
<p>
<span style="font-weight:bold;">Upshot:</span> Google is revealing Facebook's hypocrisy, and doing it with the panache of Dan Akroyd finishing a faux-debate with Jane Curtain: "Jane, you ignorant slut."
<p>
Now that's proper use of a corporate blog in my book!John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-52294411064611802522008-05-16T12:27:00.001-07:002008-05-16T12:29:47.449-07:00Philipp on Microsoft Live<p>
<a href="http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-05-15-n59.html">Ouch</a>:
<p>
"Of the three major search engines, only Microsoft’s Live.com – <em>if you want to call it a major search engine</em> – returns much worse results..."
<p>
-- Philipp Lenssen, <em>Google Blogoscoped</em>
<p>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-55830162381041574112008-05-15T18:02:00.000-07:002008-05-15T18:24:28.985-07:00Why Facebook Apps Mostly Suck<p>
Why are all the apps on Facebook trivial, crappy or spammy?
<p>
Facebook originally launched the app platform with a lot of talk about how to create value out of the social graph.<p>
Why hasn't that happened, with all the energy being spent on developing Facebook apps? Ben Rattray has a <a href="http://andrewchen.typepad.com/andrew_chens_blog/2008/05/facebook-apps-w.html">good answer</a> - mainly because <span style="font-weight:bold;">the structural incentives are all on creating virality.</span>
<p>
<blockquote>
The reason there are few and little use of utility-based applications is not because users don't want to use them or because app developers don't want to develop them, or even because Facebook doesn't want to encourage them (which they clearly do). It's because the means of distribution inside Facebook are structurally biased against them.
<p>...<p>
[I]t is very difficult to achieve a viral coefficient of over 1 through word of mouth. Ironically, this difficulty is compounded inside Facebook because the proliferation of viral action apps inundates users with invitations and makes them less and less likely to accept anything – including invitations to utility-based applications. So the barrier for going viral increases even further
</blockquote>
<p>
Ben also categorizes the kinds of apps that could be useful, and which ones make sense on a social platform. It's very useful to look at - if you are thinking of how the web will be shaped by increasing adoption of "social" techniques into websites.
<p>
<ol>
<li>Apps that are inherently social and which let users better coordinate/connect with friends
<ul>
<li>Help people organize local sporting event leagues
<li>Share travel schedules with friends (ala Dopplr)
<li>Organize carpooling
<li>Discuss and coordinate events / gatherings with friends (ala Skobee)
<li>Allow for the creation of affinity groups that require custom features not available in the traditional "groups" feature set
</ul></li>
<li>Apps that aren't inherently social, but which are given enhanced value with the social graph
<ul>
<li>Share news (e.g. a personalized Digg)
<li>Share restaurant / service provider reviews (e.g. a personalized Yelp – so I don't just get undifferentiated restaurant reviews, but only those from people I trust)
<li>Share bookmarks (e.g. delicious with all my friends)
<li>Job seeking / networking
<li>Collaboration on work / documents
</ul>
</li>
<li>Apps that are neither inherently social nor benefit from the social graph, and would have no reason to be in Facebook
<ul>
<li>purchasing a plane ticket
<li>managing your finances
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<p>
Of course there are more types of apps, and the list of examples is thin, but it's useful to think about if you plan to adapt to the ever-increasing "socialness" of the web.
<p>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-66149682734316626812008-05-12T23:01:00.001-07:002008-05-12T23:09:10.620-07:00There are Millions of Great Ideas In the Air<p>
Malcolm Gladwell reports that <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all">Nathan Myhrvold assembles geniuses</a> to create inventions, and it's working like crazy.
<p>
<blockquote>
But then, in August of 2003, I.V. held its first invention session, and it was a revelation. “Afterward, Nathan kept saying, ‘There are so many inventions,’ ” Wood recalled. “He thought if we came up with a half-dozen good ideas it would be great, and we came up with somewhere between fifty and a hundred. I said to him, ‘But you had eight people in that room who are seasoned inventors. Weren’t you expecting a multiplier effect?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but it was more than multiplicity.’ Not even Nathan had any idea of what it was going to be like.”
<p>
The original expectation was that I.V. would file a hundred patents a year. Currently, it’s filing five hundred a year. <b>It has a backlog of three thousand ideas.</b> Wood said that he once attended a two-day invention session presided over by Jung, and after the first day the group went out to dinner. “So Edward took his people out, plus me,” Wood said. “And the eight of us sat down at a table and the attorney said, ‘Do you mind if I record the evening?’ And we all said no, of course not. We sat there. It was a long dinner. I thought we were lightly chewing the rag. But the next day the attorney comes up with eight single-spaced pages flagging thirty-six different inventions from dinner. Dinner.”
</blockquote>
<p>
I can believe it because this is how I feel about the internet - <b>there are still millions of great ideas out there, waiting to be implemented.</b>
<p>
Even Bill Gates is impressed by these guys - which partially explains why Microsoft is stalled. Microsoft's muse is simply more excited by other stuff...
<p>
<blockquote>
Bill Gates, whose company, Microsoft, is one of the major investors in Intellectual Ventures, says, “I can give you fifty examples of ideas they’ve had where, if you take just one of them, you’d have a startup company right there.”
<p>
There’s this idea they have where you can track moving things by counting wing beats. So you could build a mosquito fence and clear an entire area. They had some ideas about super-thermoses, so you wouldn’t need refrigerators for certain things. They also came up with this idea to stop hurricanes. Basically, the waves in the ocean have energy, and you use that to lower the temperature differential. I’m not saying it necessarily is going to work. But it’s just an example of something where you go, Wow.”
</blockquote>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-19289436014335717882008-05-08T23:25:00.000-07:002008-05-08T23:39:20.986-07:00Now THIS is a Rant<p>
If you want to see what a good old-fashioned internet rant looks and sounds like, <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/05/01.html">Joel Spolsky unloads it for you.</a>
<p>
He's talking about Microsoft, Ray Ozzie and Live Mesh. It's important to note that Joel used to work at Microsoft, and contributed to what I consider the single greatest app of the PC era: Microsoft Excel.
<p>
As you read through the crescendo of angst at Microsoft's over-engineered cluelessness, be sure to <b>note the tell-tale long sentences at peak rantage</b>. You can feel the pounding that the keyboard took when this was typed:
<p>
<blockquote>
It's a whole goddamned architecture, with an API and developer tools and in insane diagram showing all the nifty layers of acronyms, and it seems like the chief astronauts at Microsoft literally expect this to be their gigantic platform in the sky which will take over when Windows becomes irrelevant on the desktop.
</blockquote>
<p>
And later, more unimpeded flux from the keyboard:
<p>
<blockquote>
It sort of bothers me, intellectually, that there are these people running around acting like they're building the next great thing who keep serving us the same exact TV dinner that I didn't want on Sunday night, and I didn't want it when you tried to serve it again Monday night, and you crunched it up and mixed in some cheese and I didn't eat that Tuesday night, and here it is Wednesday and you've rebuilt the whole goddamn TV dinner industry from the ground up and you're giving me 1955 salisbury steak that I just DON'T WANT.
</blockquote>
<p>
Good stuff!
<p>
Stick around for the end, cause Joel gives bonus ranting, and targets Google...
<p>John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10624571.post-50458210710561525022008-05-08T17:15:00.000-07:002008-05-08T17:18:03.394-07:00The Money Quote on Microsoft<p>
<a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2008/05/QandA_maryjofoley">Mary Jo Foley nails</a> why Microsoft is continuing to decline.
<p>
<blockquote>
Foley: There's always been this dichotomy between "Bill's guys" and "Steve's guys." Steve's guys have MBAs and their roots are in sales. Bill's guys have been traditional technologists. The <b>people who are more like Steve will probably get more power</b> and will run the show, so I wonder <b>who's going to be the tech champion</b> for Bill's guys. I think that's going to be a big cultural and noticeable change once Gates is out from his day-to-day duties.
</blockquote>
<p>
This effect has been going on for the last 3 years and has ruined Microsoft's future: over-dependence on MBAs, and loss of technology touch.
<p>
It's nice when someone as smart & connected as Foley says things you've always believed...John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471505239458914968noreply@blogger.com