August 2009
68 posts
This sheep costs more than a house. →
Semi-detached, 4-bedroom, small garden, in a not-too-posh bit of Surrey. I reckon.
How VCs say "no" →
giantrobotlasers:
The best leaders have strong opinions weakly held - meaning they can have the passion but with evidence can change.
Click through for the full post, but I liked this sentence in particular.
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Forer Effect →
The Forer effect is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, and...
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"Web 2.0 is dead". →
Quick plug for a SXSW panel I’m involved with :-)
"Germany’s version of LastFM files for insolvency" →
Comment I just left on this TechCrunch article:
I think the title of this article’s a bit disingenuous. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose eyes popped out of their head while scanning through Google Reader - it makes it sound like Last.fm *itself* is ceasing German operations, or a branch of Last.fm is in trouble.
The Last.fm connection is only tenuous, so name-checking it in the headline...
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“The first rule of economics is scarcity: everyone cannot have enough of...”
– Thomas Sowell (via a2h)
"It's the stupid economy". →
A Google Reader “bundle” (ie. bunch of RSS feeds packaged together) of the economics blogs that I read.
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Can anyone recommend any good blogs about...
They don’t necessarily have to be blogs belonging to museums or galleries (in fact, impartiality might be a good thing).
Some very interesting ones I’ve been enjoying a look at today are Museum 2.0 and Museum Marketing.
Dear Economist... →
“My husband and I are following a tight budget, whereby he is using an Excel spreadsheet to plan our gas usage, spending of store card loyalty points, and so on. However, I became somewhat concerned when I lost a glove and its value was inputted into the ‘deficit’ column of the spreadsheet.”
tomewing:
Yesterday I did the online rounds of some of the newspapers I don’t buy, reading their Ashes analysis. I specially didn’t go to the Guardian site because I knew I’d be reading it on the train this morning. This has been happening increasingly often with me.
I do this quite frequently with articles from Wired, The Economist and New Scientist that become popular on...
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"Oooh look, I've reblogged that xkcd comic too,...
“A spa hotel? It’s like a normal hotel, only in reception there’s a...”
– Rhod Gilbert with one of the 10 funniest jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe (BBC)
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“Both baked beans and budget lines are what economists describe as inferior...”
– BBC News
DJ Hero Hands-On: Bring That Beat Back →
“I’ll admit to having a bit of DJ Hero phobia, at least prior to my hands-on time with Activision and FreeStyleGames’ turntable title. Guitar Hero and Rock Band I get, having played the drums and guitar. But doing the wicky-wicky?”
“Never, ever ask your artists to voice their own advertisements on Spotify. They...”
– Popjustice
How to make your music more attractive for... →
Cool blog post by Sentric Music, with analysis of some of their artists’ tunes (in a Sound Cloud playlist) explaining what makes them worthy of being included in adverts and similar.
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marco:
[…]
I now have a decently successful blog with a non-zero audience of mostly cool people that earns a small profit with tasteful ads that don’t rely on distracting people. My posts sometimes end up on aggregators even though I never try to promote them. And this all takes far less time and hassle than it used to.
Some of this is the technology: since I started writing online, web...
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“We believe that a payments system directly and officially integrated into social...”
– Tipjoy shuts down
:-(
Scripting News →
The personal site of RSS/podcasting godfather Dave Winer has a really simple design, but it’s fantastically usable, and manages to stay interesting even though it’s really quite plain.
Check out how differently post pages are styled to the homepage. And how each paragraph has its own permalink.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster...”
– Henry Ford
The customer’s not always right!
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DailyBooth, 4chan and the importance of context →
“I know that title might sound like a PhD thesis, but stick with me; a few more posts and I think I’ll have the grand unified social meeja theory of everything…”
A blog post I’ve just written about a new service that people have accused of being too similar to Tumblr, 4chan, Twitter and all sorts of things. And why it doesn’t actually matter.
(I also stick up for...
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FormSpring →
Been looking at teens’ use of Tumblr (legitimate online PR purposes!) and FormSpring seems to be a really popular way to allow readers to get in touch instead of using e-mail. I’d never heard of it before, but I’ve come across it tens of times in about 30 minutes since looking at blogs by young’uns.
It’s always interesting to see how different demograpics use...
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Michael Jackson's FBI file consists of about 600... →
I almost can’t wait until these are made public. There’s not even a Lennon-esque “anti-war activist” angle, so I wonder what they’ve got on him?
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Surely the next logical step is now for Tumblr to allow you to filter certain tags (eg. obama, madmen, topherchris) out of your dashboard?
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Tumblr's new "tag channel" functionality will be...
The Slovenian startup offers a browser plugin that can automatically suggest tags (and pictures, links etc) for blog posts across a variety of platforms, including Tumblr.
Daring Fireball: The Android Opportunity →
I’m still hoping someone soon ships a good Android-based non-phone, like the iPod Touch. I’d love to have an Android device to play with, but without any contract or monthly fees.
(via marco)
Tumblr and Music →
“So I’m thinking that we are going to see more musicians and the music industry at large embrace Tumblr. And when that happens, the blogs that are already on Tumblr will benefit because their will be even more content to view in the dashboard and like and reblog. It’s a virtuous circle and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
(Fred Wilson)
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Post-“Point Oh”: Why Startups Should Think... →
“Web 2.0 is dead. This presentation will explain that by rejecting Web 2.0 trends, startups can give themselves a fighting chance and stand out. In a world of user generated abundance, try selling scarcity. Don’t be a faceless, free-for-all platform; be exclusive and selective. Embrace real-world restrictions.”
If you think that sounds like a good idea for a SXSW panel, please click...
BUT WHERE WAS TWITTER, BBC? →
“The maker of the Blackberry mobile phone, Research in Motion (RIM), is the world’s fastest-growing company, according to business magazine Fortune.”
(That’s sarcasm in the title, by the way).
More Tumblr wannabes... →
“Six Apart Equips TypePad For Microblogging, Posterous-Style”.
;-)
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A User's Guide to 21st Century Economics →
Five questions every decision maker should ask themselves:
What is the role of marketing in a world where consumption must slow?
What is the role of distribution in a world where consumption, savings, and investment will accelerate in volatility?
What is the role of production in a world where consumption becomes savings?
What is the role of strategy in a world where the game is no longer...
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Economics articles?
Can anyone recommend any good aggregators of economics articles - link blogs, social bookmarking bits etc?
Reddit’s economics section is rubbish (nothing but US bailout stories), but I like Free Exchange and Marginal Revolution. I’m generally more interested micro- than macro-, and am looking for medium-to-long think pieces (“Instapaper friendly”!) rather than brief newsy...
WSJ: Gates Foundation Sells Off Most Health-Care &... →
“The foundation’s decision to drastically reduce its exposure to health-related stocks is striking, as many of its charity grants have been disbursed to address developing country health issues. Its move comes against the background of anxiety among drugmakers and healthcare insurance firms about the potential impact of the Obama administration’s proposed overhaul of the U.S....
“One in four households has now gone mobile-only. At current rates the last...”
– The Economist (via tomwillerer)
Geek grammar
“iPod Touches” or “iPods Touch”?
;-)
“It’s time to use the web again to store our ideas, and instead of relying...”
– Dave Winer to Robert Scoble on FriendFeed
Little World Gifts →
My work tumblelog, for iPhone and virtual goods-related stuff.
Poor Google Knol Has Gone From A Wikipedia Killer... →
Good title…something about it tickled me.
