Random musings
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“Project Houdini” and the Obama Campaign
Buried deep in Newsweek’s fascinating “Special Election Project” piece is the following nugget: The Obama campaign’s New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a “flusher”—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini,…
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Evidence Based Policy and an Obama Administration
That I’m a fan of Barack Obama is not a surprise to anyone who knows me. One of the things that appeals to me most about him is that he seems to be evidence based rather than ideology based. He is clearly very smart and secure enough in that intelligence that he can surround himself…
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Summer in San Francisco
Some times are so great, you can tell that they are among the best times of your life even while you’re having them. For me, this summer was one of those times. I spent the summer living in San Francisco, doing exactly what I’d hoped: working in VC, reading business plans, meeting with entrepreneurs, doing…
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Wow Google Spreadsheets
I’ve long been a fan of Google Spreadsheet. Like all disruptive technologies, it doesn’t meet the needs of most customers of the incumbent product, Excel. I’m no banker, but even my relatively neophyte hands keep trying to hit F4 to lock a cell reference or hit F2 to edit a cell. I miss being able…
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Microsoft Points and the Hillarity of Patents
It would seem I am now an “official” inventor. The USPTO has granted, ahem, Method and system for in-line secondary transactions, an element of the work I did on the system that ultimately became Microsoft Points. For the record, I think the US Patent system is horribly, horribly broken, particularly when it comes to software…
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San Francisco Bound
Today I’m heading out to San Francisco for the summer. I’m going to be working for a VC fund. I’ve already done some work with them and I’m super excited. They’re super smart, have a great track-record and seem like a ton of fun. I’m also pretty excited to move back to San Francisco. I…
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PicasaWeb Downloader
In the genuinely useful software dept., here is a little app written in C# (source included!) that will download an entire google web album. Great for grabbing copies of all of your friends photos.
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The (very) end of MSN Music
This week, Microsoft announced that they will be de-activating the DRM Servers that issue new keys for music from the (now discontinued) MSN Music service. In other words, starting June 1st, copying your purchased music to a new PC and expecting it to play will no longer work. I bring this up because once upon…
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“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”
If you haven’t seen them, you really must check out the two videos that will.i.am (of the Black Eyed Peas) created about Barack Obama. They both make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Doesn’t some part of you still believe that there are special moments in the world? Special people who…
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Samsung on Failure
Chairman Kun Hee Lee of Samsung Electronics, as quoted in the HBS case on that company: At Sumsung, we reward outstanding performance; we do not punish failure. This is my personal philosophy and belief. We need punishment only for those who lack ethics, are unfair, tell lies, hold others back or stand in the way…
Got any book recommendations?