Comedians get to say what most of us think but don’t have the courage or circumstance to say. Louis CK has a fantastic new special out (warning: if you are easily offended this is definitely not for you) that is full of hilarious but also poignant observations about the human condition. That special also marks a critical breakthrough in the future of content: it is a paid direct to consumer distribution. If you like his style of comedy (as I do), head on over to LouisCK.net and pay your 5 buc...

Comedians get to say what most of us think but don’t have the courage or circumstance to say. Louis CK has a fantastic new special out (warning: if you are easily offended this is definitely not for you) that is full of hilarious but also poignant observations about the human condition. That special also marks a critical breakthrough in the future of content: it is a paid direct to consumer distribution. If you like his style of comedy (as I do), head on over to LouisCK.net and pay your 5 buc...

In Public Parts, Jeff Jarvis tackles the incredibly challenging and important topic of the impact of the internet on privacy and publicness. Jeff calls himself a “publicness advocate” in contrast with the often nameless “privacy advocates” who are cited whenever there is a discussion about a change in how Facebook works or the WSJ goes on an anti-cookie bender. As you can tell, I fall squarely in Jeff’s camp that publicness is largely a good thing (and like Jeff, I blog and tweet and check-in...

In Public Parts, Jeff Jarvis tackles the incredibly challenging and important topic of the impact of the internet on privacy and publicness. Jeff calls himself a “publicness advocate” in contrast with the often nameless “privacy advocates” who are cited whenever there is a discussion about a change in how Facebook works or the WSJ goes on an anti-cookie bender. As you can tell, I fall squarely in Jeff’s camp that publicness is largely a good thing (and like Jeff, I blog and tweet and check-in...

Thanks for everyone who participated in the Tech Tuesday survey. I learned a lot. First off, not surprisingly, my audience overall is fairly tech savvy with 2/3rds knowing at least how to code up HTML and over ½ having done some programming. Second, I was happy to find that the level of difficulty was about right and that if anything I should maybe add some harder “bonus” material. Third, post length seems spot on with nearly 80% liking it as it is and roughly 10% each asking for shorter and ...

Thanks for everyone who participated in the Tech Tuesday survey. I learned a lot. First off, not surprisingly, my audience overall is fairly tech savvy with 2/3rds knowing at least how to code up HTML and over ½ having done some programming. Second, I was happy to find that the level of difficulty was about right and that if anything I should maybe add some harder “bonus” material. Third, post length seems spot on with nearly 80% liking it as it is and roughly 10% each asking for shorter and ...

So I got up earlier than usual this morning to work on a post about more details on how CPUs work and some actual assembly language. In particular I was planning to introduce the notion of registers and maybe the stack (all of this using a neat web-based 6502 emulator). But then it occurred to me that I really don’t have a good sense of whether this is what folks want to read about. So I figured I would provide a quick recap instead and then lay out some possible directions. So far Tech Tuesd...

So I got up earlier than usual this morning to work on a post about more details on how CPUs work and some actual assembly language. In particular I was planning to introduce the notion of registers and maybe the stack (all of this using a neat web-based 6502 emulator). But then it occurred to me that I really don’t have a good sense of whether this is what folks want to read about. So I figured I would provide a quick recap instead and then lay out some possible directions. So far Tech Tuesd...

Last week I was in London to spend time with the team from AMEE. On the flight to London, I read an article that provided a potent reminder of the importance of measuring CO2 emissions. The Independent had a big story on Methane gas being released from the Arctic sea floor off the coast of Siberia in far larger quantities than previously feared. Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas (20x more potent than CO2) that was trapped beneath permafrost. The release of this gas is a great example ...

Last week I was in London to spend time with the team from AMEE. On the flight to London, I read an article that provided a potent reminder of the importance of measuring CO2 emissions. The Independent had a big story on Methane gas being released from the Arctic sea floor off the coast of Siberia in far larger quantities than previously feared. Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas (20x more potent than CO2) that was trapped beneath permafrost. The release of this gas is a great example ...

The patent wars have really been heating up. For some time now Apple has been going around trying to get various Android devices off the market based on patent claims. Now the shoe is on the other foot as a court in Germany has found in favor of Motorola Mobility against Apple based on a patent. Of course Motorola Mobility is in the process of being acquired by Google so that its trove of patents can be used in the fight against Apple and others. Apple is reaping what it has sowed. And in the...

The patent wars have really been heating up. For some time now Apple has been going around trying to get various Android devices off the market based on patent claims. Now the shoe is on the other foot as a court in Germany has found in favor of Motorola Mobility against Apple based on a patent. Of course Motorola Mobility is in the process of being acquired by Google so that its trove of patents can be used in the fight against Apple and others. Apple is reaping what it has sowed. And in the...

As soon as your new startup has some actual endusers a fear of changes sets in. What if people don’t like it? What if they start to protest? I sometimes meet startups with only thousands of users that are firmly in the grip of this fear. That’s why it is so awesome to see companies such as Facebook and Twitter with hundreds of millions of users still make big changes to their services. As of today I have “New New Twitter” – while it doesn’t represent some fundamental change in how Twitter fun...

As soon as your new startup has some actual endusers a fear of changes sets in. What if people don’t like it? What if they start to protest? I sometimes meet startups with only thousands of users that are firmly in the grip of this fear. That’s why it is so awesome to see companies such as Facebook and Twitter with hundreds of millions of users still make big changes to their services. As of today I have “New New Twitter” – while it doesn’t represent some fundamental change in how Twitter fun...

Maybe I should have started the whole Tech Tuesday series with a post on programming since that’s why computers were created in the first place! In fact, thinking about programming in many ways precedes the availability of actual computers to carry out those programs. At the time that Babbage was dreaming up his Analytical Engine, Lady Ada started to formulate how a general purpose machine would be programmed. That was almost 100 years before the first truly programmable machines were actuall...

Maybe I should have started the whole Tech Tuesday series with a post on programming since that’s why computers were created in the first place! In fact, thinking about programming in many ways precedes the availability of actual computers to carry out those programs. At the time that Babbage was dreaming up his Analytical Engine, Lady Ada started to formulate how a general purpose machine would be programmed. That was almost 100 years before the first truly programmable machines were actuall...

Twilio has been growing rapidly in the US and they recently launched in the UK for voice with text coming soon. In addition to geographic expansion, Twilio has also been adding awesome new services such as Twilio Client and Twilio Connect. We are excited to be supporting Team Twilio together with the fine folks from Bessemer with a $17 million Series C financing. Congrats to the entire team on a fantastic year!

Twilio has been growing rapidly in the US and they recently launched in the UK for voice with text coming soon. In addition to geographic expansion, Twilio has also been adding awesome new services such as Twilio Client and Twilio Connect. We are excited to be supporting Team Twilio together with the fine folks from Bessemer with a $17 million Series C financing. Congrats to the entire team on a fantastic year!

After yesterday’s Twilio announcement, this will make two funding posts in a row but that’s just how it worked out: Edmodo today announced that the company has raised $15 million in a round led by Greylock and Benchmark. Reid Hoffman and Matt Cohler will be joining the Edmodo board. We are super excited about how this allows Edmodo to continue growing and deliver on their vision of connecting and empowering students and teachers. Congrats to the team at Edmodo!

After yesterday’s Twilio announcement, this will make two funding posts in a row but that’s just how it worked out: Edmodo today announced that the company has raised $15 million in a round led by Greylock and Benchmark. Reid Hoffman and Matt Cohler will be joining the Edmodo board. We are super excited about how this allows Edmodo to continue growing and deliver on their vision of connecting and empowering students and teachers. Congrats to the team at Edmodo!