VIC-20 + Shatner - what a blast! I never owned a VIC-20, but learned 6502 assembly on a Commodore PET and then got an Apple II (which I still have) laughingsquid:The 6502 Microprocessor Turns 35

VIC-20 + Shatner - what a blast! I never owned a VIC-20, but learned 6502 assembly on a Commodore PET and then got an Apple II (which I still have) laughingsquid:The 6502 Microprocessor Turns 35

I have met Senator Patrick Leahy in person several times and owe him a personal debt of gratitude. Over the years I have been impressed by how he has conducted himself in politics. He is, however, dead wrong in his introduction of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) act together with Senator Orin Hatch of Utah and sadly also co-sponsored by New York’s Chuck Schumer. COICA essentially establishes Internet Blacklists and gives ISPs immunity when they enforce the black...

I have met Senator Patrick Leahy in person several times and owe him a personal debt of gratitude. Over the years I have been impressed by how he has conducted himself in politics. He is, however, dead wrong in his introduction of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) act together with Senator Orin Hatch of Utah and sadly also co-sponsored by New York’s Chuck Schumer. COICA essentially establishes Internet Blacklists and gives ISPs immunity when they enforce the black...

Excited to be announcing our investment in Shapeways and the relocation of the company’s headquarters to NY. You can read more about it on the Shapeways blog and over at the NY Times. The founders Peter, Marleen and Robert are relocating from the Netherlands – welcome to NY!

Excited to be announcing our investment in Shapeways and the relocation of the company’s headquarters to NY. You can read more about it on the Shapeways blog and over at the NY Times. The founders Peter, Marleen and Robert are relocating from the Netherlands – welcome to NY!

We are excited to be investors in Twilio as they transform telephony from cumbersome, proprietary and expensive into an easy-to-use web service. We also love the team’s creativity in promoting Twilio to developers, including the idea for this week’s contest: lunch with the USV team. We will be working with the Twilio team to pick the winner from this week’s entrants. As such, I thought it would be helpful to point to some of the criteria that we look for in evaluating innovation on the web. F...

We are excited to be investors in Twilio as they transform telephony from cumbersome, proprietary and expensive into an easy-to-use web service. We also love the team’s creativity in promoting Twilio to developers, including the idea for this week’s contest: lunch with the USV team. We will be working with the Twilio team to pick the winner from this week’s entrants. As such, I thought it would be helpful to point to some of the criteria that we look for in evaluating innovation on the web. F...

I continue to be amazed at the things we have available to us - we generally live in the future. But every once in a while the past intrudes with full force. As in when I tried to connect an HTC Evo to a Mac laptop with a USB cable to transfer a bunch of video. At first, I got absolutely nothing. Then I went into settings on the Evo to discover that there is a setting to change the USB connection from “charging only” to “mount." Easy, I thought, until I noticed a pop-up on the Mac saying "Unr...

I continue to be amazed at the things we have available to us - we generally live in the future. But every once in a while the past intrudes with full force. As in when I tried to connect an HTC Evo to a Mac laptop with a USB cable to transfer a bunch of video. At first, I got absolutely nothing. Then I went into settings on the Evo to discover that there is a setting to change the USB connection from “charging only” to “mount." Easy, I thought, until I noticed a pop-up on the Mac saying "Unr...

As I wrote last week, I created Preditter as a project to use some of the technologies that we have invested in. I blogged on Monday about how amazingly easy it is to use the Twilio API. Up today: MongoDB (which has been created by the team at 10gen). Here too, I was blown away by the ease of getting going. You can literally be up and running with MongoDB in minutes (on my Mac laptop I just downloaded and on my Slice running CentOS I used yum). But the thing that I was most pleased about is h...

As I wrote last week, I created Preditter as a project to use some of the technologies that we have invested in. I blogged on Monday about how amazingly easy it is to use the Twilio API. Up today: MongoDB (which has been created by the team at 10gen). Here too, I was blown away by the ease of getting going. You can literally be up and running with MongoDB in minutes (on my Mac laptop I just downloaded and on my Slice running CentOS I used yum). But the thing that I was most pleased about is h...

Last week, I participated in a panel on the implications of SaaS/Cloud for SMEs. One point that was made by several of the panelists is that a big advantage over on-premise software is that you are always on the latest version and thus get to benefit from improvements over time. Those improvements can be additional features but they can also come in the for of reduced prices. Amazon for example has cut their prices for EC2 and also made such cost savings available as reserved instances and mo...

Last week, I participated in a panel on the implications of SaaS/Cloud for SMEs. One point that was made by several of the panelists is that a big advantage over on-premise software is that you are always on the latest version and thus get to benefit from improvements over time. Those improvements can be additional features but they can also come in the for of reduced prices. Amazon for example has cut their prices for EC2 and also made such cost savings available as reserved instances and mo...

Unlike many other people, I have not been disappointed with Barack Obama’s presidency. There have been many moments of frustration, but it is a damn tough job, especially when so many representatives from both sides seem to have lost all sense of what their responsibilities are. But I do find the idea of assassinations targeting US citizens without due process deeply disturbing. Due process is one of the key breakthroughs of the modern state and is at the foundation of what sets us apart from...

Unlike many other people, I have not been disappointed with Barack Obama’s presidency. There have been many moments of frustration, but it is a damn tough job, especially when so many representatives from both sides seem to have lost all sense of what their responsibilities are. But I do find the idea of assassinations targeting US citizens without due process deeply disturbing. Due process is one of the key breakthroughs of the modern state and is at the foundation of what sets us apart from...

Mike Arrington kicked off a tempest in a teapot yesterday with his harmlessly titled post “A Blogger Walks Into a Bar” that alleges a price fixing conspiracy for angel investing. I don’t claim to know what happened at the meeting, but I fully concur with Fred’s assessment that there is no evidence of any fixing (only the opposite). Also, the idea that a small number of individuals could collude meaningfully in the early stage market – even if they wanted to – is bogus to begin with. There are...

Mike Arrington kicked off a tempest in a teapot yesterday with his harmlessly titled post “A Blogger Walks Into a Bar” that alleges a price fixing conspiracy for angel investing. I don’t claim to know what happened at the meeting, but I fully concur with Fred’s assessment that there is no evidence of any fixing (only the opposite). Also, the idea that a small number of individuals could collude meaningfully in the early stage market – even if they wanted to – is bogus to begin with. There are...

I am a huge fan of the command line. Sure, the learning curve is steeper than for a GUI, but once you know what you are doing, you can be blindingly fast. Because it is generally assumed that folks who use command lines know what they are doing, the command line tends to expose the full power of a system. Therein of course also lies a great danger. Never mind the wisdom of using the command line on a large production system – it’s not something you really *want* to do, but when you are growin...

I am a huge fan of the command line. Sure, the learning curve is steeper than for a GUI, but once you know what you are doing, you can be blindingly fast. Because it is generally assumed that folks who use command lines know what they are doing, the command line tends to expose the full power of a system. Therein of course also lies a great danger. Never mind the wisdom of using the command line on a large production system – it’s not something you really *want* to do, but when you are growin...