I will be participating in an ad:tech panel this afternoon with the title “Digital Economy 2010: A Robust Recovery or Another Year of Trench Warfare?" I have to admit that I am not entirely sure what that means, but in a prep call with moderator Mark Mahaney we came up with some fun questions. The one that is most interesting is whether we may be facing a long-term decline in the percentage of GDP that is spent on advertising. I am pretty sure that I saw a statistic to the effect that adverti...

I will be participating in an ad:tech panel this afternoon with the title “Digital Economy 2010: A Robust Recovery or Another Year of Trench Warfare?" I have to admit that I am not entirely sure what that means, but in a prep call with moderator Mark Mahaney we came up with some fun questions. The one that is most interesting is whether we may be facing a long-term decline in the percentage of GDP that is spent on advertising. I am pretty sure that I saw a statistic to the effect that adverti...

It is likely that the unemployment rate is going to hit 10 percent when the next monthly report comes out on Friday. That is 1 in 10 people without a job (in fact it is worse because the official statistics significantly undercount). Now we have had some growth in the economy last quarter, but a non-trivial portion of that was attributable to increased military spending and the cash-for-clunkers program, and, as Krugman points out, at a modest rate of growth it historically takes a long time ...

It is likely that the unemployment rate is going to hit 10 percent when the next monthly report comes out on Friday. That is 1 in 10 people without a job (in fact it is worse because the official statistics significantly undercount). Now we have had some growth in the economy last quarter, but a non-trivial portion of that was attributable to increased military spending and the cash-for-clunkers program, and, as Krugman points out, at a modest rate of growth it historically takes a long time ...

I love Vernor Vinge’s concept of a “programmer-archeologist” (A Deepness In the Sky, he also coined “programmer-at-arms”) as someone who digs through the layers of existing systems to understand why and how stuff works. I was reminded of this over the weekend, as I worked through some old code of my own and that from a bunch of other developers on DailyLit. My exposure to “software archeology” goes as far as back as the first time I earned money from programming. I was 17 and had just come ba...

I love Vernor Vinge’s concept of a “programmer-archeologist” (A Deepness In the Sky, he also coined “programmer-at-arms”) as someone who digs through the layers of existing systems to understand why and how stuff works. I was reminded of this over the weekend, as I worked through some old code of my own and that from a bunch of other developers on DailyLit. My exposure to “software archeology” goes as far as back as the first time I earned money from programming. I was 17 and had just come ba...

One of the great things about being focused on investing in web services is that the technical challenges faced by almost all of the companies in the Union Square Ventures portfolio tend to be the same. The solutions on the other hand vary widely. Some companies rack their own servers, others are at traditional hosting companies and some are entirely in the cloud. Some use Java, others PHP, many mix languages. You get the idea. And: there is no obvious correlation between the tools companies ...

One of the great things about being focused on investing in web services is that the technical challenges faced by almost all of the companies in the Union Square Ventures portfolio tend to be the same. The solutions on the other hand vary widely. Some companies rack their own servers, others are at traditional hosting companies and some are entirely in the cloud. Some use Java, others PHP, many mix languages. You get the idea. And: there is no obvious correlation between the tools companies ...

Yesterday, Google announced something stunning: free turn-by-turn directions for Android 2.0 to be first available shortly on the Droid phones. It is stunning because the previously cheapest software only alternatives were apps such as Navigon ($89.99) and TomTom ($99.99) for the iPhone (as an aside, stand alone GPS devices with turn-by-turn directions can now be found on Amazon for as little as $139 for a Garmin nuvi 260 and that’s after 2 seconds of looking). So here we have a case of Googl...

Yesterday, Google announced something stunning: free turn-by-turn directions for Android 2.0 to be first available shortly on the Droid phones. It is stunning because the previously cheapest software only alternatives were apps such as Navigon ($89.99) and TomTom ($99.99) for the iPhone (as an aside, stand alone GPS devices with turn-by-turn directions can now be found on Amazon for as little as $139 for a Garmin nuvi 260 and that’s after 2 seconds of looking). So here we have a case of Googl...

I haven’t actually heard anyone pitch what they do as “groupware,” as the name apparently got such a bad reputation historically to have been banned. But it still makes a convenient shorthand for describing tools to help groups with coordination and communication (I am open to better suggestions). What is surprising though is how hard it is to find a groupware solution that actually does all the things that one needs for most groups. I am seeing this close up right now as I am watching Susan ...

I haven’t actually heard anyone pitch what they do as “groupware,” as the name apparently got such a bad reputation historically to have been banned. But it still makes a convenient shorthand for describing tools to help groups with coordination and communication (I am open to better suggestions). What is surprising though is how hard it is to find a groupware solution that actually does all the things that one needs for most groups. I am seeing this close up right now as I am watching Susan ...

If you either follow the Freakonomics blog or any of the global warming / CO2 coverage, you will have by now encountered the tiff over the “climate chapter” (Chapter 5) of Superfreakonomics. If not, you can read Levitt’s most recent defense and compare with an impact summary written from the other side. I don’t want to weigh on the particular chapter, but it does raise the topic of geo-engineering which deserves more attention. I am finally meeting with a lawyer and an accountant this afterno...

If you either follow the Freakonomics blog or any of the global warming / CO2 coverage, you will have by now encountered the tiff over the “climate chapter” (Chapter 5) of Superfreakonomics. If not, you can read Levitt’s most recent defense and compare with an impact summary written from the other side. I don’t want to weigh on the particular chapter, but it does raise the topic of geo-engineering which deserves more attention. I am finally meeting with a lawyer and an accountant this afterno...

I am late to the Kindle show. Having grown up in Europe and going back there for vacation a fair bit (and reading books mostly on vacation and otherwise via DailyLit), I did not want to buy a US-only device. So I jumped on the international Kindle, pre-ordering as soon as it was announced (something I may regret when the Nook or the Apple Tablet arrive). I have now had my Kindle for a few days and have been reading the newspaper on it via the 14-day free trials of the NY Times and the Wall St...

I am late to the Kindle show. Having grown up in Europe and going back there for vacation a fair bit (and reading books mostly on vacation and otherwise via DailyLit), I did not want to buy a US-only device. So I jumped on the international Kindle, pre-ordering as soon as it was announced (something I may regret when the Nook or the Apple Tablet arrive). I have now had my Kindle for a few days and have been reading the newspaper on it via the 14-day free trials of the NY Times and the Wall St...

The NoSQL movement has been gathering a lot of steam lately (despite some folks misgivings about the name). There have been meetups in major cities around the world – most recently in Berlin – and there is a big conference coming up in Atlanta. I am happy to say that MongoDB has been extremely well represented at all of these and is generating a lot of interest. But what if you can’t make it to any of these places and yet want to learn more? Fear not, the fine folks at 10gen (which sponsors M...

The NoSQL movement has been gathering a lot of steam lately (despite some folks misgivings about the name). There have been meetups in major cities around the world – most recently in Berlin – and there is a big conference coming up in Atlanta. I am happy to say that MongoDB has been extremely well represented at all of these and is generating a lot of interest. But what if you can’t make it to any of these places and yet want to learn more? Fear not, the fine folks at 10gen (which sponsors M...

Something big may be happening to user experience. Bing and Google will soon be showing tweets as part of the search results (they have both licensed the full Twitter firehose and Marissa Meyer yesterday demoed a version of “Social Search”). Google is already returning videos from Youtube as search results and apparently will soon be offering music. Bing video results can be played right on the results page. Facebook just announced music gifts that can be played right inside of the news feed ...

Something big may be happening to user experience. Bing and Google will soon be showing tweets as part of the search results (they have both licensed the full Twitter firehose and Marissa Meyer yesterday demoed a version of “Social Search”). Google is already returning videos from Youtube as search results and apparently will soon be offering music. Bing video results can be played right on the results page. Facebook just announced music gifts that can be played right inside of the news feed ...