Apercu

WYSIHTML5 - A Better Approach to Rich Text Editing

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:38:14 -0400

WYSIHTML5 - A Better Approach to Rich Text Editing:

Wysihtml5 is an open source rich text editor based on HTML5 technology and the progressive-enhancement approach. It uses a sophisticated security concept and aims to generate fully valid HTML5 markup by preventing unmaintainable tag soups and inline styles.

"What GM’s retreat really shows is the harsh reality that other brands must face: Making social-media..."

Wed, 23 May 2012 06:41:48 -0400

“What GM’s retreat really shows is the harsh reality that other brands must face: Making social-media communications work requires heavier lift than many organizations can muster.”

- Why GM and Others Fail With Facebook Ads - Businessweek (via futuristgerd)

Business as Usual

Wed, 23 May 2012 06:38:50 -0400

Business as Usual:

“In one of the biggest IPOs in history, in which a huge amount of stock was sold to small investors, privileged Wall Street insiders once again got top-notch information…and individuals got the shaft.”

Sensationalism and the downside of modern media

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:26:53 -0400

Sensationalism and the downside of modern media:

With the proliferation of bloggers and twitter, and tech conferences, “everyone” seems to be an internet industry expert. While this is usually just annoying background noise to me (think airliners and road traffic noise) it sometimes gets under my skin. Yesterday was one of those days. The Wall Street Journal publishes an article about GM ending a modest (to GM) marketing spend with Facebook. The next thing you know it’s tweeted, blogged about, re-tweeted like it actually means something. You know what? All it means is that GM has decided there are more effective means to generate buyer interest in their products. It simply does not mean that Facebook ads are or are not effective. There are too many lazy intellectuals and ambulance chasers in the world.

theatlantic: Kidnapped by Pirates at Sea? Here’s How Economics...

Fri, 11 May 2012 07:53:10 -0400

theatlantic:

Kidnapped by Pirates at Sea? Here’s How Economics Can Save You

Here’s something that the econ model tells us shouldn’t matter: the going rate. In normal markets the going rate matters, but only because it provides the opportunities for substitutes and this creates the “law of one price.” For instance, when I go to a grocery store and see a loaf of bread for $4 I won’t buy it. An economist would say I forgo this purchase because I know perfectly well that the going rate for a loaf of bread is about $2.25 and so I can go elsewhere and get bread cheaper. Similarly if I go to the Honda dealer to buy a Honda Accord, it is relevant for me to mention price quotes offered by other Honda dealers for an Accord or even how much Toyota dealers ask for a Camry because it is entirely credible that I’ll walk off the lot and go to rival car dealers offering very close substitutes for this dealer’s cars. However if my sister is locked in a basement in Ciudad Juarez and the kidnappers can credibly commit to not letting her go unless I raise $x, it is completely irrelevant that in the past kidnappers accepted ransoms of $x/2 since I don’t have the relatively good fortune of dealing with a kidnapper who demands $x/2 but am stuck with one who demands $x. There are no other places where I can buy the freedom of my sister and so the only price that matters is the one being demanded by her particular kidnappers. (Note to any cartels reading this: I don’t have a sister).

Read more.

“The first rule of kidnapping insurance: Don’t tell anybody you have kidnapping insurance.” Good to know.

IN ADVERTISING, AS IN LOVE, DESPERATION NEVER MAKES US MORE ATTRACTIVE

Mon, 07 May 2012 17:10:27 -0400

Who at RIM approved this campaign? Sadly, I couldn’t even get through it, poorly strategized, poorly executed.

Poor judgement.

adteachings:

Case in point, this new BlackBerry site, which attempts to woo iPhone users by insulting them: http://wakeupbebold.com/

Asymco: The Phone (Hardware) Market in 2012

Fri, 04 May 2012 07:33:56 -0400

Asymco: The Phone (Hardware) Market in 2012:

“The new market disruption is the migration of a large number of demanding customers away from phones-as-voice-products to phones-as-computing-products. The low-end disruption is the migration of a large number of less demanding customers from branded phones to unbranded, commodity phones.”

thenextweb: Statistics from statcounter – via Trak.in – show...

Fri, 04 May 2012 07:00:50 -0400

thenextweb:

Statistics from statcounter – via Trak.in – show that a steady depreciation in the use of Internet from PCs is coinciding with continued grow of Web surfing from mobile devices. The data suggests that, with PC usage just a few percent points ahead, the lines will cross and access from mobile will overtake the PC before the end of the year. (via India: Mobile Web to Overtake PC Access by the end of 2012)

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

Wed, 02 May 2012 06:56:27 -0400

Post hoc ergo propter hoc:

“Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one.”

A little Wednesday morning Latin….

Infographic: The Ins and Outs of Business Intelligence

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:07:48 -0400

winfographics:

From: Ft Lauderdale Buick Via: Automotive SEO

cyberlabe: Transforming Feedback into Insight

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:06:55 -0400

cyberlabe:

Transforming Feedback into Insight

Business intelligence: start with the right questions...

Tue, 01 May 2012 08:35:46 -0400

Business intelligence: start with the right questions...

Curious Rat: Google Drive vs Dropbox Terms

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:25:17 -0400

Curious Rat: Google Drive vs Dropbox Terms:

Don’t be evil……

"Sharing is predictable, and follows specific patterns over time. There are two main types of links:..."

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:49:39 -0400

“Sharing is predictable, and follows specific patterns over time. There are two main types of links: evergreen ones, which have a long sharing curve, and breaking news, which have an average life span of 2.8 hours on Twitter and 3.1 hours on Facebook.”

- Bitly to Launch New Consumer Version (via thenextweb)

Google Consumer Surveys

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:31:00 -0400

Google Consumer Surveys:

Decent value, great idea from Google. The only thing that isn’t clear is what Google can do with the data. Their global terms of service imply that they can use the data to improve the services, but it’s potentially another gold mine of data for Google analysis. Just keep in mind that like any kind of quantitative analysis, coming up with the correct questions is the hard part….

Narcissistic leadership

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:18:00 -0400

Narcissistic leadership:

One of the common traits of successful people is the desire to always improve. I always try improve key business, technical and management skills. So here I am reading about business and leadership theory and I come across this term I’m not familiar with.

“Narcissists profess company loyalty but are only really committed to their own agendas, thus organizational decisions are founded on the narcissist’s own interests rather than the interests of the organization as a whole, the various stakeholders, or the society in which the organization operates.”

What a fascinating read.

RIP Sierra. 4/21/2012

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:51:25 -0400

RIP Sierra. 4/21/2012

futurejournalismproject: The Internet’s Population Doubled Over...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:08:34 -0400

futurejournalismproject:

The Internet’s Population Doubled Over the Last Five Years

Royal Pingdom susses out some interesting trends about the world’s 2.27 billion Internet users:

Africa has gone from 34 million to 140 million, a 317% increase.

Asia has gone from 418 million to over 1 billion, a 143% increase.

Europe has gone from 322 million to 501 million, a 56% increase.

The Middle East has gone from 20 to 77 million, a 294% increase.

North America has gone from 233 to 273 million, a 17% increase.

Latin America (South & Central America) has gone from 110 to 236 million, a 114% increase.

Oceania (including Australia) has gone from 19 to 24 million, a 27% increase.

They also note that Asia’s Internet population is almost double the entire Internet population was in 2007.

I’m curious how accurate the data is. What firms classify?...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:41:03 -0400

I’m curious how accurate the data is. What firms classify? Do you have to have funds of a certain size? Is this just U.S. venture capital firms? Just Northern California VC firms?

fastcompany:

Despite the mythology that has built up around venture capital, it has become a slowly moldering investment vehicle. “The past 10 years haven’t been very productive,” Maris points out. According to the research firm Cambridge Associates, during the decade ending last September, VCs as a class earned a 2.6% interest rate for their investors—less than you could have earned in an S&P 500 index fund. The numbers look slightly better over shorter periods; VCs have delivered a 4.9% return the past three years and 6.7% over the past five, still far from terrific.

Google’s insurgent attitude—perceiving startup funding as broken and appointing itself as the fixer—has ruffled some in the insular, clubby world of venture capital. Not on the record, of course. Google Ventures is already big enough that it has participated in deals with almost every prominent Valley investor, and nobody wants to talk ill of a partner. Behind the scenes, though, some question the firm’s experience—most of its partners are former Googlers who haven’t worked in venture capital before—and its passion. If you were looking for money and were choosing between Google Ventures and such top firms as Andreessen Horowitz or Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, people would tell you to go with one of the other guys.

Read more from the article Google’s Creative Destruction->

SpaceX Costs - Elon Musk

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:46:00 -0400

SpaceX Costs - Elon Musk:

I pay attention for professional reasons due to an amazing client we have. But it’s refreshing to read a CEO that doesn’t just say a lot while saying nothing.