A VC

Jon Stewart via Bit Torrent

My partner Brad swears by Jon Stewart. So does Tom Watson.

The Gotham Gal and I have started watching it. We Tivo it every night and end up watching it when we can.

But yesterday, I found a new way to watch the show. I downloaded the Wednesday show via Bit Torrents. Boing Boing sent me to a blog called Everything Isn't Under Control. This blog is hosting a bit torrent of the part of Wednesday's show where Stewart made mincemeat out of John Ashcroft.

I don't care who you are, Republican, Democrat, Non-political, or something else. You've got to see this piece. It's really funny but it's scary at the same time. We've got a guy who has no respect at all for the constitution running the Justice Department.

Trust

My partner Brad and I were talking about Trust this week. It's the missing piece on the Internet today. Viruses, spam, spyware, comment spam, etc are all problems that point to the lack of trust. We wonder who is going to solve this problem.

One name we came up with is eBay. I was telling Brad about the way I scrounged some tickets to the Wilco show. I bought them from a woman I've never met who I paid in advance with PayPal and who showed up at the appointed time and place to give me the tickets. Why did I know that would happen? Because her seller's rating was perfect and she'd sold a lot of stuff on eBay. I figured why would she start screwing around now?

In fact, eBay is the most trusted Internet company according to the Ponemon Institute and the nonprofit TRUSTe, which polled more than 6,300 consumers for a study of trust on the Internet.

Could eBay take its seller ratings and profiles and do more with them? I don't know. It's hard at first blush to see how that is going to solve viruses, spam, spyware, and a ton of other trust-related issues. But it's worth thinking and talking about.

Digital Photography

I love photos. I'd put more of them on my blog if i could. I just don't have my digital camera with me as much as I'd like.

We have two digital cameras in our house. We have a small Canon Digtal Elph which is my digital camera. It doesn't take great pictures, but i am not a great photographer. I just like taking photos. It works fine for that.

We also have a Nikon D70. This is the Gotham Gal's camera. It's a real camera and she takes great photos with it. I wish she'd post some of them on her blog!

I think the small digital camera, like mine, is toast. Why? Because what I want is a small form factor and convenience. I want my digital camera with me all the time. Right now, that's not happening. On my next phone, it will. This Reuters article is talking about a 3.2 megapixel camera phone coming onto the market in June.

When I get my new phone, you'll see a lot more photos here on my blog. And that's a good thing.

Wilco at Irving Plaza

I scored two tickets on eBay and the Gotham Gal and I went to see Wilco at Irving Plaza tonite.

The band was great. The songs are great.

But what I really want to say is that Jeff Tweedy is a genius. He's up there with the great rock/folk musicians like Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Singer/songwriter/guitar player - he's the complete package.

Here's a an example of what we heard tonite.

HC Radio

Brian says in his comment to my earlier "HD Radio Is Coming" post that he wants HC Radio, not HD Radio.

He says that HC stands for High Choice, meaning more programming.

Brian is dead right. Sound quality is way better in HD Radio, but programming choice may be the ultimate value proposition.

What many people don't know is that the FM digital signal can be broken into many more streams and FM stations may begin to offer multiple audio streams on a single FM channel.

NPR calls this Tomorrow Radio and they've put a lot of information out into the public domain about it. I think this description of the technology on Crutchfield's site is one of the best descriptions.

Multiple audio programming streams on a single FM channel is not limited to NPR stations. I bet we'll see some interesting stuff develop in this area over the next couple years as HD radios start to penetrate the market.

HD Radio Stations On The Air

Jeff Jarvis asked the obvious question in his comment to my earlier "HD Radio Is Coming" post.

He askes what stations are on the air with the HD signal in his market.

If you want to see what stations are licensed to broadcast in HD and what stations are on the air already, go to the HD Radio Map.

Enterprise Software Has Peaked

I am not in the business of calling market tops and bottoms and please do not take my comments here in that context.

That said, I think the news that SAP considered selling out to Microsoft, which broke over the past 24 hours, is an important sign that enterprise software is no longer a growth business.

The first sign was Oracle's efforts to acquire PeopleSoft which, incredibly, are still ongoing.

But this one is the big bang. Microsoft, which itself is the poster boy of slow growing tech companies, wants to buy SAP. It's not surprising really. Each layer in the technology stack is slowly getting mature and commoditized. We've finally gotten to enterprise software. Ten years ago, it was the sweet spot of technology venture capital. Now it's a mature business in consolidation mode.

This doesn't mean that all enterprise software is slow growth. But clearly the big sectors that developed over the past fifteen years are mature. And so we need to move on to new areas in search of growth in the technology business.

HD Radio Is Coming

I am getting a digital radio installed in my car in the next month. I can't wait to get the improved sound quality that this reporter from USA Today describes.

Being "Appled"

Jeff Jarvis coins another phrase. He's being "Appled", bit by bit.

I know the feeling.

It started with my daughter Jessica who insisted on a Mac when she was in 3rd grade. She had a PC but when it was time to upgrade, she pushed me to get her an iMac.

From there, it was two more iMacs for Emily and Josh.

Then we got the AirPort to create our first WiFi network.

Then came the iPod and iTunes.

Then iPhoto and iMovie. We were getting an iLife.

We finally caved in and replaced the kitchen computer with a PowerBook.

Although I've been a PC user since IBM introduced the platform in the early 1980s, I now know as much about OSX as I do Windows/DOS. That's what happens when you run tech support for a family of five.

I currently run iTunes and QuickTime as my default media player format on my Windows machine. I may get a PowerBook as my next laptop although that's not going to be an easy call.

Now comes Airport Express and Airtunes. I am suggesting my friends "WiFi" their apartment with this device instead of a more typical choice like Lynksys. Then they'll start getting appled too.

You can't take on a monster like Microsoft head on, but you can chip away at the edges. That's Steve Jobs approach and its working, at least on me.

The Burden of Being the Boss

That scene last night when Tony was talking to his "consigliere" Silvio reminded me so much of Jerry's Henry V quote from his "On Being The CEO" post.

It's tough being the boss whether you are the king, the mob boss, or just an every day CEO.

AirPort Express is Brilliant

Apple just introduced AirPort Express with AirTunes.

The idea of an AirPort the size of an iPod AC Adapter is pretty nifty in itself. I'll have to get one for use in hotel rooms. Now that I've got WiFi at home and in the office and in most airports, I hate the prospect of being tethered in a hotel room.

But the introduction of AirTunes (and the extensions to iTunes that support it) are the most interesting part of this new product.

You simply plug one of these devices into an power outlet near any music system in your house, connect an audio cable from the music system into the AirPort Express, and you can broacast iTunes through your home music system.

I am going to get a couple of these units and play around with them.

MP3 of the Week

Inspired by Burned By The Sun, I am going to post an MP3 file every week. Ironically, Burned By The Sun doesn't do it anymore. So, I'll continue the tradition.

In memory of all the soldiers we've lost in Iraq, here is "When The Roses Bloom Again" as sung by Jeff Tweedy at Wilco's opening concert on May 19, 2004 at Otto's in DeKalb, IL.

James Bond

One of the lasting memories of my childhood is my Dad taking me and my brother Rod to see a James Bond movie in the movie theater. It was either You Only Live Twice or Diamonds Are Forever. I honestly can't remember. Maybe my Dad will comment and let me know which one it was.

Anyway, I've taken it upon myself to pass this love of James Bond on to my son Josh. Last night we watched the movie that started it all, Dr. No.

Josh liked it but as I was putting him to bed last night, he voiced his favor for the new stuff. "Dad", he said, "the classics don't have enough action for me. Bond just has that little gun in Dr. No and in the new movies he has all these great weapons".

Well that may be true, but for my taste I'll take Ursula Andress (Honey Berry) over Hallie Berry (Jinx) any day.

Bit Torrents (Continued)

My journey to understand Bit Torrents has taken me through the world of open source, alternative audio codecs, and live music file sharing. It's been a very interesting and enlightening journey and I am quite a bit (no pun intended) smarter about some important technology trends as a result.

I started with the simple desire to download and play the Wilco tour opening concert that Motts sent me to about two weeks ago. I am glad to report that I am listening it now.

The first thing I did was click on the attachment link on that page. Nothing happened. So I figured that I needed some software. I went to Google, typed in Torrent, and off I went. I read all about Bit Torrents and really couldn't figure out what to do. That was the genesis of my first Bit Torrents post.

Most of the comments suggested the originial open source client so that's what I tried first. I couldn't make it work for me. I tried a few other clients again without a lot of luck. Finally, I hit gold with Azureus. This client worked like a charm for me.

It took me about 20 hours to download the Wilco Tour Opener files but what I really liked about the way Bit Torrents works is that when one seeder went down, another one popped up. When i shut down, and then opened up, it started up again. Very slick. It's a file distribution system built like the Internet for the Internet.

Then i looked at what i'd downloaded. They were all of these files with the .flac extension. I tried to play them but iTunes, Real, and Windows Media Player had no idea what they were. Hmm. Back to Google. I typed in FLAC and got an education in free open source audio codecs. Flac stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. Very interesting stuff. I guess there are a lot of people out there who want something different than what Real, Apple, and Microsoft have to offer. There are other free audio codecs out there like Ogg and Monkey's Audio that appear to be quite popular as well.

So, i then went through the exercise of figuring out what audio player i should download that plays FLAC files. I downloaded something called DBpowerAMP that seemed like it would do the trick. But it was eye-opening to me how many free open source audio players there are out there.

In the process of installing DBpowerAMP, i realized that the same developer made something called DBpowerAMP Music Converter that converts one audio file format to almost any other. Ironically, even after this incredibly educational journey through the world of open source free audio technology, I prefer to use iTunes to play my music. So I downloaded the Music Converter and converted the .flac files to .wav files and am now playing them on iTunes.

I will figure out how to play these FLAC files in native format because I suspect that the sound quality will be a lot better. But that's tomorrow's project.

So now I am hooked up with Bit Torrents. If you know any good live Ben Kweller, Death Cab, Modest Mouse stuff that's available in Bit Torrents, let me know. And I'll be spending a lot of time at Sharing The Groove and Supernova for the next couple weeks.

Critical Mass?

Seth says that there are 3 million bloggers.

I figure that means that there must be more than 3 million blog readers.

These are big numbers.

Alacra's Two New Services

Some companies make a lot of noise and generate buzz. Other companies quietly build great products that their customers love. These companies grow and build their businesses below the radar screen of most people. Alacra is absolutely in the latter group.

I was reading CEO Steve Goldstein's blog and read that Alacra is launching two new products this week.

The first is called Alacra Corporate Connections. It let's users see relationships and potential conflicts between people and organizations. It sounds like a very useful new service.

The second is called Alacra Issuer Search. This service allows someone interested in bonds to do a search on a bond issue and see all three credit ratings comingled along with some other important information. While this may not seem like a big deal, its the first time that all three leading credit rating agencies have made their ratings available on a comingled basis.

If you want to see these new services, go to Nasvhille. The SLA show is going on right now.

Lovelorn Autoblog

Jason must be feeling unloved today. He pinged both me and Jeff asking why we hadn't blogged his new AutoBlog.

So here's my take.

1 - It's the best looking blog on Weblogs Inc. so far. I am not a big fan of the look and feel of Weblogs Inc's blogs. They feel very bland to me. If its a commercial publishing venture, then give me some warmth and feel. Autoblog does that the best so far. But I could use more.

2 - I don't give a shit about cars. They don't interest me in the least. I'm a New Yorker. Give me subway blog and I'll add it to me feed reader. I own two cars but could care less about them as long as they don't break down.

3 - Where is the advertising? Car enthusiasts and in-market car buyers are two of the most attractive segments in online advertising. Let's see some ads!

4 - I am not sure I get where Jason is going with Weblogs Inc. I thought it was a trade publishing model with a focus on tech and startups. But now he's got Engadget, AutoBlog, and BlogMaverick which are more consumer focused. It may be that he's putting up a lot and seeing what sticks. That's not a bad model early in a market. But I think he's eventually got to pick a target market and focus on it.

Bottom line - Autoblog is a nice blog. I bet it will build a good audience. I am rooting for Jason and everyone else who is trying to turn blogs into a business. Jason is smart, scrappy, hungry, bold, brave, and agressive. He'll figure it out.

Cookies in Feed Readers

We have to get cookies in feed readers. Why? Because we've got to be able to intelligently serve ads in feeds. And it will also allow publishers/bloggers to see much more about their audiences than they can now.

Jeff Jarvis and I talked about this yesterday.

And today Chevsky said the same thing in a comment to my last post.

I agree with both of them.

Does anyone know of any feed readers that support cookies right now?

FeedBurner Stats

There are a lot of us starting to pore over our Feedburner stats and we aren't sure what to make of them.

Pamela Parker has a good post on this topic.

A number of comments on my "It's The Feed Stupid" post suggest that the "default pings" from feedreaders are generating hypergrowth numbers that just aren't accurate. Other comments suggest that it's easy to figure out which pings are actual requests for a post and which pings are just "checking in".

I don't know the answer, but here are my feedburner stats for the past 7 days. I'd really love to know if my feed is growing that fast.

Venture Fratricide (Continued)

You may recall my earlier post on this subject. It generated a lot of good comments so it must have struck a chord with some of you.

Well Bill Burnham (not my partner Brad) has a great post on his blog about the venture fratricide and overfunding going on in the wireless email middleware market space. It's scary stuff and a must read if you follow the venture business.