Jeff Nolan's take on innovation, entrepreneurship, tech and stuff that interests me
Interested in the details about these much talked about and little understood funds? Here’s an outstanding piece in Middle East Quarterly about the investment funds you are hearing more about in the news. Countries have used sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as instruments through which to buy assets with their surplus foreign exchange since the 1950s [...]
I went over to PG&E, my local utility company, to setup automatic payment of my bill. I hate bill paying so having stuff get automatically paid is great for me, and better yet is the points I accumulate that turn into Apple iTunes gift cards on a regular basis from using my Apple Visa card. [...]
Yesterday I wrote about the Techmeme blogger reaction to Google Sites, basically critical of it because it’s a pattern that is all too familiar: Google comes out with something new or updated and says it’s x or y and A-list blogger first reaction is to throw the company up on their shoulders and take a [...]
Check out this snapshot of Techmeme today. As is typically the case, Google scratches it’s left ear lobe and an entire industry of bloggers kicks into gear dissecting what it means. The NYTimes claims it’s a Microsoft Sharepoint killer while Allen Stern declares they are going after pbWiki. The AP wire report, which also runs [...]
Consider this: One side in the debate actually went to the trouble of hiring people off the street to pack a Federal Communications Commission meeting yesterday—and effectively keep some of its opponents out of the room. Broadband giant Comcast—the subject of the F.C.C. hearing on network neutrality at the Harvard Law School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts—acknowledged [...]
Two emails from PR people this morning, interesting contrast. The wrong way is to address it as “Dear Venture Chronicles”. I guarantee I will not pay any attention to your email. A much better way is to express some degree of personalization, such as “Hi Jeff. Even though you’re in sunny Florida at We Media, [...]
I am speaking on two panels today at We Media here in sunny Miami. I’ll try to get an @eventtrack going with Twitter, but I’m going to live blog as well.
I’m relieved beyond words… so glad it only took them 5 years to sort this out. The European Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that only the tasty, crumbly cheese that has been made for some 800 years near the Italian city of Parma can legally be called Parmesan. [From EU Court: Parmesan Is Protected Name]
Not to pick on Rob Hof, but I’m surprised that so many people are just now commenting that GOOG has been in a steady free fall since last December. It’s been my experience that investors are not always herd animals, they really can have moments of insight on where companies are going and vote with [...]
At least they didn’t call it “re-education,” which sounds kinda creepy. I would give Schultz credit for attacking the problem but I can’t help but think that from a PR standpoint this is not the kind of attention that they need because it focuses attention on the fact that their retail customer service has, broadly [...]