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Growing Faster than TechCrunch – Thank You, Netvibes

Don’t worry, dear reader, TechCrunch is still doing OK – their Feedburner subscription base grew almost 100% overnight.  But it pales in comparison to my 2.5million % growth rate … yes, I went from 200 or so to 51k.   Jeff Clavier did quite well, too, at 56k, but hey Jeff, I am catching up!

OK, now that I had my coffee and am awake (?),  let’s look at what really happened. 

The culprit is clearly Netvibes – or to be precise, I don’t know if the error is on the Netvibes or Feedburner side, but clearly the Netvibes numbers are solely responsible for the inflated stats.  The “fluff factor” is not a multiplier, they simply appear to have added a base of 50K or so to all statistics.

Hm… perhaps it’s not a glitch, it’s a “feature”, since NetVibes just installed an upgrade Hey Netvibes (or Feedburner?), I hope I get a “finder’s fee” for pointing this out: when you fix this, could you please leave my base at… say at a tiny 10K bonus level… I promise I won’t tell.

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Girlfriend 6.0 vs. Wife 1.0 – Sequel to Technical Support: Upgrade Nightmares

This gem from Good Morning Silicon Valley is the sequel to Technical Support: Upgrade Nightmares (hat tip: Mike Cannon-Brookes)

Last year a friend of mine upgraded from GirlFriend 6.0 to Wife 1.0 and found that it’s a memory hog leaving very little system resources available for other applications. He is now noticing that Wife 1.0 is also spawning Child Processes which are further consuming valuable resources. No mention of this particular phenomena was included in the product brochure or the documentation, though other users have informed him that this is to be expected due to the nature of the application.

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Startup Names Have Changed…

Here’s the list of  ‘Connected Innovators‘ picked for SuperNova 2006. (hat tip: Alexander Muse)

Can you pick the odd one out?  Click for clue.

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Government Officials Get Into Fistfigth on TV

A brief fist-fight between Czech Health Care Minister David Rath and an adviser to President Vaclav Klaus made front-page headlines in Czech newspapers Monday after film of the weekend incident was broadcast on television.

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SaaS – Something as a Service :-)

SaaS, for Software as a Service is likely the single most used acronym in the software industry.
Vinnie is talking about HaaS, as in Hardware as a Service.  (Or is he promoting the Haas School? )
Wow, before this trend takes off, I better remind everyone that I have ZaaS reserved.

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Open Source Hotel Rooms

I’ve just checked out of my hotel at SAPPHIRE 06 and am shocked looking at the bill:

You can click to view the original Zoho Sheet.

Since I am still in a “software state of mind” (and btw, will return to SAPPHIRE posts soon), I can’t help but draw the analogy to the software industry:  Support and Maintenance charges in the Enterprise Software business are in the 20-25% range.  There is an ongoing debate about the viability of Open Source as a business model but several companies are experimenting with giving away the product and focus on additional revenue sources, i.e. support, maintenance, training ..etc.

Since the hotel industry is up to 18% in surcharges, why not make a dramatic move, “opensource” the rooms and make their numbers on all these other (bogus) fees?    (OK, before I get ripped apart, yes, I do realize running hotel rooms has actual material costs vs. downloading software, and that the Open Source model is a bit more complex … in other word, my analogy is far from perfect, but hey, it’s Friday afternoon, I am waiting for my plane and can have a little fun, can’t I?)

I see a lot more potential surcharges (on top of  the free rooms), like: clean hotel fee, airconditioning surcharge, towel fees at the pool, hot water fee in the bathroom, warm water fee at the pool,  low-noise airconditioning surcharge, no-cigarette-smell fee in the nonsmoking rooms, Broadband fee (yes, I know they already have it, but this would be extra for connection that actually works vs. trickles), private room fee (that is when you don’t get the keys to a room already occupied like it happened to me), fast or medium service surcharges at the restaurant..etc.  Of course when you can’t sleep at night because the damn airconditioning is so noisy, or when your nonsmoking room smells.. .etc, you don’t have to pay.  This could become the feedback / QA mechanism for the hotel industry, a’la the Open Source community support / QA in software.

The opportunities are tremendous, and we should not stop at the hotel industry.  Open Source the World!

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Jack Bauer’s IT Adventure

No guns, explosives … Jack, you’re losing your edge

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Raising Boys

Reading Ben’s post about 20 Reasons Not to Have Children I could not resist but post this email I’ve recently received.  For the record: I am very much pro-children and hope (for him) that eventually Ben will change his mind.  

 

Raising Boys

 

a) For those who have children past this age, this is hilarious.

b) For those who have children this age, this is not funny.

c) For those who have children nearing this age, this is a warning.

d) For those who have not yet had children, this is birth control.

 

The following came from an anonymous Mother in Austin, Texas. Things I’ve learned from my Boys (honest and not kidding):

 

1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. Ft.house 4 inches deep.

 

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

 

3.) A 3-year old Boy’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

 

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can,  to spread paint on all four walls of a 20×20 ft. Room.

 

5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

 

6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn’t stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

 

7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words “uh oh”, it’s already too late.

 

8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.

 

9.) A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old Man says they can only do it in the movies.

 

10.) Certain Lego’s will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy.

 

11.) Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.

 

12.) Super glue is forever.

 

13.) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can’t walk on water.

 

14.) Pool filters do not like Jell-O.

 

15.) VCR’s do not eject “PB & J” sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.

 

16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

 

17) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.

 

18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.

 

19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.

 

20.) The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.

 

21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.

 

22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.

 

23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.

 

24.) 80% of Women will pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without kids.

 

25.) 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.

 

 

 

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43 Best Blog Prank Still Goes On

Alexander Muse reminds us that his 43 Best Blog Experience is still live – 2 months later people are entering themselves and deleting others.  For all those interested may I suggest you also check out Ego-surf.

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Freemium Memeorandum

Tom Evslin at Fractals of Change discovered “clear evidence from technorati that tech.memeorandum predicts the future”.

Memeorandum

He’s dreaming for tech.memeorandum to be able to predict product announcements, earnings releases.   Tom, I have news for you: it’s all coming soon,  along with a lot more… just think of the effect of some predictions on political Memeorandum.   The predictive features will be wrapped into various subscription packages, as part of Gabe’s Freemium business strategy. 

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