Is this election year propaganda ? Has the economy truly recovered?
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Innovation means using the human body as an ethernet cable. Seriously. I'm not kidding.
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So the SCO, Linux, IBM, Sun, Microsoft debacle continues. Look if Sun and Microsoft are 'collaborating' to marginalize the muscle IBM has put behind Linux you know this issue is only going to get bigger. The simple end game is that Linux on IBM servers is ripping Sun's heart out. Its a direct threat to their very existence. Microsoft has a secondary role since their presence in the enterprise server market is still relatively small. Interesting thing would be to see how IBM can reconcile it's services persona while being a product company. Internal conflict ahead.

So AT&T has considered a white list concept for blocking spam. Just the fact that a major telco would admit this shows how spam has completely choked corporate networks. I get 80 spam emails a day. It sucks.
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Okay I admit I'm a Democrat. I believe in public service and the benefits of volunteering. I support the Peace Corps. I just found out about the Geek Corps. Essentially volunteering done by techies, what a great idea! Fantastic!

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Great now we can get virtual porn. And better video games.

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Interesting point made by Wired about Human Nodes. I just wish they'd stop using pseudo-pop culture terms like 'digerati'. Malcolm Gladwell already covered the Human Node aspect in The Tipping Point. Its who you know, and who they know. Its called networking buddy.

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This is what happens when you lack fundamental controls in any operating structure. Japanese 'postal savings' largely attributed to Japanese Banks having power/muscle to finance investment. In fact it was boasted that Japanese firms didn't have to go 'public' to get funds for growth, they could rely on their Keiretsu's banking interest to help them out...Well with unsecured loans dished out in a speculative real estate market bubble, the crash was bound to happen. It's amazing the hangover Japan still has! Well in reality the entire banking framework has collapsed, and it will take more than Japanese methods to fix it.

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Outsourcing may be the 'hot' item right now, but we're not looking at long term ramifications. Look in the US, many companies have sales people working out of virtual/remote offices- even in small companies this creates massive information flow issues. Taking the same analogy if you're outsourcing two of the largest 'touch points' [customer service/technical support, front-end marketing] to another country how can you effectively manage that? Training is not the answer. The BackLash Countdown begins.
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Slate slams Quizno's shock ads. I whole-heartedly agree The Quizno's ad where they show a guy sucking a wolf's teat is really really repulsive. It made me sick. It was not funny. I now only eat Subway. Which moron in marketing approved this campaign?
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Interesting article on Islamic revival in Spain:

" The movement has its roots, not in the austere Islamic fundamentalism that dominates popular Western imagination these days, but in the Beat Generation and the hippies who pursued spiritual quests to Morocco when it was a counterculturalist Mecca of sun, sand and cheap hashish. "

Sun. Sand. Hash. Need I say more?



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Perey does a good job outlining the issues surrounding enterprise streaming. Look streaming is a means to an end, the key driver in this space is application, or 'the need' to deliver content to the desktop. Till now bandwidth was held hostage by corporate IT staffs, even now this mindset is hard to overcome. With tons of excess bandwidth, this delivery mechanism is gaining greater acceptance.
Maybe that's why Sonic Foundry is hot!
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I like Australia's strategy of conquering free trade in South Asia first. Obviously the regional proximity makes it a natural fit. Surely Japan should look at similar arrangements.
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Lower taxes, lower interest rates, a jobless recovery...we have a record budget deficit. If we can expect some sort of nominal government intervention to aid economic recovery wouldn't that be a greater benefit to business vs. less taxes? I think the current view point is very short term, I honestly believe certain government programs can aid the recovery [like how about $87 billion to bail out SMBs?!].
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Documentum caught a nice break. A former Xerox spinoff, that 'crossed the chasm' due a detailed, and focused growth strategy. Interesting that EMC goes for primarily an application company. What's next?
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Ah glad to see the crash of the Bubble Economy resulted in some product innovation. Email with new features like 'self-destruct', and ways to limit distribution will surely mean that Microsoft's real target is: Companies who make paper shredders. Hey Enronitis had to have some repurcussions.
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The irony! Here's a report on the ethnic make-up of Britain...written by Barne Choudhury. Barnie?! You must be kidding me, whats your real 'ethnic' name Barnie?
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Now the pundits say that eBay is going to slump. After all how can it continue to grow? What goes up must come down. Well its simple, even if eBay has maxmized its growth in the US for personal products, it will now grow by acquisition [internationally]. A solid staple for achieving growth. While Bubblegen may argue the long term costs and value of incremental marginal returns from a M&A strategy, I believe with the right managment team it is possible [Cisco's team led by Mike Volpi in the Roaring 90s was excellent]. I believe the greater challenge for eBay will be recreating the 'community' atmosphere in international markets, the social network is a key component of eBay success.

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Walmart isn't only one getting on the RFID action. Personally I think the technology applications are phenomenal, asides from all the Big Brother speculation! Hey if we're going to have a National ID card system, might as well transplant a chip in your neck. It'll happen sooner or later. Sorry for the pessimism!

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Stealth marketing that looks to leverage word-of-mouth. Great strategy by Time Warner Cable to expand value-add within its core product i.e. delivering content. Which makes me wonder why TiVo didn't get into an OEM relationship with these folks? Given the dynamics of the Replication Economy, TiVo would be wise to explore those options with other cable vendors that get into DVR. Finally where does this position Sony? Will all content eventually come down to one simple box for gaming, dvr, and playback? I don't think so, the electronics market has always been feature-driven. It would make more sense to create a single software interface that lets all the devices cross communicate, problem is firmware code to manage/control electronic devices changes far too often, which promotes device relationship management only in closed systems. I digress.
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Lord of the Dance's strategy while noble, doesn't realize the true value add of TicketMaster. You can go there to buy tickets for ANYTHING. It's a centralized ticket window. Which makes me think why doesn't ticket master attempt to get a piece of the scalper's market. Rather than get nothing, if they create a bid/auction site for people who looking to resell their ticket, they get a piece of the action. Simple yet effective.

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This is no joke:

Lord of the Dance vs. Barry Diller.

I don't know where to begin!
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So Juniper's latest 'spin' is to create a Global Infranet. Interestingly we were discussing the benefits of a closed network to as a key component towards Anti-Spam. The global infranet idea is interesting but is it truly different from being an outsourced network? Juniper is obviously trying to extend their customer reach to include the enterprise, as the Tier1 Telco death spiral continues. Can the telcos do anything to increase margins? What is the marginal return on a pure network? Zero! Hence the price erosion. Nice try Juniper, but the strategy is half-baked, back to the drawing board.
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Now to move on to my second favourite whipping boy [or girl]: Carly Fiorina.

"What's more, Fiorina said HP and Compaq combined created a company that was No. 1 in enterprise storage, No. 1 in Windows servers, No. 1 in Unix servers, No. 1 in PCs, No. 1 in management software, No. 1 in imaging and printing and No. 3 in IT services. "

Great so what's their core strength? Ahh...what happened to PCs? What does any of this have to do with their goofy nanotech ads?


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Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Milunovich was even more direct last month in an open letter to Sun's chief executive, Scott McNealy, and the board of directors.

"The company has gone from being pure in vision and predictable in financial performance to an underachieving, bloated, unfocused reflection of its former self," Milunovich wrote.

Ouch.
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This brand extension strategy for Nokia is a bit odd. I'm not sure why a cell phone company would become an expert at creating personal gaming console? Well they won't and as revealed in the product design, it's shite. Stick with what you know best. By the way is Qualcomm the next Microsoft?
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I don't understand why you would include such an easy means by which to bypass copy protection in your product design.

On a lighter note, take a look at the corruption ratings for governments around the world. Interesting to note that the european democracies seem to be far more transparant than the north american equivalents.
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Talk about shitty product design! SunnComm Technologies' MediaMax CD-3 Design team should be FIRED!

Fantastic concept: The Virtual Sinatra. True 3-D Hologram conferencing can't be that behind. The reality is that this is more of a timecode issue than a projection issue.

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Can this be the New Conscript Army? While green card soldiers aren't forced to join the army, the allure of expediting their citizenship process through the President's executive order, would be a great incentive. If you're willing to serve in the military you definitely deserve citizenship. Good call.
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We need to commercialize this technology. Monkey's moving robots with their thoughts! Is neuroscience [finally] the new bubble?
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Pearls Before Swine. I'm surprised this isn't part of quirky job interviews conducted by Microsoft.

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Fantastic technology concept: 3-D laptop imaging. Here's where it will fail- no immediate use or application. This is so frustrating, tech companies do this all the time [mainly because they are engineering driven]. They'll innovate great technology, and then will look for applications for it [vs. the other way around, look at the market, innovate technology to fit market trends]. One area where I can see this work in next generation videoconferencing.

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I don't understand Sun at all? Why in the world are they pushing their StarOffice Suite? The reality is that they can never pull any significant share of the desktop market from Micrsoft. By shipping a lower priced office alternative solution, they are not going to destroy the Microsoft empire. This isn't about price, it has to do with economies of scale in terms of user familiarity. Having said that why not defend your home turf? Why not explore a merger with Oracle? Why not become the leader is servers, of all kinds? Simply because McNeely is bordering on manic obsession in his 'fight' against Micrsoft, hey buddy your share price is @ $3, pay attention to your own business.

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Fantastic documentary. Provides a simple, and objective overview of Pakistan. Doesn't drill into politics, and is a positive representation of the country.

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This shows how weak corporate governance really is- how can the Board of Directors accept an 'Heir to the Throne' succession? Murdoch should realize that there are far more capable people to run Sky, people who have paid their dues in the trenches. How arrogant.
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You have to admire the ruthlessness of this strategy. Diller bided his time, let all the early hoopla and bubble economics disipate, and now is coming in with boatloads of cash and acquiring profitable internet companies at a discount [vs. paying $$$$ in the Roaring 90's]. The beautiful thing is that he understands the Economics of the Channel. Simply brilliant.
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Welcome to the HP-ization of Dell. Dell is an expert in building computers, laptops, towers, servers etc. This diversification strategy makes NO sense. Especially since Dell has reached preeminence in the PC business through an innovative business model, and by keeping a keen eye on the supply chain. Granted PC business has low margins etc. but is the Dell brand mature enough to merit diversification? Hey they are no Sony. Do what you do best, and leave the gadgets to companies that make gadgets.

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The shift continues. The cool thing is that Linux technology can be directly tied to cost savings. In the sales world, there are only two reasons people buy something:

- To make money
- To save money

The rest is all bullshit marketing hype.
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Its amazing how difficult it is to truly connect the dots. While it may be difficult for companies like HP and Sun to read into the crystal ball and support a cohesive, CREATIVE strategy, at the very least they can manage themselves better. Which brings me to a pet rant, What Does HP Do? Is there future in services? In media? In Nanotech. I see a 200 word mission statement coming in the future.
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Creativity means approaching existing business ideas with a fresh approach. Take an antiquated industry and create buzz through word of mouth alone! Sounds like the The Tipping Poing all over again. This is really cool.
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So this is the Larry Flynt of spam? We need Great White to perform with their pyrotechnics @ his lame New Hampshire niteclub. Why would would you open a nightclub in New Hampshire?? Catering to the frat clientele? How lame.
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Last nail in the coffin for Tier 1 Telcos? This court ruling in favour of VOIP is huge. Three cheers for Minnesota.
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The Silicon Valley 150 includes the Usual Suspects. The nice surprises [surprises for the 'masses'] on their way up, Electronic Arts, and Nvidia. Why doesn't EA start their own online gaming worlds? They have all the IP, and I'm not talking about playing chess online. More along the lines of Everquest.

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Who doesn't hate bean counters? I don't even know what a bean counter is really, and I still hate them.

As I posted on our new blog, we should look into associations with organizations such as the Excelerator at the Innovations Foundation.
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The future of the Political Economy. Pretty creative, if they can do this @ Iowa, why can't other finance-centered business school catch up? Oh because they are finance-centered business schools. I hate bean counters.
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ummm, something strange happening here. newhumanz is getting hacked with a redirect..

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Everyone cues in on IBM's transformation into a services business, and that's the strategy recommended to Sun. If that's the case, and Sun is going to become a giant integration company, why not just merge with EDS? Do we really need another IT services expert? GE Access would be a good fit as well.
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While far from being an Oriental Studies expert, Japan is a favourite subject of mine. In the The Japanese Mind, Robert Christopher makes the case that Japan has the capacity for massive systematic restructuring, when it recognizes a need for it. Case in point the 30's miltary troika-led economic machine, followed by adoption of democratic processes and massive industrialization post-WWII. Both were complete 180 degree shifts to the current government and economic structures. With the current recession lasting for a decade [does anyone even remember the Japanese Bubble?], perhaps now is the time that will start making adjustments. Consolidation activity is a natural phenomenon in mature markets, however with Japan maybe this is beginning of a New Age.
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Out of all the international, political, military, and socio-economic issues that Pakistan is involved in, all the Guardian could come up with was: Killer Kites. God I hate the Brits.
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God I so damn sick of the online music sharing debate. Why didn't we just 'disallow' copiers when they were invented. How about the videotape, wasn't that the Death Knell of the movie industry. The music industry needs to embrace technology, not defend ANTIQUATED distribution channels.

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The Great Offshore Debate of the New Millenium. In the 70's with improvements to manufacturing processes, the big 'scare' was that Robots will replace all workers. While that happened to a certain degree, the true information worker was able to upgrade his skill set, and retain employment. Now in true Darwinist/Capitalist spirit, isn't that the whole point? Survival of the fittest. What makes me sick is the Spin Factor. Fellas the economic recovery will be gradual, no the NASDAQ won't hit 5000 tomorrow. What people have to realize is that outsourcing and offshoring osmosis of jobs will have major negative effects on the organizations engaged in these practices. Bubblegeneration called it massive organizational blindspots in critical areas. I agree.
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Sun Microsystems death spiral continues. The share price is at $3.00, their core customers are being courted by not only other vendors, but slicker technology. How does Sun turn this around? I don't think there are any simple answers but McNeely has to avoid information assymetries that prevail in his organization. Palimisano @ IBM embraced Linux based on his team's recommendation, maybe Sun needs to do the same [listen, not just embrace].
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Wow, this is a real no-brainer. Unfortunately the key to most Third World debt is servicing massive arms spending to counter hostile neighbours [case in point: Pakistan, Jordan etc.] Perhaps with more efficient tax collection, along with retaining modern information workers [i.e. educated people], these economies can spark innovation to create true progress. India is finally moving in this direction.
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Now that we can tap the DARPA slush fund to finance our startup, what are we waiting for? Government has been a huge investor in technology, perhaps that alone is the key to American innovation?
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And why did we leave Montreal again? True freedom at its very best.
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What are your three most substantial accomplishments, and why do you view them as such? (600 - word limit)

Assface, I believe your three most substantial accomplishments should read:

- Creating the Pizza Box Tower [Remember the chicken wing bones @ the bottom...ugh.]
- Double RPCs with Tank Shells from the forehead in the Archives = Crash the Game Shark.
- Throwing a party for Chetan [people sitting in two big circles...very nice].

On behalf of Phaeton:

- Talking to Fifi in the 'small voice'
- Not moving to London because it doesn't have Hockey
- And of course, The Ready Position.
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re HP: The tech industry deserves to die. Let's kill it.

What are your three most substantial accomplishments, and why do you view them as such? (600 - word limit)

- Getting Dark Lord to clean my flat
- Getting the 4 players in the Archives hack to work
- Mining the mines

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ha ha ha!!!

this is by far the most offensive thing i have read all day. that is saying a lot.
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Discuss a recent leadership experience. Briefly outline the situation and then describe your role, how you were effective, and what you learned. (400-word limit)

Created Assfuck Airlines against all odds. I learnt that airlines are expensive to make, most people get assfucked by the price, and that at Assfuck Airlines, we make sure you do.

What are your three most substantial accomplishments, and why do you view them as such? (600 - word limit)

- Beating the Silo Mission in Bond to get the 'No Radar' cheat
- Not getting my ex-girlfriend pregnant
- Living in Arizona

Describe a situation when you questioned your values and/or beliefs. (400-word limit)

When I found out that the gayest guy on campus was from my country. I hated being alive that day.

What do you find most challenging about working with a group? (400-word limit)

The useless dribble that pours out of most people's mouths about their pathetic, inconsequential, and boring existence.

What are your career aspirations, and how can an MBA help you reach them? Why now? (400-word limit)

My career aspirations are to primarily become a Wall Street drone thats slave to the Money God. An MBA from Harvard will mean that I'm smart and people will like me. Now because tomorrow never dies.

What do you wish the MBA Admissions Board had asked you? (400-word limit)

I wish the Admissions Board had asked me if I smoke while taking a crap. [yes]
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Can this be the New Humanz e-Guru? Are we ready to hire a consultant on how people behave online?
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Of all the innovative research possible, this desi guy is making the indestructible tea-biscuit. Well, come to think of it having soggy biscuits in your tea is very annoying.

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I don't get HP. They seem to "jump on the wagon" usually a few months or a few years after everybody else, submit a average product, and then get hailed as a good company.

i have new business plan for "butt fuck air". very nice.

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Can anyone explain HP's primary growth strategy? Is it from media-centered PCs? Or perhaps from the emerging field of Nanotechnology [they had TELEVISION ads]. Or maybe its from their services group, which got its first coup with the P&G deal? Oh yeah HP makes printers too. Hmm, sounds like a bloated tech behemoth trying to spread itself across all sectors, so they don't 'miss the boat'. I thought executive management was supposed to identify growth drivers and levearge the heck out of those areas, vs. hedging their bets, and hoping the market turns around quickly.

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re: financial services firms and the price of labor.

buddy, the problem is that the big banks (and many other players on the Street besides) can exploit massive information asymmetries to stay rich. just look at the IPO process, and note the barriers to information flow.


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Plain and simple, the business of running Harvard Business School.

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I hate bean-counters.

This article shows what number crunching robots most MBA grads are. Wouldn't the primary need for MBAs be in areas of growth such as: Healthcare, gulp, Government? Instead we have all the Finance majors dying to get into Goldman Sachs. The top Finance/Financial services firms are in effect a natural oligopoly based on such lemming-like behaviour. They should push annual MBA compensation down [naturally]. Perhaps the Wall Street Androids will then wake up and realize being an effective businessperson means learning about ALL aspects of the business, not just bean-counting.


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Rarely do you hear executives admit how they screwed up. The SCO vs. Linux battle has just started. While the legal case can be made in favor of SCO, why would they isolate an emerging platform from one of its key assets: an organic developer-base? What's next SCO, a merger with Microsoft?

Neat idea: a service company that specializes in Customer/Tech support for Linux enterprise customers. Where's the competition? Redhat.
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For all you aspiring design geeks out there. Try making a rotating circle, neat archive. 5 stars.
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The new Chief Economist at the IMF...please tell me how this is NOT a political decision?

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I like stories about persistence, and working with mad-scientists. Oh and if you happen to solve the last mile problem along the way, not too shabby! This begs the question, which stakeholder gains the greatest profit from investing in Last Mile Architecture? This makes me think that Asian countries, specifically densely clustered countries are prime candidates for leveraging the technology developed by Masayoshi Son.

Now is the time to invest in Third World telcos, their boom is still 5-10 years away.
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Interesting Op-Ed on the US Patriot Act.


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Domestic outsourcing of healthcare, proves once again that people find value in paying less.
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Assface, the danger of having a Moslem girlfriend in the UK. Be careful!
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One of Microsoft's greatest 'soft' challenges will be managing its brand identity. The Anti-Microsoft backlash has been a spiralling storm since the 90's Bubble, and will continue to grow as Microsoft spreads its tentacles to other markets, such as enteprise server software, video games etc. However in such markets Microsoft is not the dominant player, and gains little leverage from its existing brand. Indeed their brand can be perceived as a negative. Perhaps they should adopt what GM did with Saturn, launch a new independent brand, but still reap the monetary benefits. Microsoft achieved that to a certain degree with Avanade, its enterprise integration partnership with Accenture. Speaking of Accenture, weren't they Andersen Consulting!


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The airline industry has been saddled with high fixed costs, and in turn, high operating costs from the start. To counter such effects, you can hope that the price of oil falls, or try to achieve economies of scale with a better passenger to airmiles ratio. Given the global travel downturn, and vast number of travel options available [Hello Southwest!], the KLM/Air France merger is dubious at best. Both airlines will maintain their brand identity, which may be a good move from a marketing standpoint, but due to the complicated nature of the deal, excessive regulation in the EU, and strong nationalist tendencies in Europe, will NOT achieve any cost reducing benefits of a merger. There will still be redundant staff...where are the economies of scale? Which begs the question has Southwest solved the air travel cost puzzle? If so, why aren't more airlines willing to accept the reality and adopt a similar business model?
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my official reasons for not coming to the UK, as stated in a phone (or messenger?) conversation with dark lord.

1. hard to get broadband access

2. hard to play hockey

very nice, what do you think of my reasoning.
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The key to American innovation is...persistence. Story of Overture's founder.

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But the primary demographic objective of Bush Cheny 2004 is more obvious: to increase turnout among families that consider themselves evangelical Christians. The GOP defines them as voters who say they are “born again” and who attend church regularly, at least four times a week. Rove and his team—led by campaign manager Ken Mehlman and regional director Ralph Reed—have carefully scrutinized exit-polling data in recent elections, and the Bushies frankly admire the success...from Newsweek article by Howard Fineman and Tamara Lipper

I can go on and on about how this strategy is a faulty one, but I suspect the Democrats won't have a cohesive strategy to battle the GOP on any front.
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The changing face of American immigration. It'll become more and more difficult to do business 'without boundaries'. I guess Jack Welch got it wrong in his book!

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I grew up with the dude that founded priceman.com. he's a multimillionaire bitchass living in houston now. can you say angel investor? i can. angel investor.

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Europe does not get it. Reputation effects are only dependent on history here - not on merit. Well, not much anyways.

Berkeley MBA, first program I found that has a Leadership Speech class are part of the Core. I don't understand the Quant-heavy schools, they are just Number Crunching Clone Factories for Wall Street. Innovation has always been the core to American economic success, the bean counters are just leaches.

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dude - i dont get it either. he would get a job SO FAST. the work permit issue is so big i cant even tell you.

I don't understand why Bitchass won't come out to the UK?

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i will email u guys a draft tomorrow afternoon my time.

don't post anything much here - private still means anyone can access this url.

time and membership can be gotten by looking at competitors...please dont give anything away by saying who they are.

i suggest we do this over email, and use this space as an ideas board...like we said!

Okay I just made it a private blog for the time being. I'll start putting up stuff that we all need to come up to speed on. Umair can you draft an outline for the business plan and share via email? Finally we need to get some sort of projections on the scaling factor...time and membership to achieve critical mass?

i'm gonna try setting up some hardware for this. I'll send an IP addy, usernames and passwords when it's complete.

public = listed to search engines + blogger directory
private = not, people can find it by linking to it or typing in the url directly
password protected = you have to log in to read it - no access unless u have the pw.

What are the merits of having a public blog? We get mentioned somewhere? I should just make it private.

ok i like that - lets do this to share ideas and online shit. esp good links.

google:

friendster
peopleonpage
ryze
linkedin
spoke

I can change it to a private blog. However we can be covert as well. This is to share ideas, shit we find online.

somebody send me some links, s'il vous plait.

i'm not a business bitch, nor a MBA ass. I need to get up to speed.

Guys learn about Overture's business model as soon as possible. Bidding, plus being the middle man. Can we define virtual social contracts to the nth degree?

ok lets get serious. but this is a public blog - so dont discuss any critical shit.

oh my god. i was gonna do this. top 100 old skool cassette covers.

new humanz is about something. we still haven't figured it out, because mostly we are too busy with...other stuff.

Read this book on EBay's business model. I'm trying to compile similar information on Overture.

bubblegeneration - strategy, business models and technology

Well written blog by a contemporary thinker out of London. Identity is a mystery but rumour has it he is well networked into the London business scene, and interestingly, the London digital underground. If you can get past the 1984 Newspeak, does make some sense *replication economy* [you'll see...]

This is my first post. Stand by for more information soon.