Other investments12/17/2003 07:12 PM Don't forget about the $100K check he wrote to help start some company
a couple of guys were thinking about calling Google. Yeah ...
Investments in RSS Companies06/24/2004 05:04 AM Ross notes that Newsgator got funded recently. There I noticed a
trackback from rtwodtwo's posting: I never thought RSS programs would
get VC’s cash. What do they think their exit will be? What
revenue will this software have? Selling it to the warez loving
public? Looking at its download.com count (<2000 downloads) the VC
decision to invest looks very very strange. Well, I'm not sure what
download.com has to do with this. RSS software isn't at the point yet
where...
Viaticals as Investments
Viaticals as Investments08/16/2004 10:23 AM Learn more before investing in viatical settlements -- they do have
drawbacks.
Cars as Investments
Cars as Investments04/12/2004 02:20 PM Don't count on becoming rich by buying cars -- they're not great
money-makers.
SAP CEO: Not more, but smarter IT investments
SAP CEO: Not more, but smarter IT investments01/28/2004 12:06 AM DÃœSSELDORF, GERMANY - Accepting the idea that many businesses aren't
prepared to spend more on enterprise application software, Germany's
SAP AG aims to help them spend smarter.
When I look up Technorati on Technorati today, the top
results (e.g. Michael
Fioritto, paid
Content, Om Malik,
and John
Battelle) carry news that we've received venture funding. Some of
you may wonder why we generally don't bother talking about investment
stuff. Isn't it news, after all?
Making a big deal about VC investments is unnecessary, it seems to
me. One of the biggest reasons for the dot-com crash was an imbalance
of attention: far too much on investments, and far too little on
building real businesses with those investments. In a sane and sober
business environment, the proper ratio should be completely
customer-focused.
In our case, we're putting our investments to work building
infrastructure and providing service to a population that's growing at
an explosive rate. Frankly, we'd rather talk about that than about the
money others have invested in us. Right now our staff is just thirteen
people, all sprinting a marathon. As you probably know, our struggles
have been no secret. My lasttwo posts
were about those problems and what we've done to get past them. We'll
have more problems, I'm sure. (Esther Dyson
says "Always make new mistakes.") But I also think we've
made good progress, especially considering the steepness of the hill
we've chosen to climb.
Perception is often a trailing indicator. That's how I regard
remarks like Michael Fioritto's "Maybe now the site will start
working, for a change..." That change came several weeks ago.
Technorati's performance is far from ideal; but it is improving.
Please keep banging on it and let us know how we're doing
and what we can do better. That's the kind of investment that helps
the most.
smoke em if you got em03/08/2004 11:14 PM Darin and I stood in Old Town, on the corner of Delacy and Green. It
was a magnificent night: eighty degrees, clear skies, the slightest
breeze stirring the young leaves on the trees behind us.
The whole area was packed with people who were taking advantage of the
unseasonably warm March evening: families and young couples crowded
the sidewalks, as a nearly-full moon slowly climbed the Eastern sky.
"Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?" I said.
"Getting the tires changed on my Jeep." He said.
"Want to get together and have a cigar? I haven't had a cigar in
months, and I'd like to take advantage of the warm weather."
I smoked today. Actually, I smoked just now with only 31 minutes
left in the day.
Not really a cigarrete even, more a mini-cigar that was sitting in
a forgotten corner
of the house until now. So horrible yet so comfortable. I've been
on nicotine candy
for the past three months and haven't been able to get off it.
That's not really quitting,
more like pausing. And I've been in an irritating state of mind for
the past three
months. Damn. I feel like a loser. The worst part of smoking these
days is the guilt.
I don't know if I am back to smoking or not yet. I am taking it one
day at a time
at this point. For now, allow me this pleasure of hating myself for
this self-inflicted
wound.
VCs Distancing Themselves From Spyware Investments
VCs Distancing Themselves From Spyware Investments06/17/2005 03:33 PM A year ago, we were surprised that VCs would bother invest
ing in spyware/adware companies when they were so universally
hated -- which seemed like it would come back to bite them pretty
badly. There were even VCs who went through convol
uted arguments trying to define "good" and "bad" spyware companies
to figure out who to invest in. In the past six months or so,
something changed. Suddenly, the place to be investing was an
ti-spyware companies, which meant that VCs were basically
funding an industry based on wiping out an industry they had funded
last year. This even resulted in a few situations where VCs had bets
on both sides of the battle. However, with the shift to backing
the anti-spyware side, something funny has happened. Almost no one
associated with the most famous name in spyware, Claria, will admit to being involved with the company
any more. The folks at Silicon Beat heard a rumor that Microsoft
was trying to buy Claria -- a bizarre rumor, and one that was quickly
denied. However, all of the VCs they tried to reach claimed their
investments in Claria were a long time ago, and they had nothing to do
with the company any more. The same could be said for the investment
bankers who once
tried to take the company public. It seems that all these folks
who got blinded by the dollars, have finally realized that a business
model based on tricking people and pissing them off probably isn't one
that's worth being involved in. Not only that, but they're
recognizing that it reflects very poorly on them for thinking
it was a worthwhile investment in the first place.
Found on CNN. I have nothing to add to this picture, I guess,
except to note that the Internet has enabled some amazing things in
its lifetime.
Smoke Across the Water
Smoke Across the Water03/14/2005 06:10 PM Altria crosses the Pacific to add Indonesian cigarettes to the stable.
Smoke Kills
Smoke Kills12/05/2003 09:04 AM Smoke Kills [hysterical flash, possibly NSFW in a few tiny
parts]
Don't smoke Verdana!
Don't smoke Verdana!01/11/2004 04:56 PM Verdana is very popular at "the I-can-read-4px-fonts school of
webdesigners". That is because Verdana is pretty, and it's legible
even at fairly small sizes. Still, I hate it, and you should avoid it.
Here are screenshots to show why.
Microsoft boosts partner investments07/12/2004 10:41 AM Company also reallocates one-third of its worldwide direct
customer-marketing to joint-marketing with partners.
Venture Capital Investments Stabilize
Venture Capital Investments Stabilize04/27/2004 06:49 PM Venture capitalists invested $4.6 billion during the first quarter as
the once-staggering industry continued to regain its financial
equilibrium, according to figures released Tuesday.
Report: Banks to shift IT investments01/23/2004 05:19 PM Focus will be on improving CRM systems, satisfying regulatory
requirements and improving business processes.
IBM Q4 income up; Palmisano cites investments
IBM Q4 income up; Palmisano cites investments01/16/2004 10:59 AM The company's solid financial performance revolves around investments
made during the economic downturn that helped position IBM for a
rebound, Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano said.
New smoke-free environment07/21/2004 02:59 PM Over at Jeneane's, every topic is colored by her non-smoking non-haze
- the "the dissociative second-hand activity of smoking," as she says.
Really interesting. (Disclosure: My mother died of lung cancer about
10 years. .) For some reason, I remember Sartre writing that the hard
part of giving up smoking a pipe was the way its absence altered all
of the activities he used to do while smoking. Now, I don't think you
need a Nobel-award winning philosopher to point that out, but it does
get at what must be the hardest thing about giving up the drug:
There's something...
So do I have time for a last smoke and a pancake or what?**
« Finnish pannukakku, cut into squares and layered with a fresh
fruit compote. »
pan·cake n.
A thin cake made of batter that is poured onto a hot greased surface
and cooked on both sides until brown. Also called flannel cake,
flapjack; Also called griddlecake, hotcake; also called regionally
battercake.
Aside from transcending cultures, pancakes also transcend social
classes. They are served in the simplest households and in the
grandest royal palaces.
American pancakes seem to have an almost mythological aura
surrounding them since so many Americans travel around and scoff at
what the locals call a pancake. Yankees with their pancakes and maple
syrup were pretty late on getting into the pancake scene as nearly
every culture has some kind of pancake as part of their regional
cuisine. There are likely as many different varieties of pancakes in
the US as there are states, too. But, America elevated the pancake to
a valued breakfast food and welcomed diners serving breakfast all day
and all night. Finding a good stack of pancakes with warm syrup and a
side of scrapple is sometimes difficult, but the pancake is more than
just a food, it's a feeling of being home. Pancakes are the basic
comfort food in the US.
Some of my fondest memories as a kid involve going to IHOP after
Sunday mass for a stack of pancakes topped with a smile fashioned from
2 maraschino cherry eyes, a whipped butter nose and a pineapple ring
smile. I despised going to church, but I sucked it up every week
knowing that I only had to suffer for an hour to be rewarded with
heavenly pancakes. I was easy back then. :) Even when I was older,
going to the all night diner for pancakes and eggs after drinking and
dancing was a cherished tradition. Finland may have pancakes but the
lack of diners or greasy spoons really is a gaping chasm in the
comfort food landscape.
Jarkko attempted to make a Finnish pancake for me at some point when
we were living back in Boston. He made three attempts and was
convinced that the milk or eggs were too different when he failed
every time to recreate his beloved pancake. I'm not sure what went
wrong, but I'm pretty certain that the eggs and milk in the US aren't
quite that different. Finland has a few different varieties of
pankcake; the lettu, a
crepe-like thin pancake that is fried on a large paella pan,
spread with strawberry jam and folded, the ohukkaat, small dollar
pancakes and the pannukakku, an oven baked pancake. All of these
use a similar, if not the same, batter. They are served a variety of
ways, depending on if they are sweet and served with jam or fresh
fruit, possibly with cream, or savoury and served with meat and
vegetables. Pancakes are very flexible.
I like the Finnish pancakes as what's not to love about a sweet,
fried/baked treat served with jam and cream? But, there are certain
foods that you eat as a child that become your basic measure of
familiarity, your comfort foods, and as much as I enjoy Finnish
pancakes, they just aren't the fluffy blueberry flapjacks served with
whipped butter and hot maple syrup with a side of scrapple and eggs
from my favourite diner back home. It works both ways though as, given
the choice between both the pannukakku and the German pancake in the
icebox, Jarkko goes for the pannukakku first. I wanted to solve the
mystery of the Finnish pancake not working in the US and I think that
maybe Jarkko just wasn't remembering the recipe correctly. Or
something. :) The Finnish pannukakku recipe is quite good and I'm
happy with it after sifting through about 40 different recipes on the
net and in a few cookbooks I have. I'm sure that it will work just as
well elsewhere in the world. I also wanted to make something American
[in spite of the 'German' in the name] that might meet somewhere
between the flapjack and the pannukakku. The German pancake is a baked
pancake that has fruit and cream in it, as well as a caramel sauce,
which are all popular standards in many Finnish desserts, but not
common in the pannukakku. If I had any maple syrup around I would try
that on it as well since it might swing the taste back towards home.
Pannukakku, maailman paras!/The world's best [Finnish]
Pancake!
Makes: about 35 small ohukkaat or 1 med-large pancake ~1-2 cm thick
or a reasonable number of waffles.
Time: about 80 minutes, including a 30 minute rest for the batter
Source: Ruoka ja Viini
8 dl or 3.5 cups milk
2-3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 dl or 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar**
4 dl or 1.75 cups wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
50-100g or 1/2-1 stick melted butter
In a bowl, whisk eggs until the yolks are broken and add milk.
Mix together dry ingredients. You can reduce the amount of sugar or
remove it entirely if you wish.
Add the dry ingredient mixture gradually into the egg-milk mixture,
stirring well.
Let the batter rest for 30 minutes.
Pour batter into baking pan covered in baking paper, place in a
cold oven and bake at 225C/425F for about 30 minutes. The baking paper
may also be greased with oil or melted butter so that the pancake
relases easily from the pan.
The pannukakku batter is very similar for all the varieties of
lettut [crepes], ohukkaat [dollar pancakes], vohvelit [waffles] and
pannukakku [pancake]. This particular recipe is excellent and,
perhaps, a bit on the sweet side but you can reduce the amount of
sugar or remove it entirely and add vegetables and/or some sort of
meat for a savory version. I also found that sifting the flour into
the mixture made a smoother batter since the egg and milk tend to make
unsifted flour form clumps. I used 75g of butter and thought it to be
a bit on the greasy side so using the 50g instead of the 100g
suggestion seems the better amount. The baking time will vary as I
found 30 minutes was not quite long enough as, even though it was
getting brown on top, the center was still a bit gooey.
**About vanilla sugar: Don't substitute vanilla extract for this.
The difference in taste is akin to the difference between a quart of
Bryer's Vanilla Ice Cream with the full bean and some other cheap
vanilla ice cream. Life is too short to use fake vanilla considering
that we may be the last generation to enjoy the real bean. You can
make your own if it's not readily available.
Vanilla Sugar
2-3 vanilla beans
2 cups confectioner's [or granulated] sugar
Slice down the side of the vanilla beans with a knife and scrape the
seeds into an airtight container with the sugar. Mix seeds into the
sugar and seal tightly with lid. Let sit for 1 to 2 weeks.
German Apple Pancake
Makes: 1 10" or 25cm diameter pancake
Time: about 1 hour
Special Equipment: Ovenproof skillet
Source: Cook's Illustrated
The perfect pancake should have crisp, lighter-than-air edges and a
custard-like center, with buttery sautéed apples baked right into the
batter.
A 10-inch ovenproof skillet is necessary for this recipe; we highly
recommend using a nonstick skillet for the sake of easy cleanup, but a
regular skillet will work as well. You can also use a cast-iron pan;
if you do, set the oven temperature to 425 degrees in step 1, and when
cooking the apples in step 3, cook them only until just barely golden,
about 6 minutes. Cast iron retains heat better than stainless steel,
making the higher oven temperature unnecessary.
1/2 cup or 1.25 dl unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup or 1.5 dl half-and-half [half cream, half whole milk]
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/4 pounds or about .56 kg Granny Smith or Braeburn apples (3 to
4 large apples), peeled, quartered, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick
slices
1/4 cup or 1/2 dl light brown sugar or dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon juice
confectioners' sugar for dusting
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position; pre-heat oven to
500F/260C degrees.
Whisk to combine flour, granulated sugar, and salt in medium bowl.
In second medium bowl, whisk eggs, half-and-half, and vanilla until
combined. Add liquid ingredients to dry and whisk until no lumps
remain, about 20 seconds; set batter aside.
Heat butter in 10-inch/25cm ovenproof nonstick skillet over
medium-high heat until sizzling. Add apples, brown sugar, and
cinnamon; cook, stirring frequently with heatproof rubber spatula,
until apples are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in
lemon juice.
Using oven mitts to protect hands, remove hot skillet from oven and
loosen pancake edges with heatproof rubber spatula; invert pancake
onto serving platter. Dust with confectioners' sugar, cut into wedges,
and serve.
This recipe is wonderful if you like apple pancakes. I did notice
that the baking time was a bit longer than 18 minutes. If you like
firmer apples, you can reduce the initial frying time by half. If you
lack a proper skillet, i.e. one with a plastic handle, you can likely
use a small baking pan if you heat it first in the oven and quickly
transfer the apples to it after frying them. Be sure to remove the
pancake from the pan as soon as you remove it from the oven since it
will stick if you leave it to cool for even a few minutes. Make
the caramel sauce as it complements the pancake perfectly, but prepare
it a few hours or even a day or two ahead of time as it seems that the
flavour blooms after resting and cooling for a while. A scoop of
vanilla ice cream is a tasty accompaniment, too.
Caramel Sauce
Makes about 1.5 cups or 3.5 dl
1/2 cup or 1.25 dl water
1 cup or 2.25 dl granulated sugar
1 cup or 2.25 dl heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Place water in heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan; pour sugar in
center of pan, taking care not to let sugar crystals adhere to sides
of pan. Cover and bring mixture to boil over high heat; once boiling,
uncover and continue to boil until syrup is thick and straw-colored
(syrup should register 300F/150C degrees on candy thermometer), about
7 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until syrup is
deep amber (syrup should register 350F/175C degrees on candy
thermometer), about 1 to 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring cream and salt to simmer in small saucepan over
high heat (if cream boils before sugar reaches deep amber color,
remove cream from heat and cover to keep warm).
Remove sugar syrup from heat; very carefully pour about one quarter
of hot cream into it (mixture will bubble vigorously so don't use a
small saucepan), and let bubbling subside. Add remaining cream,
vanilla, and lemon juice; whisk until sauce is smooth. (Sauce can be
cooled and refrigerated in airtight container for up to 2 weeks.)
**As uttered by Goldmember in an Austin Powers movie....
msnbc.msn.com/id/6099172/site/newsweek track this
site | 3 links
As opposed to that authentic smoke...
As opposed to that authentic smoke...01/05/2004 06:53 PM Fake bongs for conspiracists with time on their hands... But
can square-jawed MeFites figure out what happened here? Remember, Captain Scarlet is indestructible...
send smoke signals.......11/13/2003 02:49 PM Tonight is the Photoshop Summit. FREE! Apparently I'm slow in more
ways than one. I have been having phone issues...
Found on CNN. I have nothing to add to this picture, I guess,
except to note that the Internet has enabled some amazing things in
its lifetime.
