Guest Post: Stealing Software: Is It Wrong Or Isn’t It?
This guest post was written by Michelle Carrington, the founder and co-editor of Really Big Tech News, which recently donated $5,000 to a non-existent non-profit organization, DataFlexibility, which promotes yoga education in Silicon Valley.
Software used to be so simple. You used it at the Atherton public library free, but you didn’t get to say what would be installed, and there was lots of dirt on the keyboards. If you decided to install software on your Tandy, you paid. People copied software onto floppies and passed them on to friends. That was just about as far as P2P software piracy got. Stealing software was when you shoplifted BASIC from Fry’s Electronics, and it was pretty clearly understood that it was “wrong.” I know: I got caught.
Free Idea Tuesday: Find a Founder
Through my travels, I’ve learned that Americans have an unmatched love for human interest stories. Nothing quite touches an American heart like a good story about a disabled person, a minority, a former felon or an underdog “football” team.
You can see this in the media and the blogosphere. If you have an inspirational personal tale (or a tale that relieves white guilt), coverage is a given. Look no further than TechCrunch’s repeated coverage of supposedly-precious kids who aren’t doing anything interesting but who are underage. Yes, if you’re a kid and you can install WordPress MU, TechCrunch would love to document your journey as you strive to, well, install WordPress MU.
Guest Post: Really Big Tech News
This guest post was written by Michelle Carrington, the founder and co-editor of Really Big Tech News, which was named one of the top blogs of 2009 by the Times of Guayaramerín.
Teens In Trouble, a blogging network founded by 16 year old Daniel “The Protégé” Brusilovsky, has acquired the Youth Bloggers Army (YBA). YBA is a blog network that was founded by Patrick “Vivo la Vida Loca” DeVivo, who is also a young entrepreneur. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources close to the parties inform us that it was in the $20 – $40 range, and that it included a pack of cigarettes.
The Rise and Fall of TechCrunch
I was sent an interesting post on the blog of Duncan Riley which had some interesting Web 2.0 blogosphere news. Okay, Web 2.0 blogosphere news is, by definition, not interesting, but you know what I mean.
Duncan Riley, of course, is Web 2.0’s version of Scott McClellan. He used to work for Arrington at TechCrunch and after he left, didn’t seem to have a lot of respect his former boss.
The news: Mashable looks set to overtake TechCrunch in traffic metrics, and by one account, already has.
Beyond the Money: VCs DO NOT Provide Startups With A Competitive Edge
Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang spent some time recently with a woman who has earned a chunk of her living from VC firms and that was enough to sell him on the idea that “VCs provide several intangible services to their portfolio companies.”
This is one of the most commonly-promoted myths about VCs and I think it’s worthwhile to dismiss Owyang point-by-point.
Thought Leadership
Confucius say Owyang say:
Drama 2.0 Launches Green Investment Fund
I’ve done so well in the stock market in the past several months primarily shorting doomed American companies that I’ve made a big decision: I’m going to start investing in startups.
Unfortunately I’m not bailing out Web 2.0. I’m looking to make green by investing in green industry.
420 Ventures SA is a green investment fund based in Panama that will invest a maximum of $500,000 each in up to 10 US-based agriculture upstarts that have the potential to grow rapidly. Literally. From production to real estate to equipment, 420 Ventures is taking a broad approach to its agriculture investments and is encouraging hungry entrepreneurs with street smarts to submit their business plans.
Gary Vaynerchuk Provides the Saddest SXSW Photo
20 “models” for 10,000 geeks? Obviously a lot of those geeks are going back to the hotel with themselves (or Julia Allison).
But for a select few, there’s another option: Gary Vay-ner-chuk’s Wine Library Party.
Put aside all your notions of what a good party entails. How many people do you know who actually throw parties Hugh Hefner would be proud of? Okay, forget about me.
Now that you’re prepared, I’d like to introduce you to the GaryVee lifestyle. It’s like the Playboy lifestyle without the women, without the good liquor, without the sophistication and without the personality.
What the Fuck is Andrew Keen Doing on Twitter?
Andrew Keen is one of the most highly-publicized skeptics of Web 2.0, user-generated content and other such nonsense. His book, The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture, makes a lot of the same general arguments that I (and others) have been making over the past couple of years.
So it was with some amusement that I received an email pointing me to Keen’s Twitter account. Let me rephrase that: so it was with some amusement that I received an email pointing me to Keen’s highly-active Twitter account.
Buy and Hold is Bullshit
With stocks having recently hit levels not seen in more than a decade, it’s a good time to address the “investment strategy” of “buy and hold.” Promoted by just about every well-known financial adviser and financial guru, it’s time that buy and hold be called what it is: a sham.
Perhaps the best evidence of that comes in the form of Warren Buffett – the classic “buy and hold” investor. He was recently forced to tell Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that he “did some dumb things in investments.”
Michael Arrington Uses Journalism as Excuse to Rid Himself of Shitty Investments
Updated below with my email to Michael Arrington.
You can’t make this shit up. Michael Arrington, fresh out of the Witness Protection Program where he was hiding from the Salivian Mafia, is ready to embrace journalistic ethics.
It’s a touchy subject. After all, Arrington has admitted that conflicts of interest are integral to TechCrunch, he informed his readers that he donated money to a charity that, to the best of my knowledge, still doesn’t legally exist, claims have been made about how his personal relationships impact coverage and, of course, TechCrunch has been caught engaging in suspicious-looking copy-and-paste press release journalism.
