http://www.aventureforth.com Ideas about venture capital, investing, technology, and policy. Thu, 05 Oct 2006 22:29:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en ...notwithstanding my lack of recent posts. I've been busy with projects and haven't had much time to blog. In the meantime, check out this Slate article (co-written by my fiancee). It's a little off topic but that's a proud guy's liberty... http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/10/05/im-still-here/ Paramount studios announced today that they've severed ties with Tom Cruise after a 13 year relationship due to his "unacceptable" behavior. Strangely, Cruise's agents claim that they terminated negotiations with Paramount after turning to a pair of hedge funds to finance Cruise's future projects. Clearly, there's more to ... http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/08/22/hedge-funds-love-volatility/ From 1984, as he presents the original Macintosh computer: The screaming crowd reminds me of footage of old Beatles' concerts--maybe it's the bow tie? http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/08/22/video-of-the-day-young-steve-jobs/ Umair at Bubblegeneration recently wrote a great note on the "post-network" economy--the main idea being that bland strategy is increasingly a commodity, and that in mind, the next great shift in value creation will come from creativity. But what is creativity? The best answer I've recently heard comes from Sir ... http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/08/21/what-is-creativity/ Kiko, the online calendar I picked as my favorite Ajax application back in September 2005, is now for sale on eBay. The starting bid is $49,999.99, with no takers yet. While Kiko's functionality was solid (and improving, especially with recent releases), the team apparently wasn't able to develop ... http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/08/16/kiko-now-for-sale-on-ebay/ CNet has an interesting gallery of doctored photos--worth a look, especially given the recent Reuters brouhaha (via Buzzmachine). http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/08/16/pictures-that-lie/ In my last post, I described a new service that tracks what other sites are popular with my readers. I didn't fully realize it at the time, but one such site is the brand new blog of Mahmood Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran. It's worth a look (but ... http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/08/15/mahmood-ahmadinejad-is-blogging/ MyBlogLog is an interesting service that's worth knowing about--especially if you maintain a blog. Initially, the company offered a simple web analytics tool which provided basic statistics on site visits, page views, and outclicks. Recently, MyBlogLog launched a community feature: after registering, the service lets you join the ... http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/08/15/mybloglog/ Looks like Interactive just bought a 51% stake in NYC-based ConnectedVentures, which runs CollegeHumor.com, among other sites (link to more deal info). Gawker reported last month that this was in the works, valuing the company somewhere between $20-30M. According to CollegeHumor's media kit, the company displays ~280 million ... http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/08/15/interactive-buys-majority-stake-in-collegehumor/ Following is Nielsen/NetRating's list of the top ten fastest growing internet sites, as measured by monthly unique visitors: While I wasn't surprised to see Wikipedia and MySpace, I didn't expect HSBC or the Associated Press to make the cut... http://www.aventureforth.com/2006/08/14/fastest-growing-web-sites/