Monthly Archives: November 2007

Chumby: I don’t (yet) get it

Posted on November 30, 2007 by payne

I bought a Chumby to play with — I don’t quite get it.  Yet. It’s an alarm-clock sized device, with a color touch LCD display.  It displays Flash widgets you select in a continuous cycle, typically for 20-30 seconds per … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Fundamental Theory of Startups

Posted on November 30, 2007 by payne

Check out this great post from Union Square Ventures: My friend Dick Costolo, co-founder of FeedBurner, describes a startup as the process of going down lots of dark alleys only to find that they are dead ends. Dick describes the … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Leave a comment

Sometimes, investors should let entrepreneurs partially cash out

Posted on November 29, 2007 by payne

I recently got a small dividend check from a venture-funded startup. This was unusual:  why is a startup giving out precious cash to stockholders?  It seems counter-intuitive;  the company should be (re) investing any cash into growth. But in some … Continue reading →

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Startup financing terms: severe feature creep

Posted on November 28, 2007 by payne

I just finished up stock paperwork for a new venture-funded startup. Each time I do this, I’m shocked by the complexity in stock terms. I’ve written before about the general problem of venture capital overhead, but there’s a slightly different … Continue reading →

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Amazon Kindle: how’s this all going to come together?

Posted on November 27, 2007 by payne

I currently lug around:  a phone, a MacBook laptop, an iPod, a small camera, and way too many cables and power supplies.  Amazon’s Kindle is interesting, but adding an eBook reader to my pile doesn’t help.  This is really about … Continue reading →

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Verizon “opening” their wireless network

Posted on November 27, 2007 by payne

Well, this is interesting:  Verizon has announced that they’re opening their wireless network to outside devices by the end of 2008.  Specifically, they will allow activation of any device that meets their to-be-published “minimum technical standard”. You may have seen … Continue reading →

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iPod Touch — almost a VOIP phone!

Posted on November 24, 2007 by payne

My son bought an iPod Touch today.  If Apple were to add an earpiece and microphone, they’d have all the hardware needed to be a Wifi VOIP phone. So close!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Amazon Kindle’s “simple power”

Posted on November 24, 2007 by payne

I haven’t (yet) played with Kindle, Amazon’s new book reader. But it looks like they made a brilliant design decision: instead of connecting to the Internet through a host PC, the Kindle includes built-in wireless network access through Sprint’s EV-DO … Continue reading →

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The QWERTY problem for software

Posted on November 21, 2007 by payne

My friend Paul Baier was ranting about the new menus in Office 2007:  “they changed everything!” It seems that widely used apps like Office have run into the QWERTY problem.   The QWERTY keyboard is not the best UI for … Continue reading →

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Software design: please give me “simple power”

Posted on November 18, 2007 by payne

Think about the apps you use — the best are usually the ones that provide a lot of power and functionality with a relatively simple user interface. It’s a obvious point, but many most apps get things wrong. Google is … Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 2 Comments