Monthly Archives: November 2007

Involuntary test of Time Machine

Posted on November 15, 2007 by payne

Well, I can report that Time Machine (the new back-up & restore utility for Mac OS X) works. My 364 day old MacBook suffered a complete hard drive failure, only TWO hours after completing my first full backup.   I … Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 1 Comment

Venture math problems

Posted on November 9, 2007 by payne

One of the problems in venture capital today is a fundamental impedance mismatch: fund sizes remain large, while capital requirements for many Internet/software deals are shrinking. You don’t need much money anymore for many software ideas: the software stack is … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Leave a comment

Sometimes you just get lucky

Posted on November 8, 2007 by payne

We all know folks that made money on Bubble 1.0 that shouldn’t have and vice versa. The point: no matter what you do, sometimes you’re just lucky (or not). Startups are calculated risks. Entrepreneurs work hard to manage all of … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship | 1 Comment

Efficient topic tracking with blogs

Posted on November 7, 2007 by payne

If you’re a regular blog reader, it’s easy to use your reader as a topic tracker.  You can do any Google News or Google Blog search and subscribe to the results as an RSS feed.  Some readers (such as BlogBridge) … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Annoyance: one-sided calendar invites

Posted on November 3, 2007 by payne

Today’s annoyance:  people that send me calendar invites with the description of “Lunch with Andy”. I appreciate the convenience of eCalendaring, but having a week full of meetings with myself suggests that something is wrong.

Posted in Ramblings | Leave a comment

Fighting telemarketers — ask for written copy of “do not call” policy

Posted on November 3, 2007 by payne

I just learned another tool for fighting telemarketers.  You can ask for a written copy of their “do not call” policy, and they’re required by law to send it to you.  If they don’t, the law provides for “private action” … Continue reading →

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EIR Pitfalls, quasi-exclusivity

Posted on November 3, 2007 by payne

A while back, I wrote an essay on the pitfalls of Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) arrangements for entrepreneurs. (And I’m now shamelessly recycling bits for blog fodder). The essential point: EIR arrangements give quasi-exclusivity from the entrepreneur to the venture … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Leave a comment

Private Wikis as the collective family note file

Posted on November 1, 2007 by payne

We’ve got a pretty busy family with lots of moving parts:  three kids, cars, houses, doctors, parents, cats, etc. We use a private Wiki to keep the collective family notes, and it’s working really well.  It’s accessible from anywhere (access … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments