Author Archives: payne

dmr RIP

Posted on October 17, 2011 by payne

I first read about C in the early 80s in BYTE magazine, when they had a full issue on the language.  (According to the archives, it was August 1983).  After learning BASIC, pointers and function declarations really opened my eyes. … Continue reading →

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Now Netflix Gets Squeezed by Apple/Amazon

Posted on October 14, 2011 by payne

I’ve always loved Netflix.  I was a very early subscriber, and we still carry the DVD plan even though we rarely use it (we’ve had some DVDs out for years).   And Reed Hastings has done something that few CEOs … Continue reading →

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iOS 5: Apple Taking Over the World

Posted on October 12, 2011 by payne

I just upgraded my iPad to iOS 5 — wow!  There’s lots of stuff in there. What’s most interesting are features that Apple’s pulled in from their app ecosystem. This is great for users (Apple gets to cherry-pick the best … Continue reading →

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Digital Fabrication: Ponoko

Posted on October 12, 2011 by payne

Following up on my work on digital fabrication and related areas, I tried Ponoko’s fabrication service.  I didn’t design anything myself (I’m lazy), but I bought a tabbed Arduino enclosure from their marketplace, cut from 3mm clear acrylic. Here’s the … Continue reading →

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It’s the Software, Stupid!

Posted on September 27, 2011 by payne

I recently got Kellie a new all-in-one printer/scanner/copier for her office.  After years of buying HP printers, I got tired of their crappy software.  I have no idea why they insist on a multi-hundred megabyte distribution just to support a … Continue reading →

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The Coming Bits and Atoms Disruption

Posted on September 21, 2011 by payne

I’ve written recently about the entrepreneurial lottery, and the long odds for many pure-software Internet/consumer/mobile projects.  For the reasons outlined, I’ve been shifting my entrepreneurial energy away from these projects. Instead, I’ve been working on “bits and atoms”, or as I think … Continue reading →

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Don’t Get Greedy

Posted on September 13, 2011 by payne

First, Groupon reportedly turns down $6b from Google.  I was shocked when I heard that, and then stunned when I saw their financials filed with the SEC.  Now, they’re surrounded by competitors, pulling their IPO, and the SEC is questioning … Continue reading →

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Can Google/Motorola Compete with Apple?

Posted on September 5, 2011 by payne

When Google announced they were buying Motorola, it was widely speculated that they did it “for the patents”. Now, Eric Schmidt is reported as saying: “We did it for more than just patents, .. The Motorola team has some amazing … Continue reading →

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It’s All Fun Until You Become an OS Feature

Posted on August 14, 2011 by payne

Catching up on my reading, I liked what Fred Wilson recently wrote about the cloud storage space: It’s not a space I like very much because I don’t think we’ll be using files in the cloud. Now Dropbox is a brilliant company … Continue reading →

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Lottery Avoidance: Require Real Capital

Posted on August 10, 2011 by payne

Continuing my ad-hoc series on avoiding the entrepreneurial lottery, another way of avoiding lottery odds is to require real capital for your project (and to get it funded). When we started Open Market in 1994, a basic Unix server and … Continue reading →

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