Thu 29 June 06

Theory on good environments for startups
http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2006/05/how_american_are_startups.shtml

My theory on why wellington is a good place to start a 2.0 business

1. Small city - word gets around quick. e.g. i can ask a startup across town a question and they go and get on their bike and are across the CBD at my office in 10 minutes. where else in the world can you do that ?

2. Relatively cheap living - accomodation is pretty cheap to live on outskirts of town and public transport on the outskirts of the city isn't too shabby - the trolley buses aren't that bad

3. Its full of government department workers or some of the biggest corporates. these make good partners that can support the whole family while we can run our startups on zero income in the early days

4. people are so friendly - lots of people from overseas live here - makes everyday interesting

5. we are stuck at the bottom of the world - we make do with what we've got - we can make something out of nothing.

Mon 26 June

Evidence of another kiwi IT company kicking arse overseas... a scalable retail management system for the cinema industry....Vista Entertainment just scooped a $2m deal in the UK
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3711088a28,00.html

Sat 24th June 06

Got to have a read of this - Dell laptop explodes on dudes lap at Japanese conference
http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/2817

Google trying to get on top of Microsoft before Vista launch - apparently microsofts search will be the default in the upcoming release of Vista in January. So Google has stitched deals with both Dell and now Adobe (previously Macromedia had a deal with Yahoo) to bundle the google toolbar.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062200124.html

i personally thing the 'Ctrl + Ctrl' ability of google desktop search is the best thing since sliced bread. I can't remember if vista defaults the text field to the search window when you press the windows key - i think it must do. I've gone back to XP as my 3G vodafone card wouldn't install.

Thought of the day
"Local Search" is where it is at....all will be revealed soon.

mon 19th - motivate me "cold" Monday

Update #2 730am - If you haven't heard of the "My Space" (http://www.myspace.com/ ) buzz...best you check it out..... but wait.....my space is so 'last week' - http://www.imbee.com/ from a startup called www.industriouskid.com - come on innovation nation - what can we do ?

news.com.com/Teaching+kids+to+drive+the+Net/2009-1041_3-6057231.html?tag=nl
"Industrious Kids is privately funded with $6 million, thanks in part to Symons' previous ventures in telecom-Internet networking with Zhone Technologies and Ascend Communications, which was sold to Lucent Technologies in 1999 for $24 billion. Symons said Industrious Kids will eventually charge subscription fees for advanced features so that it is financially sustainable. "

businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2006/tc20060616_682547.htm
MySpace already drives a huge amount of traffic to search engines. It generates 100 million searches a month. In fact, 5% of all searches on the Web and 8% of all searches on Google are originated by people who come directly from MySpace

update # 1 712am- - MS has pulled the plug on vista beta 2- windows no longer just crashes pcs, it is now seriously crashing the internet - "CODE RED" - no more vista - WTF did they not let Bit Torrent distribute the beta or every ISP on the planet to put the clog at the last mile rather than the backbone? Come on ..some common sense..anyway my DVD copy of vista should be here any day.
http://www.playfuls.com/news_03019_Microsoft_stops_Vista_download_from_fear_of_Internet_crash.html
its 620am on Monday and the cold hole we call home has a high of 9 degrees pretty much for the rest of the week - tvnz.co.nz/cda/tvnz/weather_area_skin/WELLINGTON?area=WELLINGTON

daily blog - 623am www.infotech.co.nz
yellow pages releases online maps - 2/10 at first glance - why don't they get it? - there is a slight lag on my 3G card today - not sure if its got something to do with the cold but am sure there are many "mobile warriors" in not so good coverage areas in NZ that need zappy maps.
So yellow pages fails, someone needs to tell this crowd about AJAX
no actually - tell this crowd about flash player 8 and 9.
maps.yahoo.com/beta - ok now if projectx just sold their urls to these guys we'd have the ultimate mapping service.

3G vs ADSL or a combination ?
A hot topic - as you may know i've ditched the ADSL at home in favour/experimentation of trying just a 3G laptop.um...its not working after 18days...although i have only used 399mb of traffic for the money (on the 1GB plan) .i want a pc in my bedroom ( samsung 32 inch lcd and xbox 360 with media center extender ) as well as my laptop so what do i do. i've forfeited the 11G network for a sometimes flakey 3G card. i'm realising i just need both. i guess 40bucks a month for ADSL isn't going to break the bank if it means i'm more productive and don't have to cart my laptop all round the house, after all we live on 3 levels.

www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3703846a28,00.html
Well anyhow - vodafone has realised the same...interesting times if they start using ADSL, NZ might get super fast internet after all - oops i forgot , this country doesn't have enough trained technicians to upgrade our exchanges - can't we all just have 3G routers with 108mb wireless. i don't mind if there is a popsicle stick antenna on a iceream sized box upstairs behind the tv.

thought of the day - slow net squeezes tourism
I think the figures came out the other week that occupancy rates in hotels hadn't really grown in the last 12 months or had slightly dipped. hello? yes this is an effect of NZ not being super connected. if our hotels and tour operators are already feeling the pinch then what have we got to look forward to. www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3701618a28,00.html

We need to pass a new bill to give every household, every tourist operate and every bloody politician mobile broadband in their house by the end of the year. Why is that too hard to achieve? We could then have a daily video blog of the most inspirational motivators telling the 'average kiwi to get off their arse and make things happen'...rant off..its 655am, i've read the infotech, and skimmed google tech news ( news.google.com/?ned=us&topic=t) and i need breakfast. why can't i just order breakfast in bed on my media center extended xbox - theres an idea for a startup.

Sunday 18th June 2006

I have just seen the X Box 360 for the first time in real life.
It looks great on a 32 inch samsung LCD.This is quite amazing. I can't wait to check out the ability to combine this with windows media center for e-commerce food ordering.
The UI is quite simply amazing, every thing is eye candy. Just the simple things make it so easy - the x box 360 remote is like the default remote for media center (which i think is the best remote ever developed) extendibility looks amazing with usb ports, wifi. I wonder how much microsoft has lost per unit on the hardware.

If you haven't seen the GUI - check it out - www.betanews.com/slideshow/Xbox_360_User_Interface/6/3

I'd better go and hire one - wonder if you can you hire them from the local blockbuster in kilbirnie?

My bro thinks XBOX 360 will have too much of a lead on the he PS3 by the time it comes out in Nov. Sony have tried to cram too much new cons into it like Blu Ray DVD which the average gamer won't even appreciate or use. What do you think ?

http://www.shopify.com/ - E-commerce for all the ma and pa retailers
I was just checking out Tim Haines' blog ( ims.co.nz/blog/ ) and came across this from a canadian startup. This will fuel e-commerece even more.


Thought of the day - I think i am being slowly convinced Ajax and HTML can do a job similar to Flash. Although gmail is a bit clunky with screen refreshes. I wonder if they have an API for gmail so someone can fix all the annoying things in a way like how zopto have done for google maps. theres an idea! I said 'similar job' - wait to you see what we have cooking with Flash Player 9.

17 June 2006

The ProjectX guys have been in San Jose at Where 2.0 showing off Zopto. - www.zopto.com. Those simplistic urls for street addresses are so cool - would take a Wellington based startup to think of it. Anyway John, Ben and the team deserve a huge pat on the back I reckon - leading the world in every respect - how long till they get bought out ?

blog.projectxtech.com/articles/2006/06/14/project-annouces-the-preview-release-of-zopto-com

I have been closely following the beta 2 of Vista which went public last week- a glitch in singapore caused my card to be zapped 9 times. full credit to Microsoft - they are shipping it free within 7 days and will reverse all charges - all before i even noticed. thats what i call that great service. i will run it in tandem with office 07 - word is really good. although the best feature - save to PDF is out of the final release. and yes - i have traded in outlook email for gmail - but still use outlook calendar. - office is well worth a look though -download it now - be warned excel crashses can corrupt your companys cashflow sheet - just happened to me - www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx

ever wonder why vista is so late? 2000 monkeys at something for years is quite something. am sure the final product will be ok. here's a good insight into it. All is not bad. The broken window in the warehouse syndrome blogs.msdn.com/philipsu/archive/2006/06/14/631438.aspx

so why didn't i download it? i have rebelled against ADSL and gone 3G - a bit of a social experient to see if i can truly go mobile with my buckled war torn 15.4 inch compaq warrior www.vodafone.co.nz/promos/1gbfor49/1gbfor49.jsp . so far so good other than looks...The things you never learn until your flattie poses with her T3G card whose aerial is about the length of half my nose. my aerial is a national disgrace, the size of a full hand span. don't need the aerial most of the time though so all is good.

check this out - domain kiting - the newest internet scam - no wonder i can never buy the domains i want = http://www.bobparsons.com/DomainKiting.html - thats insane. Maybe Susan Paul is using this technique to become NZ's richest woman again?

Thought of the day - I honestly think that of late Bill Gates is like the little boy that is always running late to catch the bus to work .Guess who drives the bus? - his mate Steve Jobs. Jobs has been driving Bill to work since OS X came out in 01 ?- but Bill has just told the world he is gettng off the bus for the last time - A man can only take so much of a hiding. But what a legend - he paved the way for the internet generation to take over the world. Thanks Bill. The blue screen will no doubt live on in your memory. We won't forget the START you gave us all.