Dave McClure is No Devil

Friday 24 September 2010 - Filed under technology

The more I read about this the more I’m angered by TechCrunch’s irresponsible reporting on Angel Gate. Unless, and I seriously challenge him to because he can’t, Michael Arrington can produce substantial evidence that collusion did occur he should issue an apology. I have every reason to believe that Michael showed up uninvited to a dinner of friends, got really pissed and hurt because they told him to essentially screw off and then assumed they were up to no good. Of course, that’s being generous. It seems more like he got so pissed he decided to damage their reputations using TechCrunch simply because he has the power to. The only place to find a balanced debate on this is the Quora thread. Then the post an innuendo-laden email bomb from Ron Conway regarding a dinner he didn’t attend.

All I got to say is screw Tech Crunch for writing whatever they damn well please simply because their founder got socially snubbed. It’s Tech Crunch doing the dirty Mafia type hits if you ask me.

End of updated rant. The original article below.

The recent crap storm about TechCrunch’s expose about back room Mafia-style price fixing by angel investors kept taking an unreal turn for the worse. First, I have to hand it to Michael Arrington for doing this. It takes balls to make accusations like this and pretty much turn the entire community against you. He has everything to lose and this is one sorry publicity stunt if it goes wrong. In the UK he’d be sued out of business for libel even on a blog. In some other country, he might never be seen again.

The first guy to fall under the bus is definitely Dave McClure. He was the first to respond and now he really got thrown under the bus. I spent the good part of the day with him last year when he came to Japan. That doesn’t make me an expert on him or make me privy to what he does for business but if does the things that people allege him of doing in this “Angel Gate” scandal this man definitely has the most elaborate smoke and mirrors act I’ve ever seen.

The Dave McClure I saw is generous with his time and despite his bad boy image he’s the most approachable guy on earth. I literally walked up to him in a crowded party, briefly introduced myself, and asked him to attend a startup event happening the next day. He did not know who I was and he did not care. He showed up first thing in the morning and stayed all day. He brought a Japanese startup founder with him, gave a great presentation and mentored people all day. The event was basically a workshop for amateurs throwing around ideas. If Dave was just pretending to be interested or being polite, I must be blind because he critiqued ideas and gave feedback like he was about to invest money.

I don’t know about the intricacies of the allegations or how this situation is going down now that Ron Conway threw down the gauntlet but Dave’s been on the grind. Dave does a lot of things that other people in Silicon Valley don’t like try to connect the Valley with entrepreneurs in Asia and other regions. He works hard, he gets his hands dirty, he’s more accessible than a lot of “classy” investors, and he’ll pick up the phone when you call.

I don’t know who else is implicated but if you look around a lot of people have got Dave’s back. That says a lot. These are the same people he would have been “screwing” if allegations are true. These people are also very smart. I don’t think you can really damage someone’s reputation if they’re the real thing. Dave sure was in the wrong place at the wrong time but the dude’s literally everywhere. If I needed advice I wouldn’t hesitate to ask him and anybody he invests in will get a great deal just because Dave McClure doesn’t do anything half-assed period.

Fire in The Valley, Fire in My Belly… and Yes, Mike, I Have Stopped Beating My Wife. – Master of 500 Hats

So A Blogger Walks Into A Bar…

5 comments  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-09-24  ::  baron

One Year Without Alcohol

Monday 6 September 2010 - Filed under Uncategorized

I went one year without drinking. There were three separate occasions I more or less got pressured into pretend sipping or an aperitif but otherwise I was sober the whole time and didn’t really obsess about it. It took a while for friends and people around me to realize I was dead serious about not drinking but once I established the fact, people left me alone. I ended up having a shot of tequila about one week after the anniversary. That seriously messed my head up. The alcohol felt like it got injected into my veins and took me a while to ground myself. For about a week after the tequila kept popping into my head.

Now I know why alcoholics and drug addicts need to stop cold turkey. It’s crazy but you spend all this time avoiding it and you don’t realize how much your commitment and reinforcement of values are doing behind the scene. One one level, you’re freed from all the baggage of keeping your “streak” going. On the other hand, you need to make sure all hell doesn’t break loose and wait for it to pass. I was never a heavy drinker though I always had a tendency to binge. When I stopped drinking my propensity to drink was getting more and more frequent. I abstained from alcohol a couple months before. This time I was slowly getting fed up with myself at how easily I’d go for a beer or two after work to relax, rather than just let the stress go, and then the tipping point came when I had too many drinks and totally embarrassed myself. Something inside me told me that I had to hit the “reset” button. So, I said to myself, “I’m not drinking for at least six months”.

What happens when you don’t drink alcohol? This is what happened with me.

1. Slept way better.
2. Felt way better.
   
3. Went out less.
4. Never stayed until the morning train at a party (this being Japan).
5. People around you drink less.
6. You manage to socialize with people at parties anyway (you just need to get used to it at first, if you’re shy and use alcohol to loosen up)

I know that recent studies claim heavy drinkers still live longer than people who don’t drink. These studies contradict each other every other month but I wouldn’t doubt the social component of drinking leads to better health. Still, I can’t really deny that I feel a lot better not drinking because the quality of life is way better when there’s no alcohol from last night in your system even without hangovers. It’s a lifestyle choice. Although that tequila shot puts me back on a new journey, I’d rather not go back to drinking although I’m not going to be fanatic about it. Just go with the flow and right now I’m not feeling alcohol.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-09-06  ::  baron

Hot Tub Time Machine

Saturday 4 September 2010 - Filed under entertainment

Hot Tub Time Machine is a mid-life crisis movie. Three friends and a nephew go on a ski excursion when Lou attempts suicide to cheer him up. The dilapidated resort town of their youthful conquests is deserted and run down. As the situation degenerates into a train wreck situation, they find the hot tub in the backyard (where they just found a dead racoon) miraculously fixed. As they drink their way into oblivion the tub swirls them back into the 1980s in their youthful forms though they look young to everyone else.

There were some humorous moments but it’s pretty much a trailer movie, you know where if you see the trailer you saw the movie. The retro 80s fashion was definitely fun to see (and the women looked hot in their hair-spray and heavy mascara) but there wasn’t enough tension or comedic vehicles to carry the film through. It needed some kind of twist. Title was awesome, that’s without question.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-09-04  ::  baron

Kick Ass

Saturday 4 September 2010 - Filed under entertainment

Kick Ass definitely blew me away (but not all in a good way). It takes the classic story of a nerd transforming himself into a super hero and deconstructs it in a modern, information technology-driven society where reality and real life can be blurred by personas created online. Our hero, to be known as “Kick Ass”, is a normal teenager geek that gets it in him to become a comic book super hero. The transformation begins by ordering a super hero outfit that consists of a diving suit and setting up a MySpace page to handle super hero assignments.

Of course, being a nerd, he’s totally unprepared physically and mentally so his first mission ends with him getting stabbed and beaten unconscious. As a result, his bone structure is fortified with plates and he becomes desensitized to pain. In order to hide embarrassment from being found in a super hero outfit, he corroborates a story with the paramedic that he was found naked. This leads to rumors at school that he is gay. The gorgeous girl he has a crush on takes an interest in him once she “finds out” he’s gay and makes him her bff.

Instead of giving up on the super hero idea, now that he has a high tolerance for pain and a taste of the exciting, crime fighting lifestyle, he clumsily forays back into the super hero business. This almost gets him killed and brings him into contact with real avengers (a father and daughter team) who are not afraid to kill villains.

That’s the setup. Any more would spoil it.

Call me old-fashioned but seeing a little girl cuss like a sailor while slicing mafia gangsters up in cold blood really disturbs me. The trailers, by necessity I suppose, really gloss this over. Artistically, it’s a bold move for the director to be faithful to the graphic novel’s depiction of it. However, with all comic book adaptations you have the problem of translating that into the big screen format. As a cross between a novel and comic book, readers are engaged in graphic novels so much that they fill in the blanks or “scenes between the scenes” and embellishing the artist’s rendition with their imagination. Drawings no matter how masterly executed have a way of softening violence and sex while emphasizing other aspects so when you do a literal depiction on screen, it comes across a lot stronger. The execution was well done though the characters needed a little more depth to me. Luckily the Nicolas Cage and Chloë Moretz (to a certain extent Aaron Johnson) brought that depth with them.

To me it was a cross between Super Bad and Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight, awesome depending on your qualms.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-09-04  ::  baron

The Hangover

Friday 27 August 2010 - Filed under entertainment

The Hangover is a must see comedy. Four guys throwing a bachelor party in Vegas wake up with a massive hangover, no recollection of what happened, and lose the groom. The opening scene alone was priceless. The movie had all the stock cliches of a Vegas movie but the chemistry of the actors and the story of piecing together a wild night on the town backwards based on clues like tattered receipts and missing teeth put a fresh spin on it. There wasn’t a single dull moment and I ended up re-watching quite a few scenes to get another laugh.
Phil is a laid back partier type that can only see the positive side even in the most desperate situation. The brother-in-law is missing a few marbles and adds to some uneasy situational comedy and pulls off some classic lines. Stu is a dentist in a really nasty relationship. He’s a straight arrow type until he unleashes his wild-side with the fateful drink.
I can’t begin to describe how this movie just works without ruining it for you but all the preposterous twists and turns come off and the lines are priceless. The thing I loved about the movie was how the actors fit their characters so well that their performances seemed effortless. Don’t take my word for it, just have a look for yourself.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-08-27  ::  baron

NewsRush 1.0.2 Promo Codes

Friday 30 July 2010 - Filed under iphone

Promo codes for NewsRush (yet another RSS reader for the iphone). The app is not quite ready to be promoted yet but hey it’s free. Gonna just keep posting promos until they become worth something.

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WT6JAYNFF99P

7PN9L9R4TMEE

ARTXRWRN3FA9

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MAHHHW9W7E9X

WPYJFKMLRXY4

T443NXXJTYJ4

WLY9PFXAWNN6

TJAKPAEPTJMM

NMWL777739MM

9LEY6TPNRM3J

HKM4K6AJLK39

JWAFTEJ3RJLH

YW3A6P6HR4X7

LY67MRXT7J3X

7TF3XPJ9NLTF

Y3R7FRXRXNYJ

TFA9TEYK7XLN

XWN636KENWPW

PE6WL7M47EH7

M3L3E3RXKHRH

7XRXJPR3KTTE

P6FX9AYKH4FM

9PWMPA6AF3JT

6RHP93JJMXF7

NPX9LLHN73RK

6TY9JXNF3RE9

MP6F3K6EHFN4

JFXNJY736L46

E6M37LL7EP6Y

K9H4NRRXP3HY

FP7RLT33AR3K

L7YA6M9ELAXJ

P6XX7RX64AWP

9FKMNNFAWKJL

7AK7AMTPA3AP

79J3YH7XE4HF

4TR6HAX469XP

ERJ9TA9J6EJF

TYY69PWJKN6W

AHW6YHE3XEN7

367R4P4JKE36

EKYXHEKTKPYT

WYWM7LJ73N6J

7HNM7PNLHM66

K4ANW9T6P9EK

F9NTL3XYHYYN

M6996NRHEJNT

P6FR33FRPEMA

1 comment  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-07-30  ::  baron

OSX and Mac Desktops Aren’t Going Anywhere

Thursday 29 July 2010 - Filed under osx

People keep talking about how the iPhone’s going to ruin it for OS X and the desktop lineup. I’m tired of these alarmist headlines hinting at the demise of OS X. The share of earnings from mobile devices surpassing desktops and how Apple seems to be more concerned about iPhone developers (like giving Apple Design Awards exclusively to iOS apps this year).

It certainly looks like desktops are getting the short end of the stick.

The fact is, as long as Apple engineers are using macs themselves, there’s really nothing to worry about. Their tools are our tools. It can only get better. The only market I see taking a hit is the indie software development scene. Lots of developers stepped right over OS X desktop development and headed into iOS development. Some might transition into desktop development or do some on the side but a lot of people with a background doing OS X desktop development are busy with iPhone/iPad work. Just as a matter of priority, all the new APIs from Apple and innovative software are going to come from touch devices because there’s a hot new market with a new paradigm that excites developers.

However, desktop users are already enjoying the fruits of Apple’s success with the iPhone. With more GBs of RAM and processor power coming our way via Moore’s Law, programmers start doing crazy things with that extra capacity like a fat kid in an all-you-can-eat buffet. Of course, for the end user we get cool features but that eery feeling that we’re still running in place after shelling out a couple thousand bucks on a new system never goes away (Yeah, it feels kinda faster like when I open folders…).

Snow Leopard represents incremental progress from Leopard but it also cut down on a lot of bloat, resulting in faster code and a couple GBs shaved off the installation. New multi-touch trackpads on Macbooks, the Magic Mouse, and now the Magic Trackpad all come from hard-earned innovations from touch devices.

Eventually, all the lessons learned from providing iPhone developers more convenient building blocks will surely filter through to desktop development and if not developers will start adding more open source additions to bridge the gap.

Even if all the earnings shift toward touch devices and music/movie/TV sales, you simply can’t skip the fact that the source of all that creative momentum comes from the great tools that Apple engineers are using and the OS X operating system is an integral part of it. Sure, some resources may be tied up in mobile but eventually, these worlds will converge more than diverge as mobile firepower keeps going up (just look at the difference between iPhone 3G and iPhone 4).

The bigger concern is not so much Apple’s focus on OS X but how do you entice talented indie developers to develop innovative third-party applications for the desktop (like Cover Flow started as a third-party giveaway project or Quicksilver that defined an era). Another aspect is the ranks are flooded with people more after the money than before so that definitely changes community dynamics as well. However, this doesn’t translate to an existential crisis for OS X any claims otherwise without further evidence are absurd.

2 comments  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-07-29  ::  baron

Promo Codes for NewsRush, Yet Another iPhone Google Reader RSS Client

Thursday 8 July 2010 - Filed under iphone + promocode

NewsRush is just another RSS client that syncs with Google Reader. It still has a long way to go in terms of stability, features, and general polish but it’s a start. The good news is you get it for free.

6T3MEHJRAA7W W97WATELEE94 MFHRNM993WAL 36Y9H9NA7474 THWWTHJ9WFEM REHMEM7AR3RE HAF3PXYEF796 AY646EAXJ7H7 E997RPXM6A3A WRKTHAR7JTTM PKT7MEYTENLL TRTAX6RTJXM6 T6P7JEX4REA4 79LALLY3FTFE 96XX9JLEFPPK 9LN3F6LHL43T NKPYFWPH7RMK N9M6HPWA6WHA RR67RNYXLR7L AWYNNF433AE7 49ML793YEYXX PFH3E3K37NLE 34A4XP6XHKFJ TK33X3F479KT ELXLFANRJAMW E774ER7KH4A6 WNJKLYPLYRJ3 H349F3KRHX7N Y7EFTN6E9PTE 9JY443PN7FHN 9HFLTWXWEPNE 67H4LFT7NXJE LEAMFJPNXLRN LMNY99JEHF7W 6TJ3RJXN6XEW T3EPX9KP39FK PXM4WJ6RM4YK 9RFH6PJ764NP TY36FJA64XHY XHJRPLP3P3YK L3KEPY6LYH4T A7YXMER3P4WA T4KRHT7PW7WL 7MX7AFN9AATH AJLAAYPWXERW 7KK47RXAWJ3F MJMX7TAKPYXW FYLPR9AJE6XH P9J4MAAMATR7 YLJJAM6WJNMP

11 comments  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-07-08  ::  baron

Leverage iPhone Custom URL Schemes with Remember the Milk

Monday 3 May 2010 - Filed under apple + iphone

One of the great things about having remember the milk on the iPhone is portability. You have access to your tasks anywhere with the wonderful official iphone app but it doesn’t have tight integration with mobile specific tasks like call or sms or email someone right? Not quite.

The trick is to use custom url schemes. You can add tasks to RTM with the url set as a custom url scheme and it will launch the designated app. With the quick add task syntax, it would be like:

call for appointment tel://5559898

text bob sms://5559898

Those custom urls can be clicked from the task’s url field and will launch the designated application. Unfortunately, mailto: doesn’t work too well (you get “mailto” prepended the address) but for calls and text it works great.

2 comments  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-05-03  ::  baron

Apple Does Not have an Open Platform and No, He Doesn’t Have it Backwards

Thursday 22 April 2010 - Filed under iphone

There’s been a fresh outbreak of Adobe bashing regarding an announcement by one of their engineers on Adobe’s decision to stop putting resources behind tools to cross-compile Flash into native iphone applications.

He says “open platform” which means, there aren’t any fashion police dictating what can or cannot be made available. I hate Flash as much as the next guy, when it comes to all the pain involved on the mac platform, but taking the side of Apple lobbing hand grenades from their gated community takes some serious double think.

Interesting. Apple has responded publicly to Adobe’s Mike Chambers’s claim that Flash is an open platform:

“Someone has it backwards — it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary,” said spokeswoman Trudy Miller in a statement.

Spot-on.

[From Daring Fireball Linked List: ‘Someone Has It Backwards’]

There is nothing wrong with protecting standards of taste or setting out rules as long as they are fair and consistently applied. In the case of Apple’s app store approval process, that’s rarely the case. Applications that were once approved can be pulled at a moment’s notice or retroactively pulled (meaning once approved apps may be rejected pending a policy change).

What’s even crazier is that pushing the boundaries of taste isn’t the only taboo for applications targeted for the Apple app store. Interface elements or innovative apps that push the boundaries can also be at risk simply because they fall afoul of some Apple design aesthetic while of course being exempt from such restrictions themselves.

I don’t like towing the line that friends of Apple are enemies of Adobe Flash and vice versa. The fact is after decades of bashing Microsoft for all the liberties they’ve taken with their monopolistic advantages, we are faced with much scarier personal concerns about privacy, ownership and freedom with which companies such as Apple and Facebook seem less concerned about than their own commercial interests.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-04-22  ::  baron