Next New Networks
27 October 2006 at 18:53 Filed in:
Projects
I decided to leave my job at AOL shortly after the
winamp and
spinner
acquisitions. There were a variety of reasons for this decision,
the most salient being the smartest of them: I believed that the
Cable Television business would start to become the dominant model
of "making money" online with programming/content and America
Online was not poised to win in that world. Even a year later with
the looming acquisition of Time-Warner, I did not believe America
Online could win. Sure, the cable model would need some
hybridization to escape it's pre-2000 form, but the cable model
would be more dominant than the "spots and dots" internet model...
especially in original programming/content. Personally, I was more
interested in the Internet as a media vehicle/outlet than I was as
a tool... despite having been part of some of the most
fundamentally revolutionary tools to come out of the triangle.
Some of which you might
us every day.
I shared this theory with many people: my AOL heroes like Danny Krifcher, Tom Hardart, Charlie Fink, and John Borthwick... my friends like Marc Goldberg, Mike Starkenburg, Steve Long, and Mark Buchheim... my family like my dad, wife, and cousin. People were generally supportive, somewhat confused but Charlie, John (both of them) and Danny understood my maddness. When Charlie Fink introduced me to Fred Seibert I knew what I needed to do if I was ever to be in a place to jump on my theory of the colliding industries. I could learn more from Fred in a year as a pawn at MTV Networks than I could any where else. He'd tell me tv if I told him about the Internet (ie: series of tubes).
Flash forward 5 or 6 years... 3 or 4 businesses... several emotional episodes... a near bankruptcy or 2... and the vision of what I saw at the other end of the rainbow has manifested itself:
Next New Networks
Early 'Next New Networks' logo authored by Herb's daughter in art class. Age: 6
Over the coming weeks, I'll be pulling the curtain back on this. Describing: What it is. Who we are. Why it's different. Why we might be too early. and How we'll win... and win big.
Herb, Jed, Tim, Fred... I cannot imagine a more right crew to do this with. I'm happy we're on this together and I'm even happier you've not voted me off the island.
Fred Seibert, above, authoring the Master Plan
Jed Simmons explaining something I still don't understand. That happens often.
I shared this theory with many people: my AOL heroes like Danny Krifcher, Tom Hardart, Charlie Fink, and John Borthwick... my friends like Marc Goldberg, Mike Starkenburg, Steve Long, and Mark Buchheim... my family like my dad, wife, and cousin. People were generally supportive, somewhat confused but Charlie, John (both of them) and Danny understood my maddness. When Charlie Fink introduced me to Fred Seibert I knew what I needed to do if I was ever to be in a place to jump on my theory of the colliding industries. I could learn more from Fred in a year as a pawn at MTV Networks than I could any where else. He'd tell me tv if I told him about the Internet (ie: series of tubes).
Flash forward 5 or 6 years... 3 or 4 businesses... several emotional episodes... a near bankruptcy or 2... and the vision of what I saw at the other end of the rainbow has manifested itself:
Next New Networks
Early 'Next New Networks' logo authored by Herb's daughter in art class. Age: 6
Over the coming weeks, I'll be pulling the curtain back on this. Describing: What it is. Who we are. Why it's different. Why we might be too early. and How we'll win... and win big.
Herb, Jed, Tim, Fred... I cannot imagine a more right crew to do this with. I'm happy we're on this together and I'm even happier you've not voted me off the island.
Fred Seibert, above, authoring the Master Plan
Jed Simmons explaining something I still don't understand. That happens often.
Best Sci-Fi Scene Ever
23 October 2006 at 20:16 Filed in:
News
If you're not watching, you should
be.
The new Battlestar Galactica is probably the best thing on television. Sadly, because it's "SciFi" it'll probably go unwatched by you '2 cool for school' punks...
The new Battlestar Galactica is probably the best thing on television. Sadly, because it's "SciFi" it'll probably go unwatched by you '2 cool for school' punks...
Borat Movie
23 October 2006 at 14:26 Filed in:
Humor
$17,000,000.00 to make...
$200,000,000.00. That's my guestimate.
$200,000,000.00. That's my guestimate.
Places to go In Japan
05 October 2006 at 17:30 Filed in:
News
Ginza
Bic Camera
A trip to one of Bic’s towering tech stores is the equivalent of a one-stop tour through the world of Japan’s cutting-edge gadgetry. 1-11-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku. Tel: 03-5221-1111. Open daily 10am-9pm. Nearest stn: Yurakucho.
Sony Building
Gadget geeks and video freaks can spend hours in this six-story Sony showcase. Limited products sold in the basement. 5-3-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku. Tel: 03-3573-2371. Open daily 11am-7pm. Nearest stn: Ginza.
Mitsukoshi
Dubbed “the Harrods of Tokyo,” Mitsukoshi is the country’s oldest department store. 4-6-16 Ginza, Chuo-ku. Tel: 03-3562-1111. Open daily 10am-8pm. Nearest stn: Ginza.
Hakuhinkan Toy Park
This tower of toys has one of the best selections of video games, jigsaw puzzles, Japanese dolls and teddy bears. 8-8-11 Ginza, Chuo-ku. Tel: 03-3571-8008. Open daily 11am-8pm. Nearest stn: Shinbashi.
Akihabara
Super Potato
A graveyard of old video games: forgotten consoles, cartridges and goofy handheld portables discarded from the ’80s. 3F Kitanayashi Bldg, 1-11-2 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku. Tel: 03-5289-9933. Open Mon-Fri 11am-8pm, Sat-Sun 10am-8pm. www.superpotato.com
Akky International
This chain of electronics stores has three branches in Akihabara that offer support in English, Chinese and Portuguese. Stores are packed with foreign-ready home electronics and travel goods. Their selection includes Windows computers and laptops with English OS, as well as watches, cameras and suitcases. 1-12-1 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku. Tel: 03-5207-5027. Open daily 10am-8pm.
Mai-Foot
Reflexology from girls dressed as French maids. You are expected to keep up a conversation with the knowledgeable maids, predictably revolving around anime, manga and games, as they work. For „3,000 you’ll get a half hour of foot and hand massage and a complimentary after-beverage. 3F Suzuki Bldg, 3-1-3, Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku. Tel: 03-3253-1113. Open daily 11am-9pm. www.mai-foot.com
Shibuya
Shibuya 109
This temple to teenybopper fashion explains why Shibuya girls are all identically dressed. Ten floors of slight variations on the trend du jour. Sizes run small. 2-29-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 03-3477-5111. Open daily 10am-9pm.
Parco
The dominant department store operator in Shibuya caters mostly to the area's teenage shopping nuts, although Parco Part 1 has more for grown-ups and some good restaurants. 15-1 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 03-3464-5111. Open daily 10am-9pm (restaurants until midnight).
Shinjuku
Don Quijote
Don Quijote has the lowest prices imaginable, any time of day or night. The hard part is keeping your cool inside the cramped store overflowing with cheap goods and bargain hunters. 1-16-5 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku. Tel: 03-5291-9211. Open 24 hours.
Harajuku
Kiddy Land
A six-floor Nirvana for the young and the young at heart. All the latest games, figures and wacky contraptions. 6-1-9 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 03-3409-3431. Open daily 10am-9pm. Nearest stn: Meiji-Jingumae.
Roppongi
Absolut Icebar Tokyo
The thermostat at the Swedish vodka company’s Tokyo bar, made entirely of ice, is set permanently at -5șC. Patrons are limited to 45-minute visits and reservations are accepted online. 4-2-4 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku. Tel: 03-5464-2161. Open daily 5pm-midnight. www.icebartokyo.com
Bar Matrix
Just like the movie of the same name, this bar is sleek and forceful with its metallic interior and thumping DJ sets featuring a mix of reggae, rock, trance, hip-hop and R&B. Happy hour is from 6-10pm and the draft beer and wide selection of cocktails flow all night long. B1 Wind Roppongi Bldg, 3-13-6 Roppongi, Minato-ku. Tel: 03-3405-1066. Open daily 6pm-late. www.matrixbar.jp
Bill Gates' Advice to High School Kids
05 October 2006 at 16:13 Filed in:
Humor
I'm not Bill Gates superfan #1, but he
recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did
not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good,
politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no
concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in
the real world. I was a great speech.
The salient rules are here:
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
The salient rules are here:
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
China, 2006
03 October 2006 at 22:12 Filed in:
Cars
As some of you may know, I went to
China for the 2006 Sinopec Shanghai Grand Prix. Pictures can be found here.
A few final thoughts on China
It’s been a year since I last visited Shanghai. I forgot about several nuances of Chinese living that I am happy to share with you today.
There’s always a party at the tollbooth. After you pay your toll, proceed slowly through the plaza. On the right side of the road, often also on the left, and sometimes right in the middle of traffic… there’s a party. I’m not sure what they’re celebrating, but there are people, busses, grills mounted on bicycles, DVD salesmen… everything, right there on the side of the road. Shouting. Drinking. Carrying on. Partying.
China is a land of conversation. There is no such thing as a quick request. This is especially prevalent in restaurants where ordering can take longer than the meal itself. There is no, “Can I have an order of soupy buns, please?” It’s much, much more involved, and it goes something like this:
CUSTOMER
Good morning. It is a glorious day here in China, no?
WAITER
Welcome my friend! Thank you for coming to my restaurant and, yes, it is a most glorious day here in China!
CUSTOMER
I am hoping that you have fresh soupy buns today? For you see, my friends and I have come all the way from America to sample your fare! Your reputation is above reproach!
WAITER
You have excellent sources to recommend my humble restaurant, and yes, we do serve the finest of soupy buns this side of the Yang Tze River!
CUSTOMER
Wondrous! This day becomes more glorious by the minute… Say… I see on your name tag that you are number 159. Are you related to 208? He was our waiter in Suzhou last evening and since you are both prime numbers with non-recipricating denominators I thought you might be related?
WAITER
How respectful of you to ask, and yes. That is my cousin Tony. Is he well? Has he eaten lately?
CUSTOMER
Yes, he looked very well and he provided great, prompt service.
WAITER
Excellent. Thank you for the update on my family. What can I bring you on this glorious day here in China?
CUSTOMER
Can I have an order of soupy buns, please?
You get the point, but it’s a really, really long and sometimes overly humorous process.
You only get one menu. Speaking of restaurants, you only get one menu, no matter how many people are in your party. There are pictures, so ordering can be easy, and many times there are English “subtitles” but getting access to the actual menu can be a bit of a challenge. Party of 2? 1 menu. Party of 8? 1 menu…
Honking means “hello”. If you think that there is excessive horn honking in New York, you are kidding yourself. Every driver, approximately every 10 feet, must honk their horn or face a penalty of some sort. I’m guessing on that “face a penalty” part just because everyone honks all the time. It’s so pervasive that it MUST be the law. In 3 days of driving on China, over 300km our driver honked the horn approximately 2.3 billion times. The odd part of all of this came when a car unexpectedly turned on to the road as we were driving at almost 150kph. The driver slammed on his brakes, our silk from Suzhou came flying to the front of the car as we prepared for the impact that never came. You know what? The horn was silent.
You cannot shit in the park. No shit. That’s what the sign said. No shit.
Chinese people on skateboards look funny. Wandering through the heavy crowds in Suzhou on Chinese Independence Day, we stumbled on a group of skater thugs. I’m guessing they were thugs just because they were NOT smoking or spitting like everyone else. If they carried knives or had shirts that said things like "down with everything", then maybe...
There are 1.5 billion DVD salesmen here. The latest census in China put the population at 1.3 billion people. 1.5 billion of which sell DVDs. Walk down any street in any part of China and people will come to you and say, “DVD? You want DVD?” It’s cute for the first 8 minutes, but after about an hour, you want to kill someone. Street vendors, shoe stores, grocery stores, restaurants, Policemen… they all want to sell you DVDs. The annoying part is not the effective distribution channel. The annoying part is that there have been approximately ZERO films that Hollywood has made in the last year that I want to see…
Chinese people seem to not like cold. Order a nice refreshing watermelon juice at your favourite restaurant (after a 21 minute conversation, of course) and it will arrive warm. It'll be ultra fresh. Ultra organic. Ultra tastiest watermelon you've ever had. But it'll be warm. It’s not that they lack refrigeration technology. Or electricity.
Anyway, we’re off to Japan now. A land where everything has a cover, noone ever honks a horn, there are 50 words for please, toilets with Internet access, and men cover their mouths when they laugh to be polite but don’t think twice about groping a woman on the train.
A few final thoughts on China
It’s been a year since I last visited Shanghai. I forgot about several nuances of Chinese living that I am happy to share with you today.
There’s always a party at the tollbooth. After you pay your toll, proceed slowly through the plaza. On the right side of the road, often also on the left, and sometimes right in the middle of traffic… there’s a party. I’m not sure what they’re celebrating, but there are people, busses, grills mounted on bicycles, DVD salesmen… everything, right there on the side of the road. Shouting. Drinking. Carrying on. Partying.
China is a land of conversation. There is no such thing as a quick request. This is especially prevalent in restaurants where ordering can take longer than the meal itself. There is no, “Can I have an order of soupy buns, please?” It’s much, much more involved, and it goes something like this:
Good morning. It is a glorious day here in China, no?
WAITER
Welcome my friend! Thank you for coming to my restaurant and, yes, it is a most glorious day here in China!
CUSTOMER
I am hoping that you have fresh soupy buns today? For you see, my friends and I have come all the way from America to sample your fare! Your reputation is above reproach!
WAITER
You have excellent sources to recommend my humble restaurant, and yes, we do serve the finest of soupy buns this side of the Yang Tze River!
CUSTOMER
Wondrous! This day becomes more glorious by the minute… Say… I see on your name tag that you are number 159. Are you related to 208? He was our waiter in Suzhou last evening and since you are both prime numbers with non-recipricating denominators I thought you might be related?
WAITER
How respectful of you to ask, and yes. That is my cousin Tony. Is he well? Has he eaten lately?
CUSTOMER
Yes, he looked very well and he provided great, prompt service.
WAITER
Excellent. Thank you for the update on my family. What can I bring you on this glorious day here in China?
CUSTOMER
Can I have an order of soupy buns, please?
You get the point, but it’s a really, really long and sometimes overly humorous process.
You only get one menu. Speaking of restaurants, you only get one menu, no matter how many people are in your party. There are pictures, so ordering can be easy, and many times there are English “subtitles” but getting access to the actual menu can be a bit of a challenge. Party of 2? 1 menu. Party of 8? 1 menu…
Honking means “hello”. If you think that there is excessive horn honking in New York, you are kidding yourself. Every driver, approximately every 10 feet, must honk their horn or face a penalty of some sort. I’m guessing on that “face a penalty” part just because everyone honks all the time. It’s so pervasive that it MUST be the law. In 3 days of driving on China, over 300km our driver honked the horn approximately 2.3 billion times. The odd part of all of this came when a car unexpectedly turned on to the road as we were driving at almost 150kph. The driver slammed on his brakes, our silk from Suzhou came flying to the front of the car as we prepared for the impact that never came. You know what? The horn was silent.
You cannot shit in the park. No shit. That’s what the sign said. No shit.
Chinese people on skateboards look funny. Wandering through the heavy crowds in Suzhou on Chinese Independence Day, we stumbled on a group of skater thugs. I’m guessing they were thugs just because they were NOT smoking or spitting like everyone else. If they carried knives or had shirts that said things like "down with everything", then maybe...
There are 1.5 billion DVD salesmen here. The latest census in China put the population at 1.3 billion people. 1.5 billion of which sell DVDs. Walk down any street in any part of China and people will come to you and say, “DVD? You want DVD?” It’s cute for the first 8 minutes, but after about an hour, you want to kill someone. Street vendors, shoe stores, grocery stores, restaurants, Policemen… they all want to sell you DVDs. The annoying part is not the effective distribution channel. The annoying part is that there have been approximately ZERO films that Hollywood has made in the last year that I want to see…
Chinese people seem to not like cold. Order a nice refreshing watermelon juice at your favourite restaurant (after a 21 minute conversation, of course) and it will arrive warm. It'll be ultra fresh. Ultra organic. Ultra tastiest watermelon you've ever had. But it'll be warm. It’s not that they lack refrigeration technology. Or electricity.
Anyway, we’re off to Japan now. A land where everything has a cover, noone ever honks a horn, there are 50 words for please, toilets with Internet access, and men cover their mouths when they laugh to be polite but don’t think twice about groping a woman on the train.
