How Seth McFarlane Turned Family Guy Into $2 Billion
November 18, 2008
Family Guy = $2 Billion.
It’s not hard to find someone who delights in attacking the show Family Guy. Which isn’t a criticism, per se. Much of the animated sitcom’s purpose seems to be to stoke the opposition, to offend the easily offended. But that’s not the only reason it annoys people. There is a school of thought that says the show is hackish — crudely drawn and derivative of its cartoon forebears. Members of this school would include, most prominently, Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the fathers of South Park, which is probably the only show on television that rivals Family Guy for objectionable content per half hour. South Park has devoted entire episodes to attacking Family Guy, portraying the show’s writers as manatees who push “idea balls” with random jokes down tubes to generate plotlines. Kricfalusi has said, “You can draw Family Guy when you’re 10 years old.” read more
New Domain Names To Become Available
November 6, 2008
Relief may be on the way for small businesses stuck with bad Web addresses.
Next year, the organization that oversees the Internet will start selling rights to an unlimited number of new top-level domains — the suffixes like .com that appear at the end of Web-site names. Domains likely to appear include those that take their names from popular subjects, types of businesses and geographic locations, such as .books, .flowers and .nyc.
The good news for small businesses is that if a company currently has a .com address that is cumbersome or hard to remember, like joesflowersnyc.com, it may soon get a shot at a new address that’s identical to the name of the company, or one that is just easier to find on the Web — say, joes.flowers or joesflowers.nyc. read more
Bill Gates Starts A New Mystery Company
October 24, 2008
Just months after his Microsoft farewell, Bill Gates is quietly creating a new company — complete with high-tech office space, a cryptic name and even its own trademark.
Public documents describe the new Gates entity — bgC3 LLC — as a “think tank.” It’s housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer. read more
Karl Fisch - Did You Know on Globalization and Technology
October 23, 2008
How To Pitch And Partner With Google
October 20, 2008
Chris Sacca is one of Google’s Principals for New Business Development. Here he blogs about how to get noticed, if you are interested in working with Google, Inc.
I am on the front line of inbound business proposals. I would gather I see 40-50 per day. The launch of Google Talk has probably added another 15-20 per day.
So, as I sit with trepidation considering how many emails I have flagged for follow-up in my inbox on this Sunday afternoon, I thought I would take a minute to type out some hints that will make it easier on both of us and increase the likelihood that your company and mine will get some business done. These are in random order and I might expand the list as time goes on. As always, your comments are welcome. Anything I missed? (Keep in mind, this is my personal blog and nothing herein is approved by my employer.) read more
An Interview with Marc Andreessen
October 20, 2008
At 37, Andreessen is a legend in Silicon Valley. He created, with Eric Bina, the first graphical browser while at the University of Illinois, then co-founded Netscape Communications with überentrepreneur Jim Clark in the early 1990s. Netscape’s browser brought the internet to the masses, set off the dotcom boom, and so angered Microsoft at the time that Steve Ballmer, now the software giant’s C.E.O., led employees in “Kill Netscape!” chants. By bundling its Internet Explorer browser into Windows, Microsoft eventually drove Netscape into the arms of a suitor: AOL bought Netscape in 1999 for $4.2 billion.
Andreessen hasn’t had a success of that magnitude since. But he did create another billion-dollar company, Loudcloud, a tech-services outfit that later changed its name to Opsware and was sold to Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion. More recently, Andreessen started Ning, a website that lets anyone create a mini social network. Its most prominent customer: 50 Cent. read more
Obama vs McCain on Technology and Sustainability
October 13, 2008
WIRED Magazine put together a great comparative of Obama and McCain’s policies that are important to their readers - here’s the wrap-up.
Topic Covered:
Wholesalers turn to the web
September 18, 2008
As times get tough, wholesalers are turning to the web, setting up online stores to move more product and hit the end consumer directly. read more