In the late nineties, there were a suite of comapanies focused upon music/media recommendation (Agent Arts, Kick, etc).  I consulted for a few of them and worked full time for one of them.  These companies used everything from music collections, stated preferences, to actual listening behavior as a means to connect you with people like [...]

Microsoft is finally going a bit less on the “soft” and has all but officially presented the “Zune” line of music/media products. Absolutely mediocre name, by the way. Leading to bad puns like comingzune.com, the “grass-roots” marketing campaign. Besides moving on the music/media bandwagon way toooooo late, they have to adopt a totally marshmellow name.
Earth [...]

The Times has a piece covering CBS news and its plans for a rather intensive launch of the new product, with Ms. Couric at the anchor desk. The Times qualified the Couric post as the first female sole anchor of a major network news cast. Something striking however was a comment Couric made regarding feedback [...]

Congrats to Mr Anderson on what appears to be a rather successful, if not Type 1 (or 2, depending upon your perspective), launch of his book “The Long Tail.” There are still some issues around this concept that surprise me.
First, who are all these people somehow surprised, intrigued and otherwise previously inexperienced with this long [...]

Wired has an interesting peek of a story on a group of monks in Wisconsin who have just happened to create a flourishing business re-filling toner cartridges.  The business, LaserMonks (Real Savings, Real Monks), passed the mark of over $2 million per year in business.  No one takes a real salary, though it would seem [...]

The way in which companies try to solve the problem of unruly executives, or staff, and corporate governance seems to be dominated by the assumption of incentives.  We calculate our best interest, and as such, act towards the opportunities we find most compelling.  We can be incentivised to act in particular ways, therefore.  Stock options [...]

Rocketboom finally went back live today, after all the ridiculous and public display of bullshit for the last week or so. As an alumni of NU, and a prior occupant of the theatre department, I have to admit - unless it was intentional, Ms Congdon was questionable as an actress (even with the seemingly padded [...]

Cellfire, a platform provider for coupons to your mobile phone, has raised $14 million to date. I have to admit… I don’t get it. You have to download an application to your cellphone. Which makes no sense given (1) SMS would work just fine and (2) most people don’t download apps to their cell phones. [...]

Looks like the inner-wranglings of the brilliant Google boys is beginning to hit the press in slow increments. Courtesy a lawsuit over the “refurbishment” of the 767 Google has chosen for its corporate airplane, court documents reveal such important decisions as who gets what kind of bed and where the hammocks with hang (WSJ- registration [...]