Disqus - Latest Comments for perilla

Re: Facebook: The Most Searched for Term on the Web?

perilla — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:31:41 -0000

Also consider that the term "Facebook" is not searched alone.."facebook games," "dan brown on facebook" etc., i.e. people look for stuff on facebook and that might be why it gets all the convergence of different queries otherwise not that much related to facebook itself..

especially the gaming part is a big deal..

Re: The Virtue of Selfishness, the Value of Selflessness

MikaelaHearns421 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:54:48 -0000

When there are sooo many selfish people around and every where this article on selflessness should touch those people for sure.

Re: Oil and La Frontera

perilla — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:28:00 -0000

Brazil is surely big and influential enough to be able to swing geopolitical trends of the continent one way or another.

But slowing down the extraction will still exhaust their resources, only a little bit later..the solution is not in graduality but in a paradigm shift which is needed and will not happen soon...alternative, renewable energy resources is what we have to focus on more and less on the 20century relic nonrenewable fossil fuels..

Re: YOU, the U.S. Taxpayer, Can't Handle the Truth: Wrong.

perilla — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:38:48 -0000

Adding a new dimension, private sector, which according to the article is purportedly logical, and yes, the level of complexity is becoming getting even higher, instead of lowering and becoming more transparent.

Let's see how Geithner will be able to sell this new, "cute-looking" plan to the Congress and to the public.

Re: Web 2.0 turns us all into Yogis

perilla — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:53:03 -0000

Very very nice, Gregory!! Good to see you life :)

I would however like to point out that the final result of what you say is absolutely right but the route undertaken to "broadband-ness" differs widely for yogis and for those on inet. Also, the fruits reaped while undertaking this route and change in thinking and seeing differ immensely.

It is like, to give an analogy, seeing Jesus Christ live his life and trying to imitate him by taking the appearances side of his life as a guide. This would perhaps bring some parallels but the essence will remain quite different unless a personal experience is felt..which can and might happen.

:)

Cheers,
H.

Re: The Virtue of Selfishness, the Value of Selflessness

gregorylent — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:57:52 -0000

just, "perhaps"? :-)

thanks for the read. enjoy your egyptian sky...

Re: The Virtue of Selfishness, the Value of Selflessness

perilla — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:36:06 -0000

Very interesting point of view.

You are right. The basic concepts of marketing and branding currently in use have been around for some time. All that new technologies, internet and web20 added was an edge in speed/accessibility of sharing/delivery of information and style/interface of the message/idea. However, in its essence, marketing and branding campaigns are not all that different from the olden times, the end of 19th century, when as a result of mass production on industrial scale, the need arose to differentiate and identify products/services with similar offerings - the origins of marketing and branding.

The new realities of 21st century where the entire world shrank and became not merely connected but interconnected and interdependent brought an entire paradigm shift in mentalities, expectations and aspirations of humans.

It is time that perhaps, as you suggest, product/service identity/message/information be based more widely on the values that the modern world (ideally) is promoting and aspiring to achieve - values such as integrity, trust and selflessness as well as passion, compassion being few of those.

H.

Re: Getting A Piece Of My Action

Jesper Bergmann — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:57:25 -0000

I think this is a very interesting discussion, however I think that money is not such an important factor in building a great companies as the competences and mentoring that comes with the money.
That is why I don´t see a big benefit in investing in small companies that can not get VC funding unless those investments come with some specific competences and contacts that can help the company. In my view simply receiving envelopes with money from all parts of the world would not generate better returns for investors than I believe investing in blue-chip stocks will in the long run. Add to that that you will have a big issue in terms of agency problems, i.e. how do you monitor the guys you invest in, if they are not in your proximity and you don´t have any say in their business decisions.

This is not to come across to gloomy because I do not think the VC model is perfect at all, however it serves the important purpose of usually having people with industry expertise select the most fit investments and in turn investors will only invest in the best-performing VC funds, so while I´m sure the current system can be improved I don´t think the current state of affairs is that bad.

Re: Getting A Piece Of My Action

perilla — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:55:33 -0000

I agree with Jay.

The entire issue of retail-level investors (not angel investors) investing in private companies/startups could be subdivided into three stages:

1. money transfer from individual/retail investors
2. management of collected sums/fund
3. investment of the fund money into companies

Parts 1. and 2. were superbly executed during the Obama campaign (for example see http://bit.ly/kwQ0). The collection part worked just fine. The channeling part of collected donations/sums was subsequently EFFICIENTLY spent/invested. Same principle, i think, only details are different.

The main difference will come here in part 3. Regulatory part comes in here.

Btu as said above, there is a huge market need and the market is familiar with individual financing/loans/lending/donations systems through kiva, zopa and election campaigns. Perhaps something can be done in terms of introducing some kind of legal/regulatory framework for such an idea to be implemented.

Re: Great Presentation From Saul Klein

perilla — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:53:13 -0000

A nice presentation, but i thought the imagery part was sometimes more distracting than helping to visualize!

A wealth of data, especially the supplements were quite informative (did not know Germany was num1 European Internet country - contrary to most Internet-ized Scandinavs like Sweden)!

Re: A Voice Of Reason

perilla — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 05:21:42 -0000

There is no such thing as wrong, not in the context you mention at least. Bush has done what his predecessors have been doing since 1970s. Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush Sr. had all ardently pursued and keenly acted on core precepts of Milton Friedman's legacy - the shock doctrine. Think invasions and subsequent economic "robbery" of Central and Latin American countries such as Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Also think policies implemented by IMF and World Bank - neocon cronies - for Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in the second half of 1990s.

What Bush did? He went along. He twisted and warped the entire Republican ideology into something completely unrecognizable and alien to what it must have been originally. Why Bush Jr. has one of the lowest approval rankings? Because America happened to have 9/11, Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan and the current credit crunch during his stance and because he handled all those with less determination, less intention and less knowledge than those who came before him. In other words, he attracted spotlight because of unhappy match of grave events and his inability to act upon them accordingly.

That is all.

Re: With a focus on financial news, Tip’d is a timely Digg clone

perilla — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:14:42 -0000

Just replied on FF about this.

It is not that all those people willing and interested to get deeper financial insides were in dire need of a separate Digg-like social outlet dedicated to financial matters. This is not true. Digg, as any popular and therefore horizontal news aggregator, could offer no better because of its lack of specialization.

Tip'd might achieve a status of a more channeled financial information but the sources are the same and majority of tip'd audience will come from Digg or alike anyway - thus decreasing a possibility of drastic change of contents of Tip'd.

Lastly, monetization might turn out to be problematic due to relatively small number of those who are using social media and are at the same time financially-curious.

Re: The Post American World

perilla — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:15:21 -0000

According to Plato any state undergoes the following stages - 1. Timocracy, 2. Oligarchy, 3. Democracy, 4. Tyranny. This view was elaborated based on what was back then one of cradles of civilization and considering that Plato himself was witnessing Athens turning from totalitarian to democratic rule - the development he came to hate and which conditioned him for his "Republic."

Democracy in my view is not what all the world is moving towards. Admittedly, most of the Western cultures tend to get more and more democratic, but we must not forget that governance must be aligned with culture and tradition of a society. How society is governed must stem from the society's cultural and demographic aspects - at least in the modern world. One cannot readily - America is vocally but unsuccessfully trying to do that - introduce democracy in the Arab world for their mentality is quite different.

One size fits all is not a solution and democracy is conceived in the eyes of the modern world as such, which IMO is wrong.

Re: Great Advice From Brad Feld

perilla — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:20:47 -0000

"Confused things/times kindle mind for great inventions" - Leonardo Da Vinci

Entrepreneurs who keep on going and innovating notwithstanding what happens around them are going to carry on with their initiatives with eventual profitable.

Re: The Hunt For Nonexistent Experts on Social Networks

perilla — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:57:13 -0000

People look for experts in different domains for two main reasons 1) overwhelming amount so info on all subjects made available by open-source, internet and other means makes nearly everyone able to express their opinions and claim a knowledge thus need to find someone with a tag "expert" who knows better than the rest 2) advent of al kinds non-trivial subjects, events and developments (financial crash in America being a good example) necessitates explanations and advice thus making people turn to "experts" in field for such information.

Steven, I will somewhat differ from your point of view that experts have better to do than use social media (if i understood correct). Michael Nielson from FF posted few links for blogs of respected (Noble prize) scientists. There are quite few respected economics professors whose feeds I follow as well. Most of them blog though, not much FF nor twitter. But that is because there is no dedicated audience or unclaimed demand for any such expertise on FF.

Re: Fred Wilson Dot VC

perilla — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 05:33:15 -0000

Palin does not even represent Republican point of view.

The lack of acknowledgment for all the progress made by humans for the last two centuries coupled with her strong faith in God and her proposed (and tried out) methodologies seems to suggest that what McCain got is not a staunch, relatively young and attractive modern woman, but an individual for whom the proper time to exist would seem like 12th century Europe.

Palin is a haunting ghost from a distant past, a reminder of once ignorant human species that walked this planet.

Re: Can You Build An Enterprise Only Web App?

perilla — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:29:30 -0000

Nigel has provided a very good example!

I also wanted to add that the so-called criticism that Yammer is not innovative, etc is irrelevant and doesnt make sense. Social media gurus, tech-savvy audiences and rest of tech and web2.0 enthusiasts who have been at roots of such critique are simply too much used to stylish and cool-looking online applications and gadgets, which bring little more than aesthetic pleasure from usage. Yes, there all kinds of Twitter clones, social activity aggregators or even virtual world creators. How many of those however were driven by need or necessity to feel a gap in real world? Very few.

Most of those products are just a result of playing around and imagining all kinds of software.

I do of course understand the Blue Ocean Strategy effect and how that creates markets which do not yet exist, and with markets it creates also demand. But even this principle is not going to explain away most of what is becoming fashionable trends in web2.0 and gadget developments.

Social media, IMHO, needs to be more aligned with realities of the world and have less penchant for looks and more inclined to see ultimate utility of things created. For the moment, this is not the case, hence the outcry at TC50 for one of few really good startups with a working, needed (and stylish) product targeting especially the corporate world.

Re: Fred Wilson Dot VC

perilla — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:56:38 -0000

In certain cases, digital life represents a fast-forwarded, stricture-free, info-packed framework without a real life contact. Some people do really know each other well in many aspects, which would otherwise be impossible to achieve in real life as a result of contatc online communication and information exchange. Digital world squizes the signal out of the noise, liberating it from social, demographic and ethnical constrains. The real life contact and flow turns out to be more like an audio tape whereas the digital life and communications thereof represent a MP3 of the same life with better signal-to-noise ratio and an enhanced Kb rate.

Re: Polisigh - Political Humor On Twitter

druce — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:31:08 -0000

in 140 characters or less, more like a pearl cocktail onion

Re: Polisigh - Political Humor On Twitter

fredwilson — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:58:50 -0000

This is a group bot. It will reflect the combined sense of humor of whomever participates

Re: Polisigh - Political Humor On Twitter

perilla — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:53:30 -0000

Fred!

Good idea!

Being a big fan of the Onion news, I wonder if you are going to have similar appraoch.

Cheers,
Hayk

Re: rizzn's personal blog

perilla — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:53:55 -0000

I found FF2 freezes when I use wireless and when that wireless for whatever reason gets little bit slow. it makes my FF2 freeze and sometimes crash.

Also, I don't like FF3 for its much disruptive name/url suggestions and its heavy initial load. After initially loading, it works fine though.

Strangely, I find OperaTor - the cross of Opera and FF made anonymous - to be more reliable and not crashing easily.

Re: Social software diet challenge!

perilla — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:54:35 -0000

Loic,

Being in Egypt (experiencing Ramadan during the period of September-October 2007), I started taking a diet since March this year. My diet includes basically eating only once per day, in the evening in between 6pm and 9pm, and drinking carbon-dioxide-free drinks few times a day, semi-Ramadan of sorts. I am not Muslim but this experience of Ramadan taught me the discipline necessary to stick to a diet.

So, no fast food, no heavy meat stuff.

I have not only lost quite some weight (180 cm, 69 kg before - 180cm, 63kg currently) but my thinking and self-feeling became significantly better. I am more lucid and intellectually more capable.

This year, I am going to do Ramadan as well, like nearly everyone in my company. My motivations however are not religious or social but rather health-driven !

Re: Black Swan Quote Of The Day

fredwilson — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:54:10 -0000

I decided yesterday that Sarah Palin is a Black Swan

Re: Black Swan Quote Of The Day

perilla — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:13:56 -0000

Fred,

Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness (considered as one of top 100 smartest books ever by FT) are both worthy of being table books for businessmen and politicians alike.

Taleb is a big fan and follower of Karl Popper, one of the mot profound thinkers of the 21st century. The idea of Black Swan is coming from Popper, who is most notorious for his critique of "principle of induction" !

Anyhow, not to get too redundant and overlapping with other commenters, this is an excellent book and after reading and re-reading it few times, it makes me smile every time I see a business person or a politician making "projections" and "future plans" in a serious and self-righteous manner.

It also makes me smile the kind of reactions I get once reminding those people that most of breakthroughs in science and technology happened by mere happenstance, error or unexpected turn of events, i.e. in any possible manner but by projection or careful planning.

Cheers,
Hayk

P.S. I really enjoy your blog!