Jack Hirsch

"10 OSX apps I can’t live without: 1. Evernote - http://www.evernote.com 2. Chrome -..."

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:32:59 -0500

“10 OSX apps I can’t live without:
1. Evernote - http://www.evernote.com
2. Chrome - http://www.google.com/chrome
3. Caffeine - http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/
4. Backblaze - http://www.backblaze.com/
5. Fantasical - http://flexibits.com/
6. BusyCal - http://www.busymac.com/
7. 1Password - https://agilebits.com/onepassword
8. Adium - http://adium.im/
9. Dropbox - http://dropbox.com
10. Prototypes - http://prototypesapp.com/”

- Kevin Rose

"I don’t want to be too negative. This is a real company, with a huge reach, nice revenues and..."

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:06:16 -0500

“I don’t want to be too negative. This is a real company, with a huge reach, nice revenues and decent profits but you know at a $20 billion valuation, there is a ton of upside. At $100 billion, are they going to be Apple? are they going to be a $400 billion? How much upside is it?”

- Top Investment Gurus Sound Off On The Facebook IPO (and it’s not looking good)

My new favorite tumblr: T-Rex Trying…

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:18:31 -0500

My new favorite tumblr: T-Rex Trying…

Amazon Feels The Profit Squeeze

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:01:58 -0500

Amazon Feels The Profit Squeeze:

parislemon: Just to follow up, Amazon has released their numbers. As expected, net income doesn’t look great — $177 million, down 58 percent year over year. But at least it’s not a loss (which Amazon had warned it might be).

That $177 million is on sales of $17.4 billion. Crazy. That’s what low margins — and selling hardware at a loss — will do to you.

Speaking of 177, that’s also the percentage that Amazon says Kindle sales increased during the holiday period when compared to the previous year — which means basically nothing since Amazon refused to release actual numbers last year. And they still refuse to this year.

Looking forward, Amazon expects profit to be anywhere from $100 million — to a $200 million loss next quarter. Ouch.

To be fair, unlike my earlier statement, Amazon did make more money in the entire quarter than Apple did in one day last quarter, but just barely: $177 million versus around $145 million.

But that’s an average. I’m sure during some of the busy shopping days, Apple actually did make more money in one day than Amazon did for the entire quarter.

Amazon’s profit for all of 2011 was $631 million. As a reminder, Apple made $13.06 billion in profit last quarter. Perhaps not a fair apples-to-apples comparison, but not exactly apples-to-oranges either.

Pinterest is growing at an astounding rate, but primarily among...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:14:54 -0500

Pinterest is growing at an astounding rate, but primarily among women. Who knows why, but seeing this kind of growth reminds me of an old TC article that described how women are responsible for more than 80% of consumer spending. With these two factors aligned, I’m very interested to see how pinterest starts monetizing their ridiculous traffic growth.

Historic Engagement of the Day: Rep. Barney Frank, who in 1987...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:58:28 -0500

Historic Engagement of the Day: Rep. Barney Frank, who in 1987 became the first openly gay member of Congress, is set to become the first openly gay member of Congress to be legally married while still in office.

According to Frank’s spokesman Harry Gural, the Massachusetts rep. and longtime partner Jim Ready are preparing to tie the knot in their home state. A wedding date has not yet been set.

Frank and Ready first met at a fundraiser in 2005. They entered into a relationship in 2007, following the death of Ready’s partner.

Ready has been a source of some controversy for the Congressmen. He was arrested in 2007 for growing marijuana near his home in Maine. He pled guilty and was fined. Frank, who was in the house at the time, later released a statement saying Ready apologized and promised not to do it again.

71-year-old Frank announced late last year that he would be retiring at the end of his current term.

[necn / thehill / photo: wicked.]

It looks like I’m headed back to San Francisco for good!

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:46:23 -0500

It looks like I’m headed back to San Francisco for good!

thisistheverge: Game, set, and match. via @Encarta95

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:59:29 -0500

thisistheverge:

Game, set, and match. via @Encarta95

"New Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson appears to be zeroing in on costs and managing for margins… much..."

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:55:29 -0500

““New Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson appears to be zeroing in on costs and managing for margins… much as his predecessor Carol Bartz did at the start of her tenure.””

- As Weak Q4 Earnings Loom, YHOO Freezes Hiring and Considers Layoffs

Thumbs up for a solid strategy in an industry rooted in innovation…

Video

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:41:11 -0500

betalist: Dextr is a new approach to the mobile address book....

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:44:48 -0500

betalist:

Dextr is a new approach to the mobile address book. It uses your social data to help you improve your relationships, stay in touch and engage with your friends in a fun, interactive way.

What an unfortunately named social network.

oldmanasante: After today, perhaps kids will finally learn how...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:50:02 -0500

oldmanasante:

After today, perhaps kids will finally learn how to research correctly.

Here’s to wishful thinking.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has just announces via Twitter...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:17:47 -0500

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has just announces via Twitter that he will be joining the anti-SOPA blackout planned for this Wednesday, January 18th.

Starting at midnight EST, the English version of Wikipedia will go dark for 24 hours, crippling student reports everywhere, and hopefully bringing much-needed attention to the Internet killing bill and its congressional sibling, PIPA.

@Microsoft, join this century and stop making me wait for this...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:24:43 -0500

@Microsoft, join this century and stop making me wait for this garbage. It’s been well over 10 years since Mac OS and other operating systems have been able to issue software updates that don’t require intrusive, full-system reboots. Too much of my time spent in Windows is updating, patching, and configuring stuff that I don’t care about. Just do it for me and let me work.

"Upon graduation with highest honors, I took a year to backpack around the world to extremely poor..."

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:57:07 -0500

“Upon graduation with highest honors, I took a year to backpack around the world to extremely poor countries where I spent most of my time drinking local beers and posing for pictures with street children. This experience led me to want to help alleviate poverty.”

- Cover Letters from Unemployed Overachievers « Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like

Microsoft's Share Of The Search Market Is Finally Bigger Than Yahoo's

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:23:14 -0500

Microsoft's Share Of The Search Market Is Finally Bigger Than Yahoo's:

parislemon:

Big day for Microsoft. Spend another $10 billion or so and they may pass Lycos.

Nate: since you’re with evernote now i’m going to...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:44:36 -0500

Nate: since you’re with evernote now i’m going to start IMing you shit and you can remember it for me, k?

It’s day 2 and I’ll never forget anything ever again.

Insync is an unfortunately named, but incredibly capable cloud...

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:47:30 -0500

Insync is an unfortunately named, but incredibly capable cloud storage platform that just delivered the first credible slap in the face to Dropbox. By performing real-time syncing from your file system to Google Docs for free, it blends the best of all worlds. Now you can edit that tricky spreadsheet in Excel, modify your clever formatting in Word, and then access them all later on Google Docs. Sharing is a breeze (it uses the Google Docs system) and you can even use it as a traditional backup to store music, movies, and photos.

(via Insync: A Google Docs-Loving Dropbox Rival)

At the meeting in February 2010, one shareholder asked Jobs,...

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:11:19 -0500

At the meeting in February 2010, one shareholder asked Jobs, “What keeps you up at night?” Jobs quickly responded, ‘Shareholder meetings.’” (via The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value - Forbes)

Following decriminalization, Portugal has the lowest rate of...

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:59:36 -0500

Following decriminalization, Portugal has the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the EU: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8% (via Time to end the war on drugs - Richard’s Blog - Virgin.com)