gdp's Comments

TechCrunch : Yummly's Semantic Search Engine Is The Ultimate Online Cookbook For Foodies

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:16:25 +0000

As an avid cook, I can attest that the UI and experience of Yummly is head and shoulder above the others. I usually like to use Foodista, but the search interface is clumsy. I've been using Yummly for a while now, and I find the search experience very compelling.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Man's Best Friend

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:41:28 +0000

So sorry Jeff. That's a big loss.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Man's Best Friend

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:29:19 +0000

So sorry Jeff. That's a big loss.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Captcha Craziness

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:13:36 +0000

Dude, exactly Jeff. They have been getting ABSURD lately. There needs to be a better way. Like "Which of these pictures is not a dog" or something. Good lord. I now expect them to take three tries in order to transact. Ridiculous.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Creativity Comes from Constraint

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:03:47 +0000

This is too true, across so many cases. On the VMware Fusion team, we had to be *extremely* creative with our outbound initiatives, simply because even though VMware had money, it chooses to invest it in things other than marketing. But at the end of the day, it made us deeply engage with new media (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, our team blog, and so on), which ultimately benefited us more than simply buying up back covers of Macworld magazine.

Redeye VC : Nothing to Lose (or Risk Tolerance is a Competitive Weapon)

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:29:14 +0000

Isn't Facebook approaching a similar level of capital consumption? (~$400m in equity, ~$100m in debt) Don't know how much is still in the bank, but seems like that would answer your question.

Paul Kedrosky: Infectious Greed : Valentine's Day Dinner Availability by City

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:19:45 +0000

Interesting post Paul. If I recall, that ranking somewhat maps to a stack ranking of geographies based on how hard they've taken it on the chin vis-a-vis the housing bubble deflation. That is, with the exception of NY, which had a different sort of rapid bubble deflation. Of course, merely quickly observing, and, like yours, totally indefensible, yet still fun.

Paul Kedrosky: Infectious Greed : Animated Map of the Growth of Target

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:12:26 +0000

And what *I* would love to see would be an overlay of the two, with Walmarts and Targets together, showing dying Targets with the advent of Wal Marts nearby. That is, before Target got religion in the early 00's and stopped trying to compete with Wal Mart on price, and decided to inhabit the space between Wal Mart and, say, Williams Sonoma / Crate and Barrel / Macy's (pulling top end Wal Mart users in, and pealing off low end users from those other stores). That latter strategy appears to be working, but I would love to see it demonstrated via little red and blue droplets hitting a map! ; )

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Stacking the Deck

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:22:59 +0000

Come on Jeff, it's Good Morning America. If you want trenchant analysis, read Paul Kedrosky, The Big Picture, The Economist, or, dare I say it, Venture Chronicles. And if it has to be TV-based, how about some time-shifted Charlie Rose? I get what you're saying, but I suppose that I've pretty much given up on broadcast television as a source of analysis at this point (I'm still willing to be persuaded, of course). If it bleeds it leads, and I suppose that applies to over-mortgaged families riding the tip of the recessionary spear too. On a side note, is the CSS being wonky on Venture Chronicles? When I scroll down, the grey header bar follows with, making reading somewhat of a challenge. (Firefox 3.0.5, Mac OS X). Was able to repro on Safari too. Seems like it might have to do with that new search bar?

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : When Things Said Enough Become Facts

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:16:10 +0000

"If I, from the comfort of my sofa while watching NCIS, can look up this little tidbit, why can't the professional journalists get it right?" Because, Jeff, as my father says, that would be too much like 'work.' ; ) Are we sure the talking heads aren't saying "One of the most densely populated"? As a product marketer well versed in the practice of linguistic backflips that allow you to support a point while still not being precisely wrong, I would think that "One of the most densely" would get your point across, without arming the Jeff Nolans of the world. ; )

Feld Thoughts : Increasing The Efficiency of Lawyers

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:16:27 +0000

I can't speak as much for startup lawyers as the broader "tech" lawyer. However, I can certainly say that there is a *large* market opportunity to pull out inefficiency from the legal practice as it relates to software go-to-market. And I would argue that attorneys could learn some good best practices from the product managers and software engineering managers they work with. Standardization of common tools (FirstDoc's bread and butter, it seems) is a good first start. Don't Repeat Yourself is a well adhered to cow-path because it works. However, when your business model is based on time instead of output, you likely have disincentives to strip time out of your business process. Standardization of common services (and pricing associated therewith) is another--this is where I've seen companies like LegalZoom who offer rack-rate pricing for standard things like LLCs, incorporation, wills, and so forth. To be fair, there are times (not infrequently in business), where there needs to be customization...but I often see customization and perseveration on certain points that clearly could do without. But when you're running the meter, why say "We've gone past the point of diminishing returns"? On the VMware Fusion team, we have a saying: Shipping *is* a feature. So yes, even though yet another rev of a workflow or UI element *could* be nice, is it blocking getting things out the door? What *other* feature could that engineer / lawyer be working on? And this brings me to my next point. The mindset that I've come to see dominate tech legal practice (primarily at VMware, where my experience has been the deepest), and this is something that FirstDoc probably can't help us with, is one of extreme risk aversion. I get that this is somewhat ingrained in legal DNA. And yes, it's one thing to keep the business from walking into a buzz saw. I understand that. However, it's another thing to "default to no" without taking into consideration the opportunity cost associated with those decisions. If someone can build me a tool that can size and prove out opportunity cost from extreme legal hesitance, and then, say, let me bill it to my legal org....well, I'd be the first customer...

Paul Kedrosky: Infectious Greed : David Lereah Falls on His Real Estate Key Lockbox

Tue, 6 Jan 2009 06:22:29 +0000

I come here not to praise Caesar, but to refinance the ARMs on his passel of condos.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : California is Insolvent, Fiscally and Otherwise

Fri, 2 Jan 2009 20:36:10 +0000

Jeff, my family and I were talking about this over Christmas. The resounding thought was "where does all the money go?" It really is breathtaking that a state with a huge GDP, and very high tax rates, could somehow spend all that money. Wouldn't we be expecting some economies of scale? To satisfy my "wtf?!?" curiosity, I tried to ferret out an income statement of sorts for the state, so I could at least see what major buckets outflows go into, but did not have much luck. The state controller's website wasn't terribly helpful in this respect.

Feld Thoughts : Robots and Beer

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:23:33 +0000

And whiny trolls shoot spitballs in their undies from their mom's basement. Grow up.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Speed Doesn't Kill After All

Sun, 7 Dec 2008 19:07:08 +0000

Anyone who has ever owned a motorcycle can tell you that drivers are *just plain bad* at turning. The number one cause of motorcycle accidents, if memory serves, is a car traveling in the opposite direction to you turning left in front of you as you cross an intersection. People are *really* bad at judging relative velocities. I would love to see a study of drivers who caused accidents by turning poorly (the largest population set in the study above), controlled with those who grew up playing baseball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, tennis,etc. in which intercepting a moving object whilst you yourself are moving is an important skill set. That seems like a feature that could be handled with a little bit of doppler sonar on the front of the car, looking at the distance of the oncoming vehicle, it's rate of change, typical time-to-clearance for turning across an intersection (this doesn't vary too much) and provide a warning of sorts to the user when these factor combine in a fashion that signals a likely crash. It's my understanding that doppler sonar is currently deployed in adaptive cruise control that keeps a constant distance between you and the car in front of you. Sounds like another use case. More on adaptive cruise control here: http://is.gd/aBia

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : Airports almost empty day before Thanksgiving

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:18:08 +0000

Re: driving v. flying from northern california to southern california, with two sons (myself and my brother) in school in the Bay Area, and the rest of the family in the OC, we had a fairly built out model as to whether it made sense to fly or drive down for the holidays, events, etc. The model entailed how many people were driving together (more people making the cost per person lower), how long you were going to be down there (is a car valuable?), the cost of gas, traffic, airfares, etc. The funny thing, post 9-11, the "drive" side of the equation got a big boost, because it added time at the aiport--an hour and a half to the front end of the trip, and at least a half hour on the back--so it tipped the balance in more cases back to driving. The one thing that we didn't have in our model then that is if you have multiple people in a car and a 3G wireless car...you can do all sorts of fun things that weren't possible when we were in school. Anyway, driving is starting to look more and more compelling, especially when it's a passel of Nolans.

Paul Kedrosky: Infectious Greed : California Housing Sale Volumes Soar

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:56:44 +0000

I am skeptical of any price increases in places like Mountain View and Berkeley that have been party to such large rises over the past five years. I am with Paul on the assumption of low volume skewing things.

http://www.jeffnolan.com/blog/ : eBay: It Ain\'t Rocket Science

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:04:48 +0000

You said it Jeff. Instead of thinking how they can hold off folks like Amazon by outsourcing inventory and fulfillment via truly empowering all the merchants who make the ebay platform worthwhile (like, better lightweight accounting features in Paypal, fixing craptastic ebay search, and so on), they just continue to get destroyed by Amazon. I used to look on ebay first, and I sometimes do, now and again, for various items. However, slogging through the layers of crap, and keyword spam in the search results has just overwhelmed me. Now, I go to Amazon first. What's funny is, I still use Paypal, because of lock in, and think Half.com is quite good for books. But ebay itself has somewhat lost it for me. I don't need to "shop victoriously" (most ridiculous campaign of all time...? Top 5?). I just need to get my stuff and go, please.

Paul Kedrosky: Infectious Greed : Autos and the Ad Companies

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:56:25 +0000

You know, I've always wondered what would happened if car companies stopped advertising along the existing vectors (faster! stronger! more towing!) and instead put that money into meaningful R&D. Instead of spending time and energy (and treasure) trying to convince the user base that what's currently on offer is what they actually want to buy, how about making things that are so amazing, they sell themselves? Too long has car design, especially in the US, been optimized for the test drive experience and the billboard. How about paying more attention to total cost of ownership, a user interface that constantly delights me over the car's lifespan, and so forth? How about less of an emphasis about how this vehicle will get me laid, make me thinner, more manly, etc. and solve some real problems for me? If my car had the same fit and finish and attention to detail that some software I use does, I would be a lot more excited about it, and have a tendency to rave up and down to friends and family about it. As it stands right now, that doesn't exactly happen. I grant that there are some innovations going on here. GPS in vehicles. My colleague's Acura MDX has a standard wall-style power outlet in it, . However, where's my car that has an 80211 network? Where's my car that has a USB power jack next to each seat? I'd buy that. Moreover, where's my car that will drive for me? I would gladly pay $100k+ for a car that could drive me, even at 30 mph, from San Jose to San Francisco and back. The market need is there. Next time you're driving around on the freeway, look at the people reading their blackberries... What's currently a danger should be a product feature. Maybe Apple should buy one of the dying car companies....

Paul Kedrosky: Infectious Greed : The Auto Bankruptcy Teeter-Totter

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:37:14 +0000

That video is pure BS, clearly designed to obfuscate the issues. As a single example of the trickery employed, throughout the video they continually switch between talking about the Big Three, and the US auto industry, equating the benefits of the entire car industry to the Big Three. Yes, car demand is shrinking, but it's not going away. People were buying cars every 5 years instead of every, say, 8. It's time for the auto industry to shrink to accomodate. Also, if the big three go away, car demand won't go away. American's will have little issue buying Toyotas, Hondas, Teslas, whatever. The parts suppliers / dealers / etc. for Toyota will have to pick up the slack--those jobs are in the US too. Lastly: You want to see a big issue with the Big Three's businesses? Check out this graph over at Mark Perry's blog: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/11/cancer-on-big... Average pay of domestic big three manufacturing employee in a US plant? $73/hr Average pay of domestic manufacturing employee of a Toyota, Honda, and Nissan worker at a US plant? $44/hr That's a difference of $29 / hour. I bet Toyota, Honda, and Nissan would be hurting too if they had to pay an incremental 60% for what amounts to the same labor... If going bankrupt is what it takes to shake off the stranglehold of a unionized labor force who are extracting rents far beyond their output, then this seems like the right thing to do. If this can happen in Chapter 11, while they still operate, so much the better. But the big three have structural issues that need addressing.