Scott Rafer's Blog

via www.techcrunch.com Rafer sez: Lookery logo at far left is...

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:26:03 -0700

Rafer sez:

Lookery logo at far left is good enough for me!

"To all of you who think less of Christian Bale after his hotel outburst, remember this. The guy’s..."

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:07:16 -0700

“To all of you who think less of Christian Bale after his hotel outburst, remember this. The guy’s not Superman.”

- Tim Siedell (via nickdouglas)

betaworks: Lookery news, what I like the most is the first...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:05:48 -0700

betaworks:

Lookery news, what I like the most is the first sentence (emphasis mine) - what a clear articulation of the vision/mission, not always the easiest thing to do but so vital and necessary and when you hit it it sings:

Lookery’s vision is to provide a service that accurately describes the demographic profile of every user on every webpage. With this goal in mind, we are extremely excited to announce the release of Age and Gender analytics for the Lookery Network.

Rafer sez:
Thanks Andy and John!

Validation

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:48:12 -0700

betaworks:

This expresses the betaworks philosophy totally, from our friend Saul Klein (the emphasis is mine):

Validation comes in many forms: previous successes, persuading a killer person to join your team or even be an advisor, signing a paying customer, acquiring lots of users, getting positive press or blog reviews. The list goes on. But without some form of validation, however good your idea might sound - if you have no track-record its just so hard to get off the ground.

First timers have no start-up track record - they have to build one.

So how do you do that and how do places like Seedcamp or YCombinator help?

Its hard to get to achieve most of the list above at the very early stages, so probably the biggest thing that Seedcamp and YCombinator do is that they force teams to ship - and ship quickly.

We both want teams that can code, not just think, and the added forcing function of limited time and limited capital makes getting something out the door imperative. There’s nothing like a deadline to keep focus.

Its not important to have a finished product, even less a finished plan - what’s important is to show that you can create a prototype that you can share with other people: a verbal and visual representation (to paraphrase Fred’s great point) of what’s going on inside the collective heads of your team.

(via topherchris) Rafer sez:It generally doesn’t make...

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:46:28 -0700

(via topherchris)

Rafer sez:
It generally doesn’t make startups less risky either, though I knuckle under during the argument. Taking more time to argue against design than the actual design takes is even worse.

Twitter / Scott Beale: the guys at PollDaddy (http...

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:27:30 -0700

Twitter / Scott Beale: the guys at PollDaddy (http...

"John McCain is aware of the internet."

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:36:21 -0700

“John McCain is aware of the internet.”

- Mark Soohoo, a McCain aide, attempting to alleviate worries about McCain’s computer illiteracy.
(via squashed)

via bigeyedeer.files.wordpress.com via bigeyedeer

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:44:04 -0700

via bigeyedeer.files.wordpress.com via bigeyedeer

Coincidence or no? I searched on “California lemon...

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:08:14 -0700

Coincidence or no? I searched on “California lemon law” yesterday, and I’m using the Facebook toolbar [and yes, mazda is upsetting us].

via editorialcartoonists.com Rafer sez: If only I could laugh.

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:06:58 -0700

via editorialcartoonists.com

Rafer sez:

If only I could laugh.

"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:10:14 -0700

“Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.”

- R. D. Laing (via gregnews)

From the Airlies industry today

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:12:51 -0700

Image via Wikipedia

~~An Open letter to All Airlie~~ [Editor’s misspelling] Customers:

Our country is facing a possible sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, but by pulling together, we can all do something to help now.

For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain. This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to our customers. Since high oil prices are partly a response to normal market forces, the nation needs to focus on increased energy supplies and conservation. However, there is another side to this story because normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation.

Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs.

Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper.

The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem.

We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.

"For the record, neither I nor anyone else on CFO’s staff wrote this phony blog, ostensibly by..."

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:59:47 -0700

“For the record, neither I nor anyone else on CFO’s staff wrote this phony blog, ostensibly by Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, called Why FAS 157 is Worse than Al Qaeda. But we did laugh ourselves silly over it.”

- Tim Reason in CFO.com (via gregnews)

"The possibility that China could become a fully industrialised and urbanised society, with living..."

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:08:23 -0700

“The possibility that China could become a fully industrialised and urbanised society, with living standards akin to our own, has become the ultimate environmentalist nightmare.”

- Jackie Danicki » On China who got it from Samizdata.

Rafer sez:

Deeply ugly, but not irrational.

I vote in primaries, local elections, off years, and every other...

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:51:30 -0700

I vote in primaries, local elections, off years, and every other chance i get. If the election were tomorrow, I’d skip it.

People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both. — Benjamin Franklin

Photo credit to TechCrunch.

"I have had a few conversations recently about the difference between media and communications. The..."

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:02:25 -0700

“I have had a few conversations recently about the difference between media and communications. The dominant idea for as long as I can remember has been that media and communications are converging - and this is undeniably the case in the sense that many of us buy a blend of media and entertainment from the same company via triple play packages, and also in the sense that the web is at once a comms and an entertainment network.”

- The difference between media and comms | The Equity Kicker

Rafer sez:

This came up last night too, and I think “converging” overstates that matter and that “interoperating” is more accurate. The telecoms triple play offerings only exist due to counter-economical government regulations. In an actually free market, they wouldn’t exist, and so aren’t a data point for companies not benefitting from similar corporate welfare.

"Unlike some other countries in the region, Qatar has had only one terrorist attack, a suicide..."

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:02:00 -0700

“Unlike some other countries in the region, Qatar has had only one terrorist attack, a suicide bombing in March 2005 in a Doha theater popular with Westerners. One British citizen was killed and a dozen other people were wounded.”

- Image via Wikipedia

Qatar, Playing All Sides, Is a Nonstop Mediator - NYTimes.com

Rafer sez:

Elsewhere in the same NYT article is an anecdote…

Qatar provided sanctuary to the Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev until two Russian secret agents killed him in 2004, detonating a bomb in his car as he left a mosque in Doha. The agents were captured by Qatari authorities and convicted of murder, but later extradited at Russia’s request.

Therefore, a Russian-government assassination on Qatari soil is not a terrorist attack. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics at their best.

Rafer sez: I still don’t understand if Tyler opted in to...

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:34:00 -0700

Rafer sez:

I still don’t understand if Tyler opted in to this kind of thing or not.

Tyler responds:

Hey Scott,

Just caught this (http://rafer.tumblr.com/post/41629686) and wanted to respond quickly to it. I did opt-in, in the sense that I added the application and became a fan of it. I didn’t specifically opt-in to being displayed next to advertisements, but knew that by becoming a fan I would be subject to being shown next to ads (although I didn’t estimate the frequency and blowback would be as significant as it was).

In general, I support the Visa Network, because I think what they are trying to do is noble. Moving towards where many entrepreneurs are, providing “real world” resources that I don’t see offered to tech focused entrepreneurs enough, and legitimizing the growing presence of business on Facebook are all good things for the space (and for me too). For this reason, I’ve not opted-out of being placed next to the ad.

As an aside, I like the direction social ads has gone in, and while I don’t think that this is a good final rev for them to stop at, I do think it’s iterating and experimenting in the right direction.

Hope all is well, and that we can catch up soon.

Cheers,
Tyler Willis
Director of Marketing, Involver
http://www.involver.com

"National media are faring better than local media, he added, and television networks, both broadcast..."

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:58:40 -0700

“National media are faring better than local media, he added, and television networks, both broadcast and cable, are faring better than newspapers and radio.”

- Advertising - Ad Spending Forecast Lowered Again - NYTimes.com

Rafer asks:

Is this differential also true for the online equivalents of these media?

The declining importance of blogs | The Equity Kicker

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:07:00 -0700

The declining importance of blogs | The Equity Kicker:

Nick Brisbourne’s right, but I think he makes the stereotypically America mistake of infinitely extrapolating a short-term trend. I’d get Asian on these projections and call this, “The cyclical nature of individual site ownership.”

Now that microblogging and feed synthesis is stablizing (oh Feedster, too early again, dammit!), the basis for competition will move to personalization and distribution — bringing these capabilities back to our own domains on our own terms without losing the benefits.

These fab Internet famous are going to bring the goodness home, and so will we.