December 2010
25 posts
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“When we were thinking about something that anybody would look at and go ‘I...”
– Nintendo developer Shigeru Miyamoto on why he used coins in Super Mario Bros.
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“A multibillion-dollar valuation for a company that is in a business with...”
– Forrester Research retail analyst Sucharita Mulpuru on GroupOn
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“They were taken over by crazy people with aluminum foil on their heads.”
– New York Times editor Jonathan Landman on unmoderated Web comment systems
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G.E. Goes With What It Knows: Making Stuff →
Candidates who do well [on the G.E. job interview] are then invited for interviews at the plant and are evaluated in team settings. For example, they are placed in groups of four and told to assemble a Lego helicopter in 15 minutes.
And…
“I think that if you run a big company, you’ve got to four or five times a year, just say, ‘Hey team, look, here’s where we’re going.’ …...
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“We would rather be there than not. Our view is that in the long term there is a...”
– Carlsberg CEO Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen
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“Michael Jordan played basketball better than anyone else in the world does...”
– Author Scott Turow
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French Publishers Fight Back With a Communal... →
Google says it is “working constructively” with the publishers. In a statement, it called the formation of the consortium “a positive move which allows us to talk to eight leading publications at the same time and see how they can best use Google products for mutual advantage.
I wonder how Google would respond to an American newspaper and magazine consortium.
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“Through the Google incident and other increased controls and surveillance, like...”
– A source in the leaked U.S. cables on China’s confidence in controlling the internet
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Dotcom Bubble 2.0 →
What’s driving all this? Some blame it on naive newcomers. There are way too many people playing at being “angel investors,” meaning individuals who put their own money in early-stage companies. Wilson says he’s getting calls from plenty of people who don’t understand the Web but want to invest anyway. “When celebrities start popping up in deals and wanting to meet with me, I...
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“Zuckerberg is the Angelina Jolie of the internet.”
– Gawker founder Nick Denton
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Facebook’s grand plan for the future →
I saw Zuckerberg sitting alone on a picnic blanket and joined him. I had meetings later in the day, and happened to be wearing a suit (most people in Silicon Valley wear jeans and T-shirts). Zuckerberg told me to be careful not to get grass stains on my trousers and made some more room on the blanket for me. Then, without prompting, he said: “At least in the movie they got that part right....
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Sean Parker: With a Little Help From His Friends →
A connoisseur of tea (he has a collection of about 100 varieties), he makes gifts of his favorite blends, which he personally labels and presents in special mulberry-bark canisters ordered from Japan.
How cultured.
MySpace's audience wasn't very valuable →
The MySpace example is a bit flawed because, by most estimates, the News Corp. social network for the kiddies and band geeks is operating, quarter after quarter, at a loss.
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Chatroulette Gives Rise to a Genre →
[Chatroulette co-founder Andrey] Ternovskiy said he had spent the last several months working furiously to clean up the site in an effort to recapture the original wildfire interest in it. He has hired a team of moderators to cycle through users and flag the ones who are disrobing or otherwise misbehaving. Those users find themselves redirected to Hustler’s Web site, which pays Chatroulette for...
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How Baidu Won China →
[Baidu co-founder Eric] Xu says the Baidu team scheduled the meeting during a national holiday when the office would be empty, so the Google executives [who invested in the company] couldn’t see how many engineers Baidu employed.
Devious.
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“I’m going to die with my boots on.”
– The late Leslie Nielsen
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Los Angeles, by Bike and on a Budget →
This really should be called “Santa Monica, by bike and on a budget.” Good luck getting from the airport to DTLA or any of the great neighborhoods on the east side on a bicycle.