What do 110,078 people sound like?

I am so happy it is football season again!

"We Are...Penn State" is the greatest chant. Hear what it sounds like when 110,078 people chant it!

Vinod Khosla doesn't understand why many people purchased hybrids

While reading VentureBeat this morning, I saw this post about Vinod Khosla's opinion on hybrid buyers. His thoughts:

But hybrid electric cars won’t succeed, he said in an interview. You have to pay $5,000 more on a Prius in order to save half a ton of carbon a year, which is more than most consumers will go for, he explained. Buying hybrids “is mostly about personal guilt trips.” It’s like wealthy investors giving money to “art museums instead of to starving people” in Africa, he said.

He forgets a couple of things. For many, buying a hybrid wasn't about making them feel less guilty, it was about saving them time and money:

• Time: at the pump (less trips to the gas station) & in the HOV lane if you were fortunate to get the HOV stickers.
  
• Money: at the pump (get much more miles for your dollar) & with those HOV stickers, you get to sail right on through the carpool lane on the bridges, saving you $4 each day. Add the gas savings and the toll savings and you have at least $1500/year for a bridge commuter.
  

The HOV sticker deal is long gone (but may come back...fingers crossed), but there are many reasons why people buy what they buy. Is Toyota making money from Prius sales? Yes. Is the environment better off? Yes. Are the buyers of the Prius happy consumers? Yes.

Methinks Mr. Khosla is just trying to drum up interest in the areas that he invests.

Netflix removed Grind House from my queue

While looking at my Netflix queue, I noticed the words "Click for Update" under Availability for the movie Grind House. When I click it, I get these words:

Update on Your Queue

Grind House has been removed from your Queue. We no longer have enough copies of the DVD to satisfy customer demand. Unfortunately, we are unable to purchase more of this movie and will no longer offer it for rental.

We realize this is disappointing and want to reassure you that we remove movies from our web site only in unusual circumstances.

We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you find many other movies to enjoy at Netflix.

How can they not be able to purchase more copies? Have Tarantino and Rodriguez decided not to sell anymore? Answer: Not exactly. The reason: the movie was still in my Saved section...it hadn't even become available yet. Or maybe the Weinstein Company doesn't want the masses to see it. Anyone know the real answer?

Update...Netflix just sent me an email:

As someone who added Grindhouse, we want to clarify some changes that were made to Your Queue. Grindhouse is available for rental as two movies: Grindhouse: Planet Terror and Grindhouse: Death Proof. As a result, Grindhouse was removed from Your Queue and replaced by Grindhouse: Planet Terror and Grindhouse: Death Proof.

STIRR Founder Hacks 2 - Wednesday, September 12 (San Francisco)

We are pleased to announce FounderHacks 2 - Wednesday September 12th, 6pm in San Francisco!

What are Founder Hacks? There is no single playbook for how to grow a startup. Come hear some of the current tricks of the startup trade from financing to hiring to managing to scaling up and more. Each of our presenters are bringing one of their favorite hacks to share in STIRR's short-form format.

The Presenting Founders will kick things off around 7:30pm:

• Patrick Koppula, Founder - Vadver
• Scott Rafer, Founder - Lookery
• To be announced...

Details

• When: Wednesday, September 12th. Gathering begins at 6:00pm, talks at 7:30pm.
• Where: Mighty, 113 Utah St, San Francisco
  
• Cost: Founding Teams of internet, enterprise, mobile or bio/cleantech companies: $10 pre-event/$20 at the door. All others (consulting, hr, pr, legal, accounting, design, etc): $20 pre-event/$30 at the door.
• Food: yes. Open bar from 6-7pm, no host bar after 7pm.
• Pre-printed nametags will be ready at the door for all pre-paid registrants.
• Register here
  

Bagged Half Dome again this past Saturday

Details:
* We woke at 4:05am
* Hit the trail (from Curry Village) at 4:55am
* Top of Vernal Falls at 7am
* Top of Half Dome at 10:10am
* 9.6 miles and ~5000' of elevation in 5.25 hours!
* We left the top at 11:00am
* Back to Curry Village at 3:30pm (blisters slowed us down)
* We came back down a quicker route ( 9.0) miles in 4.5 hours!
* 18.6 miles in 9.75 hours
* After an hour nap and then a shower (no line!), we had some dinner (no line!) and homemade sangria

Cammy...very happy!

Use Twitter (and/or RSS) for improving corporate and municipal communications

Seth Godin had a good post this morning about New York City's poor communication after yesterday morning's storm. His summary: "[in an emergency situation,] the first thing to rehearse is your communication strategy".

Earlier this year, I made a forecast that Twitter would mushroom as its commercial uses were adopted (see item #7). Several companies have began to use it. But it may prevail that the most useful uses for Twitter (and RSS feeds in general) will come from municipal groups (some quasi-) alerting citizens of fires, earthquakes, SF weather, Atlantic hurricanes, etc. Digging around, I found that there is a Bay Area Traffic Jam feed (though my bridge isn't covered) and a BART problem feed. Both are useful...but who knows about them?

The biggest problem isn't creating those feeds, it is educating consumers how to use them. My girlfriend's 15 year-old brother doesn't know what RSS or Twitter is. My mother doesn't know about them; nor does my brother or his kids. I would expect that 90% of America has no clue about them. So...the question...how do we educate people about using feeds?

What is up with Portfolio Magazine?

Today, I was reminded of my Portfolio Magazine subscription when Valleywag wrote about their not-up-to-snuff website.

I commented about the lack of delivered issues (nothing since May) and decided to give their subscriber services department a call. Apparently, the May issue was just a Premier issue and the monthly editions commence this month. If your September issue doesn't arrive by Aug 31, then it is late. My only problem with that...it's not mentioned anywhere on their subscription site. (Note...this is not a recommendation to subscribe, simply a way for you to easily fact-check my statement.)

BTW...there was a bonus gift provided for 2-year subscribers: an umbrella (see that snazzy red/green there in the picture?). Mine was shipped in paper-thin cardboard and arrived in two pieces...so off to the trashbin it went. Did anyone else receive a broken umbrella? Why would they even bother offering a piece of crap thing like that anyway? Conde Nast must have had an extra few thousand green umbrellas laying around from a golf promotion and didn't know what to do with them.

Thanks, Portfolio Magazine...thanks for sending me a cheap-ass broken umbrella. How about some focus on those monthly magazines!

A gem of a hike in my backyard

Last night, we drove up the road a few miles to check out a couple of abutting nearby parks: Garin/Dry Creek Pioneer Regional Parks in Union City. I was quite amazed! If you are looking for a great Bay Area place to hike, see great views, and be almost by yourself (we were on the trail with only one other hiker)...this is the place to do it! The park is open from 5am-9pm.

We started at 7:10pm and finished up around 8:55pm. Our route was the High Ridge Loop Trail ~ 5 miles. They charge $5 to park there, but only when the kiosk is manned (it wasn't when we dropped by). There were "signs" of cows, but we didn't see any.

This will be a great place to spend some time in the early morning getting ready for Half Dome in mid-August. I think Cassi (our dog) will like to join us there as well.

STIRR Founder Hacks was covered by the San Jose Mercury News

Nice! STIRR and the Founder Hacks event made the cover of the Business section and here's some video of the night as well.

I'll add more to this post later...

Ready for Saturday!

Last night, I was reading through some of the links on MyBlogLog that lead to my blog and I stumbled across this search phrase..."half dome jmt time running "how fast"" which led to my post of two years ago when I hiked half dome for the first time. Wake up call! I'm going back there in 4 weeks and am waaaaaay out of shape!

So, I decided to wake up and hit the gym early. Success...woke up at 6am and began my task to get back into (long-distance hiking) shape. After the gym, I picked up a copy of the San Jose Mercury News to see the article on STIRR (more on that in a later post).

Today's activities call for a pretty fun day: a brunch at a friend's house; 3/4 scale indy style racing at Malibu Grand Prix; and then dinner with some friends at Straits Restaurant at Santana Row to celebrate my bday.

I saw Sicko today

Sicko is an eye-opener. This hurts a lot. The best question he poses..."who are we?" The answer is not one we aspire to.

He makes a good argument. We have free police, free fireman, free (pre-college) education, how can free healthcare be bad?

The moral of the story: don't get sick. And if you do, move to another country...

Go see it.

Demos at the STIRR FounderHacks event

Sure, the presentations are one reason to come to the STIRR FounderHacks event. But we also have some great demos for you:

• - share more content to more people in more places

• - people-powered customer service

• - a new Voice Entertainment Network

Get There Early...a new book from Institute for the Future

Many of my friends and family are a bit baffled about what my employer does. I now have something nice to show them!

IFTF Distinguished Fellow, Bob Johansen, is soon releasing a new book called "Get There Early: Sensing the Future to Compete in the Present."

This new book explains how IFTF uses Foresight to Insight to Action, with a range of case examples drawn from the last 35 years of 10-year forecasting.

The official publication date is August 20, but you can pre-order it via Amazon.

An added bonus: the book's jacket is actually one of our maps. Enjoy!

Colin Bulthaup of Potenco visits IFTF

Today, Colin Bulthaup, CEO of Squid Labs spin-off, Potenco, spoke about their pull-cord generator. Steve Cisler provides a great write-up on the visit.

In five years, you'll see pull-cord generators everywhere.

STIRR Founder Hacks - Wednesday, July 18, 2007

We are happy to announce our next event: STIRR Founder Hacks! What are Founder Hacks? Tricks of the startup trade from financing to hiring to managing to scaling up and more. Each of our presenters are bringing one of their favorite hacks to share in STIRR's short-form format.

Presenting Founders:

• Ted Rheingold, Top Dog, Dogster
• David Marks, CEO, Loomia
• David Weekly, CEO, PBWiki
• Munjal Shah, CEO, Riya/Like.com

Details:

• When: Wednesday, July 18th. Gathering begins at 5:30pm, talks at 7:00pm.
• Where: Trader Vics, 4269 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306
• Cost: Founding Teams of internet, enterprise, mobile or bio/cleantech companies: $10 with RSVP ($20 at the door). All others (consulting, hr, pr, legal, accounting, design, vc/angel, etc): $20 w/ RSVP ($30 at the door).
  
• Pre-printed nametags will be ready at the door for all pre-paid registrants. (Referrals welcome.)