The Apprentice

I am not much of a reality TV show watcher, but tonight we watched The Apprentice: Los Angeles. I had to laugh at the beginning when they set up the big tent: chaos!!!

It reminded me of my big tent, which takes about 25 minutes to set up by myself. I have a feeling that the 18 contestants didn't do it that fast.

So far, the "losers" have described the camping as "third world", there were concerns about wild animals and they were bitching about the heat. I don't expect to see any of this crew on my camping trips.

STIRR Founder's Mixer 2.1 - January 17, 2001

Wednesday January 17th

STIRR Founder's Mixers are blend of a mixer for technology entrepreneurs, investors, bloggers and press and launchpad for new startups with an innovative format (the 60 second spot). This is not a sit-down event.

The Original '60 Second Spot'

Mixer 2.1

The companies start presenting at 7:15pm. The presentations are a compact 60 seconds or less. The speakers and their teams are available to speak with one-on-one before and after the presentations.

• Stickis, Marc Meyer, CEO
• Vizu, Dan Beltramo, Founder
• WeatherBill, David Friedberg, CEO

Apply Online to present at STIRR

Details

• When: Wednesday January 17th. Gathering begins at 6:00pm, presentations at 7:15pm.
• Where: Illusions, 260 S. California Ave, Palo Alto [map]
• Cost: With RSVP: Founding Teams: $0, Engineers: $0, Angel/VC/Accredited Investors: $0, Press: $0, Service Providers: (legal, pr, consulting, etc): $30. RSVP required to attend. $50 w/o RSVP. Pre-printed nametags will be ready at the door.

Sponsor

Mixer 2.1 is being made possible by Sun Microsystems and their new startup friendly Startup Essentials program. Sun's hardware scales better than any off the shelf PC and the new release of Solaris introduces great features like ZFS, Containers, and a hyper-fast TCP/IP stack. ZFS elminates most of the drudgery of disk/filesystem and volume management, Containers let you setup testing, staging and deployment on a single box without worry, and the new TCP/IP stack will keep the pipe at the data center full. Combine the new OS with custom designed high-throughput hardware and Sun makes it possible to scale your service faster and more cost effectively than any off the shelf PC solution. You can sign-up for Startup Essentials here

Wi-fi in (rental) cars

Each time I have the ear of an automobile strategist, I mention the idea of making calls with built in wi-fi routers. Finally, here's a story about a start-up in San Francisco, Autonet Mobile, who is actually doing it with Avis. I would prefer an open system that all can enjoy, but this is a start!

Nick named a drink after us!

In the latest Nick Douglas' diggbait series, we are provided a listing of specialty cocktails for the tech world. STIRR is honored by having our own drink. Thanks Nick!

The Stirr Looks boozy, but it'll only make you more alert as you cruise your more sauced-up colleagues at an industry mixer. Ingredients: Coffee and whipped foam -- it's an Irish coffee without the Irish

Holiday vacations have begun!

Two long weekend trips are about to start: Xmas in Vegas with the family (I think I've done this 11 of the last 12 years now) & the Mendocino coast for New Year's (we've rented a big house for the weekend and a bunch of friends are joining us). I'm sure I'll have some stories to share.

What a party!

STIRR's Winter Wonderland party sure was a hoot! Over 120 companies...~470 guests...11 wonderful sponsors and 4 hours of fun! I expect we'll be doing this again next year. Check out some of the initial pictures.

IFTF's 2007 Technology Research theme and agenda has been set

IFTF has a nice theme for next year! I expect we'll have a few more members than last year!

2007 THEME: The Future of Work

The impact of emerging technologies on our daily lives is often felt the most, and the earliest, at the workplace. Emerging technologies continue to transform the way we work. Wikis and blogs are making their way into the workplace; Fortune 500 companies are launching products in virtual worlds. And this is just the beginning. New technological tools are introduced almost daily that help us identify experts in our extended social networks, develop "folksonomies" for knowledge management, unchain us from our desktop, and facilitate online collaboration. While shifts in work practices and work environments will be driven by technology, the effects of those innovations will be decidedly human. How will work styles change? Where will we work and when? How is the physical work environment being reshaped? What new skills will be required of tomorrow's workforce? And what new metrics will we use to measure success?

Report Series

1) Abundant Computing: Observations from the Future
In our recent Science & Technology Perspectives, we forecasted that in the next two decades we will overcome limits in availability of computational resources. While today, high performance computing applications are mostly limited to capital-intensive industries like petroleum exploration, pharmaceuticals, and aircraft and automotive design, over time these capabilities will migrate to mass markets and eventually into hands of consumers. High-powered computing capabilities will be embedded in our physical environment, in living things, on walls, in furniture, fabric, garments, medicines, hand tools, utensils, toys and objects. What will we do in an era of digital abundance? We will try to answer that question through direct observations in environments that are already empowered with enormous computational resources—a few select university and corporate labs. Specifically, we will examine the variety of projects that these environments enable, the new types of work practices that are emerging, the expanding collaborative possibilities, and the new forms of interactivity that are emerging. These laboratories reveal that the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Through direct observation at the facilities, we'll take our 2006 forecast on the evolution of abundant computing a step further: We'll not only describe the future but actually study it as it's being created.

2) Simulation: The New Literacy
Driven by the unbridled increase in processing power, a new language is emerging. Simulation literacy will become more important than computer literacy. Interactive computer graphics are becoming increasingly lifelike—soon, it will be hard to distinguish between what is real and what is "virtual." Our interactions with data, today mostly limited to Excel spreadsheets or relatively simple graphics, will take place in high-resolution simulations incorporating auditory, visual, and tactile inputs and outputs. The line between digital and physical will also blur—surgeons-in-training will operate on lifelike mannequins "programmed" with medical disorders, psychologists will treat real-world anxiety disorders in virtual space, and bricks-and-mortar companies will test entire businesses on the screen before any real money changes hands. In this research stream, we will take a deep look at the future of simulations and their impacts on a range of domains, from gaming to health to enterprise processes.

3) The Chinese Blogosphere: A Look Inside
By the end of 2006, China will be home to an estimated 120 million blogs, four times as many as existed the previous year. The Chinese spend more time online than anyone else in the world, an average of 18 hours per week compared to 13 hours in Korea and 11 hours in the United States. For most of us though, the Chinese-language Internet is a mystery, shrouded in government censorship, cultural differences, and, of course, the language barrier itself. By deeply mining a massive collection of Chinese blogging data, we'll gain our bearings in this powerful yet largely unknown online territory. What does the Chinese blogosphere look like? What are the hotpots in the Chinese Internet landscape? What can Chinese blogging tell us about new Chinese approaches to connective technologies, and their likely effects on the rest of the world in the coming decade?

I finally joined Twitter

You can find me here.

STIRR Sydney 1.1 wrap-up

STIRR Sydney (110+ RSVPs!) had a great night! Congrats on great launch! There are some blog posts & also some pics. I'm sure as we move forward to different locales, we'll pick up some interesting ideas: like having the audience vote with $1MM dollar VC bills for the best pitch. Again...congrats!

[Update...here's some video of the event.]

I'm speaking at January's Web SIG meeting

Web SIG asked me to participate on a panel for their January 31, 2007 event, Back to the Future: Beyond Web 2.0. Joining me will be Robert Scoble, VP of Media Development at PodTech.net & Harry McCracken, VP/Editor in Chief of PC World. The moderator will be Jeremiah Owyang, who recently joined PodTech.net as the Director of Corporate Media Strategy. Before the panel convenes, each of us gets 10-15 minutes to speak with the audience. I'll most likely mix in insights from work and play: topics TBD...

STIRR's Winter Wonderland

Planning STIRR's Winter Wonderland has taken several weeks, but we are close to pulling it off. Our partner in crime is Gabriel Venture Partners, who will be bringing some goodies...over $22,000 in prizes (think flat screen plazma tvs, speakers, ipods, etc. ) Everyone will walk home with something. The premise of the party is simple: big companies have holiday parties, but early-stage startups, don't have the resources, or don't have the time to put one together...and if they do, it's 4 people, a couple of pizzas, some beer with challenges of showing one another the most arcane youtube videos. So, we've decided to have a big holiday party for small startups and bring them all to the SF Exploratorium on December 14th. Hope to see you there!

STIRR Sydney launches

Here's that announcement that I alluded too earlier...we have our first international STIRR: STIRR Sydney. More to come! Good luck to Martin Wells and the rest of the organizers!

Thanksgiving weekend update

Thursday: Climbed Mission Peak (2 hours up and back); had Chinese (no turkey!) dinner with friends; drove to Gilroy.

Friday: Shopped from 12 - 8:30am...in bed by 9:30am; slept the rest of the day. Highlight of Gilroy: watching people stand in 4 hour lines in front of Banana Republic and Coach. We waited an hour for a mocha latte and an eggnog latte.

Saturday: Moved. (If you need my new address, ping me.) Dinner at Crazy Buffet and gorged on crab legs.

Sunday: STIRR has some big news (no...not the holiday party, though that is a big deal). We may take a few days to officially announce it though. I'm very psyched!

Newsflash: Local boy patents process for loading a dishwasher!

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov 16, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- You've seen it before and we know we'll see it again. Can the US Patent Office get any worse? Though this reporter thinks there is no harm/no foul this time around. The latest *patent fiasco* involves a local Palo Alto boy, Timmy Doright, who noticed that people at office where he interned seem to get lazier and lazier about putting dishes in the dishwasher and instead put them in the sink for other people to deal with. He thought *how rude!*and came up with an idea. Searching through the US Patent Office's archives, he noticed that no one had patented the process of putting soiled coffee mugs, crumby plates or other food/drink-stained eating instruments. So he filed and now a process for loading soiled eating insturments into a dishwasher is patent-pending.

When interviewed, Mr. Doright said, "My intention is not to make any money off of this process...but, gee, that sure would be awesome. I'm just tired of putting other people's plates and cups into a dishwasher. I mean...I'm busy, too. Why can't they go the next step and put it in the dishwasher. It's right there? I just don't get it. So now that I've got this patent-thingy, I think more people will read about this, realize that they are doing this and stop!"

According to Susan "Coffee" Craver, of Menlo Park, a co-worker of Timmy's, "I do this all the time. I know it is bad. But I can't help myself. My biggest fear is that a colleague will catch me in the act and call me on it. From now on, I'll be more diligent about putitng my soiled mugs in the dishwasher. I have Timmy Doright to thank for that."

Is Timmy making a mockery of the US Patent Office. Will this act clean up our nation's sink? Only time will tell.

SOURCE LoadTheWasher Web Site: http://www.loadthewasher.org/ AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

I've been negligent

What have I been up to?

• Got a flu shot! I'm almost done reading The Great Influenza...very scary!
  
• Went to Hawaii!
• IFTF had a conference
  
• Roadtrip to Portland (had snow to deal with on the way back)
  
• Lots and lots of business meetings

Coming up:

• STIRR Founder's Mixer 1.8 is this Wednesday. Looking forward to hearing from:
  
• Frucall, Nasser Manesh, Co-Founder & CTO
• Kongregate, Jim Greer, Co-founder & CEO
• Krugle, Steve Larsen, Co-Founder & CEO
• Liftopia, Evan Reece, Co-Founder