Yuri Milner on Internet Advertising Margins

By Rex | Published: October 26, 2011

Yuri Milner (left) by Debray Riveros

From a Wired profile of Yuri Milner:

The theory holds that the Internet is an advertising medium where users themselves create the vast amount of content. In other words, as Milner understands it, the same ocean of advertising revenues that have gone to traditional media might now go to the Internet, but without the offsetting costs of having to actually create content. Voilá.

“From margin standpoint,” Milner notes, “this is very magical.”

This isn’t breaking news in 2011, but it is a controversial point that users do all the work while companies (Facebook, Twitter, etc) get all the profit.

This is why in 2011, creating a web app can be done overnight, but traction on yet another freemium service is so hard to get.

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Nest Learning Thermostat

By Rex | Published: October 25, 2011

When you think of a thermostat, what comes to mind? I picture an old, off-white colored box that’s dusty and sort of works. You know the kind I’m talking about that exists in American homes which nobody gives any thought to.

Typical Household Thermostat

Nest Labs, ran by Tony Fadell (of Apple iPod fame), just introduced their new thermostat on Techcrunch.

Did I ever think I would be posting about a thermostat? No, but this one has obvious iPod inspired DNA.

Nest Thermostat (via TC)

The Nest is simply a giant circle that you can turn left or right to decrease or increase the temperature. Oh yeah, it has one button on the screen in front. Does that sound familiar?

iPod

Also, the Nest appears to have a proximity sensor and has smartphone level guts. The latter (smartphone processing power) doesn’t do much to set itself apart on today’s market.

I don’t know what the current market for expensive thermostats looks like. Price-wise, the Nest is surely an expensive luxury product compared to your Vanilla off the shelf thermostat. But then the dollar amount for the Nest is relatively insignificant when it comes to your home’s central heating & A/C system. If you’re renting or selling your house, the Nest would be an easy way to increase the overall value of the property by more than the cost of the Nest.

While the Nest is nice, I don’t see people running out and buying it if their current thermostat is in an OK working condition. But as discussed in the previous paragraph, it could be a relatively inexpensive investment to set your home apart if you’re doing extensive renovations anyways.

I’m not in the target market for the Nest, but it’s nice to see startups target hardware. With Square, Fitbit, and Nest, it’s nice to see startups tackle “market disruption” via a non-CRUD web app.

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Major Gaming Franchise Trailers 2011

By Rex | Published: October 22, 2011

Even if you live under a rock, I’m sure you’ve seen these. 2011 & 2012 is sure to be a wallet busting period with such AAA titles coming out.

Modern Warfare 3.

The game is going to sell well, despite what haters say. Just like the iPhone 4S (in terms of haters and still breaking record sales).

Personally, I’m skipping MW3 due to the Activision/IW drama, but your average gamer doesn’t care.

Uncharted 3.

I need to find a way to play this. The first and 2nd were some of the most beautiful and fun games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Maybe I’ll bring my PS3 to NY.

Uncharted 2 was one of the few games where I actually finished the single player more than once (including the hardest mode). Sadly, I can’t even make this statement for games that deserve replays like Mass Effect 2 & Deus Ex: HR.

Batman: Arkham City.

Asylum was good times, even if some of the melee challenge rooms were very hard. I’ll wait for this game to hit Steam as GOTY (with all DLC) several months down the road for like 20 bucks.

Side note: so many games are on sale for fractions of the $60 suggested new game retail price within a couple months on Steam or through traditional retailers. Add to the fact that all the DLC is included in a definitive GOTY edition, you can save tons of money if you have any patience at all.

Diablo 3.

This game will come out on Blizzard time, so maybe sometime before 2012 is over.

As much as I want to play it, I’ll probably have to skip it to avoid ruining my life. Not even kidding when I say that this game will cause me to get absolutely nothing done for years of my life looking back. I mean that as both a compliment to the quality of the addictive gameplay and in a scary, I’m not kidding sort of way.

Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

What’s there to say besides I’ll be on this like white on rice. I made a quick and dirty SC2 playlist of IGN uploaded videos from Blizzcon that show the new units in action. The gameplay will get adjusted prior to HotS launch, but the new units already look like it will stir things up in a good way.

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Is the answer to any headline that ends in a question ‘yes’?

By Rex | Published: October 4, 2011

No.

newspaper

Via HN, Wikipedia states Betteridge’s Law of Headlines:

Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word ‘no’.

If you think about it, this makes sense. Articles that could be answered by ‘yes’ choose to state the news in the headline rather than asking a fake question.

Or as Wikipedia explains it, “The maxim trends towards being universally true because of a simple principle of headline writing: if a story has enough sources to have a high chance of accuracy, a headline will be assertive”.

This interests me as it’s a news headline hack that tends to work. Find out the answer without having to go past the jump.

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Free Stanford Intro to Databases course

By Rex | Published: September 28, 2011

Starting October 10th, 2011:

A bold experiment in distributed education, “Introduction to Databases” is being offered free and online to students worldwide, October 10 – December 12, 2011. Students have access to lecture videos, are given assignments and exams, receive regular feedback on progress, and participate in a discussion forum. Those who successfully complete the course will receive a statement of accomplishment. Taught by Professor Jennifer Widom, the curriculum draws from Stanford’s popular Introduction to Databases course.

If you’re interested in software or technology, databases are incredibly relevant to modern day computing. This free course may be technologically tough, but it will reward you with insights that you will be able to apply somewhere.

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The elevator of success is out of service. So please take the stairs.

By Rex | Published: September 22, 2011

The elevator of success is out of service. So please take the stairs.

That’s the great opening line from EggsTravaganza, a local NYC food cart, in the video below. I’m sure they didn’t come up with it, but it’s a great saying.

This reminds me of Mark Cuban’s post about how he fought the good fight non-stop to get where he is today.

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Disrupt the Search for Housing Online

By Rex | Published: September 21, 2011

Photo: Flickr / sammers05

Finding housing online needs to be disrupted. Lots of sites have tried, but craigslist is still the only site that matters.

I’m currently living in NYC and have 9 days to find housing before I become homeless. That’s why solving housing is a painkiller and not a vitamin. Finding housing is stressful, especially in a pricey market like NYC.

Here’s how my search looks so far from online listings:

Of those 139 listings, 96% were through craigslist; the rest were NYC housing sites.

As I understand, many listings on craigslist are from scammers and brokers. Scammers typically post ‘too good to be true prices’, and the craigslist community is pretty good at flagging $600/mo Chelsea 2 bedrooms. The reason that I didn’t get as much broker response in my search was my low budget. Brokers are not interested in the low end of the market.

An obvious scam:

Credit Check Scam

Even if you 1.) manage to get a response 2.) not from a scammer 3.) that is still on the market, the housing search drives you crazy. People insist on showing you apartments during prime work hours (such as 2pm – 4:30pm) or want female only. At least padmapper lets you filter the latter. (Nothing wrong with having a roommate gender preference, but it obviously precludes me from some rental options.)

So you want to disrupt the online housing market? Follow the money.

Regular individuals posting and looking occasionally aren’t good targets for disruption. Individuals are renting their rooms/houses at market rates. They wouldn’t be willing to pay a significant fee to speed up the process.

Brokers can command 15% of the year’s rent for serving as matchmaker. That is a fat chunk of change that landlords or renters are paying on top of market rates.

If you can figure out a way to whittle away at broker fees while getting traction, you’re well on your way to a solid business helping people find housing. PG may even fund you (#25).

Of course, getting decent traction may be harder than finding a working business model. Beating craigslist at scale is no easy task. Reaching early adopters at HN or TC is one thing. Having all of America knowing your name and using it (craigslist) is quite another level.

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Waldorf Astoria Video Map

By Rex | Published: September 4, 2011

Hey Access Main Computer File,

This is straight out of the future, but it’s here today.

From a place you equate with the golden days of yesterday, the Waldorf Astoria has a nice video map in the lobby:

This impressed me, because it’s 1.) helpful and 2.) something you would see in today’s video games.

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From Decision to Fatigue

By Rex | Published: August 18, 2011

Does shopping all day make you tired? Does picking a cell phone plan overwhelm you?

Studies into the field of decision fatigue reveal that as people make more decisions, will power is a resource that depletes over time.

No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. … The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing.

One interesting finding is that sugar helps combat decision fatigue.

Also, since everyone is worn down by decision making, smart people work around this by acknowledging their inability to make good decisions.

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Philly Cheesesteaks

By Rex | Published: August 10, 2011

Went south to get some sandwiches.

As a first timer, we had to hit the tourist spots: Geno’s & Pat’s. Little did I realize they were right across the street from each other, next to a park.

Geno's

Geno’s, clearly going for the Shock & Awe campaign.

Inside Geno's

Geno's Menu

Nice & simple. Tourists want the cheesesteak. I assume locals (if hypothetically locals ate here) go for the roast pork.

Geno's Cheesesteak

As you can see, there isn’t that much meat for a $9 sandwich. The cheese (whiz) shines with a high cheese to meat ratio.

Pat's Front

Pat's Ordering Window

Pat’s offers a lot more options on the menu. I found it unnecessary, but I guess it allows customers to get it their way.

Pat's Menu

Pizza Steak? Fish Cake? What??

Why?

Pat's Cheesesteak

Pat’s obviously offers substantially more meat than Geno’s. Here, I’d point out that the line for Pat’s was noticeably longer too.

At both places, I got with onions and cheese whiz. I didn’t get fries because it would fill me up too much. Keep reading to see why I had to preserve stomach space.

Pat's Signage

Since Philly is a two hour drive from NYC, I made an executive decision to hit up a third spot.

Dalessandro's Steaks

Thanks to Serious Eats, we hit up Dalessandro’s.

Dalessandro's Menu

Dalessandro's Cheesesteak

Cheaper than Geno’s and Pat’s (both $9 each), this $7.25 cheesesteak was amazing. The cheese is mixed into the chopped steak (as opposed to topping the meat).

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