Funny Video Forex Gadget Hi-tech

“ Email is not going to disappear. Possibly ever. Until the robots kill us all. ” – Paul Buchheit , creator of Gmail, co-founder of FriendFeed, currently doing vague infrastructure things at Facebook. Today, at our RealTime CrunchUp event in San Francisco, Buchheit and Threadsy founder Rob Goldman sat down for a chat with our own Steve Gillmor and Erick Schonfeld. The topic was: Can We Kill Email Already? All Aboard The Micro-Message Bus. So can we kill email? Well if Buchheit’s quote didn’t tip you off, the consensus was “no.” Though there are some interesting things coming out that are helping to expand our communication, we’re just not at the point now where we can live without email. And in fact, for many of these services like Twitter and Facebook, you still need email to be notified about new followers or new messages. Threadsy (which launched at TechCrunch50 this year) is trying to help the transition away from email by integrating it with other services like Twitter, but even Goldman acknowledges that the email notification problem remains an issue because people keep relying on it. At one point, a question from the audience asked about Google Wave, another would be “email-killer,” and Schonfeld noted that he was having a hard time getting into it because he wasn’t getting notified via email when there is a new Wave message. So you can see the problem. Speaking of Wave, when asked about his thoughts on it, Buchheit noted that he hadn’t actually tried it yet, while laughing. “The invite is sitting in my inbox.” This is significant because Buchheit was instrumental in creating Gmail for Google. But Buchheit doesn’t consider Google Wave as a replacement of email or even Twitter or Facebook. Both him and Goldman agreed that it seemed more of a collaboration tool. And both felt that despite some great technology it was still a few years away from having a polished experience. When asked if there would be a mashup of social and private streams, such as email and Facebook with Twitter, Buchheit said that he felt rather than one thing killing off another that we would just keep layering on new things. Goldman noted that the next step for Threadsy is to provide better context about the messages you’re getting and who you are talking to. He also noted that being able to search across all your messages is key. So, no. Email isn’t dead yet, but it may be changing. [photo: (cc) Kenneth Yeung - www.thelettertwo.com] Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Read the rest here:
Gmail Creator Thinks Email Will Last Forever. And Hasnt Tried Google Wave.

Today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller sat down to talk with Federated Media’s John Battelle. Miller oversees a lot of projects for News Corp., most notably MySpace. Miller reiterated some of what MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said yesterday at the conference . They have a plan to move forward focusing on what they believe they’re good at, socializing content, which will be music-heavy thanks to their deals with the music labels. In the audience question part at the end, TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington got up to ask Miller specifically about the sale of Photobucket, which we first reported on , but News Corp. has yet to confirm. Miller laughed, but said “ No, I can’t make that announcement here. ” That of course implies that they will make the announcement at some point. Miller acknowledged that Photobucket is right in the middle of an important business decision for News Corp.: Are some of their assets stand-alone products, or part of the bigger picture? “ It will be resolved shortly, but not today ,” Miller said. From what we’ve heard, MySpace is going to sell Photobucket to Ontela for a deal valued at $60 million , which is a huge markdown from the $250 million (plus a $50 million earn-out) that MySpace paid for the company in 2007. Below find my live notes from the Q&A (paraphrased): JB: What do you make of this whole rodeo around Twitter? JM: I think it’s great. Search had been out of the socialization of the web thing, now it’s in it. It’s also clear that we have a lot of competition. It’s great. It’s not a one-horse race. Microsoft is hanging in there (in search). JB: What’s it like to work with Rupert Murdoch? JM: It’s fascinating. He’s so curious. He wants to know everything about everything. No matter what it is. He retains his ambition. He’s as ambitious as anyone I’ve ever met. JB: What’s your job? What does it involve? JM: I’m Chairman and CEO of the Digital Media group. I do two things really: One, I’m the executive in charge of a lot of businesses like MySpace. The other role is to provide strategy and guidance for the entire corporation. JB: How do you split your time between those two? Thoughts on all this media stuff? JM: Rupert feels there needs to be a paid content model – that doesn’t mean there won’t be free as well, but that’s our stance. There will be free and paid, but there will be paid. I spend half my time in that world trying to figure it out. JB: It is just a pay wall? JM: That’s a hard way to do it. You have to offer value to the users. It has to be different from the free area. It’s not just throwing a pay wall. Wall Street Journal is working with that model. You can walk and chew gum at the same time. JB: So that works for the WSJ, but they have a fat wallet audience. JM: Well I think they offer value. JB: Why leave what you were doing? JM: I was having a good time and we were investing in a few key areas. One big one was online video. That was fun and focused. But I was given the opportunity to work on a larger scale with more difficulty. I’m a glutten for punishment. JB: The idea was that you were going to have to “fix MySpace,” right? Owen was here yesterday laying out the plan. How is it going? How do you know it’s working? JM: Fix isn’t the right word. Nothing was broken that we’re putting it back. You have to think ahead. I don’t want to be in the catch up game. We need to get the essence of what MySpace is. It’s about making contacts, we’re getting back to that. The social part. Look at the big picture, then focus it down. Music announcements are core. There was some stuff that needed to be fixed. You need to stablize loss of traffic. It’s been a combination of organic loss of traffic and cleaning up the service. We’re stablizing it, but it’s not the fix game. We need to do new and different. JB: Rupert got a lot of credit for making that investment at the time. Is he upset for how it has gone? JM: You know you have to keep moving forward. But MySpace didn’t keep going. There have been competitiors in the general space, Facebook and Twitter that came along. We’re upset that we didn’t keep going. It’s hard to regain momentum. JB: Is Twitter overhyped? JM: It’s fascinating. I didn’t think it would have been what it is now. But the question is: Where does it go? They’re smart to be an open platform. The money question is easier, I think. Their new deals are interesting, but it doesn’t take you to a billion valuation. Are you your own thing or are you a sub-category of what Facebook is doing? That’s the question. JB: Is News Corp. a buyer in this space right now? JM: We did just buy iLike. It’s strategic. We’re not just trying to go after cool businesses, it has to be about our strategy. That’s a music focus with iLike. We’re not just investing. JB: What are the key strategies? JM: Generally I’m obsessed with realtime. I have been for a long time, even when I was with AOL. I didn’t know it back then, but now you can really see it. Twitter is one level, but it’s beyond that. Another interest is global. I just returned from Asia – it was really eye-opening. As we heard from Mary Meeker, the mobile world over there is amazing. They have things over there that compete with the iPhone. The mobile Internet is huge over there. We’re actually behind over here. It’s a huge transformation. For MySpace music and games. It needs to start with an “M” a “G” or an “E”. We need to open our platform more with MySpace, like Twitter is doing. JB: Talk about FAN (Fox Audience Network). JM: Most people in the audience would know the biggest ad networks, but not the #5 one, which is us. We’re moving up. We want to be #4. A deal with Omnicom helps us big time. It’s a real-time bidding network, advertisers can buy directly in to this huge network. They can buy a huge audience. It’s giving that power over to the buy side. It’s the beginning of a coming out part for FAN. Display advertising is coming. JB: In display publishers feel threatened right? You can reach through the brand and grab an audience. Is that a problem? JM: Yep. I think it’s a real change. There will be a premium world that will command high CPMs. Hulu can do that. It’s a true premium buy and a great expereience. Then there is the cheap inventory that can go to a broad audience. I think FAN can help with that. But the middle will get squeezed. You have to be premium or bulk. It’s hard in the middle. JB: FAN is an exchange network right? JM: Yeah directionally exchange. JB: How’s it different from what’s out there. JM: Along with a move to display, it’s a move to exchange. FAN uses the social networking environment. People tell you stuff freely through these networks. We’re not doing profiles, but it’s audience, to be clear. JB: So if I declare what I’m interested in on MySpace, but then I go to another FAN network, and I see an ad for what I’m interested in. JM: You can spread that across the web. JB: Let’s go back in time a bit. As the former CEO of AOL, the new CEO TIm Armstrong – what should I ask him? JM: That’s a good one. I’m thrilled he’s there. They need to get their freedom. I know they’re on track, but are they really. The freedom from Time Warner. That’s #1. It’s mutually felt, both want it. Is it on track. Number two is how does the new content focus scale? Can you make enough of it in the model they have. The portal-based model. The third, what’s happening in ad sales? Revenue is kind of important and AOL has a declining revenue and subscription base. So you need accelerating ads. It’s so key to that company. Audience Q&A Q: Is there a big opportunity for brands to do new things with all these social networking communities and sites? JM: Absolutely. That’s what AOL has been doing with TMZ, leveraging the AOL platform. We need to start new brands, not just extend networks. Q: Is authentication big? JM: Yes, it’s a big thing. Q: (From Mike) Did you sell Photobucket ? JM: (Laughs). I’m confident that is Mike Arrington. No I can’t make that announcement here. But look, we’re going over all our assets, is it a stand-alone or does it fit? Photobucket is right in the middle of that. It will be resolved shortly, but not today. Q: Talk about MySpace versus Facebook and Twitter. JM: Twitter is about the assymettic relationship. Facebook is symmetric. MySpace is in between. We’ve had both in our history. We need to declare a major. Facebook is trying to be everything it seems. We’re more about interests of our users going forward, more than just the friend thing. I think we’re closer to Twitter. But we can be richer, I think. I don’t know if Twitter with change, but that’s how it is today. Q: Talk about copyrights. JM: We need to have copyrights that are expected. Even in China they realize that. They have a budding content industry too. They’re very interested in copyright and piracy. I think we’ll have an Internet that respects copyright. That’s a wrap. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Follow this link:
Web 2 Summit: Jonathan Miller Is Obsessed With Realtime, Wont Talk Photobucket

It’s probably just as well that Barack Obama’s magic touch didn’t work on the International Olympic Committee. The election of Obama has certainly reduced the number of globetrotting Americans who try to pass for Canadian. But he can’t just touch down for five hours and seal the deal. But the most interesting quote I read about Chicago’s drubbing in the Olympic hosting race was a question from an I.O.C. member from Pakistan. Syed Shahid Ali asked how smooth it would be for foreigners to enter the United States for the Games because as he put it, coming to the US these days can be “a harrowing experience.” I hope Obama noted that. This is a slap in the face reminder that the election of Obama has changed a certain style and the image but the levers of bureaucracy underneath have not necessarily changed course. It’s not just Olympic athletes from countries like Pakistan or Iraq. Scientists, artists, students are all facing the same hurdles getting into the US. And many of them just don’t want to come. Who wants the airport humiliation? A couple of years ago I remember the San Francisco International Film Festival complaining that many eminent filmmakers couldn’t get visas. The Iranian contingent was especially hurt by the visa clampdown. Tragically, Iran has probably the most illustrious filmmaking industry in the region. The very renowned director Abbas Kiarostami was denied a visa when he was coming to the US to debut his film Ten. A couple of other directors from other parts of the world also decided not to come as an act of solidarity. In 2006, a group of Iranian academics and scientists coming for the Northern California reunion of the prestigious Sharif Institute of Technology found themselves turned away from US airports even after they got the visa. Behnam Kamrani who lives in Sweden and works for a US company got to spend nine hours in the airport before being turned back. But he considered himself one of the “lucky ones” because he was not handcuffed. In 2004 for the first time since 1971, the number of foreign students enrolled in US colleges and universities declined thanks to the “war on terror”. Now the Census says for the first time in three decades the number of foreign-born Americans in this country tapered off slightly in 2008 . Nobody wants to be the visa officer that let in the terrorist. But instead of analyzing Chicago’s downfall in the IOC as a litmus test of Obama’s magic, it should be a wake up call for the US. The world didn’t reject Obama. It’s gotten the symbolism of his election. Now it’s time to go beyond the symbols. It wants to see the promised change in action. And five hours of Obama isn’t enough change. Rio, apparently was change the IOC could believe in. More on Barack Obama

Continued here:
Sandip Roy: Guess Who’s Not Coming to The Olympics

Part 5: Brian Binnie Makes History One of the biggest concerns people have about space travel is whether or not it is safe. Yet, while I was launching into sub-orbit, the safety risk was the last thing on my mind. I was intimately involved in the rocket motor testing of the program and was comfortable with its capabilities and knew our air-launch approach gave us many more safety options than a ground launch of a conventional rocket. That final SpaceShipOne flight required high performance and fine precision to execute well. Because it demanded my full attention, I was just too busy to be concerned for my safety! I first learned about the X PRIZE while I was working for Rotary Rocket, testing a rocket that we designed and built, and were in the process of trying to fly. It was not until I joined Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites team, under contract for Paul Allen that I thought it was possible to win the prize. At that point, the X PRIZE was unfunded and had no deadline, and yet, despite this, the prize became our motivator; the carrot that pushed us forward. We had a very small team of 30, which enabled us to be agile and flexible. There were not a lot of approvals that had to happen, so we could sit around a coffee table with our notes and make quick decisions that would be rapidly put into motion. We were confident we had the right technology, but the time frame was a major concern. Rightly so, because the initial competition deadline came and went without us sending SpaceShipOne into space. We needed an extension if we were going to succeed, and fortunately, the Ansaris gave it to us when they extended the competition deadline by a year. We finally completed the test flights for SpaceShipOne with very little time before the second deadline expired. The rules of the competition stipulated that we had to send the vehicle 100 kilometers into space twice in a two week period. The first flight was manned by my teammate Mike Melville, and while the flight was successful, it had some technical issues that needed to be addressed. The deadline forced us to focus. If there had been no X PRIZE, the technical issues in the first flight could have gotten the better of us, but the clock was ticking, so to speak, and we had the prize in our sights. Safety issues with Mike’s first X PRIZE flight were mostly a public misunderstanding and did not preoccupy us at Scaled. We certainly wanted to avoid a repeat performance of his “roll record” so that the follow-on effort for Virgin Galactic would have a better chance of being realized. When the day of my flight finally came, I was working with very little sleep. Prior to the release point, I had an excruciating hour in which I had little to do but sit, think, and come face to face with the demons that lurked into my thoughts as I waited. Would things go according to plan? Had SpaceShipOne revealed to us all its secrets? The flight test was under such a microscope that I couldn’t even sneeze – without multiple cameras in the cockpit beaming the images back to the many people watching including the whole Scaled team, the X PRIZE Foundation, Paul Allen, Sir Richard Branson, NASA, and tons of media outlets. Considering that I hadn’t flown the vehicle in some 10 months, I felt I was under a huge amount of pressure. Then, after the hour long wait, things shifted into fast forward and everything happened incredibly quickly. After release, I was under the impressive acceleration of the hybrid rocket and thundering toward space. The shuddering and shaking vibrations combined with the demonic screeching of that motor were most memorable. But, by far, the best part was the contrast provided when I shut off the rocket; Blessed peace and quiet and the instant karma of weightlessness. And then, my God, that view! Separating the black void that is space from the peaceful panorama below is a thin blue electric ribbon of light that is the atmosphere. For 4 minutes I got to soak it all in. I tell you, one cannot be unmoved by the experience! From Mojave, I could see the San Francisco Bay to the North, Baja Mexico to the south, the Sierra-Nevada Mountains and the Pacific. I captured some of the sights with a camera but it’s definitively something you need to see for yourself. It was almost possible to forget that I was still driving this spaceship and would have the challenge of bringing it back down to earth. Thankfully, due to the brilliance of Burt’s “feather” reentry configuration, that entire phase of flight, normally fraught with danger, was a non-event. There were some moderate G’s to endure and lots of noise as the atmosphere welcomed my supersonic return to Earth, but the ride was otherwise syrupy smooth compared to the rumbling ride under the rocket. About 80 minutes after departure, I returned, landing in front of a most enthusiastic and supportive crowd to claim the $10 million X PRIZE with Scaled’s distinguished and elated team. I can describe this incredible experience without the slightest fear of ruining it for you. It is not like a movie – it absolutely cannot be spoiled. Reflecting back on it, I am like many Astronauts I know, struck by one compelling thought – I can’t wait to go back.

Read this article:
Peter Diamandis: Launching Commercial Space Flight: Part Five — Brian Binnie Makes History

By Nezua, Media Consortium Blogger It’s a sad irony that a President who wants to unite opposing factions presides over an increasingly entrenched and partisan political landscape. There seems to be no satisfactory compromise for both the health care and immigration reform debates.

Excerpt from:
The Media Consortium: Weekly Immigration Wire: Racism and Reform

“The future of news.” Such an incredibly loaded phrase, soaked with history, imprisoned by its own myths and misconceptions, usually the subject of much doom-saying, finger-wagging, ” look-at-what-the-Internet-and-technology-has-done! ” tone.

Excerpt from:
Jose Antonio Vargas: The Future of News — Connection, Conversation, Community

Maybe it has something to do with competition from Bing, but all of a sudden Google is really interested in guided search. Last May, it launched search options in the left-hand column of the results page which let you filter results by type, time, and other criteria

Link:
Google Adds New Options To Make Search More Timely, Less Spammy, And More Personal

I’m delighted to announce that this year’s Startup Competition at LeWeb , the annual gathering of global technology luminaries and startups in Paris, will be organized in partnership with TechCrunch Europe . We’ve been running startup events all over Europe for some time now so I hope to be able to inject our experience into this great event

Read the original post:
LeWeb Startup Competition Partners With TechCrunch Europe

Despite a couple large IPOs (LogMein and A123Systems) and a steady but tempered flow of mergers and acquisitions, financial exits for venture-backed companies remained anemic in the third quarter of 2009. Data released by both Dow Jones VentureSource and the National Venture Capital Association /Thomson Reuters show declines in both M&A and IPO dollars. VentureSource counts $2.9 billion in combined M&A exits in the third quarter, 49 percent lower than a year ago

Read more here:
Venture Exits Still Anemic In Third Quarter, Down Nearly 50 Percent (Charts)