Archive for February, 2010

The race to the bottom

While chatting with Mr.Zero recently we started talking about the “race to the bottom.” What exactly is the race to the bottom?  It can mean many things but the result is usually not great (unless you’re talking about the price of Gasoline and Electricity – can you tell the difference between electrons?).  Here’s the history [ READ MORE ]

Amtrak: Why did you build a plane that can’t fly?

Amtrak – you’ll never be better than the airlines so stop trying to act like one. Here’s why: 1. You make trains not planes 2. The customer experience is worse 3. You’re behind on the technology.  WIFI just coming to Acela in Q1 2010!  Boltbus figured it out over two years ago! No TV’s in the trains and definitely [ READ MORE ]

Unplugged and Disconnected

Being a little out of touch last week and it is easy to ask if you are really missing anything as the flow of digital information continues to ramble past. But as I was on vacation, I realized that I actually wanted to be still in the flow of some things (read personal blog), but completely [ READ MORE ]

(Un)Clear Pass

Fresh off vacation and thinking to myself, post checked bag experience, there has to be a better way.  There just absolutely has to. Why did Clear Pass get stuck?  I don’t know and part of my brain is still vacationing, but there has to be a better way and everyone who is standing in line, watching [ READ MORE ]

Blockbusted – Going from #1 to #0 (no offense Mr.Zero)

The illustrious Mr.Zero is on a much needed vacation so I’ll be picking up the slack this week with the usual SOTB rhetoric. I’ve been ranting about falls-from-grace lately and Blockbuster has just about committed suicide.  How do you go from being #1 to #0? Instead of going into the history of Blockbuster let’s just focus on [ READ MORE ]

Stuck

I’m over the snow so hope not too many folks get stuck while I’m out getting some R&R somewhere warm. See you next week. [ READ MORE ]

Everyone has their place

Everyone has their place in the financing ecosystem of start ups. VC models thrive on certain assumptions and everyone contributes different things, each with some additional risks that other players don’t have and upside that others don’t have as well. Angel investors are a unique bunch. Typically, they have some personal money and they want to [ READ MORE ]

The “I” coefficient

Here’s a new topic for SOTB:  India.  India is going to be as big as 3-D. We all know that India is an emerging market and tons of great stuff is going on there. The big challenge is actually getting things done.  I have first hand experience in launching stuff in the Asian sub-continent. I [ READ MORE ]

A little obsessed with this 3-D Mess

The 3-D thing has really grabbing my attention, and Mr. Hero was nice enough to send along this article from The New York Times (enjoy it in 2010 before it slips behind the paid wall again — haven’t we been there before?). Sounds like a lot of folks out there might be on the same page. “I couldn’t see [ READ MORE ]

Why Google isn’t a good business

Google’s latest earnings while good they weren’t great.  They were above expectations but they didn’t knock it out of the park. Think of Berkshire Hathaway or GE and how many different lines of business they have and how each one is presumably a thriving business – errrr I guess that’s why NBC is gone now.  [ READ MORE ]