Kenneth's Rants and Other Things

link- How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet

kenneth — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:36:41 +0000

It was a stunning failure in vision, and more or less the same thing happened at Flickr. All Yahoo cared about was the database its users had built and tagged. It didnt care about the community that had created it or more importantly continuing to grow that community by introducing new features.

“We spent a lot of time in meetings with CorpDev just defending the product and justifying our decisions,” said a former Flickr team member.

And so when Flickr hit the ground at Yahoo it was crushed with engineering and service requirements it had to meet as per demands of the acquisition integration team. Those were a drain on resources, human and financial. Even though many of the resources came from Yahoo, they were debited against Flickr. This created an untenable cycle that actively hampered innovation.

via How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet.

What’s HBO Go’s Problem?

kenneth — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:06:59 +0000

HBO claims that (a) people aren’t interested in a la carte HBO Go and (b) the transaction costs are too high to do their own billing, etc. The technical term for these explanations is “bullshit.”

via What’s HBO Go’s Problem? – Megan McArdle – Business – The Atlantic.

Conquering The Impossible – ****

kenneth — Sat, 12 May 2012 05:13:29 +0000

Conquering the Impossible: My 12,000-Mile Journey Around the Arctic Circle by Mike Horn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this account of Horn’s journey around the Arctic Circle – even though it was really stressful to read.

I had already heard parts of this story because a few friends of mine had met the adventurer. So if it weren’t for their stories and excitement I wouldn’t have known about Horn or picked up his book.

The story in a nutshell is basically how Horn leaves Norway going West and tries to get around the Arctic. It’s a grueling tale of endurance- physical and psychological. I mean, it’s bad enough to read the sections about it being more than 40 below zero where there’s equipment failure (even duct tape can shatter at certain temps), but also just thinking about being alone for that long and without sunshine for much of the journey.

It’s a fascinating read and didn’t make me feel too much like a slacker for not doing things even 1/1000th as adventerous. Pick up the book.

View all my reviews

The Foiled Faux Underwear Bomber: An Ongoing Series – Hit & Run : Reason.com

kenneth — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:41:30 +0000

According to Glenn Carle, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats on the National Intelligence Council, at its height al Qaeda had just about 20 members who could be regarded as officer grade.

Indeed, if the latest underwear bomber is the best that al Qaeda can do, then Americans have more to fear from their TSA agents than from whatever latest boogeyman their country’s venerable leaders are cooking up.

via The Foiled Faux Underwear Bomber: An Ongoing Series – Hit & Run : Reason.com.

Steve Kerr on the problems with the age limit in the NBA – Grantland

kenneth — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:42:08 +0000

True story: I once had an extremely young teammate ask me when our Christmas break was. He then became visibly shocked and saddened after learning that we didnt get to go home for a week or so. Another time, a different young player asked me how the NBAs playoff format worked. We entered the first round of the postseason and he had no idea what “best of 5″ meant. These were players who were ready to be professional athletes?

via Steve Kerr on the problems with the age limit in the NBA – Grantland.