Source: Logic + Emotion

David Armano contemplates lifestreaming, which has been defined in its simplest form as "a chronological aggregated view of your life activities both online and offline." Huh? Well, like a blog. But it's also like Flickr where you stream the pictures you take. Or Last.fm where you stream the music you listen to. Or Twitter where you stream your, what? Consciousness? Each of these streams meet at junctures and what fascinates Armano most is how we'll manage our media trails "as more of us move from passive bystanders to active participants - creators from consumers."

Related:
Hyperaggregation
Flickr and Twittervision
Twitter Twitter

Source: Marketing Daily

Blogging has only been around a few years but a new study reveals that "eight out of 10 Americans know what "blog" means, and almost half have visited the blogosphere - some as often as daily." While it's not surprising that 90 percent of 25- to-34-year-olds are blog-aware, what's shocking to me is 64.5 percent of those age 65-plus are too. 8 percent of Americans have their own blog. That's 14 percent of men and 20 percent of women. I think what we're witnessing may not be about blogs at all. It may just be an utter shift in how we communicate.

Source: The Raw Feed

New York? San Franciso? Nope. The U.S. Census Bureau says it's San Jose, right in the heart of Silicon Valley. In fact, the three richest cities (San Jose, San Francisco and San Diego) and the top two richest counties (Marin and Santa Clara) are all in California. Why? Technology wealth. But Mike Elgan reminds us though that what those stats don't tell you is...

"You might make $100,000 a year in Silicon Valley, but if you want shelter, you'll have to shell out $700,000 for a run-down shack in a bad neighborhood. The secret to riches is to "work from home" for a Silicon Valley company, but live in Bolivia."

Source: Forbes

Facebook may be the latest media darling, but Google-owned Orkut draws "38.2 billion page views a month worldwide." Compare that to 7.8 billion on Facebook. Who are these Orkut users? Brazilians. Orkut didn't court Brazilians, they just arrived organically and now they produce 15.6 billion page views every month. Facebook may earn more than $100 million in ad revenue this year, and Google is revving up its Orkut strategy and pumping its massive resources into a site redesign and new technology aimed at setting itself apart from Facebook and MySpace.

Related:
Facebook replaces email
Facebook or LinkedIn?
Facebook as the anti-MySpace
Facebook is it for young adults

Source: Springwise

Heineken is onto the fact that 63 percent of women don't like their product. So in Europe the company is testing a beer-ish drink designed just for women. The 5 percent alcohol concoction, called Charli, is a mix of cider, barley malt and fruit flavors and it's presented as an alternative to white wine. Charli taps and bottles are svelte and sexy - a far cry from the standard guy beer aesthetic.

Related:
Heineken bar in Times Square
Women who love wine and the men winemakers market to
This woman knows beer
Brewing a new image
Vitamin beer

Source: Businesspundit

You probably think you're one of the top performers in your office. In fact, "a new study shows that 90 percent of managers think they are in the top 10 percent at their workplace. But, um...that's impossible. Robert May says the survey "highlights one of the major reasons many corporations run lousy operations - they don't face reality." We all think we're right. And once you believe that, "you interpret new evidence in a way that conforms to your pre-existing belief." To be truly successful, "guard against self-serving tricks your mind can play on you."

Source: 93 South

Dave Laubner posts a list of the video game and game-related companies in the Boston area...all of them in one easy spot. It follows closely on the heels of Hiawatha Bray's article in the Globe on local game companies. There are a surprising number on the list. But Boston is not the hub for the industry which is primarily a West coast game.

Related:
La mort d'Atari

Source: Endless Innovation

The "Serious Play" program at LEGO "offers a way for managerial teams to experiment with innovation in a fun, non-threatening way…by playing with LEGOS. Need to think differently in those strategy or conflict resolution sessions? Need to do some team bonding after a hellish restructuring? Then do what 53 partners in 27 countries have done, get out the LEGOS. There's even a certified trainer right here in Massachusetts.

Shopping genes
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Selling the war
Inkless printing
Tidal power
Wine in a box
The sunshine economy
Holy frozen smoke!
African hubs

Source: ABC News

Freedom's Watch is "a sort of shadow White House communications shop" that was formed by former administration officials and funded by Republican big-money donors. This week they began airing $15 million worth of TV ads featuring veterans and their families. Are you buying what they're trying to sell you?

See the ads here.

Source: The New Disruptors

Business 2.0's Erick Schonfeld hosts a series of videos called "The New Disruptors." This week he visits Waltham-based Zink, "a spin-off from Polaroid that has developed an inkless printing technology." With Zink, the ink is actually dye crystals embedded in the paper and they turn colors when heated. Getting rid of ink could pave the way for "the creation of compact, mobile printers that can be embedded into digital cameras, laptops, and even cell phones." Watch the video.

Source: New Scientist

In May 2007 Verdant Power launched one of the world's first underwater power turbines in New York City's East River. Now a much larger-scale tidal project will soon generate 1.2 megawatts of electricity off the coast of Northern Ireland. Experts say that "tidal and wave power could eventually provide between 15-20 percent of the UK's electricity needs." Harnessing tides and waves is a carbon-free, renewable energy no-brainer. Underwater rotors move at slow enough speeds that the affect on marine life appears to be minimal. I'd like to see Massachusetts take a leadership role in implementing this technology.

Related:
Here comes lunar power

Source: JuiceBox Wine Co.

In response to my post about approachable wine brands, Jonathan Barry writes that the 3 liter bag-in-box category is the smallest yet fastest growing segment of the US wine business (A C Nielsen). You may have seen his boxed wine brand called FREERANGE on the shelves of your premium wine shop. His Boston-based company, JuiceBox Wine Co., packages award-winning Bordeaux in a box. Why the box? The wine stays fresh for a minimum of 6 weeks, so there's no waste. Look for more wine brands and a name change (from FREERANGE to FREEREIN) with their upcoming 2006 vintages.

Source: TechCrunch

There is a now a starry sky in Google Earth. Google has launched "new functionality that adds imagery of the stars to Google Earth's already extensive imagery of our planet." By using one million photographs from a variety of sources, Google has made it possible to "explore the universe from the comfort of your chair." To start your voyage, download the latest Google Earth. It's free.

Source: Forbes

Solar power may still be more expensive than fossil fuel generated electricity, but the gap is closing. "The rule of thumb in the solar business: Every time the volume of solar cells doubles, its cost drops by 20 percent." Germany and Japan provide generous subsidies to local consumers and companies who invest in building solar power, sparking booms. The US? Not so much. The race is on to fuel the planet by sun. "The long-term forecast? Bright, with big patches of innovation ahead."

Forbes profiles some of the top companies in the field.

Related:
Solar farming
Google plants solar trees
Blueberry solar
Nano-solar energy
Here comes lunar power

Source: Times of London

Aerogel, also called frozen smoke, is one of the world’s lightest solids, and scientists are hailing it as the new miracle material along with hall-of-famers like silicone and carbon fiber. An 18mm layer of insulating aerogel can "protect astronauts from temperatures as low as -130C." "It can withstand a direct blast of 1 kilogram of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300 Centigrade." Scientists say that because it "has so many millions of pores and ridges, if one cubic centimeter of aerogel were unraveled it would fill an area the size of a football field." Those nano-sized pores can also soak up oil spills like a sponge.

Source: Fresh Inc.

In a sign that could mean that Africa is becoming more integrated into the global business community, Hilton is building a luxury hotel designed for business travelers in a newly developed part of Accra, the capital of the west African nation of Ghana. Hilton is also considering properties in Equatorial Guinea and Uganda. "Ghana is quickly becoming a hub of global business in a region." The country's GDP has increased for six years straight, the government has lowered trade barriers and the stock market is bustling.

Source: Research Brief

A new survey says that women are born with one of four "shopping genes" that drive their shopping habits. Given that women spend $418 billion dollars every year, it's no surprise researchers are hot on the trail of what women want and why. The four types are...Content Responsibles (practical, loyal, efficient), Natural Hybrids (confident, balanced, classic), Social Catalysts (social, smart, trendy) and Cultural Artists (creative, impulsive, adventurous). The Cultural Artists are also called "super influencers" and represent 11 percent of all women. Which one are you?

Elvis still a top earner
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Approachable wines
The great ad shift
Virgin's virgin flight
Punk Martha Stewart
Home buying 2.0
Virtual weather

Source: Marketing Daily

Yellow Tail, Pinot Evil, Killer Juice and Dog House. These are not your father's wines. Millennials aged 21 to 30 are drinking "approachable" brands of wine, helping to fuel a 3.4 percent increase in U.S. wine sales last year. Wine sales across the board are up, continuing their 13th consecutive year of solid growth. In fact, a July Gallup Poll says that "wine now rivals beer as America's alcoholic beverage of choice."

Related:
Fine Wine 2.0
Wine as a spending indicator
Women who love wine and the men winemakers market to
The blogger's wine
Wi-fi wine glasses

Source: PSFK

Trends blog PSFK was invited to try out the virgin flight of Virgin America service from LA to San Francisco and Virgin got what they were looking for. A blog post that raves about the latest hot young thing to hit the sky. Here's a taste... The planes have names like California Dreaming and Air Colbert. The seats are designed by a race car company. The lighting is ambient and syncs with the time of day. The flight attendants look like they're "outfitted by Armani." All that plus satellite TV, WiFi, video games and power outlets for your electronics. And get this...seat-to-seat chat. That's social networking/online dating at 30,000 feet.

Oh, and it's cheap. No Boston service...only JFK, LAX and SFO, IAD, LAS.

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

In Q2 the top four web properties (Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN) saw their collective ad revenue increase 42 percent. Meanwhile, ad revenue for the 15 biggest traditional media companies shrank by 3 percent. The overall advertising pie for all 19 companies did grow by 8 percent. But within the pie, the online portion grew from $3 billion to $4.2 billion (23% share to 30% share) while the offline portion shrank from $9.9 billion to $9.6 billion (77% share to 70% share). In other words, the online companies "picked up 7 percentage points of market share in a single year."

Source: BusinessWeek

Sisters Tish and Snooky Bellomo were part of the New York punk rock scene in the '70s but what made them famous was their boutique Manic Panic NYC, which, along with CBGB, was the place to hang. "Thirty years later, punk merchandising is big business, and Tish and Snooky have turned their lifestyle into the backbone and brand-identity of a 13-employee wholesale business with $5 million in annual revenues." Their biggest seller? "Hair dye in screaming colors with names like Deadly Nightshade and Atomic Turquoise."

What's next? The sisters envision a Manic Panic line of housewares and clothing. Saying they'd like to become "the Martha Stewart of alternative style," they have one caveat. "We want to stay out of jail."

Related:
In the UK there is the punk fashion diva Vivienne Westwood. I saw an exhibition on her at the DeYoung this Spring that was fantastic.

Source: Springwise

Home Equity Share "brings together buyers who can afford monthly payments but not a 20 percent down payment, and investors who want to get into real estate but don't want to become landlords or make monthly payments." Once a buyer and investor are lined up the buyer is pre-approved. At the end of a specified term (3-7 years) the buyer can purchase the investor's interest in the property, or together they can sell the house and split any profits. The service is free for investors and buyers, but they have to use one of the registered Home Equity Share broker. Home Equity Share takes 20 percent of any resulting agent commissions.

Source: Xconomy

The weather on Second Life (SL) is about get a huge upgrade thanks to Windward Mark Interactive, a Waltham-based graphics studio that Linden Lab acquired in May. Their new atmospheric rendering software will bring "a new level of realism and spectacle" to the virtual sky of SL. That's good news for SL, but great news for Boston. Second Life's Cambridge office will be the largest major outpost outside of their San Francisco headquarters even though John Lester, Linden Lab’s Boston director says "Our only central office is Second Life itself."

Source: 93 South

Lest we think all East Coast startups are not getting funding due to location, the 93 South blog sends congratulations out to Xconomy, the Cambridge-based tech blog that recently "landed their series-A funding led by CommonAngels (undisclosed amount)." Xconomy will provide close-to-the-scene info via localized blogs, events, conferences about local personalities, companies, and tech trends. Check out their local events list.

Related:
Boston VCs need to step up
Angels with billions

Source: Washington Post

Elvis may have died 30 years ago, but he's still going strong, ranking "No. 2 on Forbes's list of top-earning dead celebrities." His income? $42 million. And he's just getting started. The Elvis empire is now managed by CKX Inc. who see themselves in the "icon business." Elvis used to be promoted only at Graceland, where the faithful could tour his surprisingly modest mansion (The Jungle Room was my favorite). But now Elvis is licensed on everything from Reese's to Pez to Harley-Davidson choppers. Look for Elvis casinos and an overhaul of Graceland. It's a very Elvis world.

Robbing the cradle
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Boston VCs: Step up!
Red Cross fight
Pollution meter
Sitting ducks
Get, ignore feedback
FaceBook or LinkedIn?

Source: Don Dodge's blog

Cambridge-based Y Combinator incubates two crops of startups per year. This summer's crop was unveiled this week at a Demo Day hosted for leading VCs and investors here in Boston. Don Dodge has high praise for the 19 startups who demoed, especially AnywhereFM which he calls a "winner."

The bad news? Dodge mentions that Scott Kirsner blogged after the event that "several of the companies are planning to relocate to Silicon Valley because the VCs are more aggressive and the partnership opportunities are better." How can we stop the brain drain? Do we all really all have to move to California? Dodge calls for one part of the solution saying, "Come on Boston VCs! Step up and make the investments."

Related:
Boston brain drain

Source: Seth Godin's blog

Back in the 1800s Johnson & Johnson gave the Red Cross the right to use the red cross symbol for free forever, even though J&J had been using it for more than a decade, "as long as they didn't use it for reasons not directly related to their mission." But recently the Red Cross started licensing the logo for use on products. J&J objected with a lawsuit. The Red Cross president called J&J's lawsuit "obscene." Seth Godin says they should admit they're wrong. J&J is the trademark owner (and a major donor). How about if the Red Cross goes back "to focusing on what they do best?"

Source: ZDNet Emerging Tech blog

University of Manchester researchers have "designed a near-infrared diode laser sensor able to record levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane directly from your car's exhaust." Apparently the device could warn you if your pollution levels are getting too high and tell you how to adjust your driving style. It's not yet ready for prime time, but in the future your car could contain a meter designed to increase your guilt enough to decrease your emissions.

Source: Ars Technica

Consumer Reports most recent "State of the Net" survey reveals that while the techie set knows how to avoid spam and keep their computers relatively free of viruses and spyware, the masses? Not getting it. 3.7 million broadband households don't have a firewall. And in addition, in the month before the survey, a staggering 650,000 people in the US actually "ordered a product or service advertised through spam." Bad combination. In the last two years it has led 1.8 million households to replace their PCs in order rid themselves of viruses. Computers should not be this hard to use.

Related:
Spam, spam, spam, spam

Source: Businesspundit

Robert May reminds us that even if getting feedback from customers or users "is a tricky thing to use properly," you should still do it. Why? "When you look for feedback on a product, you are looking for one of two things: 1. An overwhelming majority consensus for a different path. 2. A tidbit of knowledge you didn't know." So don't get thrown by the wide-ranging comments. Just look for a big steer or some little nuggets. In other words, "get feedback, then ignore most of it."

Source: Knowledge@Wharton

About 10 years ago Baby Einstein "helped launch not only a new line of educational videos and toys but a new generation of kid-centric parents who believed that so-called "enrichment activities" could put their toddlers squarely in the fast lane to success." Vulnerable parents, eager to help their kids be successful have turned the educational baby business into a $20 billion-a-year industry. But new research says that infants can't be "hardwired for success." Not only that, but the practice has spawned a "consumer culture" that "manipulates parents and harms young minds." Forget the marketing. The best toy for your kid? A book. "Read to them. That's what you do. Read to them every night."

Source: Good Morning Silicon Valley

The story broke in the New York Times this weekend that "the anonymous author of the satirical Secret Diary of Steve Jobs" is actually Forbes Senior Editor Daniel Lyons. I have said before that the best way to watch the events at Apple unfold is through Fake Steve Jobs. Think of it as a Daily Show for the "inbred tech blogosphere." The salability of news parody (and truthiness) is not lost on Forbes, who "as much in the dark as anyone until now, will now let Fake Steve live on at their Web site." I think they better worry about losing Lyons to Hollywood.

As a bonus twist, Lyons was the author of a November 2005 Forbes story called "Attack of the Blogs" which pointed out the dangers of the "inordinate power of anonymous rabble-rousers" on blogs.

Source: BusinessWeek

Blogger Jeff Pulver has abandoned LinkedIn saying that "the more time I spent on Facebook, the less time I had for LinkedIn." He now finds himself logged in to FaceBook for hours per day updating his status, to catching up on groups he's joined, and checking and responding to messages. Increasingly Pulver found LinkedIn gave him "no compelling reason…to stay and interact." The key may be that "FaceBook is great for business networking as well as socializing, and provides a platform for creating networks among like-minded people."

I still use both, but I know exactly what Pulver means by getting sucked into FaceBook. My experience closely matches his. About a month ago I started getting multiple invites and since then I've been fascinated with it. So far I have not just "LinkedIn" with business connections and friends, I've gone on to plan a meetup in New York with an old colleague and referred someone for a job, all through casual FaceBook messaging. It's quickly becoming very relevant to me.

Which do you use? Join the discussion.

Extreme telecommuting
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Admired v. hysterical
Path v. destination
Real travel agents
Parking science
A fully examined life

Source: Slate Video Blog

OK, it's too hot to think...it's nearly 100 degrees in Boston. So here's some wacky Japanese fun to start the weekend.

Source: MSNBC

A new study of anger in the workplace proves something that I have seen happen time and again. "A man who gets angry at work may well be admired for it but a woman who shows anger in the workplace is liable to be seen as "out of control" and incompetent." But here's the rub. It's not conscious and both men and women make this assessment. The findings reveal a "difficult paradox" for professional women. "While anger can serve as a powerful tool to achieve status at work, women may have to behave calmly in order to be seen as rational.

Source: Guy Kawasaki's blog via Pmarca

I agree with Marc Andreessen who says that this the quote of the week. It's from an outstanding guest blog post by Glenn Kelman of Redfin about the realities of entrepreneurship:

It isn't going to get better--it already is. In the early days, start-ups focus on how great it’s going to be when they succeed; but the moment they do, they start talking about how great it was before they did. Whenever I get this way, I remember the Venerable Bede’s complaint that his eighth century contemporaries had lost the fervor of seventh century monks. Even in the darkest of the Dark Ages, people were nostalgic for...the Dark Ages. Start-ups are like medieval monasteries: always convinced that paradise is just ahead or that things only recently got worse. If you can begin to enjoy the process of building a start-up rather than the outcome, you'll be a better leader.

Source: TIME

What's a major source of urban traffic congestion? Cheap on-street parking. In New York one study found 45 percent of drivers were trolling for those $3 spots. Pasadena and Redwood City have turned "to the relatively new science of parking theory and the technologies it has spawned" to improve neighborhoods, reduce pollution and drive economic growth. First step? Install high-tech meters and raise the cost of street parking to market value with the goal of ensuring 85 percent occupancy of spots and 15 percent vacancy. Then all revenues are returned to the neighborhoods to improve services or provide infrastructure development. Win. Win. And parkers, easier to find spots...but no cheap spots. D'oh!

Source: I, Cringely

Robert X. Cringely from PBS thinks that Google doesn't "know who they are messing with" when they bid "$4.6 billion in the FCC's auction of bandwidth in the 700-MHz band being reclaimed in 2009 from analog television." Google wants to buy the right to break the spectrum wide open and make a true mobile Internet. A noble cause. But first, they have to go up against the "reptilian craftiness" of the big telcos, who want absolutely nothing to do with openness. The final price will go well over the $4.6 billion. Is Google drunk on their own Kool-Aid or are they playing a game of poker? Are they ready to bet the farm?

Source: Business 2.0

With a laptop, mobile or satellite Internet, and loads of choices for "voice, e-mail, and video communication, many jobs today can be done without a brick-and-mortar office." Even getting paid is a snap...it's all done electronically or via PayPal. While not too many take the plunge, some people are taking this newfound geographic freedom to its outer limits, telecommuting to work from Pacific islands or Alaska or as they travel around the world. There are downsides. It can be lonely and ironically it can be hard to find the time to relax. Ask an extreme telecommuter where they live and they may say "I live in the world."