Category Archives: rants

Pustulance, bile and falsehoods about online privacy from the WSJ

Posted on August 30, 2010 by patrick

The WSJ spewed forth this bit of online privacy pustulance from an alleged “professor of economics”, Paul Rubin Paul Rubin’s falsehoods: Paul Rubin’s First Falsehood 1) Privacy is free. Many privacy advocates believe it is a free lunch—that is, consumers … Continue reading →

Posted in political, privacy, rants | Leave a comment

Facebook has bigger problems than “like” and “fans”

Posted on March 30, 2010 by patrick

Recently Facebook has been making a series of “privacy” changes in order to better convert peoples relationships into Facebook’s money. Dennis Yu of blitzlocal made some very valid points about Facebook’s latest effort. Facebook is revisiting “like” and “fan pages”: … Continue reading →

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The 100-hour work week myth

Posted on July 5, 2009 by patrick

Chris Yeh calls out workaholism as the stupid choice it is: If you work 100-hour weeks, no one (investors, co-founders, employees) can blame you if things don’t work out, right? And I like to think I’ve worked a lot smarter … Continue reading →

Posted in amplafi, management, rants, starting a company | 4 Comments

Open Message to the anti-tax crowd: move

Posted on June 17, 2009 by patrick

Amazon’s definition of “unconstitutional” : “We don’t like it” I love all these people who whine about taxes. Don’t like taxes? Move to Somalia. No functioning government since Bush the First – a libertarian paradise. The anti-tax people complain about … Continue reading →

Posted in political, rants | 5 Comments

Stations do NOT affect train speed

Posted on June 15, 2009 by patrick

Bullshit from an email thread and repeated constantly by the California High-Speed Rail Authority: “Other potential benefits are also intriguing: a probable economic windfall for several cities along the route . . .” and “There will be as many as … Continue reading →

Posted in environment, high-speed-rail, political, random silliness, rants, transportation | 2 Comments

VCs: stop the false dichotomies

Posted on May 27, 2009 by patrick

What is with VCs and their false dichotomy when giving feedback about a company asking for funding: Say nothing about the team Be an asshole about how worthless the team is and their mothers should have had an abortion. VCs … Continue reading →

Posted in amplafi, rants, starting a company | Leave a comment

Stop the privatization of social safety net!

Posted on May 27, 2009 by patrick

Can we stop the bleeding heart liberal who sees the symptom but the wrong solution? Problem: In the Great Depression unemployment in the U.S. peaked at 24.9% in 1933. Imperial County today has an unemployment rate of 26.9% closely followed … Continue reading →

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Email/Calendar : Missing features

Posted on May 17, 2009 by patrick

Continuing my “broken” series of things that everyone uses but no one fixes. Many of these missing features are email and calendar integration. Email. Much maligned. These are the key “broken”/ missing features. For some reason, not one major email … Continue reading →

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Ad networks: missing features

Posted on May 16, 2009 by patrick

Ad networks missing features: Interconnection with bookmarking services Browser back button support Rich interaction Selective Memory Show different video ads Limit the ad selection Interconnection with bookmarking services You’ve interrupted me. The ad is interesting. Well-targeted. Good job. I am … Continue reading →

Posted in amplafi, broken, marketing, rants, starting a company | Leave a comment

New media same as the old when it comes to getting facts wrong

Posted on March 27, 2009 by patrick

Once again “new” media reporters on blogs has proven no better at getting facts right than “old” media reporters. Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch gets a cheap laugh at a proposal to “ban black cars” by the California Air Resources … Continue reading →

Posted in environment, political, random silliness, rants | Leave a comment