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Archives for October 2011

LinkedIn’s Snowball Effect

October 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Am I alone in noticing a pronounced snowball effect with LinkedIn lately?  As I noted in my post on their 100M member milestone in the Spring of 2011, I was an early-adopter of LinkedIn, joining before approximately 99.8% of the current members (I was member number 231,537 out of the 100M+ current users).  I attribute this to the fact that I was working in a technology company when LinkedIn started, and I was generally interested in the nascent social networking area, so I received early invitations and ended up fiddling around with the new site.

And as a result of my joining early,…

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Filed Under: Business, Communication, Crowd Sourcing, Internet / Big Data / Internet of Things, Social Networking

The Solar Project – FAQ: Technology Questions

October 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[This post is part of a series about our net-zero residential solar project – to see a list of links to the full Solar Project series, click here or to bring up a list of all green-themed posts, click here.]

I have been getting enough questions from the blog readers and neighbors that it is time to do a frequently asked questions list.  I have divided the common questions into four groups: practical questions, financial questions, technology questions, project questions and philosophical questions.  These are the Technology Questions.

Technology Questions

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Filed Under: Green

The Solar Project – FAQ: Financial Questions

October 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[This post is part of a series about our net-zero residential solar project – to see a list of links to the full Solar Project series, click here or to bring up a list of all green-themed posts, click here.]

I have been getting enough questions from the blog readers and neighbors that it is time to do a frequently asked questions list.  I have divided the common questions into four groups: practical questions, financial questions, technology questions, project questions and philosophical questions.  These are the Financial Questions.

Financial Questions

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Filed Under: Green

The Solar Project – FAQ: Practical Questions

October 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[This post is part of a series about our net-zero residential solar project – to see a list of links to the full Solar Project series, click here or to bring up a list of all green-themed posts, click here.]

I have been getting enough questions from the blog readers and neighbors that it is time to do a frequently asked questions list.  I have divided the common questions into four groups: practical questions, financial questions, technology questions, project questions and philosophical questions.  These are the basic Practical Questions.

Practical Questions

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Filed Under: Green

The Solar Project – FAQ: Project and Philosophical Questions

October 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[This post is part of a series about our net-zero residential solar project – to see a list of links to the full Solar Project series, click here or to bring up a list of all green-themed posts, click here.]

I have been getting enough questions from the blog readers and neighbors that it is time to do a frequently asked questions list.  I have divided the common questions into four groups: practical questions, financial questions, technology questions, project questions and philosophical questions.  These are the Project-related and Philosophical Questions.

Project Questions

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Filed Under: Green

Going Green

October 26, 2011 by 1 Comment

[This post is part of a series about our net-zero residential solar project – to see a list of links to the full Solar Project series, click here or click here to bring up all Green-related posts. Next Post in Series.]

For reasons I cannot explain, solar energy has always fascinated me. So prepare yourself to see a bit more by way of green topics in this blog. A big part of the impetus for those posts is the impending conversion of our home to a net-zero solar-powered residence. What that means, for the uninitiated, is a house that produces 100% as much energy from the sun as it uses over the course of a year. In fact, if the design calculations are correct, and we scrimp and conserve power just a tiny bit more, we may even be able to eek out an actual surplus. Due to the benefits of net-metering, this means the power company will actually pay us more than we pay them in a year – a negative electricity bill – very cool. We are in the final planning and paperwork phases for of the project, so construction won’t start for a few weeks. Expect many more updates on the project to follow in coming months.

In the meantime, for my first general interest green post, I’d like to share a really cool new program worth checking out.

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Filed Under: Green, Internet / Big Data / Internet of Things, Mobile / Gadgets, Social Networking

Groupon is Radioactive

October 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There is just no other word to describe this mess of a company.  I have already discussed Groupon at some length in the context of talking about picking co-founders and co-investors carefully, but in the wake of Groupon’s crippled IPO, Michelle Conlin , business writer for the AP, just published an excellent analysis of where the company sits at the moment entitled “Groupon’s fall to earth swifter than its fast rise“.

Michelle Conlin on Groupon’s current plight:

“…the startup that pioneered online daily deals for coupons is an example of how fast an Internet darling can fall…”

On their IPO:

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Filed Under: Business, Entrepreneurship, Internet / Big Data / Internet of Things

Telephoto Lens for Your iPhone 4S

October 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Add-on lenses for cellphone cameras have been around for a while.  And most of them are crap.  But I stumbled onto a great little kit that is very nicely made, and, when combined with the out-standing new camera on the iPhone 4S, takes such great photographs, that I had to share.

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Filed Under: Apple / Google / Amazon / Big Tech, Mobile / Gadgets, Photography

Netflix – Again

October 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Netflix topic is like the gift that keeps on giving.  Last month I was working on a post with three take-away lessons from their summer price change fiasco.  In the middle of drafting that post, Update One to that post became necessary – Netflix said they were sorry for handling it so badly, and now they were splitting into two companies.

So much chatter ensued as a result of that move by Netflix that I put out Update Two about some of the reasons which may have been behind it.

Update Three noted that none other than Roger Ebert had weighed in on the topic.  And Update Four posted a great Saturday Night Live skit on the subject.  A skit I should point out, that now looks hopelessly out of date.

Which brings me to Update Five:…

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Filed Under: Business, Internet / Big Data / Internet of Things, Media / Publishing

Amazon Ups the Ante On Publishers Again

October 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Back in August, I noted that Amazon was stepping up its nascent publishing efforts to allow authors to sell directly to its customers without going through a traditional publishing house.   Yesterday’s New York Times points out in an article entitled Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal, that Amazon is dramatically accelerating its efforts.  Should be interesting to watch.  Below are a few key pull-outs from the article:

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Filed Under: Business, Internet / Big Data / Internet of Things, Media / Publishing
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