The Gong Show

This post has two purposes. 1) it’s an continuation of My Toolkit post in order to increase exposure in how I get my work done, and 2) it’s a call for help.

My Firefox recently turned into molasses. It’s slower than usual in general, but it’s particularly hanging every time I open a new tab. So, I thought I’d list all the Firefox extensions I have currently installed in hopes that someone might recognize a culprit for my slowness. As an added bonus; I thought it would be interesting to to expose all my extensions:

My extensions:

• Adblock Plus
• Autocomplete Manager
• BlogRovR
• BlueOrganizer
• ChatZilla
• del.icio.us
• DOM Inspector
• Email This!
• Firebug
• FireFTP
• Google Gears
• Google Toolbar
• Greasemonkey
• LastTab
• Live HTTP Headers
• Operator
• PMOG
• Shareaholic
• StumbleUpon
• TalkBack
• Twitwin (I believe this is supposed to be “TwitBin” but is misspelled in the extensions list)
• Web Developer
• Wesabe Uploader
• Also, my theme is “Noia 2.0 eXtreme”

Out of all of these, I think my favorite is “LastTab.” It’s SO simple (changes the behavior of “ctrl-tab” to match that of Windows), yet it makes me much more efficient. TwitBin is a close second for the opposite reason: it’s a huge time sink, but it’s very entertaining. TwitBin is my preferred Twitter client. Is there any extension(s) I should try removing to speed up my browser?

I threw my hat in the ring to lead a panel at SXSW 2008. Go vote for me (login required, but I promise it’s painless).

After hosting the second iteration of the Facebook Developers Hackathon with Amit Gupta at USV, I’ve found myself having the same conversation a lot: “In light of the Facebook platform, is ‘Closed’ the New ‘Open’?” Using Facebook as a case study, this question has been bouncing around USV all summer. People seem to be finding comfort in the conveniences and inherent limitations of the Facebook platform. Furthermore, people seem to appreciate Facebook as a benevolent dictator. I suppose compared to MySpace’s reign, third-party app developers have a lot to appreciate in Facebook’s freedom by comparison. Yet, prior to Facebook, it seemed like there was no question that open platforms were better than closed ones for all parties involved.

I think Scott Heifernan kicked off this meme when he said that the Facebook platform reminded him of AOL. Kottke was more direct: he followed suit by saying Facebook is AOL 2.0. Both of these posts were words of warning and played to the general wisdom that an open platform (such as the internet) is generally better than a closed platform (such as AOL).

But, Seth Goldstein, co-founder of AttentionTrust and general openness advocate, took a sharp U-Turn when the Facebook platform was released and wrote that closed is the new open. As Seth mentions in his post, Seth and Fred discussed this subject at USV and Fred nearly threw Seth out of the office ;). This is a controversial subject for Union Square Ventures seeing as how much of our decisions and portfolio companies are built on the tenet that open systems are generally better than closed ones. Seth has since bet the farm on the Facebook platform in his latest startup: SocialMedia.

Similarly, the VC community has become remarkably enthusiastic about the Facebook platform. Bay Partners launched AppFactory, a Facebook-only venture fund. Lightspeed Venture Partners’ portfolio companies RockYou and Flixter combined have developed 3 of the top 15 Facebook apps. RockYou seems to have redirected almost all development effort in focusing on the Facebook app market.

Other thoughts that inform this meme worth mentioning:
- Dave Winer’s latest thoughts on The State of The Platform.
- A great quote from Jason Calacanis: “It makes no sense to me to build inside of someone else’s platform when you have the wide open internet out there to develop on.”
- Fred’s take on how open Facebook really is.
- It’s not five f*&%-ing weeks anymore, but Marc Andreessen’s thoughts on this subject have been spot on since day one. From Marc’s post:

The web, after all, vanquished proprietary online services like America Online, Prodigy, and Compuserve — the so-called “walled gardens” — in large part because the web is a platform and the walled gardens were not. No single closed service, no matter how good, and no matter how big, could compete with the diversity of thousands and then millions of web sites that were customized to every conceivable user interest and need.

Yet most major web busineses have not themselves sought to become platforms.

So, in the context of this meme, I proposed the following SXSW ‘08 panel: Facebook: Is ‘Closed’ the New ‘Open’?

The idea would be to use Facebook as a case study for a larger conversation about the advantages and disadvantages of open and closed platforms. I don’t expect the panel to generate “the answer.” But, I think the topic would make a good community conversation because it affects everyone the elects to develop is some corner of the internet, whether it be open or closed.

So, if this sounds interesting to you, then please go vote for this panel now. Thanks!

Perez Hilton has been claiming for a week now that Castro is dead. I would never normally visit Perez Hilton, but I found out via Twitter that Perez Hilton was breaking this story.

So, just to review, I found out one of the most important news stories of 2007 from A TRASHY GOSSIP BLOG… via TWITTER…

It’s possible that this story isn’t true. No reliable news media seems to be reporting it. Part of me hopes this story isn’t true, just so a bunch of NYTimes reports don’t lose their jobs over a Perez Hilton scoop.

If this is true, old media is dead.

After just blogging about my use of HopStop yesterday, and I was interested to see that Google is going to launch a subway mapping service. I am particularly interested in seeing how HopStop (currently the best NYC subway maps web service) responds to this. Google is directly entering their space, and I wonder how the movie will end.

We have seen this movie before: Google has moved in on the territory of niche mapping services in the past. Previously, Platial was the best way to create your own personal map of a set of locations of routes, but then Google launched MyMaps directly competing with Platial. But, this movie is still playing out… Platial is still alive and kicking.

I’m interested in this news story because it speaks of a larger trend in web services platforms. What happens when you build on a platform, and then the platform developer decides to release a first-party version of your software? The platform developer almost always have the upper-hand in this relationship because they design the API that applications use, and so they can use that leverage to their advantage.

In the case of Microsoft, they made special Microsoft-only APIs that only first-party applications (like Office) could call, which blocked out third-party competitors, forcing the competition to use slower, outdated API calls. This API blocking issue was central to the Microsoft vs DoJ anti-trust suit. We know how that movie ended.

Every platform needs a killer app to succeed, so platform developers need application developers. And, most application developers need a platform because they don’t want to reinvent the wheel. But the relationship between these two parties is delicate. Perhaps, the two parties are fundamentally at odds with each other.

I’m not sure how the latest version of this movie will end, but I’m looking forward to watching. Time to go make some popcorn.

In performing my job, there are a few resources that are indispensable.

• Funding news sites like alarm:clock, PEHub, and VentureBeat are good for keeping up with industry gossip and latest valuations.
• My feed reader (formally Bloglines, now Google Reader) is more important than any individual blogs I follow.
• TechMeme makes me efficient at keeping up with the latest geek drama. (“Is ‘closed’ the new ‘open’?” , “What will Calacanis say next?”)
• Google Toolbar’s AutoFill feature speeds up the process of registering for Yet_Another_Social_Network (TM); I register for hundreds of services a year.
• I got my BS in Finance from Wikipedia University. (and a Masters from Brad Feld’s blog).
• LookOut saves me from having to sort my mail into folders
• Movable Type powers Union Square Ventures’ website, so I’ve grown to appreciate it.
• Speaking of the company blog, Akismet saves me an unbelievable amount of time. I haven’t sorted a single piece of comment spam since installing it. I cannot sing its praises enough.
• JotSpot powers our company wiki, but it can be irritating.
• Twitter is often my first source for breaking news.
• HopStop for finding the quickest route to the latest tech scene Meetup. One year in the city, and I’m still confused by any locations south of 14th st.
• Finally, DNSStuff is crucial for flushing out stealth projects, pinpointing anonymous commenters, and basic site administration.

Speaking of DNSStuff, I went there recently and got bounced to an interstitial page that accused me of using FasterFox. They wanted me to uninstall it because the pre-caching that FasterFox does reeks havoc with the DNSStuff servers. Oddly enough, I wasn’t using FasterFox at the time, but the first thing I did after receiving this error interstitial page was install FasterFox to see what I was missing :)

… and of course I couldn’t function without search (Google’s my flavor), but who doesn’t use search?! And I’m ignoring crucial software like the Office Suite, Acrobat, my Crackberry, etc… I’m more a captive of those products than a fan.

Anything obvious I’m leaving out?

I was surprised to browse my blog today and find that the background of the site was black and there was a PHP shell script located in my sidebar. See screenshots at the bottom of the post.

Someone replaced my the contents of my WordPress sidebar.php file with a PHP shell. So, I swapped the sidebar.php file out for an old sidebar.php file I had lying around in backup, and I changed a few passwords to FTP and admin access… but I still have no idea how someone got into my blog and mucked with the contents of my php files. Anyone heard of similar problems/exploits on WordPress blogs? I’m using WordPress v2.2.

I don’t think anything really bad happened, but I’m still bummed that I got pwn’d ;)

Anyone got any advice?

Screenshot of my blog (click for larger image):

Closeup of the shell script in my sidebar:

Wow… there’s a mountain of interesting new CDs being released this week. I’m particularly excited about Caribou, The New Pornographers, and Architecture in Helsinki.

The past two Caribou albums have been in heavy rotation for over a year straight. I’m particularly excited about more material on that front.

Two tastes from new albums:
*New* Architecture in Helsinki – Heart it Races
*New* The New Pornographers – Myriad Harbours

via: Brooklyn Vegan

It looks like the MTA has comissioned a Facebook app: Subway Status. It’s an interesting idea, but in execution it looks like another example of why web 2.0 behaviors rarely crossover and achieve mainstream adoption.

On the Subway Status app users can:

• Choose their regular subway and network with other riders of the same line.
• Get up-to-date info on schedules / delays.
• Meet other people who take their line regularly

Unfortunately, when I chose the 3 line as my “regular” line, the only users I was given the option to social network with was a guy named “Homeless Tom”. He looks pretty scary… (see pic at end of post).

Also, the MTA has an excellent subway service advisories page at MTA.info, but instead of incorporating that information into the Facebook app, the MTA expects the delays section for each subway line to be filled in by the crowd. Crowdsourcing is clearly not the best way to keep people up-to-date on delays since all information about delays trickles down from the MTA to the public in the first place.

Overall, I think it’s an interesting idea, and I’m glad the MTA didn’t try to make their own social network from scratch… but this MTA Facebook app is really just a novelty. Which is too bad, because I actually think there’s an opportunity for a service like HopStop to do something interesting with the aggregate of their rider information and create an interesting social application.

Here’s the screenshot of my only 3 line friend, Homeless Tom, below:

I must have dropped my digital camera through a portal to another dimension (note: I did not drop my camera) because it’s now possessed by demons.

Check out the output on both pictures and video. It’s a silver-lining to the unfortunate fact that I now need to handle this problem. :(

Video:

My Digital Camera is Possessed by Poltergeists from Andrew Parker and Vimeo.

Some Photos:
A damaged pic of my hand

A damaged pic of the door at USV: