I had an interesting conversation recently with an analyst candidate at USV about the transport of bits (ie zeros and ones, coded information) vs atoms (ie physical goods, people, objects). It seems that the transfer of bits is largely a solved problem. But, we’re still figuring out the transfer of atoms…
Some big companies [...]

After an attempt to use Intense Debate on this blog, I reverted back to the original comment system with my blog. But, recently, I’ve been getting some complaints about the AJAX in my comment submission system breaking. So, now I’m trying out Disqus. Let me know if you have a notable (positive [...]

One of my favorite classes in college was CS:147 Intro to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The class was terrific for two reasons:
1. The subject matter was so interesting I ended up doing my major concentration in HCI.
2. More importantly, Monzy was my TA.
Monzy is a PhD student in CS (HCI focus) at Stanford, [...]

So, Bebo sold to AOL for $850m today. A few quick reactions:
# I think Bebo’s audience was becoming less and less engaged in the site in recent months. My favorite metric to check as a measure of engagement is “time spent per visitor.” Using this metric, you can compare sites of very [...]

I haven’t been blogging much recently because I was on vacation for the past week. Part of that vacation was a trip to Sonoma (with @DrDiver) to recharge my batteries. I had a fantastic stay at a cute little B&B. I can’t say enough good things about the place.
I just got an [...]

I can’t get over how many amazing and inventive hacks have been created using the Twitter API. It’s as if the Twitter API is the new spray paint and developers are the new graffiti artists: constantly competing against each other to tag (no pun intended) the most ridiculous locations in the most interesting ways. [...]

95% of consumer electronics aesthetic design is flat-out boring. The lid of every laptop is a wasted opportunity for artistic expression. They are canvases that are ignorantly left blank.
I wish the industrial designers behind consumer electronics devices would take a page from skateboard designers (or dare I say: skateboard artists). What if the [...]

Union Square Ventures is looking for a new analyst. If you think you might be interested in entering Venture Capital, this would be a great way to dip your toes in the water for 2 years. More details about the position and the application are on our blog.
Also, Charlie’s exit post on the [...]

Update: Turns out I’m no longer listed in any Google SERPs, not just ‘Andrew Parker.’ My site was hacked (yet again) and contained a TON of links to porn sites which were made invisible with a CSS trick. I upgraded my WordPress install to the latest version and removed all the offensive crap, [...]