Thumbnotes on the Treadmill

Its cold and rainy outside. No bike ride for me this morning. So I am inside on the eliptical trainer To relieve the boredom I am going to try another stream of consciousness post

1) The Facebook beauty contest ended as suspected with Microsoft investing a lot of money for a small stake and locking down the ad relationship. I stand by my comment I made on this when the news of discussions first broke that the valuation of this deal is irrelevant.

2) Nokia can buy companies like Navteq and Enpocket but they won’t make Nokia a web services company as long as the vast majority of its revenues come from selling hardware.  Apple is also a hardware company. On the other hand, RIMM is not.

3) IMAP/gmail is a big deal I am going to switch from outlook/exchange to gmail soon. When will there be an IMAP client for gmail/gcal that does over the air sync on my blackberry?  Or do I Have to wait for the gphone?

4) Seeing my facebook and twitter friends aggregated on my flock sidebar is a revelation of the highest order. I have one social network, but its broken into a bunch of silos right now. Its time to aggregate it up.

5) Neko Case is amazing. But I like her work with New Pornographers better than her solo work

6) Someone needs to do this chart. For any given band, plot records sold (per release) versus tickets sold (per tour). Do that over the course of the past ten years. Lefsetz says that Spoon only sold 3,800 cds this week and 150k to date. I bet they draw more than 3,800 per week touring. Its not that Spoon doesn’t have a rabid fan base, its that their fans will pay for something that is scarce and won’t pay for something that is not

7) Public market investing is largely about picking the right names and trading them well. Its about deciding whether or not to play the hand that is dealt. Private market investing is much more about how you play the hand.

8) Parenting teenagers is hard. Not reacting/overreacting is half the battle.

9) I hate working out indoors

[posted by email to typepad, apologies for spelling, grammar, typos, and the absence of links]

#My Music#Random Posts#stocks#VC & Technology

Comments (Archived):

  1. Bruce Barber

    Hi Fred,I’ve been working on an idea I had called “The Real Life Survival Guide” for quite some time now. It’s a radio show (and Website) dedicated to sharing practical “Tips for Living”.I’ve recently been given the green light to start the show (it will be heard Sunday afternoons on Connecticut Public radio), and I’ve been busy this week launching the Website and producing the segments in my home studio.I smiled when I read #9, as one of the first topics I decided to cover is parenting teens.Here’s the link to that segment:http://www.thereallifesurvi

    1. fredwilson

      I’ll check it outDo you agree with my ‘note to self’?Fred

      1. Bruce Barber

        Like, totally.

  2. Robert John Ed

    Neko IS amazing. I felt much the same you did at first in terms of her work with the new pornographers…but what completely changed the game was buying her live albums. Hers is a rare ability to actually sound better through live recording (some people believe this for the majority of artists, but not me).Pick up The Tigers Have Spoken and/or Live from Austin Texas…her voice is incredibly strong and her ability to mix different tunes from multitudes of genres got me hooked. For whatever reason, her other albums don’t resonate so well as those mentioned.

  3. Kendal H

    Fred,If you need, I have complete access to every concert since 2003 including tickets sold and gross revenue. (helpful research information for a ticket broker) I don’t, however, have the records sold information. Maybe someone could team up with me? Shoot me an email.

  4. JayR

    The instructor in my spin class is a big Spoon fan and plays them pretty heavily. Maybe that would help you solve your problem 9.

    1. fredwilson

      Maybe I’ll go back to spinning. I used to do it but just hate riding insideFred

  5. Fred333

    I hate working indoors too. I hate being cold and wet though too. I guess it is a toss up. I would be interested in a graph like that too.

  6. Druce

    While MSFT strategic considerations make $15b valuation suspect, it’s relevant for hiring, doing deals, plus FSJ says hedgetards will invest additional $500m in Facebook at MSFT valuation.

  7. Luke

    I’m a fan of gmail/google apps. We use it as the email provider for our consulting biz.But before you switch over, be warned we’ve seen issues in google mail with non-delivery of messages, especially when you use the web interface, which masks (or doesn’t include) the sender’s IP address in the email (for privacy reasons). Some spam filters/blacklists don’t appreciate that, and we’ve had messages not reach some recipients (not good for business). Using POP/IMAP clients is more reliable because the sender IP is included in the emails.

  8. Joe

    I don’t know about gCal, but gmail already sync’s with the blackberry. I’m using it right now with full push (immediate) email delivery and sync with deletes and replies on the bb. The only thing that doesn’t sync is read status, and if you delete on the web interface it doesn’t automatically delete from the bb (but it does the other way around). It also works with Google apps for your domain, but there’s an extra step to set it up.

  9. davduf

    Long time listener, 1st-time caller …1) Yes and at that valuation, no one (else) is ever going to acquire FB.5) Also… http://www.chartattack.com/…… (hot).6) Man would I love to have lunch with you someday and just talk music (industry, technology, and how it’s all changing). the Radiohead experiment, Last.fm and, to be honest, the OiNK shutdown are giving me lots if ideas that make me wanna jump the VC/entrepreneur fence…8) Something like 2 years ago I realised that running (and sometimes biking) in the rain and cold (and snow) is not only very feasible but actually very fun… empty streets/trails, differents smells, light, sights… and after 2 mins you’re warm anyway. Might just be me, though…

  10. brooksjordan

    These stream-of-consciousness posts are some of my favorites. In this one, love the comment about the new Flock and how it’s giving you an experience of the interop and aggregation that’s coming. On that note, I thought this oldish post by Alex Iskold (http://tinyurl.com/3bwd8l) about using the interface as the API and how that will enable the programmable, semantic Web quite intriguing. I’ve worked with Kapow (http://kapowtech.com) and they’re doing a great job already of turning every interface into an API in the enterprise. So it’s not hard to imagine it happening all over the Web.

  11. kenberger

    “On the other hand, RIMM is not [a hardware company]”.They feel they are. RIM for years has loved to proclaim that they draw significant profits from hardware. And the most mind-boggling part is the manufacturing is done in Canada. Open your Curve and it should say so.