- Yesterday I commented on Tesla Motor’s big announcement to produce cars in California over New Mexico. Today another big rumor is floating around that Tesla has reached a deal to sell batteries to Mercedez in their efforts to sell electic cars by 2010. With other big name auto companies believed interested in similar deals, one wonders if Tesla’s future may one day be mainly as a battery maker and secondarily a car manufacturer.
Tesla Battery Below
- Yahoo email freaking blows compared to Gmail. Most of the emails in my inbox are spam and a good 25% of non spam emails end up in the spam folder.
Emails I have had to dig out of my spam folder include 2 job offers, a reply email from a friend, a response from an Ohio State professor about a speaking engagement, and notification that I won an African lottery ….kidding.
Gmail on the other hand is pretty much balls on accurate. Yahoo is a crap shoot, and I am thinking of phasing out the account.
- I gave into the temptation to join Twitter tonight. I’ll recap my thoughts in it in a couple of weeks. Feel free to “follow” me at http://twitter.com/bkoo
- Finally wanted to give a look at how sweet Yardbarker is. There are a lot of cool fuctions and things we are doing, but what continues to amaze me is how easy it is for fans to interact with athletes. Below are some schreenshots of some exchanges between me and Chiefs WR Dwayne Bowe and Angels Pitcher John Lackey
If you watch ESPN ever so often, then you are well versed in Stephen A Smith. For those who know him, feel free to skip the video below and paragraph below
Stephen A on a typical tirade
Smith came to ESPN in 2005 and was tabbed as a rising star in sports broadcasting with columns with the Philadelphia Inquirer, his own national radio show, his own show “Quite Frankly” on ESPN, as well as appareances on a variety of other ESPN shows. He covered a variety of sports, but his bread and butter was basketball.
There was one problem though, Stephen A Smith earned the repuation “Screaming A Smith” as he always seemed outrage, agitated, and on the verge of major stroke. He bashed anything and everything and the schtick grew thin. Some enjoyed it but most including myself hated him.
Slowly he started coming back to Earth. His radio show and weekly column ended, Quite Frankly got canceled, and ESPN seemed to be limiting his role in NBA coverage. I am sure this didn’t sit well Mr. Smith, but the real dagger came when ESPN removed him from the stage of this past NBA draft and relegated him to interviewing draft picks on the side. Smith had spent the past 2 years as one of key analysts of the draft.
Smith’s demotion and general angry demeanor has been the talk of the sports blogoshpere for quite awhile, but recently I came across the organization known as Stephen A Smith Heckling Society of Gentleman that I wanted to share.
The backstory is short and sweet. A couple of buddies, / loud mouth wise asses (that’s a compliment), attended the 2006 NBA draft and videotaped various exchanges with Stephen A Smith. In particular they poked fun of the fact that Smith ate a copious amount of Cheese Doodles when off camera. Their jeers and impressions of Smith were ridiculously on target and quickly became a viral hit on youtube.
The following year, the same tandem guys (sobriety again in question), returned to the draft and once again jeered Smith. This time they added a new twist by chasing after players, pretending that a on camera sock puppet was Smith. The sock impersonating Smith was actually slapped by Joahkim Noah and was extremely affective and entertaining with numerous cliche sound bites like “I am Stephen A Smith, and everything I say is important” “Quite Frankly….” “HowEVER….”.
Oblivious to internet phenomena mocking him, Smith served up a gem by going on a tirade on his National radio show touting his love of Cheese Doodles. Once again the Stephen A Smith Heckling Society of Gentleman produced another classic youtube video.
With three popular videos produced, the guys once again took to it to mock one of the most annoying sports personality since Dennis Miller. Below are their efforts
All of the above is just another great and comedic example of web2.0/social media’s impact on traditional media. Tired of Smith, the two friends took a silly day at the draft and grew it to an internet phenomen. Smith has been demoted multiple times while the videos above have garnered almost a million views as well acknowledgements by Tony Kornheiser and Kevin Love.
While its hard to say that these videos played a role in Smith’s plight back to earth, social media serves more and more as the first line into emerging trends, opininons, movements, etc. These videos served as the centerpiece of the anti Smith general opinion that has relegated to a second tier ESPN personality. Their popularity only confirmed what most viewers and maybe even the ESPN brass already suspected :
Stephen A Smith needed to be taken down a peg or two and more importantly should seek therapy.
Props to the guys who have made it a priority in their lives to lead this movement. Also good to see they haven’t tried to monetize their viral hit, but have rather decided to plug a very worthy cause.
Wanted to throw a couple of interesting updates on the Green Technology fronts.
I have covered Tesla Motors and even had the pleasure of visiting to their offices in San Carlos. The overhead costs associated with launching a car company are ginormous and rumors are that Tesla is seeking some more dough to help get their efforts off the ground.
“Tesla looking for another $100 million — The electric car maker’s plan is to push production up to 150 cars a month by the end of the year, according to VentureWire. To do this it needs more cash. It will likely get it. Enough said.” per VentureBeat.
While funding for a company as ambitious as Tesla would seem like a daunting challenge, this Bay Area startup seems to have made believers out of VC’s, auto enthusiasts and journalists, Silicon Valley investors (a who’s who of valley CEO’s), as well Hollywood’s A list. Although another $100 million is a lot, VentureBeat is right on as the company has come to far and is too close to slow down now.
In other Tesla news, although many celebrities have said to be on the waiting list for their own Tesla Roadster, Matt Damon became the first celebrity to be seen in one. Although just a test drive, its more encouraging news for Tesla as their production begins to ramp up towards 150 cars a month.
In other green transportation news, this weekend I stumbled upon the California High Speed Train proposal and debate. Likely to be on the ballot this November, the 10 billion dollar proposal looks to connect Sacramento, the Bay Area, Central Valley, Los Angeles, Anaheim, and San Diego on one high speed train line.
My take: I have read some analyis taking both sides of the proposal and find myself overwelmingly for the implementation of this system. Housing costs are high forcing a lot of people to make far commutes, gas prices are high, highways are overcrowded, and their is now convenient system connecting this great state’s commerce centers. Yeah this thing is going to be a bitch to build, and usher through all the government bureacy, but the value is their for California citizens and voters. The ends justify all the means and then some. Most transportation efforts at the local effort have failed, so lets’ sack up and Swing for the fences now.
The video and the GigaOM blog are pretty much on the money. Linkedin is already big and is growing rapidly, Linkedin offers business users value, and Linkedin already has 3 established revenue streams. A year from now we’ll probably look back thinking this debate of the hefty valuation was indeed ill advised. I think the real debate is if Facebook is really worth15 billion dollars?
Below is a very interesting but kind of long interview with Bill Gurley from Benchmark Capital (investor in Vudu, Open Table, and Zillow) and his soon to be colleague Matt Cohler. Cohler spent the past three years at Facebook where he headed product management and before that was integral to Linkedins’ efforts to get off the ground. What’s more impressive is that he is only 31!
TechCrunh’s Michael Arrington (Silicon Valley blogging god) discusses a variety of topics with Bill and Matt, touching Facebook’s future, Linkedin’s sucess, Benchmark Capital’s unique model, Matt’s new role, VC 101, as well the future of Yahoo.
While Matt is quite impressive during the interview, I particularly took notice of Bill’s comment that technology and investing rely youth and enthusiasm. Its this concept, that provides the upward mobility, career advancement, and new opportunities that I cherish in Silicon Valley. Getting in the door in SV is tough, but its abundantly clear with guys like Matt, Zuckerberg, Kevin Rose, the Youtube Founders, and so many young SV prodigies, that this area affords smart and ambitious young people an opportunity to find an early career prime in their late twenties and early thirties.
Today on a wimb I did a Google News search on the Big Ten Network looking to see if they had mady any progress to strike a distribution deal with Comcast.
I found an article around noon with an update was iminent in the coming week. Fast forward to a couple hours later when I was visiting Yardbarker blog, Awful Announcing, to see that indeed the a deal had been finalzed bringing the Big Ten Network to basic cable in the Big Ten Region . The deal also means that the Big Ten Network will become avaiable on sports packages for those with Comcast outside of the Big Ten region.
The bottom line is that the agreement means “Just 40 percent of the homes equipped with cable or satellite dishes will be able to receive BTN in Ohio as things stand. That compares to the new totals of 89 percent in Indiana, 87 percent in Illinois, 83 percent in Pennsylvania and 79 percent in Michigan.”
The agreement is a HUGE win for the Big Ten Network which now has legitimate staying power as a cable network. Regardless if Charter or Time Warner pick up the network, BTN has enough distribution through ATT, Comcast, Dish, Direct TV and most likely Verizon Fios in the near future to survive the two remaining holdouts.
Let’s hope the NFL network is able to find similar success in the coming months as we approach fall.
I had a handful of commercials pegged for commercial of the week, but none seem to be on youtube. Following up on my ode to Apple yesterday I thought I would go with the new ad for the new 3g Iphone.
Nothing special but its great that they position it as twice as fast and half as cheap. The positioning will lead to a lot of upsells.
Last week I gave the Oakland A’s some love about some solid determination and business practices surrounding my interest in procuring a luxury box for a birthday event . This week I decided its time to show Apple some love once again.
But first I wanted to point out that tomorrow Firefox is releasing a new version of their popular browser. I use FireFox as do most smart people. It runs on Windows, Linux, as well as Mac OS. Be sure to check it out as it blows other browsers out of the water and is more intuitive and reliable than Safouri or dreaded Explorer. Now on to the Apple Love fest.
It was a week ago that Steve Jobs made the much anticipated announcement of the soon to be released 3G Iphone. Despite a lot of skeptics looking to detract from the new release, the general buzz has been that the new features, design, functionality, and more importantly pricing ($199-$299) signals more smooth sailing for Apple into the smart phone market. Business Week summed up how Apple is in good position to essentially pillage the smart phone market.
Personally I am pretty floored with the success Apple has had and the direction they have taken. In time I think its likely we will see various models to hit different target segments, but its impressive to say the least that in about a year Iphone’s are faster, cheaper, have more memory, and have nurtured the development community with its SDK.
When the new phone comes out I will probably upgrade and be happy about it. The fact that I am getting a better performing phone with double the memory at half the price speaks volumes to the company’s competitive stratedgy.
Next up on my Apple Love A Palooza is the actual Apple stores. Sunday morning something tragic happened. My work laptop broke. It was a hand me down from another employee so I didn’t look like that big of an idiot. I was actually kind of excited, hoping to get upgraded to a MacBook Pro but also to see how good Apple’s customer service is.
Tour of Apple store
I had heard some amazing things, which is rare when it comes to customer service in general so I was intersted to see how it would go. Below is a break down of my experience
10:00 am- Speak to co workers. Book an 11:15 am appointment at Apple Genuis Bar. For those who dont know this where people can actually help you. What a freaking concept, making the person you really need to see accessible.
11:15 am- There are about 5-6 geniuses working at a time. They have big beautiful flat screens with appointments showing if they are on time or behind schedule. Considering I got a same day appointment and had to wait less than 5 minutes past my scheduled time, I must say I was really impressed.
11:20 AM- The genuis diagnoses the problem. It didn’t take multiple people and having me wait and a run bunch of self diagnostics or trouble shooting ( i hate that shit, if its broken and i know it, stop having me try to fix it). I didn’t have to produce the original receipt or warranty. He simply makes me sign one piece of paper and says depending on when the replacement part comes in… this could be fixed today or later in the week. I am amazed that in less than what would be 2 songs on the radio I am in and out of the store.
1:30PM - My boss and our CEO, does not like the idea of me being computer less for awhile. I go back to buy a new computer which I will sadly give away when mine is repaired. I speak to the lady who handles our small business accounts. She brings me a new computer and charges it to our corporate card. I am out once again less than 10 minutes.
5:00 PM- A call from the Apple store prompts me to come in. My computer is fixed which kind of sucks because I was beginning to fall in love with the new I just bought. I go in, they get it for me. I sign a piece of paper and have it explained that some other parts were replaced to make it look newer. I am cool with that. Babes like new looking computers. Once again I am out in 10 minutes.
While this doesn’t sound that remarkable, my mother recently had to send back a laptop to Sony. She had to ship it to them and constantly inquire about its progress of being fixed. For over 3 weeks she borrowed my sisters computer and when it finally came back nearly a month later, it still wasn’t all the way fixed. She thought about sending it back but decided she couldn’t wait another month and decided to get a Mac next time around
Apple just gets it, like no other hardware maker before it has. The products are user friendly and the stores are just as enjoyable as the products.
For those of who don’t know, Apple store employees wear various bright color shirts with simple sentences telling you what they do. Orange shirts say “I know People” and can direct you to the right person. Baby blue shirts say “I could talk about this stuff for hours” and are worn buy the floor reps. The Genuis bar people have a Navy Blue shirt with management having a separate color. All in all there seems to be 20-35 employees in the small stores every time I go there. Getting someone to help you is never a problem. There is no register or line because each floor rep can process your order. Upon placing an order you get an email of your receipt right away.
The employees are usually the exact opposite of Frye’s electronics employees (helpful, speak English, have good hygiene, know what they are talking about, are candid, etc). All in all I have spent maybe 45 minutes in Apple stores in the past calender year (counting today) and have made 5 different purchases totaling $5000.
As someone who hates going shopping, dealing with crowds, and working with not so helpful employees, the Apple store is the one safe haven in the mall that puts me at ease (they also seem to attract good looking babes and employees too). All of the products are easy to find, plugged into the internet, and have great literature and web content about them. Essentially once you get into the store and are interested, the well oiled machine of educated and abundant employees, awesome marketing, great products, and lack of logistical hurdles like bad floor layout or long lines, allows you to make your purchase efficiently and without incident.
The most amazing thing is that every time I go in there, there is handful of people who seem absolutely befuddled. And by befuddled I mean they are either really old and have never owned a computer or are younger but are pretty much as senial for fighting technology this long. This is traditionally retail’s worst nightmare. 1 million questions, a long learning curve, and their jaw will drop when they hear the price. They seem to loathe technology and will look for every reason why its too complicated, too expensive, or just not worth it.
Yet every time I go in the loud mouth skeptical person who still is mastering the remote control after 25 years, has a crowd of Apple employees slowly but surely winning them over. I don’t know how they have the patience of the will to do it, but sure enough every time its something I witness.
While my ode to the Apple store is a little excessive its well warranted considering the typical painful experience I endure when making a high end purchase. I get in, I get help, I get a product I like, I get out ….usually all in 10 minutes.
I am constantly bewildered by a lot of consumer business practices among some of the larger companies in our country (Cable, Airlines, Automakers). But it feels good in the rare scenario, when you truly feel that someone or some company went the extra mile to truly earn your business. Today I encountered one of those rare scenarios.
In January of 2007 I inquired about a partial season ticket plan for the A’s. I was going to buy good tickets for 10-15 games and was seeing what kind of benefits came from buying 22 games of tickets which was classified as a partial season bundle tickets package. Upon filling out a web form, a lady emailed me and tried to sell me on the value of getting the official plan. I ended up opting to just stay with individual tickets.
As the A’s fell apart in mid-late summer I found myself selling and even giving away tickets for some of the games. In the end I went to maybe 60% of the games I bought tickets for and some of them felt like burdens considering my work schedule which was ramping up. I didn’t have the time or the energy. The Real World and the A’s mediocrity in 2007 affectively killed my enthusiasm.
So leading up to the 2008 season, the same lady kept checking in with me, trying to sell me on something…anything. I was usually prompt with my refusals but flirted with some interesting offers that the team doesn’t advertise.
In particular about 2 months back she let me know about 1/2 off 18 person luxury boxes for Monday Night games. It was a good deal, a tempting one. A deal fit for a birthday party as I never do anythign for my birthday. Was this finally the year, I actually took the time to plan an event and indulge in something to celebrate me?
But my birthday wasn’t on a Monday. Monday is a work night too. It didn’t make sense. I politely declined but told the A’s lady that there was a Friday Night game on my birthday. If the same offer could be extended for that game, I would most likely take it.
I came back to my house on Friday to find a letter from the Oakland A’s. It was from the A’s lady who I had been in contact with letting me know that she had recieved approval to get me that discount for my birthday.
While that is mildly impressive, what is more impressive is that she lost all my phone and email contact information when I switched jobs. She couldn’t call me or email me. Instead she found my address via past ticket order done online. I imagine getting this info was not too hard, but required some effort and dilligence. Upon getting that information, she hand wrote a very nice letter telling me she knew I changed jobs and didn’t have my current info but the offer I solicted from her was on now on the table.
I was quite impressed. Someone I have never met, and had denied 6-10x, had now delivered what I asked from her. And when she finally made an arrangement she knew I was interested in, I was nowhere to be found.
While the A’s sometimes test my patience and make some odd moves ( seriously why did all the portopotties in the parking lot dissapear? Yeah its probably cheaper, but you got people pissing all over the damn place now) the persistence in common sense to do everything possible to make a sale paid off in this case. It’s great to see hard work and determination payoff, and I replied back to my ticket representative letting her know I will take her up on the offer.
Awhile back I gave South Park kudos to satirizing a large contingent of Youtube celebrities in a recent episode. Now it seems Weezer has joined the party in making overtures to the Youtube viewing community in their latest music video, Pork and Beans.
Thus far the reaction to the video has been very positive with the video on the cusp of being typical water cooler conversation for younger crowds. The videos’ success has led to over 5 million views in just under a week.
Whats’ cool about the video, is many of the online celebrities helped in the video’s making. By poking fun of themselves, they extend their 15 minutes of fame while showing that they understand the ridiculousness of their youtube stardom.
Per wikipedia, the video stars youtube stars like ” Gary Brolsma, Matt McAllister, Mark Allen Hicks (”Afro Ninja”), Chris Crocker, Caitlin Upton, Judson Laipply, Kicesie, Tay Zonday, Kevin Federline (archival footage), Liam Kyle Sullivan, Ryan Weiber, Michael “Dorkman” Scott, Jeong-Hyun Lim, and the Star Wars kid, as well as references to the Dramatic Prairie Dog, Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz’s Diet Coke and Mentos eruptions, parody G.I. Joe PSAs, catching Raybans with one’s face, the Free Hugs Campaign, the Dancing Banana, Will It Blend?, All Your Base Are Belong to Us, Daft Hands, Daft Bodies, the Sneezing Panda, the Soulja Boy dance, a CGI Donald Duck and King Kong, Charlie the Unicorn“
Good song with a very compelling and entertaining video. Great concept by one of my favorite bands.
While Pork and Beans is up there on my list of favorite videos, its still has 30 million views behind my all time favorite OK Go’s Here We Go Again.
