For Auld Lang Syne, My Dear
December 22, 2009
For some reason the movie has a holiday appeal to it. It’s probably just the deep sentimentality of the film that gives it a yuletide vibe. For me the non-romantic plot of the movie, a quaint bookstore closing shop in submission to a Barnes and Noble-esque superstore also triggers Christmasy thoughts. No, not because I am an indecent person that rejoices in the misery of the underdog but rather, because around the holidays I feel nostalgic for the quainter things. . . Continue
The Search Continues . . .
April 3, 2009
Why is Google’s rumored acquisition of Twitter interesting? There are many reasons, but Internet giants trying to extend their reach into social media is not new (try Google’s search deal with MySpace or Microsoft’s investment in Facebook). The real potential and excitement rests in live search.
Live search allows users to mine real-time data and information instead of indexed Internet content that is periodically updated. The true power of this search form has yet to be unleashed, but I have had few promising personal examples. Recently, a search of tweets showed me pictures and outcomes of the crash landings of airplanes in the Hudson River in New York and Amsterdam more accurately or quickly than other media could. . . Continue
Keep on Chasin' that Pap– Electronic Currency
March 26, 2009
After eBay announced earnings recently, there seems to have been renewed buzz about early Internet startup darling, PayPal. And why not? PayPal looks to be eBay’s big source of growth in the next few years, projected to compose about 1/3 of eBay’s revenue by 2011. I have seen tweets and blog posts from venture investors either referencing PayPal’s innovative beginnings or just outright looking for payments processing platforms that could attain similar success.
While PayPal has been a wonderful tool and the go-to currency for online users, it has left food on the table for other hungry startups. As we go electronic and green with regard to paper products, the one paper product that does not seem to be going anywhere is paper currency. . . Continue
Not Too Late for a Summer Job, Type-A Undergrads
March 19, 2009
I know. This is way too quick to write my next post, but too bad. This is time sensitive.
As the general job market worsens (I don't believe the latest drop to 646K in jobless claims is at all an accurate indicator), so do prospects for summer internships and jobs for college students. I have enjoyed the hardship that is recruiting season at a school full of Type-A go-getters. Fortunately, for me times were good, and finance jobs were available basically to anyone that had read "When Genius Failed" or "Liar's Poker" and rocked a 3.0 GPA. Alas, overachieving college sophomores and juniors, times are different, and interviewing for internships is hypercompetitive. I have had undergraduate students, mostly on the business major path, ask me for advice on what to do when the ideal summer gig isn't available. I usually suggest being creative in the downturn (as does everyone else). I advise them to do something even remotely related to what the ideal job would have been (as does everyone else). I tell them to hang in there, and stay positive (yeah . . . you get the idea). . . Continue
Talking About My Generation
March 13, 2009
After watching Jon Stewart battle (more like school) Jim Cramer tonight on "The Daily Show," I realized how much of an icon he really is to our generation. Joe Scarborough earlier this week called his audience's nightly response Pavlovian, and I guess he is right to some extent. Jon Stewart understands, or at least understands how to manipulate, us. Either way, it struck me how much he 'gets' us.
That got me thinking, I am not sure about the exact age limitations of my generation, but I would consider anyone that can relate to Jon Stewart at least up for consideration. So what other criteria is required to be met to be part of this generation? . . . Continue
The Problem(s) with Wall Street
February 3, 2009
Wall Street is no longer a street in Downtown Manhattan. It hasn’t been for some time now. Wall Street has actually weaved its web across most of New York City. It is no longer just the banks. Its appendages include hedge funds, private equity firms, wealth managers, and any other type of financial/investing house that may have sprouted in the past couple of decades. However, when it comes down to our current mess—when it comes down to whom tax payers are bailing out, the blame indeed does revert to the traditional salestraders, investment bankers and bank execs. They are the ones that took on misunderstood, levered off-balance sheet risks to satisfy their hedge fund clients. They are the ones that provided a secondary market for bad mortgages, incentivizing brokers to give out a loan to any potential homeowner that would seek it. Now, there are many to blame including perhaps, the SEC, which may not have oversight when it comes to hedge funds and private equity shops, but which is absolutely in charge of maintaining the appropriate regulation over banks to provide shareholders transparency. Yet, even with so many to blame, there is no question in my mind about how broken the Wall Street system really is.
I seem to have vilified investment banks and refered to them as “they.” Unfortunately, I myself am a member of the industry. I have only been involved for about a year and a half now, meaning I really have nothing to do with most of the ills that spurred this historic collapse, but I am a cog in this ‘broken’ machine and am obligated to at least offer some insight into the repairs needed. . . Continue
What's With that Cloud?
December 16, 2008
Cloud computing has been given much hype. Even more traditional rags like The Economist are covering it. It is definitely an exciting technological movement, but I don’t think it really changes things for the average end-user. One of the biggest benefits of the cloud is economics. It provides cheap storage and scalability, which enables small to medium-sized companies to ramp up faster and compete more effectively with the big guys. The big guys—Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, IBM, etc.—have been cognizant of the importance of the cloud and are offering up their own web services and application development platforms. Of the big guys, the ones that execute their cloud strategies best will gain greater entrenchment and integration with the smaller guys and consumer facing companies as they scale, such as a Twitter or one of the many budding iPhone applications companies. The cloud becomes a necessity for these players to remain cost-competitive and relevant to their enterprise customers.
But for the average end-user the cloud is mostly back-end technology that might not be a very noticeable game-changer in day-to-day computer use. Indirectly, the end-user will reap great benefits. New startups mean more innovation and smarter aggregation of information for users, but it will be hard for a consumer to say, “Wow, the cloud is great,” because the consumer doesn’t care where the data is coming from. In fact, other than Office-esque productivity applications run from the desktop, most people already meet most of their computing needs on the Internet, whether through webmail, social networks or other SaaS platforms. . . Continue
Mac Gets Back
October 19, 2008
Microsoft has been running an advertising campaign to combat Apple's popular Mac versus PC commercials. Though not as clever as the Apple ads, as a viewer Microsoft's commercials at least seem effective. Apple's latest Mac ad jibed at Microsoft's increased ad spend but apparent lack of improvement in Vista. Apple, of course, spends its own fair share on mass market advertising, but its dedicated base of fanboys and legions of followers that get excited by the slightest movement by Jobs afford the brand the ability to make this snide commentary against the software giant. . . Continue