Pills
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heard it today, just thought its so ironic (and funny) . . . considering that not long ago (98?) people said there are only 3 things that really made money on the net

Sports
Sex
Stocks

. . . all very much very inter-related . . . where there is money, there are spam & splogs

Been meaning to do this for a long time but Shri beat me to it. She set up a ebay blogger wiki directory where past and present ebay bloggers can list and discover each other’s blogs. I also replicated it on my side bar as a seperate blogroll so my readers can find them. In fact I encourage everyone to take a quick stroll. I’ll put the eBay lineup up against the best bloggers Yahoo, Google, or MSFT can throw together (plus many of their bloggers gets paid to blog. . . glorified PR people . . . we, instead, blog secretively between meetings, hoping not to get caught)

When I started working at eBay there were only a handfull of bloggers, now there are significantly more. . . (the wiki will prbably double in short order as the word spread) . . . I remember being scared shitless that PR might fire me or ask me to shut down my blog. In fact Shri (as my boss) was the first eBay person to ever discover it . . . and she was nice enough to keep it on the down low . . .

When I’m short on time to blog I create lists . . . (which blogger doesn’t love lists) . Today’s list is top ten reasons you are not a blogger anymore.

10. You think your (link) juice is too precious to share

9. You think about your (link) juice at all!

8. You get worked up if you are not getting your share of “hat tips”

7. You scramble to trackback to bunch of random blog you see on Techmeme so you can appear (spam) on Techmeme under the same heading

6. You joined FM publishing

5. You comment on every damn post on Techcrunch in hopes of getting some residual traffic

4. You are franchising your “brand”

3. You have a brand

2. You have blog-enemies that turn into real-enemies

1. You create lists cause you ran out of shit to blog about

The widening chasm between rich and poor may well threaten our democracy. Yet if that banker’s lament staggers your brain as it did mine, you’re on your way to seeing why America’s income gap is arguably less likely to spark a retro fight between proletarians and capitalists than a war between what I call the “lower upper class” and the ultrarich.

Perhaps its sour grapes (actually it definitely is). But this Forunes Article: Today’s lower upper class is seething about the ultrawealthy. rings so true to me.

The largest “sequential” income gap is no longer between the poor and the middle class . . . its between the rich and the ultra rich . . . no only that its the somewhat rich that has the will and the (comparable) resources to lead a revolution. Perhaps its even easier to remember that historically revolutions are most often enabled by the proletariat but LEAD by a coeterie of somewhat rich & up-and-coming men desperately attempting to overthrow the top .5% (of wealth and of power).

But the hopes and dreams of today’s educated class are based on the idea that market capitalism is a meritocracy. The unreachable success of the superrich shreds those dreams.

“I’ve seen it in my research,” says pollster Doug Schoen, who counsels Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton, among others. “If you look at the lower part of the upper class or the upper part of the upper middle class, there’s a great deal of frustration. These are people who assumed that their hard work and conventional ’success’ would leave them with no worries. It’s the type of rumbling that could lead to political volatility.”

Political volatility? Perhaps not political volatility but a changing of guards . . . with republicans representing the ultra rich and privledged . . . democrats needs to recognized the power, spend, and will of the somewhat rich . . . its about time ?

If people no smarter or better than you are making ten or 50 or 100 million dollars in a single year while you’re working yourself ragged to earn a million or two - or, God forbid, $400,000 - then something must be wrong.

eeks. . . I guess I dont even qualify to be bitching . . . I better fall in line and join the labor party instead

All it take is one week to ruin someone’s reputation on the web. Just another example of the divide between the technology blogosphere and the rest of the web (ala rocketboom vs. lonelygirl15 or digg vs. collegehumor) . . . Murry Gunty was a big deal for the technorati but rest of the web could care less . . . in this case, Aleksey Vayner has been THE news for the last week but I barely read a peep about him in my usual feeds by the pundits (you know who) of the valley . . .

Anyways, I wont delve into it too much but this Aleksey guys is a prototypical jackass found in 10% of the MBA population . . . even worse he *allegedly* falsified his resume to include founding an investment company, a charity, and even a book on the holocaust (how low can you get?)

IvyGate is widely credited as the lead blogger on the story

DealBreak has some juicy stuff as well.

Gawker really broke the story open.

And I think I just saw it on the yahoo homepage !!!!!

Why are Ninjas and Pirates cool? How did lonelygirl15 get 1M page views (a day!)? How did Tuscan Whole Milk get 738 reviews on Amazon?

These are the real mysteries of our time . . . Someone will win a Nobel Prize one day solving these puzzles . . .

(tips to statastic)

My favorite is this one

Once upon a midnight yearning, passion and desire burning
Wide awake with slumber hopeless, I rose in search of tender closeness
The stairs I did descend so softly, bristling with anticipation
Past trysts fueled expectations lofty, bracing for emancipation
Soon the corner I had rounded, heartbeat raced and lust abounded
My presence by the floorboards sounded, switch now flipped, his face astounded
Hopes and dreams came crashing down, despair; how could he do it?
As Tuscan and a bashful scoundrel stared back, exchanging fluids.
I wept for all that had been built, destroyed when he’d been caught
This milk no doubt was many things, but `wholesome’ it was not.

appropriately titled . . . “Lactose Intolerant”. . . cause so am I . . . havent tasted milk since 7th grade . . .

(graphic below will screw up my margins, but its funny enough to be worth it)

Frank Quattrone, the former Credit Suisse Group investment banker whose criminal obstruction charges may be set aside by U.S. prosecutors, retains the support of technology industry leaders who could help revive his career.

Quattrone, the son of a garment presser, was raised in a poor neighborhood of south Philadelphia. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1979 and became head of technology investment banking in 1990. In 1996, he moved to Deutsche Bank AG and in July 1998 to Credit Suisse.

Two weeks later, more than 130 investment bankers, analysts and other staff followed him from Deutsche Bank to Credit Suisse.

The group was based in Palo Alto, California, near the Sand Hill Road addresses in neighboring Menlo Park where many of the largest venture-capital firms are based. Over the years, Quattrone’s group handled IPOs for dozens of companies, including Amazon.com Inc., Cisco and Adobe Systems Inc.

More here from bloomberg

(I was part of that 130 bankers that moved with him to CSFB so I’m biased). . . Frank’s prosecution was a vestige of the web 1.0 (aka dot-com) era and the bust in 2002-2004 that followed. However, now that the web is back (as in 2.0), investors are going gaga once again over technology companies, and twenty somethings are once more on the covers of national magazines . . . looking for a scapegoat for the bust that followed sounds quite anti-climatic and counter productive. (proof that the valley does not have a master hypester, but an entire generation full of them) Even more so . . . the rest of us (VC’s, bankers, entreperneurs) who survived the bust and came out better than ever, not giving Frank that same chance seemed somewhat unfair. It wasnt that long ago that VC’s and dot-com snake oil sales guys (read entrepreneurs) were equally prosecuted by the mass media for bringing down the great american economy. A quick 2 years and a Google IPO later, they are again celebrated as the driver of great American global competitiveness. . . innovators and risk takers . . . the great purveyors of the equally great American Dreams.

At a time, when FuckedCompany’s Pud has joined the new party on the other side of the fence (not for workers and employees but for VC’s, executives, and techcrunch parties) . . . the bust has to be a distant memory . . .

Frank was unlucky to have to been the high profile scapegoat while the rest of us laid low and made our comebacks . . . letting frank take (the reputational not legal) blame for the excess that the entire valley participated in . . . . . And THAT is the reason Frank’s comeback is without doubt. . . Guilt . . .

Geoff Yang, a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures in Menlo Park, California, said he “absolutely'’ would work with Quattrone if the government dropped charges against him and he decided to step back into technology investing.

“I’ve always found Frank straightforward and honest in my dealings with him,'’ Yang said.

“I continue to believe he is a man of honor,'’ Barksdale, the former Netscape CEO, wrote in one of the letters to the court in 2004 in advance of his sentencing. Other Silicon Valley executives who wrote letters urging leniency included Adobe Co- Chairman Charles Geschke and Intuit Inc. founder Scott Cook.

“He’s a high-quality guy,'’ said Dick Kramlich, general partner of New Enterprise Associates, a Menlo Park-based venture capital firm. “He would be welcomed back, and he would be extremely effective.'’

“I actually wouldn’t be surprised to see Frank focus even more of his efforts on the California Innocence Project rather than get back into finance full-time,'’ Burnham, the author of the technology blog, said.

“If he does get back into the game, I think he’s much more likely to take part as a principal investor rather than a banker.'’

These are the words of men who knew in their hearts that Frank took one on the chin for the entire team.

(Plus an equally strong incentive. . . money. . . . Given that the current generation of valley bankers have yet to figure out how to help VC’s make money from pubic exits, they must be clamoring for some help from Frank . . . if he goes back to banking)

Edit: Jason Woodrow hits the nail on the head on the last piont I alluded to . . .

Hilarious article on the surprising domination of air guitar competitions by Asian Americans in the SF Chronicle . . . ASIAN POP Unstrung Heroes

We all have this genetic heritage of being rock stars, but none of us actually are. But it’s waiting in every one of us. We want to sing. We want to be creative. And when we’re given the stage, we just take that s– and run with it.

He sighs, torn between his competitive instincts and his sense of loyalty. “It wouldn’t be so bad if she won. From C-Diddy to Sonyk, from me to her. Just passing the torch. But then again, I’d hate to lose, too. It’s really funny — I actually have groupies. Sometimes I get recognized on the street. I get asked for autographs. But after I won the nationals, I decided I’d never write autographs on anything but skin. So now I only sign breasts.”

Pardon my rant, please skip this post. . .

I dont know where else to vent so I’m gonna do it on my blog and perhaps save some people from falling for one of their “deals” which I’m embarassed to say I did. (or hope it get indexed by Google so when someone searches on Wirefly they land here . . . and cause them to lose a couple of sales. . . thats see if thats worth trying to screw me over for a few hundred dollars).

Over a year back I bought a ROKR from them (again I’m embarassed to say I’m one out of the 100 people that actually bought one). At the time I thought, hey just like Amazon, after rebates the phone is free. . . . I should have read the disclaimer they put in 8 point font.

Well, once I recieved the handset I realized I could not send in the rebates until 180 to 210 days after activation. I knew I was tricked and tried to refund the phone but they asked for a fucking re-stocking fee. I was stuck and thought I’ll just have to be diligent and remember to send the rebate within the 30 days freaking window that they give you after a whole 6 month of waiting. (pardon my french).

Its kinda of obvious the game of slippage they are trying to play. . . not exactly the most ethical business practice already . . . and probably illegal with their lack of visible disclaimer and re-stocking fees.

The worst part came when I diligently saved all the boxes, cutouts & reciepts and sent in the rebate forms (BTW why are there 2 rebates in 2 envelopes for the same damn purchase? Why are they called “customer loyalty rebates” . . . they are just pissing on my grave at this point) and patiently waited. I got an email from them saying that they are processing the forms a few weeks after I mailed it in. After that. . . dead silence. . . again they are betting that I would forget about the rebate. Unfortunately for them, I’m a cheap bastard and keeped on emailing and calling them.

After quite a few non-responses, they told me that my rebate was dated 11 days too late. . . after waiting 6+ months, they are telling me that I’m 11 days too late? I’ve been 11 days late on my credit card bill and not get charged interest because I’m a long time customer !!! So now the only way to get my rebate is to send it “proof” of mailing date. Who the fuck mails rebates in certified mail? ARGH . . . the worst part is I have no idea if I am 11 days too late . . . I’m pretty sure I wasnt, but

So there you go, I’m out close to $300 bucks. . . (yes, I’m a dumb fuck, I could have just straight out bough the phone $100 but I tried to get it for free . . . not withstanding “time value of money”) . . . now that I’m worked up again, I’m going to call them and complain again. . . I promise to use up atleast $300 worth of customer service cost

On a more serious note, I dont think these guys understand that on average customer retention cost is significantly lower than acquisition cost for a new customer. To make me jump through hoops like that is a definite a drain on my satisfaction and loyalty. They will have to rely on new cusotmer acquisition for revenue growth rather than repeat customers. Furthermore, given that they are an online company reliant on search marketing as the key driver of their business, it is not wise to piss off customers who can just write a post on a blog or BBS and complain. When someone types in “ROKR Wirefly”, they will eventually be served up organic results with the title “Wirefly Sucks” along with their ad on the right hand side . . . at that point, who is going to buy more phones from them?

to think of it. . . hmm . . . I’m gonna make my money back by shorting their stock . . .

From MTV . . . Can eBay’s Taylor Tees, Paris Pins Predict ‘Idol’ Winner?

You can sell a house or buy a Paris Hilton Garbage Pail Kids card on eBay — and now you can find out who’s going to win “American Idol.”

OK, so it’s not foolproof, but the auction site seems to have found a semi-accurate formula.

Like DialIdol.com, eBay not only predicted Mandisa’s departure last week, but the entire bottom three.
Using their eBay Marketplace Research program, the company discovered fewer than 10 Mandisa-related items had sold over
the past month, compared to hundreds of items related to other singers.

“We thought it’d be interesting to see if there was any correlation between what people were voting for on ‘American Idol’ and what they were buying on eBay,” eBay spokesperson Dean Jutilla explained. “And what we found was that they directly mirrored each other.”

Well, not exactly (eBay had Elliott Yamin’s and Paris Bennett’s positions in the bottom three flopped), but it’s fascinating nonetheless.

According to eBay’s figures, Taylor Hicks has a strong lead, with 388 items sold, followed by Chris Daughtry (309), Ace Young (224), Kellie Pickler (120), Katharine McPhee (80), Bucky Covington (73), Yamin (23) and Bennett (10). The items range from pre-”Idol” CDs (for Hicks and some of the others) to a variety of homemade T-shirts, pins and even earrings.
“As eBay has gone more mainstream, with hundreds of millions of users, it’s become a real barometer of what’s in the pop culture,” Jutilla said. “It’s like a little stock market, and we’re seeing that with ‘Idol’ right now. Taylor’s stock is really high now, but Katharine may have a really good performance and get more investors next week. You see the market fluctuate.”
eBay Marketplace Research was designed to help businesses and also spits out average selling prices (Taylor is tops again with $19.70), but “Idol” fans are welcome to join the $25-a-month subscription service.

And, of course, research is available far beyond “Idol.” For instance, after Sunday’s Masters golf tournament, eBay sold more than four times the usual Phil Mickelson items, and although he lost, Tiger Woods items still doubled.

After calculating the “Idol” contestant numbers, eBay also tested the popularity of host Ryan Seacrest and the judges. Simon Cowell was at the top with 75 items, followed by Paula Abdul (42), Seacrest (18) and Randy Jackson (six).
Jutilla’s not ready to place bets on Hicks just yet, but he’ll be watching the sales figures closely.

“The question, I guess, is: Is America looking for a whole marketing package?” he said. “I think Americans want to be a part of someone’s career early on. They want to get in on the ground floor, so to speak, thinking they are going to make it big. And that’s what these sales represent.”