SiliconBeat

If you have a Google Wave account, click to see the full post where you can see an embedded copy of our Google Wave chat:
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I spent last Friday night at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco watching the Crunchies. The third annual version of the tech award show was co-hosted by three leading high-tech blogs: GigaOm, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch. According to the official Cruchies description, the show aims to “recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year.” You can read a nice overview of the event and after-party by Jessica Guynn of the Los Angeles Times.

It was an entertaining, if low budget, affair. In fact, the casual nature of the show in such a fancy space was quite charming. There were corporate jugglers providing entertainment and the reliably funny Richter Scales served up a nice glee-club style spoof (see video above).

You can check out the award winners here. But the mix of nominees and winners left a muddy impression of the event. What, exactly, is the point of the Crunchies? Read the rest of this entry »

I’m in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. Today is press day, where there is a series of press conferences from 8 a.m. until around 6 p.m.

I’m live-blogging/Twittering throughout the day. You can read my latest observations below.

Today marks my return to blogging here after taking a couple months off. I’m going to jump in with some thoughts from an event I attended last night at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

The event was a reception for students and alumni from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Each year, Sloan brings a large contingent of students to Silicon Valley for its “Tech Trek.” They meet with a lot of interesting local companies, soak up some Silicon Valley inspiration, and get to build their networks. I’ve been invited several times to this event, but this was the first year I was able to attend.

After some introductory remarks about the state of Sloan, Dean David Schmittlein interviewed Sloan alum Douglas Leone, a partner at Sequoia Capital. They talked about the state of Silicon Valley, what Leone has learned in his career, and advice he had for students.

What struck me was a comment Leone made later in the exchange. I don’t have the exact quote. But essentially, he said that Sequoia’s portfolio of companies is dominated by founders under the age of 30. That’s no surprise, and a trend that’s been discussed in the valley over the past decade.

But then, Leone came right out and said they focus on people under 30 because people over the age of 30 can’t innovate. If you’re over 30, you can still be in management, Leone said, as a kind of consolation. But  there it was. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m at the Berkeley Center for New Media attending the Future of the Forum: Internet Communities and the Public Interest. A lot of great speakers today, and I’ll be tweeting at #FOTF. There’s a live video feed available through the conference site.

My friend Austin Chu and his brother have made a documentary based on their six-month journey throughout the United States looking to find the human face of the Great Recession. That’s the same recession, by the way, that led to Austin being laid off in 2008, prompting him to hit the road with his camera.
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Sounds like Kris is off and running on his new job at Stanford:
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Like many air travelers, I followed in bewilderment last week the strange tale of the Northwest Airlines pilots who inadvertently overshot their destination of Minneapolis by 110 miles, or so. Were they drunk? Was it terrorists?

At last, this week the pilots explained the mystery: They were looking at their laptops and just got so wrapped up, they forget about that whole landing thing. No harm, no foul.

Now, let’s not judge them too harshly. Because let’s face it, we’ve all been there. If not in our planes, then at least while driving our cars.

Distraction by technology while traveling is becoming a plague on our busy, modern day lives. I’m not just referring to gabbing on your cellphone or texting while driving. That’s kids stuff. I’m talking about the large scale distractions that cause us all to do our share of bone headed moves.

In solidarity with the beleaguered crew of Flight 188, I wanted to share my woeful tales of techno distraction in the hope that we, as a society, can collectively learn some important lessons and make the world a safer place. Read the rest of this entry »

Two-hundred and ninety-seven long days after he lost his aviation-tech job at San Jose’s airport, Kris Rowberry is finally finding salvation.

When he starts his new job on Monday moving and tracking supplies throughout Stanford University’s medical school, hospitals and clinics, the 25-year-old San Jose resident will be
the first of the three Pink Slip 2.0 participants followed by the Mercury News the past year to have escaped the jaws of joblessness.

And all it took, besides those never-ending days, was two reams of resume paper, lots of cold-calling, numerous dead-ends, and way too many sleepless nights.

“”I don’t think it’s hit me yet,” Rowberry said Tuesday. “”After nine-and-a-half months of looking, I’m a little dazed. It’s like, is this really happening?” Read the rest of this entry »

Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit, posted her slides online.