Web 2.0 Expo - We Got It For Cheap

In San Francisco this week for Web 2.0 Expo - and I can guarantee with 95% confidence that we spent less cash than any other exhibitor - We Got It For Cheap

Ask me how!

Service Learning Through Jihad

My brother just got back from a trip to India arranged by his high school. In the 1980's, Saudi Arabian teenagers would go on service trips to Afghanistan to train as Mujaheddin in places like Tora Bora:

"Their commitment to the Afghans resembled that of American students who spend a few days a year hammering houses together for the poor. They might be moved by altruism, but they also sought a touch of cool."

From: The Bin Ladens by Steve Coll.

A Little Bit Like Family

Top Five Startup Dev Tensions

Kevin has a great post up describing the five primary tensions inherent in developing a new web application. If you take Kevin's post, and execute on all five points, you'll have a success on your hands.

Ad Copy, Quant Trading, Shakespeare, Chimps

While Pan Troglodytes might be able to write Shakespeare, don't bet on advertising copywriters being able to design trading algorithms:

My Favorite Spam Ever

Advertising Posts: Fred Wilson, Andrew Chen

Two great advertising posts in the last couple of days from:

Fred Wilson and Andrew Chen

Lots of people read both of these blogs, so I am not really doing a lot of unearthing here, but definitely voting for these insights and saving them for myself by linking here.

I have a strong interest in the intersection of advertising as art and advertising as science - both posts relate to this area.

Gonna Be A Shock To The System

Congratulations, Asim!!

TSA, SPOT, Impeccable Logic

"Dubbed the SPOT program, for Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques, the effort is shrouded in some secrecy that makes it difficult to evaluate its worth. . . Federal officials said the program, which requested a $45 million budget this year, is a worthwhile complement to random searches and an alternative to racial profiling. But the program has its doubters."

TSA deploys airport behavior screeners (AP)


Where can I get me some shrouds of secrecy for my $45M request??

Google Trends: Never Underestimate Ignorance

On the Internets, never underestimate the sheer power of misspellings or just plain old wrongness - who is the 'Keith Ledger' fellow, anyway?

In related news, last time I checked, I was #4 for 'Faacebook' YMMV.

A Q&A Model That Works - Texperts

START-UP: TEXPERTS (QUESTIONS ANSWERED)

Sarah McVittie, 30, and Thomas Roberts, 30, set up the company in 2003 as 82ask, and recently gained investment to give it new life as Texperts. It is based around the text-messaging of questions to experts, who come back with a rapid answer for £1.

It is valued at around £7.4m

From The Times of London


Now, how to connect this price point / sales channel up to Askablogr ??