Dark Days For The Judge
April 30th, 2007 Davis
Dark Days For The Judge Hosted on ZooomrPosted in Photos | No Comments »
Dark Days For The Judge Hosted on ZooomrWhy Don’t We See More GPS In Consumer Electronics?
April 30th, 2007 Davis
San Francisco may be the city of love, but that doesn’t mean that I still don’t walk around with a roll of quarters in my pocket. We had another car break-in, on my street this weekend and my building is starting to get upset. They are posting a reward for information, but I don’t think that they will have much luck.
It’s probably the fourth break-in we’ve had in just the last month. Most of the time, it’s safe to park here, but if you have a nice car radio, GPS unit, or lots of spare change in your ash tray, then say good night to your window and whatever system you’ve got loaded in your dash. We even had one thief break into our building, in order to steal the security monitors, while he was being recorded 
At best, the monitors could have a $20 street value, but he probably did $300 worth of damage, to the door alone just to get at them.
I’m the last one to ever advocate that we start tracking everyone, but whenever I see someone lose property, it makes me wonder why we haven’t seen greater developments in GPS technology? We have GPS chips in our cell phones, but if they get stolen, it’s rare that we use them to catch the criminals. Lojack protects vehicles, but what about my 60″ television, my TiVo series 3, my Xbox 360? I’d almost rather get those back, than my car, at least my car has insurance. I can let the bank eat that 
I don’t know what kind of technology it takes to put a GPS chip into a consumer electronics device, but given how far technology has come, it’s hard for me to believe that we shouldn’t be able to track stolen consumer electronics when people are paying out thousands of dollars for cutting edge equipment. If they wanted to charge some kind of recovery fee, I could understand, but so far, I haven’t seen a viable way to secure all of this high tech junk from theft.
Security protections don’t just have to be limited to GPS either. Two weeks ago, a guy on my street tried to sell me a brand new laptop for $60. There is no reason why that laptop’s serial number, shouldn’t be able to set off alarm bells, the minute anyone tries to access the net. I know that there are solutions out there for people to buy, but this isn’t something Dell should be selling as an upgrade, it should be a default function with an activation fee, so that consumers have access to it, when they need it.
I’m not naive enough to believe that we can get rid of theft, but if we could make it a lot harder for the common criminal to buy and sell stolen property, it would go a long way towards detering theft. At that very least, it would make me feel better knowing that I had caught the creep, even if it did end up costing a 20% recovery fee.
Posted in Technology, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | 4 Comments »
Google’s News Search Gets Smarter
April 30th, 2007 Davis
Google Gets Smarter At Filtering Hosted on ZooomrEver since Google first introduced their news service, I have been hooked. There have been very few days where I have not visited their site. It is fantastic technology. Over the years, they’ve added new sources, introduced news alerts and have added personalization options, but the entire time it has remained ad free.
I’ve always read a lot of papers. I haven’t read all many most of the classic books, but even when I was in high school, I was a voracious reader of the press. I’m not sure why there was the appeal, but current events fascinated me and the internet has only added to that.
It used to be a lot harder to pay attention to specific things, but over time, tracking and personalizing news has only gotten easier and easier. Google News has been a big part of this. It’s multi-dimensional approach to the news, offers unique insights into current events and as far as searching mainstream news goes, it offers the best results.
I use Google news every several many times a day to track various companies and interests. Even though, I love the site, it does have one weakness, the minute the AP publishes anything, it becomes impossible to determine fresh content from syndication. During these news tornado onslaughts, I pretty much just give up on trying to use Google and go back to my other sources. Fortunately though, it appears that Google may have finally come up with a way to fix this problem.
When I logged into Google news tonight, I was treated with a nice treat. They have instituted filtering options that lets you list AP coverage as as one item, instead of 300 different publications. This is going to be very useful and I think it’s a great development. I’m also hoping that it will help to clean up some of the press release spam. I am not sure that other papers will like it, because I’m sure that they will lose some hits from the listings, but it does help to distinguish one voice from another in their news results and it should allow smaller publications a better chance to be heard over the din of the professional news media.
Posted in Technology, Media, Search | No Comments »
Davis Freeberg’s Sites Of The Week
April 27th, 2007 Davis
Full Size Mattress Like New Slight Urine Smell Hosted on ZooomrThis week’s winner of the site of the week contest was What the F . . . . ?!?! What the F is a collection of funny classified ads that have shown up in various papers over the years. The ads were uploaded to Scribd.com by someone with the handle of Sanctifyer. Sanctifyer has also uploaded several other documents that are worth checking out as well, including a collection of funny things that people say in court and a well written inspirational piece on happiness.
In reading through the various ads collected on What the F, my favorite had to be this unique description for someone looking to get rid of their dog.
“Free To Good Country Home - 3/4 Rotweiller, 1/4 Shepherd. 3 years old, female, spayed, very intelligent. Loves to eat live rabbits and kittens.
Loves to play ball with kids. Call after 5pm.”
Congratulations to What the F on winning this week’s sites of the week contest. The ads really were better than anything that I’ve ever seen on the Tonight Show and offered great entertainment for the week.
The nominations for the site of weekend are listed below, you can vote in the sidebar. If you’d like to nominate a site for consideration, you can email me at Davis at DavisFreeberg.com.
The Hype Machine
Strange Vehicles
Viva Radio
Posted in Site Of The Week, Technology, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Nielsen Unveils DVR Stats - Time To Rethink The 30 Second Ad
April 26th, 2007 Davis
So Many Ads So Little Time Hosted on ZooomrFor avid TV watchers, May is one of the best times of the years. The networks strut out their best quality stuff, there are plenty of cliff hangers, NBA finals (Go Lakers 
) and don’t even get me started on the season/series finales. It’d be nicer if we could just have fresh content all year round, but for whatever reason the networks want to make consumers gorge on television, just to take it all in for one month. At least there will be time for sunlight during summer reruns
For advertisers and the studios though, May marks the start of a vicious frenzy of negotiations, where fortunes can be won and lost in a bizzarre game of chicken, that I’m not sure I’ll ever understand. Every year, we see the same dance, the studios unveil their A list stuff and the marketing agencies come drooling with their blank checkbooks.
Last year though, things didn’t go as smoothly as planned. Issues like DVR usage and streaming internet video started to creep into the negotiations. The marketing agencies demanded that they only pay for live viewers and the studios tried to convince them that DVRs were somehow actually good for them.
The truth was though, that the studios had lost control and eventually the ad agencies were able to negotiate rates on their terms, instead of having to cave to last minute pressure. With May sweeps about to start up all over again, you can bet that both sides are positioning themselves for how they plan on dealing with these irritating DVR owners.
To make matter worse, before the feeding frenzy can even start, Nielsen has added blood to the water by publishing their first guesstimates on the actual size of the DVR market.
Before this, it had been thought that DVRs were in 15.8% of households, but Nielsen thinks that the actual DVR market penetration rate is closer to 17.2%.
As a huge fan of DVR technology, I can’t say that I’m surprised. The technology really is that powerful. Somehow I don’t see DVRs becoming any less popular, so I think it’s safe to say, that at least within the near future, 1 out of 5 households are going to have the power to take back control of their television experience. The studios will try argue that not everyone wants to be a power ad zapper, but lets not kid ourselves, these are just negotiation tactics, the real value of the 30 second spot is no longer close to what it once was.
I’m sure that the studios aren’t happy about DVR users, but I am glad that it is forcing them to innovate. I know that creative content owners can figure out a way to make good content and advertise even without 30 second ads. It’s time for the ad agencies to do what they do best and that is get creative so that they can make product placement a viable alternative to spasmatic interruptions during our programming.
Pretty soon the bidding war will begin, but if I was a marketing executive, I’m not sure that I’d be even buying 30 second spots to begin with, let alone paying for the 1 out of 5, who are just going to blast through your ads anyway. Negotiations will be tough this year, but as a bystander, they will be fun to watch.
Posted in Technology, Marketing, TV | No Comments »
Baby We Can Work Things Out
April 26th, 2007 Davis
Posted in Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | No Comments »
The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent Was A Summer In San Francisco
April 25th, 2007 Davis
No Sleeping On The Park Benches Hosted on ZooomrPosted in Photos | No Comments »
Surf Your Favorite TiVo Blogs From The Comfort Of Your Mac
April 25th, 2007 Davis
One of the things I love about TiVo is that the community is always tinkering and building applications for the rest of us to play with. Some people were upset when TiVo hackers built a program that allowed for TiVo to go on the Mac, before TiVo even offered it, but I saw it as a sign of how far TiVo owners will go, if something stands in between them and their TiVo.
Of course the TiVo hacks haven’t stopped there, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw that Alex at the unofficial TiVo Blog was unveiling a widget that allows you to read your favorite TiVo related blogs, one of which happened to be mine from the comfort of your living room couch desk.
I love the idea of bringing TiVo closer to the Net, but like any TiVo related application, restrictions do apply (DirecTV subscribers need not apply, series 1 owners in Canada may be left out in the cold, you must have a broadband enabled TiVo to participate. Contest not valid in states where TiVo is not legal . . . )
Just so that I had all the details clear, I sent an email to Alex with a few questions and here are his responses.
1.) Does it work with the series 3? (say yes say yes say yesssss!!!)
“Does the HME api work with Series 3 TiVos? If yes, you could use Galleon to subscribe to the RSS feed that I use for this widget (http://galleon.tv/content/view/21/41/). Since I don’t have an Series 3 TiVo, I can’t remember if the HME api is supported yet. I know that the Series 3 doesn’t support TiVoToGo but I can’t remember if it supports HME. All the widget does is subscribe to an rss feed (which I created with Yahoo Pipes).”
So his answer was maybe, but he’s not sure. Truth be told, the minute anyone starts talking about all this technical stuff, I start to glaze over. My impression was that Galleon didn’t work with the TiVo series 3, but I’m sure that my readers know more about this than I do. What I really want to know is why Alex hasn’t gotten a series 3 yet? Can someone give him some TiVo referral love, so that we can get the “unofficial” TiVo blog up to speed?
2.) What is this OS X thing I keep hearing about, I know that Apple does something with these widget thingies, but how do I get this on a PC?
“A dashboard widget is simply just a little “application” that provides you with some kind of quick information. Vista has gadgets which are essentially the same thing as OS X’s widgets.”
Gadgets, widgets, they are all the same to me. Thomas Hawk keeps trying to get me join to cult of Apple, but I am afraid to even test drive his machine after seeing how powerful Steve Job’s force field can be.
3.) What files does it support? I doubt it can read flash YouTube videos, but is there a way that I could blog mpeg2 files and you could theorhetically download them? What about photos?
“Photos should work but I don’t think flash will. ”
The quality would be terrible, but being able to get YouTube onto my TiVo would be worth be the terrible resolution. Photos are definetely nice. The next step is to add a Flickr feed for any photos tagged TiVo.
4.) I know that it’s only designed to be a reader, but is there a way to somehow hijack this so that someone could build a browser instead? How hot would it be to have the option of the internet on TiVo?
“It would be cool to have a browser on your TiVo however, this widget is meant to be run from within OS X. It doesn’t depend on a Tivo. Have you seen this TiVo HME application?”
The link looks promising and is something that I will investigate, but sadly for now, my dreams of being able to surf the entire internet with my TiVo will still have to wait. At least I can console myself by knowing that if TiVo left a backdoor open somewhere, that the TiVo hackers will figure it out. In the meantime, I think that TiVo is missing an excellent opportunity to be selling wireless keyboards at an unconsiounable price level, but that is a topic for another blog post.
Even though, I don’t think that I’ll personally be able to take advantage of this latest TiVo exploit, I am glad that Alex helped add something to the community. TiVo might not be the biggest company in the world, but they have some of the best customers. For now, I don’t mind wating because I know that it’s only a matter of time before I’ll be able to program my series 3 to take me back in time.
Update - I had to amend the head line because I saw TV Squad’s coverage of the widget and I clearly misunderstood what these whole widget thingies are about. How embarassing, this will show you how extensive my Apple knowledge really is. If you actually want to get your RSS feeds on your TiVo, you can do it on the series 2 TiVo, but you need to go a different route.
Posted in Technology, TV, Web 2.0, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | 2 Comments »
DivX Loses CFO - Red Flags or Signs of Evolution?
April 25th, 2007 Davis
DivX announced Tuesday, that John Tanner, their Chief Financial Officer, has resigned for “personal reasons” and will be leaving the company at the end of May. Tanner has spent the last 2 and a half years working for DivX and to see him leave, less then a year after the company went public, does comes as a bit of a surprise.
Understandably, the market is concerned over the development. Shenandoah Capital calls the event a “legitimate red flag.”
“Irrespective, upper-echelon management leaving is a legitimate fundamental red flag. In the specific case of a CFO change, a decline in results is a reasonable expectation. It is the “unexpected” change, rather than the planned change that produces the warning.”
It’s hard to argue that the loss of Tanner is a positive catalyst for DivX’s stock, but other then whatever lingering regrets, Tanner might now have about getting that DivX tattoo I’m not convinced that this news is really bad for anyone.
DivX of course, has not publically shared the details behind Tanner’s “personal reasons” for leaving, but the lack of things like facts and details, rarely stops us pesky bloggers from speculating on what we think is really going on, so here is my take on the news.
I think that DivX originally brought Tanner on, specifically to take them public and that “personal reasons” is really code for the Pacific Ocean.
When DivX first hired Tanner, the company was very much focused on trying to get the company to the next level. DivX CEO Jordan Greenhall described Tanner as being an “eminently qualified, intelligent and experienced CFO who brings extremely relevant expertise guiding technology companies through growth periods.”
DivX knew that they had the potential to go public, but they also knew that they needed help, so they brought in Tanner, who has been a proven rainmaker in raising funds. DivX was the fourth company that he helped to take public, the second as a CFO.
Before joining DivX, Tanner helped to take the company AdForce from a 35 person start up to a Nasdaq registrant that eventually sold itself to CMGI in a $1.7 billion buyout. Prior to AdForce, Tanner helped oversee the financial turnaround of NCD, Inc. and prior that he helped to grow revenues at Aspect Communications from $11 million to over $300 million. Since joining DivX, Tanner saw the company go from $16 million a year in revenue, to over $59 million for all of 06. During that time, earnings went from -$4.3 million in 2004 to $16.4 million in 06′.
It’s important to consider Tanner’s recent move in a historical context because the DivX of today is a very different animal then the DivX Tanner joined at the end of 04′. Tanner helped to successfully take DivX public, but now that DivX has access to $150 million in cash, the company needs a CFO with a different skillset then an IPO specialist.
For the pessimists out there, you can look at this change as an early signal of problems at the company, but as an optimist I see this as an opportunity for management to strengthen their team with a CFO better suited for managing a growing public company.
Even before Tanner left, DivX has been making changes to their staff. On March 27th, they promoted Kevin Hell to be the President of the company and a week before that they announced that they hired Patrice Lagrange (formerly with Adobe) and Mark Viken (a Sony Electronics veteran).
DivX has done a great job of attracting highly skilled employees, even from the start. Check out WebTVWire’s interview with CXO Darrius Thompson and you can tell that these guys understand digital technology.
In Tanner’s case though, DivX has also shown, that they know when it’s important to bring someone in from the outside. We will know more about DivX’s plans for finding a new CFO, when they report earnings next week, but I think that Wall St. will eventually want to see someone in the CFO position that they feel is looking out for their interests.
Tanner had experience in the public markets and was the perfect Yin to Greenhall’s Yang. Greenhall is a great visionary, but it was Tanner who knew what Wall St loved to hear. He would always bring investors back to DivX’s commitment to growing their business, but to do it as fiscally responsibly as possible. Tanner will be missed of course, but it’s hard to tell if this really will be a negative until we know who DivX plans on replacing him with.
Posted in DivX | 2 Comments »