Yahoo buys Konfabulator

The part I think is amazing about this is that Konfabulator is a team of…3 people.

Reminds me of Google’s recent purchase of Dodgeball, a team of 2.

Or Ebay’s aquisition of Loquo, a company of 1 person.

Interesting times…

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British plumbing…

From Set Godin, More than twenty years....

That's how long it took after the invention of basketball for someone to realize that they should cut a hole in the bottom of the peach baskets. Before that, you had to stop the game and get a ladder and get the ball out of the basket. I wonder how long it will take for faucets in the UK to be able to generate warm (not cold or hot) water? Any sinks where you work?

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Vertical search, maybe not?

A little satire on the vertical search hype?

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Bad tippers, named & shamed

Underpaid waiters strike back with a database naming poor tippers (note: isn’t this illegal?)

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Reading on mobile phones?

From Stanford University comes a technique designed to improve reading speeds, which when applied to mobile phones, opens up the ability to read full-length articles on them.

If it really works, sounds like just the kind of technology that can disrupt conventional wisdom (people will never want to read anything of substance on a mobile phone, etc.)

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Bolivian Women’s Wrestling

Shame this didn’t exist when my family lived in Bolivia, I would’ve loved to check it out!

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In case you missed Star Wars…

…don’t bother, because this is shorter and much better!

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New Europe: admitting failure is good first step

From Le Monde, a thoughtful article on why France has been unable to produce its own Microsoft.

Salient quote: “Selon une étude du Comité Richelieu, six entreprises créées aux Etats-Unis après 1960 figurent parmi les 25 plus grandes sociétés américaines : Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Home Depot, Intel et Wal-Mart. Mais une seule, l'éditeur de logiciels allemand SAP, figure parmi les 25 plus grandes firmes du Vieux Continent.”

Rought translation: 6 of the 25 largest US companies are less than 40 years old, whereas same is true for only 1 of the 25 largest European companies.

This doesn’t even factor in the great companies created in the last 10 years: Yahoo (american), Ebay (american), Amazon (american), Google (american), AOL (american), Interactive Corp. (american).

Where are the European equivalents?? In the past, for every Ford there was a Volkswagen, for every Exxon there was a Shell, but now? In the internet, it’s almost shocking how few good, solid, innovative companies Europe has been able to produce.

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The hottest startup…ever

Devastating, unstoppable new startup company that is Huh. Check it out.

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