VentureShift

This photo from #Ventureshift http://yfrog.com/gyfrrkgj is bi-polar, @1obennet is claiming 100m in first fund @msuster is claiming the world is ending.

Either way was surprised at the lack of twitter backchannel on #VentureShift hashtag during the panels and surprised at the lack of questions about the Access To Capital act currently before congress.




Oren (who I don’t know) was talking to people at the event about his new VC fund he started 2 weeks ago which is raising $100m for tech ventures.

Cant comment on if it's true or not or more importantly what terms he is offering startups this funding.

What was really interesting at the event was how different peoples opinions were, some people were saying tech funding at the moment is hot and there is a lot of cash around (and upside for that cash) and others saying 2012 is going to be bubble 2.0 and every angel they know is going to lose their shirt in the next 2-3 years.

What i do know is there are 2 types of people in the world....those who talk about writing cheques for seed rounds and those that actually do. Unless you are writing me a cheque for http://www.livefanchat.com/ then i'm going to take what you say with a grain of salt.

Cheers,
Dean

QR codes being done right

Finally QR codes being done right!!!

IF ever there was a cool use for QR codes (not just practical), this might just be it. JCPenney’s new “Who’s Your Santa” campaign has a QR code extension for 2011, where everyone who buys a gift for Xmas will receive a unique QR code Gift Tag or “Santa Tag” as they are calling them… http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/jcpenney-voice-message-qr-code-santa-gift-tags



Cheers,
Dean Collins
www.Cognation.net/QR

http://Hypothes.is

Hypothesis (http://hypothes.is/) is a remake of  "The Third Voice" with additional functionality (Haha at video 3.10 = Nothing is new)

I wonder how many newbies actually remember "The Third Voice" and what a big deal it was.


Cheers,
Dean

Aco1

I dont know what the heck this is but it is interesting
- http://amber-carpa-onramp.weebly.com/leaving-upham.html
eg think war of the worlds audio track but with some neat music interludes.

Way cool way to blow away a few hours while working.

Friday music - Ukulele Anthem by Amanda Palmer

I love this woman in ways that cant be expressed in any way but with a ukulele :)


Download it for free along with lyrics (donation suggested) and bring a smile to your face anytime you get blue - http://music.amandapalmer.net/track/ukulele-anthem

Happy Friday everyone.


Cheers,
Dean
P.S. never heard of Amanda Palmer before...go here now - http://blog.collins.net.pr/2011/07/amanda-palmer.html

Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act - lesser of $10,000, and 10% of the investor’s annual income

$5m is a fairly significant chunk to build almost most startups

http://rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2011/11/latest-equity-crowdfunding-coming-shortly-congress-offers-bipartisan-support.html

Wonder how long this is likely to take to pass through congress.

What do you think? could this radically change NY startup scene? I wonder if this applies to "startup funds" eg a collective formed to "fund" other startups.

Could we see a "kickstarter" fund soon or a "General Assembly Series 1" seed fund.

Captcha breaking

The most interesting thing in this report is http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/01/researchers-flood-facebook-with-bots-collect-250gb-of-user-data


- “Charge $1 per 1,000 successfully-broken CAPTCHAs,”

So if a captcha takes 5secs to read and enter the average person can make $5.70 per day doing nothing but captcha breaking?

5 secs per captcha
12 per 60 secs
720 per 60 mins
5760 per 8 hour day


Surely they have to be being paid more than that for data entry right?

Cheers,
Dean

American school lunches

holy cow, when i think of what we used to eat for lunch as kids it was positively gourmet.

check out this photo stream it was what someone ate for school lunches for a year.
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/fedupwithlunch/6049763138/in/photostream/

Made me want to barf after just one months food. I cant believe this is for kids let alone prisoners.

No way i would raise kids here in NY if this is what they were served.


Cheers,
Dean

NYC Chalk graffiti

Someone doing chalk graffiti in NYC has a real talent to expose their soul.

Spend 10 mins viewing these, your heart will appreciate it,
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycpalimpsestproject/show/with/6296013907

- http://nycpalimpsestproject.blogspot.com/


Cheers,
Dean

Apple TV blocking Hulu Plus

You mean proprietary didn't die off with Jobs....what a surprise.


http://www.tgdaily.com/consumer-electronics-brief/59371-report-apple-tv-selfishly-blocking-hulu-plus
It's being reported that a Hulu Plus app has been primed and ready to go on Apple TV for a month, but Apple is worried that people would actually use it.
According to sources cited by 9to5mac.com, Apple is concerned that bringing the Hulu Plus app to its set-top box hardware would pose a big threat to its own proprietary iTunes video streaming