RyanSpoon.com

Warning: as the title suggests, this is not a tech-related blog post… and at the risk of upsetting readers, I do that from time to time!

Today, longtime friend Steuart Martens and I competed in the 2008 Golden Gate Triathlon. It is a relatively overlooked Bay Area triathlon considering that it is sandwiched between Wildflower and the San Jose International (both very big events). The course was brutally difficult - but it must be the most beautiful event in the continental United States:

- Swim: Occurs in the San Francisco Bay. You swim towards parallel to the shore, with Alcatraz behind you and the Golden Gate / Bay Bridges in the distance (depending on the direction)

- Bike: Almost entirely uphill. You go from sea-level to high in the Presidio - well above the Golden Gate’s entrance. 90% of the bike is done is gear 1-1.

- Run: Along Chrissy Field and up to the Golden Gate Bridge… which includes scaling very steep steps.

Notice the beRecruited swim caps (and the shameless promotion)! We will both be wearing these during our upcoming Alcatraz swim at the end of July (will be #6 for me). Congratulations to Steuart, who placed 6th overall and won the swim leg:

More pictures after the jump

Read the rest of this entry »

After being disappointed by Will Ferrell’s Semi-Pro (and the box office results agree), I was excited to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall… but the box office response was far from overwhelming (although I thought it was great). This past weekend, it placed 2nd ($17.3 million) behind the Forbidden Kingdom. In fact, movie ticket sales in 2008 have been down and year-over-year growth has been flattening:

So what’s the connection between Forgetting Sarah Marshall and GTA IV? First, I had seen these Sarah Marshall billboard ads everywhere:

from Defamer

And then I saw the below GTA ads placed on a series of LA buildings (from Kataku). Not only has Rockstar created an awesome mural ad - video games are a big, big business. Grand Theft Auto III has sold 14.5 million units - at $50 a copy, that’s $725mm in sales. Titanic is the highest grossing domestic film ever at $601mm.

Great post on TechCrunch today named Web 3.0 Will Be About Reducing the Noise—And Twhirl Isn’t Helping. Eric Schonfeld included the below screenshot from his desktop and sadly, it reminded me of mine…

Eric is right - if web 2.0 is all about creating and finding content; web 3.0 will have to be about simplifying the output.

Two examples:

1) I can’t get myself excited about FriendFeed because I already have accounts elsewhere… that I use frequently. And while FriendFeed consolidates the output, it doesn’t offer the same utility on the input. Furthermore, for me to change my stubborn-but-efficient internet habits, I need to be compelled with *increased* utility. And to the initial point of this post - I’m not convinced that platforms like FriendFeed simply the web.

2) I am approaching 1500 unread emails in Gmail (currenty 1471). A productive day might reduce that load by 100 or so… but I haven’t been under 1,000 unread emails in months. A (positive) consequence of web 2.0 is open communication and social interaction - consolidating my online activity and communication can become overwhelming. Hopefully web 3.0 brings a killer email app… I’d pay a pretty penny for it.

The Widgetbox office is off of Sansome and Broadway in San Francisco. It’s a beautiful area (right along Embarcadero) - but doesn’t have much to offer in the way of restaurants. There are two mom-and-pop shops next door: YoYos (udon and sushi) and Silver Star (Chinese food and Sandwiches).

This is a photo from the front window of Silver Star.

Check out the prices - which are completely arbitrary:
Broccoli and beef is $3.68.
Roast Chicken is $3.75.
Potstickers are $2.98.

Why is chicken $0.07 more than beef? Why .68, .75, .98? Hilarious.

This week marked the 40th anniversary of the Cubicle.

A momentous event that Time Magazine called a birthday celebration of “the soul-destroying workspace we call the modern cubicle.”

Design firm IDEO and Dilbert Creator Scott Adams teamed up to design Cubicle 2.0 - perhaps the vision of cubicle life for the next 40 years? CNN has complete details of the launch event, which occurred on Pier 28 in San Francisco:

: Scott Adams inspects what may be the most popular amenity of Dilbert’s ideal cubicle. It’s a “snap hammock.” You pull it from one wall module, hook it to another module across the cube — and keep one eye on your “boss monitor” while you take a little siesta. Sweet dreams.

Digg can be described as an ecosystem for news readers and contributors. That ecosystem is usually thought to be both wide and deep. But below is snapshot of just how critical (and influential) the top 50 users are to it - the icons with a yellow banner / star in it are from my Digg friends (all top 50 users). See a trend?

A close friend of mine ran a test on Digg by befriending the top 100 Digg users. His first 3 submissions made the front page within their respective category… He had submitted 100s of articles before and this was a first. As the power users move - so do the herds.

This raises the questions, what happens if the rumored Microsoft acquisition actually happened? Does Digg work if it’s top 50 / 100 users flee? Flickr had similar questions when MS announced their Yahoo bid… I would argue though that Flickr’s value is more sustainable without its core users than Digg’s is.

equally bad, Peyton Manning is in the front row watching.

Great blog dialog this weekend that started when Jascon Calacanis wrote his rules for running a start up. Mark Cuban then chimed in and I love his commentary - particularly his advice about only hiring people who are passionate and love the company.

But this was my favorite part of Cuban’s post as it references one of my favorite movies: Glengarry Glen Ross. Coffee is for closers is one of the great lines ever. I will forgive Mark though for spelling espresso incorrectly!

“6. An expresso machine? Are you kidding me ? Shoot yourself before you spend money on an expresso machine. Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.”

Always be closing!

This is one of my favorite Tweets ever…

For those who don’t know:
- Pierre is the founder of eBay
- eBay famously acquired Skype for $2.6BB
- The acquisition was hotly debated by the press / blogosphere… and now apparently Pierre?

When my dog Manny was diagnosed with Legg-Perthes Disease last year, there was little information available on the web about the disease, it’s impact and the necessary surgery. So I documented the entire process (both Manny’s experience and mine) on MyDogManny.com. I made the site in the hope that it might help other dogs and dog-owners overcome the debilitating and commonly misunderstood disease.

I receive emails like the one below every couple weeks. This one arrived yesterday and really demonstrated the power of the internet and of content.

I just wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks for all the work and time you put into your website (mydogmanny.com) and chronicling your dogs’ progression through FHO surgery.

We recently went through the same experience with our own dog. We were on the fence regarding the surgery, as our pet is older. Your experience convinced us that she could get through this, and the surgery was a huge success!

Without your site to encourage us, we probably would have put her down. Thank you so much for the help and encouragement that your experience lent to us. We are looking forward to many more good years with our beloved little fur ball Peawee, a toy mix we rescued from a shelter.

Sending good vibes to you today - you rock!

Manny: