iPhone – not quite yet
Even though I was very excited about the iPhone when it came out, I always believed the business decisions around the phone were plain silly. The decision to lock to AT&T is stupid.
And only because of that, I won’t be getting an iPhone quite yet -
- T-Mobile has better coverage in NYC
- T-Mobile’s plans are significantly cheaper
- I don’t need visual voicemail (the only feature that requires carrier integration)
- I travel interationally and refuse to be trapped by a plan that will charge me $5/minute from India when I can just as easily pop in a local SIM card
- Ensuring that even the iPod won’t work without an AT&T SIM is beyond the pale
Finally, here’s a question – what if I get the iPhone with the egregious contract from AT&T. I wait two years. The contract ends. Would I THEN be able to put any SIM I want into the phone?? If the answer is no, that is a first for any carrier, any phone. And would only exacerbate an already stupid decision by Apple.
I wonder how they will do this internationally. If you buy the phone in India it will only work with the Indian carrier? Huh – talk about moving backwards on international travel and international convenience…
Google’s image search
Once upon a time, Google’s image search used to be pretty good. If you did a search for a person, on the first page of results, you would get a photograph of the person if there was one on the web.
Here’s what I think Google used to do: show an image where they know the image matches the keyword you typed (good)
Here’s what they now seem to do: Find the keyword you typed on a page and then show you *any* image that shows up on the same page even if it is completely unrelated to the keyword (bad)
Huge, huge difference. And it makes a significant difference to the results.
I tried this with multiple examples, but for safety, I’m going to use the example of an image search for my name1 and there are five pages of results. Not a single one is relevant (i.e. none of them are me). They are almost all images from pages that link to my blog and therefore have “Shripriya Mahesh” on that page in text. Why does Michael Roberts’ image show up on the list? Because I wrote an HBS case with him in 1997 and so my name is on his page. Ta-da. Er… wrong!! With other examples I used, it brought back both photographs of the person and the multiple pages of random nonsense.
Is anyone else seeing this? Does anyone know if they have indeed changed how they do things?
- I used my full name Shripriya Mahesh. If I tried just Shripriya, I got 27 pages of results, none of them relevant
From those to whom much is given, much is expected
There has been a lot of press about Steve Jobs’ inspirational “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish” speech at Stanford’s Commencement in 2005. Deservedly so.
I think Bill Gates delivered a very different and equally brilliant speech at Harvard’s 2007 Commencement. I believe Bill Gates will make history outside of technology — The Gates Foundation’s focus on eradicating diseases will change the trajectory of countries, if not continents. I love how this speech focuses on giving back. He closes with this:
And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities … on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.
Yes! So well said!! It makes my hair stand on end!
I recently visited Boston for my 10th year business school reunion. The metrics for how my classmates and I judge ourselves have changed so much since we were students. So, this speech, delivered just a few days after I was on campus resonates even more.
It is worth reading the whole thing and I have reproduced it below.
Blueberry Nights
I am a huge Wong Kar Wai fan. I love his style. I love his patience with the shot. He holds it for way longer than most would have the courage to and that is what makes it visually compelling.
So I was disappointed to hear that Blueberry Nights, his latest and greatest is not so great after all. I will still watch it – especially for the quivering kiss.
Looking back at “My Blueberry Nights” with some remove, though, the film doesn’t seem such a crushing disappointment as much as just Wong Kar Wai on an off day. He was certainly due. The run of “Happy Together,” “In the Mood for Love,” “2046″ and his “Eros” segment “The Hand” makes it easy to forget that there have been other times his signature fixations, his heady visual style and his narrative aimlessness haven’t congealed into a great film. That it should happen with his highest profile film to date is a shame, but “My Blueberry Nights” isn’t a complete write-off — it’s just not, with the exception of one silent, quivery kiss, shot through with that particular cinematic felicity that suffuses his successes.
Understanding why a master messes up can be as important as understanding why they succeed (not that I profess to understand either at this point).
eBay wins skirmish
eBay spends a significant amount of money buying Google AdWords.
Google is an aggressive company. It didn’t get to where it is by being namby-pamby.
Two years ago, rumor has it that Google recruiters showed up at eBay Live in San Jose. They tried to recruit the eBay employees who were manning the booths and doing their jobs interacting with the eBay community. To me, that crosses the line. More than offensive, it is just bad business practice – you don’t show up at your customer’s offices/events and try to recruit their employees. I’m not sure eBay said or did anything.
And now, at eBay Live 2007 in Boston, Google decides to take on one of its largest customers by throwing a party to promote Google Checkout to eBay’s large sellers. This doesn’t violate any law, but it just might piss off said customer, don’t you think?
eBay finally (!!) displayed a backbone and stopped buying AdWords. Google then backed down.
About freaking time. eBay has been way too nice believing everything that Google spouts, “in good faith”. And honestly, eBay is to blame for being so trusting – this is a cut-throat business! Google crossed the line first, so screw good faith. The gloves are off, do what you do need to do.
But it seems to me that eBay has played the chip it had. And stopping advertising spend hurts eBay too – it doesn’t spend money with Google to be charitable. It does so because it brings in customers. So, now what?
eBay won the skirmish, but my guess is that Google is in the checkout game for the long-term and will keep improving its currently-sub-par-product and keep coming after eBay anyway it can. This is going to get very, very interesting – grab a seat!
Updated on 6/19: I just saw that Will Hsu has a good post on this as well.
Updated on 6/20: After reading Alex’s post on the topic, I think asking them to leave the Gala is just silly. I mean they would have been two unnoticed guys and now instead there is a bruhaha.
Note: Three points I need to make in the interest of full disclosure
1. I was an eBay employee for five years.
2. I believe Google is a cool and innovative company in many ways.
3. This post is my own personal opinion and does not reflect eBay’s point of view. It really can’t reflect eBay views since I haven’t worked there in a year, but I am still covering my ass and being really, really clear! 
When to start kindergarten?
The New York Times has a very interesting article about the current debate around when kids should start kindergarten. I was very surprised to learn that parents “redshirt” or hold back a child a year
the term, borrowed from sports, describes students held out for a year by their parents so that they will be older, or larger, or more mature, and thus better prepared to handle the increased pressures of kindergarten today.
The pressures of kindergarten?? Aren’t we taking things too seriously here? Apparently not. The article (which you should absolutely read) goes on to talk about the different nuances involved including the fact that a young child could fall behind and never recover from that. Let’s say a child qualifies in year x and in year x+1 to enter kindergarten. The theory is that if they enter in year x+1, they are much more likely to be successful and start a virtuous cycle of success. Interesting.
Another really intriguing part of the article is about poorer families – since they don’t have the financial wherewithal to keep a child at home and pay for childcare, they send their kids to school as soon as the child is eligible. These children are then faced with a double disadvantage – not having a parent at home to help them along and being the youngest in the class.
And there is the competition between various states – the older kids are, the better they perform on the national level grade tests. And states are ranked against each other, so they are incented to raise the age of entering kids so that their kids do better against the rest of the national population.
All I can say is that school seemed much simpler when I was a child. I entered first grade – not kindergarten, first grade – when I was still a few months shy of being five (in India, not the US, but still, similar systems in place). And now we are talking about five being too young for kindergarten? I am all for not pressuring a child to go too fast, but this doesn’t make sense to me. Why is the entering age creeping up at a time when kids seem to be getting smarter younger? I constantly see 4 and 5 year olds who are smart, vivacious and have the vocabularies of seven year olds!
“You couldn’t find a kid who skips a grade these days,†Morrison told me. “We used to revere individual accomplishment. Now we revere self-esteem, and the reverence has snowballed in unconscious ways — into parents always wanting their children to feel good, wanting everything to be pleasant.†So parents wait an extra year in the hope that when their children enter school their age or maturity will shield them from social and emotional hurt. Elizabeth Levett Fortier, a kindergarten teacher in the George Peabody Elementary School in San Francisco, notices the impact on her incoming students. “I’ve had children come into my classroom, and they’ve never even lost at Candy Land.â€
Is this really preparing kids for the real world?
It is a complex issue and the article is a great overview of all the elements (and there are many) that go into the debate on when kids should start kindergarten.
Seven months old
A & L are now seven months old. Here’s the happy family – how adorable!
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