Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Innovation, Disruption and The Economics of Free

  Hank Williams managed to stir up quite the controversy with his recent post lamenting the rise of free and blaming the VCs . His assertion is that the venture capitalists have made free, ad-supported businesses the norm and effectively "ruined it for everyone else" (my words). I believe it should be possible to start a small business and to have a small number of profitable customers, and to earn a living. From there, it should be possible to work hard, and to grow your business into something substantial. Until recently, this was the American way, and it applied to technology as much as to any other business. But no more. In today’s “free” world, in most online business categories, it is inherently impossible to start a small self-sustaining business and to grow it. This is because in the digital world, advertising, the only real revenue stream, cannot support a small digital business. If businesses were based on the idea that people paid for services then small... Posted Apr 08 2008, 10:41 PM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Rants, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Venture Capital, NextNY, Notches

• A look at Apple and Microsoft strategies

  I've been thinking about some of the interesting strategic decisions that Microsoft has made lately. I already discussed their curious IP licensing strategy , and their choices with Zune and Windows Media Player have me similarly baffled. In many ways, these moves have been something I expect more from Apple than Microsoft. Apple has always been known for delivering closed systems, controlling the experience from end to end. Apple software runs on an Apple OS on Apple hardware. Conversely, Microsoft has thrived largely because it has recognized the value in delivering not just products, but platforms. Office and Windows are both successful not just because of what they do as a product, but because they leave room for third party developers. It is those developers, not just Microsoft itself, that really enable a true ecosystem. Even the Xbox 360 has been a platform, not just for the media content providers, but now for the independent game developers. Given their history, it should come... Posted Jan 01 2007, 02:42 PM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Rants, Gadgets, Things that amuse me, Music, Innovation, Business, Microsoft, Apple, Audio

• Is Apple following Palm's footsteps?

  The recent BootCamp announcement is an interesting shift in strategy for Apple, and I think there are two ways to look at this move. On one hand, they have removed a barrier for people buying Apple hardware. People who like the new MacBook Pro but are either afraid or unwilling to give up Windows. If this was the case, they're basically betting that people will be more willing to try the hardware and then decide to stick around. It's similar to the move they made a few years back by making the iPod work on Windows, and we all know how that worked out. On the other, this could signal a decoupling between Apple software and Apple hardware. This would be a major shift - until now, they have sold the entire experience from end to end. The iPod was successful because it combined good industrial design with a simple user interface. I'm sure Apple would love to sell OS X for use on your Dell, but then they realized that it's far easier to get XP working on their limited set of hardware. Microsoft... Posted Apr 14 2006, 04:03 AM by Tim with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Rants, Gadgets, Innovation, Business, Apple

• Webaroo seems so 1999 to me

  At first glance, here's something I don't get: Webaroo . They store the content of Web pages for offline retrieval , apparently keeping it searchable and serving it alongside ads. Acer laptops will come with a 40Gb pre-packaged web pack. I'm sure, or at least I hope, they're doing something more than saving webpages and displaying ads, but I can't help but be reminded of all those products like SurfOffline that saved a local copy of a website. Granted, I'm in one of those "metropolitan areas" that has a 3G network , but the coverage is getting better every day. It's clear that the "online web" is greater than the "offline web" even if it's not broadband speeds. Being connected allows me to do a lot more than just read the "best of the Web", whatever that means. But let's take a step back: Even before I had this always-on connection, I had all the things I really wanted to read already saved in my RSS reader for offline consumption. It just seems like a curious place for a startup. On one... Posted Apr 10 2006, 12:00 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Rants, Innovation

• Redefining the Generalist

  Like Matt , I think this describes me pretty well . As you can probably tell from my writing, I find myself pulled in a number of directions. It's what attracted me a liberal arts school (to study Computer Science, no less) and eventually drew me to law school . Casting your net far and wide gives you a better perspective on the world - you no longer see the world through a single lens. The things I learn in one arena help me reach a deeper understanding in another. This base of knowledge improves pattern recognition and helps me pick things up quicker. It enables me to be a more creative thinker - after all, it's easy to think outside the box when you don't box yourself in in the first place. I've always described myself as a generalist, but I see that as a positive, not a negative. I can't tell you how tired I am of trying to answer the question of what I want to do. I don't know yet - and some of us are ok with that... Posted Apr 05 2006, 04:44 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Rants, Personal, Innovation

• Death by Risk Aversion

  Real innovation and revolutionary thinking necessarily requires an element of risk. Things that are safe and grounded in conventional wisdom are by definition evolutionary, not revolutionary. Risk-aversion is the single biggest innovation killer . Memo to Microsoft: you've got people doing some amazing things over there. If you could just get the hell out of the way , the world might change for the better . Risk-aversion is the single biggest innovation killer, and of course it's not just Microsoft that's been infected. Taking risks is... risky. But if not taking risks is even riskier , then WTF? The article is a great read (and I especially love the graphics!). Posted Apr 04 2006, 05:53 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Rants, Innovation

• My Crusade Against Cubicles

  Cubicles are just awful . It is often thought that the openness contributes to team building, but I still insist real relationships are not built in the office. The openness is also a huge drain on productivity especially for work that requires contiguous blocks of time. (Context switches are expensive, after all). My manager recognizes this, and although it's clear the cubicle farms aren't going away entirely we recently discussed strategies on how to address the productivity issue. Some of us already use some of the empty offices when we need to really buckle down, and it would be interesting if this was a bit more formal. (Call them office shares). Another suggestion was to have "work hours" such to guarantee uninterrupted blocks of time. Now there's a report that they're also a security risk . The British security service MI5 is warning business leaders that their offices are probably badly designed against terrorist bombs. The common modern office consists of large rooms without internal... Posted Apr 01 2006, 09:14 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Rants, Productivity, Innovation