Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed

tuart Kauffman on “The End of a Physics Worldview”
First Round Capital Holiday Video, Making of
Twitter Digest: 2011-10-29
Reviewing the New Steve Jobs Biography

tuart Kauffman on “The End of a Physics Worldview”

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 02:54 PM PDT

[-]

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

First Round Capital Holiday Video, Making of

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 02:47 PM PDT

I think I”m going to watch “making of” videos for First Round annual holiday videos from now on.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Twitter Digest: 2011-10-29

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 12:00 PM PDT

The Republican plan "includes $600 million in new revenue, mostly by assuming economic growth" http://t.co/n2F6RNiI #
Thoughtful post from ex-Wall Streeter and current VC @fdestin on the #OWS movement – http://t.co/y5O1emJ2 #
Recall Vancouver house with 25-person bidding war 6 months ago that went for $2.2m? It's now being flipped for $3.5m. #
[post] Vancouver Bidding-War House? It's Being Flipped for 78% Gain http://t.co/7uclIsBa #
Think this may be my favorite bad software demo of 2011. Especially the upside-down part. http://t.co/p6yNsAZK #
Today in accidental Onion headlines. RT @CMEGroup: We've created a timeline of financial ingenuity and innovation http://t.co/1N3h0yxE #
Fascinating the revenge effects in contact lenses, with high-water, long-wear lenses causing dryness disorders. /cc @edward_tenner #
My friends at Smartr have launched their iPad news app. Very clever product. http://t.co/tn1jkho1 (Full disc: Am investor) #
On that bad software demo … RT @grocklein: @pkedrosky It's like she's trying to present her way out of a hostage situation. #
Good test of demarkation problem in phil of science: If you send jackasses to science meeting, can people tell? http://t.co/q9gzt02R #
Checking my spam folder, & it seems Russian women want to help me with cancelled ACH Transactions for past taxes. That's great. #
You big data people may dig this: TV ads in the age of databases, & rise of "best available screen" – http://t.co/XruVF11t #
RIM gets desperate to move BlackBerry Playbooks http://t.co/I5GPaGuj #
Commodity traders: The trillion-dollar club – http://t.co/YTMhDqql #
Incredible data in that Reuters piece, like … Glencore in 2010 controlled 55% of world's traded zinc market, and 36% of copper. #
Good post by @johnbattelle on the changing nature of government & the U.S. economy. Non-partisan and empirical. http://t.co/YF1Z9SWG #
Latest Sprott comment on commodities talks up oil – http://t.co/zuqrlDGv #
How the technology of performance capture is ruining movies (even more) – http://t.co/KBVkPFvD #
How do you tweet an URL without Twitter encoding it as an URL? #
Community service: AdBlock filter "||getconnected DOT southwestwifi DOT com$third-party" blocks annoying in-air SWA wi-fi banner. #
Apple accounting geekery, but this @asymco guy is an analytical star. http://t.co/OTe6OHti #
From 2007 to 2011 Apple added an entire Procter & Gamble worth of revenues, during the worst downturn since the Depression. #

Reviewing the New Steve Jobs Biography

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 09:17 AM PDT

I reviewed the new Steve Job biography for the Globe & Mail. Here are the opening two ‘graphs:

On his hospital bed after a 2009 liver transplant, Steve Jobs, heavily medicated and passing into and out of consciousness, tried to persuade nurses to bring him a selection of oxygen masks from which to choose the design that he liked best. His wife, Laurene Powell, finally had to distract the ailing Jobs long enough so that the hospital staff could get a mask on him.

If Walter Isaacson's new biography of the recently deceased Jobs only told this story and stopped, you would have 97 per cent of what you needed to know about Apple's founder and chief executive officer. First, being deathly ill troubled him less than did offending his finely developed aesthetic instincts. Second, as a control freak's control freak, few things could set Jobs off more than the loss of control inherent in anesthesia and surgery (an abhorrence that may have helped cost him his life).

You can read rest of the review here.