Brad Feld

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The Who, Inflation, Blogging, and Global Warming

Jul 17, 2008
Category Books

It’s time for another quick list of interesting things I found this morning on the web along with my occasionally witty commentary.

Harmonix Party: Rock Band owns LA with Who concertI love everything about Harmonix and Rock Band.  Er, um, The Who just played at a Harmonix / MTV party at the Orpheum Theater in LA.  The Who.  The Who!  One of my best friends – Warren Katz – who was also an angel investor in Harmonix had the following to say about the party:

"My jaw is on the floor and I am speechless. Not because I semi-randomly got hooked up with a game that’s turning out to be one of the greatest hits of all time. Not because that game is actually fundamentally changing how a great hunk of the world interacts with music. Not because this game hosted a party featuring my favorite rock band of all time, The Who (and I would have hurt myself to get on a plane for this party). I am stunned mute because, in my opinion, one of the three best songs in Rock and Roll history, "Won’t Get Fooled Again" (the other two being "Paradise By the DashBoard Lights" and "Bohemian Rhapsody"), was referred to throughout this article as "the theme from CSI". We cannot possibly be that old, and the youth of today cannot possibly be that out of touch. It actually took me a minute to realize what song they were talking about."

Alex, Eran, and all the rest of the people at Harmonix.  You are the coolest nerds ever.  Ian – you have real competition here in the cool nerd category!

Latest shocker: June prices go up, up, up: "Consumer prices rose 1.1 percent in June from the month before, far faster than the expected rate of 0.7 percent and almost double the reading from May, the Labor Department said Wednesday."  Hmmm – an annualized rate of 13.2% – that would be "inflation."

SAP, Oracle Boost Software Prices: "Unlike price increase for food, fuel and many other commodities, the changes in software don’t stem from a shortage of supply or a rise in demand. They are attempts by software makers to increase their bottom lines, said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities Inc."  Well – yes – but it’s also called an "oligopoly."  SAP annual maintenance, which has been at 17% for a while, will now be at 22%.  Oracle simply implemented a 15% – 20% across the board price increase for US customers.

Blogging’s Dead, Long Live Blogging: While this particular meme goes round and round and round, especially among the A-list bloggers talking about blogging (or not blogging), Fred nails why he – and I – blog in this post.  Whenever someone asks me "why do I blog" I now have a new link to send them to.

Chill out – it’s just a normal cool summer: My part time meteorologist Josh Larson emailed me this link.  Apparently it’s just been a normal summer in Alaska with endless clouds, cool weather, and for the last 24 hours non-stop rain.  ""We were in a warm phase of the Pacific decadal oscillation in the ’80s and ’90s. (Some forecasters) believe we may have entered into the cold phase."  Where is that damn global warming when you really want it?