ParisLemon

“We ended up not winning it or passing on it, depending on how you want to view it. And the world would have been a lot different if we’d done it,” Otellini told me in a two-hour conversation during his last month at Intel. “The thing you have to remember is that this was before the iPhone was introduced and no one knew what the iPhone would do… At the end of the day, there was a chip that they were interested in that they wanted to pay a certain price for and not a nickel more and that price was below our forecasted cost. I couldn’t see it. It wasn’t one of these things you can make up on volume. And in hindsight, the forecasted cost was wrong and the volume was 100x what anyone thought.” “My gut told me to say yes,” Otellini added.

First of all, either they passed on it or weren’t offered it — seems like a pretty clear-cut difference to me. Not sure why Otellini is trying to trying to obfuscate that. Actually, I get it — one way you’re arguably incompetent, the other way you’re dumb. Lose/lose.

His follow-up statements sure makes it sound like Intel passed on it, even though Otellini’s gut told him to say “yes”. Yet another lesson in trusting your gut.

"There is a technical term economists like to use for behavior like this. Unbelievable chutzpah."

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:35:58 -0700

“There is a technical term economists like to use for behavior like this. Unbelievable chutzpah.”

- Edward Kleinbard, a law professor at USC speaking to NYT about Apple’s overseas tax situation — or lack thereof.

One potentially good thing out of all this, Tim Cook will address it directly tomorrow in front of the Senate:

Mr. Cook is expected to emphasize that Apple is most likely “the largest corporate income tax payer in the U.S., having paid nearly $6 billion in taxes to the U.S. Treasury” in the last fiscal year. “Apple does not use tax gimmicks,” Mr. Cook is expected to testify.

He is expected to seek to rebut the Congressional findings by arguing that some of Apple’s largest subsidiaries do not reduce Apple’s tax liability, and to argue in support of a sweeping overhaul of the United States corporate tax code – in particular, lowering rates on companies moving foreign overseas earnings back to the United States. Apple currently assigns more than $100 billion to offshore subsidiaries.

I figured this would lead to a change in tax policy. Now I’m sure of it.

stevekovach: To all of you complaining…why? Not me. I really...

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:17:00 -0700

stevekovach:

To all of you complaining…why?

Not me. I really think this is a great move for all parties involved. Congrats to the entire Tumblr team.

marissamayr: I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an...

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:09:00 -0700

marissamayr:

I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr!

We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.

They really executed this announcement well — right down to the GIFs.

"As always, everything that Tumblr is, we owe to this unbelievable community. We won’t let you down...."

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:57:00 -0700

“As always, everything that Tumblr is, we owe to this unbelievable community. We won’t let you down. Fuck yeah, David”

- Tumblr Staff: News!

Tumblr: still shipping through the madness. Fuck yeah.

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:34:00 -0700

Tumblr: still shipping through the madness. Fuck yeah.

laughingsquid: Official Trailer For ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend...

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:24:51 -0700

laughingsquid:

Official Trailer For ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues’

Cautiously optimistic. But a lot of ways this could end badly.

Tim Green: To me, there is a distinct movement towards a...

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:41:00 -0700

Tim Green:

To me, there is a distinct movement towards a particular style and I would be very surprised if Apple were ignorant of it. It’s not “flat design” per se and it’s certainly nowhere near the “Metro” levels that people are suggesting they may follow, but it’s a mellowing out of the visual indicators that people need to trigger the idea of a tappable element. Why? Because this is not 2007 anymore, and we are all now fully aware of the medium and the process; we don’t need to be led garishly by the hand. There is still a sense of depth and tactility but done in a refined and suggestive way, sensitive to the changed perceptions that people have of interacting with touchscreens.

That’s something important not being talked about nearly enough in all this “Apple is moving towards flat design” chatter: it’s not that flat design is necessarily “better”, it’s that Apple can start changing some things now because so many people have become accustomed to using the iPhone (and smartphones in general) over the past 5+ years. Not as much hand-holding in the design is required. Apple no longer has to try as hard to make new users think they’re just doing something like pressing a bunch of buttons on a screen. Hopefully that’s liberating for the design team.

jstn: Seeing this in IMAX 3D was the best thing I’ve done...

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:28:00 -0700

jstn:

Seeing this in IMAX 3D was the best thing I’ve done since getting my eyes lasered. Having peripheral vision continues to be an unexpected joy.

It makes me really anxious when glass starts cracking in space.

You think you are safe… you are not.

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:25:00 -0700

Matt Novak: It’s easy to forget — even for a Disney...

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:34:18 -0700

Matt Novak:

It’s easy to forget — even for a Disney nerd like myself — that before Walt Disney died of lung cancer in December of 1966, EPCOT (the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) was supposed to be a real city. The code name “Project X” was given to the undertaking that would eventually become Walt Disney World, which today includes the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom parks.

Fascinating. And the rabbit hole goes deeper still.

[via Tim Maly]

The Day Zuckerberg Turned Down Yahoo's $1 Billion

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:29:00 -0700

The Day Zuckerberg Turned Down Yahoo's $1 Billion:

Allison Fass reporting on Peter Thiel’s talk at SXSW this year where he recounted the time in 2006 that Mark Zuckerberg turned down Yahoo’s $1 billion offer to buy Facebook:

His only partial rationalization at the time was that in the history of Yahoo, it had made two $1 billion offers that were also turned down. And those were to eBay and Google. “At least I could actually make a pseudo-scientific argument that in every case Yahoo offered $1 billion and it was rejected, it was the correct thing to do,” said Thiel.

I should say that I know absolutely nothing about any sort of talks/deals between Tumblr and Yahoo. And I’m not sharing this to suggest that Tumblr should turn down such a supposed offer (my initial gut feeling is actually that such a partnership would make a lot of sense). I just found it fascinating given how closely the reported number is to the key number repeated in Thiel’s story.

Photo

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:56:45 -0700

bookofbourbon: Jezebel (1938) Yep.

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:46:53 -0700

bookofbourbon:

Jezebel (1938)

Yep.

nevver: Life 1969, Milton Glaser

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:41:03 -0700

nevver:

Life 1969, Milton Glaser

Microsoft blues

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:55:23 -0700

Microsoft blues:

Speaking of blues… “Schumpeter” of The Economist has this to say about Microsoft and Windows 8:

This is why Windows 8’s poor performance matters. It was an attempt to solve the innovator’s dilemma by creating an operating system and a user interface for both PCs and mobiles. Mr Ballmer hoped that consumers would want to move effortlessly from PCs to tablets to smartphones—and that Microsoft would be able to invade the mobile markets while simultaneously reigniting demand for its core PC products. But so far the reverse has happened: Microsoft has reinforced suspicions that it does not understand hand-held devices while simultaneously alienating its core PC users. It is possible that Microsoft will be able to solve this problem with future iterations of Windows 8. But it is looking likely that the two types of device need different operating systems. Microsoft’s biggest rival, Apple, has kept the two devices separate. That bodes ill for Mr Ballmer’s strategy. The comparison with New Coke actually understates Microsoft’s problem. Nothing forced Coca-Cola to introduce New Coke: tongues and throats do not change much. And all the firm had to do to rectify its error was to bring back the old version. Technology firms, in contrast, must innovate to survive. Restoring the start button will not restore Microsoft to its former glory.

It’s not that Microsoft isn’t trying to innovate, it’s that the type of innovation they chose to move forward with was ill-conceived. And this may well end up hastening their long-term woes. It’s the proverbial “rock and hard place”. It’s a textbook example of why innovators have dilemmas.

Black and Brown Blues

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:48:38 -0700

Black and Brown Blues:

Great post by Chuck Klosterman on my hometown team, the Cleveland Browns. My favorite excerpts:

How do you appease a fan base that is both highly critical and eternally infatuated? It’s like dating a woman who hates you so much she will never break up with you, even if you burn down the house every single autumn.

And:

This is the central dichotomy of Cleveland football: No other fan base is so deeply loyal and so self-consciously negative at the same time. Locally, there just seems to be a universal belief that — somehow, either by human error or random chance — the Browns will fail at whatever they try.

And:

I don’t think they’re building chemical weapons in Berea. But they might be. I can’t say for sure.

Captures the scene well.