AbleBrains

Amazon Buys Audible for 300mm USD

Nice move by Amazon to improve their content inventory to battle Apple.  How Audible disentangles themselves from Apple iTunes is the interesting part of all this.   The way I understand it, its a real kludge to use right now.  You need the AudibleManager software on your PC to download content from audible.com but you can only use iTunes to transfer that content.  What a hassle.  And you have to manually move Audible content into your iTunes library.  I certainly don't see this getting any easier. Click the free link below for the entire article.

clipped from online.wsj.com Amazon.com Inc. will buy digital audiobook provider Audible Inc. in a deal worth about $300 million that expands its push into digital content and ratchets up its rivalry with Apple Inc. Audible, based in Newark, N.J., sells thousands of audiobooks from authors such as John Grishman and Stephen King that can be downloaded off the Internet and played on computers, iPods or MP3 devices. Audible supplies the audiobooks that are sold on Apple's online iTunes store. The deal, expected to close in the second quarter, would provide more content for Amazon's recently launched music download store, which sells songs from major record labels without copy protections. The companies did not say how the transaction would affect Audible's relationship with Apple.

Is Tech Becoming Boring?

I connected a couple of dots yesterday.  Jeff Nolan Tweeted:

and I'm also finding that there isn't much in the tech world that is interesting to me right now.  Weird.

Then I read an article on one of my heroes (yes I have a few), Alan Kay, in ODBMS.org. He was being interviewed on Innovation.  Alan was asked:

What do you consider are the most promising innovations of the last 3 years?

His partial response:

I can't think of any in computing (we are in a very incremental and almost moribund period in our field) but this could simply be "old-fogeyism" on my part.

Then I read a piece by Bill Buxton in BusinessWeek, entitled The Long Nose of Innovation in which Bill writes (emphasis mine):

But those looking to apply the theory [of The Long Tail] to the implementation of innovation within an organization should beware. My belief is there is a mirror-image of the long tail that is equally important to those wanting to understand the process of innovation. It states that the bulk of innovation behind the latest "wow" moment (multi-touch on the iPhone, for example) is also low-amplitude and takes place over a long period—but well before the "new" idea has become generally known, much less reached the tipping point. It is what I call The Long Nose of Innovation.

Taken together, these comments suggest what Alan Kay seems to have known for some time. That we are in a relatively stagnant period  (what I would prefer to view as a period of invention and refinement) in terms of innovation. I was struck by how forthright Alan was in saying we are in a very incremental and almost moribund period in our field.  To call the tech world stagnant seems quite dramatic coming from such an inventive mind.  Buxton, reinforces this notion that much innovation as a process is incremental and "low amplitude." We've been buzzing about SaaS and Social Networking and because these technologies (especially social networking) are so participatory, they "feel big".  But each of these have a had a Long Nose component to them.  Both Oracle and SAP have been developing their next generation solutions on SOAs through a period os invention, refinement, augmentation and now Traction (at least from SAP's perspective). SaaS is a great step forward in terms of delivery of applications but to my way of thinking, its a prime example of incremental innovation rather than revolutionary. And this is goodness, because in talking to customers, they want incremental improvement. Too much change too quickly can be destructive. 

Even some of the exciting announcements @ CES reflected a Long Nose, incremental approach. I was excited about GM's Driverless car announcement @ CES. But this seems to be a sophisticated mashup of a lot of existing technology; current state autos, GPS, Cameras, radar, software based driving etiquette etc.  Again, low-amplitude, long period innovation. 

Will something dramatic happen in Tech in 2008? 

Left Brain Blogging With Cloudsmith

Let's face it. I'm pretty much a right brained individual. Yes I can manage a P&L and execute on the more analytical facets of my life but at the end of the day, I'm a passionate creator and innovator, very right-brain dominant.  So it was a pleasant surprise that I found myself enjoying my conversation with Mitch Sonies, the founder of  Cloudsmith.

This is a really cool idea with loads of potential. Now let me see if I can get this right.  Cloudsmith enables a software engineer to publish any configuration of software components to meet a specific technical or business need.  In essence these are virtual distros - a term that Mitch has coined after Linux Distros (from WikiPedia):

A Linux distribution, often simply distribution or distro, is a member of the LinuxUnix-like operating systems comprising the Linux kernel, the non-kernel parts of the GNU operating system, and assorted other software.

A virtual distro , is published set of components (a configuration) that a Software Engineer has compilied.  In essence, its the Meta IP around the technical solution he or she has created to solve a particular business problem.  These virtual distributions (distros) are shareable via cloudsmith and they can be shared in the Open Source or private domains. 

This is huge!  The reason I say that is for the longest time there have been efforts to share Technical IP at the configuration level in such a way as the cream of these efforts (read, best practices) rises to the top.  This is the first time I think someone has cracked the code on this effort.

So, go and check out Cloudsmith but beware, Mitch is totally focused on building a repository of distros that are shareable and useable so the current cloudsmith site is quite focused on the Software Engineering community.  You wont find business value proposition messaging or business model discussions there yet!

NY Tech Meetup

I immersed myself in the entrepreneurial river of Silicon Alley yesterday and I feel baptized!  It was engergizing to be around all these great entrepreneurs demoing their latest and greatest.  The NY tech scene has really heated up... albeit quietly but consistently. From what I hear, start up staffing is at its highest levels since the 1.0 bubble burst.

Of note, Henry Blodgett and Kevin Ryan (former CEO DoubleClick) have demo'd the recently launched  Silicon Alley Insider

A new business site, produced by and for the New York digital business community. We started publishing for real on Friday, July 19. We're currently in beta, so we're grateful for your patience and feedback. 

We cover the intersection of the technology, media, and communications industries, with a focus on companies and people making waves in New York.  Specifically, we provide news, commentary, and discussion about digital publishing, entertainment, news, music, social networking, mobile, and gaming.

Couple of interesting points about their presentation and evening.  Its clear that the NY tech community is enjoying quite a renaissance and that this era of entrepreneurs are more sober and conservative than the last. Actually there were a significant number of serial entrepreneurs in the audience which says that these folks learned alot from the last time around. One note of caution, according Blodget, "there is a bit of air seeping in"... so is another bubble brewing?

I also found Blogdet's definition of "Silicon Alley" overly broad.  First, he said, anything NOT the Valley.  Then he realized just how broad he was painting the NY tech footprint and amended that comment by saying that the definition of Silicon Alley is "the intersection of media, technology and finance"   - a bit different from the above and then he repeated... anything not Valley.  So they have obviously left themselves a lot of room for editorial candor.

Anyway, the evening was great and I'm a convert both to this group as well as to the Meetup community model.  They've got a great business cookin.  Here's the Insider's story on last nite's Meetup.

 

Oh how the mighty have fallen

Sanjay has aged in this whole thing and he's going to age a whole lot more in those organge overalls...

A federal judge approved a restitution agreement today that will require Sanjay Kumar, the former chief executive of Computer Associates, to pay almost $800 million in restitution to investors who lost money because of the company’s accounting fraud.

     

Mr. Kumar, who is scheduled to begin serving a 12-year prison term this month, will actually pay about $52 million over the next two years, the majority of his and his family’s assets. Most of the remaining restitution will probably never be paid, although when Mr. Kumar leaves prison the government will have the right to garnish 20 percent of his wages.


Via the NYTimes

     

Funny

Is your app an ass-kisser?

I need this for my Apartment

Definitely the wildest car protection device I have ever seen.

LifeHacker Tip: Firefox Search in Text Boxes

If you haven't checked out Lifehacker, you should. Great tech tips for the masses.  Like, did you know that Firefox gives you the ability to search off of text in a text box like the one I am typing in now?  Check it out!

SAP, Oracle and Transparency

Dennis writes a  post on Transparency in 2007 and discusses the merits of becoming more transparent in today's business climate - referencing Josh Greenbaum's recent criticism of Oracle for their lack of transparency around their applications performance.  He also points out that SAP is working hard to become more transparent. While this is indeed true, those efforts are largely limited to our executive's public communications efforts, engagements with bloggers and the relations we are striving to maintain with the blogging community.  This effort is expanding however to employees who are also blogging. 

If SAP is to be successful in the coming year though, we have to focus not only on transparency but on the notion of customer empowerment. As a company we have to empower our customers to take control over the buying of enterprise software and give up on our efforts to "sell to" customers.  This effort has to encompass every interaction that a customer has with SAP from any node in the SAP ecosystem and has to enable customers to have the control over the buying experience that to date, enterprise software vendors have fought vigorously to control.

Oracle and Corporate Transparency

Nice post from Josh Greenbaum on Oracle's lack of transparency in their reporting of quarterly earnings. Really Safra, methinks thou protesteth too much!

Oracle Losing the Transparency War. Microsoft Trying Too. -- Yesterday's release of Oracle's most recent financials continued to push Oracle into a race for last place in the world of corporate transparency. Its disclosures were full of all sorts of information, except the information needed to really assess how well the company's acquisition strategy is doing. Charlie Di Bona of Sanford Bernstein put it [...]