The 1981 Vision of the Internet and Newspapers

This is a great old 1981 news report from what appears to be a local San Francisco television station, talking about the then-futuristic Internet.  I love the opening line:

Imagine, if you will, sitting down to your morning coffee and turning on your home computer to read the day’s newspaper.  It’s not as far-fetched as it may seem …”

I received this video link from two friends at the National Press Club, Rick Dunham and Larry Lipman, both via Facebook.  Rick and Larry are former NPC presidents and this is making the rounds today among my friends in journalism.  Keep that in mind as you observe the focus in this news piece on the impact of the Internet on newspapers in particular.  Very interesting to see this with the hindsight of history.

Insanity Island featured at the Liberty Alliance home page

Insanity Island featured at Liberty Alliance

The momentum behind Doug Hayden‘s Insanity Island is growing!  The latest example:  Liberty Alliance, a large collection of influential organizations and websites advocating traditional values and conservative principles, is featuring Insanity Island’s latest brilliant piece on its home page.  The latest Insanity Island cartoon is currently the number one “featured post” at Liberty Alliance’s home page.

You owe it to yourself to see the video for yourself, here it is:

It’s a full time job just keeping up with our Skere9 Stars, and this one is not exception!

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Replica – For Sale???

I could SO be this guy …

So the British news is reporting today that a man they describe as an “obsessed” fan of the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang spent 12 years building a recreation of the original car used in the movie, and is now putting the car up for auction to help buy a cruise for his parents.  The car has already attracted so much attention to him that it already won him a job working with movies and art direction.

For the full article click here.

Apple Files in Russia to Protect “iWatch”

Interesting news to those of us who are tracking the work of Eric Migicovsky. Business news outlets yesterday reported that Apple, Inc., has filed for trademark protection of the term “iWatch”.

Apple has already announced plans to roll out an iWatch sometime – perhaps next year in 2014 – and presumably this is in response to the outrageous interest in the Pebble, Migicovsky’s invention that broke records last year at Kickstarter.com when Migicovsky was raising money to make the device. The news outlet USDailyVoice.com adds this interesting comment at the end of their news report about Apple’s trademark application in Russia, when they referred to:

… an interview with Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky, where the owner of the smart watch makers said that he doesn’t have any comment regarding a possible Apple buyout.

Interesting. We’ll keep tracking this one.

The Winklevoss Twins are investing in SumZero.com

I’m intrigued by three former Harvard students.  Divya Narendra, and the Winklevoss Twins, or the “Winklevii”, as the Twitterverse calls them. For those who don’t know, Divya Narendra, Tyler Winklevoss, and Cameron Winklevoss are credited by many with having invented the Facebook concept while students at Harvard University, and creating a prototype, then hiring fellow student Mark Zuckerberg to build on the basic software and create a more complex system.  What happened next is the subject of several court actions:  Zuckerberg either stole their software and used it to create his version of Facebook, or created something original from scratch.  A lot of this is addressed in the 2010 movie The Social Network, based on the book Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich.

But … whatever happened to the Winklevoss Twins, and to Divya Narendra?  For one thing, the twins eventually won a $65 million settlement against Facebook, a company that was valued by Forbes in a Feb. 21 article at $67.8 billion.

But what are they doing now?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Divya Narendra co-founded a site called SumZero, which is a social network for professional investors.  He created it with fellow Harvard alum Aalap Mahadevia.

And now the Winklevii are investing as well.  “The band is back together”, the Journal quotes Tyler Winklevoss as saying.

The twins created Winklevoss Capital as a legal entity to invest the proceeds from the Facebook settlement, and SumZero is their first investment.

The concept is based on exclusivity.  Only qualified active investors are permitted access to the database, and only if they pass the application process.  Narendra personally reviews each application and reportedly rejects about 75 percent of them.  Once accepted, a user cannot simply lurk and monitor the work of others, but must maintain a certain level of activity to stay involved.

It’s an intriguing concept that draws an active group of participants and weeds out others, resulting in an exclusive high-quality community.

The official website is at SumZero.com.