bill

Ben Horowitz: I feel your IPO pain, Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO -- Venture Capitalist Ben Horowitz, half of the powerful Andreessen Horowitz duo, talked about how a lousy performing IPO -- are you listening, Mark Zuckerberg? -- can be a wrenching experience.

"The biggest pressure is on the employees who go home and someone in their family says, 'I read in the paper that you guys are bunch of idiots'," said Horowitz, who was interviewed at Techcrunch Disrupt by Silicon Valley veteran Bill Campbell. "It's a really hard thing to take."

Horowitz was talking about his experience as CEO of LoudCloud, a 1990s-era company … Read more

The 404 Show Special: Jay Chandrasekhar and Kevin Heffernan

The 404's Jeff Bakalar had a chance to sit down with Jay Chandrasekhar and Kevin Heffernan, two of the members of the comedy group Broken Lizard (Super Troopers, Beerfest). The duo has a new film out called "The Babymakers" in select theaters, iTunes, and on-demand August 3rd.

In addition to a discussion about "The Babymakers," Jay and Kevin talk to Jeff about a sequel to "Super Troopers," getting "Potfest" off the ground, and what else is in store for Broken Lizard.… Read more

Fake WikiLeaks op-ed targets New York Times' Bill Keller

An opinion piece that appears to be by former New York Times editor Bill Keller on what appears to be the New York Times Web site is a fake.

The editorial urges Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to take a "stand against the use of financial embargos to prohibit supporters from contributing or subscribing to media organizations protected by the First Amendment and free speech laws." The fake op-ed was drafted as a follow up to a February 2012 op-ed by Keller titled "Wikileaks, A Postscript."

The URL for the fake column was a giveaway to … Read more

Microsoft hires former Clinton adviser Penn as corporate VP

Microsoft has hired a new vice president with strong ties to Washington and public relations.

Mark Penn will join the company as corporate vice president for strategic and special projects. Leading a small team focused on "key consumer initiatives," Penn will report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft will rely on its new hire's experience in "strategic development, branding, and positioning" to come up with "breakthrough" ideas designed to meet consumers' changing needs, the company said today.

Dubbed "one of the best-known political and campaign strategists in Washington" according to The … Read more

Gates, Ellison both looking to buy Hawaii's Lanai?

What do you do when you've got $500 million to spare? Get an island.

Bill Gates and Larry Ellison are interested in buying the same one, according to rumors floating around Hawaii.

Billionaire David Murdock wants to sell the island of Lanai, Hawaii's sixth-largest by acreage, and potential buyers could include the Microsoft founder and the Oracle CEO, Pacific Business News reported. The island, which may be worth more than $500 million, is expected to be sold soon.

Gates and his wife, Melinda, rented the island (the whole island, mind you) for their marriage in 1994, and Ellison … Read more

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in epic rap battle

Just when you thought the world was so overloaded with caricatures of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs that it just might capsize and dump us all into space, here comes a truly hilarious one to lighten the load.

This installment of Epic Rap Battles of History features a very astute match-up between the two tech giants, spitting pointed jabs at each other until Jobs has to depart and Hal 9000 lights up the whole damn joint.… Read more

First Privacy Bill of Rights meeting: Mobile apps targeted

The first in a series of meetings to decide concrete enforcement terms for President Obama's digital "Privacy Bill of Rights" has just been announced for July 12, 2012, and its focus is on mobile apps.

The National Communications and Telecommunication Administration (U.S. Department of Commerce) has decided that it's time to put President Obama's Privacy Bill of Rights into practice.

To begin, they've just invited all "privacy stakeholders" to "generate robust input" for the first consumer data transparency code of conduct.

NTIA has selected mobile app transparency as the … Read more

Bill Gates' magical bracelets to monitor kids' attentiveness

Science, rationality's clever henchman, sometimes has strange ideas.

One that has entered the firmament is a "Galvanic" bracelet that uses physiological signs to measure just how engaged a child is in school.

I am grateful to the Washington Post for revealing that such bracelets are now subject to a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

I hadn't been aware that one's skin could be such a giveaway of my mental state. Sometimes, it's just dry because I forget to lather myself in lovely Philosophy body lotion. (Try it. It smells wonderful.)

And … Read more

Anti-SOPA, PIPA lawmakers want Internet Bill of Rights

The two lawmakers who spearheaded a protest in January against controversial antipiracy legislation said today that they want the country to adopt an Internet Bill of Rights.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said today at the Personal Democracy Forum 2012 in New York that the country needs a way to guarantee citizens their Internet freedoms.

"What we need is a way to measure how we're going to ensure the voice of [Internet] networks is protected," Wyden said during an interview the two lawmakers gave to Andrew Rasiej, an entrepreneur and founder of the … Read more

In 50 years, Steve Jobs will be forgotten, Gladwell says

Whom should we revere from 50 years ago?

Should it be Pope John XXIII for excommunicating Fidel Castro? Or the Beach Boys for riding into the world with their surfin' sound? Should it be John Glenn for being the first American to orbit the Earth? Or what then was known as the European Common Market (now the EU) for admitting Greece?

I ask because Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point," has expressed decidedly straight views on which of tech's great and current names will be revered in 2062.

I am grateful to the often historical Business Insider … Read more