Tech Bubble? Maybe, Maybe Not | TechCrunch

March 25, 2015March 25, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I’ve heard people wonder if we’re in a bubble with regard to startups. Is it as bad as the 2000 dot-com bubble? Might it actually be worse? I thought it would be worthwhile to look at the available data to see if we can figure this out with more than just a personal opinion. So I asked our engineering team at Google Ventures to dig into the bubble question and find out what the data say. In this post, I’ll share what I learned.

Back in the late 1990s, venture capitalists got very excited about the Internet. A whole lot of money was poured into some companies that failed rather spectacularly, and a lot of people lost a lot of money.

Fast forward to 2015. If you read the headlines about multi-billion-dollar valuations for companies like Uber (one of our portfolio companies), Airbnb and Dropbox, it’s easy to see why some people are feeling antsy. Is everyone irrationally excited about new platforms and economic models in the same way folks were excited in 1999? Or is this different? There are two sides to the case.

Thanks to Google, TV Ads Are About to Start Watching You | WIRED

March 25, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

GOOGLE IS ABOUT to make ads on television work just like ads on the web. Through Google, advertisers will know how many times their ads were viewed. They’ll be able to target audiences based on location and viewing history. In other words, TV advertisers will have access to the same audience intel online advertisers take for granted.

Finally, after all this time, your TV is going to know as much about you as your web browser.

Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

March 24, 2015March 25, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

v.19 n. 13 – Released March 23, 2015

This Week’s Headlines:

January State and Local Employment Report
Events of Interest
- April 21, 2015: San Gabriel Valley Economic Outlook

An Implant Could One Day Fix Spinal Cords And Let People Walk Again (Rats Already Are) | Co.Exist

March 24, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Here’s how we might fix spinal injuries in the future: with an implant that reconnects our body with the rest of our nervous system.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Lausanne, have developed the e-Dura—a tiny skinlike device that attaches directly to damaged spinal cords. By sending out small electrical pulses, it stimulates the cord as if it were receiving signals from the brain, thus allowing movement.

“The purpose of the neuro-prosthesis is to excite the neurons that are on the spinal cord below the site of the injury and activate them, just like if they were receiving information from the brain,” says Stéphanie Lacour, a professor at the institute.

March Business Scan 2015 | LAECD

March 23, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Kyser Center for Economic Research is pleased to provide the March 2015 issue of Business Scan, a compilation of 16 key Los Angeles County economic indicators and business trends, including employment in 7 industries, unemployment rates, trade, housing, tourism and entertainment.

Why Fraternities Have To Go | AskMen

March 23, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s time to end the Greek system on college campuses — even Will Ferrell says so.

In a public Q&A via the New York Times last week, the comedian said that even though he was in a fraternity — Delta Tau Delta — during his years at the University of Southern California, the racist behavior of Sigma Alpha Epsilon brothers at Oklahoma University is “a real argument for getting rid of the system altogether.”

I couldn’t agree more. What began in the late 1700s as a small network of secret academic societies, in which young men at a few select colleges on the East Coast could gather and discuss topics deemed inappropriate by their institutions’ faculty and administrators, has devolved into a culture that not only condones abusive behavior, but in many cases demands it.

The BMW i3 Is a Peppy, Efficient Pain in the Back | Bloomberg Business

March 20, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Here’s the difference between an optimist and a pessimist.

An optimist drives the BMW i3 electric car and marvels at how great it is that he has only to lift his foot off the accelerator for the car to stop. The moment the foot releases pressure, the regenerative braking system will make actual braking—placing your foot on the pedal and pressing down—unnecessary. The car slows dramatically on its own.

A pessimist drives the BMW i3 electric car and finds himself annoyed that those blasted regenerative brakes make it feel like you’re stutter-stepping through every stoplight.

I tended toward the latter. It could be a character defect. I’m OK with that.

Immediate deceleration is not the defining characteristic of the car—the oblong body, 117-mpg efficiency, and variety of interior materials are all good candidates for that—but the sensation certainly commands your attention. And it gets more wearisome over time.

Sony has created the Cadillac of pay TV. Would you pay $600 a year for it? | Mashable

March 19, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

Sony has built the Cadillac plan of Internet TV: It’s big, it’s shiny and it’s expensive.

Sony launched its new PlayStation Vue streaming TV service on Wednesday featuring a 55-channel bundle that includes shows from three major broadcast networks — although notably lacks ESPN.

Vue comes along just as the Internet TV market has begun to take off. Dish’s Sling TV, one of the first “over the top” (OTT) bundles of channels to hit the market, reportedly logged 100,000 sign-ups in its first month. Apple is also reportedly working on an Internet TV service.

Rich Greenfield, media and tech analyst for BTIG Research, said Vue represented the most recent of many steps toward breaking the dominance of cable providers.

“The bundling is coming unhinged right in front of our eyes,” he said in an email to Mashable.

Your Fitness App Is Making You Fat | TechCrunch

March 13, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Fitness apps are all the rage. A raft of new companies and products want to track your steps and count your calories with the aim of melting that excess blubber. There’s just one problem — most of these apps don’t work. In fact, there is good reason to believe they make us fatter.

One study called out “the dirty secret of wearables,” citing that “these devices fail to drive long-term sustained engagement for a majority of users.” Endeavour Partners’ research found “more than half of U.S. consumers who have owned a modern activity tracker no longer use it. A third of U.S. consumers who have owned one stopped using the device within six months of receiving it.”

While the report mentioned several reasons why people don’t stick with these tracking devices, my own theory is simple: They backfire. Here are three surprising reasons why fitness apps may be making us less happy and more flabby.