blog.ulfw.com

Maybe it’s just me and no one else has a problem with this. But apparently it is a fact that I am too stupid to read CAPTCHAs like this and type it right:

Whenever one of these dreadful things shows up on a website (e.g. to add a user on MySpace or change your user info on Yahoo! or change your password on Google etc.) I have to give to between two and three tries on average before I get to the next screen. No matter how thoroughly I try to read them for some reason I always get the wrong at first.

I mean, come on. What do these really mean?

Last time I came back from my (one and only) vacation I took during my Google days, the stock jumped 21% the day I came back.
Now that I’ve left the company, the stock is going nowhere but down after not as high-as-expected Q2 earnings announcements.

Coincidence?

No iPhone 3G for me this month:
Not that I am missing TOO much. After all, (nice but still buggy) Firmware 2.0 brought most of the feature enhancements of iPhone 3G to the old iPhone (except GPS, which is somewhat pointless without navigation) and faster speeds (though how much faster remains to be seen).
The kicker for me though is the arrogance that Apple and at&t show to their loyal customers. Not only have I seen looooong lines everywhere the last couple of days. But no. Apparently Apple/at&t are not willing to sell to me. Period.
Some background info: I am on at&t’s ‘Premier’ discount for Stanford. Essentially you get a 15% discount on your bill. Now, I even forgot I was on that - considering - well - that I haven’t gotten ANY discount the last year or so (’Sorry iPhone is ineligible’). Now that I am still technically on this ‘discounted’ contract though, at&t corporate stores are the only places I am allowed to buy the new iPhone 3G at. Apple will not sell to me (’sorry - no Premier contracts. It’s an at&t rule.’), while at&t continues to treat it’s customers like crap. I have been to three stores today. What I heard was:
- Store A in Palo Alto: No reply. I stood there 10 mins without anyone bothering to talk to me. Then when I asked a store clerk who passed by he said: ‘oh we got only 9 devices in. They are all sold’. 9 devices. Btw - this store was the highest grossing at&t store in the country in 2006/07!
- Store in Belmont: Wouldn’t even let me into the store. ‘Sorry no devices. You can pay NOW and then come back to the store in 10 business days to pick it up’. Same story at store 3.

Now, I am moving in 12 days (9 business days) and the fact is:
- Apple is not willing to sell to me even though they have plenty of devices in stock
- at&t is not able to sell to me directly, only by order and PICKUP instore
- I have to be physically at the store I ordered the phone in (i.e. I can’t order in LA now as I am not in town yet, and I can’t order in SF as I will be in LA by the time the devices get here)
- No mail order. Period. You HAVE to be PHYSICALLY at the store even though they don’t actually HAVE any ACTUAL phones to sell to you.

So - no iPhone 3G for me. No $300 for Apple, no $375 for at&t (the ridiculous $15/month price increase over 24 months). For some odd reason, I don’t feel so bad about this now.

It turns out, my silly Mobile Trick video made it to Germany’s largest newsmagazine and website DER SPIEGEL. See here.
Of course, DER SPIEGEL (The Mirror) being German there had to be a slight negative angle to the story:

which translates into:
“Scrolling-Display

In the video titled “Mobile Messenger” you’re not seeing fantasy functions as before. But the messages in large scrolling type, which can also be read across the meeting room table are bringing true high school behavior into a meeting.”

Whatever… I’m on DER SPIEGEL! Woot woot!
Original video is here.

After the big bomb has been dropped, here is part 2 of the story. Where am I heading?
I have always been interested in social networks, having signed up for a Facebook account right when they came out (and when they were restricted to just Harvard, Stanford and a few other universities) and used MySpace and LinkedIn for years. So I concentrated my search on social networking and video companies (a second big area of future growth in my opinion). Having gotten multiple offers, I finally decided to go with… MySpace.

For me, it basically were three reasons that drew me to them:
- I genuinely liked all the MySpace folks I met throughout my interviews, from the SVP of Engineering to Products and many in between. Thanks for inviting me to your pizza Friday, guys!
- MySpace is a massively used product, in scale with Google, Yahoo or Facebook.
- The opportunity is just awesome. I am fortunate enough to be on the intersection of Social Networking and Mobile, THE future area of growth for social platforms.

So I am happy to announce that starting August 4th, I’ll be joining MySpace as their new Product Management Director for Mobile!

MySpace is coming up with a lot of new products and features, for example last week a new homepage design launched:

Here is a look at the current MySpace mobile website (m.myspace.com):

This is MySpace’s current building with Fox Interactive Media in Beverly Hills 90210:

Apparently a parking nightmare is awaiting me there.

Starting in June 2009, we’ll be moving to a new campus in Playa Del Rey though, as Techcrunch already reported recently:

All FIM companies in Southern California will move to the new facility starting from June to December 2009. The site will house over 300,000 square feet of commercial space and is part of a development called Horizon at Playa Vista (a rendering of the development is above). The area is quickly becoming LA’s media hub, with EA, Rubin Postaer and others now with offices in the area.

Today Effie and Lawrence organized a little going-away meeting/party in our Building’s microkitchen. Effie baked an awesome chocolate cake that looked like an iPhone with the sneezing Panda video on it while Lawrence set the whole thing up and took a video or two as well.
Creative as Googlers are, we organized a little round of Four Square to keep us occupied:

Effie’s super awesome cake:

A funny Saturday Night Live skit I found on hulu:

Setup your MySpace page at the Learning Annex