tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35285587010072316642012-02-16T18:58:27.200-08:00A blog examining the tech industry's outlook, including commentary about current and future products and strategies.ALalnoreply@blogger.comBlogger291100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-40042669243635509782009-12-14T19:05:00.000-08:002009-12-14T19:05:00.490-08:00

Over the past year, we've heard both political candidates talk about many domestic and international issues, inluding the economy, iraq, oil drilling, and healthcare. However, one important topic that doesn't get enough national attention is the need to improve our public education system.It's peculiar that we don't hear more about education reform. We're constantly fed the same line about how

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-5989297907474892272008-10-24T08:09:00.000-07:002009-01-04T09:00:29.764-08:00

Have you ever considered what you could get from an education in Public Service? For the past few months, I've been exploring Masters and Ph.D programs in Public Service, trying to figure out what value I could get from it. My most recent trip included an open house visit to NYU Wagner's School of Public Service. Here are a few observations/conclusions I made from my trip.1) MPP programs are

ALalnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-64590606098734760732008-10-14T17:48:00.000-07:002008-10-14T18:49:23.644-07:00

As college graduation season swings underway, there are many students and recent grads who don't know what they want to do with their lives and/or don't have jobs. Depending on your family's financial situation, this may be a problem. Over the years, there are some trends that I've been noticing about the job hunt and budgeting:1) Start the Job Hunt Process EarlyAccording to some recent studies,

ALalnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-39013788182158434772007-12-17T14:21:00.000-08:002007-12-17T11:23:00.100-08:00

As College Students, have you wondered why you are paying anywhere from $100-$150 for a brand new calculus or economics textbook, when the theories taught in those textbooks have mostly stayed the same in the past 100 years, let alone the past 10. Then why do publishers continually push a new version of textbooks every year or two? This represents a huge costs to students, who generally don't

ALalnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-42174618242551012462007-12-17T11:03:00.000-08:002007-12-17T11:07:45.833-08:00

Here is one business school Team's perspective on Google's Forward Looking Strategy:Company Overview Google began as “a new approach to online search” pioneered by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University in 1996. Since then, Google has evolved into the world’s top internet destination with a 64% worldwide internet search market share. Incorporated in 1998 with an IPO in 2004,

ALalnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-21427926260069785032007-11-05T11:02:00.000-08:002007-11-05T11:25:05.652-08:00

On November 2nd, Google Officially launched "Video Units" - a way for YouTube Partners to advertise their video ads on websites. Video Units is currently being offered through AdSense, and allows any website owner to add Video Units to their website in hopes to generate revenue. This marks Google's first foray into non-text based advertising. These videos will still be relevant to the content, as

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-45967015082844362022007-10-28T18:22:00.001-07:002007-10-28T18:28:55.006-07:00

Reports indicate that Stan O'Neal, Merrill Lynch's CEO for the past five years, is very close to resigning as early as Sunday night(October 28) or Monday morning (October 29). O'Neal has recently received a lot of criticsm, as he has been blamed for Merrill's $7.9 billion write down related to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and his unauthorized attempt for a possible merger with Wachovia. The

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-13348215437415016882007-10-28T17:55:00.001-07:002007-10-28T18:02:06.187-07:00

According to Matt Asay, of CNET.com, Open Source will become a $22 billion industry by 2010. And if you include all the inhouse work that firms do with open source platforms, you can add an additional $19 billion, making the total industry a $41 billion industry. Overall, this means that up to 20% of software sold in 2010 will be based on an open source platform. Wow. Does Microsoft need to start

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-19672944437464122832007-10-28T16:12:00.000-07:002007-10-28T16:23:04.500-07:00

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Ferderal Reserve governors will meet to decide if another interest rate cut is in order. Even though most of Wall Street believes that we will see 25 point cut this week, followed by another 25 point cut at their next meeting on December 11, there are many mitigating issues that could lead to leaving the discount rate stable.Merrill Lynch's huge $2.5 billion loss

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-52092136661585596642007-10-27T11:34:00.001-07:002007-10-29T09:37:30.386-07:00

As reported earlier, Microsoft paid an astounding $240 million for a 1.6% share in Facebook. This deal implicitly values Facebook at $15 billion. But why did Microsoft pay so much? Is Facebook really worth $15 billion? Does Microsoft think that Facebook will go public and grow rapidly like Google, or did Microsoft buy into Facebook in hopes to acquire exclusive advertising rights on the platform?

ALalnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-37966684382252352542007-10-26T08:40:00.000-07:002007-10-26T08:53:15.282-07:00

Amidst the crunch crunch due to subprime mortgage woes for investment banks, technology companies seem to be increasing sales by leaps and bounds. In the 10 days alone, we've seen Google and Microsoft beat market expectations on their quarterly results, which has translated into sizeable stock increases of 7.96% and 17.7%, respectively.Increased on-line advertising, PC sales, video game sales,

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-31369712774433034742007-10-26T08:19:00.000-07:002007-10-26T08:37:38.294-07:00

On October 25th, Microsoft announced their first quarter earnings, notably outperforming the market's expectations. Revenues came in 27% higher than last year at around $13.9 billion, beating Wall Street predictions by approximately $1 billion. Operating Income also saw a big increase of 32%, coming in at $5.9 billion.This represents a big quarter for Microsoft, and shows that it still has the

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-91875449560495642322007-10-25T13:06:00.000-07:002007-10-25T13:16:47.685-07:00

In an interview with Apple COO Tim Cook about 4th quarter earnings, a question was posed about iPhone sales. Cook disclosed that over 1.4 million iPhones had been sold, surpassing Apple's goal of 1 million sales. This increase in sales can be heavily attributed to Apple's recent price cut, showing how price elastic consumers are. The more interesting fact is that Apple estimates that 250,000 of

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-88264076870548802602007-10-25T11:09:00.000-07:002007-10-25T11:17:49.166-07:00

As mentioned in previous posts, Microsoft won a 1.6% share of Facebook for a whopping $240 million, signing a deal to that allows Microsoft to take care of Facebook's advertising for international users.This represents a major win for Microsoft, whose web advertising is a fledgling baby compared to Google. With 60% of Facebook's 49 million users being abroad, Microsoft has just gained access to

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-29678633291053754462007-10-25T10:58:00.000-07:002007-10-25T11:05:32.376-07:00

The Chinese Economy grew 11.5 percent from July-September in 2007, slowing down slightly from it's 11.9% growth in the second quarter of 2007. Though this growth is still phenomenal, economists are claiming that this slight slow down indicates that growth has already peaked for this business cycle. However, most expect China to maintain a growth rate of greater than 10% for at least the next year

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-54198645251030791572007-10-24T16:51:00.000-07:002007-10-24T16:57:23.271-07:00

This afternoon, Microsoft beat out Google to buy a 1.6% share of Facebook for a whopping $240 million, implicitly valuing Facebook at $15 billion. With Facebook's large user base of over 41 million, this could help Microsoft kickstart its lagging advertising network. Microsoft will handle Facebook's international advertising.Though Google lost it still has a large piece of the social networking

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-3121482718058314682007-10-24T11:52:00.000-07:002007-10-24T11:54:26.935-07:00

A report from Reuters claims that Facebook is nearing a deal with either Microsoft or Google to handle its overseas advertising sales. Analysts estimate that a bid from either company would value FaceBook up to $15 billion.Read more about it here:http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSN249109020071024

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-47631794541316577132007-10-24T11:09:00.000-07:002007-10-24T11:13:08.256-07:00

Google will start collecting data from Nielson Televison Ratings, hoping to track viewer patterns, learn demographic information, and squeeze out whatever else it can to help Google expand it's advertising knowledge. Although Google has traditionally been a text-based advertising firm, it is a logical step for Google to move into Video Advertising, especially for getting large advertiser accounts

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-62920053781715994102007-10-24T10:28:00.000-07:002007-10-25T21:10:50.438-07:00

As most of you know, Mohammad Yunas won the Nobel Prize in 2006 for his innovative work in Microfinancing. Microfinancing is the process of loaning impoverished people small amounts of money to help them get out of debt or to help them start small businesses in underdeveloped areas. Dr. Yunas started this trend by loaning a whopping $27 to 42 people in a small village in Bangladesh to help them

ALalnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-24791878292227215812007-10-22T09:25:00.000-07:002007-10-22T09:29:01.790-07:00

Also read: Napster isn't dead yet?Apparently AT&T and Napster are teaming up again, enabling users to purchase and download music directly onto their Cellphones for $1.99/song. Will this finally be Napster's Revival? I personally don't think so, but we'll see.Read the article Here:http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/att-sells-napster-songs-over-the-air-for-2-each-313400.php

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-30713144661866279332007-10-22T09:19:00.000-07:002007-10-22T09:22:52.518-07:00

An interesting Article about India's Growth from CNN Money Today. This graph found in the article show's India' Investment is a two way street:1) Multinationals are realizing that they need to pump Money into India and are acquiring local firms to expand.2) Rich Indian Companies are expanding their businesses outside their boundaries into other countries.Read more here (picture also taken from

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-23974862427145968512007-10-22T08:59:00.001-07:002007-10-22T09:14:22.404-07:00

It seems that 23 year old Mark Zuckerburg may be on top of the world as his company, Facebook, is seeking a valuation between $10 to $15 billion. Facebook is a popular on-line social networking site, boasting a user base of approximately 40 million people. Rumors have shown that Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo are all interesting in buying a piece of the firm. Earlier this year, Yahoo bid $1 billion

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-88435385367828818182007-10-22T08:48:00.000-07:002007-10-22T08:56:23.064-07:00

BusinessWeek is reporting that Skype will soon release a mobile phone overseas. Code named the "White Phone", Skype has partnered up with iScoot to develop the software for cellphones. The cellphone will enable users to call other skype members for free, and call non-members for a small fee. What's most promising about this model is that Skype's international rates are miniscule compared to

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-50605272527113450692007-10-20T16:27:00.000-07:002007-10-20T16:42:07.655-07:00

In a brief Q&A at the Web 20. Summit Yesterday, Steve Ballmer said that Microsoft would be willing to acquire up to a 100 companies in the next five years. That' would spell out to be a spiraling acquisition game, which could wreak havoc on its financials. But more importantly, how does this fit in with the industry?Microsoft has been the behemoth in the industry for the past 20 years, but many

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-56846283473560175712007-10-20T10:14:00.001-07:002007-10-21T17:31:48.425-07:00

My last post has got me thinking about the business relationships of Search Engines. The history of Search Engines is actually quite fascinating, with most of the big engines (with the exception of AltaVista) coming from students and academics, not big tech companies.In 1990, the web was mainly comprised of academic papers, reports, technical documents, and other non-main-stream items stored on

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-62452599415317067322007-10-20T10:07:00.000-07:002007-10-20T16:22:36.787-07:00

Most people know Stanford as a great school, offering various top-rated programs. Some may even call it the "Harvard of the West Coast". Although Stanford offers many top rated degrees, I think Stanford's true strength lies in its Computer Science Department.Situated between Silicon Valley, with companies such as HP and Apple on one side, and venture capitalists on the other side of its campus,

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-65733996846979068122007-10-19T10:04:00.000-07:002007-10-20T16:18:59.334-07:00

Could the days of console wars be over? If EA CEO has anything to say about it, it may be true. EA envisions a future with a standard gaming platform, where users can play video games over the internet (think Shockwave mini games in the current era). Hardware will no longer be the leader in the industry, as software companies will have stiff competition over a unitary hardware platform.Below is

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-44777475043181089662007-10-15T11:44:00.000-07:002007-10-20T10:13:58.029-07:00

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of hype over the Google Phone, but does anyone know what it's going to look like? Is Google developing hardware, software, or both?One way to examine this question is to look at Google's recent acquisition of GrandCentral (www.grandcentral.com). GrandCentral is a software developer for mobile phones, and is working on some pretty impressive stuff.

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3528558701007231664.post-51078657561164505812007-03-22T14:17:00.000-07:002007-03-22T14:57:39.954-07:00

In a recent lecture to a Stanford MBA class, Steve Ballmer (CEO of Microsoft) called Google a one trick company, implying that Google's search and advertising business is the only true stream of income, while everything else they do is "cute". While I agree that most of Google's other great products (Google Maps, Google Docs and Sheets, Google Checkout, etc.) don't generate a substatial income,

ALalnoreply@blogger.com0