Rob Fahrni » Business

Hunter To Hunted

Rob Fahrni — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:49:55 +0000

New York Times: “Which is why Barnes & Noble, once viewed as the brutal capitalist of the book trade, now seems so crucial to that industry’s future.”

I was bummed when Borders declared bankruptcy. Kim and I loved to visit the Visalia Borders, and we actually bought books!

Kim has been using a Kindle for a few years now and I just don’t read much.

RIM?

Rob Fahrni — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:40:10 +0000

New York Times: “Not everyone feels the same way. Over the last year, RIM’s share price has plunged 75 percent. The company once commanded more than half of the American smartphone market. Today it has 10 percent.”

This article is worth reading just to see what can happen to market leaders when the get too comfortable.

Free, at what price?

Rob Fahrni — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:53:13 +0000

David Barnard: “Ultimately, the users become the product, not the app. Selling users to advertisers and pushing in-app upgrades/consumables is a completely different game than carefully crafting apps to maximize user value/entertainment. It’d be a shame if the mobile software industry devolved into some horrific hybrid of Zynga and Facebook.”

Twitter, Pot, Kettle

Rob Fahrni — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:24:48 +0000

Dave Winer: “It’s not news, and certainly not surprising. And it’s not surprising either that Twitter is upset, but what is surprising is the sheer chutzpah of Twitter complaining about Google shutting them out after Twitter unilaterally reversed course and put most of their developer community out of business when they announced they wanted to completely own the Twitter client business.”

It seems like we’re headed for a bunch of walled gardens. Facebook is already a walled garden and moves like this seem to indicate these guys are desperate for eyeballs. Captive eyeballs. Let’s just keep making the Internet more and more proprietary! Yay!

Oh, don’t worry, SOPA will be the real nail in the coffin of the Internet.

RIAA, ARRR

Rob Fahrni — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:58:00 +0000

Gizmodo : “Those nauseating RIAA hypocrites were caught illegally downloading $9 million on TV shows. Now they are giving the same pathetic excuse given to them by the people they accused of pirating songs: “someone was using our IP address.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

Maybe they RIAA should change their name to ARRR?

Killing the Web; Netflix

Rob Fahrni — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:12:51 +0000

Wired: “During peak hours — after dinner time until around midnight — Netflix already accounts for somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of all US Internet traffic. So what will happen to the Internet if the 14 million Netflix subscribers who send and receive DVDs via the mail suddenly start streaming everything they watch?”

What happens indeed. Be ready for prices to skyrocket.

Mobile, definitely a passing fad

Rob Fahrni — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:50:39 +0000

VentureBeat: “Starbucks has now processed more than 26 million mobile payments since January, Adam Brotman, vice president and general manager of digital ventures at Starbucks, told VentureBeat.”

In a word, WOW! Do you think Peet’s and other big names will soon follow suit?

Peet’s, I’m here to help. (I know, shameless, but a guys gotta try, right?)

Patents Suck

Rob Fahrni — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:51:21 +0000

Luma Labs: “Therefore, we’re acting unilaterally and conceding the market by immediately discontinuing the Loop and LoopIt. Full stop. We apologize for the sudden nature of this decision and our implementation of it, but we feel like our options on this matter are limited.”

I don’t have much to say about this. The little guy just doesn’t stand a chance anymore.

Horrible. What a loss.

Nest

Rob Fahrni — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 06:48:16 +0000

Wired: “Fadell explained his concept: Untold tons of carbon were being pumped into the air, with people losing billions of dollars in energy costs, all because there was no easy, automatic way to control the temperature. But what if you could apply all the skills and brilliance of Silicon Valley to produce a thermostat that was smart, thrifty and so delightful that saving energy was as much fun as shuffling an iTunes playlist?”

Nifty idea. I hope they succeed.

One Developers Journey

Rob Fahrni — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:00:37 +0000

Kevin Hoctor: “The irony is that I’m the one always preaching to others that they need to be passionate about what they do. Don’t settle for a paycheck. Don’t work at a place that makes you want to rush home and down a bottle of vodka to balance out the day. Yet, here I am doing exactly what I’ve told my kids not to do.”

Kevin made the transition from frustrated Windows developer to Indie Mac developer and is still going strong. About six months after the above post Kevin shipped Debt Quencher 1.0. I don’t think he’s looked back.

That is an inspiration.