smallchou.com/blog

… so I’m probably not entitled to make fun of Texas A&M for this, but this video is pretty hilarious. It pretty much speaks for itself:

Texas A&M UCLA Game – Truth Revealed

From Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway (best website design ever, by the way) shareholders:

Some major financial institutions have, however, experienced staggering problems because they engaged in the “weakened lending practices” I described in last year’s letter. John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, aptly dissected the recent behavior of many lenders: “It is interesting that the industry has invented new ways to lose money when the old ways seemed to work just fine.”

You may recall a 2003 Silicon Valley bumper sticker that implored, “Please, God, Just One More Bubble.” Unfortunately, this wish was promptly granted, as just about all Americans came to believe that house prices would forever rise. That conviction made a borrower’s income and cash equity seem unimportant to lenders, who shoveled out money, confident that HPA – house price appreciation – would cure all problems. Today, our country is experiencing widespread pain because of that erroneous belief. As house prices fall, a huge amount of financial folly is being exposed. You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out – and what we are witnessing at some of our largest financial institutions is an ugly sight.

- Berkshire Hathaway, 2007 Annual Report

I’ve been saying this for years, but every Linkin Park song I’ve ever heard sounds the exact same. Additionally, I happen to have a really unhealthy dislike of that one song. Imagine that for a second.

I can’t even come up with a really accurate parallel here, for fear of offending every Linkin Park fan, but I’ll try. It’s kind of like if you really hated cats and every time you walked out on the street, people were pointing out every single cat within sight, saying: “Hey, look at that cat! She’s ssssoooooo cute!! Friend, isn’t that cat so adorable??!!! She’s so talented, with such amazing instrumentals. And that guy’s lyrics are amazing! [well, you know what I mean].” And you’re thinking in your head, “I would really love to pick that cat up by its tail and hammer throw it across the street.” Yes, kind of like this guy, maybe with wifebeater, but probably not with kilt:

</soapbox>

Anyway, funny link from Reddit today that really makes me feel validated: “All Linkin Park songs sound the same: Two separate songs, one played in each speaker [MP3]. Apparently somebody layered two Linkin Park son–… whoops, sorry, so easy to do that. What I meant to say was: Apparently somebody took two of the “versions” of the same Linkin Park song, layered them on top of each other, and voila! The newest single from Linkin Park.

Seriously, before they put this mp3 up, I felt like Mugatu in Zoolander: “They’re the same [song]! Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” Now I can finally live in peace. I’m filing this under ‘Life’ because this is really a seminal moment in my 26 years.

Hallelujah.

Probably the best justification I’ve ever heard for why someone should spend the extra $200 on the black color of the Macbook over the white version (I have the white version):

Ben Silbermann
  the black one is 200 dollars more
  for 100 GB of hard drive space
  which probably warrents a 50 dollar price hike
  so yeah, it’s about 150 extra dollars to look nice.
Jack Chou
  yeah
  which would make you a <>
Ben Silbermann
  maybe
  but man, a white laptop
  that’s just a joke
Jack Chou
  haha
  asshole
Ben Silbermann
  i mean
  i already drive a prius

Last week I purchased one of those Apple Nike + iPod sport kits from a coworker (she didn’t have the right iPod for it). I took it out for a spin for the first time today. You take the little dock item and plug it into your iPod Nano. And then you put the sensor on your shoe (somehow). And then you run.

So far it’s been pretty cool: it tracks the length of your workout and your distance traveled. When you plug your iPod in after the run, it uploads the info to Nike+ (http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/) and you have a nice Flash interface to track and view your run. Here’s an example of :

A couple of immediate complaints:

• Inaccuracy: as much as I’d like to believe that I just ran 6.4 miles in 48 minutes, I think that’s probably a little much considering my mediocre shape, the big hill out behind Google, and those stoplights that held me back. I think the run’s actually a little under 6 miles. The good news is that you can calibrate the sensor though, so I’ll probably trek out to the LAHS track tomorrow to fix that.
• Sensor Positioning: several times during the run I had to stop and readjust the sensor so it didn’t go flying out from under my laces. I don’t have one of those overpriced Nike+ shoes, so I can’t actually fit it in my shoe’s sole. Luckily there are some third-party companies that sell little pouches to attach the sensor to your non-Nike shoe. The fact that I have to pay $5 extra to do that? Kind of lame (trying to lock in your customers just is never a good idea).

Other than that, the whole system seems good so far. I think there are some community type features (linking up to friends), but I haven’t checked that out yet. More later.

Ever since Ivy told me last week about this Edison Chen sex photo scandal that was all over Asian news (and has finally hit the English-speaking world), I’ve been thinking: “This guy’s just working in the wrong country. If this fella was in America, his career would really be taking off right now.” And I’m not even saying that because he’s a mid- to late-20’s Asian male.

I mean, honestly, the guy had a bunch of lewd photos of him and numerous attractive Asian celebrity actresses/models/singers make their way onto the Internet. Doesn’t that sound like a prerequisite to becoming a celebrity in the United States? I mean, he actually had a real career before this fiasco too. Didn’t Kevin Federline build a career in entertainment off of getting with a celebrity pop star? And it’s not even like he was caught with a prostitute (Hugh Grant), somebody underage (R. Kelly) or a supermodel after dumping his pregnant girlfriend (Tom Brady). And I mean, photos? In America, still images just don’t really do it – anything short of video just isn’t interesting I guess (Paris Hilton, R. Kelly, Colin Farrell, etc.).

I’ll give the guy credit, he does seem pretty genuinely broken up about it – I don’t think R. Kelly ever apologized, and his video was a FELONY. Chen probably needs to bring his career to the United States. At least we could get him on The Bachelor or make him Flava Flav’s sidekick.

Sometimes a story is so ridiculous it must be true: Cliff Young

Seth Godin, as he so often does, has a great post about the use of exclusion in building brand. One-liner: sometimes (often) limiting the quantity/availability of your product (and letting people know it’s limited) can provide positive impact in many ways.

It’s a great point and something that I’ve been thinking a lot about in terms of LinkedIn and products in general. I think it’s particularly pertinent for Internet companies, where so often the cost of inclusion is extremely small. Letting one extra user in the door usually isn’t contributing significantly to your cost, but maybe it’s more beneficial to leave him out (and not only that, let everyone know up-front that he will be left out).

People, deep down, really want to feel special and you want them to aspire to be a part of whatever you’re building. Sometimes if you make the party open to all, everyone decides to stay home.

We’ve officially reached that point of the California Winter where I begin explaining to people, “Hey, it’s really F’ing cold here,” only to be rebuked by a comment like, “Yeah, [insert place that is ACTUALLY cold] is getting pretty cold too. Only 13 degrees today. Kelvin.”

Is it so wrong to claim that highs in the low 60’s (that’s less than 70, for Christ’s sake) are “freezing”?

Reading the 37Signals blog today, I was pointed to a “report” that can best be described as a 60 Minutes hate video .

Watching this video literally made me blink in disbelief. I’ll admit I haven’t watched a lot of 60 Minutes in the past, oh, 25 years, so maybe that’s why they’re so cranky about people my age (it’s probably safe to assume none of my friends watch it either).

Basically the premise of the “report” is (only slightly paraphrasing): ‘The workplace is being filled with an entire generation of kids that have tattoos, wear flip-flops to the office every day, don’t know how to work hard, can’t accept tough feedback, live with their parents, play video games at work, don’t know how to use a KNIFE & FORK (!), and are ‘narcissistic praisehounds’ (my favorite) from years of getting trophies in AYSO despite losing.’

I’m not kidding.

Some of my favorite moments:

• The ad agency manager who thinks she needs to speak like a therapist to her employees. Sorry lady, but if you think you need to talk like that to get my attention, maybe you do need some psychological help.
• The “consultant” shown teaching 20-somethings about how to use a knife and fork properly, followed by shots of her smiling audience, no doubt thinking, “Does this bitch really think we don’t know how to use basic eating utensils?”
• The two “representatives” of our age bracket who seem like total douchebags, proudly stating that, ‘for our generation, it’s perfectly normal to have four jobs on your resume in a year,’ and, ‘we love the praise and, truly, we want our parents to know.’ Sorry 60 Minutes, can you please go find some reasonable human beings who are in “our generation”?

I’d write seven pages of commentary here, but I think the absurdity of this is pretty apparent. I’m not going to lie, there are probably some folks in my generation who actually match up with the profile described in this “report”. Unfortunately, 60 Minutes: 1) paints my entire generation with a single broad brush, and 2) does not even try to display any semblance of balanced reporting.

The equivalent would be 60 Minutes also doing a 15-minute report (with a reporter under the age of 30) that talked about how everyone over the age of 40 is incapable of using technology, intensely interested in senseless meetings, and continually hiring incompetent people based solely on their experience. Would that report fly with the execs? Probably not, yet I’ve seen plenty of those types of people too.

Actually, can someone go and MAKE that video? I’d love to see it.

Oh also, if 60 Minutes could go interview some of the 12-year olds that fall into the age range they give (they slander everyone born from 1980 to 1995) just to get their perspective on the new-age office environments that they work in, I’d love to see that.

Idiots.