In 2005, Google came out with an email service, and like a lot of other people I signed up. I liked it because it kept spam out of my way. It was fairly miraculous how it did that. On the other hand, I didn't like the way they bundled emails into conversations. But I eventually became accustomed to that, even though to this day it's hard to manage.

I was more or less a happy Gmail user until they started trying to turn it into the dreaded Google-Plus.

Gmail is nice to have, but I don't want to blur the line between private email and public writing. The two activities should be as far apart as possible.

I wouldn't mind paying to use Gmail. But this isn't a good thing they're doing, trying to turn email into something else.

 5/10/2012; 10:13:09 AM.

I watched all the way to the bitter end.

All I can say is thank god it's over.

They had their brilliant moments, but at the end they were a rag-tag crew of nincompoops.

The Miami Heat, who put the Knicks down, in contrast are a vector. They're pointed toward an outcome. They mean business. If there's any justice they will be in the finals this year, playing Oklahoma City in one for the ages. Whoever wins will have defeated a great team.

The Knicks aren't a team. And they aren't that great as individuals. And in basketball only teams matter. It's not a sport for individuals.

Now, I look forward to finding other causes to believe in!

PS: The NYT tells the same story, with more detail and a great closing paragraph. I won't spoil it here.

 5/10/2012; 8:54:52 AM.

I loved this piece about angel investor Kevin Hartz.

He says "When I see a massive number of new investors and carpetbaggers coming in, it's time to get out."

We'e singing the same song, except we're playing different parts.

When I see products, customers, performance and value not being important, I said it's time to move off to the side and invest for the long-term. Unfortunately I've never been able to convince the actual money investors to bet along with me. They like to skip all that, expecting what seems to them as magic, but to the people who do the work -- risky investment.

They invest in the people who make them feel good. That's pretty dumb, imho -- long-term, while it might yield spectacular returns, short-term. It's probably not wise, either.

 5/10/2012; 8:34:45 AM.