Every New Year's for four we've been going to Joe's Bar. On a night where everyone trying to plan the best event and paying a $70+ cover, an empty dive bar with $3 beer is a great default.

]]> http://www.nofelt.com/2007/01/joes_bar_new_years.html http://www.nofelt.com/2007/01/joes_bar_new_years.html Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:49:44 -0500

]]> http://www.nofelt.com/2006/12/slap_happy.html http://www.nofelt.com/2006/12/slap_happy.html Fri, 22 Dec 2006 19:45:43 -0500

The economy is one of the world's fastest growing, with GDP expanding at an average annual rate of about 7.5% for the past three years. A young population, declining dependency ratio and higher savings rate lead even the most sober economic forecasters to expect the growth rate to average 6% or so for the next few decades. The more sanguine think 8% can be sustained and even bettered.

Moreover, from the point of view of the retail trade, India's growth has an especially attractive feature: much of it comes from a surge in private spending. As Stephen Roach, an economist at Morgan Stanley, has pointed out, private consumption accounts for a big chunk of the Indian economy: 64%. That is more than in Europe (58%), Japan (55%) and, especially, China (42%). India's transition to a high-growth path, argues Mr Roach, "is very much an outgrowth of the emerging consumerism of one of the world's youngest populations."

- The Economist, Apr 12th 2006

Of course not everything is roses for India's retail industry. For larger, more structured retail stores, there are several logistic issues:electricity supply, reliable transportation paths and finding enough retail staff. Specific to staffing issue, there is a reluctance from Indians to accept jobs in retail and thus support non-local merchants.

Its usefulness also needs to be questioned. Thus far Google Bookmarks keeps user links private. In contrast, del.icio.us keeps all user bookmark information public and floats the most popular links to all its visitors. Along with this, Google has yet to integrate its bookmarking feature into its toolbar (In version 4 Google toolbar provides this functionality) or alongside its search results for logged in users. Part of it might be that Google is taking it slow, letting the page catch on by it self. If it doesn't, no real loss to the user since it was never part of their experience in the first place.]]> http://www.nofelt.com/2006/01/google_bookmarks_success.html http://www.nofelt.com/2006/01/google_bookmarks_success.html Mon, 30 Jan 2006 22:15:04 -0500 MySpace, a popular social networking site currently has around 26 million users, a number that grows by 150,000 new users every day(Economist, Jan 19th 2006). In the case of viral marketing or simply spreading the word, this is an amazingly large number, especially with Metcalfe's Law in mind. Why tell 10 people when you can just as easily tell 10,000, whom in turn will tell others. The question is how does one make all those friends without the busy work of finding them in the first place?

John Resig and Eric Skiff are already addressing this issue (or creating it depending on your viewpoint). At BarCampNYC, the two gave a presentation called Subverting Social Networks. In this presentation they explored the idea of programmatically building friendship networks with MySpace based on specific criteria using software. In layman's terms much like Google searches websites, they are able to search MySpace for people of a particular age, interest, etc. They are also able to automate the process of making friendship with their software.

With this functionality anyone can quickly build up a network for "friends" with like interests and easily communicate with them. Such an approach might be the best way for social networking sites to produce revenue. Rather than blast irrelevant ads to its user, allow marketers to target a specific demographic with things that may actually interest them. And this is the sort of innovative advertising that MySpace needs desperately. In the same economist article referenced above, Rupert Murdoch (who, supposedly on Eric Schmidt's recommendation, bought MySpace for $580 million) said: "MySpace has been run by creative types who have not thought much about earnings and are frightened of being corporatised... but now their job is not just to grow but to monetise traffic."

Now the ethics behind this are questionable. It's something that other social networks like The Facebook or the now stillborn Friendster might also have to deal with. Clearly any online service flooded with people looking to push advertisements to a select network isn't much fun to its real users. But if sites like MySpace don't do it, people like John Resig and Eric Skiff will.]]> http://www.nofelt.com/2006/01/post.html http://www.nofelt.com/2006/01/post.html Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:54:50 -0500 A fan of the new car smell? Ever wonder what it is?

The only research we could find was a 1995 analysis of the air in a new Lincoln Continental. More than 50 volatile organic compounds were found, suggesting that new-car smell was a mix of lubricants, solvents, adhesives, gasoline, and no doubt some bits from the vinyl, though it's hard to say exactly what. None of these things is necessarily good for you.
- The Straight Dope