Gene Genie
The latest Gene Genie #6 is rich in genetical goodness, but the rap video about Mendel? That's pure wickedness. I almost regret that my genetics lectures are over for this term, so I can't inflict it on my students. Read the comments on this post... (Read on Source)
Woods won't play in Buick Open
Tiger Woods has informed the Buick Open that he will not be playing in the tournament this year, organizers announced Friday. (Read on Source)
Linux Gaming, Part Three: Strategy Games (Continued)
kahvipapu: "As many readers pointed out, there are many cool strategy games available for Linux that weren't mentioned in the part two. These games are simply too good to be missed, so here's take two for the strategy games..."
EarthLink Names New CEO (TechWeb)
TechWeb - Rolla P. Huff has been named president and CEO of the Internet service provider, on the heels of a $30 million first-quarter loss.
Herbalife Wants Product Testing Data Excluded
NEW YORK - Herbalife International of America Inc. filed a motion in limine on July 2, asking the ephedra multidistrict court to exclude evidence brought by a plaintiff showing that the company's ephedra supplements contained hydrochloride or sulfate salts of ephedrine alkaloids (Margaret Parks v. Herbalife International of America, Inc., No. 1:04-CV-9358; In Re: Ephedra Products Liability Litigation 04 M.D. 1598, S.D. N.Y.; See June 2007, Page 6). Full story on lexis.com
Automatic Blog Posts with delicious
The delicious bookmarking tool has a fairly little known feature that bloggers can take advantage of. With the right settings you can have delicious post your bookmarks to your blog once a day as content. Here’s an example post links for 2007-07-27 | nicharalambous.com (Read on Source)
IG: Iraqis Fail to Maintain U.S. Reconstruction
Once Iraqis take over infrastructure projects, they quickly fall into disrepair, said the U.S. official responsible for oversight of the $44 billion in reconstruction projects.
Korean Air expands Chinese Codeshare Agreements
Korean Air expands Chinese Codeshare Agreements.
If You Were SEOmoz... Would You Take Outside Investment?
Posted by randfish
I'm taking a temporary break in conference coverage (don't worry - there will be more next week) to poll some of the smartest people I know (that's you, SEOmoz readers), about an issue that's been keeping Gillian and me up plenty of nights during the past 3 months.
SEOmoz is at a tipping point of sorts - we've gone from being primarily a search marketing consultancy business to one that's heavily focused on an SEO product - premium content & membership. In the 6 months since launch, we've had approximately 1800 people sign up for our premium membership, of which ~1200 are members today (looking at our subscriber details, it appears that many folks will sign up for one month, cancel, then sign up again 3-4 months later).
Right now, SEOmoz membership and content isn't for everyone. If you're someone who regularly works on multiple site campaigns, the tools are terrific. If you need a little bit of strategic consulting or experienced professionals to bounce ideas off, the Q+A is great (BTW - sorry for my slower than normal responses due to the conference). Even novice search marketers can get a lot of benefit out of the guides & tips. However, there are certainly folks for whom premium membership isn't a terrific value - our goal is to change that.
We've recently been working with a venture capital firm, thinking about investment from them, as well as considering other options like private financing. Why? Well there's a lot of things we want to do, like:
- Cool new tools
- More experimentation & reporting
- Greater tracking abilities for member websites
- More premium guides
- Marketing & advertising
- 70+ specific projects that are probably very unwise to share publicly
To do this, we need to hire more people, add hardware, grow our marketing budget & put investment into R&D. Inside SEOmoz's offices there are two extra-large whiteboards, filled to capacity with all of the products and services we'd like to launch (both free and premium). At our current development rate, it would take between 18-24 months to roll out all these great ideas, but with investment capital, we think we could probably do it in 6 months. Not to mention the fact that we come up with about 10 great ideas per week that generally go on the shelf.
We're looking at our financial & growth projections and thinking that something between $750K and $2million (for something between 10-20% of company ownership) should take us where we need to go at this point. While this is a rare amount for VC participation, we've had some interest even at this small level.
And so, the question fundamentally becomes - do we take outside investment and grow fast, scale up and use marketing to expose more people to premium content? Or, should we continue to grow slowly, reject external financing and keep a tight marketing budget?
Pros of taking outside financing:
- Build content/tools/services more quickly (with more people)
- Have funds to conduct marketing activities
- Build greater formalization into the company
- Form relationships that may help the company achieve goals
Cons of taking outside financing:
- Give up some portion of control of the company
- Experience pressure to accelerate growth very quickly
- Lose a percentage of financial benefit from growth
- Invest significant time in appeasing and working with a board or investors/directors
What do you think we should do?
p.s. Yes, I know you're never supposed to share this stuff outside the company, but that's what makes us different :)
Plaintiff Wants New Literature Excluded From Testimony
PHOENIX - A PPA plaintiff says in her July 6 reply in support of her motion to exclude the testimony of two defense experts that defendant Bayer Corp. is attempting to untimely introduce new medical literature in support of their testimony and that it should be excluded (Pamela Stowe v. Bayer Corp., No. CV-01-526-TUC-BPV, D. Ariz.; See August 2007, Page 11). Full story on lexis.com
Apple to Let a New Cat Out of the Bag
Apple entered its final countdown Friday for the release of Leopard, an update for its Mac OS X. The question Apple will be able to answer by late Friday evening is, considering its delay of several months, coupled with a rather low-key marketing campaign, will rally Mac owners to go out and purchase the new OS?
SearchDay: Google Sitelinks - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Today's search engine marketing news and opinion: Google Sitelinks - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Training Your Search Marketing Employees; Taguchi Sucks for Landing Page Testing; and more.
Google Hints At New Service Via WSJ
Internet usage reporting may be the next free thing from Google, a service that would put them in competition with companies that charge a hefty premium for such information.
Moblie Peer-to-peer Applications: Keeping Up With Your Peers, Securely
Mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) applications allow a team or group to create new levels of ad hoc co-operation and collaboration around a specific, real-time goal. But developing compelling and secure applications is a challenge. Now a new platform rises to that challenge.
USB Drive Antivirus 2.3
USB Drive Antivirus provides 100% antivirus protection against any viruses trying to attack via removable media. When an USB device is inserted into your computer, it will automatically scan it, block and delete usb virus and trojans. Software License...
Gallery: Rain Forest, Coral Reef and Planetarium Under One Green Roof
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Academy of Sciences is practicing what they preach.
The organization's new 410,000-square-foot eco-friendly facility in Golden Gate Park is a living, breathing science experiment. The Renzo Piano-designed structure is the only building in the world to house a planetarium, museum of natural history and aquarium under the same roof. It's a fitting home for the 155-year-old academy and a proper tribute to the science wonders in its collections.
Click through the gallery for a sneak preview of this gorgeous building, which features a rain forest biodome, a coral reef, an underwater tunnel and one of the greenest roofs ever built. You can check it out in person on opening day, Sept. 27, 2008.
Left: The rain forest biodome is kept hot and humid with special lighting and atmospheric control systems. It has four levels designed to mimic different rain forest environments. A 100,000-gallon tank serves as home to Amazonian river dwellers. Stacked on top of it, and accessible via curving ramps, are biomes patterned on habitat in Borneo, Madagascar and Costa Rica.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.com The central plaza of the building features an open roof, seen in the center of this photo. The design isn't just for show; it's a key part of the building's natural ventilation system, which CAS hopes will keep energy costs down for the enormous building.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.comThe "green roof" on the CAS building spans 2.5 acres and uses a complicated rainwater catchment system to reduce its water needs. Planted only with plants native to Northern California, the lines of rocks visible in this picture will help prevent erosion. The CAS planetarium sits underneath the "hill" to the far left.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.comThe planetarium sits atop the coral reef tank. Seven high-definition projectors will provide an immersive space trip beginning in San Francisco and zooming all the way through space to the edges of the universe.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.com The circular windows in the roof automatically open and close to help regulate the temperature of the building.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.comThe coral reef tank visible here is partially heated by high-powered lights placed close to the water. The lights are like football stadium lights that have been tuned to more closely emulate the sunlight that the coral needs.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.comThis pulley system will be used to lower alligators into the so-called Swamp exhibit at the back of the museum.
: The reef exhibit features the deepest coral colonies created by human beings. The corals were grown off-site and delivered into position by scuba-diving biologists.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.comThis ugly mug belongs to Bocolo, the museum's 35-year-old giant sea bass, a species native to the coast of California.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.comThis 25-foot tunnel underneath the Amazonian flooded-forest tank allows visitors to gaze up at the anacondas, piranhas and giant catfish in the exhibit.
Little-known fun fact: Most piranha species, including the fish in the tank, are actually vegetarians. Pity the fool papaya that falls into this tank though, because the herbivorous fish can still take care of business.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.comThe view from inside the tunnel underneath the Amazonian flooded-forest exhibit. Until all the fish species are introduced into the tank, the ecosystem is slightly out of balance, resulting in the out-of-control algal growth you see here.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.comThe rainforest biodome is a fascinating mix of natural and human-produced parts. Live trees intermingle with concrete habitat, small exhibit spaces and humidifiers. Natural rainforest sounds will be piped into the space via special randomized algorithms.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.comWhen this area opens to the public, birds and butterflies will be released to fly free within the 90-foot dome.
: Photo: Annaliza Savage/Wired.com The Tusher African Center is a room filled with dioramas featuring stuffed animals like these antelope, which are still under wraps. The academy has had these specimens since they underwent preservation decades ago.
To touch them up for the new building, they were sent to a taxidermy cleaning center, where they were essentially dry-cleaned to look like new. But not all the dioramas feature stuffed animals: The academy's live African penguin exhibit also makes its home in the center.
Our “Buy One, Get One FREE” Deal Is Back!
Our Buy One, Get One Free 10th Birthday Sale was so popular that we thought we’d bring it back. This time — book style! For the entire month of August, when you order ANY top-quality printed SitePoint book, you’ll get a second book in PDF format (worth $29.95) absolutely FREE. Here’s the special page to take advantage [...] (Read on Source)
ECON 101: You Cant Have It Both Ways
Do a Google news search for gas stations and running out of gas and youll find...
Looking for a reason to hide
I've seen it before and I'm sure I'll see it again. Whenever a business cycle starts to falter, the media start wringing their hands. Then big businesses do, freelancers, entrepreneurs and soon everyone is keening. People and organizations that have no real financial stress start to pull back, "because it's prudent." Now is not the time, they say. (Read on Source)
Photos: Robots at CEATEC 2008 ::: Pink Tentacle
Nielsen backs aggressive tactics
Australia employed an unsuccessful, wild approach in their second innings because it was the only way the batsmen thought they could survive, said coach Tim Nielsen. (Read on Source)
Westfall Class Wants Metabolife Liquidation Stayed Pending Appeal
SAN DIEGO - Willard Westfall, the representative of a dismissed putative Metabolife class action, is moving for a stay of the implementation of the joint plan of liquidation for the Metabolife bankruptcy pending his appeal of the approval, arguing that the plan contains impermissible releases (In Re: MII Liquidation, Inc., No. 05-6040-H11, S.D. Calif. Bkcy.; See October 2007, Page 6). Full story on lexis.com
Spammers Trying To Regain Control Over Cut Off Spam Bots
Last week, there was a lot of attention over the shutdown of McColo, a hosting company that was apparently used by a huge number of spammers to...
No change, no surprise
That ID blog, Uncommon Descent, had a slight shakeup in their management recently. If you had the faint idealistic hope that their comment policy might have become a bit less intolerant, forget it: they're still deleting dissent . Read the comments on this post... (Read on Source)
Should Retail Email Sell or Inform? An A/B Split Test Case Study
This ecommerce blog is lovingly brought to you by Linda Bustos and Jason Billingsley of Elastic Path Software: The ecommerce software that helps retailers sell more and work less. (Read on Source)
Widgets Enter the Third Dimension: WolfenQt
This blog post on Qt Labs shows how to easily embed regular desktop widgets in a three dimensional Wolfenstein-like maze. The example includes web browser views, a mediaplayer with sound and video, OpenGL integration, and even a soldier scriptable in QtScript. All done in relatively simple code using Qt's QGraphicsView API. The example might not be directly usable by itself, but it demonstrates how easy it is to map 2D widgets to 3D scenes in Qt and could act as inspiration for future user interfaces.
Private sector cut 693,000 jobs in December
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private-sector employers shed 693,000 jobs in December, a private employment service said on Wednesday in a report that was far worse than expected and pointed to more ugly news from the government's jobs data due later this week.
'Wolfman' returns
Explorer Jim McNeill tracks down Arctic wolves
name: MAGPIE