tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84672449300333871822024-03-13T07:16:53.060-07:00Elatable : Bradley HorowitzBradley Horowitz, Vice President and Advisor, GoogleBradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-2240161333652215492013-02-25T09:58:00.002-08:002020-07-12T09:05:03.961-07:00Jeff Weiner on LeadershipMy friend, and former boss Jeff Weiner spoke at the Wisdom 2.0 conference on Friday. This is an incredible discussion of what leadership really means. Jeff himself is an amazing leader, and taught me a lot.
(Sadly original video vanished from the internet... Here's another good one!)
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/302074177" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/302074177">Jeff Weiner (CEO @LindedIn)- Liderar com Compaixão</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/vascogaspar">Vasco Gaspar</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-62355177409191755942011-10-31T22:07:00.001-07:002011-10-31T22:07:55.844-07:00<a rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/113116318008017777871">About Bradley</a>
This is a test... ignore...Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-9253170158291575842009-09-17T14:00:00.001-07:002011-10-31T22:05:48.353-07:00Test<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/SrKjpWOHgjI/AAAAAAAAV7A/6geE7-mMvcw/s1600-h/P0001555.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382544435395920434" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/SrKjpWOHgjI/AAAAAAAAV7A/6geE7-mMvcw/s320/P0001555.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 214px;" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://profiles.google.com/113116318008017777871" rel="author"><img height="31" src="http://www.google.com/images/icons/ui/gprofile_button-32.png" width="31" /></a>Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-47755461992782690322009-06-03T22:26:00.000-07:002009-06-03T22:26:09.142-07:00And the winner is...And the winner of the Android G2 phone is... <a href="http://randomfoo.net/">Leonard Lin</a>!<br />
<br />
First apologies for not posting this sooner. I did "pick" a winner at Monday at 9pm, just took me 48 hours to tell you who it was.<br />
<br />
Secondly, thank you to everyone who submitted ideas. I got about 20 serious submissions, and a few jokey ones, through comments on the blog post, tweets, and emails. I thought many were great. I hope you all do go forth and develop them.<br />
<br />
The reason I picked Leonard's idea:<br />
<ul><li>Bet on the team. Leonard is a rockstar developer, fantastic <a href="http://randomfoo.net/about">track record</a>... Every project he touches thrives.</li>
<li>I think the app he described is extremely interesting. Reminded me of <a href="http://www.dash.net/">Dash Navigation</a>, a company I've found fascinating for a long time. The concept of crowd-sourcing data about the commute (both historical and real-time) leads to many, many interesting derivative apps. (For instance with Dash, real-time rerouting around traffic jams, determining speed traps, etc.)</li>
<li>I like the focus on public transport. Good for the economy and environment.</li>
<li>Leonard's idea, as you see below, was well thought out. </li>
</ul><span dir="ltr"><a href="http://jdar.mp/" onclick="" rel="nofollow">Darius Roberts</a></span> was definitely my runner up. Darius, I hope perhaps you can collaborate with Leonard (and I'll intro you guys.) I think that "rideshare yenta" is an awesome, complementary idea. I ought to be able to register an intent to get from San Francisco to Palo Alto, and the app connects me with the right commuter (I can express preferences about whether I'm willing to drive, split gas money, etc.) <br />
Leonard, I'll be in touch regarding getting you the goods. Thanks, and I can't wait until you build something.<br />
<br />
Finally, just to be explicit... This "contest" wasn't endorsed or sponsored by Google. I just wanted to give the phone to a good home. Thanks! <br />
<br />
Leonard's idea:<br />
<hr /><br />
So, here's the basic idea about creating a *great* Transit app (one that has features that no one else has really bothered with yet).<br />
<br />
I'd start w/ SF for v1 b/c I have all the transit data (<a href="http://511.org/" target="_blank">511.org</a> gives full dumps) and because BART and NextMuni give full realtime data, so you can basically get to the minute predictions, but the idea would be to create something that could load any GTFS data, or ping against GMaps' routing but add some additional features.<br />
<br />
I don't have a name/domain name yet, so if you have any bright ideas on that...<br />
<br />
Backend:<br />
* REST API for data<br />
* Proxy for realtime data<br />
<br />
Routing:<br />
* Caching or full local DB of stops, routes, tiles<br />
* Collecting data on favorite routes, stops, destinations<br />
* Reverse chronological history of searched (maybe even taken) routes<br />
* Easy reversals or routes, destinations<br />
<br />
Route Choosing:<br />
* visually lay out alternative routes<br />
* pull in realtime data<br />
* show more info on arrivals time, transfers<br />
<br />
Reminders/Alarms/Affordances:<br />
* Reminders for last return trip if you're out on the town<br />
* Alarms for longer commuter trips (geoloc/time elapsed, absolute time)<br />
* "First time" / "lost" affordances - what are the previous stops, where are you now, etc.<br />
<br />
Nearby View:<br />
* See nearby stops, specifically when they're coming.<br />
This is especially useful if you know that multiple routes can take you to the same place... (I can take the 26, 14/49, or BART to get back home)<br />
<br />
<br />
I whipped up a couple super simple wires (about 5min each, but hopefully they give somewhat of an idea)<br />
<br />
Integration w/ Glympse would be interesting (I was glad that someone's been working on that since that is something I'd been complaining about for the past year :)<br />
<br />
Anyway, if that's successful, the next thing that would be of interest to tackle (v2) is NYC - b/c of the Subway/undergroundness of it all and lack of any "real time" data, the NYC version would be focused on developing crowdsourcing capabilities - ie, when you head into and out of a Subway station, perhaps the ability to mark in/out times and aggregating and processing that data. I haven't fully thought through the algorithms, but I bet just by when people are leaving at previous stops you can find out if you're looking at a 5m or 25m wait...<br />
<br />
Once this sort of algorithm is perfected, if it'll work in NYC, it'll work (better!) for any city that has aboveground transit (buses) w/ schedules but no exact times...Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-17290677359523531232009-05-29T23:13:00.001-07:002009-05-29T23:15:14.909-07:00Giving away an Android G2 "Google I/O Edition" phone<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mansilladev/3574399400/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3574399400_12b623a39e_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style=" margin-top: 0px;font-size:0.9em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mansilladev/3574399400/">IMG_2634</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/mansilladev/">mansillaDEV</a></span></div>I accidently happened upon an Android G2 Google I/O edition phone (with 30-day SIM card, etc.) (The giveaway was detailed on <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/27/googles-oprah-moment-an-android-phone-for-everyone-at-google-io/">TechCrunch</a>.)<br /><br />I'll give this away to the developer who convinces me that she or he will do something cool with it! Leave me a comment or send me a <a href="http://www.twitter.com/elatable">tweet</a>, and I'll pick a winner on Monday night 9pm PST.Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-52568676158464476842009-04-20T13:43:00.000-07:002009-04-20T13:43:44.958-07:00Printing a PDF from a gnarly hotel kiosk computerI'm in Europe on the tail end of a wonderful trip (Amsterdam/Zurich.)<br /><br />Tonight I asked the guy at the hotel desk (<a href="http://www.fourpoints.com/zurich">great hotel</a> by the way) if they had a printer I could use to print my boarding pass. "There's the printer", he said motioning to his right. "But unfortunately it won't print PDFs sir." I looked at the machine... Some kiosk version of Windows XP - wouldn't allow downloads (let alone installs.) Serious bummer. I have an early flight and a tight connection, it would have been helpful.<br /><br />Then I remembered "Gview", <a href="http://mashable.com/2008/12/12/gmail-pdf-viewer/">Gmail's righteous PDF viewer</a>. Went back to the laptop in my room, mailed myself the boarding pass PDF and sparked up Gmail's viewer. Half way there. Then right-mouse'd, saved, and emailed the image file in .png format for Page 2 (the actual boarding pass) to myself again. Went downstairs, logged into Gmail, read that mail, clicked "View" and VOILA! The image file opened up in the browser perfectly... Clicked print... and it worked.<br /><br />Thank you Gview team!Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-33404746804051928362009-03-31T09:54:00.000-07:002009-03-31T10:00:59.459-07:00Paul Resnick lecture in Palo AltoThis morning I went to a very interesting lecture on reputation systems by <a href="http://www.si.umich.edu/%7Epresnick/">Paul Resnick</a>, Professor at the <a href="http://www.si.umich.edu/">University of Michigan School of Information</a> (where I'm an advisor. And like me Paul went to umich for undergrad, MIT for grad school.) Paul's work provides some rigorous mathematical foundations for how collective intelligence systems can be manipulated, and techniques for bounding and mitigating abuse. Important stuff that I'm certainly paying attention to... Note there were a lot of questions about marijuana legalization on the <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h2uzQs2_XBgeHotRBvNhY7DR572g">whitehouse.gov Town Hall</a> last Thursday. ;-)Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-91405450182015043842009-03-29T20:11:00.000-07:002009-03-29T20:11:12.315-07:00Sonos playerIrene's got a <a href="http://sonos.com/Default.aspx?rdr=true&LangType=1033">Sonos</a> system in her house... I discovered a new feature this weekend, and it's pretty darn cool.<br />
<br />
I love listening to This American Life, but rarely can free myself up at exactly 12pm on Saturday, when it airs on <a href="http://www.kqed.org/">KQED</a>. So I started fishing on their website to find out how I could catch it earlier (by say, listening to the East Coast airing on <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/">WNYC</a>) or catch it later (listening to the Hawaii airing on <a href="http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/hpr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=117">KIPO</a>). But it was really tedious and hard to figure out when it was airing where...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/SdA3GaDGoiI/AAAAAAAARPg/QtlrhsG6z3s/s1600-h/Picture+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/SdA3GaDGoiI/AAAAAAAARPg/QtlrhsG6z3s/s400/Picture+2.png" /></a></div><br />
Sonos to the rescue... There's a feature that allows me to search for shows by name, see if they're playing <i>now</i>, see when the show is playing next (across the zilliosn of stations around the nation that stream), and see what past episodes are available via podcast. Pretty cool!Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-20752452980054133612008-10-05T12:23:00.000-07:002009-03-20T20:47:44.646-07:00Some old Spahn Ranch materialFrom the original 4-track demo tape... Courtesy of Rick Giampietro...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/ScRjTCRnYsI/AAAAAAAARNo/Hg9slLAfrSk/s1600-h/coverart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/ScRjTCRnYsI/AAAAAAAARNo/Hg9slLAfrSk/s320/coverart.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<embed allowscriptaccess="never" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://elatable.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/05/1_Countdown.mp3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" wmode="window" /> Countdown <br />
<embed allowscriptaccess="never" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://elatable.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/05/2_Trial.mp3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" wmode="window" /> Trial <br />
<embed allowscriptaccess="never" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://elatable.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/05/3_Lo_and_Behold.mp3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" wmode="window" /> Lo & Behold <br />
<embed allowscriptaccess="never" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://elatable.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/05/4_Wonder_and_Perish.mp3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" wmode="window" /> Wonder & Perish <br />
<embed allowscriptaccess="never" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://elatable.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/05/5_Echoes.mp3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" wmode="window" /> Echoes <br />
<embed allowscriptaccess="never" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://elatable.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/05/6_Dissipation.mp3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" wmode="window" /> Dissipation <br />
<br />
Countdown has the original <a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/six/">ee cummings lyrics</a>.Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-59233725607083888182008-08-21T19:33:00.000-07:002009-03-17T20:40:53.200-07:00Songs with tribal / marching band drums…Love those jungle drums. Irresistible, primal, they got you.<br />
<br />
<p><object width="480" height="385">
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/26B097855C544CED" /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/26B097855C544CED" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></p><br />
Winners in respective categories:<br />
<br />
<b>Best Non-Gimmicky Use</b><br />
Radiohead, <i>There There</i><br />
<br />
<b>Best Gimmicky Use</b><br />
Toni Basil, <i>Mickey</i><br />
Runner up: Gwen Stefani, <i>Hollaback Girl</i><br />
<br />
<b>Best Incorporation of Marching Band</b><br />
Fleetwood Mac, <i>Tusk</i><br />
<br />
<b>Best <i>Actual</i> Marching Band</b><br />
Pride of Arizona, <i>Radiohead Medley</i><br />
<br />
What are some others?Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-30646864231443514182008-07-16T03:33:00.000-07:002009-03-17T09:52:47.702-07:00“Loopt debacle…”I was pretty shocked and surprised at the <a href="http://www.techmeme.com/080716/p32#a080716p32">news that Loopt had a fairly egregious violation of user trust</a>.<br/><br/>When the <a href="http://fireeagle.yahoo.com">FireEagle</a> team built their product, privacy was not only their foremost concern... it was in fact pretty much the main "feature" of the product.<br/><br/>Loopt has done the right thing and put their hand up and said "our bad!"Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-67004320345436760532008-05-21T02:59:00.000-07:002009-03-17T20:52:25.689-07:00Goodbye, Bobji…Two weeks ago I learned that Bob Sterner, my dear friend of 24 years died from a suspected drug overdose. (Autopsy report still pending.)<br />
<br />
<div style="float:left;margin:10px 10px 10px 1px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/89943513/" title="Bobji and me"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/43/89943513_b235481775_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="" style="border:solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size:.9em;margin-top:0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/12087680/">Bobji</a><br />
</div><br />
I first met Bob when I was nineteen. <a HREF="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=241985">Odell</a> and I were just old enough to start checking out the local Detroit music scene (which at the time was quite vital: <a HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necros">Necros</a>, <a HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_Approach">Negative Approach</a>, etc.) One evening we happened into a show by the band Grief Factory.<br />
<br />
We were totally unprepared for what we saw next. Grief Factory was a minimalist three piece... An incredibly talented jazz drummer, tribal repetitive bass licks, and... Bob. They burned incense, lit candles, said prayers... it was not so much a concert as a ceremony. All of this could have been incredibly pretentious... but it wasn't. It was real, and somewhat frightening.<br />
<br />
Bob was part shaman, part madrigal... He moved like no one I've seen before or since. He sang like no one I've heard before or since. Poetry flowed from him effortlessly. He was plugged into something deep and ancient, that I don't think he even understood or knew how to manage. He was so raw as to be almost unhinged... as if he were tripping or even mentally ill... But because he was willing to flirt with these scary, dangerous parts of himself... genius erupted.<br />
<br />
After Grief Factory broke up, Odell, Bob and I formed <a HREF="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=228159776">Spahn Ranch</a>. We were totally unskilled as musicians, and were seriously worried about that first practice session with Bob. He was still a larger than life character for us, and we were certain he was going to call our bluff... and we had literally nothing. Neither Odell nor I knew how to play an instrument. We hadn't even decided who'd play what. We had no equipment. But at that first session, Odell grabbed some souvenir ornamental drums from the walls of his family's Afro-pride decorated suburban home... And we rustled up a pawn shop guitar in time for Bob's appearance... And I remember that first time, playing outside... near the shed on the Double O ranch... magic happened, and we all knew it. Over the years Sarah Babb, Rob Rude, Billy Rivkin, and others floated in and out of the band... And eventually Hobey Echlin became our fourth permanent member.<br />
<br />
<div style="float:right;margin-left:10px;margin-bottom:10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/12087680/" title="Bobji and me"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/10/12087680_f9a9a18f0c_m.jpg" alt="" style="border:solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size:.9em;margin-top:0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/12087680/">Bobji and me</a><br />
</div><br />
Eventually we achieved some measure of success by modest local standards. We put out an album on California's (in fact Oakland's!) Insight Records, and pretty much commandeered the privilege of opening for national acts that came through Detroit in the 80's: Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Jesus and Mary Chain, Swans, My Bloody Valentine, Nina Hagen, etc. We had an avid fan base... But apart from the small modicum of local success we enjoyed, playing together always remained a ritual. Even if it were the four of us in a basement, it still gave me an opportunity to watch Bob in action. Whatever noises or melodies I could tease out of my guitar were just raw material that would hopefully inspire him and provoke him into action.<br />
<br />
After a couple years, we broke up. My recollection is that this happened when Bob moved to the Cape to study nursing. I soon followed him to Massachusetts to grad school at MIT. Odell and Hobey pressed on and formed <a HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majesty_Crush">Majesty Crush</a>. Majesty Crush were freaking amazing, and I still love them. Go buy <a HREF="http://www.fulleffectstore.com/store/product.php?productid=133">this CD.</a><br />
<br />
<div style="float:right;margin-left:10px;margin-bottom:10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/2500675490/" title="Bobji and me"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2323/2500675490_5f261e0ae7_m.jpg" width="240" height="169" alt="Bob and Bradley BW" style="border:solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size:.9em;margin-top:0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/12087680/">When we was young and sleepy</a><br />
</p></div><br />
<br />
Anyway, my friendship with Bob shifted away from music (or at least from "the band") to a deeper connection. Bob and I shared a spiritual connection, that eventually led him to India where he served as the staff nurse in a small rural Ashram. He intended to stay for a short while, but ended up spending years there.<br />
<br />
While in India, Bob nearly became Indian. He picked up fragments of Hindi... It was his seva (service) to take care of a number of elderly ashramites (folks in their 80's or 90's) that had been instrumental in the very formation of our path. These guys were "walking antiques" [(tm) Bob Dylan]. These guys loved Bob and he became not only their caretaker and mascot... but one of them. He joined their posse (and they very much ran as a posse.)<br />
<br />
At the clinic folks would come by with the usual litany of minor ailments (scratches, rashes, bug bites, dehydration, etc.) and Bob would treat them with love and respect... but also a deliver a dose of connection, good will, love, smiles, gossip, poetry, art and advice. He became an institution, and literally hundreds of people grew to know him and love him through that role.<br />
<br />
Bob absolutely adored Indian culture. When I came to visit, we'd make trips into Bombay where he'd show me back alleys, little chai shops, how to travel on the trains with the working class, etc. He adored everything about India, but especially the people...<br />
<br />
Over the years, we watched each other go through relationships... We watched each other change jobs... Change tastes... change habits... But our friendship and love was constant, and truly never wavered.<br />
<br />
We were very, very different... but we totally appreciated each other. The world will never be the same for me with out Bobji on it. I lost a brother. But I am committed to honoring his memory in the way I know he'd want me to... by "loving bigger"... a beautiful phrase his sister Jeannie invoked at the memorial on Friday.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/2125000483/" title="Bobji by bradley23, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2123/2125000483_3f6b67490a_m.jpg" width="160" height="240" alt="Bobji" /></a><br />
<br />
Okay, now a public service announcement...<br />
PLEASE DON'T DO DRUGS THAT CAN KILL YOU!<br />
< mount soapbox ><br />
I am particularly devastated by Bob's departure because it was so senseless. I have gone through the usual bouts of self-flagellation around "How could I not have known?!" and "I failed him..." Truth was, I had no idea that Bob was back on drugs. I knew he'd had a problem over the years, but all signs pointed to a total recovery... Everything seemed to be going so well for him. We had made plans to see each other on Friday night... and instead I was at his memorial that day.<br />
<br />
So please do not OD on drugs.<br />
</ mount soapbox ><br />
<br />
Attached are some memories from Bob's friends who gathered together in Trenton MI to celebrate his life...<br />
<p><object width="780" height="445">
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Goodbye, Bobji...Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-78999511728047273232008-04-14T18:46:00.000-07:002009-03-17T09:52:47.456-07:00Amy Goodman at Google tomorrow…I just came to know (via a campus poster) that Amy Goodman is speaking at Google tomorrow via the Authors @ Google series. Noam Chomsky coming later in the month.<br/><br/>The group sponsoring this series is doing a fantastic job of bringing compelling, provocative speakers. What a perk!<br/><br/>And the talks are archived on <a HREF="http://youtube.com/atgoogletalks">YouTube</a> for the world to enjoy.<br/><br/>This in addition to an unbelievable stream of internal technical talks that transpire on a daily basis. I'm way impressed.Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-91108677007036572472008-03-24T16:24:00.000-07:002009-03-17T20:55:49.861-07:00Call me…I'm playing around with Grand Central, and am really impressed with the power of this service. (Not to mention impressed with the team... What a talented bunch of folks!)<br />
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I've added a "Call me" tab to this blog... I'd love to hear from you. Give me a shout...<br />
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Thanks.Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-52031702209203984502008-03-03T06:52:00.000-08:002009-03-17T20:57:19.691-07:00Video of Martin FriedmannIn an effort to remove physical clutter around my house between gigs, I bought a cool device: the <a HREF="http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Studio+Family/Instant+Video+Recorder.htm">Pinnacle Video Transfer</a> unit. The device is cheap ($129), accessible (bought mine at Best Buy) and works exactly as advertised.<br />
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One of the things I ripped was my old VHS copy of the memorial that Ali put together for Martin's memorial. When I <a HREF="http://www.media.mit.edu/memorial/martin/eulogy_bradley.html">eulogized</a> him, I said - "To those who knew him, no explanation is necessary... To those who didn't, no explanation is possible..."<br />
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Well even if you didn't now him, this video gives a taste:<br />
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More about Martin <a HREF="http://www.media.mit.edu/memorial/martin/">here...</a> He'd have loved Google.Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-22900052605845665312008-02-14T08:33:00.000-08:002009-03-17T09:52:45.916-07:00On Leaving Yahoo…Leaving Yahoo.<br/><br/>Yes, it's true. I've left Yahoo.<br/><br/>It was somewhat overwhelming sifting through the barrage of reactions over the last 48 hours: "Thanks for all you've done", "How could you?!", "Congrats!", etc. It's fascinating to watch people react. I've been taking it all in.<br/><br/>I want to use this post to explain some of the circumstances around my departure.<br/><br/>I came to Yahoo out of a <a HREF="http://www.virage.com">startup</a> that I helped found, and it was my first "real job." I literally expected to stay there one year. I thought it would be a good life experience to see first-hand how a successful, multi-billion dollar corporation operated. But I never expected to build a career there... to retire from Yahoo... or frankly to stay for a multi-year stint.<br/><br/>But this "park there for a year and learn" strategy was out the window in a day. There was such an excitement at Yahoo, and I was taken aback by the level of passion and talent there. This was no place to "park". And not aspiring to climb the corporate ladder there made it easy for me to be cavalier, call shit on stuff I thought was broken, and generally do what I thought was right.<br/><br/>What was most delightful is that I never got the expected "pushback" from management. Instead they were the wind at my back, pouring gas on the fire, inviting me and challenging me to do more and more provocative things. So in this manner, nearly four years flew by. I had a dream job that I had the luxury of creating for myself. It was a perfect fit between my inclinations and abilities, and Yahoo's needs at the time.<br/><br/>The name of the group I created at Yahoo is the Advanced Development Division, or ADD for short. I wanted to be VP of ADD. I was able to retrofit a reasonable acronym back onto the letters and got away with it. I'd generally say, "I head up the ADD group at Yahoo... We work on lots of things, for a little while..." That was generally good for a chuckle... but it's true, that's how the group was designed. (By the way, I don't know a lot about the actual syndrome ADD, and I don't mean to make light of it. Apologies if I am being crass or inappropriate... not my intention.) The point of this paragraph is simply that as VP of ADD, four years is a very long time for me to focus on anything! I am amazed and grateful that Yahoo continued to create circumstances for me that held my full interest and engagement... and hopefully allowed me to make the place a little bit better.<br/><br/>The question should not be "Why are you leaving?", but rather the rhetorical "Isn't it amazing and wonderful that Yahoo created circumstances that allowed you to stay for so long?!"<br/><br/>Starting to thank people is a very slippery slope. Apologies to everyone that I'm surely going to omit, and if you ping me I'll edit the post to try to atone for egregious errors. These are some of the folks that I feel compelled to call out and thank for making my experience at Yahoo so wonderful:<br/><br/>My heartfelt thanks to Eckart Walther, Jeff Weiner, Qi Lu, Raymie Stata, Prabhakar Raghavan, Kiersten Hollars, <a HREF="http://www.quadranglegroup.com/rosensweig.html">Dan Rosensweig</a>, <a href="http://www.chaddickerson.com/blog/">Chad Dickerson</a>, Cindy, Kaigene Jau, Ethan Fasset, <a HREF="http://www.gaiaonline.com">Joe Hyrkin</a>, <a href="http://www.timebridge.com/mteam.php">Ellen Salisbury</a>, Marc Davis, <a href="http://joshua.schachter.org/">Joshua Shachter</a>, Wendy Pfeiffer, <a href="http://www.crockford.com/">Doug Crockford</a>, Tim Mayer, Joff Redfern, <a href="http://forgood.yahoo.com/">Meg Garlinghouse</a>, <a href="http://360.yahoo.com/profile-9lciejI3aafX1stHPoIRNmkmv4EowQ--">Randy Farmer</a>, <a href="http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/">Susan Mernit</a>, Marco Boerries, Paul Levine, Jen Dulski, Lorna Borenstein, <a HREF="http://www.scottgatz.com">Scott Gatz</a>, Gary Clayton, <a HREF="http://www.caterina.net">Caterina Fake</a>, <a HREF="http://www.salimismail.com">Salim Ismail</a>, <a HREF="http://www.fistfulayen">Ian Rogers</a>, Larry Tesler, Joy Mountford, <a HREF="http://blog.ireneau.com">Irene Au</a>, Zod, Phu, Venkat, Terry Semel, Brad Garlinghouse, Toby Coppel, <a href="http://www.sylloge.com/">Stewart Butterfield</a>, Libby Sartain, <a HREF="http://www.accel.com">Andrew Braccia</a>, Mor Naaman, Tim Cadogan, Sam Pullara, <a HREF="http://www.plasticbag.org">Tom Coates</a>, <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/">Jeremy Zawodny</a>, Mike Marquez, Jeff Karnes, <a HREF="http://polyvore.com">Pasha Sadri</a> & the <a HREF="http://pipes.yahoo.com">Pipes</a> team, <a HREF="http://www.mybloglog.com">MyBlogLog team</a>, <a HREF="http://www.waxy.org">Andy Baio</a> & <a HREF="http://www.upcoming.org">Upcoming</a>, Arlo Rose, Sue Decker, Ash Patel, Jerry & Filo.<br/><br/>This is the tip of the iceberg. Yahoo is filled with brilliant, dedicated folks that have inspired me and been incredibly generous to me. Thank you.<br/><br/><b>FAQ:</b><br/><br/><b>Were you laid off?</b><br/>Ha, I wish. Yahoo provided very humane (even generous) packages and accommodations for those folks. See next question...<br/><br/><b>Why now?</b><br/>The timing is a bit unfortunate. I wish I were leaving with Yahoo on top of the world... it'd still be the right thing for me personally. So while the timing may look "suspicious", please don't project your own assumptions onto my decisions. I thought that since so many people were leaving on Tuesday, it'd be a good day for me to slip out unnoticed too.<br/><br/><b>What about your teams? What happens to Brickhouse?</b><br/>The teams are in great shape. Salim is also gone, and I arranged to fold the Advanced Product and Brickhouse teams under the leadership of Chad Dickerson. They recently launched Yahoo Live! to much fanfare, and have several more fantastic products in the pipeline. Chad is the man. I have every confidence that the team will thrive under his tenure.<br/><br/>Part of why I feel able to leave is that the teams are rocking, and much of the change I aspired to bring to Yahoo is now baked into the culture. Yahoo has no single-point-of-failure, and I've thought a lot about succession planning. Yahoo and the initiatives I started (or care about) are gonna be just fine without me.<br/><br/><b>So you've lost faith in Yahoo's strategy, leadership, etc.?</b><br/>Not in the least. I have been incredibly impressed by (and reasonably close to) the improvements and changes that Sue and Jerry have instituted in the past 6 months. While the search for a "silver bullet" came up short (hey, it was worth looking), I believe the management is doing all the right work to align the team to execute on the new strategy. And the strategy itself? I think it's spot-on, and has already made a huge impact on how the company identifies itself. When I joined 4 years ago, Yahoo was all about what transpired on "*.yahoo.com". That part of Yahoo now self-identifies as our "O&O" (owned and operated) division... In the context of Yahoo's larger ambitions, it's extremely helpful to be a principal in the publishing space (and not just a principal, but amongst the web's largest)... but Yahoo has transformed itself into a company that participates and embraces the open internet ecosystem at large. Yahoo "gets it."<br/><br/><b>So you don't want to work for Steve Ballmer, eh?</b><br/>I have no more insight into the current MSFT / YHOO discussions than any avid reader of the NYT, WSJ, etc. Given my trajectory, I honestly haven't invested a lot of time or energy wondering which scenarios would play out best for Yahoo. I have faith that Yahoo's board and management will optimize for the best possible outcome.<br/><br/><b>What will you be doing at Google?</b><br/>We'll save that for another post. What's unfolded for me over the last few months while thinking about my next steps has been amazing and surprising... I'm excited about the my next step, and thrilled I'll be working with a stellar team that I'm sure will teach me a lot.<br/><br/>Thank you Yahoo!Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-67499936614050036502008-02-07T10:56:00.000-08:002009-03-17T09:52:45.648-07:00live is live<a HREF="http://live.yahoo.com">live is live</a>Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-39556739219828825792008-01-20T19:40:00.000-08:002009-03-17T09:52:45.615-07:00DLD Conference<div style="float:right;margin-left:10px;margin-bottom:10px;"><br/> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/2209140494/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2238/2209140494_a2c2e34cc8_m.jpg" alt="" style="border:solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br/> <br/> <span style="font-size:.9em;margin-top:0;"><br/> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/2209140494/">Richard Dawkins & Craig Venter</a><br/> <br/> Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/bradley23/">bradley23</a><br/> </span><br/></div><br/>I'm at the DLD Conference in Munich.<br/><br/>This is my first time at <a HREF="http://www.dld-conference.com">DLD</a> (though I've been to Munich many times for other conferences and personal visits. It's a city that I love.)<br/><br/>The conference agenda is pretty thrilling. Apparently a lot of folks stop through DLD on their way to Davos, so the quality of speakers is outstanding. About the only challenge is that the conference is oversold by about 2x. The facility is busting at the seams, and simply navigating around into the sessions is practically impossible.<br/><br/>I'm on an "Exploding Media" panel tomorrow, with Clay Shirky, Jeff Jarvis, Marissa Mayer and Peter Hirschberg. Looking forward to it...<br/><br />Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-63235951024983375182007-12-17T14:06:00.000-08:002009-03-17T09:52:45.600-07:00Gatz hands the baton to Dickerson…Scott and Chad crosspost and tell the tale: <a HREF="http://www.scottgatz.com/blog/2007/12/17/life-after-yahoo-preface/">Scott's story</a> & <a HREF="http://www.chaddickerson.com/blog/2007/12/17/a-new-role-at-yahoo/">Chad's story</a>. I'm honored to work with these guys. Two of the classiest individuals I've had the pleasure to know. Scott, you'll be missed... and thanks for everything from the bottom of my heart.Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-19240139511764403532007-12-12T16:44:00.000-08:002009-03-17T09:52:45.586-07:00Yahoo Plugin for WordPressAs reported by <a HREF="http://battellemedia.com/archives/004145.php">Battelle</a>, we just launched the Yahoo Plugin for WordPress. This blog, <a target="_blank" href="http://elatable.com"><span class="yshortcuts">elatable.com</span></a>, runs on WordPress.</p><br/><p>The plugin is very cool. You simply author the post as you normally would. You click a 'lil button that says "Review this Post"... and all kinds of valuable goodness auto-populates the post. </p><br/><p>For instance if I name a place, say <span class="yshortcuts">Ann Arbor, MI</span>, that'll be auto-detected and linked to... </p><br/><p><div id="ysc_embed_lw_1197510607_1" class="ysc_embed"></div>If I mention a company, say <span class="yshortcuts">Hewlett-Packard</span>, then that too will generate goodness (I've opted for the badge at left...)</p><br/><p>You can read more about it (and get it for yourself) <a HREF="http://shortcuts.yahoo.com/">here....</a></p>Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-66501148006891994142007-12-12T10:24:00.000-08:002009-03-17T09:52:45.571-07:00Open Data is Good for DemocracyI recently attended a fantastic, inspiring event... The Open Government Working Group hosted by OReilly Media in Sebastopol... I <a HREF="http://next.yahoo.net/archives/50/open-government-data-working-group">blogged about it</a> on the <a HREF="http://next.yahoo.com">Next* blog...</a>Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-24777860372067577142007-12-02T13:48:00.000-08:002009-03-18T16:48:01.407-07:00Me v. Ze Frank (not so much…)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/ScGHlhrinlI/AAAAAAAARNM/yr3MNukq-xU/s1600-h/monkey.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 307px; height: 217px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/ScGHlhrinlI/AAAAAAAARNM/yr3MNukq-xU/s320/monkey.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314678114039799378" /></a><br />Gordon Luk has a really <a HREF="http://getluky.net/2007/12/02/bradley-horowitz-vs-ze-frank-on-participation-culture">interesting post</a> that I'll use as a launching pad to clarify a point I often make in public lectures... In the interest of saving you a click, see below.<br/>This reminded me of Umair's article <a HREF="http://www.bubblegeneration.com/2006/02/why-yahoo-didnt-build-myspace-dont.cfm">"Why Yahoo Didn't Build MySpace..."</a> which basically suggests that the pyramid of participation I reference is a Yahoo "strategy." Nothing could be further from the truth. Destroying that pyramid is our strategy. The pyramid is more of a forensic, backward-looking empirical observation. The very next slide in the deck is also shown below.<br/><br/><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/ScGH3NMac2I/AAAAAAAARNU/RQhgzsoLhq0/s1600-h/slide1.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/ScGH3NMac2I/AAAAAAAARNU/RQhgzsoLhq0/s320/slide1.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314678417778176866" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/ScGH9bgFt_I/AAAAAAAARNc/xPu5JzpbzbU/s1600-h/slide2.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gK0HVX1xWzM/ScGH9bgFt_I/AAAAAAAARNc/xPu5JzpbzbU/s320/slide2.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314678524698015730" /></a><br /><br /><br/><br/>Lesson: Of course, I take full responsibility for these misunderstandings. Gordon and Umair are brilliant guys. So as I'm dishing out soundbites, maybe I need to slow down and make sure that I'm clearer...<br/><br/><hr /><br/><br/><a HREF="http://getluky.net/2007/12/02/bradley-horowitz-vs-ze-frank-on-participation-culture">Gordon says:</a><br/><br/><blockquote><br/>Do you ever have posts sitting around in wordpress for months at a time, delayed for one reason or another? This is one of them, and after re-reading it, I think I’ll go ahead and post it, but remember that it’s kind of a warp back in time to October 2006.<br/><br/>Yahoo! Open Hack Day was a massive, massive success, and i’m glad to have been a part of it. Now that i’ve had a few days to rest and reflect upon my experiences, I want to discuss an observation of Bradley Horowitz’s that has stuck in my mind.<br/><br/>Bradley’s one of the foremost advocates for social search development here at Yahoo. He’s one of the brightest minds around, and always makes my head spin a little bit when I talk with him. You can check out his Keynote presentation here (warning, this was 4GB to download!). Around the end of minute five, Bradley says some really interesting stuff. First, he showed the famous grainy video clip of a monkey trained to perform martial arts kicks in the context of what the worst-case scenario behind user-filtered content could produce. Then he went on to show some beautiful photographs from Flickr’s Interestingness, as a way to demonstrate the better side of what can be efficiently extracted from collaborative participation. His point that these photos bubbled to the top because of implicit user activity is key; as he mentions, the aggregate human cost of photo moderation borne by the user community on Flickr dwarfs anything possible by simply paying employees to review and rate them.<br/><br/>Ze Frank, seen in this video speaking at TED, a design conference, seems to also think hard about the new culture of participation on the Internet. Ze often invites his viewership to participate with him on various flights of fancy, including making silly faces, creating short video clips, playing with flash toys and drawing tools, etc. During his TED presentation, and also at various times on The Show, Ze talked about the hold that various groups have on the perception of art, and how many people are able to participate and create in a new culture without being ostracized by an established hierarchy. He seems to hold that the “ugliness” which seems to permeate MySpace is, in fact, a manifestation of participation outside of the boundaries of hierarchical editorial control. Thus, his position seems to be that the silliness and ugliness of the huge amount of web “design” on myspace depends heavily on perspective. At the minimum, he seemed to believe that participation culture removes barriers to experimentation that could lead to an overthrow of traditional design aesthetics.<br/><br/>These perspectives seem to be at odds. On one side, Bradley appears to be advocating the harvesting of social participation to come to results that select traditionally valuable content. In other words, using New Media platforms to efficiently perform the job of the Old Media publishing empires (Kung Fu Monkeys should be buried!). On the other side is Ze, who seems to be advocating not only a disruption of Old Media distribution through mass publication, but also seems to be leading a charge to disrupt traditional aesthetic values (Kung Fu Monkeys are beautiful, and should be encouraged!).<br/><br/>I think it’s an interesting contrast, and I worry that i’m mischaracterizing the arguments of each.<br/><br/>My personal viewpoint is a bit more nuanced. I believe that one day, web platforms will also be able to efficiently cluster their users based upon interests or tastes, similar to how Flickr can cluster tags to disambiguate meaning. These clusters will probably be designed not around user surveys or self-reported demographics, but instead will most likely be extracted through efficient methods of recording implicit participation information over the long term. There may well be a cluster (which I would belong to!) of folks that do enjoy Kung Fu monkeys, and there is almost definitely a cluster that find it degrading and offensive. The difference here between traditional preference filtering and clustered audiences is similar - one requires a great deal of potentially inaccurate user feedback about their preferences, whereas the latter acts more on implicit activity, and is thus more likely to produce the desired effects.<br/><br/>Not only would such a model be able to try and target clusters of preferences among users, but it would also allow for users to participate in cultures in which they feel welcome from the beginning.<br/></blockquote><br/><br/><a HREF="http://getluky.net/2007/12/02/bradley-horowitz-vs-ze-frank-on-participation-culture/#comment-212826">I responded:</a><br/><br/><blockquote><br/>My argument is not so much that Kung Fu monkeys = bad, or that they should be “buried.” But in a world where “anyone can say anything to everyone at once”, our most precious commodity becomes attention. I remember sitting at the Harvard Cyberposium Conference a few years ago when someone said… “It’s getting to the point where every moment of our life can now be digital recorded and preserved for posterity…. [pregnant pause…] Unfortunately, one doesn’t get a second life with which to review the first one.”<br/><br/>Coming up with the right tools to help me get to what matters to me becomes essential. But I don’t want to get prescriptive - what matters to the fans of Kung Fu monkeys is… Kung Fu monkeys! And we should be providing tools that help that community as much as any other…<br/><br/>Another way of putting it… I’m disinclined to subscribe the a Flickr feed for the tag “baby”. Just not interested in seeing random babies, thank you very much. But my brother’s baby? My neice? Cutest baby ever! I want to see every picture of her that exists!<br/><br/>Death to the monoculture and long live the long tail! Long live low-brow humor, stupid pet tricks and mentos and diet coke! And Ze Frank…<br/><br/>My point is that tools like Flickr interestingness allow us to leverage aggregate attention for the benefit of each user. I love interestingness, and use it as a sort criterion for just about every search I do on Flickr… But Flickr also uses a social graph with varying coefficients (me, family, friends, contacts, public) to provide another dimension that helps direct my attention to the right babies. ;-)<br/><br/>I think my thesis is simply that in democratizing the creation of content, we’ve created a high-class problem… There’s too much “on”… 500 channels, maybe. 500M channels? Never. The flip side of this wonderful revolution in publishing, destroying the hierarchical pyramid of participation, is that we (our industry) have a burden to provide people the means of actually getting to the content they want to see… (Perhaps sometimes, even before they know they want to see it.) This ought to keep us busy for a lifetime or so…<br/><br/>I think you captured my view pretty much in your closing paragraph. I’d guess Ze Frank agrees with us mostly too.<br/></blockquote>Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-59871125970077897642007-12-02T08:01:00.000-08:002009-03-17T09:52:45.461-07:00Relaunch of next.yahoo.com…A couple weeks ago our team relaunched <a HREF="http://next.yahoo.com">next.yahoo.com</a>.<br/><br/>Simply, it's a place where we can show you some cool stuff happening at Yahoo. I shared more on the <a HREF="http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/11/14/whats-next/">yodel blog.</a><br/><br/>William White and team just launched this <a HREF="http://next.yahoo.net/archives/42/play-music-on-your-blog-easy">very cool embeddable music player</a> there. Timely too... Now instead of just linking to MP3s like I did in a <a HREF="http://www.elatable.com/blog/2007/11/25/the-fall-tempo-house-from-perverted-by-language/">previous post</a>, listening to my old band is now just click away (or even less than a click if I'd selected autoplay...)<br/><br/>Go <a HREF="http://next.yahoo.net/?feed=rss2">subscribe to next</a> to keep apprised of what we're up to over here...Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-14840365387271314542007-11-25T15:31:00.000-08:002009-03-17T09:52:45.394-07:00The Fall: Tempo House from Perverted by LanguageVisiting family back in Detroit, and staying with dear friend <a HREF="http://flickr.com/photos/bradley23/12087680/in/photostream/">Bobji</a>*. We spent the night trading music... I hooked him up with Sufjan Stevens, My Bloody Valentine, Ry Cooder, Fujiya & Miyagi, etc. He hooked me up with Spiritualized, LCD Soundsystem, old Tones on Tail, etc. So much fun.<br/><br/><object height="350" width="425"><br/> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bTJdWN6BqwU&rel=1"><br/> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"><br/> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bTJdWN6BqwU&rel=1;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"><br/> </object><br/><br/>As the hours got wee, we discovered this gem recently added to YouTube. The Fall's Perverted by Language album is in my all-time top 10. I have numerous live / bootleg versions of most of the songs on the disc. What is so cool about this video is that it is the very performance recorded on PbL. I didn't even know a video for this existed. I've listened to the audio so many times, every squeak and squawk, click and clack is burned in my brain. Watching Mark E. Smith and gang actually perform it... so cool!<br/><br/>I've been having a great trip home, including time today at the newly opened <a HREF="http://dia.org">Detroit Institute of Arts</a>. Awesome, more later on that I hope...<br/><br/>*Bobji was the singer for Spahn Ranch (I was the guitar player, <a HREF="http://flickr.com/photos/bradley23/1684276914/">Odell</a> was the drummer and <a HREF="http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=17836189&albumID=0&imageID=976526">Hobey</a> the bass player.) We were the Detroit based Spahn Ranch, not the industrial band of the same name (that had much wider acclaim and is what turns up if you use a search engine.) Anyway, someone on the net recently digitized our first (and only) album. Here's a few songs from it: <a HREF="http://www.elatable.com/sr/countdown.mp3">countdown</a> & <a HREF="http://www.elatable.com/sr/echoes.mp3">echos of the day.</a> And here's the cover!<br /><a HREF="http://flickr.com/photos/bradley23/2065244892/"><img SRC="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2191/2065244892_6c7259babc_t_d.jpg"></a><br/><p>They also made a <a HREF="http://www.myspace.com/spahnranchmi">MySpace page</a> for us.Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8467244930033387182.post-11650694177416106072007-10-23T06:05:00.000-07:002009-03-17T09:52:45.355-07:00New Pipes release, iPhone supportAs reported on the <a HREF="http://blog.pipes.yahoo.com/">Pipes Blog</a>, Jonathan and the Pipes team just pushed a new release with features both useful and cool. I'm especially thrilled about the <a HREF="http://blog.pipes.yahoo.com/2007/10/23/iphonepipesyahoocom-access-your-mashup-while-mobile/">iPhone</a> support (having just gotten an iTouch, thanks Mr. Hornik!)<br/><br/>In keeping with the endless stream of jokes that name "pipes" inspires, Jonathan created what may turn out to be one of the most important and useful Pipe of all... The <a HREF="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=OhFRy_t43BGpiyl___OGHw">Restroom Locator</a>... A tip of the hat to George Costanza, connaisseur of public restrooms... ;-)Bradley Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11977276743491804999noreply@blogger.com