Silversun Pickups – “Carnavas”

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/SilversunPickups

There are some albums you instantly like and there are those that you need some listens before you are won over.

This album was one of the latter for me. I first got to hear Silversun Pickups through last.fm last year and after one full listen of the album, put it in my “want-to-check-out-later” category without rechecking it until recently. And now I’m enjoying t!

Silversun Pickups is an indie rock band from LA. They deliver quite a unique sound thanks to the eccentric female vocalist. Her voice reminded me of someone else’s who I can’t possibly remember now. One complain that I have about her voice is though that some tracks on this album sound quite similar to each other even with different melodies and beats. I would have loved more variations. But all in all, quite a good debut album, don’t you think?

People compare them to the Smashing Pumpkins or My Bloody Valentine. I can see some similarities with My Bloody Valentine.

More detail from Allmusic

Well Thought Out Twinkles

Lazy Eye

How Yahoo Blew It

Wired Magazine 이 Yahoo 에 Terry Semel 이 오고 나서 부터 현재까지의 ‘최고 인터넷 기업’에서 ‘져무는 해’로 떨어져 가고 있는 Yahoo 이야기를 매우 자세한 예시와 사실로 기사를 썼다.

2001년 $5Billion 이면 살 수 있었던 Google 이, 현재는 Yahoo 를 넘어 전체 IT 업계의 공룡이 되어 있는 상황을 보면 정말 아이러니가 아닐 수 없다. 하지만 그 과정에서 Google 을 못사고 추진했던 Plan B 가 어떻게 잘못 실행되었는지를 기사는 소상히 소개하고 있다.

Inktomi 와 Overture 을 사면서 Google 을 잠재울 수 있을 것이라 확신했던 Yahoo는 몇년이 지나도록 Overture 시스템을 업그레이드하는데 실패하고 결국 작년 말이나 되어서야 새로운 시스템인 “Panama” 를 도입했으나 너무 늦었다는 생각이다.

무엇이 문제였을까? 어떻게 Yahoo 가 Google 을 잠재울 수 있는 절호의 기회를 놓쳤는지 (hint: Overture integration & upgrade) 기사가 매우 길긴 하지만, 인터넷/검색에 관심이 있는 사람이라면 꼭 한번 읽어보라고 추천하고 싶다.

How Yahoo Blew It (Wired, Feb. 2007, free)

Yahoo executives tried to have it both ways. They attempted to placate Microsoft by maintaining Overture as a stand-alone brand. At the same time, they planned an overhaul of Overture’s technology, a project code-named Panama. It was a disaster. With no clear delineations, Yahoo and Overture executives fought over turf. Yahoo hired and fired a half-dozen engineering chiefs at Overture during the first year. Overture salespeople competed for business with Yahoo salespeople. And Meisel, Overture’s CEO, was ineffective — either inept or hamstrung by bureaucracy, depending on whom you ask. Decisions big and small, from trying out new features to agreeing on budgets, had to be cleared by committee after committee in Sunnyvale. “It was a clusterfuck,” one of the participants says.

Semel doesn’t appear to have recognized the depth of the problems until the fall of 2005, when Meisel was replaced by Jeff Weiner, a Semel protégé. Semel had decided in March 2005 to finally, fully integrate Overture into Yahoo, but those who worked on the project say it didn’t become a truly top priority until Weiner took over. The dithering had done its damage, and by the end of 2005 anyone could see that Yahoo’s search-advertising plans were in tatters. “All you had to do was look at Google’s numbers compared to ours,” says a former Yahoo search exec. When Yahoo decided it was going to buy Overture in 2002, Overture dominated search-related advertising; its revenue was two times Google’s. By the time the deal was actually announced in 2003, the two companies were neck and neck. Two years later, Google’s revenue was 2.5 times Overture’s.

기사는 마지막에 Terry Semel 이 어떻게 “Internet newbie CEO” 에서 “Yahoo를 재탄생시킨 CEO”로, 그리고 다시 “Technology에 무지한 CEO”로 변화된 평가를 받는지 주목한다.

But now, despite Semel’s achievements in Hollywood and early success at Yahoo, Silicon Valley is buzzing with a familiar refrain: Wouldn’t an executive with a little more technology savvy be a better fit? Semel has been Yahoo’s CEO for nearly six years, yet he has never acquired an intuitive sense of the company’s plumbing. He understands how to do deals and partnerships, he gets how to market Yahoo’s brand, and he knows how to tap Yahoo’s giant user base to sell brand advertising to corporations. But the challenges of integrating two giant computer systems or redesigning a database or redoing a user interface? Many who have met with him at Yahoo say he still doesn’t know the right questions to ask about technology. “Terry could never pound the table and say, ‘This is where we need to go, guys,’” one former Yahoo executive says. “On those subjects, he always had to have someone next to him explaining why it was important.” One could have made a convincing argument two years ago that such deep technical knowledge didn’t matter much. But now we have empirical evidence: At Yahoo, the marketers rule, and at Google the engineers rule. And for that, Yahoo is finally paying the price.

위의 강조된 문구가 바로 그 차이를 만드는 것.

Jeff Buckley

People called him “Van Morrison-meets-Led Zeppelin”

His sudden death at the age of 30 made a lot of people shocked.

Sometimes I wonder,

if these artists who died so early had lived longer, would they have been better received? How would they have changed their music overtime? That’s why we all miss those musicians who are no longer with us but at the same time somewhat glad that they didn’t mess their music later.

In any case, at least for me, Jeff Buckley was one of the greatest solo singers/song writers in 90’s. His voice and musicianship will always remain inspiring to me.

Hallelujah

Eternal Life

Forget Her

Spring Fashion – A-line mini dresses with Big patterns

This spring, expect to see the following outfits on the street.

(Trina Turk)

(Pucci)

(Milly)

A-line mini dresses with big patterns.

If you don’t have long and thin legs, this outfit doesn’t work for you. If you really want to try, wear them over jeans or with leggings.

For me, I’m not even going to try. I’m just gonna stick to my jeans. haha.

Playing Fashion’s New Angles (WSJ, Jan. 27, 2007, subscribers only)

A-line mini dresses. Lucite shoes. This spring, designers are pushing futuristic clothes that echo the ’60s. But fearful the bold styles could flop, some retailers are watering them down. How to look just mod enough.

In styles reminiscent of the 1960s mod era, designers are ushering in a wave of futuristic looking clothes with simple lines this spring. Twiggy-style mini shift dresses are back. So is the trapeze dress, which is fitted at the shoulders, then flares away from the body. Geometric patterns are big, too — often in white paired with black or eye-popping bright colors such as electric blue and hot pink.

• Runway: Bright gold metallic leggings by Balenciaga
• Reality: Silver and metallic colors in purses and shoes

• Runway: Short trapeze dress
• Reality: Less-extreme A-line in dresses and coats

• Runway: Massive prints in loud colors
• Reality: Slightly less massive prints

• Runway: Super-high wedges with architectural heels
• Reality: Some showy styles, but ballet flats may sell better

Softbank’s Mobile business

Softbank 가 Vodafone 을 산 후에 여러 말이 많았다. “사는 것이 맞느냐”는 관점에서 부터 “너무 비싸게 주었다” 혹은 “leverage 규모가 감당하기 쉽지 않다, 과연 한참 뒤떨어진 3등에서 다시 살아날 수 있겠나” 등등

아직은 1년도 채 안되었기 때문에 누구도 성공 여부를 이야기할 수 없다고 보여진다. 다만 관심가지고 계속 지켜볼 따름.

일본의 휴대 전화 번호 이동이 시작된 후 많은 사람들이 이동할 것이라는 예상을 뒤집고 실제로는 carrier 를 바꾸는 사람이 많지 않다는 기사가 얼마 전에 나왔었다. 따라서 급격한 변화는 쉽게 오지는 않을 것으로 보이나 DoCoMo 가 지난 11월 최초로 전체 가입자 숫자가 하락 했다는 소식등을 보면, 결국은 느리더라도 누군가더 좋은 서비스, 더 다양한 옵션을 제공하는 쪽으로 사용자는 이동해 갈 것이라 믿는다. 그것이 아무리 loyalty가 강한 일본이라고 하더라도.

Softbank’s Mobile Bet May Pay Off (WSJ, Jan. 26, 2007, subscribers only)

Behind Softbank’s recent momentum is a broad lineup of mobile phones, a new mobile Internet service under the popular Yahoo Japan brand, and a menu of new price plans that are slightly cheaper than those of competitors such as NTT DoCoMo and KDDI. Softbank also launched a major advertising campaign featuring Hollywood stars Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt, which created a buzz among young Japanese. Thursday, the company unveiled a strong lineup of 14 phones that aims in part to beef up its selection for women.

Although Japan’s second-largest mobile operator, KDDI, had been expected to gain the most from the new “number portability” rule, analysts say Softbank likely took business away from it. In December, the latest month that operators reported on the number of customers added, Softbank took a 20% share of total new customers in the industry. That was five percentage points higher than Mr. Tsusaka of Deutsche Bank had expected.

Off Topic 이긴 하지만, 몇몇 일본 기업의 마케팅 촛점을 보면 좀 이상한 점이 있다. 위의 기사에서도 보듯이 Softbank 는 hollywood 배우들을 써서 자신들의 브랜드가 ‘cool’ 하게 보이려고 노력한다. 얼마전 시작한 MySpace Japan 의 경우도 들어가 보면 ‘미국 문화를 좋아하는 일본사이트’ 라고 느껴진다. 일본이 미국문화에 대해 엄청난 동경과 선망을 가지고 있는 것은 어느 정도 사실이나 자국의 커뮤니티를 만들겠다고 하는 서비스마저 미국 종속적인 문화로 만들어 가고 있다는 것이 참 마음에 안든다.

나는 별로 좋아하지는 않지만 일본 문화/음악을 좋아하는 사람들도 아주 많은 것으로 아는데 왜 자신의 나라의 문화를 중심으로 social networking 을 하려고 하지 않는지. 참….

(참고. MySpace Japan 은 Softbank 와 MySpace 가 합작으로 만들고 있음)