BijanBlog

Dear Dopplr. I was wrong about you.

So I can't remember who first invited me to Dopplr. It was either Rafer or Prashant.

Dopplr is an online service for frequent travelers. You put in all of your upcoming trips and you hope that your traveling friends do the same.

I joined several months ago. And in the beginning I didn't get it. It felt hard to use. It felt like yet another weak social network asking me to re-create myself online. I had to invite more friends to yet another service.

Lots of folks asked me what I thought and I would just reply,  "it's okay". Which is code for "it's not for me".

But I was wrong. Way wrong.

It clicked about a month ago for me. Once I had a core group of friends using the service it became incredibly useful. Now I love Dopplr. It's fantastic. It's made for folks like me that travel a lot and have friends that travel a lot. Using Dopplr I've been able to connect with my west coast friends while I'm traveling or when they are in NYC or Boston.

I'd like to see some improvements to Dopplr. Integrating with Twitter is a no-brainer. Also, to sync based on categories to Outlook or Gcal is also a must.

I was wrong about you Dopplr. I'm glad I stuck it out.

Dopplr is still in private beta but if you want to give it a try leave a comment here and I'll send you an invite. Here's my profile on Dopplr.

Students today

The story about the kids in Boulder is an inspiration. 50 students walked out during the Pledge on Thursday. They objected to the "under god" phrase. Even the principle was impressed.

I'm still digging into the background of this story and whether other students around the country are going to do something similar. Or maybe they already are?

Someone should ask our presidential candidates what they think about this. I'd love to hear what they have to say about separation of church and state.

2013

The leading Democratic candidates last night said that USA withdrawal from Iraq may not even be complete by 2013.

I'm not kidding

We need a third party. My party isn't doing it.

Update: Jeffrey Feldman offers his insight on how the top3 candidates are looking at Iraq these days. Unfortunately I think he's right.

A walk through the Haight

  End Haight 
  Originally uploaded by waywuwei.

Last night Eric, Alan and I wanted to see Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at The Independent but they were sold out. So we ended up getting a beer in the Upper Haight. We had a fun night.

After I left the bar, I took a quick stroll through the Haight before catching a cab to my hotel. My first apartment in San Francisco was just a few blocks away from that neighborhood. It brought back a lot of memories.

I saw a bunch of guys clearly strung out on the street. Made me think of the old Velvet Underground song, I'm Just Waiting For the Man. Classic. Hard to believe it was recorded 40 years ago.

This morning I bought the tune from Amazon's new Mp3 store. Couldn't be easier.

Here it is. Enjoy.

I'm Waiting for The Man

The trouble with Trackbacks

Trackbacks and how they are implemented with todays blogging platforms are way more trouble than its worth. Its clunky to manage to say the least.

But links, trackbacks and comments are a critical part of the blogging conversation. I use technorati a few times a week to see what people are saying about my posts. Unfortunately Technorati isn't used by everyone that reads this blog. So all of that conversation (other blog links) is missing from my blog posts.

We need a system that is smarter and easiser to use.

For example what if a service was built so that my comments section was automatically populated with related links and content. Just like how technorati does it but inside of my blog.

Or maybe some software that allows the reader/blogger to mouse over a blog post and see other blogs that reference this blog.

It could work the same way with comments too. 

(Blogging from my blackberry so excuse any typos)

The Tmobile Curve is better than AT&T's Curve

TMobile is now shipping their version of the Blackberry Curve. It's called the 8320.

It has two advantages over the AT&T Curve I own.

It has WiFi. And the jury is still out on how much that will help.

But the camera seems to be much better than the camera in the AT&T Curve. They are both technically 2 megapixel cameras but there is a substantial difference.

Check out these photos from the 8320.

So I bought one down the street. It comes locked so I just ordered the unlock codes online. I'm stuck with AT&T because their coverage is so much better than Tmobile in Boston.

I have a few weeks to give it a try and decide if it's a worthy alternative to the iPhone.

I'll let you know.

Y'up, what he said

Santo has a post today about Greylock's investment in Facebook.

Santo is 100% right. Couldn't agree with him more.

Bug Labs is coming to Cambridge

Bug Labs held their first meetup in NYC in August. It was a great turnout.

Well Peter & the company are now coming to Cambridge, MA on Oct 9th. Please join us if you are interested in the world of consumer electronics, open source and a world where web services meets hardware mashups.

Here are the details.

I'll be there. Hope you will be there too!

Now this is a bummer

My iPhone is giving me the blues

The lack of wireless syncing and the lack of search is killing me.

I have a Curve but I hate the UI, crappy camera quality (example: same image, this one taken with iPhone and other with a Curve) and the Curve doesn't have WiFi.

I've been looking for an excuse to go back to my trusty Blackberry. I told myself that either the iPhone will get better soon or I'll ditch the iPhone when I can get a Curve with WiFi and hopefully a better camera.

Well, here's some sad news. The new Blackberry Curve with WiFi isn't any faster than Edge for web browsing.

Now what will be my excuse.

Why I blog?

Scott Kirsner has an article in the Boston Globe today about venture capitalists that blog and don't blog.

I'm quoted in the piece along with other VC friends of mine. Scott also follows up his article with a post on his personal blog, Innovation Economy. In his follow up, he has a video with me and some other folks on the subject too.

First and foremost, I don't consider myself a "VC blogger". I don't talk about venture capital/business exclusively. Or even most of the time. Those that read/interact with this blog know that. This blog is about me. All of me - work, personal, family, everything.

My blog is about getting my thoughts, observations & interests down on digital ink. But this blog is also about the feedback from you all. The conversation is a big reason why I keep blogging. The feedback comes in so many different ways. Sometimes its a link from another blog. Sometimes it's when I meet someone in person that has read my blog. Or I'll get an IM or Twitter after a post. Mostly I get email feedback & less frequently I will get comments after a post. And I'm learning along the way.

The new friends I discovered thru blogging has been wonderful. Even better are the existing "offline" friendships that have deepened in a special way.

Why do I blog?

I blog because I love it.