“I love free software and could not have built my site without it. But free web services are not like free software. If your free software project suddenly gets popular, you gain resources: testers, developers and people willing to pitch in. If your free website takes off, you lose resources. Your time is spent firefighting and your money all goes to the nice people at Linode.”
—

Don’t Be A Free User (Pinboard Blog)

This is a very interesting take by Maciej Ceglowski of Pinboard. He encourages all of us to financially support any web service we use and love, even if it requires you to “yell at the developers!”. He says that what happened to Gowalla could happen to any free web service. As the service gets popular, costs rise; and as costs rise (and the service gets popular), an acquisition looks very appealing the founders; but the appeal of the acquisition wears off when the acquirer shuts down the service and keeps the engineers to work on something else. Patrick Rhone (of Minimal Mac) took this advice and announced that he will be sending Tumblr $10 per month to help keep the service he loves afloat, even after the VC money is gone.

I think this is a very interesting situation. There are SO many free web services out there, and there is no way they can all survive while being free. I like that some users are trying to take it into their own hands and help keep the web services they love in business. But I also like that some of the popular web services are trying to think differently about “monetizing” their service.

David Karp of Tumblr has said that he wants to find ways for Tumblr to make money that “enhance the experience” for its users. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. I also can’t wait to see what other services, like Twitter, Instagram, and Path eventually settle on as their business model. Twitter seems closest by far, but I think they still have some way to go. This is why venture capital is so great - by raising money from VCs (instead of charging their users), these web services have the opportunity to innovate new (and hopefully interesting) business models as they grow into larger companies.

brycedotvc:

If you thought Y Combinator was shaking up the entrepreneurial world, wait until every High, Middle and Elementary school have “App Clubs” creating apps used by the faculty and district and generating revenue that funds tech and entrepreneurial focused school programs. 

Thomas Suarez is a 6th grader who sees the future. Which is why his TEDxManhattanBeach is required weekend viewing on BRYCE DOT VC. 

This kid is incredible! He’s only in 6th grade and already has several apps on the App Store! I can’t wait to see what comes out of these school “App Clubs”.

I’m Glad I Did

Bryce Roberts wrote a great post yesterday describing a bookmark he was given as a gift once. It was homemade and said “I Wish I Had. I’m Glad I Did.”. He said that it was given to him to always remind him to “strive to look back and find [himself] saying ‘I’m Glad I Did’ far more frequently than ‘I Wish I Had’”.

This reminded me immediately of seven years ago, when I was deciding where to go to college. I applied to quite a few schools, but it came down to two choices. The University of Florida, where I would essentially start as a sophomore, make money every semester from scholarships, and be with most of my high school friends; or the University of Notre Dame, where I wouldn’t know anybody and definitely would not have a free ride. I spent weeks trying to decide. One of my best friends (who was going to UF) told me something I still haven’t forgotten: “Go where you can never regret not having gone” (or something like that). That one sentence essentially decided it for me. I chose Notre Dame so that I could never say “I wish I had”.

And that decision was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. If I didn’t go to Notre Dame, I never would have learned what “engineering” was. And if I never learned what engineering was, I never would have learned about computer science. And if I never learned about computer science, my life and career would be in a completely different place right now.

I think that Bryce’s quote, and my friend’s advice, suggest a great way to live your life. This is especially true when thinking about your career and relationships. I took my friend’s advice when I was picking my college, but I don’t think I am taking that advice in my career so far. Hopefully that will change soon. I don’t want to look back on my career five or ten years from now and think to myself, “I wish I had…”. I hope to live with no regrets. To take chances. When deciding between something crazy and something comfortable, to go crazy! You only live your life here on Earth for a limited time, so make the most of it.

staff:

Yesterday we did a historic thing. We generated 87,834 phone calls to U.S. Representatives in a concerted effort to protect the Internet. Extraordinary. There’s no doubt that we’ve been heard.

So just to keep you updated: The well-intentioned, but immensely flawed “Stop Online Piracy Act” is still in the House Judiciary Committee. The hearing was yesterday and now members will debate and bring amendments to the bill. The Committee will reconvene in a few weeks — the date has yet to be scheduled. Nothing has been brought to a final vote. Everything is still very much in play. We’ll keep you posted on what’s going on and what you can do to help. But for now, we want to thank you.

One encouraging thing we heard yesterday:

I don’t believe this bill has any chance on the House floor. I think it’s way too extreme, it infringes on too many areas that our leadership will know is simply too dangerous to do in its current form.

— Representative Darrell Issa

We also want to express our tremendous gratitude to our friends at Mobile Commons who, on 30 minutes notice, hooked us up with their amazing platform (and provided their expertise) to automatically connect callers with their Representatives.

So awesome/encouraging.

"Excuse me, sir, would you mind taking our photo?" →

Steve paused for a moment as an iPhone was extended to him, realizing that they didn’t seem to know who he was. With a hint of enthusiasm, he said “Sure!” as he took the iPhone into his hands.

Steve took a great deal of care composing the photo, backing up a few steps several times, tapping the iPhone screen to lock focus, then said “Smile!” as he snapped the photo, grinning a little bit himself to encourage the family to follow suit.

parislemon:

“Here’s to the Crazy Ones” — the first of Apple’s “Think Different” commercials. But this one is a bit different. It’s narrated by Steve Jobs himself.

Pretty much the greatest thing ever.

So cool. Steve Jobs will definitely be missed by all.

(Source: youtube.com)

Game 3. (Taken with Instagram at Tropicana Field)

Game 3. (Taken with Instagram at Tropicana Field)

Watching the Red Sox lose after a Rays win! (Taken with Instagram at Tropicana Field)

Watching the Red Sox lose after a Rays win! (Taken with Instagram at Tropicana Field)

(Source: brycedotvc)

Drank is in the App Store →

drankapp:

Good news!

Drank has been approved by Apple and is now available in the App Store! Go check it out in iTunes! Today has been a long while in the making, and I am really happy that it has finally come. I started Drank a while back as a way to learn about iOS development and have really…