LinkedIn The Social Network For Business Networking Files For IPO

In the good ole days a businessman's social network meant a lot of "pressing the flesh" and if you worked your network just right there might be a payoff. In today's world business folks are making connections by reaching out to their online network, mostly via LinkedIn an 8 year old Mountain View, California based social network for grown ups (and by grown ups I mean anyone who has, wants, needs a job, sales, or an introduction from an acquaintance or colleague... past or present).

Yesterday LinkedIn filed papers with the Securities Exchange Commission regarding it's intent to make an initial public offering (IPO). According to it's filing LinkedIn managed sales of $161.4 million in the first nine months of 2010 equaling profits of $10 million. I guess you could say that a down economy is probably not a bad thing for growing a user base for a service like LinkedIn, and a turn around will do it a great deal of good as 41% of it's revenues come from it's "hiring solutions".

What will make this one an interesting IPO to watch is that it's coming in advance of some other expected offerings and will undoubtedly test the waters and set investor expectations.

The Fun Theory

Here's a little extra this morning. You have to check this out!

2 Minutes Of Nothing

From Alex Tew, the guy who sold 1 million pixels for a buck a piece on the Million Dollar Homepage, comes a new project that simply asks you to do nothing for two minutes. "Just relax and listen to the waves," and "Don't touch your mouse or keyboard." reads the text on the site http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/, in the background is an ocean vista with the sun peering through the clouds and the sound of waves. Also on screen is a countdown timer set to 2:00, if you are impatient and move the mouse or click on screen the timer turns to a nice red "FAIL" and the exercise starts again. Unfortunately my attention span this morning would not allow me to wait out the two minute exercise so I can't tell you what happens when the clock strikes zero but I can tell you that there is a lot of chatter on techcrunch's comments and that Alex Tew himself is weighing in "I did this project just for fun. Some folks should try and stop looking into things too much :)"

I guess if you've made a million dollars in four months and have plenty of time on your hands a website that plays the sound of waves and counts down from 2:00 makes a lot of sense... why didn't I think of that? Perhaps the fact that I haven't made a million dollars is my stumbling block?

Volvo Testing Automobile Train Concept - SARTRE Project

Volvo and a handful of other companies are testing a system known as SARTRE (Safe Road Trains For The Environment) which would allow commuters to line up behind a lead vehicle and create an autonomous train, well autonomous for everyone but the lead vehicle. The benefits are said to be environmental, in safety, and in productivity / time savings as the riders in the trailing cars can leave the driving in the hands of the lead vehicle's operator and focus on other tasks.

I'm in awe of the technological achievements displayed in the following video, and at the same time have a bunch of questions and concerns, many of which the researchers are already considering as demonstrated.

Will It Send?

A very small, 30cm-long, satellite is going to be sent into orbit by a team at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited of Guildford U.K. The satellite is going to be powered by a smartphone using the Google Android operating system, though the precise make and model have not been disclosed.

SSTL project manager Shaun Kenyon says "They come now with processors that can go up to 1GHz, and they have loads of flash memory. First of all, we want to see if the phone works up there, and if it does, we want to see if the phone can control a satellite." The company's goal is to find an inexpensive, off-the-shelf solution that can aid in lowering it's cost of design and development.

"We're not taking it apart; we're not gutting it; we're not taking out the printed circuit boards and re-soldering them into our satellite - we're flying it as is," Mr Kenyon explained.

"And, in fact, we're going to have another camera on the satellite so we can take a picture of the phone because we want to operate the screen and have some good images of that as well."

You see Apple? This is why an open platform is far superior to your closed model... just sayin.

Wanting To Get Back To It's Roots Google Turns To Page

Google has announced that chief executive Eric Schmidt will be returning the position to co-founder Larry Page whom he had taken the reigns from a decade ago. Schmidt will remain executive chairman of Google that has grown from a pre IPO valuation of $27 billion to $200 billion at markets close yesterday. The handover will happen in April.

“One of the primary goals I have is to get Google to be a big company that has the nimbleness and soul and passion and speed of a start-up,” said Mr. Page in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Eric Schmidt wrote in a twitter post: “Day-to-day adult supervision is no longer needed.”

Google, it seems has become less agile and less attractive to first string engineers and executives while Facebook and Twitter have become the places to work and have threatened growth at Google. I have to say, speaking from experience, that work at a startup is far superior to getting bogged down in stagnant products and the bureaucratic thinking that seems to take over as companies grow and age. No doubt, Mr. Page has gained a great deal of education observing Mr. Schmidt over the years and I'm betting that we see some new and exciting things from Google.  

Beating Traffic With Substitute Drivers

Living where I do, it is hard to fathom the type of traffic that would cause hours of delays. In China however, the population of 1.3 billion is rapidly acquiring vehicles, and the capital city Beijing has tied with Mexico City in a 2010 IBM study of the worlds worst traffic jams.

So what is a time conscious or impatient driver to do if they are stuck in one of the worlds worst traffic jams? Place a call to a car service.  Huang Xizhong is quoted by Yahoo as saying  "those with urgent dates or business meetings to go to, and those who have flights to catch and can't afford to wait in a traffic jam for too long," and thus his company employs substitute drivers to wait in traffic on your behalf while another driver on a motorcycle zips you through the congestion in a so called "traffic jam rescue".

Seriously! You can't make this stuff up folks...

Starbucks Larger Size And Payment Via iPhone

Not only has Starbucks introduced the Trenta, a super sized drink some 300ml larger than a Venti (U.S. stores only at this time), but the company has also "today announced the launch of mobile payment in all U.S. company-operated stores, allowing customers to pay for in-store purchases with select smartphones."

The company's press release states:

To experience mobile payment at Starbucks, customers just need to download the free Starbucks Card Mobile App for select BlackBerry smartphones, iPhone or iPod touch mobile devices. More than one-third of U.S. Starbucks customers use smartphones, of which nearly three quarters use BlackBerry smartphone or iPhone mobile devices. In addition to the mobile payment capability, the app allows customers to manage their Starbucks Card account, check their card balance, reload their card with any major credit card (iPhone users can also use the PayPal feature), check their My Starbucks Rewards status and find a nearby Starbucks store with the store locator feature.

Customers can pay with their smartphone by holding their mobile device in front of a scanner on the countertop and scan the Starbucks Card Mobile App's on-screen barcode to make a purchase. Customers have successfully adopted this technology in test markets in Seattle, Northern California, New York and more than 1,000 Starbucks in U.S. Target stores.

I fear nothing good can come of this... :)

You can download the app via www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/mobile-apps

I Can Haz Your Millions?

Cheezburger Networks the company behind I Can Has Cheezburger, Fail blog, and Engrish Funny has announced a $30-million round of funding from venture capital firms Foundry Group and SoftBank Capital, amongst others.

The company plans to use the money to beef up staffing and take the blog network into "new directions" according the Mathew Ingram's GIGaom post. This only goes to prove that all of those Jr. High School teachers were wrong when they said "...nothing good will come of this" or "...you are headed for a life as a garbage collector!"

Is Your iPad Changing Your Television Watching Habits?

It seems that I am not alone in my iPad / TV watching habits and my transition away from the big screen to the one I can hold in my hand. As reported by Kit Eaton, Fast Company,  a new study is showing that reading online is cutting into prime time TV watching. I for one am finding that the iPad accompanies me in front of the television as I catch up with email, search IMDB to find out who that actress is and where do I know her from? In my case, I am also short circuiting TV altogether at times by downloading and enjoying commercial free episodes from itunes or audio books from Audible. If it weren't for the other members of my household and perhaps live sports in HD, I'd probably scrap my cable subscription all together in favor of downloaded content to my iPad.

Truth is that my iPad is much more convenient, I can take it with me to my favorite chair, which isn't even in a room with a television, and it remembers where I was when I shut the device off. In my experience interruptions are also less frequent as their is less desire to interrupt someone when they have their ear buds in.

What are your findings?