Henri Duong

Social Gaming Summit 09

2009-06-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

Toby Morning and I crashed Social Gaming Summit 09 yesterday at Hotel Niko in downtown San Francisco. Good vibe and good people. I did not see any of the "Free to play" developers though and also heard many interesting remarks regarding whether some thought sticking a brand IP would help any of the generic MMO games that are out there.

Has it been 3 months?

2009-06-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

wow- its been 3 months since i've blogged - at least on this page. I have been finding it very challenging to find something meaningful to write about. Do people really want to hear about how to raise venture capital or what its like to work from home as an entrepreneur? The joke going around is "Being an entrepreneur really means you are unemployed". I beg to differ, its because everyone is unemployed that they discover there is nothing left to lose to risk so they choose to become entreprenuers.

No- i think all women just want to hear about are one hundred year old vegitarian glittery vampires who are musicians during the day and watch teenage girls sleep at night. This whole Twillight thing was written by a woman for women it- therefore, it doesn't need to make any humanly possible logical sense. The cult swallowed up a 28 year old woman i know which I had never thought for a million years would fall for obvious nonsense...now she sleeps at night with a DVD of Twillight next to her TV.

I digress.

Been thinking about a few startups inspired by JustAnswers.com and Gpotato.com two very clean sites with specific revenue generating business models...meeting with a silicon vally friend this Friday night to figure out how we can improve and make something better!

Most Viral Text Worm

2009-03-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

Did you get this text tonight?:

"Don't go to Wal-Mart, gang initiation to kill 3 random women tonight"

This is a hoax! My conspiracy theory is that this comes from a competing box store or from Arizona where absolutely nothing is going on but beer and baseball...

Twitter Denies $500 Million from Facebook

2009-03-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

A recent news article in Adage reviews the thinking behind why Biz Stone denied $500 Million offer (Shares+ Cash) from Facebook. They reason that they have something to offer that is "Googlesque" in Search!

The article is titled "Twitter: We can do what Google Can't" - my remark to this is yes, that is certainly true!- you can figure out how to make $0 dollars in revenue while Google can make Billions.

Twitter has no business model in it of itself and the sad part is it thinks it will all the sudden one day have some real IP and business model that will make it more valuable than what Facebook has offered them in this web instant messaging protocol now known as 'twittering'.

The argument for not selling could certainly be that the cash offer was not quite enough and that stocks or shares in Facebook could certainly diminish over the next year should the next big fad social network take over...who knows?

I wonder if the VC's backing twitter fully agreed with Biz Stone's decisions...I for one as a VC would have taken heed to the economy and merged the two to win the bigger game at the end of the day of Twitter + Facebook combined equals big money now and bigger money at long tail exit...

Year of the Facebook

2009-01-28T13:55:00.001-08:00

Linklive.org Gala Celebrating Obama Day!

2009-01-20T17:44:00.001-08:00

How do you respond to scammers on Craigslist?

2009-01-15T06:02:00.001-08:00

Decided to sell my Sony Vaio laptop and always giggle at the scammer emails- here is my response to one...

............................................................................
Dear Scammer,

take a hike off a cliff

thanks,

On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 5:56 AM, wrote:
** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

dear seller
i dont like talking too much if you no are a clean and honest seller email me with your details becase i am paying you{ cash or money gram } but i am paying you{ 600usd} plus shipping coast
thanks.

A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps!

this message was remailed to you via: sale-993041385@craigslist.org

NPR this morning looks at 40th birthday of personal computer

2008-12-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

The personal computer invented 40 years ago on this day did not start out as a personal computer that we know today. It was a high performing non graphical based computing machine with a mouse.

The inventors created this machine in a time of urgency to solve the world's problems and to create a tool that could engage the evolution of collective IQ...networking the human potential. It was the year that Kennedy was assassinated a year that was filled with pain.

Today we look forward into the future and it has only been until recent that we as a species have begun to evolve thanks to social technologies (not social networking). The forefathers of technologies have been very patient with us but the time is come to consider a new era of computing.

Over the past many years graphical interfaces were introduced because humans are slow to learn without images. A day will come when a few of our children will read and be entertained in code and hyper texts. But i don't think there ever will be a day when all of us will be this advanced. Could you imagine what the media and governments would do if everyone did not need them?

The computer and peripheral will no longer be an object but an extension of ourselves and a few will solve the world's most difficult problems together such as global warming, terrorism and an Oreo cookies that will no longer be packaged with the cookies.

RIP Chris Harper

2008-12-05T16:45:00.001-08:00

Christopher M. Harper
GREENSBORO — Christopher M. Harper, 36, of Hollywood, Calif., passed away on Tuesday, December 2, 2008, at the Sunrise Medical Memorial Hospital in Las Vegas, Nev.

Graveside service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, December 7, at Lake View Memorial Park, with the Reverend Jimmy Dillon officiating.

Chris Harper was born in Guilford County, January 5, 1972. He was the executive vice president and chief experience officer at BETA Records in Hollywood, California.

Mr. Harper is survived by three children, Samantha, Sebastien and Trevor of California and his parents, Mike and Linda Harper of Brown Summit, N.C.; and sister, Kellie Harper of Charleston, S.C. He is also survived by his grandmothers, Kathleen Harper and Dorothy Howell; several aunts, uncles and cousins.

The family will receive friends from 1 until 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 7, at Hanes Lineberry Funeral Home North Elm Street Chapel.

The family would like to thank the Intensive Care Unit at Sunrise Medical Memorial Hospital and the many friends for their concern and friendship throughout this difficult time.

Offer condolences at www.news-record.com/obituaries

What Would Forrester Do

2008-12-02T10:25:00.001-08:00

For all you marketers looking to secure your brand in these insecure times. If you are wondering where to start in social media the good news is all the web2.0 crap is falling off the face of the web world.

Forrester suggest to stick to partners that are not likely to disappear such as Myspace and Facebook in the US, Bebo in the UK, Orkut in Brazil and Cyworld in Korea.

What happened to China?

Numa Numa Kid is really a Jersey Jersey Boy

2006-09-22T11:13:00.001-07:00

Yahoo! video and Current TV hooked up and put together a buzz video with an interview including the kid behind "the Numa Numa kid" - great video, well scripted and funny- check it out:

Snakes like music too...

2006-06-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

LA-based band Captain Ahab has been named the winner of the Snakes on a Plane movie-soundtrack contest on the social networking site TagWorld. The band and runner-up Louden Swain beat nearly 500 entries competing to win placement in the film and soundtrack. The winning songs can be heard at tagworld.com/snakesonaplane, USA Today reports. Snakes, due Aug. 18, stars Samuel L. Jackson as an FBI agent assigned to protect a government witness on a flight infested with poisonous snakes.