by cameron | Nov 7, 2006 | Uncategorized
I went out to dinner last night at Bacar with the Young Dudes – Mike Cannon-Brookes (Atlassian) and Chris Saad (Touchstone). Also there were some not-so-young dudes like myself and Randall Leeb-du Toit from NICTA (thanks Randall!). There was some lively discussion and excellent food. As an old bloke, I’m continually stunned by how sharp and smart guys like Mike and Chris are at 26 and 24 respectively. Both have several start-ups behind them and are killing it with their current businesses. I’ve learned a lot about Atlassian’s success and history and Mike’s background over the last few days (I’m sleeping on his sofa) and he’s a seriously impressive dude. Chris and Nik from Touchstone are also seriously smart and focused. I’ve just installed the latest alpha of their product. It’s invite only and I’ve got 5 invites to give away. First in, first served, people. Email me if you want one. I’ve also just installed the latest version of another young Aussie dude’s product – Omnidrive (Nik Cubrilovic is the young dude… I think he’s like 22 or something). It’s an online storage service. I left Australia with my external 200Gb USB drive which has a lot of show production files on it and I’m sick of having to plug it in every time I edit a show, so I’m going to dump some of the key files into my Omnidrive account and pull them down from there in future (I don’t want them sitting on the laptop, it’s low on space).
Anyway… hanging around with these young dudes makes 36 seems so old. Where did those last 20 years go?
by cameron | Nov 3, 2006 | Uncategorized
Here I am finally in Soul Francisco. My mate Steve, who I stayed with in Carmel, loves to say how much he finds himself “noticing the little things”, like the hummingbirds in his backyard. Steve, his son Jack and I sat in the yard for 15 minutes the other day watching two hummingbirds trying to rip each other’s throats out. It was un-frakking-believable. I’ve never even seen a hummingbird before let alone seen two of them fighting like Yoda on speed.
Anyhoo, I checked into my broom-closet-sized room in SF this arvo (after catching a ride up from Santa Clara with Aussie journo, blogger and all-round good bloke Brad Howarth) and opened up my laptop to take advantage of the hotel’s free wireless. I flicked on my iPod and guess what track came up on shuffle? “Soul Francisco” by Tony Joe White. What are the odds? I have 3310 tracks on my iPod and this one comes on the moment I arrive in SF. Come ON???!
This morning I chatted with a dude called Adam that Richard from Austrade put me onto about the process to get an E3 Visa which allows Aussies to work in the USA. By the way, I’ve decided that an Aussie who works over here should be called an aUStralian. Get it? And if Australia moves any closer to becoming another satellite state of the US we should just change the gaddam name of the country to aUStralia and get it over with. As they say, stick a fork in our ass and turn us over, we’re done. David Lawson, the Consul General, was telling me over a Corona last night that there are 10,000 of these E3 visas available to Aussies wanting to become aUSsies every year, one of the few good things to drop out of the recent Free Trade Agreement, and there are plenty to go around. Spouses of E3 recipients are allowed to work as well.
Went out to dinner last night with about 25 folks from the ANZA Tech conference to a place called the Lion and Compass. David Evans from In The Chair was spreading the rumour that our waitress was in fact the daughter of the guys who created “Lara Croft : Tomb Raider” and that the restaurant is owned by the family. I didn’t confirm it with her though. If anyone can confirm or deny that let me know.
Just a quick shout out to my peeps Nik and Chris from Touchstone who upgraded their hotel room at ANZA so I could get a pull-out sofa to sleep on. I gave them a lot of shit over the last few days but they knew I was joking. Right? Right??? Anyway, you should check out the latest build of their application. It’s very cool and the boys are going to end up filthy rich out of it.
Okay gotta go record today’s showBUZZ. You listening? And have you subscribed to Today In Music History yet?
by cameron | Oct 26, 2006 | Uncategorized
I’ve had a few people send me this article in the NY Times recently so I thought it was worth linking to. With my recent theme of how limited the funding options are in Australia, a lot of people were asking me “why can’t you get US venture capital from Australia?”
Meet the “20-minute rule†that guides fateful decisions in Silicon Valley. Craig Johnson, managing director of Concept2Company Ventures, a venture capital firm in Palo Alto, Calif., who has 30 years of experience in early-stage financings, said he knew many venture capitalists who adhered to this doctrine: if a start-up company seeking venture capital is not within a 20-minute drive of the venture firm’s offices, it will not be funded.
by cameron | Oct 21, 2006 | Melbourne, Uncategorized
In early 2005, the wife of one of my oldest mates was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 and spent most of that year undergoing treatment to overcome the disease. It was a harrowing year for them, their two young kids, family and friends. Fortunately, Lisa is now in recovery and doing well. Typically of Lisa, she turned her experience into something positive to help other people:
Lisa and Michael were unable to find a suitable children’s story book to help explain the illness and its treatment to their two young children so Lisa began a journal, and now, with the help of her son Harrison, she has turned this story into a children’s book about cancer as seen through the eyes of a 7 year old boy.
The book aims to assist parents in explaining the breast cancer journey to their children in an informative and entertaining way. It offers explanations of tricky medical terms, cancer treatments, medical personnel, and helpful hints for family and friends, opening up areas of discussion between parents, carers and children.
Three generations contribute to the making of the book. Lisa has written their story assisted by her son Harrison who is now 8. The story is supported with drawings also by Harrison and illustrations by his Nana, Lisa’s mother. It is suitable for children aged 3 to 10 years of age, and priced at $16.95.
The story book is self-published with strong endorsements including Doreen Akkerman from The Cancer Council of Victoria and Kerri Guy a member of Breast Cancer Network Australia. The publication is not for profit and net proceeds will be donated to these two Charities. Â
If you’d like to get a copy of the book it’s called "My Mum Has Breast Cancer : A Family’s Cancer Journey" and is available from from Melbourne bookstore Book Street on +613 9598 5111 or  bookstreet@bigpond.com.
by cameron | Oct 20, 2006 | Uncategorized
Unsurprisingly, most of the media chatter about PBL’s decision to sell off 50% of its media assets says the decision was made "so it can focus on expanding its international gaming business". Now I know James isn’t Kerry. But thing back. Kerry was the king of expert timing. He floated ecorp (aka PBL Online) about 6 months before the dot com crash. He cashed out of the stock market just before the 1987 crash. He famously sold Channel Nine to Alan Bond at the peak of Bond’s hubris and then bought it back a year later when Bond crashed.
So if this was Kerry selling PBL’s media assets I would be asking the following question: What Does Kerry Know That The Rest Of The Market Doesn’t Know?
Now, as I said, James isn’t Kerry. Maybe he has inherited his patriarch’s sixth sense, maybe he hasn’t.
But I suggest to you that "so it can focus on expanding its international gaming business" may be the explanation that Packer, and the rest of the media, what the market to think. What other reasons could there be? That the value of the Television and Magazine businesses have peaked? Is that a rationale even worth considering?
Here is your homework today kids: find a mainstream media analysis of the PBL sell-off which asks deep questions about the future value of the television and magazine business.
Austereo, Australia’s largest radio network, on the other hand, says the media buying frenzy has totally by-passed it.
"In response to media speculation following recent changes to media ownership laws, Austereo advises that it has not had any approaches from third parties," it said.
Wow, now there’s a surprise. No-one is overly-excited about buying a radio business. I wonder why?
