BloGiza

The List - Sept. 18

Every week we run across a number of articles that catch our eye. As a regular feature, we round them up for a little something we call The List:

• TC40 Keynote Conversation: Mark Zuckerberg - Tech Crunch
• Facebook Funders Launch Facebook Fund for App Developers - GigaOM
• Does Your CEO Get Web 2.0? - Web Worker Daily
• MySpace to Discuss Effort to Customize Ads - New York Times
• Social Network Types, Motivations, and the Future - Read/Write Web
• Using “captchas” to digitize books - Technology Review
• Report: Chinese man drops dead in Internet cafe after 3-day gaming binge - Associated Press
• Meetup madness: Slumming it in startup land - Info World
• The Trouble With Enterprise Software - MIT Sloan Review
• Think Big - MIT Sloan Review
• Web 2.0 investing taking a break? - John Cook's Venture Blog
• Google’s Grand Plan for Social Networking - Seeking Alpha
• Weak CPM Growth May Force Web Publishers to Re-examine Pricing Model - Seeking Alpha
• Five Technical Issues Hampering Online Video Growth - Seeking Alpha
• The One-World Video-Game Challenge - Technology Review
• Veteran producers, creators of ''Thirtysomething,'' ''My So-Called Life'' turn to Web - Associated Press
• Revver: $1 Million In User Payouts In First 12 Months - Tech Crunch
• Half-Baked or Mashed: Is Mixing Enterprise IT And The Internet A Recipe For Disaster? - Information Week
• MySpace Friends May Not Be Real - Information Week
• Microsoft swipes at Google Apps - Cnet
• P2P-style Mobile Phones - Agonist
• Is this really collaboration? - IT Director
• Online gaming hits its groove - Cnet
• 6 Tried and True Ways to Make Money Online - Web Worker Daily
• Managing Your Reputation Online - Technology Review
• NWVA won't raise new fund, Simpson says VC model is "broken" - John Cook's Venture Blog

Geekcon 2007

I had the pleasure of attending the second day of Geekcon 2007 this weekend at the Wingate Institute.  As it was last year, Geekcon brought together several dozen extremely talented people who came up with a variety of weird and interesting projects to put together.

Among the ones I really liked were an attempt to do IP over semaphone, a very cool recreation of the Enigma encryption device put together using mechanical and electrical components only, and -- for sheer esoteric silliness -- Oren Tirosh and Kobi Sambrano's daytrading program which took its buy/sell cues from the movement of a lava lamp.

Geekcon -- like the Geek Garage which it spawned -- has an incredible and unique atmosphere about it. There's something about getting some of Israel's smartest and most creative technology people to work on amusing projects just for the hell of it that brings a flutter to my little heart.

I'm glad that Giza (which co-sponsors both the Garage and Geekcon along with Carmel) helps enable this unique forum.

I wasn't able to put together a project this year, but I've already started working on one for next year. In the meantime, I've posted some more photos on Flickr for your enjoyment.