Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.
Did you catch this yet on Digg? By far the highest score for Apple stories, at least at this point of the day….
Breaking MacWorld News: Jobs To Wear Black Shirt/Jeans
You have to love Digg….
UPDATE at 9:35 am Pacific: By the way, I’m also Twittering while at I’m at Macworld: www.Twitter.com/GraemeThickins. SteveNote now in progress.
The hotel is stirring early this morning. I thought I’d sleep in till maybe 5:30 or so (still kinda being on MN time and all), but no way — doors were slamming in the hallway early. [And then I found out this damn hotel doesn’t even put coffee out in the lobby till 7:00 am? Geez…] Anyway, the line for the Steve Jobs keynote must be hugely long already, two blocks down 4th Street. I’m convinced people were in it all night.
I don’t care — I’ll follow it on the blogs. If all those bloggers really want to invest that much effort, work that hard, to type faster than the next guy, who am I not to relax and take advantage of it? I did it last year while sitting comfortably in the CES Bloghaus — I’ll do the same this year.
Which blogs are the best bet? Well, Paul Kedrosky suggests these major names, but there are many. For the past several years, Apple has not provided a live video stream (rather, a tape-delayed broadcast hours later), but Kedrosky says they really have an obligation to, since it’s such a market-moving event. And he’s right — an analyst on CNBC this morning even said GOOG and EMC will get a boost today from Macworld, with announcements related to the event. So, it’s more than just AAPL here, which is likely to get a 4-5% pop itself, I just heard. Here’s what I said in comment on Kedrosky’s blog:
yeah – Walt Mossberg et al get unfair advantage to trade stocks 🙂
the competition to get into the keynote is unreal – soo restrictive – I talked to a guy in the press registration line yesterday who’s been to 12 Macworlds, and even he can’t get in this time
when I asked the lady behind the desk about a live stream, she said, "Well, I can’t say" – so there may be hope
We’ll see if that live stream happens. You might want to watch the Macworld Expo site.
The lines were blocks long around Moscone West early this morning, and that was just people wanting to get their badges. The real stuff doesn’t even start till tomorrow morning — the Steve Jobs keynote and the opening of the exhibitor floors. 
From the Starbucks a block away, and now from the media lounge, the best stuff I’ve seen online so far:
• Troy Wolverton’s piece in the Merc News comparing to last year’s event, Macworld: Always cool, but calmer?
• A UK site that reported Job’s keynote speech outline has been spied on the web, which was repeated by another site here: Steve Jobs Macworld 2008 Keynote Speech Leaked on Wikipedia. True? Who knows. (Any Apple employee discovered leaking anything gets summarily fired and forfeits every penny of their financial benefits, based on the contract they sign when they accept employment.)
• Macapper ran this Pre-Show Link Orgy post.
• Mainstream blog Techcrunch reported earlier today about Google Beefing Up the iPhone Interface.
• And I discovered I only need to carry my iPhone to navigate the Macworld showfloor, thanks to this little iPhone app. Great, cuz this laptop bag is already getting heavy….
More soon.
Fellow innovation junkies, your day is fast approaching: it’s almost DEMO time again, and I can’t wait! You’ve heard me say before that this is simply the best tech conference there is, which is why I cover every single one of them. 
The anticipation for this event is like no other, not to speak of the surprises — with up to 70 new companies or products launching at each of the twice yearly conferences. This is where you see the new stuff. How does 2,380 company launches over 17 years of experience sound? It’s an amazing record. Through it all, as the DEMO folks say, their focus "remains on one thing: the future." Read more on the DEMO About page.
So, yes, January 28-30, I’ll be in Palm Desert, CA, attending the DEMO ’08 conference as a member of the press corps again. And, as part of this prestigious group, I’ve been given the opportunity to offer Tech~Surf~Blog readers a special discount to attend.
You can get more than $600 off if you register through this special, whiz-bang link. 
Click here for more DEMO information and conference details, and here’s a great FAQ page, too. (Just be aware that this discount cannot be combined with other offers or promotions, or applied to registrations that have already been processed.)
I really hope you can make it, because I love to meet my readers in person! And I know you will find it a valuable experience.
The thing about DEMO is that it’s so much fun, too. Here are some of the events. There’s nothing that beats partyin’ with your fellow innovation junkies (between blog posts, of course).
And the venue? Oh, baby, this place is awesome: the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort, as you can see from a few pix I’ve included here. Click here as well for more about the hotel and travel details.
Here’s how the DEMO folks recently talked about their record over the years in picking winners. They do have an uncanny ability to uncover new trends:
"DEMO was there when the seeds of Web 2.0 were planted… exploring some
of the first Web services before we even had buzz words to describe
them. We have stayed true to our mission: to find great innovation
wherever it occurs, identify market trends through the lens of the
products coming to market, and expose you to new ideas and
opportunities."DEMO does not follow trends – we invent them.
Never has this been more apparent when the NBC Today Show segment on
January 1st featured Top Tech Trends for 2008 and highlighted two DEMO
Alumni who launched at previous DEMO events – Ugobe and Dash. It was
great to see companies making an impact on the market with technologies
identified by DEMO two years earlier."
Want to read some more good stuff about their predictions and trends for 2008? The DEMOblog is a great resource, written by the show’s executive producer, Chris Shipley, and edited by Keith Shaw. It’s one of the best kept secrets out there in blog-land, and is actually an online version of the venerable DEMOletter.
So, net-net — you really want to know what’s coming? Attend DEMO — simple as that. See you there if you can make it! And watch for my next post on the event, which will include a listing and links to all the presenting companies, just as soon as they’re announced to us press folk (the weekend before).
On a brisk Minnesota evening in early December, what better to do than get together to drink beer and watch demos with 200+ of your closest tech friends and talk code, startups, business models, and all that good stuff?
Thursday night, the scene for Minnedemo again was O’Gara’s Garage in St.Paul, and the joint was a-jumpin’! We didn’t need a band — we were all our own entertainment!
Thanks to our sponsors, we not only got two free beers (or sodas) each, but we also could trade canned food donations for even more beer tickets, so we could then play big shot and buy beer for our friends. Trading canned food for beer….does_it_get_any_better_’n_that? It was a hoot….lots of great conversation and new friends made. You have to be at one of these things to really appreciate the energy of the Minnesota tech community! If you haven’t caught one yet, make sure you get to the next one in April (date to be announced). Hey, it’s FREE — whadya want?!? 🙂 That one will be the full-day-Saturday version we call “Minnebar.” It all part of Minnesota’s answer to the worldwide phenomenon called Barcamp — and we are definitely one of the most active locales outside the Valley.
Here’s a rundown on Thursday night’s great presenters, including some detail about the very cool new products they were demoing:
Ntractive LLC (Dale Jensen, Cofounder/CEO) – This startup, based in Grand Forks, is a winner of the “InnovateND” award, and is receiving its first-round funding from St. Paul-based RAIN Source Capital. Ntractive has developed a “hybrid” app for small business management called “Elements SBM.” This app, initially for the MacOS, provides web application flexibility with unprecedented ease of use not generally found outside of the traditional desktop application. The result is a visually elegant and technically innovative solution that allows small business users to quickly become more productive. 
The company officially launches at MacWorld in San Francisco in mid-January, but chose Minnedemo (yay!) as the venue its first public demonstration. Till now, small businesses had to choose a desktop app or a web app, but, said Jensen, “With our hybrid app, we’ve made it possible for the first time to really have the best of both of those worlds.”
Zencoder Video Transcoding System (Jon Dahl, cofounder of Slantwise Design) – Zencoder provides “bulletproof video transcoding.” 
It’s described as a full-featured video transcoding platform that handles every aspect of video processing, from queuing to transcoding to storage. Video transcoding systems are complex and difficult to get right, Dahl said. Zencoder claims its platform is reliable and scalable, costs far less than a custom-built solution, and yet is highly customizable. To be notified when it’s released, enter your email address at the site.
Valtira (Morgan Catlin, Product Director) – The Valtira Online Marketing Platform is a complete online solution for marketing professionals. It’s “software as a service” — all you need is a web browser. Valtira manages the IT infrastructure, operations, and upgrades from its Tier 1 data center. The platform empowers the marketing team to manage online initiatives without the need for IT support. Components include Content Management, Campaign Management, Blogging and Forums, Prospect Management, Email Marketing, Sales Portals, Social Networking, Online Surveys, Real-time Analytics, and Support & Training. Valtira just announced a new, free campaign tracking solution that lets you track up to 15 marketing campaigns.
JRuby (Charles Nutter) – JRuby is a 100% pure-Java implementation of the Ruby programming language. The JRuby community recently announced the release of JRuby 1.1 beta 1, the first release toward their goal of JRuby 1.1. JRuby 1.1 represents a concerted focus on speed and refinement. Ruby code can completely compile in an Ahead Of Time (AOT) or Just In Time (JIT) mode, yielding a faster Ruby! It uses less memory than previous releases. The community wants people to download JRuby 1.1b1 and provide feedback: “test your applications and help us make JRuby 1.1 a great release.”
Grapheety (Gavin Quinn) – A map-based social exploration site. All stories and pictures are tagged onto the map by users. For a part-time effort by a bunch of fulltime employed guys, it’s quite an effort. Read more about the latest release here on the Grapheety blog.
All in all, it was another super Minnedemo, and I’m very glad I was there! If you missed it and want more info on the presenting firms, please visit their sites and make contact with them directly. They’ve love to hear from you! Once again, many thanks to co-organizers Dan Grigsby and Luke Francl for another great job, and also to our illustrious sponsors. They’re awesome.
Rock on, Minnesota tech!
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